Kate’s 2¢: “The Child Next Door” by Shalini Boland

“The Child Next Door” by Shalini Boland

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   At first, I thought that Kristie’s husband, Dom, was gaslighting her, but the double endings are much more horrific.

From the web:

 Shalini Boland is the USA-Today bestselling author of nineteen psychological thrillers. With over two and a half million copies sold, her titles have been translated into over ten languages for publication around the world.

Boland has 40 books on Goodreads with 489270 ratings. Shalini Boland’s most popular book is The Silent Bride.

her titles are published by Amazon Publishing, Audible, Bookouture, and Grand Central Publishing. Shalini lives by the sea in Dorset, England with her family and their increasingly demanding dog, Queen Jess.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The child next door DB120587

Boland, Shalini. Reading time: 11 hours, 14 minutes.

Read by Victoria Westlake.

Suspense Fiction

Psychological Fiction

“Kirstie Rawlings is jolted awake by a child crying. Racing upstairs to check on her newborn, she is plunged into every parent’s worst nightmare. She hears an unknown voice in the baby monitor, saying: ‘Let’s take the child – and go.’ Is someone trying to steal her little girl? In the bedroom, her daughter is safe asleep in her cot. Is the voice coming from a nearby house? But there aren’t any other children living on her quiet country road … The police don’t believe her. And neither does her husband. Kirstie knows something isn’t right. She thought she could trust her neighbours, now she isn’t sure. As she unravels the secrets of the people living on her street, Kirstie’s perfect life begins to fall apart. Because someone is hiding a terrible lie. And they will do anything to stop Kirstie uncovering the truth. But is the danger closer to home than she thinks?” –WorldCat. Strong language and some violence.

Downloaded: November 4, 2024

Download The child next door

Kate’s 2¢: “The house of the dead” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“The house of the dead” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I suspect, when this auto-biography was written, it was of great interest as little was known about the penal system at that time.  His introspections about each of the men he was forced to live with, cheek-by-jowl  in deplorable conditions, was an efforts to find the “gold beneath the exterior”. Dostoyevsky’s facial descriptions of the convicts are remarkable and quite memorable.

   Since there was no plot to this narrative, I found it a bit boring to keep hearing about the debauchery page after page.

   Although this story was translated by someone else, George Backman did a good job of narrating this English translation

From Wikipedia:

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Born: 11 November 1821

Moscow, Russian Empire

Died: 9 February 1881 (aged 59)

Occupation:Writer · journalist · military engineer

Notable works

Notes from Underground (1864)

Crime and Punishment (1866)

The Idiot (1868–1869)

Demons (1871–1872)

The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)

A Writer’s Diary (1873–1881)

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky[a][b] (11 November [O.S. 30 October] 1821 – 9 February [O.S. 28 January] 1881),[3] was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature,[3] as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces.[4][5] Dostoevsky’s literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.[6]

Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837 when he was 15, and around the same time, he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into Saint Petersburg’s literary circles. However, he was arrested in 1849 for belonging to a literary group, the Petrashevsky Circle, that discussed banned books critical of Tsarist Russia. Dostoevsky was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a Siberian prison camp, followed by six years of compulsory military service in exile. In the following years, Dostoevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer’s Diary, a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers.

Dostoevsky’s body of work consists of thirteen novels, three novellas, seventeen short stories, and numerous other works. His writings were widely read both within and beyond his native Russia and influenced an equally great number of later writers including Russians such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anton Chekhov, philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the emergence of Existentialism and Freudianism.[3] His books have been translated into more than 170 languages, and served as the inspiration for many films.

Ancestry[edit]

Parents

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Maria Fyodorovna Dostoevskaya

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Mikhail Andreyevich Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky’s paternal ancestors were part of a Russian noble family of Russian Orthodox Christians. The family traced its roots back to Danilo Irtishch, who was granted lands in the Pinsk region (for centuries part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now in modern-day Belarus) in 1509 for his services under a local prince, his progeny then taking the name “Dostoevsky” based on a village there called Dostojewo [pl] (derived from Old Polish dostojnik – dignitary).[7]

Dostoevsky’s immediate ancestors on his mother’s side were merchants; the male line on his father’s side were priests.[8][9]

In 1809, the 20-year-old Mikhail Dostoevsky enrolled in Moscow’s Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. From there he was assigned to a Moscow hospital, where he served as military doctor, and in 1818 he was appointed a senior physician. In 1819 he married Maria Nechayeva. The following year, he took up a post at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor. In 1828, when his two sons, Mikhail and Fyodor, were eight and seven respectively, he was promoted to collegiate assessor, a position which raised his legal status to that of the nobility and enabled him to acquire a small estate in Darovoye, a town about 150 km (100 miles) from Moscow, where the family usually spent the summers.[10] Dostoevsky’s parents subsequently had six more children: Varvara (1822–1892), Andrei (1825–1897), Lyubov (born and died 1829), Vera (1829–1896), Nikolai (1831–1883) and Aleksandra (1835–1889).[11][8][9]

Childhood (1821–1836)[edit]

Fyodor Dostoevsky, born on 11 November [O.S. 30 October] 1821 in Moscow, was the second child of Dr. Mikhail Dostoevsky and Maria Dostoevskaya (born Nechayeva). He was raised in the family home in the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, which was in a lower class district on the edges of Moscow.[12] Dostoevsky encountered the patients, who were at the lower end of the Russian social scale, when playing in the hospital gardens.[13]

Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age. From the age of three, he had read heroic sagas, fairy tales and legends by his nanny, Alena Frolovna, an especially influential figure in his upbringing and his love for fictional stories.[14] When he was four, his mother used the Bible to teach him to read and write. His parents introduced him to a wide range of literature, including Russian writers Karamzin, Pushkin and Derzhavin; Gothic fiction such as the works from writer Ann Radcliffe; romantic works by Schiller and Goethe; heroic tales by Miguel de Cervantes and Walter Scott; and Homer’s epics.[15][16] Dostoevsky was greatly influenced by the work of Nikolai Gogol.[17] Although his father’s approach to education has been described as strict and harsh,[18] Dostoevsky himself reported that his imagination was brought alive by nightly readings by his parents.[13]

