"The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin. ****

》Audiobook
》US author
》Originally published in 2014
》Review:   Are what we read?  Too corny?  It was worth a shot.  This is plain and simple, a lovely story about lovely people who love books.  Chuckles, some heartache, some love stories, some intense drama.....all of these and more themes are present in this story of a widowed bookseller whose life is basically saved by love...love of a child, love of a woman, and love of books!  The characters are memorable and charming.  Just read it!

"To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway. ****

》Audiobook
》US author
》Originally published in 1937
》Review:  How far would you go to support your loved ones? This is a tale of one man's downfall while he tries to do just that.  It is a dark tale.  It is also a cautionary tale of the dark side of wealth and what it can take to accumulate it.  Hemingway is a master storyteller, but I doubt you need me to tell you that!

"Hot Six" by Janet Evanovich. ***

》Audio book
》US author
》6th in Stephanie Plum series
》Originally published in 2001
》Review:  Just plain fun!

"Arzee The Dwarf" by Chandrahas Choudhury. ****

• Summer Sub Club with Beth
• East Indian author
• Debut novel, Short list for Commonwealth First Novel award
• Originally published in 2009
• Vocabulary:
• Setting:  Bombay
• Characters:
•        Arzee (29 year old dwarf, projectionist at the Noor movie theater, loves Monique)
•       Deepak (gangster enforcer who befriends Arzee
•       Phiroz (older projectionist)
•       Dashrath (taxi driver/philosopher)
•       Rajneesh Sharma (reclusive owner of the Noor)

• Quotes:
•      p.1..."Each day in the world was a battle against the might and will of myriad forces,  so then why shouldn't he change track and direction as it suited him?  A man couldn't just be as he was,  as he felt he should be--this world wasn't a place for feelings! "
•      p.39...."I'll receive only with one hand and keep the other just for giving. "
•      p.52...."They said that one day the sun would blow itself out,  and all life on earth would end instantly.  The day the great beam was blown out,  he knew,  would be sucha world ending day."  (When the Noor cclosed)
•      p.54...."When trouble came calling,  he knew from experience,  it was never the pistol-shot, the hot instant,  of disaster itself that menaced a man's self-possession,  but the way the mind went the same thing over and over again,  crackling,  smoldering,  like a body on a pyre till it collapsed into ashes."
•      p.55....."It's a miserable, nasty,  cruel world!   It respects your position:  if you've got a square foot to stand on,  it won't come rushing in.  But lose your position,  and you lose yourself. !"
•      p.56...."What was on her mind one moment was on her tongue the next. "......sounds like me
•      p.58....."Never pass a friend by on the street without a word, for there may come a day when he too shall do the same. "....Dashrath
•      p.61..."All these months I wasn't really living in the present.   I was already living in the days to come.   I wasn't the me that I was!  I was gradually becoming the me that I thought I was going to be. "..........Arzee to Dashrath
•      p.61...."What I'm thinking is,  do we live the life that's given to us,  or,......do we really live a kind of dream life?   We are to be found in the present,  yes--walking,  sleeping,  working.   But  all the while,  aren't we really living in the past and the future?"
•      p.64....."A light mist, like that seen when sugar is poured into jars. ?..."........interesting metaphor
•      p.95....."If you open your heart to a person who is different from you,  you grow bigger, not smaller. "......Arzee's father
•      p.97......"The rose of peace can never bloom in the soil of unrest. ".....Arzee tells Dashrath to make peace with his parents
•      p.168...."He was two beings within one,  two names, three religions,  four parents--he was a piece of patchwork made with the craziest needle! ......news of adoption
•     p.172...."He saw that his life was to be a journey,  and that there was no home for him anywhere except in the hut of his own crooked self. "
• Notes:
•      p.42.....wonderful description of the mood after Arzee's boss says he has something to tell him....
•      Dashrath had seven children,  all born in January......because he only went home once a year for three weeks......LOL
•      P.113....the freedom of being behind a mask....being a bottle
• Review:  What a wonderful novel! Welcome to a world full of characters worthy of Dickens, a story which has the reader gasping, cringing, and laughing out loud, and a whole lot to think about regarding the role of imagination in the choices we make and the dreams we allow ourselves to chase.  Set in Mumbai,  where life can deal one difficult reality after another, we meet Arzee the dwarf, whose disappointments,  dreams, and adventures will keep the reader glued to the tale to the end.

"The Buried Candelabrum" by Stefan Zweig ****

》 Summer book with Beth
》  Austrian author
》  Originally published in 1936
》  Jewish tale of pogrom,  menorah stolen, young Jewish chosen to be guardian of the story and the the people's history

>>Review:  It's interesting.  I have read many of Zweig's novels and short stories and rank him as one of my favorite authors.  They were primarily written during and/or after WWII, right up until his suicide.  This novel was published in 1936.  It is the religious tale of Jews being mistreated in 1300s Rome, and certainly seemed significantly different in style than anything else I have read.  The primary theme is the cultural imperative that the significant events, beliefs, and artifacts of the Jewish faith be carried forward in time.  It is a moving tale about a people who are perpetually bewildered at the hatred they evoke in other cultures.  Well written, yet has to be set apart as a cultural fable, rather than an intellectually stimulating piece of literary fiction.

