Welcome to a new week of WWW Wednesday. This is a meme now hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. In it, we answer three questions and leave a link in the comments sharing our own posts for other bloggers to view.
The Three W’s are:
- What are you currently reading?
- What have you just finished reading?
- What will you read next?
What am I currently reading?
Call me an overachiever, but because I forgot one of my books at work one evening ***gasp!!*** I wound up starting another one in the evening and getting halfway through it before the night was done and I had no choice but to make myself sleep. So I now have not 2 but 3 books I’m currently reading including my audio.
On audio, I’m listening to a new-to-me author. He’s actually a small animal veterinarian who previously published a couple of collections of short stories from his veterinary practice. How wonderful, and I mean look at these! I want to read these!
Though I’m adding these to my To-Read list, I am reading a book of Schott’s that is incredibly different. The Willow Wren is a historical memoir based upon the stories his father, Ludwig Schott, told about spending some of his most formative years in a Hitler youth camp for young boys. The son of a senior Nazi leader, Wilhelm Schott, young Ludwig has no interest in towing the party line and has nothing but apathy for Nazi propaganda at the age of 10. The novel, though a coming of age story about a young boy, doesn’t hold back with the horrors of WWII. I’m loving this book so far. Ludwig is a charming and wonderful narrator with a strong and wise voice, but it will make you weep for the small children who were forced to grapple with intense fear and who struggled to understand the concepts of war and death at such a young age. This is also a wonderful perspective on the war, as we see first hand the twisted message that was fed to citizens in Germany in the 30’s and 40’s. This is a brand new book that was published March 23, 2021.
I’m also reading our next book club selection, a fascinating and unique time travel tale called Faye, Faraway, in hardback. I’ve just started this, but so far it’s quite captivating and I’m enjoying it. This book is the debut novel of the author, Helen Fisher.
And for my productivity book, I picked one up on a whim from the library simply because I need to read a productivity book for my book challenge and OH LOOK! THERE’S ONE! Librarians are so intuitive! Someone must have known that I needed to read this book, because they set it on a display right there in the middle of the library for me to find. I chose Stop Living on Autopilot by Antonio Neves. This is the book I read half of in one sitting two nights ago. I expect to finish it today. I expected to be bored to tears by reading a productivity book. I’m not into self help, and I just don’t gravitate toward non-fiction in general. However, I needed to read this book. The first page smacked me in the face with some truths I needed to hear. There are some exercises throughout the book that really are quite helpful, and Neves has some pretty great and, often, humorous stories to share about his quest for rediscovering a “bolder, happier” self. At 236 pages, it’s a short and sweet book that packs a pretty big punch. I’ll have more thoughts in the coming days.
What have I just finished reading?
I just finished reading Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne, a pretty great and moving memoir by a veteran stage and Hollywood actor. It’s a very personal memoir that deals more with his journey from boyhood in Ireland to the stage and screen and talks about the pivotal moments in his life that have shaped who he’s become. You can see my full review of this book here:
What Will I Read Next?
Oh my, choices choices!!! I have absolutely no idea on audio, as I typically visit hoopla or overdrive and see what catches my eye. I do have a couple on hold from overdrive with no idea what might come available, so I’m keeping that one up in the air. In paperback, I plan to pick up Agatha Christie’s debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I have chosen this one for my reading challenge pick for debut novel of a famous author. I haven’t read enough Christie and I’d love to see the introduction of her famed detective Hercule Poirot.
So, there you have it! I’ve actually been rather busy lately and was pretty excited to have so many fresh updates for this week. Feel free to comment on any of these you’ve read or want to read and share with me what you’ve been up to lately.
Happy Reading!
Liane Moriarty is one of those novelists whose work I eagerly anticipate. Her characters are always refreshingly human, quirky, and endearingly flawed. The plots of her books are unique, and each one is typically infused with a great mix of humor and poignancy. I can relate to many of the characters, always strong women navigating the difficult aspects of life. 
As you know, I always have two books going at once, one on audio and one in either hardback/paperback. Well, this week I’ve literally just finished one and am getting ready to pick up the next in line, so I’m only going to claim the one for my currently reading. On audio, I am almost finished (about 80%) with 
Moving on, the two I’m most excited to pick up include our next book club selection, 
In 2020, I felt like I saw Isabel Allende popping up everywhere. She stays relevant by having a presence in pop culture, making guest appearances in major television shows like Jane the Virgin, in which she confronted her own real life trauma for the purpose of helping a character deal with her own. It was an incredibly moving and pivotal moment in the show that helped illustrate literature’s important place in helping us make sense of the incomprehensible tragedies of life. As an avid reader, I find it strange that I made it to the age of 36 without having picked up one of her books, so I added her to my TBR ASAP list. 
