Friday, November 26, 2021

Giving it up for offbeat narrators

HALLIE EPHRON: In another step back from the Pit of Despond, I’m Happy to Report: I AM reading. After three rounds through the Harry Potter books and after multiple false starts trying to read novels that made me too anxious to keep reading, finally I’m on a reading roll and reading books through to the end.

I broke free by following my daughters’ suggestions of what to read, with the caveat that she NOT recommend anything heartbreaking or violent. Running out of Kleenex here.

Molly recommended Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine… which I know we talked about on Jungle Red back in June/July but which blipped past me along with most of the rest of anything going on at that time beyond my doorstep.

Looking back, I see that it wasn’t everyone’s cuppa, but it sure is mine. I loved it so much. I came to love HER so much. I actually slowed down near the end so the pages would last longer. I needed an uplifting story about a clueless underdog and that’s exactly what it is.

I have a soft spot for intriguingly unreliable narrators who are oddballs, who see the world through their own distinct lens and march to their own drummer. One of my favorites is Anders, Tobias Wolff’s curmudgeonly book critic in his short story, “Bullet to the Brain.” Anders wait on line at the bank is interrupted by a robbery. And he can’t resist snarking about the robbers’ pedestrian dialogue:

Two men wearing black ski masks and blue business suits were standing to the side of the door. One of them had a pistol pressed against the guard’s neck. The guard’s eyes were closed, and his lips were moving. The other man had a sawed-off shotgun. “Keep your big mouth shut!” the man with the pistol said, though no one had spoken a word. “One of you tellers hits the alarm, you’re all dead meat. Got it?”

The tellers nodded.
“Oh, bravo,” Anders said. “Dead meat.” He turned to the woman in front of him. “Great script, eh? The stern, brass-knuckled poetry of the dangerous classes.”

Needless to say, things do not turn out well for Anders (see story title). And the narrative turns a corner midway through and we’re remembering all the things that Anders has chosen to forget. He is, after all, human.

I enjoy ultimately appealing characters who are out of the mainstream, now with Eleanor Oliphant topping a list that includes Olive Kitteridge, Christopher Boone (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time), Lizbeth Salander, and and Beth Harmon (The Queen’s Gambit).


These characters are all memorable because they are SO skewed in the way they filter the world and ultimately so human, a product of what-came-before which we only discover by reading through their story.

Whose advice have you learned to trust in picking your next read, and what book (character!) made you slow down as you reached the end?

AND congratulations! to Judy Singer! You're the winner of a copy of BLOOD ROOT. Please email (hephron "at" gmail dot com) me your mailing address, Judy, and Leslie Wheeler will pack up a copy and send it your way.

71 comments:

  1. I thought Eleanor Oliphant was a great book, too.
    I’ll take anyone’s advice when it comes to books to read, but I must admit that I never slowed down when I neared the end of a particularly enjoyable book. However, I have been known to turn back to the first page as soon as I’ve read the last page and begin reading the book all over again . . . .

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    1. OMG THAT would be amazing. I've done that but only with a mystery novel where the opening chapter was something mysterious (like a flashback) that looks completely different with 20/20 hindsight.

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  2. HALLIE: So glad to hear you are able to read again. I get it. I was in Pit of Despond in October, dealing with my dad's sudden death. Because of my still blurry reading vision, I turned to audiobooks during the week I was in Toronto.

    As mentioned (and recommended) by other JRW commenters (Ann M and a few others), I listened to The Thursday Murder Club and loved it! The narrator, Lesley Manville, is brilliant. Frankly, I had tried to READ the book last year but my COVID brain-fogged mind would not allow me to focus on the delightful 4 septugenarian characters and I gave up after a few chapters.

    Although I can normally shift from reading a cozy mystery followed by a PI novel or thriller as my ARC and TBR pile schedule dictates, I had to focus more on light-hearted reads or books from my absolute go-to- authors in October and November. I read Wendall Thomas' brilliantly hilarious FOGGED OFF the weekend after my dad's death in just a few hours. And Kellye Garrett kindly sent me a digital ARC of her stand-alone LIKE A SISTER which I also devoured in a day.

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    1. I should add I do get book recommendations from FB friends, mystery fiction-related blogs and bloggers. Besides JRW (the FIRST one I check each morning), I do peruse blogs such as Dru's Book Musings, BOLO Books and Lesa's Book Critiques, the Wickeds, Mystery Lovers Kitchen and Chicks on the Case, but not everyday. And these sources give me book recommendations to add to my TBR mountain(s) but do not necessarily guide me on what to read next.

