Book Nook Cafe discussion

OK, then, getting ready to hit the ground running in 2025.

New Year's resolution: checkmark completed prompts and post links/blurbs more regularly!

1- YA book (young adult)

2- Takes place during a holiday or about a holiday. Any holiday.

3- A banned or challenged book

4- STEM ( any field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) or a character who works in or is involved with any STEM area.

5- A book about a world leader or notable person(s) (living or dead)

6- A book from your TBR list or a book you own but never read.

7- A book published in 2025

8- A book that was nominated for a prize or won a book award prize. (any year, any prize)

9- A book involving the Arts or character involved in the Arts
(dance, music, painter, theater, drawing, architecture, film, photography)

10- Animal, vegetable or mineral

11- Re-read a book you read before

12- History, Current event, or historical fiction

✅13- A book that takes place in or is about a country you don't currently live in
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (2024)

14- ...OLOGY --- Any field of study that ends in the suffix ology. For example: psychology, sociology, archology, cardiology, dermatology, zoology, ecology, oceanology, biology, zoology etc.
Can be non fiction or a fictional character that is involved in that field.

✅15- A book dealing with mental health, physical disability or other health related issue
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2024)

16- Author's Last Name begins with R, E, A or D.

17- Self help, motivational, inspirational, spirituality, mindfulness, or communication.

✅18- Biography, autobiography or memoir
Cher: The Memoir, Part 1 by Cher

19- Mystery, thriller, suspense or true crime novel

✅20- novella, short story collection, essays collection, or play.
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson(2002)

21- (for 2025) Select a book that was published at least 25 years ago.

✅22- A book that was translated into English.
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov
(2018, first English translation published March 2024).

23- Travel or a journey ( could be literal or spiritual)

24- Bildungsroman - Coming of age

25- (for 2025) A book title with at least 5 words in the title. Bonus if it is exactly 5.

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Bonus prompts or substitution
NOT required to complete the challenge!
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1- humorous or funny book

2- fantasy, magical realism or science fiction

3- A book that features water. (ocean, swimmer, lake, ship/boat or has picture of water on cover)

4- Romance or love 💖

5- A book with a female detective

Happy to have you join the challenge again, James. Good luck !

✅18- Biography, autobiography or memoir
Cher: The Memoir, Part 1 by Cher

I am a sucker for modern music autobiographies, like Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Just Kids by Patti Smith, Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Reckless: My Life as a Pretender by Chrissie Hynde, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir by Linda Ronstadt, and on and on and on. This was one of them, and pretty much exactly what I expected. I will say that the book seems about as honest and straightforward as I have always perceived the author to be.

Cher ends this part of her story just before she starts getting in to movies. I may or may not bite on Cher: The Memoir Part II when it comes out, as I have not enjoyed too many movie-star autobiographies lately, but who am I kidding, I probably will read it, and I think it is likely her whole second wave of musical triumph will figure in that one anyway.

Great to see you kick off the challenge, James!

James wrote: "✅18- Biography, autobiography or memoir
Cher: The Memoir, Part 1 by Cher

I am a sucker for modern music autobiographies, like Girl in a Band by [au..."

I didn't know that about you, James. What would tempt me with this one, if i read celebrity memoirs, are the early years of Sonny & Cher. The two seemed to be breaking ground, as there were so few rock females that ranked the coverage those two got.

I think Patti Smith's first installment of her memoir was good. While i read [book:Chronicles, Volume One|14318]--Bob Dylan, i was not enamored with the non-linear way he wrote it. Although, to be fair, i learned more about him because i stopped listening in the late '70s.

As i recall the only other musically inclined memoir was by Tegan and Sara, High School. I liked that, too. That's it. So, i welcome reading about ones others have enjoyed.

Thanks for sharing and congrats completing our prompt.

James wrote: "✅18- Biography, autobiography or memoir
Cher: The Memoir, Part 1 by Cher

I am a sucker for modern music autobiographies, like Girl in a Band by [au..."

Good job on the prompt.

I am tempted to read it, though I would prefer it be all in one book.

I just saw Moonstruck the other day. I've seen that movie at least a half dozen times. I also like her in Silkwood.

I've always enjoyed her singing too.

