Tag: writing

Reading the World Challenge – Israel

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ISRAEL Fiction

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston, 409 pages, 2013

How I found, chose this book-It chose me. I ran across this book while I was cleaning up our spring book sale and the cover spoke to me.

I finally finished my fiction read from Israel and it was a gritty, moral look at the prejudice one can have against refugees in any country. It’s dense and slow moving, but it does pack a punch.

Dr. Etian Green hits a black migrant on his drive home from a long shift at an Israeli hospital. Even a doctor couldn’t save the man and so begins the moral crisis for this husband, father, and healer. When he is blackmailed by the man’s widow Etian’s whole life begins to spiral.

It felt like a quiet book because there wasn’t a lot of dialogue. What I got instead was a front row seat to the inner minds of Etian, his wife, and the beautiful widow. Fascinating. Etian goes from dislike of the refugees to understanding their plight in his country.

The writing was beautiful. The story was thoughtful and somewhat suspenseful. But I had zero problem putting this down until about 3/4 of the way through, when it picked up and I stayed up late to finish it. So, it’s a good book, but not one you’ll breeze through. And it’s the better for it.

And that cover? Gorgeous.

A few examples of the writing…

“However much he wanted to feel compassion for them, he couldn’t help recoiling from them. Not only from their smell and bodily fluids but also from their faces-alien, staring, filled with undying gratitude. He didn’t speak their language, and they didn’t speak his, so they communicated with waving hands and facial expressions.” p. 54

“A thin man reached out for a handshake, and Eitan shook his head, thinking that somewhere along the way, his empathy button had stopped functioning. He should have felt something. Kindness. Compassion. The responsibility of one human being for another. Not only toward this man standing here and shaking his hand emotionally while he himself was only waiting for him to stop. He hadn’t felt anything for the man on the ground with his head split open either. Or perhaps he had felt something but not the right something. Not what he should have felt.” p.75

“But Eitan knew he had never been more awake. And, appalled, he realized that at that moment, at that specific moment, he was prepared to set the whole house on fire.” p.208

“It would be his fault. Because he hadn’t taken good enough care of his family, and families are fragile things.” p.227

This Week – Braces Off

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For the first time in 2 1/2 years, Gage’s mouth is metal free! He was very excited until went back 3 days later to pick up his retainer and they told him he had to wear it 22 hours a day for the first week, lol. He’s almost to freedom!

Jason and I went to an Octoberfest last night and had fun even if neither of us drinks beer. We’re doing alphabet dating and I had F. So we went to a Festival in Cuyahoga Falls on Front Street and the first thing we did was hit up the ice cream parlor for a Flight of ice cream. The weather was perfect, the band was good, the Italian restaurant was great, and we even came home with some art.

This week the Friends of the Solon Library had our annual meeting and we brought in an animal shelter and their resident cartoonist. It was a fun night learning about how she’s made a living with her art, she pens the syndicated Flo & Co, and also lends her talent to Rescue Village. Of course I bought the book that benefits the shelter.

What I Finished This Week

Before I Do by Sophie Cousens was another lovely British romance by Cousens. What would happen if there were some bad omens around your wedding weekend, with the final one being the man who you thought of as your soul mate showing up? The story was told by jumping around different times of Audrey’s life where we get to know her and men in her life better. This had all of the things I like about her books, even if it wasn’t a favorite.

I’ve read 93 books this year.

What I’m currently reading

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is my fiction pick for Israel and I really like it, but it’s not something I’m racing through. An Isreali doctor hits man with his car and watches him die. The wife of the man tracks him down a has a proposal for her to keep quiet about it. I am really hoping to finish this today.

What We Watched

We made Gage watch two 80s movies this week and he complained. Until he watched them. First watched War Games with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. Thumbs up from all. Then we watched Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and I hadn’t realized it was rated R until we saw 2 naked ladies in the first five minutes. I was not happy (this was Jason’s pick), but the rest was just swearing, which Gage assures me is no different than what he hears at school. Insert any unhappy emoji here. We all laughed a lot so I guess that’s good.

Plans for the weekend

It’s book sale week! So, today I’ll be checking my lists and getting everything organized. I should really go to the library, BUT I will be there pretty much all day every day for the next week starting tomorrow and a few hours every morning the week after that, so I’m trying to rest up.

What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

I’m linking up with the Sunday Salon.