Some of his childhood experiences found their way into his writings. When a nine-year-old girl had been raped by a drunk, he was asked to fetch his father to attend to her. The incident haunted him, and the theme of the desire of a mature man for a young girl appears in The Devils, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and other writings.[19] An incident involving a family servant, or serf, in the estate in Darovoye, is described in “The Peasant Marey”: when the young Dostoevsky imagines hearing a wolf in the forest, Marey, who is working nearby, comforts him.[20]

Although Dostoevsky had a delicate physical constitution, his parents described him as hot-headed, stubborn, and cheeky.[21] In 1833, Dostoevsky’s father, who was profoundly religious, sent him to a French boarding school and then to the Chermak boarding school. He was described as a pale, introverted dreamer and an over-excitable romantic.[22] To pay the school fees, his father borrowed money and extended his private medical practice. Dostoevsky felt out of place among his aristocratic classmates at the Moscow school, and the experience was later reflected in some of his works, notably The Adolescent.[23][16]

Youth (1836–1843)[edit]

On 27 February 1837, Dostoevsky’s mother died of tuberculosis. The previous May, his parents had sent Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail to Saint Petersburg to attend the free Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, forcing the brothers to abandon their academic studies for military careers. Dostoevsky entered the academy in January 1838, but only with the help of family members. Mikhail was refused admission on health grounds and was sent to an academy in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia).[24][25]

Dostoevsky disliked the academy, primarily because of his lack of interest in science, mathematics, and military engineering and his preference for drawing and architecture. As his friend Konstantin Trutovsky once said, “There was no student in the entire institution with less of a military bearing than F.M. Dostoevsky. He moved clumsily and jerkily; his uniform hung awkwardly on him; and his knapsack, shako and rifle all looked like some sort of fetter he had been forced to wear for a time and which lay heavily on him.”[26] Dostoevsky’s character and interests made him an outsider among his 120 classmates: he showed bravery and a strong sense of justice, protected newcomers, aligned himself with teachers, criticised corruption among officers, and helped poor farmers. Although he was solitary and inhabited his own literary world, he was respected by his classmates. His reclusiveness and interest in religion earned him the nickname “Monk Photius”.[27][28]

Signs of Dostoevsky’s epilepsy may have first appeared on learning of the death of his father on 16 June 1839,[29] although the reports of a seizure originated from accounts written by his daughter (later expanded by Sigmund Freud[30]) which are now considered to be unreliable. His father’s official cause of death was an apoplectic stroke, but a neighbour, Pavel Khotiaintsev, accused the father’s serfs of murder. Had the serfs been found guilty and sent to Siberia, Khotiaintsev would have been in a position to buy the vacated land. The serfs were acquitted in a trial in Tula, but Dostoevsky’s brother Mikhail perpetuated the story.[31] After his father’s death, Dostoevsky continued his studies, passed his exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet, entitling him to live away from the academy. He visited Mikhail in Reval (Tallinn) and frequently attended concerts, operas, plays and ballets. During this time, two of his friends introduced him to gambling.[32][28]

On 12 August 1843 Dostoevsky took a job as a lieutenant engineer and lived with Adolph Totleben in an apartment owned by Dr. Rizenkampf, a friend of Mikhail. Rizenkampf characterised him as “no less good-natured and no less courteous than his brother, but when not in a good mood he often looked at everything through dark glasses, became vexed, forgot good manners, and sometimes was carried away to the point of abusiveness and loss of self-awareness”.[33] Dostoevsky’s first completed literary work, a translation of Honoré de Balzac’s novel Eugénie Grandet, was published in June and July 1843 in the 6th and 7th volumes of the journal Repertoire and Pantheon,[34][35] followed by several other translations. None were successful, and his financial difficulties led him to write a novel.[36][28]

Career[edit]

Early career (1844–1849)[edit]

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Dostoevsky, 1847

Dostoevsky completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in May 1845. His friend Dmitry Grigorovich, with whom he was sharing an apartment at the time, took the manuscript to the poet Nikolay Nekrasov, who in turn showed it to the renowned and influential literary critic Vissarion Belinsky. Belinsky described it as Russia’s first “social novel”.[37] Poor Folk was released on 15 January 1846 in the St Petersburg Collection almanac and became a commercial success.[38][39]

Dostoevsky felt that his military career would endanger his now flourishing literary career, so he wrote a letter asking to resign his post. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his second novel, The Double, which appeared in the journal Notes of the Fatherland on 30 January 1846, before being published in February. Around the same time, Dostoevsky discovered socialism through the writings of French thinkers Fourier, Cabet, Proudhon and Saint-Simon. Through his relationship with Belinsky he expanded his knowledge of the philosophy of socialism. He was attracted to its logic, its sense of justice and its preoccupation with the destitute and the disadvantaged. However, his Russian Orthodox faith and religious sensibilities could not accord with Belinsky’s admixture of atheism, utilitarianism and scientific materialism, leading to increasing friction between them. Dostoevsky eventually parted with him and his associates.[40][41]

