Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel

 

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before.

 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow follows Sam and Sadie through their childhood meeting, college reunification and the development and success of their business.   

Gabrielle Zevin does a masterful job of maturing the voices of each character over the years and the technical aspects of describing the games they created was detailed and fun to follow.   

As a kid of the 80's the evolution of online games from the Oregon Trail to the role playing games of today is a journey worthy of understanding.  It is a great metaphor for the changes we go through as we become fully formed people.  How the experiences in our lives make for a richer, more colorful experience.

Zevin uses the two characters to narrate from their own perspective, but it isn't repetitive and each has a unique view and of course different priorities and drivers.  

As a story of a lifelong friendship, the cadence also rings true.  Sometimes the friends are in lock step, lives intertwined and at others they are separated but still care deeply for another.  

I appreciated that the characters loved one another, but didn't have to have a grand romantic arc. 

Read:  April 19, 2023
Met: @ Beth's
Book Choice: Melinda

1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir

 

1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai WeiWei

Chinese artist Ai WeiWei tells the story of his life, the influences, and the impact of his work on the world. 

Art is protest, art is communication, art is a voice for those who cannot speak.  Ai WeiWei transforms life into experiences.  As a citizen of China WeiWei was not always free to express criticism of life in China, always under surveillance and often in disfavor WeiWei describes his story of detention, government removal of his art, hidden meanings in his works, and a total devotion to his work.

As a child of the poet Ai Qing, WeiWei was often exiled with his father during times when the popularity of Ai Quig was trouble for the Chinese leadership.  Childhood was feast followed by famine, comforts given and taken, accolades given and then public shaming for being too visible.   These experiences shaped WeiWei into someone who focused on his works to the (in my opinion) detriment of others.   

As a memoir, WeiWei focuses on the events that are to him meaningful and important.  A great insight into the mind of an artist, but he tells on himself a bit with the handling of his wife, partner and child.   A bit dismissive of that aspect of his life.

Ai WeiWei, as an artist is diverse in his mediums and this memoir walks us through some of the processes of his most notable works.   

13 notable works of Ai Weiwei

 

Read:  January 2023
Met:  Heather's

Picker:  Heather

Book of the year 2021 and other things...

 Our end of year wrap up ended up returning to the zoom format because a few of us had close calls with exposures.  In spite of not being together in person, this was a fun, joyous and energetic gathering. 

Mid-meeting wine run

We started the gathering with a great discussion of our final book for 2021, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland.   A book of short stories can be hard to discuss because of the lack of a through plot and common characters, but not this one.  Ms. Howland created rich details that brought you into the space where her characters were.  Dark and not uplifting was one comment but others found interest in the planning of a funeral, the frustration of obligatory time with family and other 'every day' life events.  Certainly a worthwhile read. 

We turned our attention to the discussion of our favorite and least favorite (never "worst") book of the year.  I am still living in constant fear that the author of a "worst" book will again google themselves to find that our group of seven readers has mortally wounded their pride and that we may be invited to a duel.  I don't like conflict and as I only dabble in sarcasm I am afraid of those who have mastered the art of prose.  Therefore we will refrain evermore from the use of the word worst to describe our least favorite book of the year.

HOWEVER, with a solid majority and very little surprise or argument from the minority the clear winner of our least favorite was "50 words for rain".   This book should have been a beautiful novel of love, loss, grace, forgiveness, finding one's purpose under the epic backdrop of post WWII for the ages, but it was not.  Imagine the fan fiction journal of a millennial 15 year old who has never been kissed or left their hometown of Springfield, wherever writing about the complexities of racism in a country, culture and era never explored beyond watching an anime movie or two.  Then throw in some plot twists like sexual assault that is almost instantly forgiven without any trauma, grief, blame and heck, let's just make the main character fall in love with that guy because he is of course, beautiful, rich and charming.  👀.  Of course he is.  Anywho...this was a literal car crash that needed an editor.  Acknowledging that storytelling is hard, we are hopeful that as the author matures better content will come.  

The discussion for the favorite book of the year was far more varied.  The field of books that we loved was many in 2021.  With the bonus reading titles off the table for consideration, the much appreciated "A Children's Bible" and "The Cold Millions" made room for the primary books.