This Week- Day of Stacy

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On September 11 I participated in one of the Day of Service events. The Cleveland State University arena was packed with volunteers who packed meals to be distributed by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. I was part of the clean up crew and by the time I got there at 11am they had already packed 290,000 meals! It was amazingly organized and I hope to participate again.

I also had tickets to see The Notebook musical at Playhouse Square that night at 7:30, so I decided to spend the time in between just exploring downtown Cleveland. I found an outdoor music performance while I ate and went to the library to charge my phone. I read in a church park and did some list making. I mostly walked. I met Jason for drinks and dinner before the show. It was a great day.

Posts

I posted a review of the first book I read for my Reading the World challenge. My Israel nonfiction book encompassed the world but had a clear Arab from Israel voice.

What I finished this week

I listened to Lethal Prey by John Sandford This is #35 in the Lucas Davenport series (I’ve read them all) and #19 of the Virgil Flowers series (I’ve not read all of these). I like both of these detectives separately, but together they are perfection if you like police/FBI procedurals. The bad guy in this one was a cold, cold woman who made me look around and wonder what seemingly normal people I know are just offing people who get in their way.

I also listened to Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. This is the first in the Throne of Glass series and I will probably continue with the series. It’s about an assassin forced to compete in a series of tests against the worst of the worst where there will be only one winner and many will die. She’s the only female, and a teen at that. This fantasy series is addicting like the author’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series, but so far there’s been no hot fairy sex. And I okay with that!

What I’m currently reading

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is my fiction pick for Israel and I really like it, but it’s not something I’m racing through. An Isreali doctor hits man with his car and watches him die. The wife of the man tracks him down a has a proposal for her to keep quiet about it.

I’ve read 92 books this year so far.

What we watched

For family movie night we watched I Am Legend. I’d seen this post apocalyptic movie before but had blocked out most of it. There were tears, hiding behind pillows and stress. That was all from me. My two guys loved it.

What I made

A cousin sent me a recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup and I made it for the first time. I loved it and it was so easy to make. Don’t know what’s taken me so long.

Plans for the weekend

I’ve got an online reading club meet up at 1:30 and may have to go in to the library to facilitate a donation, but other that that it’s laundry! What about you?

This Week

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It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done one of these. But as fall weather rolls in, so does my desire to jump back on here and gab about books, movies, and maybe Gage too. I miss it.

Challenge: This week I started a new challenge I’m calling Reading the World. The post is here and I’m looking for recommendations for books from other countries. Here are recommendations I need today…Fiction books written by and set in Pakistan, Poland, Sierra Leone, Vietnam. And nonfiction books by people from and set in the countries of Afghanistan, Canada, Columbia, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Trinidad&Tobago, and Egypt.

I started the challenge with Israel because I had both a nonfiction and fiction book. When I finish I’ll move on to Sweden because I have both books ready to go.

Finished this week: Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas. I love her historical romances, but this first of the Bow Street Runners series was not a favorite. I love her so much that I’ll still pick up the second one.

Currently reading: Around the World in 60 Seconds: The Nas Daily Journey-1000 Days, 64 Countries, 1 Beautiful Planet by Nuseir Yassin. This is the first book of my challenge and I’m so close to finishing. It is the perfect way to begin my journey around the world. Expect a review tomorrow.

I’m listening to Lethal Prey by John Sandford, the 35th book in the Lucas Davenport series. This one also has Virgil Flowers and I love them together. The murderer in this one is pretty cold. Makes me look around at some normal looking people with suspicion.

Movies: Jason and I watch Sinners this week. What a weird and compelling movie. I both loved the original storytelling and didn’t care for the twist, lol. And for family movie night we watched Escape Room on Netflix. We like escape rooms, just not ones this deadly. We all liked the movie though.

TV: We’re working our way through The Middle. I think we’re on season 5 and we all love it, Gage especially. Jason and I watched the first episode of the Great Bristish Bake Off. We’re in a pool that Jason won last season so he’s under some pressure to do well this time too.

Puzzles: Today I’m hosting a puzzle swap at my house. I’ve been having an informal Little Free Puzzle Library on my porch since January and needed to clean out the 70+ puzzles that have been acquired. This is the 1000piece+ table.

This weekend: So far it’s been fairly quiet. I see lots of laundry in my future today and most likely a family game. What about you?

