Kaseys Korner

Harry's Trees

What a strange dichotomy between science (I feel like I just took a crash course in Forestry 101 ~ just don't quiz me!) and the world of fairytales ~ i.e. think modern day twist on 'Little Red Riding Hood.' In the latter, insert gold for the food basket and we have all the components (the big bad wolf, the sweet little girl, the woods, etc.)

It's also a beautiful story of grief and healing. When it started, I fretted that it was going to be too depressing. Fret not, it's wasted energy. Instead it perfectly demonstrated how people deal with loss. Multiple losses, from multiple points of view. I found it a refreshing take on the sadness we'll all experience in life ~if we haven't already.

As with all fairytales, there's also a happy ending. Win/win.

The Lady and the Unicorn

Mixed feelings about this book. I was interested in reading it because of the famed medieval tapestries by the same name. I've never seen them in person but photos of them are just incredible and the craftsmanship involved in creating them absolutely phenomenal. I've never woven anything but it seemed the author had knowledge or researched the process pretty thoroughly. It was a laborious process and done upside down, in mirror image of the finished project. So incredible especially considering the amount of detail involved. These tapestries tell a story using the five senses, which is another amazing aspect. They aren't just beautiful but give the viewer a lot to ponder about the how's and why they were created when looking at the women and scenes depicted in them. I ended the book with huge respect for the master craft of weaving.

I started out thinking the author might have delved more into the Le Viste family, especially the head of the family who would have been the authority who ordered them. Instead very little time was devoted to him ~ was that because little is known & the author didn't want to put suppositions on him?? I wish she'd shown the same constraint with the character she created as the artist behind the tapestries. He was a lothario of the first order and portrayed as the complete opposite to what the unicorn means spiritually. Very little likeable about him except his apparent painting skills.

I'm still deciding if the book does justice to the creation of the tapestries or not? Made that many years ago, their conception is open to interpretation but somehow the book left a more sordid taste about these works of art than I ever expected to feel.

Comfort Me With Apples

Not my cup of tea.

However, so short (novella??) that I don't consider my time too wasted by reading it.

A fairytale (esque) rendition of the Garden of Eden that comes with a twist of horror. Not so much horror that my squeamish self was terrified, just an uncommonly gruesome way to think of how Eve came to exist with Adam.

The Lincoln Highway

Okay, to start with, it's a book by Amor Towles ~ it's not going to be crap! We all know that. But this was definitely not the book I "thought" it was going to be. I mean the title is "The Lincoln Highway" so that leads one to believe the characters might be cruising along ON said highway. Ha. Not so. In actuality, the time spent on the Lincoln Highway could be condensed to perhaps ten minutes of reading. Honestly tho, whether we were going to be reading about a cross country trip on the Lincoln Highway, building the highway, planning it, whatever, it was a no brainer for me to download it. The author has just made a fan out of me in that way.

I've also come to expect Mr. Towles to write in the diamond style he had Abacus Abernathe describing (the author of Billy's big red book of heroes.) He always starts at one point then goes wide with his tangents and characters before narrowing back in (normally) to a startling, unexpected conclusion. Let's just say he went REALLY WIDE here. So many, many, MANY characters and POV's. Were they all really necessary?? What did we get out of Sally?? or Paster John?? or all of Duchesses childhood acquaintances?? Just to name a few... It's hard to even think of Emmet as the main character when all the other people we were introduced to along the way received equal time.

It might be best to settle back and read this book like you would drink a fine whiskey; unhurriedly, savoring every note (i.e. character) and with infinite patience to see where it leads. Definitely don't expect anything fast paced.

The ending was not as satisfying to me as I wanted or expected it to be. I almost felt the author had Emmet commit murder (knowing Duchess could not swim) which would be totally out of character for the young man we came to know. Did anyone else feel that way?? Wasn't it hard to remember he was only 18??

I'm perfectly certain I'll never remember all the people in the book but I will remember the Lincoln Highway, why it was built, that there's a lot of statues of Abraham Lincoln in strategic locations along the route, etc., etc. It was illuminating in that respect. Was that the purpose and everything else just filler??? or perhaps it was reinforcement that life's a journey and never goes as planned....