Piranesi

I love to read what my daughter is reading, so when Sidra recommended Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, I was eager. I read it while visiting Germany and Spain in September, which seemed an apt setting. The story has a European feel, in its evocative world of labyrinthine halls filled with great staircases and marble statues. Very transportive. The tale is told from an intriguing point of view - by someone who had lost grasp of what is happening, who he is, and how he'd come to be there. Yet he strives to be rational and scientific. He keeps journals and lists. It was a trip to watch him evolve. 

What a cool story. Here are two quotes: 

Page 27:  It was the very depths of Winter. Snow was piled on the Steps of the Staircases. Every Statue in the Vestibules wore a cloak or shroud or hat of snow. Every Statue with an outstretched Arm (of which there are many) held an icicle like a dangling sword or else a line of icicles hung from the Arm as if it were sprouting feathers.

Page 174:  He led me to a sitting room. The Berlioz was playing. He turned down the volume but it still played in the background of our conversation, the soundtrack of catastrophe.

All the Birds in the Sky

I'm part of a book club with wide and eclectic taste. All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders is a quirky, creative sci fi with a twist on the classic science-versus-magic scenario. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of opposing views with the same goal: to save humanity. All about perspective. 

These are some pretty random quotes that don't explain much of the storyline, which was hip and satisfying. In any case, I was charmed by the author's relatable moments and cool imagery. 

Page 32:  On the long drive home Laurence tuned out his parents explaining to him that life isn't an adventure, for chrissake, life is a long slog and a series of responsibilities and demands. When Laurence was old enough to do what he liked, he would be old enough to understand he couldn't do what he liked. 

Page 243:  Magic was always bound to claim her in the end, in retrospect, but love was the most susceptible to fandom failure of all. 

Page 254:  The chapel clenched granite and stained-glass fists, their knuckles spiked with gargoyles. 

Tom Lake

The other day, I went to hear Ann Patchett speak about her latest novel, Tom Lake. Ann was in conversation with Cheryl Strayed, another generous and supportive author. What a fun evening! For one thing, my girlfriends and I made a night of it with a dinner out beforehand. I wasn't quite finished with the book at the time of the reading - mere pages to go. But I later found how much was in those pages - a very satisfying end to a satisfying story. 

It is the early months of covid19. While working the cherry farm with her three daughters (who moved home because of the pandemic), Lara tells the story of how she came to be dating a man who would become the most famous actor of her generation. She'd played the part of Emily in Our Town while in high school, went on to play the part in college, was discovered, and eventually spends a summer performing the part, at Tom Lake in Michigan. This is where Lara dated Peter Duke, back when she was the age her daughters are now. 

There was much I could relate to in the book, and I love the way Ann writes. I had to restrain myself from quoting full pages. Beautifully crafted. 

Page 23:  Nineteen eighty-four was nothing like what Orwell had envisioned and still it was a world nearly impossible to explain. 

Page 25:  "You can't pretend this isn't happening," Maisie said.    I couldn't, and I don't. Nor do I pretend that all of us being together doesn't fill me with joy. I understand that joy is inappropriate these days and still, we feel what we feel. 

Page 33:  When I asked what was wrong she said nothing in the same voice one would say go fuck yourself. 

Page 152:  I drop beneath the surface and open my eyes. It's as if someone bought up all the diamonds at Tiffany's and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cut into the depth. 

Page 253:  The rage dissipates along with the love, and all we're left with is a story. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, is full of memorable characters. The industrious and practical Tova feels steadfast and is easy to root for. Cameron is flawed yet forgivable, and Marcellus the Octopus is the wise one. The story, a ponderance on loneliness and purpose, is well-crafted and its ending wraps up like a hug. A satisfying read. Some quotes: 

Page 9:  Tova has always felt more than a bit of empathy for the sharks, with their never-ending laps around the tank. She understands what it means to never be able to stop moving, lest you find yourself unable to breathe. 

Page 81:  Now, Tova comes here to be alone with her thoughts, when she needs a break from being alone in her house. When even the television can't punch through the unbearable quiet. 

Page 167:  The smile on Tova's face hangs there, for a long moment, like it's unsure whether to fall off or not. 

Page 184:  But I have knowledge. To the extent that happiness is possible for a creature like me, it lies in knowledge. 