After The Double received negative reviews (including a particularly scathing one from Belinsky) Dostoevsky’s health declined and his seizures became more frequent, but he continued writing. From 1846 to 1848 he published several short stories in the magazine Notes of the Fatherland, including “Mr. Prokharchin”, “The Landlady”, “A Weak Heart”, and “White Nights”. The negative reception of these stories, combined with his health problems and Belinsky’s attacks, caused him distress and financial difficulty, but this was greatly alleviated when he joined the utopian socialist Beketov circle, a tightly knit community which helped him to survive. When the circle dissolved, Dostoevsky befriended Apollon Maykov and his brother Valerian. In 1846, on the recommendation of the poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev,[42] he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, founded by Mikhail Petrashevsky, who had proposed social reforms in Russia. Mikhail Bakunin once wrote to Alexander Herzen that the group was “the most innocent and harmless company” and its members were “systematic opponents of all revolutionary goals and means”.[43] Dostoevsky used the circle’s library on Saturdays and Sundays and occasionally participated in their discussions on freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom.[44][45] Bakunin’s description, however, was not true of the aristocrat Nikolay Speshnev, who joined the circle in 1848 and set about creating a secret revolutionary society from amongst its members. Dostoevsky himself became a member of this society, was aware of its conspiratorial aims, and actively participated, although he harboured significant doubts about their actions and intentions.[46]

In 1849, the first parts of Netochka Nezvanova, a novel Dostoevsky had been planning since 1846, were published in Notes of the Fatherland, but his banishment ended the project leaving only what was supposed to be the prologue of the novel. Dostoevsky never attempted to complete it leaving only a sketch of the novel behind.[47]

Siberian exile (1849–1854)[edit]

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A sketch of the Petrashevsky Circle mock execution

The members of the Petrashevsky Circle were denounced to Liprandi, an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Dostoevsky was accused of reading works by Belinsky, including the banned Letter to Gogol,[48] and of circulating copies of these and other works. Antonelli, the government agent who had reported the group, wrote in his statement that at least one of the papers criticised Russian politics and religion. Dostoevsky responded to these charges by declaring that he had read the essays only “as a literary monument, neither more nor less”; he spoke of “personality and human egoism” rather than of politics. Even so, he and his fellow “conspirators” were arrested on 23 April 1849 at the request of Count A. Orlov and Tsar Nicholas I, who feared a revolution like the Decembrist revolt of 1825 in Russia and the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The members were held in the well-defended Peter and Paul Fortress, which housed the most dangerous convicts.[49][50][51]

The case was discussed for four months by an investigative commission headed by the Tsar, with Adjutant General Ivan Nabokov, senator Prince Pavel Gagarin, Prince Vasili Dolgorukov, General Yakov Rostovtsev and General Leonty Dubelt, head of the secret police. They sentenced the members of the circle to death by firing squad, and the prisoners were taken to Semyonov Place in Saint Petersburg on 23 December 1849. They were split into three-man groups and the first group was taken in front of the firing squad. Dostoevsky was the third in the second row; next to him stood Pleshcheyev and Durov. The execution was stayed when a cart delivered a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence. Dostoevsky later described the experience of what he believed to be the last moments of his life in his novel The Idiot. The story of a young man sentenced to death by firing squad but reprieved at the last moment is recounted by the main character, Prince Myshkin, who describes the experience from the point of view of the victim, and considers the philosophical and spiritual implications.

Dostoevsky served four years of exile with hard labour at a katorga prison camp in Omsk, Siberia, followed by a term of compulsory military service. After a fourteen-day sleigh ride, the prisoners reached Tobolsk, a prisoner way station. Despite the circumstances, Dostoevsky consoled the other prisoners, such as the Petrashevist Ivan Yastrzhembsky, who was surprised by Dostoevsky’s kindness and eventually abandoned his decision to kill himself. In Tobolsk, the members received food and clothes from the Decembrist women, as well as several copies of the New Testament with a ten-ruble banknote inside each copy. Eleven days later, Dostoevsky reached Omsk[50][52] together with just one other member of the Petrashevsky Circle, the writer Sergei Durov.[53] Dostoevsky described his barracks:

In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall … We were packed like herrings in a barrel … There was no room to turn around. From dusk to dawn it was impossible not to behave like pigs … Fleas, lice, and black beetles by the bushel …[54][missing long citation]

Classified as “one of the most dangerous convicts”, Dostoevsky had his hands and feet shackled until his release. He was only permitted to read his New Testament Bible. In addition to his seizures, he had haemorrhoids, lost weight and was “burned by some fever, trembling and feeling too hot or too cold every night”. The smell of the privy pervaded the entire building, and the small bathroom had to suffice for more than 200 people. Dostoevsky was occasionally sent to the military hospital, where he read newspapers and Dickens novels. He was respected by most of the other prisoners, but despised by some Polish political prisoners because of his Russian nationalism and anti-Polish sentiments.[55][56]

Release from prison and first marriage (1854–1866)[edit]

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Dostoevsky as a military engineer in 1858 or -59,[57] portrait by Solomon Leibin (Соломон Лейбин)

After his release on 14 February 1854, Dostoevsky asked Mikhail to help him financially and to send him books by Vico, Guizot, Ranke, Hegel and Kant.[58] The House of the Dead, based on his experience in prison, was published in 1861 in the journal Vremya (“Time”) – it was the first published novel about Russian prisons.[59] Before moving in mid-March to Semipalatinsk, where he was forced to serve in the Siberian Army Corps of the Seventh Line Battalion, Dostoevsky met geographer Pyotr Semyonov and ethnographer Shokan Walikhanuli. Around November 1854, he met Baron Alexander Egorovich Wrangel, an admirer of his books, who had attended the aborted execution. They both rented houses in the Cossack Garden outside Semipalatinsk. Wrangel remarked that Dostoevsky “looked morose. His sickly, pale face was covered with freckles, and his blond hair was cut short. He was a little over average height and looked at me intensely with his sharp, grey-blue eyes. It was as if he were trying to look into my soul and discover what kind of man I was.”[60][61][62]