"The Garden of Evening Mists" by Tan Twan Eng. *****

》  Audiobook
》  Malaysian author
》  Originally published in 2011
》  Review:  Stunningly lovely!  Set in Malaysia, this is a tale of pain and suffering  and healing and love and relationship and trust.  It is a tale of the horror of what human beings can do to one another juxtaposed with the  compassion which human beings are capable of.  All these themes are remembered and re-experienced by the protagonist as she faces the onset of dementia.  Lovely prose, memorable characters,  and an amazing plot make this a 5 star read!

"Good Lord Bird" by James McBride. ****

》  Audiobook, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson
》  US author
》  Originally published in 2013
》  Setting: Kansas, pre-civil war
》  Premise:  Discovery of journal in an old church recalls an interview of aman who tells of his interaction with John Brown
》  Review:    I listened to the audio edition of this novel and the marvelous narration by Samuel L. Jackson enhanced the experience significantly.  The author's choice  to create a character and set him at the center of John Brown's quest to free the slaves was a perfect way to bring the entire plotting of the raid on Harper's Ferry to life.  "Onion", the protagonist and narrator, is a young boy masquerading as a girl.  He is a memorable character whose antics bring a touch of humor to a very serious story.  Just as Onion's understanding of the abolitionist movement matures during his time with John Brown, so does the reader gain insight into the complicated dynamics at play at this period just prior to the Civil War.

"Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. ****

》 Audiobook
》 Originally published in 1819
》 US author
》 Review:  A delightful tale of magical events, with delightful characters.  Didn't particularly like the negative views of wives, but enjoyed the story nonetheless.   It seemed to address the sense of detachment people often feel from changes which occur in government. 

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. ***

》Audiobook
》 Originally published in 1820
US author

》This was the first time reading this tale of mystery and humor.  I love Washibgton Irving's characters, but this story was just so-so.

"Season of Migration To The North" by Tayeb Saleh. *****

●  Summer Read with Beth
●  Sudanese author
● Originally published in 1970
●  Characters: Mustafa Sa'eed, brilliant Don Juan with a secret..........Narrator/returns to his Sudanese villabe after studying abroad for seven years to find Mustafa firmly entrenched in his home village
●  Setting:  Sudan, post WWI
●  Quotes:
     》  p.27......"The string of the bow is drawn taut and the arrow must needs shoot forth.".....Mustafa uses this metaphor often....fatalism?
     》  p.33......."The train carried me to Victoria Station and to the world of Jean Morris".  .....Mustafa's downfall
     》  p.34......"My bedroom was a spring-well of sorrow,  the germ of a fatal disease. "......Mustafa's affect on women....
     》  p.43......"Were every person to know when to refrain from taking the first step,  many things would have been changed."
     》  p.46......"Occasionally the disturbing thought occurrs to me that Mustafa Sa'eed never happened , that he was in fact a lie, a phantom, a dream or a nightmare that had come to the people of that village one suffocatingly   dark night,  and when they opened their eyes to the sunlight he was nowhere to be seen. "
     》  p.59....."And here you are now believing in superstitions of a new sort:  the superstition of industrialization, the superstition of nationalization,  the superstition of Arab unity, the superstition of African unity.  Like children you believe that in the bowels of the earth lies a treasure you'll attain by some miracle,  and that you'll solve all your difficulties and set up a Garden of Paradise. Fantasies.  Waking dreams.   Through facts, figures, and statistics you can accept your reality, live together with it, and attempt tobring about changes within the limits of your potentialities."
     》p.69...."The voices of people,  birds,  and animals expire weakly on the ear like whispers,  and the regular puttering of the water pump heightens the sensation of the impossible.  And the river,  the river but for which there would have been no beginning and no end, flows northwards, pays heed to nothing; a mountain may stand in its way so it turns eastwards; it may happen upon a deep depression so it turns westwards, but sooner or later it settles down inits irrevocable journey towards the sea in the north."
    》p.71......"According to my grandfather, a couch raised high off the floor indicates vanity,  a low one humility. "
    》p.73....."By the standards of the European industrial world we are poor peasants,  but when I embrace my grandfather I experience a sense of richness as though I am a note in the heartbeats of the universe. He is no towering oak tree with luxuriant branches growing in a land on which Nature has bestowed water and fertility,  rather he is like the sayal bushes in the deserts of the Sudan, thick of bark and sharp thorn, defeating death because they ask so little of life."
     》p.88....."Everyone starts at the beginning of the road,  and the world is in an endless state of childhood. "
     》p.107...."This room is a big joke--like life.   You imagine it contains a secret and there's nothing there.   Absolutely nothing. "
    
●  Notes:
     》 Loved the impromptu celebration of bedouins and travelers
     》  Is narrator Mustafa?
     》  Is locked room his psychic retention of English education?
●  Review:
      This novel started out slowly and gradually became mind boggling!  The author manages to convey the downside of colonialization and one culture being sdueced by the exotic in anither culture, and then killing off the original beauty of what seduced them in the first place.  I was entranced by many of the Arab traditions, emotions, and euphemisms.  I was absolutely delighted during the impromptu celebration of travelers and bedouins in the desert.  I was appalled at the treatment of women as property.  Overall, I was thoroughly engaged emotionally and intellectually.   Excellent!

"The Lowland" by Jhumpa Lahiri ****

●  Audiobook
●  Indian author
●  Originally published in 2013
●  Review:  A poignant story of two brothers who follow differing paths in life, and the consequences of their choices.  As always, Lahiri creates memorable characters and takes the reader on a lifetime journey of their psyches.   The themes include family, love, loyalty, and the anger which accompanies grief.  A lovely, bittersweet tale!