Northwest Angle

I am reading William Kent Krueger's murder mystery series set in Minnesota, sprinkling them amongst my other reads, and just finished the 11th, Northwest Angle. They tend to be fast and absorbing, and I rarely keep many quotes, but I enjoy them. Northwest Angle did not disappoint. 

Page 76:  The moon was directly above them, and they walked in puddles of their own shadows. 

Black Cake

 The secret family history in Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake is intriguing. It did take me a while to get through. Sometimes chapters were a little too brief, barely a snapshot. I picked up this book because my second book begins with the death of a mother and her estranged adult siblings forced to interact. Some complex relationships. A friend suggested it might be a good comp title for me. But that was the extent of the similarities. 

I liked how one's surroundings - like the sea, like food - becomes the connector to identity. Glad to have read it. I always do love a good tale. 

Page 70:  While Benny's mother stood leaning against her kitchen counter in California, a blood clot quietly inching its way up from her pelvis to her lungs, Benny was still back in New York, getting fired from her afternoon job and boarding the wrong bus and finding herself standing in front of the kind of coffee shop that she wanted to have for herself. The cafe, with its too-early Christmas decorations, stood next to a small bookshop in a neighborhood that hadn't yet had the stuffing gentrified out of it. 

Page 140:  She'd grown up hearing that her parents' upbringing had not been as easy as hers, so she hadn't insisted on knowing more. Well, she finally has a chance, now, and the thought of it scares her. Benny feels like the more she knows about her mother, the more of her she will lose. 

Page 153:  "Everything is connected to everything else, if you only go far enough back in time." 

Page 199:  Eleanor wanted to run after the car, shout to Byron, call him back, explain to him that no, raising him and his baby sister was not the most important thing that she had ever done. What defined Eleanor most was not what, or whom, she had held close but what she had allowed herself to let go of. 

A Tale for the Time Being

Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being was Multnomah County Library's selection for their Everybody Reads program of 2023. Sometime in January, my cousin invited me and gave me a copy. I attended Ruth's author talk mid-March in Portland and have only now finished reading the book. I can't adequately explain my slowness. It is long, but more than that, it is steeped in complex issues of memory and philosophy and quantum physics and parallel worlds. It hits all the major social issues as well, from environment and climate to bullying and suicide. The book follows a writer (Ruth's own self!) and her discovery of a packet of interesting items on the Pacific coast, likely having floated over from Japan, perhaps as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The book alternates between the diary of a teen girl and Ruth's life, which somehow becomes a dialogue over space and time. The interaction between Ruth and her husband as they read the diary is beautiful and probing. There are some pretty heady conversations around being, observing, knowing, and conjuring. It's a wonderful book. Writing is Ruth Ozeki's superpower, and from reading this story, it's clearly not her only one. 

Some interesting quotes: 

Page12:  Print is predictable and impersonal, conveying information in a mechanical transaction with the reader's eye. Handwriting, by contrast, resists the eye, reveals its meaning slowly, and is as intimate as skin. 

Page 31:  Ruth snapped the book shut and closed her eyes for good measure to keep herself from cheating and reading the final sentence, but the question lingered, floating like a retinal burn in the darkness of her mind: What happens in the end? 

Page 84:  An unfinished book, left unattended, turns feral, and she would need all her focus, will, and ruthless determination to tame it again. 

Page 159:  Dad kept climbing. One step. Another. Higher and higher. We were an army of two, him and me, marching up a mountain, but not to conquer it. We were in retreat, a defeated army on the run. 

Page 188:  He held out an oyster. His fingers were wet and raw. 

Page 246:  "Life is full of stories. Or maybe life is only stories." 

Page 317:  I unscrew the cap on my fountain pen, worried that the ink might run dry and be insufficient for my thoughts. My last thoughts, measured out in drops of ink. 

Page 345-6:  "Think about it. Where do words come from? They come from the dead. We inherit them. Borrow them. Use them for a time to bring the dead to life." 

Page 389:  He's stopped reading The Great Minds of Western Philosophy completely, and spends all his time programming, which really is his superpower. I mean there are lots of superheroes with different superpowers, and some of them are big and flashy, like superstrength, and superspeed, and molecular restructuring, and force fields. But these abilities are really not so different from the superpower stuff that old Jiko could do, like moving superslow, or reading people's minds, or appearing in doorways, or making people feel okay about themselves just by being there.