Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Knife relays the brutal attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, the journey afterwards, and the history behind his experience with hatred. It recounts in detail the multiple stabbings, his road to recovery, and the love and support he received from those closest to him as well as from around the world. It is a book about love and survival. The author, Salman Rushdie himself, conveys what he was going through after the release of The Satanic Verses and how it kept going throughout the years culminating with this attack. There is a greater message about religion, violence, and freedom of speech that is presented alongside the minutiae of Salman’s life.
I have not read any of Salman Rushdie’s works before, so this was my introduction and man, can he write. I loved his turn of phrases and how he wrote in such a relatable way. He would write about normal everyday things like using the bathroom or writing or going out to dinner. Each wound/body part that was violated was talked about and each felt like its own epic tale. You would think describing all the medical stuff would be boring but it is not. It is so vivid and real. I loved his use of knife and cutting metaphors as well. He wielded them well such as when “the knife had severed me from my world” and “language, too, was a knife.” He used language in a quotidian way but made it sound beautiful and insightful like describing his eye as “an absence with an immensely powerful presence.” The book had moments of humor and levity interspersed amongst the horror of the attack. “I’m here because of a knife attack, but let’s check the prostate, sure.” The writing was raw and I got emotional at points. Relating the reactions of his family and those that loved him was heartbreaking. Shock and sadness were the ones that showed up in myself most often. References to pop culture like the Mandalorian are sprinkled throughout as well. He focuses on this one extreme event but conveys everyday living while nodding to big-picture life and humanity. Those grandiose topics are brought in seamlessly and tied closely to certain aspects of the story. For example, talking about the best and worst of humanity on display in one single situation or how freedom of speech is under attack. He brings huge topics and distills them beautifully. Salman Rushdie is a storyteller and this came through even in this nonfiction work. I cannot wait to read some of his other work.
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Prison Puzzles And Children With Attitude
The Alcatraz Escape by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Alcatraz Escape is the third book in the Book Scavenger series. Emily is still the focal point but this time several of her friends get more page time as well. The second book left it giving the readers a hint as to what the third book will be about. There is a new game afoot, and it will take place in the infamous Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. The game is intended to be fun and raise money for a local bookstore. Emily, James, and crew, along with many others who won their way into the game, travel to the island and set off on a hunt. This hunt was created by a famous recluse of an author who everyone is curious to see in person. There are elements working against the young group of intrepid puzzle-solvers and they get themselves into plenty of tight scrapes. They must work together as a team and not be torn apart but will they solve it in time?
This book was a quick and easy read like the others. It had elements of tension and excitement to find the solution using clues and each other. Jennifer Chambliss Bertman created a solid children’s book that could draw in many readers. It did keep me reading and wanting to finish. I do like the way Jennifer briefly brings information from the previous books to help set the stage but does not spend too much time on the details. The twist was excellent and I did not see it coming at all. I have said this before, I liked the weaving in of historical elements. At the end she gives a summary of what was fiction vs what was fact. I love this sort of thing. This time around though I found Emily, the main character, getting more on my nerves than the previous books. I know she is young but she had such an attitude. She was defensive, negative, pouty, and self-centered. Emily was childish, which granted she is a child, but this is why I typically stay away from books that are geared towards younger readers. There were plenty of assumptions by many of the characters without evidence. In general, the thought patterns and jumping to conclusions are bothersome. I thought this book was not as well done as the previous two. It seemed a little forced to basically create an escape room instead of a large hunt with many locations. The kickoff to the game at the prison was a little too convenient and lucky for me. There were also many more unlikeable characters without any redeeming qualities this time around. I am still not a fan of Mr. Quisling. I think this is slightly more grown-up than the other two in terms of situations and antagonists. Overall, I would say read it to finish up the series and for some more puzzles & history.
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Extinguishing Fires And Finding Buried Treasure With Friends
The Unbreakable Code by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Unbreakable Code is the second in the Book Scavenger series. The first one was great and this one was just as good. It continues the story of Emily and her best friend James. This time they are tracking down The Unbreakable Code which has existed for over a century. No one has been able to solve it thus far. It brings together gold rush, the origins of San Francisco, and obviously solving puzzles. With a narrow escape with a fire, or two, the two code-breakers must deduce who is setting these fires, how a teacher’s past comes into play, and where the buried treasure is. Will they be able to figure it all out before it all burns to the ground? I think you should find out!