      And a big shout-out, after 216 episodes & counting to FIRST CHAPTER FUN (FCF). Since March 2020, Hank and Hannah Mary McKinnon first chapter reads have definitely exposed me to a huge list of authors and books that I would never have known or tried). Thanks Hank and Hannah for also creating such a wonderful online community of authors and readers to visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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    2. Listening to audio books is something I've just recently started to do... Another book with oddball characters is in THE WORD IS MURDER by Anthony Horowitz and the audio narrator Rory Kinnear does a terrific job bringing his snark to the listener. (And in the sequel THE SENTENCE IS MURDER.)

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    3. Thanks, I will give audiobook a try with Horowitz. His books were two others that I DNF in 2020. BTW, I just started listening to Osman's second book, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE and I think it might be even better than THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB.

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    4. Grace, The Man Who Died Twice sucked me in from the title to the last page. Loved it!

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    5. THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE is even better than the first book. I'd ordered it the first time I could, and I looked forward to it all year. I've learned to love Richard Osman watching hm on QI, Britbox. He's only an occasional guest, but the show's great every time.

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    6. FLORA and ANN: I am about 1/3 of the way into the audiobook, so I am glad to hear your positive reviews.

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    7. Taking notes here on all these great suggestions. My TBR list just grew by a lot!

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    8. Me too. I'm joyfully dancing through The Man Who Died Twice, after a number of books that didn't get past the first, or second or third chapters.

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    9. I just finished Man Who Died Twice and have to add my enthusiasm for both of Osman's books. The cast of intriguing characters had me hooked and it was great fun to see them develop over the two stories. The deadpan, English humor had me laughing out loud. A cure for my somewhat lost joy of reading.

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    10. PS Don't miss the brilliant last page - and last line - of Man Who Died Twice!

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  3. Halle, I'm glad you are reading. I still have spurts where I can read 2-3 books in a week and then nothing for several weeks. I think it's all a process that will fix itself.

    I don't slow down as the story nears the end, instead I speed up because now I need to know how it will end.

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    1. But do you... jump to the end to see how it turns out? I was just talking to someone who said she did that and I was embarrassed to admit that I sometimes do. But just to relieve my anxiety that my favorite character might be killed or maimed.

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    2. UGH, no no I never skip to the end of the book!

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    3. Oh yes, Hallie--I do exactly the same thing--if I'm really invested in a character/s, I've been known to do that. And as Joan said above, I've also been known to go right back to the beginning and reread a great book all over again as soon as I finish it.

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    4. Not often do I skip to the end. When I do, it is because of trouble reading/liking the story. Reading the end will let me know if whole story should be read. Most often, I go back to the beginning and find no trouble with reading or liking.

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    5. I have done that, Hallie, when I love the character so much that I have to know if they will be okay.

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    6. Reminds me of Harry, in When Harry Met Sally. He always reads the end first, in case he dies before he can finish the book. "That, my friend, is a dark side."

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    7. No, I don't jump to the end. I want to be surprised and see if I was right on my assumptions

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    8. I never let myself jump to the end. I would think that negates the whole experience of reading it.

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  4. Very happy you got your reading mojo back, Hallie. Like others, I definitely get book ideas right here, including some non-crime-fictions ideas. Keeping up with author friends' new releases is hard, though!

    Slowing down a suspenseful read is hard, too, but I do like to savor Ann Cleeves's stories. And I never want to read anything violent or too scary. I can go for heartbreaking sometimes, but only if there's a upward trend toward hope by the end.

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  5. You have just reminded me to be grateful for my reading habit. I cannot imagine a life without books. But that doesn't mean I always finish every book I start because life is just too short! And I have been known to skip ahead and read the last few pages, especially if it is something I am considering not even finishing. I did that with one very long book in particular, that seemed to be all over the place. So, I skipped ahead to see what the mystery was. Once i did that I decided to keep reading to see how the author put everything together to reach that conclusion.

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    1. I'm with you, Judi. Life is to short to be reading something that doesn't entertain and intrigue. That's an advantage to reading first a sample on my Kindle.

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    2. I used to be able to make myself finish a book that I knew was "so well written" but didn't wrap me up in the characters and story. Now I also say "life is too short" and start something new. But do you leave that unfinished book with the place marked or dump it?

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    3. Sometimes if I think the problem is me and that the book is just not a right fit, right now, I'll put a marker in it and put it back on the shelf. If and when I get to again, I'll start at the beginning. But other times I can tell, in just the first few pages that I don't want to waste my time with a particular book and that's the end of that one.

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  6. Have any of you read THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET by Catriona Ward? Check out Kristopher's review. He is spot on. Catriona McPherson encouraged me to keep reading this tale -- told by an idiot on LSD. But it will come together, and once it does, you'll be gobsmacked. I promise. This may be the quirkiest narrator since forever.

