What a couple of weeks. All it takes is for the husband to go out of town for two weeks and you realize what you miss. I've decided to stop complaining (for awhile) about him leaving a little mess in the kitchen after he cooks dinner (which he usually does), about him parenting our children differently than I do (with the same goals in mind; on the same page, just in a different language), about him not pulling his weight. HE does. He's so much more than I give him credit for, and I realize that now that he's been gone. He'll be back in a couple of day, refreshed after fun with his younger brothers.
Not having him around, especially the week of Halloween, made a house with one adult seem ultra creepy. See, he talks A LOT and usually makes any quiet spaces not quiet or creepy. But I didn't have him, and our house seemed way too quiet. I kept expecting Michael Myers to arrive, walking way too fast for a man his size. I DID not share these fears with my daughters (although they don't know who Michael Myers is, yet).
Adding to that creepy factor was
Night Film by Marisha Pessl, a thriller with enough creep factor (the creepy part was not the little bit of gore, but the story) to really send tingles down my spine. but I couldn't stop reading.
"Life was a freight train barreling toward just one stop, our loved ones streaking past our windows in blurs of color and light. There was no holding on to any of it, and no slowing it down."
First off, I 'read' the audio (Audible) version of
Night Film, so it's hard to say if the read would have been as good, but I imagine that it is even better. The actual book is strewn with page props: website screenshots, news clippings, realistically weathered police reports, and other fun extras.
Night Film sucked me in so deep I didn't want to quit listening. It illuminated the darker sides of life as well as showing how bright the light sides can be. Spellbinding is a great word for this story. Marisha Pessl is a writer I've enjoyed before.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics is another great book, but I'm not going to digress too much. Just enough to say that Pessl is a wonderful writer with an incredible imagination and a great ability to tell fantastic stories.
In
Night Film, the main character, Scott McGrath, is a soiled and sullied investigative reporter sucked back into the story that ruined him, the life and strange happenings of the reclusive cult-horror film director, Stanislas Cordova. When Cordova's beloved daughter, Ashley, commits suicide, McGrath is drawn into the search for the truth of the girl; tumbling head first into black magic, cult films, sex clubs, and small towns. He's accompanied on his strange journey by a cast of interesting characters. This is a thriller and a mystery, but it is much more, making you quetion all you know about reality, art, magic, fear, and fame. This book takes hold and doesn't let up, even on the last page. Take your time, enjoy every word. Because when it's done, you'll want more.
_____________________________________________
Kindle Finds
$3.99. Country of Ash: A Jewish Doctor in Poland, 1939-1945. This book looks really interesting. Dr. Edward Reicher used his skill as a meticulous doctor to write down in detail his observations during WWII, first in the ghettos of Warsaw and Lodz, where he was forced to treat the Gestapo, and then on the run on the Aryan side of Warsaw, where he survived by donning disguises. He witnessed and documented the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It is hard to believe that he was a dermatologist before the war.
$1.99. David Wroblewski writes an emotionally turbulent book about a mute young man born into an idyllic life on a remote Northern Wisconsin farm where they breed and train dogs so fantastic we can only wish they were real. When Edward's uncle returns and his father dies suddenly, his world turns violent chaotic. Edward is forced to flee and comes of age in the wilderness, with three young dogs at his side.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a wonderful story so much more than a boy and his dogs.
$3.99. Laurel Saville uses real family letters to tell a fictional version of her great-grandparents in
Henry and Rachel. Henry and Rachel work hard at the plantation where Rachel grew up, and seem like they have a happy marriage. But when Rachel takes off without a word with their four younger children, leaving Henry and their oldest son to board a steamer to New York. Saville weaves a wonderful tale about a family mystery.
$2.99. The Tin Drum is one of those books that I've always wanted to read but never gotten there, but now I have no excuse. A runaway bestseller, this book, translated from German, has inspired many modern writers. Gunter Grass's novel is described as "miraculous," "inventive," and "moving." Can't wait to read it.
