My Reading Frenzy

YA Fabulous

I've been on a reading frenzy again without benefit of blogging, but now thanks to the wonder that is summer break I am back and ready to talk. 

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi  The main character here is Tool, the half-man who made a significant appearance in Ship Breaker.  I listened to Ship Breaker quite a long time ago, but I did not blog about it....though I am not sure why.  Ship Breaker is the 2011 winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, and well deserved it.  This book takes a close look at the groups fighting for eminence in this post apocalyptic world.  Nailer,"Lucky Girl," and Pima in Ship Breaker are parallel to Mahlia and Mouse in The Drowned Cities.  All these teens should be dating, studying in school, and going to proms, but instead they are fighting for their lives and livelihoods in a world that uses their peers as cannon fodder in a war that has no right or wrong side.  Tool, who features in both stories is a genetically engineered being part human, part animal.  Which side of him is predominant at any given time is what drives the story.  I have not figured out if this is supposed to have taken place before or after Ship Breaker, but I suspect, after.  Maybe?  (I recently purchased The Windup Girl as I am intrigued by Bacigalupi after two such fantastic YA titles.  I want to see what he does with adult fiction.)

Insurgent by Veronica Roth:  After I read Divergent I thought I would go crazy before I could read Insurgent.  Luckily I retained my sanity, and the book was well worth the wait.  The only problem was my inability to remember some important details from Divergent.  I will not make that mistake again and will most likely read the first two again before the third.  In this one Tris is back and the conflict between the factions is more intense.  While I like the dystopia concept I do wish there were more time in the world when it was still working before diving into the downfall of the society.  This series is ripe for a pre-quel. 

Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride:  I really loved this humorous, horror novel.  Yes, you read that right funny and scary.  Sam discovers pretty early on that he is a necromancer, one who has power over the dead.  His family has kept this from him to protect him...this is really the only cliche and somewhat predictable part of the novel.  Because necromancers can steal each other's power by killing, Sam must watch out for Douglas the most powerful necromancer in the area and head of a council of other supernatural folks including fey and wolves.  This type of book series has exploded since "the book that shall not be named" made vampires cool, but this one is different.  It is well written, funny, with full characters about whom I am looking forward to finding out more in Necromancing the Stone due out in September.  

Timepiece by Myra McEntire:  I had held out a long time before I finally read Hourglass, but I found I could not resist the time travel premise.  I really liked Hourglass and its cover.  In fact, the cover is what I liked best about Timepiece though I have no idea what the covers have to do with story, especially as in this case, the book is narrated by Kaleb, so the idea that it is Emerson on the cover just does not work.  Even the title has little meaning this time, while "Hourglass" had a strong link to the characters.  I know there is a third book in the works, and I will need to read it to finish up the trilogy, but after this one I am not sure how interested I am.  There was so little true tension created and while I was rooting for Kaleb, as I should because he narrated, I did not feel any connection to the others who drew me in in the first book.  A bit disappointing overall.   

 

In my next post I will discuss The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge, my most recent adult fiction reads as well as That Woman by Anne Sebba about the life of Wallis Simpson. 

For Your Listening Pleasure

I am almost always listening to at least one audiobook, and usually it is two: one in the car and one on my ipod around the house and at the gym.  I try to listen to a lot of non-fiction since I sometime have a difficult time getting through non-fiction if it is not riveting on the page.  Below are some of the audobooks I am currently listening to or have recently finished. 

 

 

 

1.  Bossypants by TIna Fey  Four words...hil-ar-i-ous.  I think Tina and I could be best friends if all that fame and fortune weren't standing between us.  I especially liked the parts about Tina's life pre-fame growing up in Pennsylvania, college in VA, and post-college pre-fame days.  The book is wondefully read by Fey who adds in all sorts of asides the book does not include.  I highly recommend this one. 

 

 

 

2.  One hazard of listening to books is getting a bad reader.  This has not happened to me often, but it is a danger.  The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is read by Tony Goldwyn.  As it turns out, this is a book I could probably have read because the whole story about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair entwined with the story of serial killer H.H. Holmes is riveting.  I learned a great deal about the phenomenon that was the White City and probably more than I wanted to know about the activities of Dr. Holmes.  But wow, what a book, so meticulously researched and writing that draws the listener in.  Because I so enjoyed this one, I decided to go ahead and listen to In the Garden of Beasts also by Erik Larson read by Stephen Hoye the same reader as The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee to which I also listened.  I am always thrown off at first by a reader I have heard before because I associate that voice with a particular story.  Luckily this guy is really good as well because I was a bit disappointed when it was not Goldwyn again.  I am only at the beginning of this one, but so far it is as interesting as the last.  