I didn’t take a lot of notes with this one as I was just wanting to find out what happened. It was a quick, easy, engaging, and fun read! Jennifer Chambliss Bertman continued her formula without it appearing too redundant or like she was phoning it in. The writing was relatable and easy to understand as obviously this book was not written for my age range. The kids were juveniles and at times acted that way. It was kind of annoying but I get it. It didn’t ruin the book but at moments I was frustrated that they just didn’t get it or that they thought/said this thing. Nevertheless, I loved it. One thing that really got me excited was the historical aspect. Jennifer did this in the previous novel but after the novel concludes, she adds what was historically accurate and what she made up. It does touch on some despicable parts of the past of the United States but for the most part it is light-hearted. I love learning about new things, so I found this fascinating. I didn’t know very much about San Francisco, but I was surprised to find some information out. I will leave the reader to discover these things on their own so they can be as pleasantly entertained as I was. The author introduces some fun new ciphers, codes, and cryptograms, which is always fun to try and figure out for yourself. If you read the first one, I don’t need to tell you that you should read the second book in the series but you should, and I am just as excited to read the third!
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Clever Codes, Cryptograms, And Creating Close Friends In New Places
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Scavenger is about a girl named Emily and her love of puzzles and books as well as her friend James who loves codes and puzzles. She has recently moved to San Francisco (not ‘Frisco) because her family moves around a lot, practically every year. It is their thing and they have been doing it her whole life. The parents have a whole blog about living in all 50 states. Emily is part of an online book community that is all about leaving clues and finding books. A book finds its way into Emily’s hands and a scavenger/treasure hunt begins. You can find clever code-breaking, close confrontations, and compassionate connections.
What a fun book! I know I am not the intended audience for this book but I enjoyed it so much. Jennifer Chambliss Bertman wrote an engaging and engrossing, wonderful piece of work. I kept on wanting to read to find out what happened next and to find out what was at the end of the path. Surprisingly I liked the main character even if it is a children’s book. She wasn’t too annoying as you could expect from a child. The one thing that made me shake my head was that SHE WRITES IN BOOKS! Unforgiveable. She was young and had a bit of self-centeredness which contributed to the conflict within the story. It made me waver a little bit in liking her but it was only for like a second. Her friend and sidekick James was awesome! He was quirky and smart and a good friend. Also, Steve was just creative and not cheesy at all. I loved that whole idea and how Jennifer interjected Steve into different situations. I was not a fan of Mr. Quisling (I am guessing you pronounce it like Quizling) as he just seemed like an asshat of a teacher. Overall, I would highly recommend this for younger readers and even for adults that love adventure stories with codes. It has a literary element as well bringing in classic authors and a little history.
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An Idyllic Story Of Bees And Uplifting Self-Reflection
The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Music of Bees is about 3 people and how their lives interweave. It takes place in an idyllic setting in Oregon near a river and lots of nature. You get splendid descriptions of the verdant scenery, white-capped waters, and the sentinel mountains. Jake is an 18-year-old boy who had an accident, Harry is an aimless mid-20s guy, and Alice is a forty-something year-old woman who keeps bees as a hobby. You get to meet them individually first, learn some backstory, and then move through their meeting. You get to learn about bees and how the unexpected can happen to change your life.
I loved this novel. There were so many things that worked well and Eileen Garvin set the right tone from the very beginning. Oh boy, can she write a sentence! I just felt love and full of warmth while reading. It was like sitting on the porch on a warm, spring day with a nice breeze while drinking some lemonade and having a chat with your oldest friend. The characters were so relatable. I found something of myself in each of the three main protagonists including feeling the need to change (and not knowing how), forging a new path, and regret. What would my life look like if I made different decisions in the past or even in the present? The language that was used and the phrasing of the words helped to create a strong sense of what each character was going through. Speaking of a young person and not having the words to describe something but then he “shouldn’t have to have the words” or “in that moment, he felt broken in a way that could not be undone.” Eileen wrote beautifully and evoked anger in me with the dad and corporate greed overriding morals. I could literally feel my chest tighten. This novel had a lot of things to say around lessons but was able to do it disguised in the general telling of the stories. You can learn to stand up for yourself. You don’t have to let your past decide who you are or where you are going. You can make your own decisions and change if you don’t like something. The Music of Bees resonated with me and this sentence hit hardest, “why was Harry a passenger in the vehicle that was his life?” What am I doing?
Read this.
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Interesting Boredom And Destroying The Written Word
The Vanished Library. A Wonder of the Ancient World by Luciano Canfora
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Vanished Library is about ancient libraries, specifically the one located in the famous city of Alexandria as well as one located in the tomb of Ramses II. It also talks about a contemporary, antagonistic library in Pergamum several times. There were many historical figures mentioned including Alexander the Great, Aristotle, and many of the members of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Tons of old writings were also referenced.