Hidden Valley Road, No No Boy, Hamnet and Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage all received ardent votes for favorite.  

Damnation Springs and Unbound each were noted as "very good".  

It's a good problem to have that we loved most of what we read in 2021.  We decided to let our 'favorite' be a three-way-tie:

Hidden Valley Road, Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

 No-No Boy John Okada

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Each was completely different and wonderful.   HVR, is an exploration of mental illness in one family and a frustrating study in the pharmaceutical industry exploring that it is profits that drive innovation and not need. 

No-No Boy explored the often ignored history of the American Japanese experience of  the aftermath of the war and those who would not or could not join in to fight with the US in the land of their ancestors. 

Hamnet is a fanciful dip into the household of William Shakespeare and the family he left behind to be a poet and play writer.  He's not the main character of this story and it is marvelous.   

2021 Booklist

 50 Words for Rain

A Burning

Minor Feelings, An Asian American Reckoning

A Children’s Bible (extra credit)

Hidden Valley Road

No-No Boy

We Here By Refuse (extra credit)

Punch Me Up to the Gods

Hamnet

The Cold Millions (extra credit)

Unbound

Damnation Spring

Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage

Photos from our 2021 weekend retreat

 

Must have cheese

Book of the year 2020

 Our list of books in 2020:

 

Fierce Attachments, Vivian Gornick

Extra credit: Belonging, Nora Krug

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier

Small Fry, Lisa Brennan Jobs

The Book of Delights, Ross Gay

Fascism, Madeline Albright

What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty

Hot Milk, Deborah Levy

The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabelle Wilkerson

Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi

Amateur, A Reckoning with Gender, Identity and Masculinity

Deacon King Kong, James McBride

It's a rare year where we have twelve (eleven if we remove the extra credit book) books to choose from.   Many of these titles were loved and there was a lot of discussion about possibly choosing a favorite fiction and non-fiction this year.  

We tried to each list our favorite two titles, and it went south pretty quickly.  

H: 1) Deacon King Kong
2) Warmth of other Suns

B: 1) Warmth of other Suns (woos)

    2 a) Amateur

        b) Rebecca

       c) Fascism

        d) Deacon King Kong

M 1) WOOS

     2) a) Rebecca

         b) Amateur

A: 1) WOOS

     2) Rebecca

T) Transcendent Kingdom

     Fascism

D) WOOS

      Fascism / Rebecca

Clearly the Warmth of Other Suns wins hands down as the favorite read for 2020, but then the debate about number two evolved into a great discussion about how Deacon King Kong, Fascism and Rebecca were superb reads.  That brought up the love for the Book of Delights.

We agreed that there were no stinkers this year, but that there were a couple that might not have been worth the time during this crazy busy year.  One was described as a "written for the planned Netflix adaptation."   2022 edit:  What Alice Forgot (still not a Netflix movie.)

Then we did something that we've never done, we discussed our favorite "worst" character.  We decided that descriptions of real people disqualify as they might have been just terrible people.  The overwhelming love was for the dastardly evil and malicious housekeeper at Manderley,  Mrs. Danvers.  

Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson, actress)

Deacon King Kong, McBride

Our last discussion of the final 2020 book.   Books selected in the year are in the running for Book of the Year even if the discussion happens in January.

Meeting on zoom isn't as much fun as being in person, but there is a bit of charm to it.  We get to see and hear all the happy dogs, spouses pop in with food and beverages, and every once in a while we get to wave to a teen coming home from wherever teens go during a pandemic.

We've been together for so long, that now the babies are off to college.  Well, with the exception of the two late starters - we're navigating elementary and middle school and can see the look of relief on the faces of our fellow bibliophiles that they are past the pre-teen stage. 

Last night we discussed Deacon King Kong, by James McBride.   Our discussions are always pretty short when everyone loves the book and last night it was a very short love fest.   McBride weaves a funny story and creates memorable characters who you can clearly see in your mind.  More than one comment was made that this book will be a great movie it's actually being worked on as a TV show.  Thankfully McBride is part of the script writing team, which means the show will be delicious. 

I'm thankful for an author who doesn't need to wrap every loose end up in a tidy bow.  Life is not always like that, and a bit of wonder is good for the soul.   

Prediction:  this one will rise to the top of the heap for 2020.