3.  Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith is another recent listen.  While Queen Elizabeth's own life has been free of scandal, her sister, and three of her children were right up to their ears in it.  I enjoyed listening to this one for details I did not know about the Queen.  A companion book I listend to a few months ago is The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown read by Rosalyn Landor.  If Elizabeth the Queen is all "Diana was a kook, the Queen is wonderful," then this one is a pretty fair look at both women.  On deck for this summer, either to read or listen is Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton, which will have a bit of a different take on the story I think. 

4.  I am currently listening to Great House by Nicole Krauss, read byAlma Curvo, George Guidall, Celeste Ciulla, and Paul Hect.  It is so unlike anything else to which I have listened/read I am not sure how to describe it.  There are four different stories being told, and at least three of them seem to revolve around one desk.  They take place in different countries and the time keeps skipping around so I am not entirely sure how it is all going to go...this of course is why it is such an interesting story.   As soon as I get caught up in one story , the narration switches and I get caught up in the next story.  This is another one I could easily have read, but I am very happy with the many readers and enjoy their characterizations.  (Reading audiobooks is something I would love to do some day.  I have done a bit of voicework (a very small bit), but I enjoy it and think I am pretty good.)  Even more than 3/4 of the way through the book I am not sure how "great house" is connected, but I suppose that is another reason the book is so fantastic. 

 

A different kind of magic world...

Before I read this book I heard it described as Harry Potter for adults.  In a superficial way, this is true.  Quentin does not know he is a wizard until he is applying for colleges and is offered a place at Brakebills, a magic school sort of in up-state New York.  Quentin practices magic, makes friends, drinks a lot, has some sex, travels to a magical world....oh, not exactly like Harry Potter right???  The book also did not have the cozy Harry Potter feeling.  Maybe some of you will disagree, but despite the death and horrors of Harry's life, I never had a feeling of impending doom, subconsciously I guess I felt books sold in the children's section would have to turn out alright.  In The Magicians I felt an aura of bad-ness.  I just knew it was not going to be ok.  In a way, I was correct, in others I was not.  (I am trying not to give anything away.) 

Just as there are overtones of Potter here, there is also a big smattering of Narnia, a splash of Middle Earth, and maybe even a bit of Alice in Wonderland.  I liked it, but I am going to digest for a bit longer before I delve into the sequel...it may go on my "Summer Reading" shelf.  

Spring Break Books

So, my totally valid and not weak at all excuse for not blogging in so long is that I was away for spring break.  Ok, I admit it, this is a lame excuse since I was only away for a week...a week ago.  So really, I have been slacking a bit.  This is mainly only a detriment to myself as the reason I blog in the first place is to better remember what I read and have someplace to look to remind myself what I have read and how I felt about it. 

The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell, author of The Vespertine.  This book is not a direct sequel of The Vespertine, but instead involves the cousin of Amelia, who has her own supernatural power...she has a way with water.  This power comes in handy when Zora is sent by her mother to live in the Oklahoma Territory.  Zora's love has died (as detailed in The Vespertine) and she longs to escape Baltimore and the memories.  She compromises herself by publicly smooching a stranger and quicker than you can sing O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A she is off.  I enjoyed The Vespertine and this book did not disappoint.  It ends clearly pointing to a story that will bring the two girls together. 

 

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani  I made a concerted effort to take along some of the non-YA fiction I have been wanting to read.  I love YA, but I do sometimes feel the themes can be repetitive, I also find adult fiction to be sometimes more challenging and thought provoking.  With that goal in mind, I purchased The Shoemaker's Wife the day it was released so I would have it for the trip.  While Trigiani's novels also repeat elements, I find them engaging and informative.  This one began in the mountains of Italy and ended in Minnesota.  Trigiani often focuses on Italian families, which is always interesting for me as we are not Italian.  I also like the tales of the immigrant experience as researched by Trigiani.  I cannot rave about this book being unique, or different, but it is another tale from this author who can be counted on to tell a good story. 

