The Burgess Boys; Elizabeth Strout

Title: The Burgess Boys
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publication Year:  2013
Publisher: Random House
Edition: eGalley/audio
Reader:  Cassandra Campbell (excellent)
Source: NetGalley and library (audio)
Date Completed: June - 2013
Rating: 4/5

To understand the 50-something "Burgess Men", one needs to go back to their early beginnings.

When The Burgess Boys and sister Susan were very young, Jim was just 8 and twins, Bob and Susan, just 4, a freak accident took the life of their father.  The children were in the family vehicle, when something happened and the car rolled downhill killing their father.  The blame and shame felt by the children while growing up, was the major reason the "boys" fled Maine as soon as they could after college.  Both are lawyers in New York, but that is about all that these two brothers have in common. Bob has lived in his brother's shadow all of his life.

Sister Susan never left their home town of Shirley Falls, Maine. It's a town that has seen a lot of change, especially post-9/11 when an influx of people arrived from Somalia. The adjustments by both long time residents and the Somalian population was difficult for many people.  It was made more difficult by an incident that occurred at a makeshift mosque in Shirley Falls.

A frozen pig's head is thrown into the mosque during Ramadan while people are worshipping there. It is Susan's 19-year old son Zach who is charged with the hate-crime.  Susan immediately calls brother Jim for help, but he dispatches brother Bob since Jim and his wife are about to leave on vacation.  It is this event that gets the Burgess Boys back to their childhood town, and it is how us readers learn about their past.

While the hate crime, the trial and outcome are an important part of the story, it is the characters and the interactions that make this novel so interesting.  I found divorced sister Susan to be bitter and mean-spirited. Jim was arrogant and had an inflated sense of self-importance. I hated that he was always belittling his brother Bob.  Bob, on the other hand, was the character I liked the most.  He seemed like the kind of person I would warm up to early on. He was emotionally wounded, very kind, and although divorced with no children, he was still on speaking terms with his former wife.  It is Bob who has blamed himself for his father's death all these years.  It was hard to believe Susan was his twin, they seemed so different.

The Burgess Boys is definitely a character driven novel. Readers who enjoy stories about family dysfunction, past and present should enjoy this well written novel. Although racism is a theme as well, it is not addressed in a heavy handed way, nor is it preachy.  I enjoyed learning about Somalia's history and people.

I also enjoyed Strout's 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Olive Kitteridge, a short story collection about a school teacher from Maine.

Recommended.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros ~ My Education; Susan Choi

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where I share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book I am reading or thinking about reading soon. Care to join us?

This week I'm featuring an intro from a book that was just released, by a "new to me author".

My Education, Susan Choi

July 3, 2013 - Viking

(Intro quote is from an eGalley)

"Since arriving the previous week I'd kept hearing about a notorious person and now as I entered the packed lecture hall my gaze caught on a highly conspicuous man.  That's him I declared inwardly, which of course was absurd.  It was a vast university, of thousands of souls. There was no reason these two kinds of prominence --scandalous noteworthiness, and exceptional, even sinister, attractiveness--must belong to the same human being.  Yet they had. The man was Nicholas Brodeur, though I knew it for sure only later."

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What do you think? Would you keep reading?  Feel free to join us by linking your First Chapter post below. 

 

Quick Sunday Update and the "My Blog Turned 5" Giveway Winner is.......

I've been on vacation since July 3rd and have yet another work-free week coming up. I'm so happy I squeak! Away for several days, meeting up with friends we haven't seen in a while, eating out a lot and lots of "books at the beach" , are on our agenda.  I have a couple pre-written posts scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, but other than that, I'll catch up with your blog/life happenings were I have computer access later in the week.

Finished: The Burgess Boys; Elizabeth Strout (very good); Tenth of December: Stories;  (different but good) as well as several kids books -- reviews coming.  

Currently reading: The Woman Upstairs: Claire Messud and After Her; Joyce Maynard (both are excellent so far)

Watched: Mama (OMG - scare your socks off psych horror thriller )

and Life of Pi (loved it)

Enjoy your week everyone.

Giveaway Winner 

of the MP3 Player 

is

Words and Peace

Congratulations and Enjoy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and thanks to all of my loyal readers who make the tough days worthwhile -- you are all the greatest --

Waiting on Wednesday - The Bones of Paris; Laurie King

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. This week's pick is for  a debut novel that I think sounds good. What do you think?

 The Bones of Paris; Laurie King

September 10, 2013-Bantam

New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King, beloved for her acclaimed Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, consistently writes richly detailed and thoroughly suspenseful novels that bring a distant time and place to brilliant life. Now, in this thrilling new book, King leads readers into the vibrant and sensual Paris of the Jazz Age—and reveals the darkest secrets of its denizens.