✅20- novella, short story collection, essays collection, or play.
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson (2002)

Themes, characters, and events appear, recur, cross-reference, and cameo in this collection of stories set mostly in the Scotland of the early 2000's -- or in a kind of Wonderland where a stray cat taken in by a recently single woman grows to enormous proportions, a lazy television critic comes to believe he has a doppelganger, and an ordinary mother experiences her death and ghostly afterlife as a endless recurring prison sentence. This collection is bookended by stories of two friends who shop and visit cafes while creating endless lists of places to go and things to do and sights to see and delicacies to eat and games to play as the city around them is engulfed in increasingly violent and calamitous discord.

I am so happy that I finally "found" author Kate Atkinson last year after missing out on her marvelous way with words and imagery for the past thirty years or so, and I'm so glad that I have more of her work yet to read.

Well done, James.

I read her Life After Life with a library group and we all enjoyed it.

Alias Reader wrote: "Well done, James.

I read her Life After Life with a library group and we all enjoyed it."

I loved Life After Life. And absolutely despised the sequel (of sorts) A God in Ruin

James wrote: "✅20- novella, short story collection, essays collection, or play.
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson (2002)

Themes, characters, and events appear, recur, cross-r..."

Great selection, James. Congratulations on fulfilling this one. The stories sound curious.

I'm only familiar one of her books, Life After Life. However, we watched & liked the streamed series based on her Case Histories, featuring PI Jackson Brodie. As a result, i added those to my TBR.

I have to be honest & say i wasn't impressed with Life After, possibly because i'd read enough science fiction novels about such things. Hers seemed to drag, as a result.

James wrote: "✅20- novella, short story collection, essays collection, or play.
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson (2002)

Themes, characters, and events appear, recur, cross-r..."

What a great choice for the prompt - thanks for sharing!

✅15- A book dealing with mental health, physical disability or other health related issue
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2024)

Cyrus, in his late twenties, is the orphaned son of Iranian parents. His mother was killed while aboard Iran Air flight 655 when it was mistakenly shot down by missiles from the USS Vincennes; his father then emigrated to Indiana with the young Cyrus and finds work on an industrial chicken farm, and who dies soon after Cyrus leaves home for college.

When we meet Cyrus, he is adrift: "Neither Iranian or American, Muslim or non-Muslim, neither drunk or in meaningful recovery, neither gay nor straight." He is a sober alcoholic and drug addict; he has one long-term friend, Zee, who is also his on-again, off-again lover; and he works as a part-time "medical actor" at a university hospital in Indiana, presenting various conditions and diseases to interns so that they can practice their patient interactions.

Cyrus is also poet, a poet who becomes increasingly obsessed with death and martyrdom, at least in part as a way to bring meaning to the emptiness and sorrow of his own life. As he begins to collect the stories of present-day and historical martyrs for a book project, he learns of an accomplished and respected Iranian artist, Orkideh, who is dying of advanced breast cancer. Orkideh's final project is an installation in the Brooklyn Museum where she sits in a room during museum hours and talks to visitors about whatever they wish to talk about. Cyrus feels that Orkideh fits perfectly with his work, so he and Zee travel from Indiana to Brooklyn so that Cyrus can speak with her.

There are twists and turns, but that is all I'll say of the plot. I will say that I think the form the book is framed in is marvelous. Some chapters are told from the perspective of the different people in Cyrus' life and story, and each chapter begins with a short poem or an excerpt from Cyrus' collection of the tales of martyrs, now a work in progress. The writing is sharp and insightful and the characters are brightly and clearly drawn, from Cyrus' gruff AA sponsor Gabe to his uncle Arash, who dressed as an angel and rode a horse on the fields after battles of the Iran-Iraq war to give comfort to the dying, helping them to believe that they were ascending to heaven.

There is both a hard realism and a fable-like quality to this work, and I think that it is one of those books that stays in my thoughts as greater than the unfolding of the story and the skill of the writing. I highly recommend it.

The author, Kaveh Akbar, is a well-known poet (is that an oxymoron? OK, let's say "well-known" to those who read modern poetry and leave it at that, alright?) whose work has been seen in The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The Paris Review, among other publications, and is a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. "Martyr!" is his first novel.

James wrote: "✅15- A book dealing with mental health, physical disability or other health related issue
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2024)

Cyrus, in his late twenties, is the orpha..."

