Ariel Lawhon’s Novel The FROZEN RIVER continues to ride numerous Best Seller Lists. Take her advice and do not read the Author’s Notes before completing the manuscript. There is a backdrop to the story.
FROZEN RIVER is a page turner indeed. The story is set during the mid 1700s along the Kennebec River in Maine when that state was still part of Massachusetts. Meet Martha Ballard a midwife who sees all and knows all in the colonial settlement of Hallowell. Add a murder mystery that brings a cast of family, friends and long standing enemies into the center of Lawhon’s story line. It’s a small town with many not so secret secrets.
A good read by the fire during our frozen New England winter.
It is no surprise that Percival Everett’sJames is leading multiple Best Seller Lists. A ride on a raft on the muddy Mississippi with Jim and Huck misses absolutely nothing of the strife and life of slaves and their society of oppressors in the American South. The dialogue is real:
Way I sees it is dis. If’n ya gotta hab a rule to tell ya wha’s good, if’n ya gots to hab good splaIned to ya, den ya cain’t be good. Good ain’t got nuttin to do wif da law. Law says I’m a slave.”
Funny, humorous and always insightful Percival James has delivered a brilliant portrait as the sounds, words, and message echo in the reader’s mind long after the cover is closed. Why of course.
A new Jack Ryan Novel in the Red October genre, this edition written by Brian Andrews and JeffreyWilson. Everything would expect from a Clancy adventure, this time featuring the president and his daughter.
Hard to believe it was forty years ago when Clancy’s Hunt for Red October was first published. Like all series the adventures can often be challenging to maintain but Andrews and Wilson give this quick read their best effort.
You can see overviews of nearly all of Clancy here at Gordons Good Reads. I have read and enjoyed them all.
Characters, Characters, Characters…….all deserving of capitalization…..you will meet them all. James McBride has gathered an endless collection of folks all passing through THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE...no credit cards and cash not necessary at this Pottstown Pennsylvania “Chicken Hill” establishment. Immigrant Jews, African Americans, White People of dubious distinction, strivers, losers, cultures and subcultures all interacting sometimes positive, oftentimes negative.
THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE is well stocked with cultural themes leading to a road to an asylum and a rescue that is worthy of a book unto itself.
Another best seller for McBride plus The National Book Award.
Don’t spoil a good story by telling the truth. This quote from Isabella Stewart Gardner sets the tone for Emily Franklin’s wonderful novel TheLIONESS of BOSTON.
If you have visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum this novel will add volumes to the dimension of your experience. If you have not yet made the trek read The LIONESS of BOSTON first.
Glass ceilings broken long before anyone coined the term. An intimate look at the Boston Brahmin society of the late 19th Century and how one woman changed an insular world. A story of relationships, family, travel, art and artists and a greater grasp of Henry James, John Singer Sargent and Oscar Wilde.
Emily Franklin creates a new map as you walk with The Lioness the streets of Boston, Venice, London and Paris. You will not tire of the adventure.
I disagree with the tepid reviews in the New York Times and Boston Globe about the NETFLIX mini series of Anthony Doerr’s novel All The Light We Cannot See. Of course no mini series or even a full length film can completely do justice to the book but the NETFLIX film interpretation is well worth viewing and I believe captures the essence of Doerr’s novel.
Search Gordon’s Good Reads for my take on the book.
Some have, but so very many have not read Homer’sTHE ILIAD). Emily Wilson’s translation, THE ILIAD, puts this classic within the scope of almost any reader. Wilson has accomplished a remarkable feat in bringing to the reader in contemporary iambic pentameter this incredible poem of over 500 pages vividly telling the mythical story of the nine year siege by the Greeks of ancient Troy. None of the mythical and mortal characters are missing.
What makes Wilson’s work even more accessible is her carefully detailed introduction which perfectly sets the table for the giant epoch. Furthermore, in THE NOTES, Wilson writes summaries of each of the twenty four books (sections) of the poem. However, don’t look for the Trojan Horse in these verses. That story is told in another ancient tale OF Troy, the Aeneid by Virgil.
When I first opened THE ILIAD I admit it was daunting. But once I ventured into the poem it unfolded very logically despite the enormity of the plot and cast.
The ancient story has contemporary meaning. You can raid fine cattle or well fed sheep, and you can trade to get tripods and horses with fine golden manes. But human life does not come back again after it passes through the fence of teeth. No trade or rustling can recover it. (9.324.29)
Cowards and heroes have the same reward. Do everything or nothing-death still comes. ( 9.493.97)
THE ILIADteaches: In war, killers recognize no binding obligation to compensate the families of their victims. The only way the bereaved can recoup their losses is to kill the killer-whose comrades will demand vengeance in their turn. Killing begets killing, death begets death, and every loss of life generates further loss of life. ( THE ILIAD Introduction P2)
Ancient perspective for the world affairs of October, 2023.
Isabel Allende weaves the characters in her new novel THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME with contemporary themes and political consciousness. The book is a perfect combination of fact and fiction just as she accomplished in another novel A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA.
Here, Allende strikes at the heart of the immigration issue while at the same time tugging at the heart with her prose.
Add THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME To your summer reading.
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of reading novels whose protagonists are young people born into difficult if not impossible circumstances. Just last week I finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and before that, Nickel Boys by Colin Whitehead. ( Search gordonsgoodreads). Now Charles Frazier of Cold Mountain fame comes along with his new novel The TRACKERS.
This time the protagonist is a young woman ( barely) living the life of a hobo, hopping fast freights, joining a grade B or even lower status cowboy band. Surviving during the Great Depression. Then suddenly catapulted into the lap of luxury!
I have read most all of Jeff Shaara’s historical novels and his ability to use the medium to awaken history sets a high standard. ( search gordonsgoodreads).
His latest, THE OLD LION, is a great overview of Teddy Roosevelt’s lifetime. Unlike the great biographies by Edmund Morris or David McCullough THE OLD LION moves quickly through the highlights of TR’s career.
This book is a good choice for a first round study of TR from his sickly childhood to the Rough Riders charge up San Juan Hill. After retirement from the presidency Roosevelt’s epic adventurous trip on the headwaters of the Amazon are captured by Sharra.
Gordon's Good Reads 