In Semipalatinsk, Dostoevsky tutored several schoolchildren and came into contact with upper-class families, including that of Lieutenant-Colonel Belikhov, who used to invite him to read passages from newspapers and magazines. During a visit to Belikhov, Dostoevsky met the family of Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva and fell in love with the latter. Alexander Isaev took a new post in Kuznetsk, where he died in August 1855. Maria and her son then moved with Dostoevsky to Barnaul. In 1856, Dostoevsky sent a letter through Wrangel to General Eduard Totleben, apologising for his activity in several utopian circles. As a result, he obtained the right to publish books and to marry, although he remained under police surveillance for the rest of his life. Maria married Dostoevsky in Kuznetsk on 7 February 1857, even though she had initially refused his marriage proposal, stating that they were not meant for each other and that his poor financial situation precluded marriage. Their family life was unhappy and she found it difficult to cope with his seizures. Describing their relationship, he wrote: “Because of her strange, suspicious and fantastic character, we were definitely not happy together, but we could not stop loving each other; and the more unhappy we were, the more attached to each other we became”. They mostly lived apart.[63] In 1859 he was released from military service because of deteriorating health and was granted permission to return to European Russia, first to Tver, where he met his brother for the first time in ten years, and then to St Petersburg.[64][65]

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Dostoevsky in Paris, 1863

The short story “A Little Hero” (Dostoevsky’s only work completed in prison) appeared in a journal, but “Uncle’s Dream” and “The Village of Stepanchikovo” were not published until 1860. Notes from the House of the Dead was released in Russky Mir (Russian World) in September 1860. Humiliated and Insulted was published in the new Vremya magazine,[c] which had been created with the help of funds from his brother’s cigarette factory.[67][68][69]

Dostoevsky travelled to western Europe for the first time on 7 June 1862, visiting Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Wiesbaden, Belgium, and Paris. In London, he met Herzen and visited the Crystal Palace. He travelled with Nikolay Strakhov through Switzerland and several North Italian cities, including Turin, Livorno, and Florence. He recorded his impressions of those trips in the essay “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions”, in which he also criticised capitalism, social modernisation, materialism, Catholicism and Protestantism.[70][71] Dostoevsky viewed the Crystal Palace as a monument to soulless modern society, the myth of progress, and the worship of empty materialism.[72]

From August to October 1863, Dostoevsky made another trip to western Europe. He met his second love, Polina Suslova, in Paris and lost nearly all his money gambling in Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden. In 1864 his wife Maria and his brother Mikhail died, and Dostoevsky became the lone parent of his stepson Pasha and the sole supporter of his brother’s family. The failure of Epoch, the magazine he had founded with Mikhail after the suppression of Vremya, worsened his financial situation, although the continued help of his relatives and friends averted bankruptcy.[73][74]

Second marriage and honeymoon (1866–1871)[edit]

The first two parts of Crime and Punishment were published in January and February 1866 in the periodical The Russian Messenger,[75] attracting at least 500 new subscribers to the magazine.[76]

Dostoevsky returned to Saint Petersburg in mid-September and promised his editor, Fyodor Stellovsky, that he would complete The Gambler, a short novel focused on gambling addiction, by November, although he had not yet begun writing it. One of Dostoevsky’s friends, Milyukov, advised him to hire a secretary. Dostoevsky contacted stenographer Pavel Olkhin from Saint Petersburg, who recommended his pupil, the twenty-year-old Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina. Her shorthand helped Dostoevsky to complete The Gambler on 30 October, after 26 days’ work.[77][78] She remarked that Dostoevsky was of average height but always tried to carry himself erect. “He had light brown, slightly reddish hair, he used some hair conditioner, and he combed his hair in a diligent way … his eyes, they were different: one was dark brown; in the other, the pupil was so big that you could not see its color, [this was caused by an injury]. The strangeness of his eyes gave Dostoyevsky some mysterious appearance. His face was pale, and it looked unhealthy.”[79]

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Memorial plaque to Dostoevsky in Baden-Baden

On 15 February 1867 Dostoevsky married Snitkina in Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg. The 7,000 rubles he had earned from Crime and Punishment did not cover their debts, forcing Anna to sell her valuables. On 14 April 1867, they began a delayed honeymoon in Germany with the money gained from the sale. They stayed in Berlin and visited the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, where he sought inspiration for his writing. They continued their trip through Germany, visiting Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. They spent five weeks in Baden-Baden, where Dostoevsky had a quarrel with Turgenev and again lost much money at the roulette table.[80] At one point, his wife was reportedly forced to pawn her underwear.[81] The couple travelled on to Geneva.[82]

In September 1867, Dostoevsky began work on The Idiot, and after a prolonged planning process that bore little resemblance to the published novel, he eventually managed to write the first 100 pages in only 23 days; the serialisation began in The Russian Messenger in January 1868.

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Plaque for baby Sofya

Their first child, Sofya, had been conceived in Baden-Baden, and was born in Geneva on 5 March 1868. The baby died of pneumonia three months later, and Anna recalled how Dostoevsky “wept and sobbed like a woman in despair”.[83] Sofya was buried at the Cimetière des Rois (Cemetery of Kings), which is considered the Genevan Panthéon. The grave was later dissolved but in 1986 the International Dostoevsky Society donated a commemorative plaque.[84]

The couple moved from Geneva to Vevey and then to Milan before continuing to Florence. The Idiot was completed there in January 1869, the final part appearing in The Russian Messenger in February 1869.[85][86] Anna gave birth to their second daughter, Lyubov, on 26 September 1869 in Dresden. In April 1871, Dostoevsky made a final visit to a gambling hall in Wiesbaden. Anna claimed that he stopped gambling after the birth of their second daughter, but this is a subject of debate.[d]

After hearing news that the socialist revolutionary group “People’s Vengeance” had murdered one of its own members, Ivan Ivanov, on 21 November 1869, Dostoevsky began writing Demons.[89] In 1871, Dostoevsky and Anna travelled by train to Berlin. During the trip, he burnt several manuscripts, including those of The Idiot, because he was concerned about potential problems with customs. The family arrived in Saint Petersburg on 8 July, marking the end of a honeymoon (originally planned for three months) that had lasted over four years.[90][91]

Back in Russia (1871–1875)[edit]

