Flat Water Tuesday by Ron Irwin

When I first saw this book I jokingly characterized it as a story about a guy who rows.  When I started reading it I found that it is so much more. I was intrigued right from the start.  The author weaves  a tale of struggle and loss, conflict and disconnection, and also some great triumphs and joys. The characters seemed true to life and most were able to keep going in one way or another in spite of what happened in their lives. I also think the author showed that there can be much hope in simple forgiveness.

The main character, Rob, goes to a prestigious prep school for one year after his high school graduation, to make the crew team and get the chance to attend an ivy league university. Events of that year shape his life and the lives of all who were involved. The story begins 15 years after that prep school year when Rob, an independent documentary filmmaker working for National Geographic, receives a letter from one of his former teammates. It then goes on to tell of both his struggles on the crew team in his past and his complicated relationship with his girl friend in the present.

All the characters in the story have issues, from the over-achiever who can never please his parents, to the girl trying to find her place in a man's world. We see how they all deal with these issues with varying degrees of success. Some are able to accept the events of their lives and move on, some are not. The author made the character's inner thoughts seem very realistic and true to life, and while some of their stories end badly, others are left with a sense of hope. He also obviously knows a lot about the sport of crew. His vivid descriptions of the team workouts as they strove to gain strength and speed literally made me feel the pain.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I found it hard to put down and was always eager to get back to it when I did have to put it down.

 

a lucky find (no, this isn't a book title)

I scored a few books at the dollar store today. I always wonder how good they can be if they've sunk so low as to find themselves on the back shelves of a dollar store, but, hey, they're only a dollar apiece, so I figure I haven't lost much on them.

I looked up some reviews on goodreads, and found that most of them got 3's and 4's.

The Last Will of Moira Leahy - by Therese Walsh
Hope's Boy - by Andrew Bridge
Box 21 - by Roslund and Hellstrom
Husband and Wife - by Leah Stewart

I got the next 2 because they were both about piano players (I play the piano). They both were rated a little lower, 2's and 3's.

The Leopard's Wife - by Paul Pickering
The Bradshaw Variations - by Rachel Cusk

The last one is an autobiography with an intriguing title. Sadly it has the lowest ratings, with mostly 2's. Still sounds intriguing, though.

Spent - Memoirs of a Shopping Addict - by Avis Cardella

So, these will be good additions to my summer vacation reading list...not too heavy, some mysteries, probably quick reads, and best of all, only $7 for the bunch!!

Dark Diversions by John Ralston Saul

I just finished reading this book and found that, while containing stories that did have dark aspects to them, the author told them in a rather humorous way. The book really isn't one whole long tale, but is a collection of little stories about the people and places that the narrator runs across in his globe hopping life as a writer. From dictators in foreign lands to his wealthy circle of friends, he finds incidents to write about that are both odd and sad yet at the same time quite funny. The stories take the reader from the homes of aristocrats in New York or Paris or London to meetings with dictators and exiled former dictators in places like Haiti or Madrid or Algeria.

The narrator, who is never really identified except as a single American man who is a writer, describes the homes and offices, what the people look like, how they dress, what they eat....many small details that make the people seem like regular, albeit it moneyed, folk who just find themselves in unusual circumstances. Behind their rather ordinary personas, we learn that they have secret lovers, or engage in double-dealing, or have very strange habits , or are kind of amusingly wicked.

In an aside in the middle of the book, in a chapter called 'the narrator pauses to reflect', the narrator takes the opportunity to explain to the reader his role as narrator. Other chapters are 'conversations with dictators' (or in one case, 'chatting with a dictator's assassin') or stories of friends such as 'the cripple' or 'a victim of romance'.

After my initial puzzlement at the seemingly unrelated chapters when I first started reading, I soon settled in to the idea of the compact short stories. It was very handy to be able to complete a chapter or two in one sitting and not have to concern myself with remembering who and what I was reading about the next time I had a chance to pick up the book. I enjoyed reading this. I found it interesting and amusing. I'd look for other books by this author and would recommend this one.

The Rathbones by Janice Clark

In the whaling town of Naiwayonk, Connecticut in 1859, a young girl, Mercy Rathbone, sets out on a voyage to discover the story of her family's mysterious past. From that simple beginning, proceeds a tale that is very strange, to say the least. It's part mystery, part fantasy, part fairy tale, part sea shanty, part history, part mythology, part coming of age.  If you like these things, this is the book for you.

For me, it was just too weird. We come across pet crows, a reclusive teacher who appears old but isn't, strange women who seem like sirens, a mother who barely speaks to her daughter and at one point slices a dress off her, a father who has seemingly been away at sea for 10 years, a whaler who has many wives one after another, so he will have sons to sail his whaling ships. There is much more, but I wouldn't want to give anything away. There are many horrible things that happen throughout the story, yet the girl, Mercy, seems oddly unaffected by them. I found it difficult to keep track of when the story was being mystical or when it was being realistic.  It went back and forth between the two quite randomly. I didn't feel any sympathy or connection to any of the characters. None of them told anyone the truth, but rather spoke only in half truths or metaphor, if they spoke at all.

The author was good at describing the scenery and the ships and sea, but I could never quite figure out the architecture of the rather strange house that the Rathbone family lived in.  I was interested in finding out how the story ended, so the author managed to keep me intriqued enough to finish the book, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I do think it was well written, though, and should appeal to those who like mystical fantasy type books.

You can't have too many books

I feel uncomfortable if there isn't a stack of books waiting to be read....not just one unread book, but many. I want to have choices when it's time to start a new book. I might be in the mood for a good mystery, or some historical fiction, or a gothic romance (yes I admit it), or a new recent novel, or something political, or maybe a biography (though for some reason, when asked, I always say I don't particularly care for biographies, yet I really liked every one I've read, and there have been several).

I just stocked up on a bunch of new to me books at a recent rummage sale (what would I do without rummage sales and thrift shops?!) in anticipation of my upcoming summer vacation. This has added nicely to the pile of unread books I already had, which was running perilously low...only about 20 books. Usually on vacation I read a book a day, so I need to have a steady supply to choose from.

The books that take me only a day to read are generally murder mystery, spy novel type books....authors like Harlan Coben, John Lescroart, John Sanford, Kay Hooper, Iris Johanssen, etc...books where I can't figure out who did it. I like mysteries with twists and turns and surprises and nothing obvious to give away the ending ahead of time. Some books have a recurring character with interesting personality traits who I like to follow from one book to another. Jack Reacher in the Lee Child books is one of them. I don't consider any these books great literature, but they are really fun and entertaining reads.

Then there are books that I'd consider meatier...really good novels for instance. I usually spend more time with these. There's more to think about while reading them. Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini would fall into this category (I'm anxiously awaiting Hosseini's latest book, And the Mountains Echoed),  the Chris Bohjalian novels, Sarah Dunant's books, and so many others....the kind of books you remember. I haven't mentioned some of the  classics like Jane Austen, or Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Those were all read long ago.

So, I'm off to hunt for a few more treasures, just to be on the safe side. There's a nearby used book store that's calling my name.