The Things We Never Saying

by Elizabeth Strout

I read at least one, maybe more, books by this author and really enjoyed her writing and her insights into people.

However, I did not like this book at all.  I found it very depressing, even upsetting.

The story is about Artie Dam, a high school history teacher.  Artie seems to enjoy teaching and most of his students really like him.  He is very supportive and encouraging to his students.

 As the book opens Artie seems to be depressed and is considering suicide.  We are not sure what has prompted this.  But when he accidentally falls into the water trying to move from a dinghy into his sailboat and almost drowns, his attitude changes.  He wants to live.

Archie is married to a woman who is a psychologist/counsellor.  This is one of my biggest problems with this book, his wife should be sensitive to people and she seems totally unaware that Artie is suffering .  She asks him how school is doing but it doesn't seem that she is really listening.

Archie has a son, Rob, who years before killed his girlfriend in a car accident.  This tragedy has affected all the family.  Archie wishes he was closer to his son.

As the book moves on Archie provides some encouragement to several students which ultimately change their lives positively.  However, times are changing.  He is told he has to assign kids Confederate soldiers as well as Union soldiers in their research projects.  One of his students is rude to him and Archie blows up and kicks him out of class.  He is then summoned to the principal's office and told he has to apologize to the kid.  He does and the kid gives a non-apology.

While this is all happening Trump has been re-elected.  Most people Archie know are dismayed but not the kid he kicked out of class.  That is probably why Archie over-reacted with him.

As time goes by Archie and his son are in contact more and then one day his son meets with him to show him a letter he got from a man Archie thought was a family friend.  The man insists he is Robs father and provides DNA evidence.  Archie and Rob are shocked that Archies' wife/Rob's mother never told them the truth.  They can't decide if they should confront her but never do.

Near the end of the book Archie has an episode in class, he is frozen and unresponsive.  He retires and is not really interested in anything, even sailing.  Still his wife doens't seem to be of any help.  One day she finds him dead in bed, having had a heart attack.  

At his funeral some of his students approach Rob and say how much his father meant to them.  One of the kids asked if Archie committed suicide.  Rob is able to assure him that he didn't.

As Archie's wife is cleaning out his papers she finds the letter that her lover sent to her son claiming to be the boys father.

More happens with the son and his wife and their separation and later reconciliation.  That is about the only good news in the book.

I found this book a downer, with the sad fate of Archie, the fear of trump infusing the book and his useless wife.  The only one Archie was truly open with and truthful to was his son, and vice versa.

 

Project Hail Mary

 by Andy Weir

This is a book about a scientist/high school teacher who is forced to go on a mission into space to try to defeat an organism that is reducing the heat from the sun.  When he wakes up in space he finds that his two other colleagues have died during the course of their suspended animation.  He has to figure out how the ship operates by studying details on the computer screen.

After a few days he discovers another ship nearby.  He is worried it could be harmful.  The alien ship creates a connecting tunnel between it and his ship.  He takes a risk and moves through the tunnel where he meets a creature that looks like a big rock with several arms.  He names him rocky.  Eventually they are able to communicate and work together to defeat the dangerous organism.  It was interesting how they learned to communicate.

The scientist was the first one to research the dangerous substance.  That is why he was sent on the voyage.  He knows his trip is a one way voyage, he doesn't have enough fuel to get back to earth.  He sends a probe back to earth with details of what he discovered.  He is reconciled to dying alone but ends up going to Rocky's planet and becomes a teacher there.

I saw the movie version before I read the book.  Personally I think the movie was better than the book.  The book gets quite bogged down in the middle with technical stuff and details of rocky moving into his ship and taking up all the room in it. I think the movie captured the essence of the story well.  There was  a lot more humour in the movie than in the book.

 

The Astral Library

 by Kate Quinn

This is the story about a young woman whose mother abandoned her when she was very young, to go off with a boyfriend.  The girl has been traumatized by being a foster child.

As the book opens the girl, Alix, is shocked to find that she is locked out of the approx. $30 in her bank account and when she arrives at the coffee shop where she works a minute late she is fired.

She also had a part time job shelving books at the local library but has no shifts scheduled in the near future.

Alix has a young male friend, a designer of vintage clothes.  She occasionally has worked for him.  He is very sympathetic to her plight. 

In despair she goes to the library to hang out.  She meets her supervisor who confirms she has no shifts for her for now.  Alix goes through a door in the library and finds she is in a new room she has never seen before.  She meets and old crusty Librarian who is frazzled.  It turns out this library is actually a rescue facility for abused people.  The Librarian places people who are abused or in danger inside a book of their choice.  Alix says she would like to get into Around the World in 80 days.  However before this can happen there is a disruption in the library and among the books and Alix ends up going with the Librarian to rescue some of the people who have been placed in books and bring them back.

She travels through several books, including a Sherlock Holmes book and Jane Eyre.  When the people return to the library the Librarian calls upon a colleague, an art expert, to place the various people into works of art until the threats can be determined and overcome.

It turns out the the Library Board has been insisting that the old Librarian meet with them but she has been ignoring the notices.  Then it turns out that Alix's supervisor is part of the Board and they are actually wanting to invade this phantom library and destroy it.

Working with the Librarian Alix is able to defeat the bad Board and ultimately gets a job working with the old Librarian.

This was a light summer read, great for at the beach in Mexico. 

Mona's Eyes

 by homas Schlesser

This is an incredible book.  It is the story of a little girl who has an incident where she loses her sight temporarily.  She is taken to a doctor and receives multiple exams which seem to show she has exceptional vision so they are puzzled as to why this occurred.  Her parents decide to send her to a psychiast and her grandfather agrees to take her.

