I have just finished this wonderful book and there are many words I could use to describe it: warm, funny, sad, thought provoking, emotional, happy, and … magical. This was such an easy read and such a great story. It is a fictional story, but I found myself wanting to meet the characters in real life.
This was a book that was a suggestion on Goodreads. I don’t recall if one of my friends had read it or not, but I was intrigued by the story. It was one that I had my local library order for me. When the email arrived saying the book was on hold, I had totally forgotten about it. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. I finished it within 48 hours.
I was unfamiliar with the author, Joe Siple. According to the publisher (Black Rose Writing) “Joe Siple is the USA Today bestselling author of The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride, winner of The National Indie Excellence Award, The PenCraft Award, and named 2018 Book of the Year by the Maxy Awards. The story topped Amazon bestseller lists in the US, Canada, and Australia.”
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
With all his family and friends gone, one-hundred-year-old Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a ten-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies.
Those wishes aren’t easy ones.
He wants to kiss a girl.
He wants to hit a home run in a major league baseball stadium.
He wants to be a superhero.
He wants to find a boyfriend for his mom.
He wants to perform real magic.
Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off wishes one by one. Along the way, Murray remembers what it’s like to be young, and Jason fights for the opportunity to grow old. But when tragedy strikes, their worlds are turned upside-down, and an unexpected gift is the only thing that can make Jason’s final wish come true.
To a degree, the story reminded me a bit of the Pixar movie Up! Both focus on the relationship between an old man and young boy. That relationship starts a bit rocky, but grows into something very special. Let me be clear, though, they are two very different stories. It will warm your heart and maybe even make you shed a tear. Please be sure to let me know if you read it. I would love your thoughts.
I found out from the publisher that there is a sequel. It has a bit of a similar plot line and I may have to add it to my list of books to read. It is called The Final Wish of Mr. Murray McBride.
This is a book that I have seen come up more than once as a recommendation for me. I have seen many friends post about it, and I was on the fence about reading it. Then, my son’s speech therapist came over and said that it was a good read with a powerful ending. I decided to take a chance on it.
While I thought the ending was as powerful as the speech therapist did, I found it to be more of a book for female readers. I even told my wife that it reminded me of an episode of Desperate Housewives.
Here is the synopsis from Amazon:
“Expertly, subtly and powerfully rendered….[The Whispers] delivers a sucker-punch ending you’ll have to read twice to believe.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[An] electrifying…razor-sharp page-turner.” —Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After
Featured in summer reading recommendations by Good Morning America, TIME, ELLE, The Washington Post & more
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.
What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night?
Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women’s fiction talent.
The Goodreads Synopsis gives you a bit more…
From the author of THE PUSH, a pageturner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens–and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices
The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys’ best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.
The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children’s. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life’s most difficult decisions.
The story bounces between the four women and their families. At times I had to remind myself who was married to who (just like Desperate Housewives)! There were characters in this book that I just hated because of their actions (just like Desperate Housewives). At the same time, there were plenty of times that I just needed to know what happened next or why a character did something.
As I said, the ending was worth waiting for and everything the various reviews stated. Yet, while the main storyline is wrapped up, I found myself wondering about many of the sub-plots. What happened to that couple? How does that neighbor’s storyline tie up? I don’t know, maybe it is a good thing that I wanted more.
I admit that this book isn’t for everyone, and that is why I didn’t title this a “Book Recommendation.” However, I post this because I know of a few followers who might enjoy a nice book filled with drama and a good ending.
Every Vow You Break is the third Peter Swanson book I have read this year. So far he’s 3 for 3. I have enjoyed each one of his books and will add his remaining 7 to my list of books to read. This one was a bit more of a suspense/thriller than the last two. It had me guessing and questioning characters all through the book. There were some very shady ones, and there were times I thought I knew who I could trust and was wrong.
I could easily see this one being made into a film. Here is the Goodreads synopisis:
A bride’s dream honeymoon becomes a nightmare when a man with whom she’s had a regrettable one-night stand shows up in this psychological thriller from the author of Eight Perfect Murders.
Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life.
Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something special and he’s tracked her down to prove it.
Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.
While the synopsis was a good enough tease to get me to read it, the book is so much better than what synopsis gives you.
Side Note:
When I first started book thoughts on my blog, I was doing it more for me. I never thought these little teases and recommendations would come to anything. The fact is, that they have. I have gained some new followers who also read many books. I have gotten some fantastic recommendations from my own followers (Beth – I’m reading yours now and love it!). Dave, another blogger friend used an off the cuff comment I made about whether or not to finish a book and turned it into a very insightful blog. He also read one of the books I had read and liked it.
That, in itself, makes me very happy. I’m glad that I am not just typing stuff that doesn’t offer you, my reader, something. I hope that my writings gives you something to think about, something to laugh at, something to read, something to listen to, or something to share with others. I appreciate you making this blog a small part of your day.
If you are watching a movie or a TV show, you can turn it off or walk out if you are done with it. In the same way, you can just stop reading a book. That doesn’t happen often for me, but I almost stopped reading both of them. Both of them just seemed slow to me.
That being said, it may have seemed slow because of my schedule change. I find myself not reading as many pages a day as I was. When I get home now, I usually go right to bed. If I do stay up and read it is usually a chapter and then I call it a night. So maybe the issue is that “I” was reading slower.
Both stories weren’t bad. They both had satisfying conclusions, one of them was a complete surprise. I thought I would write about them in case one of them (or both) peaked your interest.
The Dictionary of Lost Words
This is a fictional tale woven into historic events. It takes place during the time the Oxford English Dictionary was being compiled.
Here is the Goodreads Synopisis:
In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.
Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.
One of the real people in the book is Dr. James Murray, who was one of the main people responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary. The book goes deep into the process of writing words on slips of paper with definitions and sentences with the word being used. You can see the slips in pigeon holes behind the real Dr. Murray below.
The fictional story of Esme is woven between real events and the historical timeline. I was amazed at how much time it took to put the dictionary together! It wasn’t a bad story, but it just wasn’t my normal read.
The Only Survivors
I was intrigued by the title of this book. I wasn’t sure if it was a mystery or a thriller. It was a story full of secrets.
Here is the Amazon Synopisis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and “master of suspense, Megan Miranda” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl), a thrilling mystery about a group of former classmates who reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of a tragic accident—only to have one of the survivors disappear, casting fear and suspicion on the original tragedy.
Seven hours in the past. Seven days in the present. Seven survivors remaining. Who would you save?
A decade ago, two vans filled with high school seniors on a school service trip crashed into a Tennessee ravine—a tragedy that claimed the lives of multiple classmates and teachers. The nine students who managed to escape the river that night were irrevocably changed. A year later, after one of the survivors dies by suicide on the anniversary of the crash, the rest of them make a pact: to come together each year to commemorate that terrible night.
To keep one another safe. To hold one another accountable. Or both.
Their annual meeting place, a house on the Outer Banks, has long been a refuge. But by the tenth anniversary, Cassidy Bent has worked to distance herself from the tragedy and from the other survivors. She’s changed her mobile number. She’s blocked the others’ email addresses. This year, she is determined to finally break ties once and for all. But on the day of the reunion, she receives a text with an obituary attached: another survivor is gone. Now they are seven—and Cassidy finds herself hurling back toward the group, wild with grief—and suspicion.
Almost immediately, something feels off this year. Cassidy is the first to notice when Amaya, the annual organizer, slips away, overwhelmed. This wouldn’t raise alarm except for the impending storm. Suddenly, they’re facing the threat of closed roads and surging waters…again. Then Amaya stops responding to her phone. After all they’ve been through, she wouldn’t willfully make them worry. Would she?
And—as they promised long ago—each survivor will do whatever he or she can do to save one another. Won’t they?
This book moves between the present and the past and how they all tie in together. As the story progresses, you get bits and pieces of the story and get a sense of the distrust that the survivors have for each other. I found myself suspecting that each of them were hiding things from each other. There were plenty of twists and an ending that was a complete surprise.
