Beachcombing at Miramar or The Narcissist's Lament

2/5 stars simply because there is the occasional sentence that doesn't make me want to tear my hair out.

Maudlin, self-involved whining disguised as wisdom.  Richard Bode apparently spent his time passing judgment on other people's marriages, jobs, beliefs, and hobbies.  Bode comes across as an insufferable man-child who believed anything that cramps his style is evil and he is justified in everything hurtful he does to other people because the only thing that matters is pursuing your own happiness, regardless of the consequences.  Everyone should do whatever they want, no matter the effect on others.  #noragretsnomesayin

UNLESS you're the guy with the surfboard on his car who passed Bode on the road way too aggressively.  Upon that man he quietly wishes death and destruction.  And by quietly, I mean devotes multiple paragraphs to him in a published book.  But surfboard jerk is just living his truth, man!  He's just living out what Bode preaches.  It's all about ME.  I don't want to have to work but I'm so worried about paying my bills.  I'm so lonely, but I gave up my marriage and moved away from my family.  Why am I so unhappy?  I want a woman, but not one who is human in any way.  I just want one who fishes and adores me and doesn't speak until spoken to.  Like Gauguin's girlfriend.

Yes, as if I hadn't already figured out how empty Bode's enlightened philosophies were, I found an astounding passage in chapter 14 about Tehamana*, Gauguin's Tahitian mistress.  Bode praised her to the skies because she was so quiet and asked absolutely nothing of the artist other than to wait upon him.  This is in sharp contrast to Gauguin's wife and the mother of his children, whom he left on another continent.  She was inexplicably bitter towards him.  Gag me with a seashell.

So Bode during the course of the book, goes about passing judgment on all he sees or has seen and pretending this was how he would find himself.  Funny place to look.  He never seemed to realize that criticizing others is perhaps not the way to finding inner peace.  Actual quotation: " I can indulge in endless prattle about my friends and neighbors, dissipating my life's energy a little at a time."  And boy, can he!  Oh wait, he included this in a list of things he doesn't do.  Did this dude even read his own book?

*If Wikipedia is to be believed, Tehamana was 13 when Gauguin "married" her and was one of three temporary wives he had during his idyll, but that's a whole different issue.  Bode's my problem today.

 

The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning

The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning by PJ Fitzsimmons is stuffed with Holiday goodness and British charm.  From the drunk lolling about in the pub to the local policeman, each character is full of hidden depth and the occasional dark secret, each of which contributes to this festive murder mystery set in snowy dairy country.

Whose footprints are those?  Who is hiding what?  And why did Major Flaps Fleming appear to his friends hours after his murder?  Even more shockingly, why did he pay off his bar tab?

Prepare to be stumped as you watch the ever witty Anty Boisjoly and a couple of familiar faces from The Case of the Canterfell Codicil try to solve the case.  Will our favorite gadabout find the real killer before Anty's dear Aunt Azalea Boisjoly winds up behind bars for a murder she (probably) didn't commit?

Grab a mug of mulled wine, prop your feet up in front of the fire, and sit back for a good time with Anty and his Aunty, a very mysterious murder, and a surprisingly poignant ending.  What more could you ask for?

Long live Hildy.

I received an advance copy for free from BookSirens and I am reviewing it voluntarily.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

As a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, I am a sucker for things set here.  Most of us are.  We hoot and shout during Wagon Wheel, we at least attempt to tackle Outlander because in like season 37 they come to North Carolina or some bizarre representation thereof, we are flattered (if confused) by Where the Crawdads Sing and its use of our state's geography (who knew quick shopping trips from the beach to Asheville were so common?!), we will fight you over Charles Frazier.

So it's no surprise that when I found out (directly from the author herself) that Therese Anne Fowler was coming out with a book set in a fictionalized version of a local neighborhood, I was very interested.  Therese is always excessively kind in coming to our book club meetings and so we've snagged her again for a Zoom meeting later this year where we'll discuss A Good Neighborhood, the third of her books that we've read.  And we don't just keep reading them because we can have a brush with celebrity afterwards.  We read them because they're freaking good.

Her writing is believable, even when addressing strange topics.  And the characters are complete people with realistic motives and feelings.  It's hard for me to not relate to a book where a character says, "I might could."

A Good Neighborhood does not disappoint.  It hurts and bewilders, and at times frustrates.  But it's a good book with a lot to say and a unique way of saying it.  Like a Greek chorus, a third-person semi-omniscient narrator representing the residents of the neighborhood guides us through this story.  We enter the minds of all the relevant characters and find the sources of misunderstandings and resentments.