But instead of taking her to a doctor, once per week, they go to an art gallery to explore one piece of art.  They start at the Louvre, then the D'Orsay and then on to the Modern Art Museum in Paris.  Each time the grandfather gets the girl to study the art and tell her what she sees/feels.  He then gives her some background on the artist and the art.  The selection of art was very interesting, much of it was new to me or pieces by artists I knew but was not familiar with.

The story also includes the tale of how the father has a failing store but eventually gets more money from modifying phones to be cell phones (not sure what that was about) and it turns out the girls loss of sight was due to a memory of her dead grandmother.  The little girl eventually learns her grandmother chose euthanasia.

The art/descriptions in the book were phenomenal.  I don't think I will be able to see art in such a cursory way ever again.

The book also had some lessons about life:

The grandmother tells the girl "Forget the negative my darling, keep the light forever within you".

Christian Boltanski's Archive Yourself "What he wants is for everyonge... to be able to recognize their own life.....We must archive ourselves because whoever we might be, whether a hero or unknow, visible or unvisible, it's through our archive that we can make the memory of the past glimmer".

Pierre Solage's Black is a Color: That there's always moe to look at than you might think.... That you must see beyond what can be seen, because under the panel of wood, we realize that there are other forms... Those forms are hidden but exist elsewhere.  .He teaches us the existence of what escapes our eyes. (another reminder to be mindful).

The book was insightful and inspirational. 

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

 by Kiran Desai

This book was longlisted for the Booker and has had good reviews.  I got 3/4 of the way through but couldn't finish it, it was too depressing.

As I started it I enjoyed her writing and language.  She is very critical of traditional Indian class structure, the mysogyny etc.  However the story was just too sad.

Stories include:

- a young woman returns home after 6 months marriage and looks after both her parents thinking she will be taken care of financially.  But when her father dies she learns he has gambled away most of his money.

- Sunny is a student and later young reporter in the US seeking a green card.  He has a nagging mother who lives in India in a joint property with her brothers in law.  She would really like to move to th US to be with Sunny but he doesn't want her to.

-Sonia is a young student in the US.  She keeps phoning her parents in India and crying about how lonely she is.  She meets and older man, an artist, he makes her is mistress.  He is emotionally abusive to her.  Eventually his wife shows up and sends her packing.  Later she finds Ilan has painted her naked and painted them making love.  She feels even more abused.

Her parents live in India.  Her mother decides to leave her husband and move to a cottage in the mountains.

At one point Sonia's family suggested a marriage between Sonia and Sunny but Sunny's family rejects this.  Sonia and Sunny do meet and have an on again off again relationshop and then seem to split. 

Sunny's mother decides to sell the family home and thinks she will get a lot of money.  She is told by the brothers that some will be sent to Sunny. She does get enough cash to buy an old place in Goa, where she is very unhappy.  But no money gets to Sunny and the two brothers are brutally murdered.

More bad stuff happens when Sunny goes to Mexico.....  I just couldn't take any more sadness and despair...

I skipped to the last two chapters but in the end Sonia and Sunny do get together and live with Sunny's mother in Goa.

Desai is a great writer, great descriptions of people and relationships but i don't think i will ever read her again given what a downer this book was. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures

 by Shelby Van Pelt

This was a  cute story.  It takes place in the pacific northwest of the US.  There is an old woman, Tova, who works as a cleaner at an Aquarium.  She talks to the fish and other creatures and especially likes the Octopus, Marcellus.  One day while she is cleaning the lunch room she sees something on the floor.  She thinks it is a sweater but it turns out to be the Octopus, tangled in some electrical cords.  Tova frees him, but gets some sucker marks on her arm.  She takes Marcellus back to his tank.  Tova's husband has died and her 18 year old son drowned/disappeared when he was 18.  He was a good boatman so that is mysterious.

The second major character is Cameron.  Cameron's mother abandoned him and he was raised by an aunt.  He has come to the town to find his birth father.  He thinks the birth father is a rich businessman.  Eventually after much effort he tracks the man down but finds out that he is not his father.

Eventually we find out that Cameron is Tova's grandson.  They are both delighted at this.

A lot more happened along the way, including Tova releasing Marcellus back into the ocean as he nears his death.

It was a cute, uplifting story, despite the sadness. 

The Secret Christmas Library

 by Jenny Colgan

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt's attic.  The book is on display at the British Museuim with a note giving her credit for finding it.  A man in the museum asks about who found the book and Mirren introduces herself.  He tells her needs someone to find a book for him, she thinks he is joking but eventually calls him.

She is sent by her company to the man's scottish castle, ostensibly to survey the building.  While she is there the owner Jamie, his sister Esme, Theo, an antique book dealer prowl around the castle which has books piled haphazardly everyone around the house.  The books had been collected by Janie's grandfather.  Jamie is stressed because he has inherited the castle but it is in very poor condition.  His grandfather had hinted at a valuable book.  So the four young people set out to solve various puzzles they find from the grandfather.  

It is a stormy winter and their lives are threatened as they look through a maze for clues.  To get out of the maze they set fire to a section thinking that the snow will put out the fire.  Unfortunately the fire is not put out and eventually reaches the castle and destroy's most of it.  As they search for clues they find letters that indicate the grandfather had a love and likely affair with a housekeeper.

However Jamie and Mirren are able to find a valuable book in the housekeeper's house. The housekeeper had passed away but her granddaugher has been working as the sole housekeeper.

In the end Mirren is laid off from her job, no explanation of if her salary for doing the supposed survey was ever paid.  She moves to Scotland to be with Jamie.  They have rescued some books and offer tours of what is left of the property.

It was an okay read, a bit slow going at times but you knew Jamie and Mirren would eventually hook up.