I’d love to hear your book thoughts. What are you reading? Did you read either of these? What can you recommend to me?
I just finished listening to the audio version of this book by Jesse Q. Sutanto. I guess this is what folks refer to as a “cozy mystery.” I really don’t know what that means, but I will tell you that I liked it.
As someone who reads a lot of mysteries, this one kept coming up as a suggestion in my Goodreads feed. Before adding it to my “Want to Read” list, I always read some of the reviews. They were mixed, but the thing that sold me on it was that people said that it made them laugh out loud. So I took a chance on it and loved it.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
Put the kettle on, there’s a mystery brewing…
Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?
Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).
But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.
Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.
As I prepared to write this blog, I found out that this book was one that the author’s editor had her rush to write it. They had her put all her other projects on hold and get this book out. According to one review, the book was “sloppily thrown together,” but I never thought that. Another review noticed that the author used a line (or a similar line) twice, which they found annoying. Uh, ok. I never noticed.
I was hooked from the first line of the book:
“Vera Wong was born a rat, but she should have been a rooster-that is according to the characteristics of the signs in the Chinese horoscope!“
I admit to having laughed out loud quite a few times while listening. There were also times where I really felt for some of the characters. Vera certainly is the main character, but the supporting characters were just as important to the story. While there was some predictability to some of the story arcs, I was surprised to find out who the murderer was. I never saw it coming.
I can see the Vera character being one that could easily be a protagonist that could carry a series of stories. Honestly, I hope that is the case. She’s a bit Columbo and a bit Sophia from the Golden Girls. It was a joy to read (listen to).
It’s been a bit since I offered up some thoughts on my recent reads, so I thought I would share a few with you. (The one I am currently reading is very good and will review separately when I finish.)
I really enjoyed this book. I certainly gained some insight into Abraham Lincoln and learned a LOT about Frederick Douglass.
From Goodreads:
The New York Times bestselling author of George Washington’s Secret Six and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates turns to two other heroes of the nation: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
Upon his election as President of the troubled United States, Abraham Lincoln faced a dilemma. He knew it was time for slavery to go, but how fast could the country change without being torn apart?
Many abolitionists wanted Lincoln to move quickly, overturning the founding documents along the way. But Lincoln believed there was a way to extend equality to all while keeping and living up to the Constitution that he loved so much–if only he could buy enough time.
Fortunately for Lincoln, Frederick Douglass agreed with him–or at least did eventually. In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Brian Kilmeade tells the little-known story of how the two men moved from strong disagreement to friendship, uniting over their love for the Constitution and over their surprising commonalities. Both came from destitution. Both were self-educated and self-made men. Both had fought hard for what they believed in. And though Douglass had had the harder fight, one for his very freedom, the two men shared a belief that the American dream was for everyone.
As he did in George Washington’s Secret Six, Kilmeade has transformed this nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out how these two heroes, through their principles and patience, not only changed each other, but made America truly free for all.
The first of two Mitch Albom books I read. These are easy reads and I read both of them in a day. He’s really a fantastic story teller.
From Goodreads:
Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, ten people struggle for survival at sea. Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in. “Thank the Lord we found you,” a passenger says. “I am the Lord,” the man whispers. So begins Mitch Albom’s most beguiling novel yet.
Albom has written of heaven in the celebrated number one bestsellers “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “The First Phone Call from Heaven”. Now, for the first time in his fiction, he ponders what we would do if, after crying out for divine help, God actually appeared before us? A fast-paced, compelling novel that makes you ponder your deepest beliefs, “The Stranger in the Lifeboat suggests that answers to our prayers may be found where we least expect them.”
The second Albom book. This one speaks of time. I’d rate both about the same. They were entertaining and made you think.
From Goodreads:
In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time.
The inventor of the world’s first clock is punished for trying to measure God’s greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.
He returns to our world – now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began – and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.
I saw mixed reviews on this one, and while I thought it was a bit slow to start, I really enjoyed it and how it ended. I listened to the audio book, which was performed by a few people – each main character was voiced by someone. I’m sure that made it much easier for me to follow.