Well done on the prompt, James.

I've had a library hold on this one for some time. There is a big wait list. I'm glad to hear you recommend it.

Alias Reader wrote: "I've had a library hold on this one for some time. There is a big wait list. I'm glad to hear you recommend it.."

I was fortunate to have a colleague share her trade paperback copy of it after she'd read it, otherwise I'd still be on the waitlist too!

James wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: "I've had a library hold on this one for some time. There is a big wait list. I'm glad to hear you recommend it.."

I was fortunate to have a colleague share her trade paperback..."

I am also in a waiting list ;(( all of 2025

James wrote: "✅15- A book dealing with mental health, physical disability or other health related issue
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2024)

Cyrus, in his late twenties, is the orpha..."

Thank you for the excellent review, James. I'm drawn to it, so will add it to my TBR. (Apparently, i'll have quite a wait, unless i purchase it--thanks for the tip, Alias and Sophie.)

The museum angle appeals but the story of the man himself & his life is thought provoking. Who has heard of a "medical actor" previously? I love that idea!

Congrats on completing this prompt, James.

James wrote: "✅15- A book dealing with mental health, physical disability or other health related issue
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2024)

Cyrus, in his late twenties, is the orpha..."

Thanks for such thorough insight here!

James wrote: "The author, Kaveh Akbar, is a well-known poet (is that an oxymoron? OK, let's say "well-known" to those who read modern poetry and leave it at that, alright?) whose work has been seen in The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The Paris Review, among other publications, and is a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. "Martyr!" is his first novel.."

lol at "well-known poet"

I own this book but haven't picked it up yet. Glad to hear it was a winner!

✅22- A book that was translated into English.


The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov
(2018, first English translation published March 2024).

Translated from the original Russian by Boris Dralyuk.

Kyiv, Ukraine, March 1919. A recent engineering graduate accompanies his father to the tailor's to pick up a newly-ordered coat. The two are attacked in the street by marauding Cossacks, and the young man, whose sister and mother had died of lung ailments some five years earlier, is left an orphan, and with one less ear attached to his head than he started the day with.

The opening paragraph arrives with a bang:

Samson was deafened by the sound of the saber striking his father's head. He caught the glint of the flashing blade out of the corner of his eye and stepped into a puddle. His already dead father's left hand pushed him aside so the next saber neither quite struck nor quite missed his ginger-haired head, slicing off his right ear. He managed to reach out and catch the ear, clutching it in his fist before it hit the gutter.

That is the beginning of the story of how young Samson Kolechko, now without family, is forced to house a pair of scheming Red Army soldiers in the family apartment, inadvertently joins the police force, begins a courtship with Nadezhda, a smart, savvy statistician working for the city census who is much more than she seems, and ultimately ends up solving a puzzling crime.

The mood in the city is dark, gritty, and grim, with competing warring factions of soldiers, secret police, underground insurgents, and heavily armed warlords vying for control. Irregular power outages, food shortages, and a black market run wild are all a part of these mean streets (and the story is more than a little noir), but the overarching mood of the book is much lighter, with a dark and dry humor and more than a passing nod to the surrealist imagery and influence that first began to be felt internationally during the period that this novel is set in.

One surrealist device that Kurkov uses is that Samson's severed ear, which Samson kept with the thought that it could somehow someday be re-attached, is now wrapped in cloth and kept in a small tin box; astonishingly to Samson, it allows him to hear whatever is going on wherever the ear is -- whether in the next room, or in his father's desk (now confiscated by the authorities and requiring a never-ending ream of requisition forms to effect a return), or placed on a bookshelf at a crime scene.

I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading the recently translated next book in the series, The Stolen Heart (2023, English translation published February, 2025).

James wrote: "✅22- A book that was translated into English.


The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov
(2018, first English translation published March 2024).

Translated from the origin..."

Wow ! What a riveting start to a book.

Well done on the translation prompt, James !

Good selection for the prompt, James. I have that book on my TBR but don't recall how i heard of it. Now i'll add your name to it, so i'll have a sense of it.

The hearing, detached ear is a fascinating addition to the story!

Thanks for the informative review, James.

Awesome choice! Love the premise, but story sounds a bit grim?

