Finished: Station Eleven (St. John Mandel) A super good book about a modern day group of Canadians who are only a handful of the survivors left after a flu pandemic wipes out 99.9% of the world population. With no families, no electricity, no gasoline, no Internet, no phones, no medicine, etc., people are forced to survive in what rapidly becomes a hostile environment in most places. The story begins with the death by heart attack of 51 year old famous actor Arthur Leander as he performs the title role of King Lear on stage in Toronto. After his quick death, it suddenly becomes apparent that people are dying all over the word within 48 hours of contracting the deadly Georgian Flu. Several people related to Arthur survive, and we see their stories all come together. Kirsten, an eight year old actress in the company, is the only one in her family to survive and twenty years later she is part of a traveling acting and symphony troupe. She carries with her few memories of her life before "Year 1"...but she remembers Arthur, as she watched him die on stage that night...and one of her few possessions is the set of Dr. Eleven comic books he gives her that were written and illustrated by his first ex-wife, Miranda. Jeevan, the young man who hops up from the first row of the audience and tries to perform CPR on Arthur, also survives after getting a phone call from his best friend, who is an ER physician, telling him to leave town because people are dying all around him. Instead, Jeevan gathers all the food and water he can and locks himself in the high rise apartment of his paraplegic brother, Frank. After nearly two months, figuring it's safe to venture out, Frank makes Jeevan promise to go and see what civilization is out there, and then Frank takes his own life. Arthur's best friend since college, Clark, miraculously gets on an airplane in New York headed for Toronto on which no one has been infected by the virus. Midway through the flight, which Clark has taken to get to Arthur's planned funeral, the flight is diverted to Severn City in Canada where that group of people ends up making a new home and community out of the uninfected airport for the next twenty years. Also on that flight...Arthur's second ex-wife, Elizabeth, and his eight year old son, Tyler. Tyler and his mother rely on just the bible and Tyler's copies of the same Dr. Eleven comic books for guiding their lives. They believe they have been spared by God because they are good. They leave the airport community after two years, and by the twentieth year, Tyler has become this religious cult leader known as the Prophet, who uses violence to get his way and takes young pre-teen girls as his brides. :-( Eventually, Kirsten and the Prophet cross paths and have a confrontation that ends in the death of the Prophet, thank goodness...but Kirsten can't believe it when she finds a page from the Dr. Eleven comic books series in his possession. Kirsten and her troupe ends up spending five weeks at the Severn City airport community where she meets Clark and they realize their connections to each other via Arthur. Most importantly, Clark, now 71, takes Kirsten up to the air traffic control tower and shows her something amazing through a telescope. There is a small city in the north that appears to have street lights on! Someone has figured out electricity. This gives them all hope and Kirsten and the traveling troupe head there next to explore. Kirsten leaves one of her Dr. Eleven comic books at the airport with Clark where he has established a museum of modern items that are now obsolete...iphones, credit cards, stiletto heels, car engines, rare newspapers, etc. I had hoped that Jeevan would also end up at Severn City, but he does have a happy ending. After walking a hundred miles when he started off on his journey, he met with a different group of people and he is now married with two children...and he's considered to be the closest thing to a doctor for miles around. He had decided after trying to save Arthur all those years ago to become a paramedic. And Arthur's first wife, Miranda, does not survive the pandemic, but each time we see her story in flashback we are treated to how the story of Dr. Eleven, who lives on Station Eleven with his dog Luli evolves. Anyway....I was surprised at how drawn in I was by this book! I spent all day reading it. A really scary, eerie idea...but lots of food for thought!