From Goodreads:
A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.
The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.
But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.
And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
Have you read anything you think I’d enjoy? What book have you read recently that was one you couldn’t put down?
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin is a simple and well told story. I found myself not wanting to put it down and read it easily in about two days. It was one that came up as a suggestion and after reading what it was about, I decided to read it. I admit that it became clear where the story was heading early on in the book, but that only made me want to read more.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
A tale of a single night. The story of a lifetime.
If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said and done?
This is the story of Maurice Hannigan, who, over the course of a Saturday night in June, orders five different drinks at the Rainford House Hotel. With each he toasts a person vital to him: his doomed older brother, his troubled sister-in-law, his daughter of fifteen minutes, his son far off in America, and his late, lamented wife. And through these people, the ones who left him behind, he tells the story of his own life, with all its regrets and feuds, loves and triumphs.
Beautifully written, powerfully felt, When All Is Said promises to be the next great Irish novel.
I’m not sure exactly what they mean by “the next great Irish novel,” but I can tell you that it was a very good story. When it was over, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what else happened. I could see where a second book could pick up the story with a secondary character, but it is find exactly how it is.
In a sense, it is a love story – well, five love stories. But as you can probably tell from the synopsis, there are moments of sadness throughout the story. Each of these five people and how they fit into Maurice’s story and how they helped shape his life will bring laughs and tears.
The initial question asked by Goodreads was enough to hook me. It even had me trying to answer that question. Which five people would sum up my life? Who would I toast? Why only five? I am still struggling with the answers to these questions.
You might enjoy it. If you do read it, I’d love to know your thoughts….
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. I’m a mystery guy and this is not a mystery. It is a wonderful novel that I connected to on so many levels. Let me give you the Goodreads synopsis first and then I will explain.
From Goodreads
Still reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Jess is about to do the hardest thing she’s ever done: empty her childhood home so that it can be sold. As she sorts through a lifetime of memories, everything comes to a halt when she comes across something she just can’t part with: an old set of encyclopedias. To the world, the books are outdated and ready to be recycled. To Jess, they represent love and the future that her mother always wanted her to have.
In the process of finding the books a new home, Jess discovers an unusual archive of letters, photographs, and curious housed in a warehouse and known as the Museum of Ordinary People. Irresistibly drawn, she becomes the museum’s unofficial custodian, along with the warehouse’s mysterious owner. As they delve into the history of objects in their care, they not only unravel heart-stirring stories that span generations and continents, but also unearth long-buried secrets that lie closer to home.
Inspired by an abandoned box of mementos, The Museum of Ordinary People is a poignant novel about memory and loss, the things we leave behind, and the future we create for ourselves.
I could totally relate to the grief felt by the main character in losing her mother. As she was cleaning out her mother’s house and shares her thoughts about things to keep and things to discard, you can tell just how difficult a task it is for her. The memories that each of the various items invoke are similar to what I feel with many things I have at my home from loved ones who have passed away.
While I don’t consider myself a hoarder like the ones you see on TV, I do tend to keep a lot of things. They are probably things that mean nothing to anyone but me. Physical reminders of a special day, special memory or a special person. As I read this book, there were so many instances where I felt exactly like the main character about an item. I have things at home that are absurd to others: a nickel plated railroad spike, a chipped ceramic baseball glove, a never used Zippo lighter, and many other small things. Each item holds some special connection for me.
In the book, the “museum” is filled with things an old wedding dress, a worn out work bench, a tin filled with letters, a suitcase filled with letters and old birthday cards, and other items that were brought there by people hoping that the items would be cared for. I have to admit that I found myself wondering what “item” of mine I’d want to have placed in this “museum.” I’m still thinking about that. What would represent you?
I found myself really wrapped up in the story. I connected with the characters and there were plenty of surprises along the way. Toward the end, one of those surprises made me say, “No way!” out loud. I enjoyed it a lot, maybe you will, too.
