59. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

read first 2/3 on Kindle while laid up with broken elbow at Laura's, finished last 1/3 on audio/Chirp

narrated by Ari Fliakos

Unabridged audio (11:42)
2015
339 pgs.
Adult Magical Realism told in two time periods
Finished 6/2/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.60 - 32,808 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Long Island Sound, New York and "OTR" in the northeast a couple hundred years before

First line/s: "Perched on the bluff's edge, the house in in danger."

My comments: 2/3 read on Kindle 1/3 listened on Chirp.  Narrated really well.  Magical realism?  Historical fiction.  Two time periods - 1790 & present time.  Simon, the contemporary protagonist, is a librarian, brother, and swimmer who can hold his breath for 10 minutes.  The setting, a house on the edge of Long Island Sound, is slipping into the water more and more as the weeks progress until it finally totally disintegrates and slides down the bank into the sea.  There's lots and lots of water in this book.  Mermaids swimming in see-through tanks. Floods.  Downpours so bad that water seeps into houses, ruins books, pages ... lives.  Families that combine and twist and become confusingly and elaborately pulled together - to the very end.  My favorite character was the tentacle-tattooed young man who is full of electricity, lighting lightbulbs with his fingers in the traveling circus sideshow.  I particularly enjoyed listening to the narration, it has enhanced the writing for me.  At the end of the audio is a short interview with the author that is quite interesting.  Very difficult for me to rate, But I definitely liked most of it.

Goodreads synopsis:  A sweeping and captivating debut novel about a young librarian who is sent a mysterious old book, inscribed with his grandmother's name. What is the book's connection to his family?

          Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home, a house perched on the edge of a cliff that is slowly crumbling into the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks.
          One day, Simon receives a mysterious book from an antiquarian bookseller; it has been sent to him because it is inscribed with the name Verona Bonn, Simon's grandmother. Simon must unlock the mysteries of the book, and decode his family history, before fate deals its next deadly hand.
          The Book of Speculation is Erika Swyler's gorgeous and moving debut, a wondrous novel about the power of books, family, and magic.

MOVIE - The Greatest Showman

PG (1:45)

Wide release 12/20/18

Viewed 1/20/18 with all the Kilkos!
IMBd: 7.8/10

RT Critic: 55   Audience:  88
Critic's Consensus:  The Greatest Showman tries hard to dazzle the audience with a Barnum-style sense of wonder -- but at the expense of its complex subject's far more intriguing real-life story.

Cag:  3.5

Directed by Michael Gracey

Twentieth Century Fox

Hugh Jackman, Zac Ephron, Michelle Williams

My comments:  The music was wonderful, watching the kids' faces was great fun, the storytelling was OK.  I'm betting/guessing that most of the story was fictionalized, so watching it as a piece of fiction ws way more entertaining than trying to think of this as a biopic.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

12. The Museum of Extraordinary Things - Alice Hoffman

Audio read by Judith Light, Grace Gummer, and Zach Appelman

10 unabridged cds
2014, Scribner (Simon & Schuster Audio)

368 pgs.

Historical Fiction

Finished 1/31/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.72

My rating:    5 - A wonderful story, especially to listen to

TPPL

Setting: 1911 NYC

1st sentence/s: "You would think it would be impossible to find anything new in the world; creatures no man has ever seen before, one-of-a-kind oddities in which nature has taken a backseat to the coursing pulse of the fantastical and the marvelous."

My comments:  This was really two stories that slowly....ever so slowly and deliciously....come together. The time period - early 20th century - is one that I don't especially enjoy reading about for some reason, but I was mesmerized by the bits of history (yes, some very horrific bits of history, but history nontheless) that Hoffman describes in great detail.  She is one heck of a writer and one heck of a storyteller. Additionally, this one was a treat to listen to, not read.  There was a lovely voice for Coralee, and strong male voice for Eddie, and the wonderful, intense reading of Judith Light as the narrator.  Terrific!

Goodreads book summary:  From the beloved, bestselling author of The Dovekeepers, a mesmerizing new novel about the electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century.Coney Island: Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a boardwalk freak show that amazes and stimulates the crowds. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man photographing moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.
          The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as an apprentice tailor. When Eddie captures with his camera the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance.
          New York itself becomes a riveting character as Hoffman weaves her magic, romance, and masterful storytelling to unite Coralie and Eddie in a sizzling, tender, and moving story of young love in tumultuous times. The Museum of Extraordinary Things is Hoffman at her most spellbinding

PICTURE BOOK - The Farmer and the Clown - Marla Frazee

Illustrated by the author

2014 Beach Lane Books

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.32

My rating: 4

Endpapers:  red

Title Page: browns and yellow: sunrise: farmer heading for the fields, walking away from his small house

Wordless picture book

My comments:  A farmer (who lives alone way out in the country) rescues a baby clown who falls off a circus train. Through days and nights they bond and become very attached to one another - until the train returns and the farmer gets to reunite baby clown to his family. 
Happy? Yes. Sad? Yes! Perhaps my current loneliness makes me feel extra, ultra sorry for the poor farmer, but I'm left with such a sad feeling after reading this story!

Goodreads:  Whimsical and touching images tell the story of an unexpected friendship and the revelations it inspires in this moving, wordless picture book from two-time Caldecott Honor medalist Marla Frazee.
          A baby clown is separated from his family when he accidentally bounces off their circus train and lands in a lonely farmer’s vast, empty field. The farmer reluctantly rescues the little clown, and over the course of one day together, the two of them make some surprising discoveries about themselves—and about life!
          Sweet, funny, and moving, this wordless picture book from a master of the form and the creator of The Boss Baby speaks volumes and will delight story lovers of all ages. 

Tree Ring Circus - Adam Rex

Harcourt Inc., 2006
"the first book he's written"
$16.00
32 pages
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Thick, vertical two-tone yellow stripes

"One seed in the ground,
three miles out of town.
One dark little rain cloud,
then two clouds,
then three.
One fast-growing trteet where the seed used to be."

And ok, what a tree. As more and more animals -- and a clown -- perch in the tree, we see a traveling circus arrive. Now eight cages of circus animals get loose and join the tree-sitters. What happens next made me snicker out loud.

The way that Adam Rex illustrated the chanting, rhyming verse of all the animals together is a sight to behold.

"a cat who climbed up but can't find her way down,
3 chipmunks,
two sparrows,
a whopping big bee,
five mice and a raven
all live in the tree."

The Circus Ship - Chris VanDusen

Candlewick, 2009
$16.99
40 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: 2-color yellow, wide vertical stripes - very subtle.

This is the picture book my grandkids are getting for Christmas. With clever rhyming, snazzzy words, bright, fun illustrations, and rhythm shouting from every page, any kid would enjoy this. That it takes place on an island off the coast of Maine (home sweet home for much of my family) is an extra special touch. This island is SO Frenchboro or Islesford or Great Cranberry - and has its roots in a true tale from 1836!

A circus ship, loaded with animals, hits a ledge while heading south to Boston. Fifteen animals escape and swim to a nearby island. A sparsely, yet cozily inhabited, island. When the exceedingly mean circus owner comes to reclaim the animals, they are nowhere to be found. At least, not by him - but a bit of pouring over the two-page sperack and careful young eyes will find them all!

Wonderful in every way.

Check out Chris VanDusen's website.