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Saturday, October 22, 2016

September Recap

Books Checked out:
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
Flaubert's Parrot (second time around)
The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

Hiro Books from Library:
Nerds Book Two: M is for Mama's Boy by Michael Buckley
I Totally Funniest: A middle school story by James Patterson and Chris Graberstein
The Wiener Strikes Back by Max Brallier

Gift Books for Hiro:
lots of Minecraft books for his birthday 
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (using the winnings from Harry Potter costume contest @ Astoria Bookshop)
In anticipation for the Film release soon..... 

I finished up the 641 page Richard Russo book Bridge of Sighs, from last month at the beginning of September and was so sad it had to end that I promptly checked out two more books by Russo.  As  my memory of The Death of a Salesman from high school mixed with a bit of Philip Roth, were always in the periphery as I ached over the lives of Lucy, Bobby and Sarah, I was pleased to see Russo dropping Willy Loman into the narrative as an aside toward the end of the book.


The next Russo book I picked up was the much shorter That  Old Cape Magic, a novel of personalities in two acts.  It describes a screen writer who was living in LA, who moves back to the east coast and has to deal with the death of his snobbish academic parents as his marriage of over 30 years is unraveling.  The two acts takes place over two different weddings held one year apart.  The tone of this book is so different from Bridge of Sighs, that I was never confused as to where I was or whom I was reading about, as could happen when reading some other authors books back to back.




I was excited to read Empire Falls next, but couldn't imagine it being better than Bridge of Sighs...though it must be since that is the novel that won the Pulitzer..... The story was solid, and likable characters, though in the middle of it, I was so tired at the end of the day I broke down and watched the 2 part HBO film before I completed the book. Russo wrote the screenplay acted out by  Ed Harris as Miles, Helen Hunt/Jeanie and Paul Newman fabulously disheveled as Max.  The film was actually quite accurate with story line, tone and even a lot of dialogue was verbatim, though having read the back story and the characters inner thoughts beforehand gave the viewing much more pleasurable.



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