Things I Didn't Know I Loved by Nazim Hikmet Ran

3 Stars

Very lyrical and smooth reading in this small compilation of Hikmet's poetry. His communist affiliation is evident in many pieces, most obviously his prison pieces feature it prominently. Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Thessaloniki what was still the Ottoman Empire, but which is now Greece and not Turkey. You live long enough and everything changes hands. He spoke in his poem entitled Autobiography that he writes of absences, and there is a poignancy to his writing that is palpable. He presents sentiments simply and beautifully.

I Stepped Out of My Thoughts of Death 

I stepped out of my thoughts of death
and put on the June leaves of the boulevards
those of May after all were too young for me
a whole summer is waiting for me
a city summer with its hot stones
and asphalt with its ice-cold pop ice cream
sweaty movie houses thick-voiced actors from the provinces
with its taxis that disappear suddenly on big football days
and with its trees that turn to paper under the lights of the Hermitage garden
and maybe with Mexican songs of Ghana tom-toms
and with the poems that I’m going to read on the balcony
and with your hair cut a little shorter
a city summer is waiting for me
I put on the June leaves of the boulevards
I stepped out of my thoughts of death 

24 May 1962

Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher

4 Stars

"Sometimes I have the impression that A Division devours CID officers like Cronos did his children." 

As a new DCI for the Vice Division, Gereon Rath soon finds that his aspirations have landed him right smack in the middle of a knot of twisted connections and questionable allegiances. Babylon Berlin starts out with Gereon (and us) as the new guy in town. Quickly, things are happening and finding one's balance is soon a rollercoaster ride of pornography, nightclubs, drugs, and dead bodies. 

In Homicide, he had known why he worked for the police. But Vice? Who cared about a bit of pornography every now and then? Self-proclaimed moral apostles perhaps, for they too had found their place in the Republic, but Rath didn't count himself amongst them.

I can see why this was made into a tv series; it has more happening in it than a lot of books get to in three. This is chockfull, well-plotted, and has enough intrigue to highlight just how political police work really is.The Interwar period is one of my favorites and definitely made this more interesting. The details of Berlin from the architecture, cars, new department stores to the more obvious communist and growing nazi elements in the city are so unobtrusively relayed that you feel enveloped as the reader rather than a distant observer. This is rather gritty and I really really liked it.

Stephan Jänicke sat on the rear seat with the type of frozen face only an East Prussian could achieve. There wasn't the slightest trace of emotion in it. Rath knew that the rookie hadn't exchanged a single word with the doorman in the last half hour. Not even the East Westphalians with whom Rath worked with in Cologne could manage that.

It will be interesting to see where the series goes from here. The english translation for the second in the series, The Silent Death, is due this winter and I am eager. Please note that it is British English not American English.

Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

4 Stars

"Oh, never and forever aren't for mortals, love."

Le Guin writes wonderful women and stories that honor them. Lavinia is a whole book written from the perspective of a character that never utters a word in Vergil's epic, The Aeneid. It tells of all the life that happens between "the glorious battles", the farming, the herding, hunting and reading of the auspices, caring for the hearth gods, weaving, songs and observances -- the reasons we war in the first place. 

I think if you have lost a great happiness and try to recall it, you're only asking for sorrow, but if you do not try to dwell on the happiness, sometimes you find it dwelling in your heart and body, silent but sustaining.

Lavinia is presented as an ideal female: a faithful daughter, dedicated wife, and strong mother. The transitions between those phases is beautifully narrated. I especially found the duties depicted, the rituals so natural and comforting. I was wondering how I managed not to have any knowledge of Latium, honestly, I was disappointed in myself, and was relieved to read in the Afterword that there is indeed little to no record of the original Latins. Etruscans, yes and Magna Graecia too, of which I have some understanding. The auspices were rightfully given to an Etruscan character to read, but believably Latinus, Lavinia's father received omens from his forefathers in the sacred places. Overall, it was a delightfully woven tale of life in pre-ancient Rome.

All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers by Larry McMurtry

2 Stars

The door to ordinary places was the door that I had missed.

Good lord, this is a wandering tale of a naive and rather stupid young man, Danny Deck. It's non-stop grasping at straws--straws being women, women that he fucks and loses. Over and over again. I think part of this is very much a time piece, and I get that it's suppose to be this spectacle of characters, but the characters are too much of a spectacle. Yes, everyone is lost and broken--you're not unique, Danny. Anyway, the characters read like stereotypes. 

Danny has one moment of true action, self-motivated direction instead of aimlessness and it made me laugh. Go all in.

"Where's Geoffrey?" he asked.
"I just threw him off the patio," I said.

Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this. I kept hoping that it would have this great reveal moment, but that never happened, for me at least. Maybe I was disillusioned too young, I came out of the crucible, hammered into steel, and wonder at these sorts of stories. Then again, I can see relatives in it. That said, I really like the writing. This was my first McMurtry novel and I think I should have started somewhere else. Perhaps, I'll try Lonesome Dove or Terms of Endearment because the style is good, but I just was not fond of the content. I think I had different expectations from the title.

Scorpio Hates Virgo by Anyta Sunday

2 Stars

Wow, underwhelmed.

Could be me, could be the book--probably more me, but this was blahhh... First, there is no hate. Percy and Cal have this faux rivalry thing going on, for years and way past its expiration date. Second, both guy's communication abilities suck--and not the good kind. If they were ten years younger, I'd be more understanding. Third, they are too old and have too many maturation events in their histories to be this immature (grad school, divorce, family deaths, etc.) It makes them seem like idiots not cute.

I know I'm the big bad ogre for saying I didn't like it because not liking these characters, who are so gosh darn adorable and lovable, is akin to saying, 'please drown these unwanted kittens'.

(\_/)
(O.o)

Sidenote: There were some super weird word choices made, too. One does not schlepp into a shower. There were others and while they weren't constant; they popped up often enough that it was eyebrow exercises.