Linking up with The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

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Dear Justyce. Finished 2-7-25, YA fiction, 5/5 stars, 288 pages, 2020

book 2 in the Dear Martin trilogy (Book 1)

Shortly after teenager Quan enters a not guilty plea for the shooting death of a police officer, he is placed in a holding cell to await trial. Through a series of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, the protagonist of Dear Martin, Quan’s story unravels.

From a troubled childhood and bad timing to a coerced confession and prejudiced police work, Nic Stone’s newest novel takes an unflinching look at the flawed practices and ideologies that discriminate against African American boys and minorities in the American justice system.

from Goodreads

I raved about Dear Martin by Nic Stone earlier this week and now I’m back to rave about Dear Justyce the follow up book. I’m not sure which one I liked more. Read them and tell me what you think!

In the first book teen Justyce wrote letters to MLKJr to make sense of his experiences with race and friendship. In this second book his incarcerated friend, Quan, who we met briefly in book one, writes letters to Justyce. Both boys are from the same neighborhood but ended up on two very different paths.

I loved how his friendship with Justyce helped inspire him. Just knowing that Justyce cared what happened to him made a difference for Quan. His look back at how he ended up in prison is more about what happened to get him there than what is actually happening in prison, although there’s some of that.

Surprisingly, I love Quan just as much as I love Justyce and I think you might too.

The third in the trilogy comes out next month.

2024 Book Favorites!

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I read 164 books this year, a total of 45,312 pages. On Goodreads my average rating was 4.1.

The longest book was The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith at 950 pages.

I read 49 books as a judge for the first round of the Cybils Awards. I switched from nonfiction to middle school fiction this year. So many great books!

To keep this short I’m letting my Top Ten stand for themselves.

My favorite books of 2024…

Fiction- The Guncle by Steven Rowley

Historical Fiction- The Women by Kristin Hannah

Romance- Funny Story by Emily Henry

Historical Romance- Then Came You and Dreaming of You, companion books by Lisa Kleypas

Thriller/Mystery- Listen For the Lie by Amy Tintera

Fantasy- A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas

Young Adult- Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

Middle School- Tig by Heather Smith

Middle School nonfiction graphic novel- The Miracle Seed by Martin Lemelman

Nonfiction- The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chodron

Do We have any in common? What was your favorite in 2024 that I should add to my list in 2025?

Broken Harbor and The Secret Place by Tana French

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Broken Harbor, #4 in the Dublin Murder Squad series. 4 stars, mystery, 450 pages, 2012

This story begins with a young family murdered in their home. Well there was one survivor, but it wasn’t either of the young kids. This was an especially hard one and when I finished it on Mother’s Day it felt especially wrong.

Families can look glossy on the surface, but once you rub a bit of that shine off there’s usually something more interesting going on and in this case it was deadly. Bizarre revelations, old friends, and financial instability make the mystery of this family a tough one. This hasn’t been my favorite of the series, but they’re all so good that it didn’t need to be to be good.

The Secret Place, #5 in the Dublin Murder Squad series, 4/5 stars, 452 pages, 2014

You don’t need to read these books in order, but I’d recommend it if you can. My favorite of the series so far, Faithful Place, featured Detective Frank Mackey and he and his daughter make another appearance here. Stephen Moran is also back.

This one takes place at a boarding school for girls. A year after a boy from a neighboring school was murdered on school grounds the detectives have a new lead and it comes from inside the school. Oh, to be amongst all of that teen angst and those friendship circles again!

The book spans one day of investigation, but it goes into the past investigation and events in depth. I wasn’t crazy about it at first, boarding school stories are iffy for me, but it grew on me and Frank Mackey appeared at just the right time to reel me in for the somewaht surprising finish.

Tana French is such a talented writer! Both books had a paranormal element that mostly worked, even if I think it could have been avoided altogether in The Secret Place and been fine, or even better.

Have you read any of this series? I love the Ireland setting.

Favorite Book- The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

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The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, 5/5 stars, Magical Realism/Historical Fiction, 433 pages, 1982

I first read The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende when I was the manager of a B. Dalton bookstore in the Washington DC area 25ish years ago. Each month the staff would have to choose a recommendation for a display and I would pick one to read. This was one of those recs and it was my first foray into the world of magical realism. For that it will always have a special place in my heart. I’ve long had this on my list of top 100 books, but this was my first reread and I had forgotten much.