Finished: A Thousand Acres (Smiley) Pulitzer Prize winner about a rigid, unbearable Iowa farmer in the early 1970's who decides to divide his farm up between his three daughters ala King Lear. When the youngest daughter balks at the idea, she is immediately cut out of the discussion and the farm is divided up between the two remaining daughters and their husbands. In a fascinating story that I couldn't put down, their lives go downhill immediately. The overbearing father treats them all like they've stolen the farm from him, and lets the surrounding community think so as well. He acts so crazy that he even runs out into a dangerous storm in the night and then has a nasty confrontation with his daughters. He and his equally manipulative neighbor and best friend, who has two sons, are constantly trying to one up each other and succeed in basically ruining their grown children's lives. Both mothers have long since been dead, leaving the farm kids to have been raised in the tough environment with only their fathers. This book is still swirling around inside of me, so I'm not going to try and lay the plot line all out. I just can't believe how things deteriorate and how everyone turns against the daughters and their husbands when it was the father's crazy (drunken) idea in the first place to "gift" them with the farm. Of course, the youngest daughter, who had the initial reservations, ends up helping her father with a lawsuit to try and win the farm back, alienating herself from the sisters who practically raised her, but they don't succeed. And, the oldest son of the neighbor comes back home after being gone for fourteen years only to have both of the father's daughters fall for him with various degrees of heartbreak, happiness and marriage degradation. And, the huge topper is that we find out the father sexually abused the two oldest daughters from the time they were teenagers until the time they left the house to be married. Oh, and the daughters are Ginny, Rose and Caroline....much like Lear's own Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. And, the father is Larry. Hmmm.....I can't say that the story mirrors King Lear, but the tragedy of the story certainly does. :-( A book with heart wrenching, exceptional writing, with many deep, resounding, familiar thoughts! I've really loved all the books I've read by Jane Smiley.

Finished: In Paradise (Matthiessen) Very intense book about a group of people from various countries and religions who go on a five day retreat to Auschwitz in 1996. Catholics, Muslims, Jewish, Protestants, Polish, Americans, British, French, Germans...and the American professor and poet, Clements Olin all converge upon Auschwitz to meet with each other, this group of people who will walk the grounds of Auschwitz and Birkenau. They meet for devotionals and silent prayer groups. They walk the paths that the Jewish prisoners walked. They witness the horrific crematoriums, the bunk houses, the railroad platforms...all with their own reasons for being there. The Jewish people in attendance resent the presence of the two Catholic nuns and two priests. They feel strongly that the Catholic church did nothing to prevent the devastation of the Jews being sent to the prison camps, and in some cases even supplied lists of Jewish citizens to the Nazis. There are bitter words between many...Germans feeling guilty about their ancestors, Poles feeling resentful, Catholics feeling remorse, etc. The Jewish man who was actually a survivor of the camp, like many survivors before him, just comes "home" because he can and he must be there to never forget. Each person there has their own story that comes out in time about what has compelled them to come. Clements Olin has a story all his own. His father, Alexei, was the son of a Polish baron whose parents forced him to leave the military and accompany them to America right before the entitled and educated members of Polish society began to be imprisoned. Alexei felt extremely guilty leaving his country and more importantly leaving behind a young, pregnant school teacher who he'd fallen in love with, Emi. Emi had insisted that he go because she didn't want to leave her own family. In the years during and after the war in America, Alexei mourned for Emi, but never truly went and tried to find her after the war. Having given birth to a son, Clements, and wanting him to be protected, Emi had allowed her baby to be wrenched from her arms and taken to an embassy, and then given to Alexei's family. So...why if they found and kept the baby could they not bring Emi along too? I suppose she refused to go. After being raised in a British private school at a young age, Clements was finally brought to live with his family in America. They were clearly snobs, by his own accounting. As he grew up, all he had of his mother was a single picture of her hanging out a window waving in the Polish town where he was born. Armed with this picture and unsure of his own motives, Clements finally admits to himself that he's there at Auschwitz to try and find out about his mother and see if, as he fears, she was actually Jewish and sent to the camp. He does find this out with the help of some of the very old town folks. So...Clements, who has been brought up as a Christian, finds out that he is actually half Jewish. It all seems to make sense to him then...the reason that his family was always so closed mouthed about his mother....they must have known! They knew that he had Jewish blood and rather than embarrass the family by admitting the taint, they never even investigated to see what had become of his mother. Even his own father, who had professed to love his mother, never tried. Of course, his father had committed suicide at a fairly young age, so perhaps the guilt got to him. Anyway...Clements stands up before the group on the last evening they are there and admits what he's found...that he's part Jewish. He is met with various reactions...but most of all, he's met with his own reaction, which is that of accepting his heritage rather than hiding like his family would have had him do. Another important aspect of the story is that Clements becomes incredibly drawn to Sister Catherine, a novice nun who is struggling, but determined to stay in her faith. She is drawn to Clements as well, but in the end, neither does anything to act on their feelings and they go their separate ways. The entire book was just one powerful, but shattering moment after another. The immensity of standing inside Auschwitz affected everyone almost indescribable by words. This is something I also long to do, and I can't tell the reason why either...just a need to show my respect maybe? And my deep regret. The author tackles such issues as no human being innocent of the atrocity of the death camps...of the horrific murder of an entire group of people. I don't know...it might have gone a bit deep for me...but in all, the book was a good one! I'm always left a bit depressed after reading the books about the Holocaust nightmare, though, which is why I space them out...because I must read them.