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Dostoevsky (left) in the Haymarket, 21/22 March 1874

Back in Russia in July 1871, the family was again in financial trouble and had to sell their remaining possessions. Their son Fyodor was born on 16 July, and they moved to an apartment near the Institute of Technology soon after. They hoped to cancel their large debts by selling their rental house in Peski, but difficulties with the tenant resulted in a relatively low selling price, and disputes with their creditors continued. Anna proposed that they raise money on her husband’s copyrights and negotiate with the creditors to pay off their debts in installments.[92][93]

Dostoevsky revived his friendships with Maykov and Strakhov and made new acquaintances, including church politician Terty Filipov and the brothers Vsevolod and Vladimir Solovyov. Konstantin Pobedonostsev, future Imperial High Commissioner of the Most Holy Synod, influenced Dostoevsky’s political progression to conservatism. Around early 1872 the family spent several months in Staraya Russa, a town known for its mineral spa. Dostoevsky’s work was delayed when Anna’s sister Maria Svatkovskaya died on 1 May 1872, from either typhus or malaria,[94] and Anna developed an abscess on her throat.[92][95]

The family returned to St Petersburg in September. Demons was finished on 26 November and released in January 1873 by the “Dostoevsky Publishing Company”, which was founded by Dostoevsky and his wife. Although they accepted only cash payments and the bookshop was in their own apartment, the business was successful, and they sold around 3,000 copies of Demons. Anna managed the finances. Dostoevsky proposed that they establish a new periodical, which would be called A Writer’s Diary and would include a collection of essays, but funds were lacking, and the Diary was published in Vladimir Meshchersky’s The Citizen, beginning on 1 January, in return for a salary of 3,000 rubles per year. In the summer of 1873, Anna returned to Staraya Russa with the children, while Dostoevsky stayed in St Petersburg to continue with his Diary.[96][97]

In March 1874, Dostoevsky left The Citizen because of the stressful work and interference from the Russian bureaucracy. In his fifteen months with The Citizen, he had been taken to court twice: on 11 June 1873 for citing the words of Prince Meshchersky without permission, and again on 23 March 1874. Dostoevsky offered to sell a new novel he had not yet begun to write to The Russian Messenger, but the magazine refused. Nikolay Nekrasov suggested that he publish A Writer’s Diary in Notes of the Fatherland; he would receive 250 rubles for each printer’s sheet – 100 more than the text’s publication in The Russian Messenger would have earned. Dostoevsky accepted. As his health began to decline, he consulted several doctors in St Petersburg and was advised to take a cure outside Russia. Around July, he reached Ems and consulted a physician, who diagnosed him with acute catarrh. During his stay he began The Adolescent. He returned to Saint Petersburg in late July.[98][99]

Anna proposed that they spend the winter in Staraya Russa to allow Dostoevsky to rest, although doctors had suggested a second visit to Ems because his health had previously improved there. On 10 August 1875 his son Alexey was born in Staraya Russa, and in mid-September the family returned to Saint Petersburg. Dostoevsky finished The Adolescent at the end of 1875, although passages of it had been serialised in Notes of the Fatherland since January. The Adolescent chronicles the life of Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate child of the landowner Versilov and a peasant mother. It deals primarily with the relationship between father and son, which became a frequent theme in Dostoevsky’s subsequent works.[100][101]

Last years (1876–1881)[edit]

File:Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky, 1879

In early 1876, Dostoevsky continued work on his Diary. The book includes numerous essays and a few short stories about society, religion, politics and ethics. The collection sold more than twice as many copies as his previous books. Dostoevsky received more letters from readers than ever before, and people of all ages and occupations visited him. With assistance from Anna’s brother, the family bought a dacha in Staraya Russa. In the summer of 1876, Dostoevsky began experiencing shortness of breath again. He visited Ems for the third time and was told that he might live for another 15 years if he moved to a healthier climate. When he returned to Russia, Tsar Alexander II ordered Dostoevsky to visit his palace to present the Diary to him, and he asked him to educate his sons, Sergey and Paul. This visit further increased Dosteyevsky’s circle of acquaintances. He was a frequent guest in several salons in Saint Petersburg and met many famous people, including Countess Sophia Tolstaya, Yakov Polonsky, Sergei Witte, Alexey Suvorin, Anton Rubinstein and Ilya Repin.[102][103]

Dostoevsky’s health declined further, and in March 1877 he had four epileptic seizures. Rather than returning to Ems, he visited Maly Prikol, a manor near Kursk. While returning to St Petersburg to finalise his Diary, he visited Darovoye, where he had spent much of his childhood. In December he attended Nekrasov’s funeral and gave a speech. He was appointed an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from which he received an honorary certificate in February 1879. He declined an invitation to an international congress on copyright in Paris after his son Alyosha had a severe epileptic seizure and died on 16 May. The family later moved to the apartment where Dostoevsky had written his first works. Around this time, he was elected to the board of directors of the Slavic Benevolent Society in Saint Petersburg. That summer, he was elected to the honorary committee of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, whose members included Victor Hugo, Ivan Turgenev, Paul Heyse, Alfred Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, Henry Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Leo Tolstoy. Dostoevsky made his fourth and final visit to Ems in early August 1879. He was diagnosed with early-stage pulmonary emphysema, which his doctor believed could be successfully managed, but not cured.[104][105]

File:Dostoyevsky%27s_funeral

Dostoevsky’s funeral

On 3 February 1880 Dostoevsky was elected vice-president of the Slavic Benevolent Society, and he was invited to speak at the unveiling of the Pushkin memorial in Moscow. On 8 June he delivered his speech, giving an impressive performance that had a significant emotional impact on his audience. His speech was met with thunderous applause, and even his long-time rival Turgenev embraced him. Konstantin Staniukovich praised the speech in his essay “The Pushkin Anniversary and Dostoevsky’s Speech” in The Business, writing that “the language of Dostoevsky’s [Pushkin Speech] really looks like a sermon. He speaks with the tone of a prophet. He makes a sermon like a pastor; it is very deep, sincere, and we understand that he wants to impress the emotions of his listeners.”[106] The speech was criticised later by liberal political scientist Alexander Gradovsky, who thought that Dostoevsky idolised “the people”,[107] and by conservative thinker Konstantin Leontiev, who, in his essay “On Universal Love”, compared the speech to French utopian socialism.[108] The attacks led to a further deterioration in his health.[109][110]