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter  This is essentially a retelling of The Secret Garden.  It could have been done poorly with trite modern additions, but Potter really kept the good bones of the story and made each character new and separate from those of Frances Hodgson Burnett.  I enjoyed revisiting a childhood favorite in this way.  I would not use this book as a substitute in the reading life of a child I love, but instead encourage reading both.

 

 

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles  This is the book I most enjoyed.  It takes place in New York City mainly in 1938; it begins on New Year's Eve.  Katey Kontent is the main character.  But her friend Eve and the young man, Tinker Grey, whom they meet on the book's opening night figure prominently in the next year of Katey's life.  In general I like historical fiction, but while this one addressed World War II and other world events tengentially, it is much more a story about day to day life for Katey, who has a job, lives in a small apartment and is just trying to make a life for herself with hopes for finding love and fulfillment.  I would not have known the author was male, if I did not know the author was male.  He smoothly tells the story from the perspective of a woman, reminding me a bit of Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar.  I was originally attracted to this book by the cover, and it really lived up to my expectations. 

The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch  I did not actually read this book while on break, but I bought it in Charleston, SC (our first stop) at a little indie bookstore called Blue Bicycle Books right on King St.  They are a mix of new and used, with a great local authors section, where I found this book.  And that had that little extra something that makes an indie store great: a sweet, fluffy cat.  Alexandria Lee begins her time in Savannah by smoking a great deal of pot.  (For this reason I will not be able to take this to my middle school library.)  She is there because her mother has died and she is not yet old enough to be on her own.  Life is significantly different in upper-class Savannah than it was on the commune in California.  First of all, Alexandria finds she is legacy in the Magnolia League of which her grandmother is the grand pubah and her mother was a member.  What takes a bit longer is to discover why exactly the league members are so special, and why they cannot ever leave Savannah.  I am looking forward to the second installment in July, though I have made a pact to read through my TBR pile of adult fiction, including John Irving, Ann Patchett and others, this summer!  Sigh...so many books, so little time.  

Two about Time

It seems that lately I like to blog after I have read two books rather than after each one.  In this way I can connect two books that may or may not have anything in common.  It is a nice challenge.  Most recently I have read The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley and Hourglass by Myra McEntire. 

The Orchid House was both engaging and disappointing at the same time.  The story was a good old "family secrets," historical fiction, England, modern tragedy book.  I like these types of stories when Kate Morton writes them.  This story reminded me of her work.  Julia is a concert pianist who has lost both her husband and son in a terrible car accident.  When she visits the estate on which her grandparents worked when she was a child, she discovers it is to be sold.  Visiting her grandmother she begins to unravel a mystery in which her family and the owners of Wharton Park, the Crawfords, are caught up.  This storyline is mingled with that told to Julia by her grandmother Elsie about the days at the estate both immediately before and after World War II.  The story has some surprises which keep it from being too formulaic however I say this having read the entire novel, the writing was appallingly bad.  Stilted conversations, too much telling rather than showing, and just a lack of engaging detail.  I stuck with it because the author was successful in making want to know what would happen.  There is another detail I feel like I need to mention but this is GOING TO BE A SPOILER, so stop here  and move to the next paragraph about the next book.  Julia finds out eventually that her mother was not the daughter of Elsie and Bill (two very British, white people) at all, but instead the daughter of Harry Crawford and the Thai woman with whom he fell in love after the war.  It is emphasized numerous times that Jasmine (who died many years before, when Julia was 11) looked strikingly like her mother, a Thai woman, yet at no point during or after her life has anyone questioned her parentage.  This quite frankly is ridiculous.  Even if she were described as having particularly Anglo features like her British father, which she was not, she is clearly NOT the child of Elsie and Bill.  This is really the one plot contrivance that was just too far-fetched to be believed.  Despite my forbearance because I enjoyed the plot, I will not be passing this book along to friends, or anyone else.  

Next, I am glad to say I read the wonderfully written time-travel book, Hourglass.  This is a YA novel combining romance, fantasy, adventure, and a pinch of teen angst.  Emerson sees people from the past, and has had extensive psychological and psychiatric intervention to discover why.  When Michael, who works for Hourglass, comes along he tells her these visions are simply ripples in time she is able to see because she can travel into the past.  He sees similar ripples from the future. This means they are a matched pair able to travel together anywhere in time so long as someone provides a portal.  Because Michael is devastatingly handsome and only a few years older than 17 year old Emerson angst and romance ensue.  (This book reminded me a tiny bit of Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red, but not enough to feel like a copy cat.)  Because there is to be a sequel, the novel ends rather abruptly with all sorts of unfinished business, this is of course an evil tactic on the part of authors and publishers to get me to run out to buy the next book, Timepiece, as soon as it is released on June 12th, but I am not eager, no not me.  

