It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? 8-14-23

I thought on Thursday that I had come down with a cold after taking a chance last weekend and going to see our grandchild who had been sick with a cold. On Friday, I tested positive for COVID. Since our daughter-in-law (getting over the same cold as the baby) had tested negative, I probably caught it in the airport or on the plane — despite all precautions!

As one of my daughters said, I must be a COVID magnet, as this is now my fourth time catching it. Which I think is a bit unfair, considering I mask up, am a certified germophobe, and do absolutely everything possible to boost my faulty immune system. (Apart from getting enough sleep and giving up sugar, coffee, and cocktails, that is.)

Yesterday I had thoughts of writing a Sunday Salon post so I could ramble on more about other topics, but just wasn’t up to it. Now it’s Monday, and no going to work for me (which I’m not quite up to yet, anyway) until tomorrow at the soonest, so let’s stick to the books!

Currently Reading

NW by Zadie Smith

Recently Read

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

I finished another Big Book Summer book (495 pages)!

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante also fit the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s Reading Challenge for August, which was to read a book in translation. It could have also fit on my TBR Pile Challenge list of books that have been on my shelves waiting to be read for at least a year. (Try closer to ten!)

I’ve been thinking about why I stopped reading after the first two books, and I think it was because the rumor was going around that they were written by a man. (Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym.) It’s a fairly steep investment of time to read the Neapolitan Quartet, and I didn’t want to get absorbed in these deeply personal but intellectual novels written by a woman about a woman’s experiences only to have a man jump out afterwards and say, “Fooled you!”

If this were a Sunday Salon post, I could delve into this topic more. I don’t take issue with J.K. Rowling’s writing a mystery series under a male pseudonym (Robert Galbraith) and only minor issue with A.J. Finn, the author of The Woman in the Window being revealed as a man, shortly after the book became a bestseller in the popular subgenre of psychological thriller with unreliable narrators like Gone Girl, dominated by female authors like Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and Lisa Jewell. (It helps to be British, too.)

Final Lullaby by Sasha Lauren

“Angela Alexander, a New England bookshop owner and support talk-line volunteer, is dedicated to listening to people without her own filter getting in the way. Though her life is full and satisfying, she faces the ultimate dilemma after her husband Tucker – an exuberant bird photographer and blues musician – is harmed by medical malpractice during a routine hernia repair. Left in intractable pain, he struggles to focus on any shred of quality of life. When Tucker expresses the desire to end his life before he loses full autonomy, Angela has to decide to support him in that decision, or not.” — Publisher’s description

Final Lullaby by Sasha Lauren is a LibraryThing Early Reviewer win from August. The Cape Cod bookstore setting that appealed to me when requesting it didn’t turn out to play a major role in the story, which was disappointing, but I like to support local authors, so I’m glad I requested it anyway!

It’s a story of life’s ups and downs told in the first-person by a young woman named Angela who is happily single and independent until she meets her soulmate Tucker. Angela, after her best friend in high school suffers from incurable cancer, believes strongly in the right-to-die movement for people with terminal illnesses or unsustainable pain levels, but she is also a volunteer counselor for the local suicide prevention hotline.

This story of people not only dealing with the unfairness of life but also fighting against preventable tragedies caused by medical malpractice and lack of patient protections, has many heartwrenching moments, but also many heartwarming ones. Although all the characters in the book aren’t fully developed, Angela and Tucker are both memorable characters, lovingly drawn.

The novel, as a whole, needed more balanced pacing, as the plot of the book as described by the publisher doesn’t begin until two-thirds of the way into the book. Or maybe it just needed a less misleading book jacket description!

If your frame of mind is such that you can read a novel dominated by the difficult topics of suicide and botched surgeries, and you want to give an indie author a chance, check out Final Lullaby on the author’s website here.

Currently Listening To

A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab

I’m rereading the Shades of Magic trilogy by V. E. Schwab before her new book set in that world, The Fragile Threads of Power, comes out in September. I bought and read the first three in print, but this time through I’m listening to them on audio. The narrator for Kell’s chapters, Michael Kramer, is growing on me – at first, he sounded too old for the age of the character – but I loved the narrator for Delilah (Lila) Bard’s chapters, Kate Reading, from the beginning!

I won’t be buying the new book because I don’t like the new cover design – not just because it doesn’t match the three others. I really hate photographic book covers that try to dictate how a character should be seen in our mind’s eye.

Recently Listened To

Winter’s Gift by Ben Aaronovitch

Until yesterday when I started to feel better, I was too sick to read, but I couldn’t always sleep, either, so audiobooks distracted me from thoughts of what I was missing and how was I going to get everything done at work if I couldn’t work, etc. (I discovered the usefulness of Libby’s sleep timer during an earlier bout of COVID, and have used it a lot over the last few days!)

I check regularly for new releases by authors of favorite series to show up on Libby, and I lucked out by being able to borrow Winter’s Gifts, a new novella in the Rivers of London series that just came out a month and a half ago, but it’s set in the woods of northern Wisconsin just after a blizzard instead of in London, and features FBI agent Kimberley Reynolds with Detective Constable Peter Grant only making a cameo appearance.

It’s out of season to listen to a winter book in summer, but, then again, it might have helped me forget the gorgeous weather and outdoor activities I was missing out on. (Boo hoo! Poor me!)

Currently Not Listening To

Network Effect by Martha Wells

I renewed Network Effect before getting sick and not being able to go anywhere with my husband from Thursday on, so we never got to listen to the second half of it. I should probably return it early and let the next person have it. Network Effect (#5) is much longer than the others in the Murderbot Diaries, which were more like novellas and great for short road trips.

This post is linked to “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Check out the link-up party there for more book lists!