10,000 SAINTS by Eleanor Henderson

 Finished We 10/27/22

I bought this book from Amazon because I saw the movie that was released in 2015 with Ethan Hawke, Emily Mortimer, and Emile Hirsch.  

An excellent coverage of the 'Straight Edge' movement of the late 80's. 

This was taken from the film's page at Wikipedia:

"Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini became interested in adapting the novel after Berman read it. She remarked, "I read the book and I loved how human the characters were and how flawed, yet well-meaning, they were, which I think is a very truthful thing about most people. I loved that era in New York. I thought it was such an exciting time for me, so there was a personal connection. It was this time when New York was really scruffy and dangerous, and there was crime, violence, crack, and AIDS – a lot of very horrible things, but also excitement and creative opportunity. You could be an artist and live in Manhattan in a squat and pay no rent. It seems inconceivable right now."[9] In addition, Berman also was interested in the parenting aspect of the story, adding, "One of the things in the book that’s so interesting – and I had friends like this – are people who were raised by parents who were hippies and didn’t give them a lot of rules and boundaries. The question is, how do you rebel against the people who invented rebellion? Because youth is about rebelling. I think there’s an element of that in straight edge, which became very popular around that time with young people who were rebelling against what they thought was screwing up their parents. There was something seductive and rebellious about being sober and not being promiscuous ."

Hailee Steinfeld was announced to be in talks for the role of Eliza in October 2013, and was cast in December of that year. Asa Butterfield and Ethan Hawke were cast earlier before Steinfeld. Emile Hirsch, Julianne Nicholson, Emily Mortimer and Nadia Alexander were cast in early 2014. Avan Jogia was cast as Teddy in early February 2014. Filming started in New York City on January 27, 2014 and ended on March 3, 2014."

Link to the review in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/25/ten-thousand-saints-henderson-review

I loved the book and would most definitely read more by Eleanor Henderson.

JULIAN by Gore Vidal

 Finished Mo 10/17/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read. It was really a treat to 'discover' this lovely novel.  A light approach and an interesting format.

Julian is the Roman emperor who tried to restore Hellenism to the empire. The emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion. 

Julian does not refer to the followers of Jesus as 'Christians'. He calls them 'Galileans' because Jesus was from Galilee. 

The Council of Nicea was in 325 and this meeting established the overall thrust of Christianity. What books would be included in the bible and they tried to settle the controversy of 'the three headed god'. If god was 'the one and only god', where does Jesus fit the equation? 

Most of the historical novel is 'first person' in Julian's voice. Frequently, the narration is broken up by two commentators, Libanius & Priscus, two friends of Julian's. 

All of Gore Vidal's historical novels are chock full of interesting details; Julian declared a tax exemption for families with more than thirteen children. He did this because some Romans believed that the Gauls would 'replace' the indigenous population.   

Here's the book's page at Wikipedia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_(novel)

EVERYONE DIES by Michael McGarrity

 Finished Tu 10/4/22

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first read and finished on Mo 2/2/09 and I had bought the book at the January Book Sale on Sa 1/10/09. "Great read and I'll check out more by this author".

A competent police procedural that is set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The author was a former deputy sheriff of Santa Fe county, New Mexico. 

The central character is Kevin Kerney and this book is a part of a series.

A prominent attorney is gunned down and then more people connected to Kerney are being killed. My only gripe with the book is that it seemed that the body count was too high. 

Kerney's wife is eight months pregnant and she is also a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Military Police. 

Part of a review of the book at Publishers Weekly:

" A vicious killer slashes his way into the midst of this family crisis, beginning by shooting a Santa Fe lawyer, and in quick succession murdering Kerney's beloved horse, a forensic psychologist and a probation officer. It doesn't take long for Kerney to realize that his entire family has been targeted, especially after the killer begins leaving messages that say, "Everyone Dies." Area law enforcement personnel rally around the chief and begin a massive investigation. The large and varied supporting cast is sometimes difficult to keep straight, but McGarrity's fondness for his characters is evident, as is his love for the harsh but beautiful mountain and desert landscape they inhabit. Readers familiar with the series will be happy to settle back with the chief, his complicated family and the men and women of the department for another enjoyable installment."

It's a great 'airport read' and I'd definitely read more by this author.

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood

 Finished Fr 9/30/22

This is an eBook that I got from the library and read on Kindle. I had watched the first disc of the series and liked it so much that I wanted to read the book. I also learned that Atwood wrote a sequel to the book called 'THE TESTAMENTS'. The library has this novel and I'll read it soon.

The novel spells out in graphic detail the horror of political religious extremism.  

The world has experienced a near zero birth rate and all fertile women are forced into the service of having children. Rich couples employ a 'handmaiden' to birth children and then raise them as their own.

Most of the novel is seen through the character of 'Offred'. She is a handmaiden 'Of Fred', her 'lord and master'. However, she has a relationship with the man and this is forbidden. 

Review from THE GUARDIAN: 

"This year sees the 25th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Atwood's dystopian classic, and to honour the occasion, the book has been reissued by Vintage. The Handmaid's Tale tells the story of Offred – not her real name, but the patronymic she has been given by the new regime in an oppressive parallel America of the future – and her role as a Handmaid. The Handmaids are forced to provide children by proxy for infertile women of a higher social status, the wives of Commanders. They undergo regular medical tests, and in many ways become invisible, the sum total of their biological parts.

Offred remembers her life before the inception of Gilead, when she had a husband, a daughter and a life. She had been a witness to the dissolution of the old America into the totalitarian theocracy that it now is, and she tries to reconcile the warning signs with reality: "We lived in the gaps between the stories."

Offred's tender remembrances of times past provide relief from the brutality of her new life, in which her body has become a cause of discomfort for her. Her former life is presented through glimpses of her university friends, her husband, her freedom. They are shadowy memories made all the more indistinct by Atwood's lyrical prose, in which facts appear to merge into one another, and history appears immaterial; Offred is kept alive by her inner life, and reality and history become a kind of symbiotic mirage.

Fiercely political and bleak, yet witty and wise, the novel won the inaugural Arthur C Clarke award in 1987, but Atwood has always maintained that the novel is not classifiable science fiction. Nothing practised in the Republic of Gilead is genuinely futuristic. She is right, and this novel seems ever more vital in the present day, where women in many parts of the world live similar lives, dictated by biological determinism and misogyny."