Death[edit]

File:Dostoyevsky_on_his_Bier,_…

Dostoevsky on his bier, drawing by Ivan Kramskoi, 1881

File:%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%…

Dostoevsky’s grave in Saint Petersburg

On 6 February [O.S. 25 January] 1881, while searching for members of the terrorist organisation Narodnaya Volya (“The People’s Will”) who would soon assassinate Tsar Alexander II, the Tsar’s secret police executed a search warrant in the apartment of one of Dostoevsky’s neighbours.[citation needed] On the following day, Dostoevsky suffered a pulmonary haemorrhage. Anna denied that the search had caused it, saying that the haemorrhage had occurred after her husband had been looking for a dropped pen holder.[e] After another haemorrhage, Anna called the doctors, who gave a poor prognosis. A third haemorrhage followed shortly afterwards.[114][115] While seeing his children before dying, Dostoevsky requested that the parable of the Prodigal Son be read to his children. The profound meaning of this request is pointed out by Joseph Frank:

It was this parable of transgression, repentance, and forgiveness that he wished to leave as a last heritage to his children, and it may well be seen as his own ultimate understanding of the meaning of his life and the message of his work.[116]

Among Dostoevsky’s last words was his quotation of Matthew 3:14–15: “But John forbad him, saying, I have a need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”, and he finished with “Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!”.[117] His last words to his wife Anna were: “Remember, Anya, I have always loved you passionately and have never been unfaithful to you ever, even in my thoughts!”[118] When he died, his body was placed on a table, following Russian custom. He was interred in the Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Convent,[119] near his favourite poets, Nikolay Karamzin and Vasily Zhukovsky. It is unclear how many attended his funeral. According to one reporter, more than 100,000 mourners were present, while others describe attendance between 40,000 and 50,000. His tombstone is inscribed with lines from the New Testament:[114][120]

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.

— John 12:24

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The house of the dead DB20646

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Reading time: 11 hours, 30 minutes.

Read by George Backman.

Classics

First published in English in 1881, this classic work is told in the form of an autobiography of a Russian landowner condemned to penal servitude in Siberia. Based on the author’s own experiences while in prison, the novel traces the different effects of confinement on the moral natures of a group of criminals.

Downloaded: November 4, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Iceman” by Peter Deutermann

“The Iceman” by Peter Deutermann

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   I really enjoyed this story that was one of seven stories on one NLS cartridge. It was well written with craft and suspense, drama and humanness.

From Wikipedia:

Peter T. Deutermann is an American writer specializing in police procedural and mystery novels. Deutermann spent 26 years in the Navy before finally turning his attention towards the literary world. +Biography Born to Lieutenant Commander H.T Deutermann in 1941, P.T Deutermann’s family moved from Boston to La Jolla in California in 1944, where they…

Deutermann’s writing career began with Scorpion in the Sea. Moving to Georgia to explore his writing, Deutermann published the book through Gorge Mason University press in 1992. It was Scorpion in The Sea that landed him his agent, through whom Deutermann entered into a contract with St. Martin’s Press a year later.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The iceman DB117013

Deutermann, Peter T Reading time: 10 hours, 44 minutes.

John Pruden

Suspense Fiction

War Stories

“The Iceman is an action-packed World War II military thriller featuring a daring United States Navy submarine commander during the Pacific war in 1942-43. In 1942, off the port city of St. Nazaire in occupied France, a United States Navy S-class submarine assigned to the Royal Navy lurks just outside the borders of the minefield protecting a German U-boat base. Lieutenant Commander Malachi Stormes, the boat’s skipper, patrols dangerously close to the minefield entrance and manages to trap and sink three outbound U-boats in one spectacular attack. Britain decorates him, the U.S. Navy promotes him and then gives him command of a brand new class of submarine, a fleet boat called Firefish. Based in Perth, Australia, having been driven out of the Philippines by the Japanese juggernaut, the Perth boats are the only American forces capable of hitting the Japanese in the western Pacific. Stormes, with his cold, steely-eyed focus on killing Japanese ships, is an enigma to his officers and crew, especially when it becomes clear that he is willing to take huge chances to achieve results. Firefish sinks more ships than any Perth boat on her first war patrol, but Stormes’ unconventional tactics literally frighten his crew. Driven by a past steeped in the whiskey-haunted violence of the Kentucky coal fields, whose psychological scars torment his sleep and close him off from personal relationships, Stormes is nicknamed The Iceman. His crew is proud of their boat’s accomplishments, but wonder if their iron-willed skipper will bring them home alive. With intense action and featuring authentic submarine tactics in the early years of the Pacific war, The Iceman continues P. T. Deutermann’s masterful, award-winning cycle of thrillers set during World War II.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton

“Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I’ve often heard people refer to this book, but I don’t remember ever reading it, so, I’ve remedied that situation.

   John MacDonald did a good job of narrating this classic story about Ethan Frome and why he became such a recluse and intriguing figure in the neighborhood. I enjoyed this story and am amazed at Wharton’s background.