I can’t believe that I’d forgotten what a monster Esteban was. Seriously, this is more his story than anyone’s and I remembered the women with the green hair and the seers more that I remembered the rapes. So much to discuss if you have a book group waiting to take it on.

The last third of the book had more of a focus on Chile’s history and was fascinating (based on actual history of the 1970s). Allende provides such a rich picture of the South American country. Still relevant today. The ‘right’ overthrew the ‘socialists’ by a coup, only to empower a dictator who ended democracy for the country. A cautionary tale if anyone is paying attention.

After some thought I think I’ll go ahead and put it on my favorites list for now. We’ll see if anything comes along and beats it as I reread favorites.

Have you read it? What did you think?

“…she did not believe that the world was a vale of tears but rather a joke that God had played and that it was idiotic to take it seriously if He himself never had.”

“Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change”

“She tried to recall the cold, the silence, and that precious feeling of owning the world, of being twenty years old and having her whole life ahead of her, of making love slowly and calmly, drunk with the scent of the forest and their love, without a past, without suspecting the future, with just the incredible richness of that present moment in which they stared at each other, smelled each other, kissed each other, and explored each other’s bodies, wrapped in the whisper of the wind among the trees and the sound of the nearby waves breaking against the rocks at the foot of the cliff, exploding in a crash of pungent surf, and the two of them embracing underneath a single poncho like Siamese twins, laughing and swearing this night would last forever, that they were the only ones in the whole world who had discovered love.”

“thought about the years I still had left to live and decided that without her it wasn’t worth it, for I would never find another woman with her green hair and underwater beauty. If anyone had told me then that I would live to be more than ninety, I would have put a gun to my head and pulled the trigger.”

9 in ’09 with Mary Doria Russell and book giveaway, part 2

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To read the first part of this interview, click here.

I will be giving one lucky commenter his or her choice of one Mary Doria Russell title.  After reading part one of the interview leave a comment and you will be entered.  Read Part Two and comment  and earn a second entry.  Those who have gotten a correct answer in my Green Title Quiz have earned an extra entry and those who are winners in my upcoming quiz on Monday will also earn extra entries.  I will draw the winners on March 31st at noon.  I will ship anywhere.

And now for the rest of the interview…

5. I’ve read that you became a novelist because you were out of work.  Is that true?

Yep.  There was this big recession at the end of the Bush administration…Wait!  I’m having deja vu…

Anyway, I lost my job and I had an idea for a short story about Jesuits in space.  That turned into The Sparrow and Children of God.

Would you recommend the writer’s life for the rising number of unemployed Americans?

Um.  Only if you’re married to an engineer with a secure job and medical benefits.  Seriously.  Publishing is under severe stress as an industry, and it was brutally competitive even before the latest economic pooh hit the national fan last fall.  The odds of an unknown getting a first novel published were approximately 4 million to one back in 1995 when I got my first contract.  Today, you’ve got a better chance of fame and fortune if you buy lottery tickets.

On the other hand, if you can’t help yourself, and you live to write, and you are talented and have something interesting to say, the blogoshere is an amazing new outlet.  Making money that way is a different thing.  Occasionally a blog will take off, and be parlayed into paying work, but it’s a lot like standing in a field during a thunderstorm hoping to get hit by lightning.

6. I love quotes.  Do you have a favorite?

You probably mean quotes from famous authors or something, but in our household, about 64% of the conversation consists of quotes from movies.  We use any of a hundred lines from the Princess Bride on a regular basis, but we just watched Moonstruck again a couple of nights ago, and I particularly like “Yeah, well, someday you will die, and I’ll come to your funeral in a red dress!”

My husband and I also use “You’re still gonna die, Cosmo!” whenever we see some middle-aged idiot trying to pretend he’s a young stud.

7. What are you currently reading?

At the moment?  Two non-fiction studies of the Kansas temperance movement in the 1870’s – that’s background research.  Also “Born Fighting,” by Jim Webb, about the history of the Scots-Irish, which explains a huge amount about contemporary American politics.  I’m also reading The Last Judgement by James Connor, which is a wonderful art history book that clarifies the swirl of politics, science, art and war that was the Renaissance.  And recently, I loved a book about death called  Nothing to be Frightened of” by Julian Barnes.  Exquisitely written and funny as hell.