Finished: Mr. Mercedes (King) Whether it's a favorite book or not, Stephen King always keeps me turning those pages! In this story a deranged killer, with his own horrific childhood, steals a Mercedes and intentionally mows down a group of pedestrians waiting in line for a job fair. Nearly a year later, the detective who could never solve the case, Bill Hodges, has retired and sits in his apartment in a depression and nearly suicidal. Enter the killer, who creepily seems to know Hodges' every move. He sends the detective a letter, thinking he'll push Hodges right over the edge to commit suicide. He delights in the thought of being responsible for one more death. After all, he had done it before with the rich woman who owned the Mercedes he stole. The police had hounded the woman about leaving her key in the car, thus enabling the maniac to kill all those people. The killer took it further and sent her a manipulative letter as well, convincing her to eventually take her own life. Rather than push Hodges deeper into the suicidal hole, though, the letter actually gives the retired detective a new spark! With the help of his near genius, college bound lawn boy, Jerome...and the unlikely help of Holly, the fairly whackadoodle niece of the deceased rich woman, Hodges finally nabs the killer. Much suspense and another tragedy ensues before they actually catch him. Of course....by the end of the book, even though the killer was put in a coma...he awakens. Sequel perhaps? :-)

Finished: The War of the Worlds (Wells) I finally read The War of the Worlds after hearing so much about it all my life, and I was a bit underwhelmed...until I realized it was written in the late 1800's and that the action took place in London not too long after that time period. For that, I will give the author good marks on the sheer far-reaching, yet possibly plausible wonderings of his imagination! The story is simple...Mars sends "cylinders" full of Martians and their advanced technology to earth to wipe out humankind and take over the planet. It seems their own planet is dying, or that's the assumption of the narrator anyway, and they need a new place to live. The descriptions of the Martians themselves and then their towering machines they drive and shoot laser beams from are vivid and scary. And, the horrific destruction of entire towns and burning of people is awful. The narrator, who fancies himself the lone survivor anywhere near London, and possibly the world, is then ecstatic to come out of his hiding place and find out that the Martians have all died! Presumably, they got to Earth and encountered all our bacteria (probably while sucking down all the human blood) and died rather rapidly, having not been used to having any bacteria on Mars. However, we find out in the epilogue that when they are autopsied, no bacteria is discovered in any of their bodies. Queue creepy music doo-doo doo-doo, doo-doo doo-doo! Anyway, I'm glad the book was short, since it's really not my cup of tea...but glad I've finally read it! :-)

Finished: The Fiery Cross (Gabaldon) The continuation of the story of Jamie and Claire as they make their life on Fraser's Ridge in America from 1770 - 1772. While I love Jamie and Claire, this book moves along too slowly for me. We get alot of Roger and Bree, but almost too much. Various misadventures happen...like Jamie's near death from a poisonous snake bite, and pirate Steven Bonnett's attempt to kidnap Bree and her baby son, Jem, and the shooting of Bonnett by Bree, and the attack on Jocasta and Duncan by assailants looking for the old French gold, etc. etc. Roger survives a hanging, but nearly loses his voice in the process. And, the citizens of America are banding together and starting to rise up against British rule in various ways. Oh, and Ian returns to the Ridge after living for two years as an Indian with the Mohawks...and he's got Rollo in tow. Everyone is so happy to see him, and he's definitely one of my favorite characters. Anyway...the book is far too detailed at some points which encourages lots of skimming, which I hate to do when Jamie and Claire are involved. They're getting older now, as Jamie hits 50 and beyond...but their love will last the ages it would seem. :-)