James wrote: "✅22- A book that was translated into English.


The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov
(2018, first English translation published March 2024).

Translated from the origin..."

This sounds right up my alley, James. Will be looking into it. Thanks for the excellent information

Michele

John wrote: "Awesome choice! Love the premise, but story sounds a bit grim?"

The period and place the story takes place in is grim, certainly, but the overarching mood actually felt rather hopeful to me -- largely because of Samson's character, I think -- and I closed the book with a smile.

✅13- A book that takes place in or is about a country you don't currently live in

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (2024)

Set in contemporary Ireland (as are so many of the stories that I seem to gravitate toward), two brothers are grieving the recent death of their father.

The older brother, Peter, a successful human-rights attorney in Dublin, is involved with a younger woman, Naomi, who might be described as a sex worker of sorts, and this at first appears to be a largely transactional relationship. Peter also still pines for his former lover, Sylvia, who broke off their relationship after becoming injured in a car accident. 

Ivan, younger than his brother by a dozen years, is a chess prodigy whose ranking fell as his father sickened and died. Ivan becomes involved with Margaret, a woman who is 14 years older than he. Margaret is a local arts-council administrator in rural Leitrim County, where Ivan has come to give a chess demonstration. 

As Rooney is a popular author and this was a best-seller last year, there are plenty of reviews of this book, both raves and pans, that are probably much more erudite than anything I could say about it. The author is clearly an intellectual of the first order who, though never flaunting her knowledge or writing down to her audience, does let slip via references, off-hand remarks, and character comments that she has read a thing or two.

However, I will just point to a couple of things.

First, I did not warm to any of the characters, even as each deals quite realistically with issues of grief, longing, regret, loneliness, and pain, things that I think many of us can relate to and want to sympathize or can empathize with. Perhaps I am simply unable to understand the circumstances of the ages of the folks in this book, I don't know. This does not mean I didn't like it, only that I didn't find any of the characters terribly relatable. 

Second, based on comments read on various threads of this forum, I think that many here will not like the form; think Cormac McCarthy-style dialogue, separate POVs from each character, and at times some very fragmented Joycean stream-of-consciousness narration, particularly from Peter, who is a bit of a hot mess anyway. Much of this book is about communicating and failing to communicate, and that being said, the style really did work for me, but I think that it may not be everyone's cup of tea here.

In the end, though, I am very glad to have read Intermezzo. It is longer, I see, than her previous books, but it never felt tedious to me and really held my interest, characters notwithstanding. I am going to put those earlier works on my to-read list in the coming months and perhaps I'll feel compelled to share what I think of those.

But for the moment I'm now on to another good story, one from a fairly prolific author whom I've never read before, and a check-mark and review of that will be coming next.

That was really an excellent review, James. It was very informative.

I've checked out her books at Target a bunch of times. But I've never taken the plunge.

Do you have a Rooney favorite ?

* EDIT
I see you just started to read Normal People I look forward to your review.

Alias Reader wrote: " . . .Do you have a Rooney favorite ? * EDIT
I see you just started to read Normal People . . ."

Intermezzo was my first Rooney; I've just opened Normal People but I am waist-deep in another book at the moment and have a third that will be due back at the Library (with no renewal!) soon, so Normal People will be on the shelf for a little while, anyway.

James wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: " . . .Do you have a Rooney favorite ? * EDIT
I see you just started to read Normal People . . ."

Intermezzo was my first Rooney; I've just opened Normal People but I am waist-..."

Thanks !

Great review James. I appreciate your dual perspectives here. Like Alias, I've not yet read anything by Rooney, but a few of her books have been on my "maybe" radar.

Really helpful, James, thanks! Irish literature often produces quirky characters and situations, which are a favorite of mine.

James wrote: "✅13- A book that takes place in or is about a country you don't currently live in

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (2024)

Set in contemporary Ireland (as are so many ..."

Outstanding review, James. Your take on the vocal few in this group is on target, re. Prose, dual narratives, etc. Fortunately, we are spalso open enough to sometimes dive in regardless. 😁

I’m intrigued by your line, “ does let slip via references, off-hand remarks, and character comments that she has read a thing or two. ” When authors do this (and i realize it), i’m grateful. Few authors accomplish this, imo.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Well selected for the prompt, too, btw.