Miss Benson's Beetle

 Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

A rambunctious tale about a reserved, middle-aged school teacher, Miss Margery Benson, who throws it all up one day in an uncharacteristic fit of pique and petty theft, to go searching for a golden beetle she's not entirely sure exists. Her love for beetles began in childhood when her father showed her a book of magical creatures, and when she came to the sketch of a rumoured golden beetle, she felt - she knew - it was her destiny to capture one and prove their existence to the world. After years of teaching girls domestic science, a career her recent actions rendered finished, it felt like time.

When Miss Benson looked for an assistant to travel with her, a most unlikely candidate, Miss Enid Pretty, got the job and off they set. Enid is a flighty, most unreserved young woman with a sketchy background that will come to light later, as will the mis-adventures of another applicant, Mr. Mundic, who refuses to accept that Margery does't need him to lead the expedition.

Through a number of entertaining troubles on the ship taking them to Caledonia in the South Pacific, getting through Customs, socializing with the wives of the Consul, and struggling up a mountain in search of the beetle, Margery and Enid share their personal stories and come to understand one another better, forming a bond of friendship neither expected.

These two women will have ridiculous and frightening adventures, and will both be changed in outlook and attitude beyond what they thought possible. Their comical, heart-warming journey is worth reading. 

The Impossible Thing

 The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

A unusual story based on a real world crime involving the theft of a rare red guillemot egg. I had no idea what a guillemot was (a seabird of the auk family), that their eggs were considered collectable (because of their colours), or the lengths to which collectors (called oologists) would go to obtain them.  

At the Metland farm in Yorkshire, a young girl, Celie, and a farmhand, Robert, collect a valuable rare guillemot egg from a rocky cliff nest by dangerously lowering the girl through a crevice in the rock. There she hangs, suspended in a rope harness over the ocean, as she reaches into an opening to grab the egg. Once back up, there is an eager collector willing to pay a good price for this treasure. 

A century later, someone breaks into Weird Nick's house to steal a red egg he'd purchased as a curiousity on Ebay. He and his friend, Patrick, figure it must be valuable if someone wanted it that badly, so they set out to find the thief and get it back. This will involve them in a world they hadn't known existed, filled with obsessive collectors and sketchy characters who don't like to play by the rules. 

With dual timelines and engaging characters in both, the story moves along at a good pace and is just dramatic enough (I've read a few that overdid it recently and it gets old fast) to be realistic and make you eager to keep reading. And it was an entertaining introduction to the world of egg-collecting, which I had no idea was a thing. 

A good story with clear, uncluttered writing, an intriguing plot, and likable characters. 

Light From Other Stars / The Walking Drum

Light From Other Stars by Erika Swyler

This is the kind of science fiction I like - lots of credible sounding science, unnerving possibilities, and ordinary (mostly) people caught in the crosshairs. 

Eleven year old Nedda Papas, living in Easter, Florida, wanted her father to take her to the launch of the Challenger space shuttle but he's working in his lab on Crucible, an experiment to manipulate and slow down time, so she watches the launch on tv with her school class. When the shuttle fails a few minutes after takeoff, killing everyone on board including Nedda's hero, astronaut Judy Resnik, the force of the explosion has an unexpected effect on Crucible. The "sky looks weird" as Nedda and her best friend, Denny, are walking home from school, then they find an animal - I think it was a monkey - trapped in some kind of "bubble" they don't quite know how to describe. Before long the entire town of Easter is caught up in the strange effects of an experiment gone wrong.  

In an alternate timeline years later, Nedda has fulfilled her dream of becoming an astronaut and is now aboard the shuttle Chawla, one of four people heading to a distant planet to establish a colony there. When a crisis arises, Nedda realizes that data she gathered from the Crucible disaster could be the key to survival now. 

The science in this was riveting, as were Nedda's relationships with Denny, with her father, Theo, and her mother, Betheen. Her parents are both flawed characters but are written with grace that renders them lovely in spite of their flaws. Their love for Nedda and each other, the yearning in it, was so beautiful it hurt to read.

There were some great metaphors: "Time painted with watercolors". I've been thinking about that ever since. And this - when Nedda's mother tried to hug her - "Nedda stiffened at the touch. Like coat hangers trying to embrace." And "...Denny was part of Nedda too - a bone in her leg that held her up." The whole thing was beautifully written.  

Authentic characters, original plot, and enough suspense to keep you up late. Such a good book!  

The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

If I was a fifteen year old boy in the 1960s I might eat this novel up. The hero of the story is young, brave, strong, handsome, has a skill to meet every challenge, wins every fight, escapes every trap, falls in love with beautiful girls and they fall in love with him. What boy, or man for that matter, wouldn't want to be him?

Alas, I found him neither likable nor admirable, nor even credible. His attitude toward women is tiresome; he brags too much, even with the odd self-deprecating remark added in a failed attempt to make him a more balanced character; he improbably has the specific knowledge/talent/skill needed to get out of every predicament he gets into; and too many beautiful girls are quick to overcome their initial hesitancy about him and give them their hearts. All we ever learn about the girls is how beautiful they are, making them more like cut-out dolls than real characters. 

The plot pattern - go on an adventure, fall in love with a beautiful face, get into trouble, get out of trouble, escape leaving the girl behind, repeat - wore thin after awhile. On the plus side, it seemed well researched and had some interesting historical and cultural information. That's about the best I can say for it.        