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    1. ANN: Yes, I saw both your post and Kristopher's BOLO Books review.
      It's been added to my very long TBR list.

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  7. I loved Eleanor Oliphant! My DIL left it after her Christmas visit. I loved Bernadette, too. My daughters suggest titles (and podcasts, especially outside the mystery genre). In my turkey stuffed head I'm trying to come up with something more recent: a zany, coloring outside the lines, main character dealing with upheavals in her life, like a sophisticated Bridget Jones. Or a grown-up Wayside School character.

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    1. Bridget Jones! That's the book my daughter compared Elinor Oliphant to, then she added "only it's not really a romcom."

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    2. That would be fun to listen to! Going to check out the narrator.

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    3. Oh, it's read by Imogen Church, who is fabulous!! That's going on my Audible list asap.

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    4. Debs, you are also a connoisseure of Audible readers. I depend upon your recommendations!

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  8. I get many great suggestions right here on JRW, through guest posts and also 'what we're reading' posts. Just finished Karen Odden's Down a Dark River, from a recent JRW post, and it has all the makings of a great beginning to a series--so here's hoping many more books will follow. Sometimes I find books through 'fantastic fiction'--what's coming out, what's new, and especially the section 'books similar to this'. Just read Andrea Carter's Murder at Greysbridge (Inishowen #4) and wondered why she hadn't crossed my radar before. A friend and I talk books--give each other ideas. And perusing the library 'new books' display often leads me to try a book, like Patti Callahan's Once Upon a Wardrobe.

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    1. Librarians are often great sources of inspiration for what to read next, especially if you can name a few books you've liked. Then "if you liked..."

      And there are some web sites...

      I went over to www.whatshouldireadnext.com and entered Eleanor Oliphant and back came these recommendations:

      The Rosie Project
      Graeme Simsion

      Transcription
      Kate Atkinson

      All We Ever Wanted
      Emily Giffin

      Valentine: A Novel
      Elizabeth Wetmore

      Dear Mrs Bird
      AJ Pearce


      All the Devils Are Here: A Novel
      Louise Penny

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    2. The Rosie Project has me intrigued for sure.

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    3. Transcription is a book people either love or hate. I loved it. Kate Atkinson is magic

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    4. Dear Mrs Bird is wonderful! I have her second book on my Christmas list...

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    5. I loved Dear Mrs. Bird, too, Lucy. Now I have to go check on her second book.

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    6. Dear Mrs. Bird was fabulous! I have the second one but haven't read it yet.

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  9. I depend greatly on JRW. I also get Lesa’s blog and am on an emailed and FB post from Dana Stabenow who recommends book from all over the spectrum. I’ve read mysteries and histories that she has recommended. I am also in a wonderful book group,and many of my favorite books have been recommended there and were completely outside my view. I used to get wonderful suggestions from the staff at a local bookstore but sadly they closed.
    Books have been such a solace to me when I have been in my “slough of despond” but in those times I often fall back on old friends.

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    1. Booksellers are often brilliant sources for what to read next. The mystery community dearly misses Kate Mattes here in Boston and Mary Alice Gorman in Oakmont PA...

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    2. Yes, I miss being able to drop in to Sleuth of Baker Street's bookstore in Toronto and get recommendations from Mariam Misters & JD Singh. Ottawa's mystery bookstore, Prime Crime, closed in the 1990s but the bookstore owners became mystery authors who wrote several series under different names: Mary Jane Maffini/Victoria Abbott and Linda Wiken/Erika Chase/Essie Lang.

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    3. Oh I love MJ and Linda--both wonderful alums of Mystery Lovers Kitchen

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  10. Oh, Hallie have you read Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan is Killing it? It is HILARIOUS, and work of dialogue and story comic genius. Highly highly recommended.
    And you know me, Ia often read the end. I just don't want to worry all the way through. And as I have said so many times, (to so much derisive hooting :-) ), for authors it is an incredibly educational way to deconstruct how the writer "did it." You see so much more of the writer's skill--or maybe a different part of it-- if you know the end. You see the things you would never notice unless you read the whole book again, clues and hints and even reveals.

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    1. HANK: I agree with you...FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT is a hilarious read.

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    2. I frequently look at the end before I reach the end. Not embarrassed at all. I agree with you, Hank, it is interesting to see how the author does it. And sometimes I reread a beginning as soon as I finish, and occasionally reread a whole book, if I loved it. Not sorry about peeking.

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    3. I love Finlay Donovan is Killing It and I can't wait to read the next book. A fun book to read.

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  11. Hallie, so glad you are reading again.

    Have you read The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion? And the sequel is The Rose Effect. Both totally charming books about a man on the spectrum who is wooing a woman. Not mysteries, but kind of the Ted Lasso book equivalent.

