The Reading list for May, 2023

Well, today is the last day of May and I'm not likely to finish another book before the month is out, so I'll go with the five I've managed to finish this month.

I was able to post a review of sorts for four of the five:
The Talented Mr. Ripley  by Patricia Highsmith
The Lost World  by Arthur Conan Doyle
A Game for the Living  by Patricia Highsmith
and  I’m Glad My Mom Died  by Jennette McCurdy

The only one that I didn't review was another Patricia Highsmith novel, The Blunderer.

I've already started on the first two books that will be on the list for June. I found one of the books - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the list of  The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023. The other is a book by Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'd already read two books by García Márquez and liked what I'd read. I've come upon several lists where One Hundred Years of Solitude is named as one of the greatest novels of all time. Of course, I had to put it into the queue. I give the book high marks, although I would hardly classify it has the best thing I've ever read. It's good, but overrated in my opinion.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post [Nine Books] I recently happened upon a list of The 9 Books You Must Read In 2023. Being ever on the lookout for books to read, I made note of the list and downloaded the six books which I had not previously downloaded to my PC. As a matter of fact, one book on the list, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith was already in the queue to be read this month.

Once I had read nearly all the books I had planned for May, I began to read from the "9 books" list. I've gotten into the habit of having one book in progress on my Kindle with another on the e-book reader installed on my phone. I'll switch back and forth.

For the 2nd book on the list, I decided to go with I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. When my son was younger, he was a fan of the Nickelodeon TV series iCarly so I was familiar with Ms McCurdy. After seeing it on the list, I read a little about her book and I was interested in learning of her experiences as a child actor.

As one might suspect from the title, I’m Glad My Mom Died isn't a pleasant read. McCurdy writes of her abusive mother who manipulated her into an acting career as a young child. From an early age, she was sexually abused by her mother which would aggravate her OCD, and lead to her alcoholism as well as a number of eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia).

For the sake of her own mental health, McCurdy has retired from acting. After years of therapy, she is on the mend, so there is a somewhat positive ending.

Of course, I can't say that the book was an enjoyable read, but it is one that I'm glad to have read.

A Game for the Living by Patricia Highsmith

Continuing on in my exploration of the work of Patricia Highsmith, I've just finished her 1958 mystery, A Game For The Living. Although wikipedia describes the novel as a psychological mystery, the novel is very different from her work that I've read so far.

I'm sorry to say that this is my least favorite novel by Highsmith. I'm in good company, however. In her non fiction book, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, she says that A Game For The Living is her least favorite as well.

I had tried to do something different from what I had been doing, but this caused me to leave out certain elements that are vital for me: surprise, speed of action, stretching the reader's credulity, and above all the intimacy with the murderer himself. I am not an inventor of puzzles, nor do I like secrets. The result, after rewriting the book four times in a gruelling year of work, was mediocrity. I always say to foreign publishers, and to publishers who contemplate a reprint, "This is my worst book, so please think twice before you buy it."

I was aware of her opinion of the novel before going in. I suppose it is the "mystery" aspect that she and I dislike about the novel. Like reading Dostoevsky, a Highsmith novel is best when she focuses on the psychology of the killer and less on the "who-done-it".

The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle

 

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Kindle is my e-book reader of choice, although I've downloaded a different e-reader app to my phone to use when the Kindle isn't the optimum choice (like when there's a brownout and it's too dark to read the Kindle's screen). I have transferred e-books to my phone on occasion but I'm more likely to read one of the free public domain books included with the app.

I read one of these pubic domain books in April (A Journey to the Center of the Earth. by Jules Verne) Actually, I found this particular e-book disappointing. That being said, you'd think I'd steer clear of another public domain adventure novel, but I decided to take a chance on Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.

Published in 1912, the book tells of an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals were alleged to have survived. Two scientists (Professor Challenger - Professor Summerlee) a newspaper reporter (Edward Malone) and an "adventurer" (Lord John Roxton) make up the group.

Of course, we know there are no pterodactyls, dinosaurs or "ape men" in South America, but the story is better than you might imagine. I certainly enjoyed it more than Jules Verne's book.

Ok, it is hardly the greatest Sci-fi novel of all time, but it's entertaining in a lighthearted way.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

 

Let's start at the beginning.

At some point during the month of March, while looking for books to read, I came upon the name of Patricia Highsmith. She is best remembered for her 1950 psychological thriller, Strangers on a Train, which was adapted to film in 1951 by director Alfred Hitchcock. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I located the Hitchcock film online and re-watched the movie and began reading the e-book.

For those familiar with the film, note that Hitchcock made several changes to the story. Never the less, I became an immediate fan of Highsmith, downloading everything she had written.

I went on to read Highsmith's Deep Water in April and so far this month, I've read two additional e-books -The Blunderer and The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was after I had put The Talented Mr. Ripley into the queue for this month that I came upon The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023 of which The Talented Mr. Ripley is one. As I am a fan of Highsmith, I knew I'd enjoy that particular book, although frankly I wasn't sure that it belonged on a list of the 9 books that really had to be read before the year was out.

That was, of course, before I'd actually read the book. Now that I've finished reading it, I'd have to say that it may be the best book I've read so far this year. Highsmith was a master of the psychological thriller; each of the four books written by her, that I've read so far, have not failed to surprise me at every turn.

Highsmith wrote five books within the , so-called "Ripliad". Having finished the first, I'm naturally looking forward to finishing the "Ripliad". However, I began with the idea to read Highsmith's novels in pretty much the order that they were written. The second in the Ripley series, Ripley Under Ground, was published 15 years after the first one. I'd have to skip over eight of her books - breaking the order. I'm going to stick to my original plan and read her 1958 novel, A Game for the Living next (even though Highsmith herself said "This is my worst book, so please think twice before you buy it").

Nine Books

 

When I opened the Chrome browser on my phone recently, I was greeted with a link to the following article - The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023. Being ever on the lookout for interesting books to read, I clicked on the link. Here's the list, according to the article:

Sea of Tranquility       by Emily St. John Mandel
The Midnight Library   by Matt Haig
The Talented Mr. Ripley    by Patricia Highsmith
I’m Glad My Mom Died   by Jennette McCurdy
Carrion Comfort         by Dan Simmons
Death at La Fenice     by Donna Leon
Half of a Yellow Sun   by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dune                          by Frank Herbert
Harlem Shuffle          by Colson Whitehead

Of the nine, three were already in my e-book library; as a matter of fact, The Talented Mr. Ripley was already in my queue of books to read this month.

Of course, I had to download the remaining six.

I'm currently alternating between a book on my Kindle and a book on my phone. Following those two, I have two additional books in the queue, so I'm not at all certain when I'll begin on the above list (other than the Highsmith novel) and I'm not certain in what order I'll read the books. I suppose reading each in the order they fall on the list would work.