Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett

I was really caught up in this story; I found myself thinking about it constantly whenever I was away from it. The backstory, that is, with the young Lara. The realtime story about the older Lara with the three daughters was OK for framing, but otherwise a bit of an annoying interruption. Also, I admit I have Issues and hate reading about happy families, lovey-dovey sister relationships, mother-daughter relationships – I know this and I cut the book a lot of slack, but the Nelson family was just so smarmily perfectly loving. The word “smothering” came to mind towards the end. She didn’t need to draw them that way to get the contrast across.

Back to the positives. I loved the young Lara. I loved her independence and quick straightforward snappy approach to everything. Ann Pratchett is really wonderful. The setup got me hooked. I loved high school Lara and her friend Veronica. She knows how to make characters likeable but not too cardboard cut-out. I loved that Lara was obviously smart and liked books but wasn’t totally precocious nor a stereotypical bookish nerd. I liked that Lara was kind of naive but not totally stupid about the adult world.

I’m saying nothing about the plot. You can get a plot summary anywhere.

A couple of things about the ending could have been better but it’s not worth spoiling anything.

by Stephen King

The movie was better.

by Susy Atkins et al

IT’S SO EASY!

by Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland

When I was heavily into weaving school, I thought, I want to retire and do this intensively. The barriers were going to be the just-slightly-too-far distance, and the money. But I would do thought experiments on it – fully cognizant that when the time came to actually retire, my head would be in some other space and I wouldn’t want to do it anymore – but the point of thought experiments is to have fun. I came up with ways I could do it while driving less (buy a crappy car that I kept parked in Montpelier! buy a caravan to live in onsite at the school during sessions!). Now weaving school is moving and likely isn’t going to be in Marshfield anymore, if it continues to exist at all. And it’s being run by different people, naturally. And yes, my head’s moved on. Need new thought experiments.

by Lauren Oyler

This book was nearly insufferable. It starts out with a strong plot, and I was drawn into the documentary-level detail, but I didn’t foresee how off the rails it would go. After part 1, where heroine discovered her boyfriend is a secret conspiracy theorist, and part 2, which flashes back to their meet-cute, super plot twist comes along and twists the plot so severely there is no longer any plot. Then we get an absolutely interminable section where heroine just wanders around. At one point she decides to go on a series of 12 fake dates, during each of which she pretends to be a different stereotyped sign of the zodiac. I felt like I was reading some Japanese fiction where any random thing might happen next, and when things get like that, I just get like WHY!?!?!

And yes, you can totally convince me that I’m reading it on entirely the wrong level, and that all my complaints are “the point.” Nevertheless, complaints they are.

by Darrin Bell

I really enjoyed this book and did not expect to. I did not expect to because I’m a bad person who’s really tired of reading about racism. I also tend to think graphic novels are gimmicky. But this was wonderful, and I wished there was more of it.

by Carys Davies

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I can’t review this short little novel without giving it all away. I was just so thrilled she pulled off a happy ending! Because I saw tragedy on every other page, until things started to escalate; then I saw tragedy in every paragraph. Thank you, thank you Carys Davies.

by Ray Padgett

Interviews with scads of people who played live with Dylan from the 60s to today. Could have been edited down a bit. The highlight was Stan Lynch, drummer for the Heartbreakers, who sounds blissed out with every word he utters about playing with Bob, and gives the funniest story. Three songs into a concert, Bob turns and says, “Hey, Stan, what do you want to play tonight?” Stan is like, uh, “Lay Lady Lay”? Bob says, “What key.” Note: Lynch is the drummer. He’s asking the drummer what key. “I see Mike [Campbell] in the corner going, ‘A! A! A!’ I go, ‘How about A?’ Everybody has a big sigh of relief.”

Guitarist Billy Cross offers some of the best insight. “I wasn’t crazy about the sounds that the engineers got. I remember at one point, I was on his case, saying ‘Bob, it could sound better, man.’ He said, ‘Billy, my records are my music played by me and the people with whom I’m playing in that room on that day. That’s what my music is.’ I thought that was a pretty cool way to look at it.” And, “He writes. That’s what he does.” And regarding all the touring, “Once I asked him… ‘All this, how can you do it?’ He said, ‘Billy, that’s what I do.'”

Tour manager Richard Fernandez: “Bob was, if not the most, at least the top two most interesting people I’ve ever worked with.” That sums it up.

The author is incidentally a Burlington resident, and I’ve been trying to find a copy of his book “Cover Me” for some time. I keep checking Crow.

by Edith Holden

I just couldn’t get into the drawings of birds and the poems about nature and the naturalist observations. I would have liked more glimpses into what life was like for a lady in England in 1906. The most interesting parts were the explanations of the names of each of the months, which she got out of the encyclopedia; and the side-leaf that described the author’s brief life (she dies at 49 by falling into the Thames).

by J. R. R. Tolkien

I believe this is my second re-read (three reads total). It can be hard going, but just let it wash over you. Tolkien’s theology, it feels like an otherworldly retelling of the old testament. Occasionally a beautiful tale will jump out of the mirk, like that of Beren and Luthien.

Digression:

Tolkien’s old-school Catholicism is evident, and not necessarily unappealing. I see it this way. Modern thinking in our culture is extremely Freudian. We like to think we’re well beyond Freud, but he’s evident here every day. Every movie and book hero has a backstory “explaining” why he is the way he is. It’s all about his childhood. It made him evil, or good.

Characters in Tolkienland, they’re just evil. Or good. Or a little of both. It seems to me that every creature, lowly middle-earthlings or hallowed Ainur, have the capacity for evil. And sometimes someone just tips over the edge. In other words, it’s in all of us, and it’s just a random spin of the wheel whether you are going to get tipped over at any given moment, briefly, or for a lifetime.

Amen and thanks be to god and also with you.