 
Paris, France: September 1929. For Harris Stuyvesant, the assignment is a private investigator’s dream—he’s getting paid to troll the cafés and bars of Montparnasse, looking for a pretty young woman. The American agent has a healthy appreciation for la vie de bohème, despite having worked for years at the U.S. Bureau of Investigation. The missing person in question is Philippa Crosby, a twenty-two year old from Boston who has been living in Paris, modeling and acting. Her family became alarmed when she stopped all communications, and Stuyvesant agreed to track her down. He wholly expects to find her in the arms of some up-and-coming artist, perhaps experimenting with the decadent lifestyle that is suddenly available on every rue and boulevard.

As Stuyvesant follows Philippa’s trail through the expatriate community of artists and writers, he finds that she is known to many of its famous—and infamous—inhabitants, from Shakespeare and Company’s Sylvia Beach to Ernest Hemingway to the Surrealist photographer Man Ray. But when the evidence leads Stuyvesant to the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre, his investigation takes a sharp, disturbing turn. At the Grand-Guignol, murder, insanity, and sexual perversion are all staged to shocking, brutal effect: depravity as art, savage human nature on stage.

Soon it becomes clear that one missing girl is a drop in the bucket. Here, amid the glittering lights of the cabarets, hides a monster whose artistic coup de grâce is to be rendered in blood. And Stuyvesant will have to descend into the darkest depths of perversion to find a killer . . . sifting through The Bones of Paris.

Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls; David Sedaris

Title: Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
Author: David Sedaris
Publication Year:  2013
Publisher: Hachette Audio - Little Brown Company
Edition: audio
Reader: David Sedaris (very good)
Source: library
Date Completed: June - 2013
Rating: 3.5/5

David Sedaris reads his own material, and he always does a wonderful job and many of his essays at times feel like a stand-up comedy act.

 

In his latest book: Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, there is actual one essay called Understanding, Understanding Owls, where Sedaris visits a taxidermy shop in London in search of the perfect Valentine's Day gift for his partner.  When he's taken in the "backroom", he gets an education about human mummies that will leave readers in stitches.  There are a few essays where Sedaris shares stories about his dysfunctional childhood, and while he makes the stories sound funny, I felt sadness for the author over the way he was treated by his father. 

 

Some of his stories are a bit crude or gross, like when he describes his trip to China.  I loved when he described his colonoscopy procedure -- been there done that.  I also enjoyed the fact that there was much to laugh about when he gives us his take on politic and political correctness.

 

There were also some essays which did not work for me or that I did not get the point of. Some seemed rather disjointed, but because there are over 20 essays in this collection, none of them are too long or unbearable. To me, it is Sedaris's sarcasm that makes his material work, but a little goes a long way.  I do recommend his books, and find audio books are the way to go for the most enjoyment.

 

Overall, this book was good, but given the fact that I've listened to most every book that Sedaris has written, my favorites remain: Naked, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where I share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book I am reading or thinking about reading soon. Care to join us?

This week I'm featuring an intro from a book by a favorite author that I am hoping to start soon:

 After Her; Joyce Maynard

August 20 - 2013

William Morrow/Harper Collins 

Prologue

"A little over thirty years ago, on a June day just before sunset--alone on a mountain in Marin County, California--a man came toward me with a length of piano wire stretched between hus hands, and the intention of ending my days. I was fourteen years old, and many others had already died at his hands.  Ever since that I have known what it is to look into a man's eyes and believe his face is the last thing you will ever see.

I have my sister to thank that I am still here and to tell what happened that day.  Two times, it was my sister who saved me, though I was not able to do the same for my sister.

This is our story."

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What do you think? Would you keep reading?  Feel free to join us by linking your First Chapter post below. 

Mailbox Monday - July 1, 2013

Get any new books last week? Mailbox Monday, is a forum to share your new book acquisitions with readers everywhere. Tasha at Book Obsessed is hosting in July. Be sure to stop by her blog to post your link.

Here is what arrive by mail:

 (4) new audio books from Simon and Schuster 

thank you so very much

• Joyland; Stephen King
• The Silver Star; Jeanette Walls
• Order of Darkness; Philippa Gregory
• Revenge Wears Prada; Lauren Weisenbeger

• Shadow Tracer; Meg Gardiner (Dutton) - thank you
• City of Hope; Kate Kerrigan (William Morrow - thank you)
• Sleep Room; F..R. Tallis (sent by Pagasus)- thank you

Have you read any of these?