This book was not what I thought it was going to be. It touched on many other things and I thought the focus would be on the Library of Alexandria. Luciano Canfora brought in a bunch of additional information that seemed to have a peripheral association with the library. From what I notice, the first use of the phrase “library of Alexandria” was on page 74. The threads of connection were weak in my mind and I was hoping for a deeper focus on the actual place. Instead, we were exposed to other works that mention the library to try to deduce what happened to it. This is a deeply scholarly work. It read like a textbook and it was extremely dense. There were tons of names, places, and events that were divulged. As a result of this I, as a person who likes to google everything that interests me, spent a lot of time getting additional information on a lot of pieces. As a person who loves antiquity and history in general, there were moments of shock and dismay. It is still uncertain what actually happened to the library, but there is a legend that Caliph Omar ordered the destruction of its contents. In this book, there was a supposed letter that stated “proceed, then, and destroy them.” I was just apoplectic at the mention of the destruction of any written word, let alone any historical artifact. I get sad and it just hurts to imagine all that has been lost to history. I recently just finished the show Rome, years after starting, and I love how I could make connections between that and what I just read. There was mention of Caesar, Antony, and Cleopatra as well as battles that I could relate to the show. This is what intrigued me about the book, the history and how things correlate with each other. I ended up learning a ton, more than I ever thought I could ever want. I just wish it was presented in a more cohesive and direct manner.
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Secrets Of The Past And Feasting On Crow
The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Midnight Feast is about revenge, folklore, and secrets. It is situated at this expensive, retreat-style manor located on the coast of England, built for the perfect getaway. The story involves a woman who created and is running The Manor along with her husband who is the designer. There is also a single woman spending the weekend in a hut on the edge of the woods, a dishwasher with hopes to be promoted to a bartender, and plenty of locals who aren’t happy with the development intruding on ancient land. The story centers on opening weekend which is on the solstice but also jumps back in time. It jumps ahead, as well, to the day after the main event. The setting is idyllic…or is it?
When I first started reading, I was hit with the distinct feeling that I was reading another Nine Perfect Strangers. The story turns out to deviate just enough to separate it but the setting, ambiance, and host are similar. There was also an inkling of something else similar that I couldn’t quite pin down. I tend to like shorter chapters but I think Lucy Foley took it to the extreme here. Some chapters were only a paragraph long. I felt there was not enough time to orient yourself or get into what was going on. This was also in conjunction with multiple viewpoints and timelines. It felt too all over the place for me. I also could not get a sense of whether the author wanted the folklore to heavily influence our view of the genre or not. Is it a thriller or mystery or fantasy? The history and the stories of the area added a little feeling of being unsettled but I wish the author would have done it in a more organic and honest way. The writing wasn’t the best and what is with the reliance on ending so many chapters with a question? Is that the only way to build suspense? I was not a fan of the wrap up either. It felt incohesive and unfinished. However, I did like the way Lucy Foley tied elements from the past with the present and there were a couple times I was completely thrown. Most secrets and twists were done well. The host was painted in an almost unbelievable way with the extent of the delusion and self-importance, but it gave me a solid hatred for her regardless. Narcissism at its finest. Another aspect I loved was the creepiness of the childhood song that was introduced. I knew I had heard of it before but I was not positive, so I had to google it. Once I heard it, I could vividly imagine it playing in the book and it worked beautifully. I wish there was a play button on the actual page, so it played when I read that part! The story was inventive but hard to buy at points. In general, it was an ok read.
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Murder By River And Wading Through Molasses
The Current by Tim Johnston
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The Current is about a “closed” investigation and a current one. They both involve at least 1 woman dying in a river under suspicious circumstances. There are cops, lovers, and family dynamics interspersed amongst the slow march towards a resolution. It starts off with a college road trip back to Minnesota with Caroline and Audrey, who I would say is the main character. This trip felt relatable as I have made many college road trips before. A strong supporting character is Gordon, a father, who is just getting by day by day. A majority of the story takes place in Minnesota, which is where I am from, or Iowa. It was cool to have that relation to a major location and I could connect when the sights and smells of the state were described. There are several tangents that are explored but the investigation takes a backseat to the description of the characters’ lives.
