2016

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life

What is there to say? I didn’t post much last week. Couldn’t. It was hard to read, hard to concentrate, hard to move beyond shock and dismay. Still haven’t, for that matter. But I do need the reassuring normalcy of spending time with books and keeping up my blog, so onward I go.

What did I read last week?

Faithful by Alice Hoffman: Done! I enjoyed Faithful while I was reading it, but really didn’t find it much more than just an okay read. The storyline doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny, and I never felt emotionally engaged. Granted, given the events of last week, I probably just wasn’t in the right mindset for character-driven storytelling.

A Love Like Blood by Marcus Sedgwick: Done! My review is here.

Flight by Sherman Alexie: Done! This was my audiobook listen for the week, and it was stunning. See my review, here.

I finished my Goodreads challenge!

I managed to reach one milestone this week — I completed my Goodreads challenge for 2016! As of mid-week, I hit my target of reading 150 books in 2016. Woo hoo!

I guess I can stop reading now until January. Ha. As if.

Fresh Catch:

A thoughtful friend sent me an Amazon giftcard a couple of months ago, and I finally used it to treat myself to this lovely book:

Plus, I picked up two other books I’ve had my eye on:

If you haven’t come across The Starlit Wood yet, I encourage you to check it out! It’s a collection of new fairy tales, with stories by an amazing list of writers including Seanan McGuire, Catherynne Valente, Naomi Novik, and many more.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton: Just getting started, but so far, so good!

Now playing via audiobook:

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (read by Wil Wheaton): Given the state of the world, I couldn’t handle anything serious or upsetting, so a Scalzi/Wheaton audiobook sounded just about perfect to me. I’ve only listened to a little bit so far, but the expected silliness got me out of my own head for a little while.

Ongoing reads:

With my book group (2 chapters per week of each):

Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon
A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway

So many books, so little time…

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12Nov2016

Audiobook Review: Flight by Sherman Alexie

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Sherman Alexie is one of our most gifted and accomplished storytellers and a treasured writer of huge national stature. His first novel in ten years is the hilarious and tragic portrait of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a charged search for his true identity. With powerful and swift, prose, Flight follows this troubled foster teenager–a boy who is not a “legal” Indian because he was never claimed by his father–as he learns that violence is not the answer.

The journey for Flight‘s young hero begins as he’s about to commit a massive act of violence. At the moment of decision, he finds himself shot back through time to resurface in the body of an FBI agent during the civil rights era, where he sees why “Hell is Red River, Idaho, in the 1970s.” Red River is only the first stop in an eye-opening trip through moments in American history. He will continue traveling back to inhabit the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Bighorn and then ride with an Indian tracker in the nineteenth century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. During these furious travels through time, his refrain grows: “Who’s to judge?” and “I don’t understand humans.” When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own life, he is mightily transformed by all he has seen.

This is Sherman Alexie at his most brilliant–making us laugh while he’s breaking our hearts. Time Out has said that “Alexie, like his characters, is on a modern-day vision quest,” and in Flight he seeks nothing less than an understanding of why human beings hate. Flight is irrepressible, fearless, and groundbreaking Alexie.

Flight is a stunning, powerful look at seemingly unending cycles of violence, betrayal, and revenge.

Told through the voice of Zits, a 15-year-old half-Indian foster child who’s on the fast track toward a bloody end, Flight lets us inside the mind of a character who’s been neglected, abused, and repeatedly failed by the meager systems that are meant to protect him. When we first meet him, Zits is living in yet another foster home with people who don’t care a whit about him. He’s plagued by terrible skin, which is one of countless things that never get fixed for him because he’s just a kid in the system and no one wants to invest the time or money to improve his life. His favorite word is “whatever”, and it sums up his attitude completely. He’s done caring.

When Zits end up in juvie yet again, he meets a strange and magnetic white boy who calls himself Justice, who seems to understand Zits and his struggles in a way no one else ever has. Justice introduces Zits to guns and the means to take revenge for the years of his own miserable life, as well as all the many years of wrongs done to his people.

As Zits pulls the trigger in a heinous act of mass murder, he starts his journey through time and space, landing in the bodies of other people at critical times of violence. In some cases, he’s the one committing atrocities; at other times, he’s a victim. Through each episode, Zits is both witness and participant in acts of great violence, experiencing first-hand the destructive power of people’s quest for vengeance.

Listening to Flight is a particularly chilling experience. Narrator Adam Beach gives Zits an appropriately adolescent voice, yet is also able to shift — as Zits shifts — into an adult FBI agent, an Indian tracker, a downtrodden drunk, and a modern-day cop, each with a distinct personality and style of expression. The narrator’s portrayal of Zits’s increasingly despairing and horrified mindset is powerful. He captures the pain and suffering that Zits sees, as well as the pain of the recovered memories of Zits’s earlier life and the lives of others.

It’s a blessing, I suppose, that Flight is a relatively short book. It’s an intense experience, and doesn’t need to be distilled at all by lengthening the story. Even though the narrative is full of terrible events, Zits’s voice and unique perspective lends the audiobook rare moments of lightness as well. It’s not an easy book or listening experience, but Flight is well worth the emotional investment you’ll have made by the end.

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The details:

Title: Flight
Author: Sherman Alexie
Narrator: Adam Beach
Publisher: Grove Atlantic Black Cat
Publication date: 2007
Audiobook length: 4 hours, 40 minutes
Printed book length: 208 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased

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7Nov2016

The Monday Check-In ~ 11/7/2016

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

What did I read last week?

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst: Done! My review is here.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison: Done! My review is here.

Paris For One & Other Stories by Jojo Moyes: A sweet, light selection of short stories, with a focus on romance and relationships. The title story is the lengthiest and most enjoyable, focusing on a cautious young woman who takes a big risk on a weekend in Paris and learns to reinvent herself and her life. The other stories are a mixed bag — some kind of sweet, some with more of a tart commentary on mid-life marriages, disappointments, and adjustments of expectations. A nice little light diversion for fans of the author.

In audiobooks:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: I just finished my audiobook re-read of HP5, and loved it. I’m writing up some thoughts, and will post a bit later this week.

Pop culture goodness:

I went to see John Cleese and Eric Idle, and had a brilliant time. They’re both in their 70s at this point, but neither has lost a bit of the charm and silliness that we all know and love.

Fresh Catch:

One new book this week:

What will I be reading during the coming week?