The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg

The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
(Disclosure: This book was received free via the First-Reads program, with the understanding that I might read and review it.)

Not only "the collected stories", these are the complete stories of Deborah Eisenberg - four books in one very massive tome. This is a book to pick up and put down, read a story or two, go onto something lighter or maybe less introspective, and then come back to it when you have a hungering for a short visit to a deep place. I say deep, because no matter how much humor Eisenberg grants a character or a subject on the surface, you will be drawn down into stories that are so much more than their plots. There's a sort of progression through the four collections, starting with characters trying to define themselves by the people that surround them, then by the places they visit, until finally the stories that take familiar situations and challenge us to see them through the eyes of characters that we probably wouldn't run across every day in the real world.

There's a lot Virginia Woolf in Eisenberg's style, except that Eisenberg seems to like and sometimes even enjoy her characters. That makes reading even her darker and her most abstract stories for more enjoyable.

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Catilina's Riddle (Roma Sub Rosa, #3) by Steven Saylor

Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The mystery portion of the book drags through every stage of its plotting, but as historical fiction, this is the best yet of this series. This is no doubt because of the change of setting: Gordianus has inherited a farm, introducing himself and the reader to a whole new aspect of life in ancient Rome (of course, it's not ancient Rome in the books). Also, the changes in his domestic situations with added family members provide another way for Saylor to reveal what it was to live in as not only a citizen but every other class of persons in that time period. The Real Person characters move in and out of the story almost effortlessly, even the best known one who is linked so closely to the family at the end of the book there's no way he won't be appearing in later stories. It's the setting and the supporting characters that keep me coming back to this series, Gordianus adopted children especially.

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1) by Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A historical fiction cozy with a child sleuth who doesn't have any special powers beyond her own intellect - now that's an original idea for a book! Bradley does quite a good job of balancing his genre's, never letting the story of how life was changing for the landed gentry in post WWII England over shadow the convoluted whodunit (complete with requisite appearances of a cat and tea kettles). Like most cozies, the mystery isn't all that challenging to figure out, so missteps and red herrings are added to keep the book from being more than a short story. What makes this an enjoyable read is Flavia (our girl detective who lives the "Better living through chemistry" credo even if she's never heard it) and just about every other character that appears more than once in this story. Flavia is a child emotionally, and her world and relationships reflect that. But through Bradley's talented writing, the reader can see the deeper complications that make being a kid something worth writing (and laughing) about.

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Breakfast at Sally's: One Homeless Man's Inspirational Journey by Richard LeMieux

Breakfast at Sally's: One Homeless Man's Inspirational Journey by Richard LeMieux


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A very anecdotal memoir of the eighteen months that the author was homeless. I suspect that the editors of the book kept a very light hand intentionally, there's no mistaking that this was not written by a professional author. But it was written by a man who simply wanted to tell what it was like for him to involuntarily join the ranks of the people he himself tried to ignore when he was a wealthy man. This is not a book that offers theories or solutions, it is simply his recollections of the people he met and how he survived with and sometimes in spite of their help. Throughout the book I was constantly reminded of the last line from "A Streetcar Named Desire," and very hopeful that there will always be people that make it possible.

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The Confessiona of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer

The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Many critics have compared this book to Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", most likely because Greer had the misfortune of having his book published at about the same time the Fitzgerald story was released in film form. Both books do deal with a character born old and aging backwards, but the authors obviously feel so differently about how such a person would move through their world, the comparison must stop with that one character trait. Greer's Max is a man who thinks he knows his fate and lives each day with an ending hanging over his head ((or in this case, around his neck). He lives the life as a victim, always preparing himself for a bad outcome. A loyal, understanding friend isn't seen for the good he brings to Max's life, instead he is used to ease the complications, or worse yet, give way when the girl Max thinks he has fallen in love with falls in love with the friend.

The historical fiction aspect of this book is uneven. The late 1880's through the turn of the century are shown vivedly through Max's recollections of his early years. The small details of living in the days before automobiles and electricity are related in a natural way from someone who had lived through the time and could look back at them fondly and not as a novelty. But as time goes on, the setting becomes less nuanced, and Greer's heavy use of metaphore to replace simple narrative becomes annoying. As Max grows older, his ability to self edit diminishes, drawing out an ending that we knew from the very beginning.

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Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At last, a Virginia Woolf book where I can understand why she is a "must read" author. The humor of this book is so sly that I sometimes would wonder if I was musunderstanding the intent, but eventually it becomes clear that this is a book about taking life for what it is at that moment - and enjoy it.

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The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Giordano sets up a story of two beautifully damaged characters that meet, move apart, and then unfortunately come back together again. I say unfortunately, because if this book had ended before the last few chapters, I would have given it at least four stars. However, this is the story Giordano has written, and when it is a character study of two lives that share so much without sharing anything, it is sad and lovely and all those things that make a depressing story a good read, at least until the attempt at a plot resolution at the very end.

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