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  12. Hallie, so glad you are reading again. Everyone deals with stress and sadness differently. I did laugh about you rereading Harry Potter books 3 times. Whatever works! I used to watch TV all the time and now (since pandemic began) can hardly sit still for one show.

    Thank you very much and thanks to Leslie for Blood Root. I am thrilled to pieces! Will email my info later when we're on the road. Heading home soon.

    I have a dear friend, Anne, who strongly recommended several excellent mystery writers, including Louise Penny. Then I loaned her all my James Benn and Deborah Crombie books. Now we suggest authors to one another all the time. I also share books with my high school bestie. Otherwise, Debs has definitely been my guru. Of course I find more authors on JRW and on FCF than I will ever get to read.

    As for quirky narrators, sometimes. But mostly no.

    I totally enjoyed all the lovely Thanksgiving posts. Hope you all had a great day. Jay, how are you? Keep us all posted on your recovery. We are, after all, your JRW family!

    Thanks again, Hallie!

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    1. JUDY: It's great that you have a good friend with whom you can recommend/share mystery series to read.

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    2. So happy to have been your guru, Judy!

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  13. Mark me down for another one who relys on Jungle Red - and by this I mean the readers as much as, if not more, than the other Reds. I've gotten so many great suggestions here, and it's also proven to be a great place to find out books that have flown under my radar.

    Slow down so as not to finish? I was just mentioning it after Thanksgiving dinner, so it's at the forefront of my mind: MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND. Also another quirky character who sees the world through lenses that were ground sometime around 1930. He's both comical, heartbreaking, and heroic.

    And despite the fact I have several books on my read-to-blurb stack, I think I've just talked myself into rereading it!

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    1. I think I have that somewhere in my mess of to-read shelves. Ack. On your recommendation, Julia, I will hunt it out!

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    2. Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew is one of my all-time favorite books, Julia! I've twice lent it to people who didn't give it back, and had to buy another copy, I love it so much.

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  14. I love the reading recommendations I get here -- for mysteries and other genres, too. For example, Julia mentioned Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson a while back and I simply loved it. Ditto for Youngson' second book The Narrowboat Summer; loved that one, too.

    I am also a big re-reader of favourites, especially childhood favourites that are like cozy conversations with a loved and trusted friend. Cannot beat that to get me through times of bleakness or feeling overwhelmed by the world.

    As others have said, re-reading adult books means I can look for the plot clues and the structure of the story.

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  15. I'm so happy that you're reading again, Hallie--although I see nothing wrong with rereading Harry Potter three times. I reread them all at the beginning of the pandemic, when I couldn't concentrate on anything new. And I am so pleased that you loved Eleanor, as I've pushed it to all my reading friends but I don't think anyone has adored it as much as I did! I did slow down at the end, and then reread the last few chapters.

    I have read so many books recommended here on the blog--what a fabulous resource it is! But my most trusted book recommendations come from my book-share buddy, Gigi Norwood. In fact, I have Gigi's copy of the The Thursday Murder Club on my to-read shelf, too.

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    1. Since you mentioned audiobooks, let me recommend audio versions of Elizabeth Peters (the perfect Barbara Rosenblat), Karen Baugh Menuhin (new kid: Sam Dewhurst-Phillips), and Louise Penny (two gentlemen, both wonderful).

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  16. Quirky characters? I love them. I've gotten hooked on the Chronicles of St Mary's series by Jodi Taylor. I've been reading my way through the books the past couple of months. So funny and so insightful about history. I also loved the characters in two of Alexis Hall's books: Boyfriend Material and Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. And for something completely different, Basil's War by Stephen Hunter. An anti-hero with a sense of humor and plenty of smarts.

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    1. Pat, I was just going to mention Rosaline Palmer! I haven't read Boyfriend Material, though, so will have to check it out. I love Jodi Taylor, too.

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  17. Last year's Canada Reads included "Hench" by Natalie Zina Walshats. Her central character works from a temp agency that serves the criminal classes, because "even criminals need office help." Definitely quirky.

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  18. I'm coming in so late tonight, but I just wanted to say that I'm so happy for you, Hallie, that your reading mojo is back. Mine has waned some over the last two years, and for those of us who love to read that's a great sadness.

    A couple of books I might recommend for you Hallie is The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, one of my favorite reads in 2021 and brought to my attention by Lesa Holstine, and the second is one I haven't yet read but will, West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. Neither of these books are mysteries, except for there being the mystery of the reading list origin.

    I think I've gotten more books to read from this blog than anywhere else over the last few years. Of course, I do keep pretty well abreast of new titles for my blog, but it's also interesting to see what other bloggers are reading and reviewing, as we all read some books that are different from one another's.

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