Glorious Exploits

Title:  Glorious Exploits

Author:  Ferdia Lennon

Publication Information:  Henry Hold and Co. 2024. 304 pages.

ISBN:  1250893690 / 978-1250893697

Rating:   ★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "So Gelon says to me, 'Let's go down and feed the Athenians.'"

Favorite Quote:  "Anything is possible, and it always has been. For the world was once just a dream in a god's eye, and the man who gives up on himself makes the very same god look away."

Glorious Exploits is an interesting combination. From the book descriptions, the book is billed as a "celebration of that which binds humanity" set "on the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War" told in "a contemporary Irish voice" as an "ode to the power of art in a time of war" and is "as riotously funny as it is deeply moving."

The plot goes as follows. The Syracusans are victors of a battle. The Athenians are the losers. The victors have gathered the losers as prisoners into an open air prison of a rock quarry. Two potters who are unemployed and looking for merriment offer the prisoners food if they can recite lines from Euripides. Their plan grows from that into putting on a production of Medea from Greek mythology. After all, it's all in good fun except that things take a much darker turn as the opening day gets closer.

Unfortunately, for me, I am completely not the reader for this book. I cannot get past the opening descriptions of this prison and the starving, dying prisoners. The idea of someone then using them for sport makes it worse. The thought of food and the possibility of fending of starvation as the "incentive" is horrifying. "The extra bit of food we're giving them has started to take effect. A stranger could tell which Athenians are the actors by the fullness of their cheeks, the straightness of their backs. As our cast fill out, the other prisoners wither all the more."

Two much real history of such prisons and such atrocity exists. Two much is happening today in the world that resembles this open air prison and the starvation of a population. To turn that into a comic story is not funny, at least not to me.

I love historical fiction because it introduces me to history I may not otherwise learn. The history of this book dates from about 415 BC and the Athenian attempted invasion of the Syracuse. The Athenians were defeated and suffered great losses. The remains of the Athenian forces were executed, sold into slavery, or let to starve in quarries. Unfortunately, that is not the history that will remain with me from this book. Rather, it will be the vision of theater in the midst of this horror. The ending does offer some redemption to this vision. However, it is much too late for me.

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Expiration Dates

Title:  Expiration Dates

Author:  Rebecca Serle

Publication Information:  Atria Books. 2024. 272 pages.

ISBN:  1982166827 / 978-1982166823

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The paper is blank save for the name: Jake."

Favorite Quote:  "Life is a catch-22 ... That's why God invented female friendship."

Relationships can be hard. Relationship take work. Relationships are full of uncertainty. I think this is something most people would agree on. So many people make a commitment and invest in a relationship for a lifetime. However, what if at the very start of a relationship, you knew exactly to the year, month, and day how long it was going to last? Would you invest as much? Would you work and try as hard? Would that knowledge add a certainty to the relationship or would it simply create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

These are the questions at the heart of this story. Every relationship Daphne Bell has ever had has come with an expiration date. When she meets a new man, she mysteriously also gets a slip of paper with the man's name and the amount of time the relationship will last. With that knowledge, Daphne never lets herself fully invest in the relationship because she knows a breakup is coming. "If you never stop long enough to sink into something, then it can't destroy you. It's easier to climb out of a pool than a well, is the thing." Again, the question arises. Is the knowledge the certainty or does belief in the knowledge create the inevitability of the breakup? Is the conclusion predetermined or does Daphne's belief and ensuing actions create the conclusion?

Then, along comes Jake. For Jake, Daphne receives the paper, but, this time, the paper has just a name with no timeframe. Does that mean forever or a lifetime or something else? For the first time in her life, Daphne approaches a relationship with no known end in sight. Again, the question arises. Does the lack of a date mean forever or does Daphne allow for and create the potential because she believes it to be possible?

The book is partly a sweet love story. If you choose to believe, the book is about the magic of the slips of papers. The book, of course, is about relationships - both long and short ones - and their potential to change the direction of our lives. However, more so, the book leaves me thinking about how much of life is predestined versus how much is driven by our choices; and how much our choices are influenced by our beliefs about ourselves and about the world around us.

If you had the choice, would you want to know the ending? For my life, I would not. I choose to be present now.

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After Annie

Title:  After Annie

Author:  Anna Quindlen

Publication Information:  Random House. 2024. 304 pages.

ISBN:  0593229800 / 978-0593229804

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Annie Brown died right before dinner."

Favorite Quote:  "You need to let them know that sadness shouldn't lead to silence. You need to find a way to do that every day."

This book grapples with the incredible challenge of dealing with the death of a loved one. It deals with the even bigger challenge when that death is sudden and unexpected. Not that you ever expect death. Not even when everything indicates death is coming are you ever actually prepared for the finality of it.

Annie Brown is the glue that holds her family and her friends together. Her husband, her children, and her best friend all rely on her. Then, one day, Annie suddenly dies of a brain aneurysm. There are, of course, the logistics to deal with - the hospital, the funeral, the condolences, and more. There is also life to deal with because life goes on. Days rise and end. School, meals, jobs, and the myriad details of day to day life. Within the logistics of it all is the emotion and the grief.

Annie's husband Bill is lost and overwhelmed. Annie's children are thrust out of their childhood in dealing with things no child should have to deal with. Some of the burden of care falls to the oldest Ali as she tries to step into the caretaker role for her younger siblings and, to some extent, her father. Annemarie, who loses her best friend, deals with anchoring herself and caring for herself in the way that Annie did while trying simultaneously to care for Annie's family.

The story travels through the year after Annie's death - a year of firsts - and the emergence of life ... after Annie. The story is one of grief and its power to change us. It is a story of grief as it traverses memories of a lifetime through the different narrators of the story. This is, however, also a story of hope and of the potential for joy even after such an unfathomable loss.

As with other Anna Quindlen books, this book brings to life ordinary people - people readers can relate to - in a situation that all us hope to never have to face. Also like the author's other books, this story is slow and quiet. It starts with a shocking event but then quietly weaves its way through grief. In a way, that slow pace works for this story for grief lasts a lifetime with steps forward and backwards. In this, the book rings true. This is a story that resonates and lingers in its voice longer after I finish the book.

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