Bach, the Learned Musician/Quartet in Autumn

 Johann Sebastian Bach - The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff

This is a wonderful book but it was a bit more than I was looking for. I did want a biography of Bach but maybe not quite this detailed. His life is in there, between details about the churches he was employed with and the histories of those churches, the men who ministered there and their backgrounds, the organs in those churches and who built them, when and how they were built, even what type of wood they were made from and where the trees grew. Details upon details, and of course much about Bach's music. I did find it interesting and for a serious student of Bach it would be a great resource, but I'm still looking for something more about his personal life with less history of other people and places, if such a book exists. The library has one more I'll try later this year.  

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

I have mixed feelings about this one. Four people, two men and two women, work together in an office and are all close to retirement. It describes their interatictions working at jobs so unimportant that none of them will be replaced when they leave, and the routines of each one's daily lives. There's little plot, but is more a study of the characters and their relationships. Reading other reviews makes me think I should have taken more from it than I did, but it didn't reach me on as deep a level as it seems to have others. I wonder if it might be one of those books I'll appreciate more as I continue to think about it. I did enjoy the reading of it but am a little frustrated not to have seen more in it.

The Language of Flowers / Hard Times

 The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Victoria, raised in foster and group homes, turns 18 and is left to fend for herself. She'd had one good year, living with Elizabeth, a wise and compassionate woman who loved her and was going to adopt her until things went awry. Elizabeth taught her about gardening, the types and names of flowers, and what they needed to flourish, knowledge Victoria used to start a small garden of her own even while she was homeless and sleeping under bushes in parks. 

She replies to an ad for a florist's helper and gets the job working for Renata, who sees in her something special and worth mentoring. One early morning at the flower market she meets Grant who becomes first a friend and then something more. Though things are better for Victoria now, the behaviours and attitudes learned from long years of neglect and abuse have a way to throwing a wrench into her best intentions. 

The Language of Flowers is a grittier story than the title implies. Sometimes your heart breaks for Victoria, other times you want to shake her and tell her to stop shooting herself in the foot. She's her own worst enemy, but aren't we all, and you find yourself commiserating instead of judging.

The sad and sometimes harsh story line is relieved by the conversations about flowers, their care and various meanings. Bouquets and individual blossoms are often exchanged to communicate thoughts and feelings, enriching the story and lifting it from despair to beauty. It is a beautiful novel.

The Language of Flowers is about family and flowers and how any of us, no matter how rough a start, can with enough care and attention grow into what we were meant to be.   

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Audio narrated by Frederick Davidson. 11 hrs 29 mins.

The story of a no-nonsense schoolmaster who insists that his students and his own children be taught a certain way: "Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts." But after he marries his daughter off to a man she doesn't love and then she falls for someone else, and his son does the unthinkable bringing shame to his whole family, he begins to realize that people may need more than mere facts to prepare them for happy and productive lives. 

Dickens is one of my favourites. I love the language of his times and his politely worded jabs at pretentious people, but this story didn't appeal to me even a little bit. It may have been partly the narration, but I couldn't get invested in any of the characters and found the plot dull, though it may be blasphemy to even suggest it. 

Sorry, Mr. Dickens. 

Klara and The Sun/Pack Up The Moon

 Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Within the first few pages you get a sense of something being not quite right. Through a comment here and a description there, a picture starts to form of what is going on behind the scenes, and though you may want to laugh it off as just fiction, something in you knows we're not that far away from becoming the society the book portrays.

Klara is an AF, an Artificial Friend, a companion parents buy for their teenage children. Klara's teenager is Josie, whose mother is still working in spite of most jobs being done now by AI, and whose father lives in a community of those who have already been replaced. Klara's purpose is to be as much help to Josie as she can, at the same time obeying the instructions of Josie's mother. Josie is unwell and Klara wants nothing more than to see her get better and is convinced The Sun can heal her with its "special nourishment."

In this near-future society parents must choose by a certain age whether or not to have their children genetically enhanced to give them an advantage in education and in life, even though some of the "uplifted" children suffer weakened health as a result. Klara's sister died after enhancement so choosing that path for Josie was risky, but her parents didn't want to deny her the chance at a better future. They also couldn't face the loss of another child, but perhaps a way could be found to  keep Josie with them even if she did succumb to the illness. Cue eerie music here. 

Next door to Josie live Rick and his mother. Rick is not one of the lifted but he's smart and talented enough for his mother to try to get him into a school that usually will take only enhanced students. Rick and Josie are best friends with a long term plan for their lives together and one of Klara's responsibilities is to act as chaperone so the adults have that one thing less to worry about. 

I enjoy Kishiguro's writing, the spare, straightforward language and the uneasy tone he creates. The characters live the lives they must while the reader grows quietly horrified and yet can't look away; it's all too probable.  

This book and another of Ishiguro's, Never Let Me Go, have never let me go. Both left me wondering if it really must come to this, and isn't there something we should do to make sure it doesn't, knowing it's probably already too late to stop the AI avalanche now gathering speed and power as it thunders towards us. It's the matter-of-fact acceptance of it all, in the novels and in our own reality, that make these scenarios so chilling, yet both books are terrific and I wouldn't want to not have read them. Indeed I will probably read them again in a couple of years to see how much closer our reality has gotten to Ishiguro's fiction.

Klara and The Sun is a book you can't put down, an unsettling story about what it means to be human and how far we could, or should, go in our quest to make machines human, too.   

Pack Up the Moon by Kristin Higgins

A young husband, Josh, struggles with grief after losing his wife to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. A few weeks after the funeral he receives the first of her letters - there'll be one for each month of his first year without her - assigning him tasks she hopes will help him get out and start living again. It's a terribly sad love story that will probably leave you in tears, but I didn't find it offered much beyond an opportunity to cry. If that's what you need - and who doesn't sometimes - you might love it.