I also read stacks of magazines: current affairs, economics, decorating.  And I watch a lot of TV.  I’m not a snob.  Baseball, HGTV, the History Channel.  Just discovered Dead Like Me, on DVD.  Getting into The Dollhouse, by Joss Whedon.  LOVED Firefly!

8. If you were stuck in the life of one of your fictional characters, who would you choose?

Interesting question…I guess I’d choose Agnes Shanklin, in Dreamers of the Day.  Yes.  Definitely.  Agnes.

I like the way she questions everything and slowly takes charge of her life and handles adversity.  I also like that she stays true to her sensible Midwestern self, no matter who she finds herself among.

9. What are you currently working on?

This time, I’m taking on two iconic figures of the American frontier.  Eight to Five, Against is a murder mystery set in Dodge City in 1878, the summer when the unlikely by enduring friendship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday began.

The novel takes place almost 4 years before the famous gunfight at the OK Corral, but there’s a direct line from the summer in Dodge City to the gunfight in Tombstone that made the Earps and Doc Holliday notorious.

I’m about 8 chapters from having a complete first draft.  Usually Wyatt is the focus of these stories, but I am totally in love with Doc.  That boy just breaks my heart…

He’s often portrayed as a coldblooded psychopathic killer, but he wasn’t like that at all.  At the time of the novel, he was a frail, proud, beautifully educated 26-year-old dentist living on the rawest edge of the American frontier, still hoping to recover from tuberculosis in the warm dry climate of western Kansas.  That summer in Dodge was the last time Doc was well enough to attempt to practice his profession.  He still believed that he was going to get better and go back home to Atlanta someday, but it never happened.

When will it be out?

Sometime in 2010 is my guess.

BONUS QUESTION   What’s next for you?

I’m starting to get interested in Benedict Arnold now, and there might be a book in that.  I seem to be drawn to characters who are unjustly condemned by people who don’t know anything about them, and I do think Arnold got a raw deal from Washington and the Continental Congress.

I like the idea that Arnold could draw me into the Enlightenment and Baroque music, and early American history.  Not sure what the story would be, though.  When Eight to Five is done, I’ll start reading biographies of Arnold and his wife, and Washington, and so forth.  Maybe a plot will emerge.  Maybe not.

On the other hand, and this is a scoop for you: I may go back to paleoanthropology.  I’ve been thinking about the Dark Ages in Europe, and how everybody – including pregnant and nursing mothers – drank beer and wine almost exclusively for long stretches of European history.  The Dark Ages have been described as a thousand years when each generation knew less than the one before it.  It was a great melting away of high culture, and I wonder if endemic fetal alcohol syndrome had something to do with it.  So I have and idea for how to test that idea using skull measurements from cemeteries.

Have to think some more about this, but it would be fun to get back into the bone biz.

Mary

I want to thank Mary for taking the time to participate.  I appreciate it and I’m sure all of you did too!

Noble’s Book of Writing Blunders, by William Noble

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Noble's Book of Writing Blunders: And How to Avoid ThemFinished 2-10-09, rating 4, writing reference, pub. 2006

But if your confidence is bursting and you are sure your new approach will work, then go for it.  Never, ever, assume that you must march to the same beat as everyone else.

Think bravely!

Act honestly!

Write imaginatively!

And make your own rules.

Last lines of the book

When you read interviews with published authors the advice that is most often given is to write.  So, I have always viewed writing instruction books with a skeptical eye.  But, Writer’s Digest has all of these writing books on clearance and I decided to pick some up cheap.  This is the second one I’ve read and it was a good read. 

Each of the 29 blunders was covered in a chapter of 4-7 pages, which was long enough to address the issue and not too long as to make me close the book and not pick it back up.  These blunders were basic, but the way he wrote about each one took it one step further.  He didn’t only address point of view, slang, cliques, but also how each was perceived  by the reader.  Many of the blunders in this book he blames on laziness by the writer, but I also think a beginning writer faces the challenges he lays out.  Some of the chapters overlapped in content, but, for the most part, it was good. 

This book is written for the fiction writer.  He differentiates between the fiction narrative and journalism and how the rules for one are not the same as for the other.  These blunders are all about building tension in your story and keeping the reader invested in your book.

There are so many blunders that it is somewhat overwhelming.  If I was trying to remember everything in this book I wouldn’t be able to write a word!  That is why I quoted what I did at the top, because it was a great way to end the book.  I think my writing will be better off for having read this book.