From Wikipedia:

Edith Newbold Wharton (/ˈhwɔːrtən/; née Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider’s knowledge of the upper-class New York “aristocracy” to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1996.[1] Her other well-known works are The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

File:Edward_Harrison_May_-_Edi…

Portrait of Wharton as a child by Edward Harrison May (1870)

Edith Newbold Jones was born on January 24, 1862, to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, at their brownstone at 14 West Twenty-third Street in New York City.[2][3] To her friends and family, she was known as “Pussy Jones”.[4] She had two elder brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward.[2] Frederic married Mary Cadwalader Rawle; their daughter was landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. Edith was baptized April 20, 1862, Easter Sunday, at Grace Church.[2]

Wharton’s paternal family, the Joneses, were a very wealthy and socially prominent family, having made their money in real estate.[5] The saying “keeping up with the Joneses” is said to refer to her father’s family.[6][7] She was related to the Rensselaers, the most prestigious of the old patroon families, who had received land grants from the former Dutch government of New York and New Jersey. Her father’s first cousin was Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.[8] Fort Stevens, in New York, was named for Wharton’s maternal great-grandfather, Ebenezer Stevens, a Revolutionary War hero and general.[9]

Wharton was born during the Civil War. However, in describing her family life, Wharton does not mention the war, except that their travels to Europe after the war were due to the depreciation of American currency.[2][10] From 1866 to 1872, the Jones family visited France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.[11] During her travels, the young Edith became fluent in French, German, and Italian. At the age of nine, she suffered from typhoid fever, which nearly killed her, while the family was at a spa in the Black Forest.[2] After the family returned to the United States in 1872, they spent their winters in New York City and their summers in Newport, Rhode Island.[11] While in Europe, she was educated by tutors and governesses. She rejected the standards of fashion and etiquette that were expected of young girls at the time, which were intended to allow women to marry well and to be put on display at balls and parties. She considered these fashions superficial and oppressive. Edith wanted more education than she received, so, she read from her father’s library and from the libraries of her father’s friends.[12] Her mother forbade her to read novels until she was married, and Edith obeyed this command.[13]

Early writing[edit]

File:Edith_Wharton_by_Edward_H…

Edith Wharton by Edward Harrison May

Wharton wrote and told stories from an early age.[14] When her family moved to Europe and she was just four or five, she started what she called “making up.”[14] She invented stories for her family and walked with an open book, turning the pages as if reading while improvising a story.[14] Wharton began writing poetry and fiction as a young girl, and she attempted to write her first novel at the age of 11.[15] Her mother’s criticism quashed her ambition, however, and she turned to poetry.[15] She was 15 years old when her first published work appeared, a translation of a German poem “Was die Steine Erzählen” (“What the Stones Tell”) by Heinrich Karl Brugsch, for which she was paid $50. Her family did not want her name to appear in print, since writing was not considered a proper occupation for a society woman of her time. Consequently, the poem was published under the name of a friend’s father, E. A. Washburn, a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who supported women’s education.[16] In 1877, at the age of 15, she secretly wrote a novella, Fast and Loose. In 1878, her father arranged for a collection of two dozen original poems and five translations, Verses, to be privately published.[17] Wharton published a poem under a pseudonym in the New York World, in 1879.[18] In 1880, she had five poems published anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly, an important literary magazine.[19] Despite these early successes, she was not encouraged by her family or her social circle, and though she continued to write, she did not publish anything more until her poem “The Last Giustiniani” was published in Scribner’s Magazine in October 1889.[20]

The “debutante” years[edit]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Ethan Frome DB17455

Wharton, Edith. Reading time: 3 hours, 20 minutes.

Read by John MacDonald.

Classics

A tale of retribution about a discouraged New England farmer and his hypochondriac wife. Their empty lives are suddenly changed when her cousin, a young girl who still finds joy in life, comes to live with them.

Downloaded: November 4, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “Lone Bull’s horse raid” by Dorothy and Paul Goble

“Lone Bull’s horse raid” by Dorothy and Paul Goble

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

  Bruce Huntey did a good job of narrating this story. Prior to the story, there is a lengthy description of the culture that made this story important. It seems like in every culture, the children who disobey their parents, end up smelling like roses!

   The information I found on the authors listed  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, didn’t sound like writers, but rather like Politicians.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Lone Bull’s horse raid DB22252

Goble, Paul; Goble, Dorothy. Reading time: 42 minutes.

Read by Bruce Huntey.

Historical Fiction

Adventure

Lone Bull, a young Oglala Sioux warrior-in-training, describes his first horse raid. He tells how he and his best friend, Charging Bear, join a party of warriors as they set out to raid the neighboring Crow Indians. Lone Bull’s account explains the significance and excitement of the raid and the fierce competition among the warriors for personal glory. 1973.

Downloaded: November 4, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Best of Friends” by Lucinda Berry

“The Best of Friends” by Lucinda Berry

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Jill Fox did a good job of narrating this emotionally charged sory. I enjoyed the suspense, even though, I did suspect the out-come.

From the web:

USA Today bestselling author, Dr. Lucinda Berry, is a former psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. With millions of books worldwide, she’s written multiple bestsellers including The Perfect Child, Saving Noah, and Keep Your Friends Close.

Now, she spends her days writing full-time where she uses her clinical experience to blur the line between fiction and nonfiction.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The best of friends DB105399

Berry, Lucinda. Reading time: 8 hours, 36 minutes.

Read by Jill Fox.

Suspense Fiction

Psychological Fiction

Best friends Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani face tragedy when their teen sons are in a tragic accident. One dies, one is in a coma, and the third is too traumatized to speak. As the investigation into the accident digs deeper, secrets begin to surface. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. 2020.

Downloaded: October 6, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “Do Not Disturb” by Freida McFadden

“Do Not Disturb” by Freida McFadden

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Well done. I’ve read several of McFadden’s books and enjoyed everyone of them. This story has the inevitable plot pivot times two.

   Holly Adams and Daniel Thomas May did a great job of narrating this story for NLS.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.freidamcfadden.com

Freida McFadden (born May 1) is an American author and practicing physician specializing in brain injury from New York City.