Finished: The Big Sleep (Chandler) Considered one of the best of the private eye genre, though no where near my favorite genre, The Big Sleep held my attention as I read through the crisp prose and dialogue with the deep, monotonous, baritone voice of Philip Marlowe in my head. :-) I liked the opening paragraph, and the writing, though the story itself was a little predictable. Millionaire General Sternwood hires Marlowe to find out who's blackmailing his whackadoodle youngest daughter, Carmen. In the process, Marlowe gets himself in deeper than he thought as the story becomes less about blackmail and more about the possible murder of the missing husband of the oldest Sternwood daughter, Vivian. Of course, Marlowe comes out on the other side all right, and in the process, maintains his regard for the General, while gaining the respect of the General as well. It's hard to tell whether Marlowe falls a bit for Vivian, but he's awfully smooth and swell with the women. :-) In all, I'm glad I finally read this one, but I probably won't be actively looking for more private eye books to read. Here's a snippet of the writing that I did enjoy though....the opening paragraph:

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.

I just loved that, lol. :-)

Finished: Letters of Two Brides (de Balzac) Another fascinating piece of Honore de Balzac's collection of novels on French life, La Comedie Humaine. This one was the tail of two extremely close best friends who leave a convent at the same time when they're 18, only to take two different paths. The entire book is written in the form of letters back and forth, mainly between the two young ladies as they both embark on marriages for different reasons. Renee comes home and is immediately married into an arranged marriage, but by her own consent. She marries Louis, a French soldier who had been brutalized in the war and has come home a mere shell of himself. Rather than marrying for love, Renee marries for what she sees could be a virtuous future where their caring and respect will grow for each other as they remain on the country estate and raise a family. Her best friend Louise chastises her through her letters...complaining that Renee is settling rather than doing as they both promised by going out and finding love through adventure and experience. Needless to say...that's what Louise does. She goes immediately into Paris society with her wealthy family, but is bored with all the good-looking young men who think more of themselves than the women they pursue. It's not until Louise is taking Spanish lessons from Felipe, a 37 year old, "ugly" man that she falls in love with the person inside the man, rather than the outside cover. She also realizes that the man worships her and while she reels him in, she insists that he be her slave in love. They do marry, but Renee chastises her friend as well, telling her she has married not for true love, but for how much this man loves and worships her. She feels this will eventually lead Felipe to feeling so emasculated that he will die broken-hearted. What no one knows is that Felipe is a former Spanish duke who has been exiled from his country after being defeated in a revolution. In other words...he's super rich and is able to keep Louise in the lifestyle to which she's become accustomed. Renee's husband blossoms under her caring and as they have children, three in all, both he and their love for each other strengthens. Renee and Louise continue to write, but sometimes less often as Renee is busy with her children and Louise is busy traveling around with Felipe. Louise actually longs for a child of her own after a few years, but she is never blessed. Suddenly one day Felipe dies. It is not explained how, but implied that he finally exhausted his ability to use his entire soul worshiping Louise. Renee rushes to Louise's aid, and then their lives get back to what they were. Louise has her third child and Renee, now 27, falls in love with Gaston, a 23 year old poet...a poet as poor as dirt. However, he worships her as well and they marry. Louise has a chateau built where she and Gaston can live, never to be disturbed by outside influences...or to even go into Paris, as she used to love to do. Louise is jealous and worried that Gaston might fall for a younger woman. Again, she's unable to conceive a child and so it very distraught. One day she catches Gaston in a lie and sees that he's been to Paris without her. She follows him the next time he goes and sees him with a rather unattractive woman...but a woman that goes by his last name! And, a woman with two little boys by her side that look just like Gaston! Feeling that her love and life is over, she writes to Renee to tell her that she will soon die from a broken heart. Renee rushes to her side again, only to meet Gaston first and find out that Gaston was trying to take care of his brother's widow and her children without burdening Louise and having her think he needed her money! Louise is thrilled to hear this news, but it's too late. She had worked herself into a frenzy and gone out several nights in a row to lay by the cool, wet lake, thus bringing on a bad case of consumption. Louise does die with both Gaston and Renee by her side. The End. :-( Though de Balzac can go into some pretty detailed philosophical opinions, this time about motherhood, and about what circumstances make a better marriage, the book kept me reading as I was anxious to see a happy ending for everyone. I really wanted Louise to finally have a child. Instead...the story ended in tragedy. Ce la vie!