This story could easily take place in many different places in this country, but I recognized so many of the things that form our character here.  There is the tension of a neighborhood changing from a modest, quiet place to one now sprouting mini-mansions filled with the nouveau riche while still housing the long-established residents.  There is also the tension between races in a world quickly changing but not always keeping up with itself.

~~~

There is one typo I noticed in the ebook.

A Perfect Likeness

 "Love isn't binary. People say you fall out of love like you might fall out of bed. Love is different every day. Like a tree, it can bloom and flourish or it can die over the course of a long winter."

Love makes people do strange, terrible, and wonderful things. And love isn't always directed where we expect it.

This was a refreshing change to my reading lately. A Perfect Likeness is easy to read, mysterious, and pretty well written.

I thought for sure I knew what was going on but I turned out to be wrong, which was nice. Figuring out the solution at the beginning of a thriller is not my idea of a good time.

Definitely check this book out if you want a good weekend read. It kept me guessing page after page.

There are a few plot holes but I can't really hold that against Renee Kira because I thoroughly enjoyed the read. And I'll let the confusion over homonyms slide as well since she is far from the only author to suffer from the problem. Since the book is already out, I guess I can say that specifically the word "bare" is used when it should be "bear" more than once. It's something I can't understand proofreaders not catching before publication but like I said, I see that kind of thing a lot.

I received a free ebook for review through Book Sirens.

Why I Stayed by Gayle Haggard

I was perusing books on the Tyndale Publishing site when I found this one.  There were Reader Reward points burning a hole in my pocket and Why I Stayed by Gayle Haggard caught my eye.  I vaguely remembered the scandal: mega preacher caught in homosexual, drug fueled affair.  Or something like that.

So why did his wife stay with him?  What did she go through and what could she teach us?

Like a lot of people, when I hear that a spiritual leader has "fallen" I dismiss them.  They must have turned their back on their faith.  How else could they have screwed up so badly?  And for some of them that is probably true.  But what I forget when passing those judgments is that people are weak.  People are...human.

Gayle doesn't go into much detail about what Ted actually did and that's not really the point of this book anyway.  She stresses that she knows the full truth and that the stories in the press were exaggerated.

This book and the Haggards' experiences were really eye opening for me.  If the events are true, and I do tend to believe Gayle's representation of what they went through, then this is the story of a church's failure.

Christianity is about love and forgiveness.  And despite the fact that Ted was evidently repentant, apologetic, and willing to make amends as much as possible, the church he founded turned him out.  Not the congregation, necessarily, but definitely the church leadership and their council of "Restorers".  The Restorers were well respected men from various churches who were supposed to guide the Haggards during a time of prayer, therapy, and reflection.  The ultimate goal was to "restore" them to the church.  But there was never any progress.  Ted and Gayle were directed to avoid all contact with their friends from church and had their every move and even their counseling sessions monitored by the Restorers.

New Life Church, their home for so many years, was not accessible to them anymore.  They were even forced to move out of state for a time.  All these stipulations were laid out in contracts they had to sign if they were to have any hope of being allowed back at the church, even just as congregants.

I don't know anything about Gayle other than what I read in this book, but she seems like a very kind woman who went through a terrible experience.  She has survived and found a new strength in her improved marriage and tight knit family.  Her story is heartbreaking at times but her depth of faith and love is impressive.  She (with the help of Angela Hunt) tells her story without pulling any punches regarding the hurt and disappointment experienced at the hands of the former friends who were so heartless or simply unresponsive during the scandal and the aftermath.  But she never once comes across as bitter or judgmental.

Why she stayed is clear early on and the bulk of the book is really the story of what they experienced as a couple during the years following Ted privately renouncing his path of sin and the scandal becoming public.

If you're curious, she stayed because
1) she loves her husband
2) Christianity requires us to forgive those who hurt us and try to help those who are struggling
3) and most importantly, her husband did everything he could to prove to her she could trust him again including apologies, repentance, providing any details she asked for, and attending hours of counseling and therapy to mend their relationship and help him understand why he found himself making such hurtful choices that went against the life he'd chosen.

Not everyone would agree with Gayle's decision to stay but hearing how she navigated the crisis and the myriad experiences she had with family, friends, and complete strangers who retreated or approached her with support during that time is terribly interesting and ultimately uplifting.

Books and Minimalism

I'm tired of stuff.

There is a global battle against clutter and I'm a willing participant.  Over the past couple of years I've donated, thrown away, and given away more things than some people own.  The number probably approaches 10,000.

One thing my younger self couldn't imagine parting with was books.  But we don't live in a house with a library or extra bedrooms.  We live in a cozy 830 square foot house that contains one bookshelf.  And I'm pretty happy about that arrangement.  I have the advantage of indulgent parents who let me keep things in my old bedroom at their house, but I'm even purging things from there.  So the former book hoarder is now ridding herself of books left and right.

If it's a book I don't love or can easily replace I get rid of it once I've read it.  My friends and coworkers are probably tired by this point of me giving them things, but that's their problem.  Every time I finish a book and pass it along it makes a little more space in my life.  And I love that.

The Snow Whale by John Minichillo: The Whiteness of the Whale

The Whiteness of the Whale! One of the biggest symbols in Moby Dick is represented in this modern retelling in more ways than you can shake a harpoon at. We get white houses, white snow, white ice, and most of all, white people.

Our protagonist is John Jacobs, (white guy) who discovers through a DNA test that he is part Inuit. He leads a less than satisfying life with a pretty sucky job and a wife who doesn't get him or even attempt to do so. It's a bit of a damp, drizzly November in his soul. So in an effort to balance his existence, Jacobs sets off for Alaska to join in a whale hunt with his distant cousins. We get some glimpses of Jessica's shallow life at home while Jacobs is off reclaiming his heritage, but for the most part we follow Jacobs, Q, and Akmaaq as they prepare for the upcoming whale hunt.

Q is a black teenager Jacobs picks up along the way who plans to film a documentary in the frozen North and thereby win a bunch of awards. Akmaaq is the cranky and sometimes mysterious Inupiat who leads the motley crew of hunters. As their names imply, Q is a stand in for Queequeg and towards the end, Pip; Akmaaq is a less crazed and dangerous version of Ahab.

I jumped all over the chance to read this book because I loves me some Melville, but the similarities with Moby Dick are so infrequent and so tenuous that they really don't have much in common.

The writing is insightful and the story is pretty interesting, so whether or not you have read the greatest American novel, you may enjoy Minichillo's take on it.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

Rating out of 5 stars: 3 1/2