Daughter of Fortune follows Eliza Sommers, a young Chilean woman left on the doorstep of Jeremy and Rose Sommers, a brother and sister who reside in the British colony of Valparaiso in Chile. She’s raised by Rose with the help of Mama Fresia, the native Chilean cook who helps out at the Sommers estate. Eliza grows up in these dichotomous worlds, both a lady of culture and style and one of resourcefulness with a lust for adventure and knowledge. The novel spans time from the early 19th century in Valparaiso through the mid-1800’s at the height of the California Gold Rush that sees our young heroine set off for California by herself in search of her lover, the idealistic Joaquin Andieta. The novel finds Eliza facing harrowing obstacles, instantly forcing her to confront the bounds of her own perseverance. By her side on her quest is a Chinese healer, Tao Chi’en, a grieving sailor who was duped into a sailing contract by the captain of a ship sailing for Chile despite his successful career as a zhong yi, or a Chinese physician. Though they both are in search of a specific kind of deliverance, they will each discover their destinies are not what they had originally expected.
Allende is considered a leading author in the genre of magical realism. I would place this book more into the category of straight historical fiction. Sure, there’s a bit of the fantastical here. An example would be the presence of Tao Chi’en’s dead wife, a ghostly presence that follows him and provides counsel from time to time. However, it’s purely up to reader interpretation as to whether or not Lin is actually present or is just a figment of Tao’s imagination meant to help him cope with the stress of his new life. Overall, this novel presents a realistic look at the difficulties and hardships of the North American frontier as immigrants from all over the globe converged on California in pursuit of the all consuming obsession that was gold. Allende is not overly verbose. She gets to the point. Her prose is as raw as the California landscape in the 1840’s, quite effortlessly beautiful when warranted, though more than a little harsh. This was a time that either saw people flourish or become consumed by the ill-tempered fury of the times. People either relented under the pressure of pain, prejudice, lust or vengeance, or they became stronger, more compassionate, more willing to come to the aid of their fellow humans, if they survived at all. 
At first glance, I could tell this book was right up my alley. Badass women, trips down deep back corridors of the darkened streets of historic London, and a bit of a mystery to sweeten the pot. As for the cover, I adore the blend of colors, the font, the aura of mystery. I’m intrigued by stories with dual timelines, though this can become tricky if one is more well executed than the other, so I’m generally wary. It didn’t hurt that this book is a very short read, as I’m woefully behind on my reading goal.
I’ve always loved classics, but I gravitate more toward 19th century British lit, and authors like Vonnegut often have been relegated to the “I know I should read it and I’ll get to it eventually” pile. We all have one of those piles, correct? That’s why it’s helpful in book club when every now and then a member chooses one of these classics. Such was the situation with Slaughterhouse-Five. And I’m really glad to have finally picked this up. This is a very personal novel for Vonnegut. In 1943, Vonnegut enlisted in the army. He was sent to fight in the European campaign during WWII where he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to Dresden and was, in fact, in a meat locker during the fire bombing of Dresden by Allied forces in February 1945. 
I’ll start by saying this book was a fabulous book club pick. There’s so much to analyze and to discuss, and I actually found myself growing to admire Vonnegut even more after discussing the book with the other members of Read Between the Wines. Also, I knew this book was on the banned books list, which basically gives me extra incentive to read it. In the Mentalfloss article, “
If we were to break this down, it becomes fairly obvious that the creation of the Tralfamadorians within Pilgrim’s mind are a coping mechanism. They are a way to explain and process that which is unthinkable. His jumping through time is his way of placing himself within a happier existence, convincing himself that as long as he has been contented and will be again, the present agony doesn’t matter. And the deaths of his fellow soldiers as well as the strangers in Dresden who were all blinked from existence in a raging fireball don’t matter because a being can’t actually die in a four-dimensional reality in which all points in time exist concurrently with one another. It’s both comforting and simultaneously tragic. In a prior life of my own I may have gone down the research rabbit-hole and devoured page upon page of literary analysis from people much smarter than myself. As it is, I’m merely content to regurgitate my gut reactions. I’ve seen people classify this book as science fiction. I would completely disagree with that. Despite the presence of the Tralfamadorians, I don’t believe we are meant to believe they actually exist. 
In my opinion, this novel is an excellent portrait of the living casualties of war. Those who return home haunted by the ghosts of the past. Really, this is a flawless portrait of PTSD. According to the 
A Librarian and Her Books 