Finished: Drums of Autumn (Gabaldon) Finally read the next book in the Outlander series, which has Jamie and Claire shipwrecked in the American colonies and making their home there...though I do miss the major character of  "Scotland" now. They've got Jamie's nephew, young Ian, there with them as they establish their home on Fraser's Ridge in North Carolina. They also meet the aging and blind Jocasta Campbell, who is the sister of Dougal and Collum McKenzie, as well as the sister of Jamie's mother. She's thrilled when Jamie shows up at her plantation and wants to immediately have him take over and be her heir. Neither Claire or Jamie are thrilled with the idea of owning slaves though, and so they nicely decline the offer and set off to build a home in the mountains. They establish a friendly relationship with the local Native American tribe, and Ian in particular spends alot of time with the tribe hunting, fishing, etc. Oh, and Ian has a really cool part wolf dog named Rollo. I can't help but think of the direwolves in Game of Thrones, and now I wonder which series was written first? hmmm, I'll have to check that out. (P.S. Outlander was published in 1991 and Game of  Thrones in 1996, so there ya go.) Anyway, back in the modern times, Jamie and Claire's daughter, Brianna, has fallen in love with Roger, and he with her. However, they are maintaining a long distance relationship, she in Boston and he at Oxford. When Roger finds an ancient newspaper article that shows Claire and Jamie will die in a fire in January of 1776 on Fraser's Ridge, he destroys it and doesn't tell Brianna. Of course, Brianna, who is doing her own research into her parents' history, finds the same article and then goes through the stones in Scotland, back in time, hoping to find her parents and warn them. This is exactly what Roger was afraid she would do, and when he finds out, he follows her through the stones. Brianna meets Jenny, Ian and their brood at Lallybroch and begins to love being a part of this family she's never known. Both Brianna and Roger take separate ships to America and have their various adventures, or misadventures. Eventually, after landing a few weeks apart, they meet up and while each is angry at first, they make up, declare their love and finally consummate their relationship. Then, Brianna finds out that Roger already knew about her parents and kept it from her and they have a huge fight which causes a lengthy separation that neither saw coming. Brianna is raped by Stephen Bonnett, the same pirate who Roger came across the sea with...AND...the same pirate that Jamie had helped escape from a hanging earlier in the book....AND...the same pirate that then subsequently robbed Jamie and Claire of the three precious jewels, their only source of income, that they had brought with them from Jamaica. Needless to say, later in the book when Jamie finds out that he helped save a man who raped his daughter, the guilt pours upon his shoulders. I don't know about this obsession Diana Gabaldon has with rape, but it's very disturbing to have seen three innocent, good people (Jamie, Mary and now Brianna) brutally raped in her books. One of the most heartwarming scenes in the book is when Brianna and Jamie finally meet! He's never laid eyes on his daughter and they form an instant bond. Of course, they also clash stubborn heads quite a bit since they are just alike! Another great scene is when Jamie takes Brianna home to Fraser's Ridge to see Claire, the mother she never thought she'd see again. The mother and daughter reunion is very touching! And, of course, it ends up that Brianna is pregnant! She's pretty certain that Stephen Bonnett is the father, since he raped her two days after her sex with Roger, during which, she tells her mother that to aid against pregnancy, Roger had "withdrawn" at the end. After having a bit of good family time with Jamie, Claire, Brianna and her cousin, Ian, the stress hits the fan when Jamie finds out Brianna is pregnant and her young maid who sailed with her across the ocean, Lizzie, erroneously informs Jamie and Ian that the man who raped Brianna was "McKenzie". Of course, Roger has taken the name Roger McKenzie for his American crossing, and not Roger Wakefield. However, Brianna has told her parents to be on the lookout for Roger Wakefield. After their huge fight, she still feels like Roger will show up there for her any day! And, show up he does, but he's recognized by Lizzie, who only saw them fight and she tells Jamie and Ian that McKenzie is here. Thinking he's the man who raped their daughter, and  not knowing he's actually Roger, Jamie and Ian beat him senseless and then give him to a less friendly Indian tribe!! Yikes! Anyway....there are so many details in the book that it would take forever to write it all down. When the despondent Brianna sketches a picture of Roger one day, Jamie and Ian go white and realize the man they gave to the Indians was Roger! The whole story about the rape and misunderstanding comes out and Jamie, Claire and Ian set off to find Roger, leaving the now six months pregnant Brianna at River Run with her Aunt Jocasta. Oh, and the lovely Lord John Grey shows up twice in the books...once just to see Jamie and Claire, but with his 12 year old stepson William in tow...the William who is really Jamie's son! And, he shows up again at River Run to keep Brianna company while her family is off hunting for Roger. Jamie, Claire and Ian DO find Roger, a prisoner/lackey of the Mohawk tribe. Jamie strikes a bargain to trade Roger for a bunch of the liquor he has distilled, but they want more. A man for a man...so before Jamie can offer himself up, Ian has beat him to the punch and is already painted, shaved and about to be baptized with an Indian name. He's 17 now, and actually fallen for one of the tribe girls and is so used to the Indian ways that he insists to his uncle that he'll be fine! With no other choice, really, Jamie, Claire and Roger head back to Brianna. This book leaves off with Roger and Brianna about to be married, while the baby, little Jemmy (Jeremiah) has become the light of all their lives. Well...except for Roger's, since he knows that the baby is most likely not his. He loves Brianna though, and vows to love Jemmy as well and raise him as if he's his own. I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle the next Outlander book, which is probably also close to 1200 pages...but I'm sure one of these days I'll break it open and continue with the saga!! :-)