I would not say that this is a heart-pounding thriller or even a regular thriller. It is not a murder mystery or cop procedural. I am not sure how I would classify this book. Tim Johnston is the author and one thing I think he is good at is painting a vivid and unique picture of what is going on. On the road trip, he describes moving “out of cotton country into wheat and then into corn”, which one can trace on a map in their mind. Or describing someone as smelling of “the outdoors, but an outdoors that was much later in the day and colder”. He had some beautiful language and could be quite eloquent but there were many things that annoyed me about this book. One set of grievances was the way it was written. There were plenty of run-on sentences and missing punctuation, mostly when relaying conversations. It could be a technique that he utilized but it didn’t work for me. There was a high percentage of chapters that took me several paragraphs to understand what was happening, who was being talked about, or even when it was taking place. The author used generic pronouns and set no signposts to help guide the reader. He seemed to be obfuscating on purpose. There are many words that I would use to describe his writing style including murky, convoluted, and elusive, to name a few. Another grievance was the lack of urgency or excitement at any point. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was boring, but I was thinking, just get on with it a lot of the time. In general, it was a lot of work to read this book. You had to read every single sentence closely and this just wasn’t something I was expecting or looking for at this time. I was disappointed. To use another analogy, it was like wading through molasses. The first spike of intrigue was over halfway through and then 4o pages from the end I felt a smidgen of tension but even then, it was like wading through warmed up molasses. It also is not wrapped up in a clearly defined bow. Read Reykjavik: A Crime Story or even reread Stieg Larsson instead.
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The Love Of A Horse And The War Inside Us All
The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The War I Finally Won is a continuation of the story set forth in The War that Saved My Life. Ada, Susan, and Jamie have moved into a cottage. The story picks up in the middle of WWII and they end up having a girl, who is Jewish and from Germany, to live with them. It adds to topics that were established with the first book and touches on a few more such as religion and bigotry. This is a story of loss, connection, love, and reconnection. Ada had to deal with her emotions and she gets help from those that surround her, including from unexpected places. I knew what I was getting into this one, so I was a little more prepared to deal with Ada and her issues bothering me. I forced myself to understand where she was coming from and I tried not to let her irritate me too much. It was tough because she was frustrating and exhausting. I don’t have kids and I am not sure if I ever will and so her inability to understand and her attitude was foreign to me. In theory and logically I get it but, in the moment, I didn’t like her. I loved how on the second page it mentions the two different wars that were being fought in the novel. I liked the play on words. There were also plenty of good lessons and messages throughout that Kimberly Brubaker Bradley did a great job integrating. Some of them involve when you are going through a tough time, the only way to approach it is to keep going, straight through as well as to not judge someone based solely on where they came from. There were also plenty of funny moments including a German invasion reference and sad, teary moments talking about coming undone. I say overall I liked this one better than the first one because I was able to prepare myself for Ada, Jamie wasn’t as grating, and I felt there were more emotional situations. It also felt heartwarming and like a big hug at moments. It is a good duology and I can totally understand the appeal. It talks about adult things and blends it well from a kid’s perspective. I don’t think I am a huge fan of books geared towards a younger audience in general, so I take that into consideration as well.
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Bleeding Greed And Being Blind To Fraud
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bad Blood is the mind-boggling story of woman in her journey to defraud people and make tons of money. She claims to have “invented” a new technology that could test a miniscule amount of blood quickly, accurately, and with a device that takes up a small amount of space on a countertop or shelf. Her journey is ridiculous. The company, Theranos, seemed like it had the unhealthiest culture and I do not understand how anyone could remain there for months, even years, especially the people in the know. Does no one have a conscience? There were some good eggs that ended up talking but it seemed like there should have been many more. Her actions potentially had the consequence of killing people as well, but she didn’t care. I don’t want to use her name as she is despicable. She is currently serving jail time thankfully, but it doesn’t seem like it is enough. She dropped out of college as she claimed she wanted to change the world and revolutionize the medical industry. I may be cynical and I definitely do not know her, but she seems full of it. She even changed her voice. She is a compulsive liar and doesn’t show any contrition about what she has done or how it affected people. This book was so enthralling, and I wanted to keep reading to find out how the story unfolds and how it ended. The entire time I was baffled how she got away with everything. How could no one raise any flags or look deeper into the details? Even big names like Walgreens and Henry Kissinger fell for the scheme. This just further shows the problem with greed in this country. Everyone just wants to make a quick buck regardless of the legality, morality, or consequences. John Carreyrou does an astounding job conveying the trajectory of her rise and deserved fall. He chronicles it well but one thing I found hard was keeping track of all the names of people involved. There were so many! John did his homework and deserved all the accolades. When I was reading it felt like there was a flipflop between good and evil. One chapter felt that she was getting away with everything and deceiving everyone whereas the next chapter it felt like someone was standing up and that she might be caught. It was crafted well and I enjoyed it. Throughout my time reading this book there were several instances where I could feel tension in my body regarding my frustration with what was happening and the pull to find out more. It was a physical reaction to this read. I wanted to find out that it ended badly for her and the company. I wanted her to be punished and to see that people cannot get away with hurting others. I was hooked on the story and I couldn’t wait to finish. This story exemplifies things that piss me off the most (lying, hurting others, and getting away with it) which is why I didn’t want to give it five stars but I feel it is such a great book I will. It is a must read.
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