Let me say right up front that this book is not one that I would have normally picked up to read. I tend to stick with mysteries, true crime, biographies, and historical fiction and non-fiction. There were two reasons that I decided to add this to my “to read” list. First, it was set in Italy – more on that in just a minute. Second, it was about a woman who had lost her mother.
I’m a member of Goodreads and I often check out their suggestions and look at what my friends are reading as well. This book came up more than once and I read a bit about it before adding it to my list.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.
And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.
This was the selling point for me. My mother passed away in 2006.
So many things have transpired since then. I could always count on her to listen to me when I needed to talk. When someone you love passes away, you begin to live life always asking the “What if” questions.
For one brief moment, I put myself in the place of the main character of the story (Katy). What would it be like to run into my mother – and see her at such a young age? I had to read this story to see just how it all played out.
At one point in the story, Katy says this about her mother, “She made me in her image, but she forgot the most important part. She forgot that one day she’d leave, that she already had, and then I’d be left with nothing. When you’re just a reflection, what happens when the image vanishes?” Powerful thought.
I was completely unfamiliar with the town of Positano, where the book takes place. A brief Google search led me to some very beautiful and amazing photos.
I cannot even imagine just how beautiful this place is in person.
I was worried that this book might be one of those “romance” novels. Thankfully, it was not. It was a decent story and I felt that it had a decent conclusion. It was not a difficult read, and the author does an amazing job describing some of the sights of Italy.
As I read the book, there were little nuggets that one could sock away in a book of “life quotes.”
For example:
“There is more to life than just continuing to do what we know. What got you here won’t get you there.”
“Every day the world is born again. Every day the sun rises. It is a miracle, I think. A simple, everyday miracle. Life.”
“History, memory is by definition fiction. Once an event is no longer present, but remembered, it is narrative. And we can choose the narratives we tell—about our own lives, our own stories, our own relationships. We can choose the chapters we give meaning.”
“Nature has so much power if we just pay attention.”
“One of life’s most important challenges is determining what to hold on to and what to let go of. Do not be fooled into believing that you do not know which is which. Follow the feeling, follow it all the way home.”
All in all, I enjoyed this book. I’m not sure I would have read it, had I not read the synopsis and felt a bit of a connection to it. However, it was a good read and you might find it worth reading, too.
I just finished Graham Moore’s The Sherlockian. I don’t recall if I stumbled on it because of other Sherlock Holmes themed books I have read or if it was something I saw on Goodreads. I picked it up Friday at the library and found it hard to put down.
Here is a synopsis from Goodreads:
In December 1893, Sherlock Holmes-adoring Londoners eagerly opened their Strand magazines, anticipating the detective’s next adventure, only to find the unthinkable: his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had killed their hero off. London spiraled into mourning — crowds sported black armbands in grief — and railed against Conan Doyle as his assassin.
Then in 1901, just as abruptly as Conan Doyle had “murdered” Holmes in “The Final Problem,” he resurrected him. Though the writer kept detailed diaries of his days and work, Conan Doyle never explained this sudden change of heart. After his death, one of his journals from the interim period was discovered to be missing, and in the decades since, has never been found.
Or has it?
When literary researcher Harold White is inducted into the preeminent Sherlock Holmes enthusiast society, The Baker Street Irregulars, he never imagines he’s about to be thrust onto the hunt for the holy grail of Holmes-ophiles: the missing diary. But when the world’s leading Doylean scholar is found murdered in his hotel room, it is Harold – using wisdom and methods gleaned from countless detective stories – who takes up the search, both for the diary and for the killer.
In the acknowledgements of the book, the author states that the book is loosely based on real events. Many characters in the story are real (Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde) while others are compilations, in a sense of many people.
What I really enjoyed about the story is the back and forth from present day to Doyle’s England. The intertwining of the past and present really made the book a fun read.
I had no idea that Bram Stoker (who wrote Dracula) and Arthur Conan Doyle were friends in real life! I did know that Doyle hated his Sherlock Holmes character so much that he killed him off.
Whether you are a Sherlock Holmes fan or just love a good mystery, I think you’ll enjoy The Sherlockian.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 