Finished: The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro) Another subtle, yet very good, book by Ishiguro about the waning years of service of Stevens, the head butler of Darlington Hall in England. Stevens has spent years being the "perfect" butler, like his father before him, at the expense of his own personal life...even putting his job before his dying father at one point. In his years as head butler, he develops the closest thing to a relationship he's ever known with another household employee, Miss Kenton. It becomes obvious that the two develop deep feelings for each other, but when Stevens doesn't take Miss Kenton's hint and proclaim his feelings, she leaves the estate to get married to someone else. The book opens 20 years later with the older and more reflective Stevens heading out on a road trip to find Miss Kenton (who he believes, due to a letter from her, to be unhappily married) and ask her to come back to work at Darlington Hall. Lord Darlington has died and the estate has been sold to an American who Stevens now works for. As Stevens takes his trip, he reflects on his past with not only Miss Kenton, but also with his father and with Lord Darlington. Stevens was always completely loyal to Lord Darlington, but as we hear stories of their past, we come to see that Lord Darlington was dangerously close to being a Nazi sympathizer or supporter, which was very distressing to most of the English people that came and went from Darlington Hall. Stevens never suspected this when he worked for him, but his thoughts lead him in that direction as he remembers different events. We also read many flashbacks of Miss Kenton's and Stevens' interactions and see just how much they cared for each other. As Stevens drives towards finding Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Bent), he daydreams more and more that surely she must be terribly unhappy and that he should be able to get her to come back with him. However, when they finally meet up, Miss Kenton informs Stevens that she's happily married and expecting her first grandchild, so she has no plans go back with him. In all, it's a bit heartbreaking, but kind of in slow motion. I'm really liking these Ishiguro books I've read! Finished this one before our Oregon trip and am just now blogging about it!