Biography[edit]

McFadden self-published her first book through Amazon KDP in 2013. Her 2022 book The Housemaid was an international bestseller. A movie adaptation of the book is set to be adapted for Lionsgate with Rebecca Sonnenshine to pen the screenplay, and Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman and Alex Young to produce.[1]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Do not disturb DB122010

McFadden, Freida. Reading time: 7 hours, 55 minutes.

Read by Holly Adams; Daniel Thomas May.

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

“Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime. To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she’s done. But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night. Unfortunately, the Baxter Motel isn’t the quiet, safe haven it seemed to be. The motel has a dark and disturbing past. And in the dilapidated house across the way, the silhouette of Nick’s ailing wife is always at the window. Always watching. In the morning, Quinn must leave the motel. She’ll pack up her belongings and get back on the road to freedom. But first, she must survive the night.”– Goodreads. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Downloaded: November 4, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “Green frog: stories: by Gina Chung

“Green frog: stories: by Gina Chung

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

      It was nice to hear a variety of readers read the numerous stories in this book sent to me by NLS on a cartridge of seven books.

      I certainly hope that before someone starts to mutilate herself reading the “How To Eat Your Heart”, the reader will read the whole story first.

   “Green Frog” examines the dilemma of the Korean daughter who stays home to care for her parents. Her mother told of a green frog who always did the opposite…

   This collection of stories high-lights various facets of the Korean culture and folk lore, which I found fascinating.

From the WEB:

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. She is the author of the novel Sea Change, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a 2023 B&N Discover Pick, an APALA Adult Fiction Honor Book, and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book, and the short story collection Green Frog which was a Good Morning America Book Buzz Pick. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in One Story, BOMB, The Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, and Gulf Coast, among others. She is a faculty member of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program at Lasell University.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Green frog: stories DB120490

Chung, Gina Reading time: 7 hours, 9 minutes.

Jeena Yi; Hannah Choi; Sue Jean Kim

Short Stories

Family

“Equal parts fantastical — a pair of talking dolls help twins escape a stifling home, a heart boils on the stove as part of an elaborate cure for melancholy — and true to life — a mother and daughter try to heal their rift when the daughter falls unexpectedly pregnant, a woman reexamines her father’s legacy after his death — the stories in this collection are hopeful and heartbreaking, full of danger and full of joy. Chung is a master at capturing emotion, and her characters — human and otherwise – will claw their way into your heart and make themselves at home”– Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Download Green frog: stories DB120490

Kate’s 2¢: “Light bringer: a Red Rising novel”

“Light bringer: a Red Rising novel”

     by Pierce Brown

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   This was one of seven stories on a cartridge the NLS sent, so, I read it.

   It took a while of listening to get into who was where and doing what in the universe.

   I enjoyed listening to Tim Gerard Reynolds Read this lengthy story.

Pierce Brown – Wikipedia

Pierce Brown (born January 28, 1988) is an American science fiction author who writes the Red Rising series, consisting of Red Rising (2014), Golden Son (2015), Morning Star (2016), Iron Gold (2018), Dark Age (2019), and Light Bringer (2023).

PIERCE BROWN

From #1 New York Times bestelling author Pierce Brown, the Red Rising Saga is the story of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom. LEARN MORE “Brown writes layered, flawed characters… but plot is his most breathtaking strength.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Light bringer: a Red Rising novel DB116610

Brown, Pierce Reading time: 30 hours, 12 minutes.

Tim Gerard Reynolds

Science Fiction

Bestsellers

War Stories

“Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age. “Brown’s plots are like a depth charge of nitromethane dropped in a bucket of gasoline. His pacing is 100% him standing over it all with a lit match and a smile, waiting for us to dare him to drop it.” NPR, on Dark Age. “The measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.” Virginia au Augustus. The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains. But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend. The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

Download Light bringer: a Red Rising novel DB116610

Kate’s 2¢: “Eat the document: a novel” by Dana Spiotta

“Eat the document: a novel” by Dana Spiotta

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   It is risky business to try to live a lie when you’re livingwith a computer savvy teen.

   I found it interesting that the woman on the lam had such a hard time, but the gellow on the lam seemed to be rather casual about it all.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

danaspiotta.com

Dana Spiotta (born 1966) is an American author. She was a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature,[1] a Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

She is the author of five novels. Innocents and Others (2016) won the St. Francis College Literary Prize. Stone Arabia (2011) was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.[2] Eat the Document (2006) was a National Book Award finalist[3] and won the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[4] Lightning Field (2001) was a New York Times Notable Book of the year.[5]

In 2021, Spiotta published Wayward, which concerns four women: Sam Raymond, a perimenopausal woman; Ally Raymond, Sam’s daughter; Lily, Sam’s mother; and Clara Loomis, a fictitious 19th Century suffragette who ran away to the Oneida Community as a young woman. Wayward was a New York Times Critics’ Top Pick of 2021

Spiotta was born in 1966 in New Jersey. Her father, son of Italian immigrants, worked for Mobil Oil, and his constant moving made Spiotta a perennial “new-kid”. Her parents met at Hofstra University while acting in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by fellow student Francis Ford Coppola.[8] In 1979, her father began running Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios.[9] She attended Crossroads School and went on to Columbia University, but dropped out at the end of her sophomore year. She moved to Seattle and eventually enrolled at Evergreen State College and studied labor history and creative writing.[9]

She teaches in the Syracuse University MFA creative writing program along with George Saunders, Mary Karr.[10] Spiotta lives in Syracuse, New York with her daughter and her husband, writer Jonathan Dee.[11]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Eat the document: a novel DB64681

Spiotta, Dana. Reading time: 8 hours, 18 minutes.

Read by Martha Harmon Pardee. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Psychological Fiction

In 1972, radical war protestor Mary Whittaker and her lover Bobby Desoto become fugitives and separate after a bombing turns deadly. In Seattle in 2000, widow Mary’s teenage son Jason, an anticorporate activist, uncovers his mother’s deadly secret and finds Bobby for her. Strong language. National Book Award finalist. 2006.

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nt: a novel