All about family

I do not choose sappy books knowingly, perhaps subconsciously.  However, I do tend to like books with happy endings (though I am pretty flexible in my definition of happy ending), which to me sometimes means sappy.  I am not just rambling here, but leading up to discussing the two most recent books I have read. 

The first is Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult.  I read everything Picoult writes and have only missed two of her early novels, which I will most likely read some day.  I like all the books I have read, I do not like them equally well, but I do like them.  This newest release falls near the top of the middle.  What I most liked about this one is actually all the facts about real wolves.  What I liked least is the daughter, Cara.  Usually when I am not thrilled with a character it is because he/she is not realistic.  Cara is supremely realistic from her desperate need to ignore the truth to her selfishness, she is 17, no doubt.  I just did not find her to be a likable 17 year old.  My other issue with this book is that I have read 16 of Picoult's 18 novels.  They are meticulously researched, the characters are engaging, the dialogue is realistic, there are always surprises, yet somehow they are beginning to seem too much the same.  There is a pattern, a similarity about them that is becoming disconcerting.  This happened a few books ago and I keep reading, because I always like the books, I do not find them predictable, but yet I find them the same.  I am not sure what I will do about it, and it does not sound like a real reading dilemma, but it is.  Bottom line, this is a good book.  If you have read and enjoyed Picoult in the past you will read and enjoy this one.  If this will be your first, it is not a bad place to start, but you will not want to miss Nineteen Minutes, The Pact,  or Second Glance, which are my favorites.  

The book I finished just a few minutes before sitting down to compose this post is Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos.  This book begins with friendship and ends with love, but not in a predictable way.  It is also about the end of love, death, and healing.  It too is filled with realistic and likable characters.  I really like Pen and her daughter Augusta as well as her mother, father, and brother.  Cat I like less well, but that is as I think de los Santos intended.  The story revolves around three friends: Pen, Will, and Cat who lost touch (though "lost" is a bit inaccurate as they really "left" touch, or "stopped" touch) a few years after they had been fast friends in college.  Their ten year reunion brings all the memories and angst back to the forefront when Cat sends an unexpected e-mail to the other two.  Despite feeling like it will be all about the friendship, the book explores the separate lives of the three, especially Pen, to illustrate why they both do and do not need each other.  It was really well done and happy without sappy, and profound without preachiness.  I highly recommend it.  Also check out Love Walked In and Belong to Me by de los Santos.  

 

Chick Lit?

I am not entirely sure I believe in the concept "chick lit." It seems to me that novels written by and about females can be enjoyed by anyone.  In fact isn't the greatest achievement of literature that it takes fictional characters and places them in realistic (sometimes) situations that then help us each to understand something about ourselves and humanity in general.  This is, I believe, the whole concept behind the YA Saves movement.  The idea being, teens can read about fictional characters who are experiencing the tribulations of being young adults they themselves are experiencing and thereby feel less alone.  Because even though the characters are fictional, the author, who obviously understands and empathizes, is not. 

So, the two books I have read recently that started this rant are I Think I Love You, by Allison Pearson and A Grown-up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson (whose reading and book signing I was fortune to attend last weekend).  Both books are by female authors and address particularly female experiences: teen idol worship and motherhood respectively.  However, I still would not necessarily classify them as chick lit. if such a thing does exist. 

Pearson's book spends a great deal of time in 1974 just before the "retirement" of teen idol David Cassidy.  While I know who he is, and have watched a fair few episodes of The Partidge Family, I was too young to have experienced the hype.  Petra, the main character is 13 in 1974 and fully a disciple of Cassidy.  The early part of the book spends a great deal of time describing Cassidy's appeal and Petra's obsessions in particular along with some of the other teen issues with which she was dealing (ie first boyfriends, false friends, and a strict mother).  Though Cassidy was not my crush of choice (Ricky Schroeder and Michael Jackson ca. Thriller) I understand Petra and her longings.  For me though, the second half of the book when Petra is an adult and mother was much more interesting.  The childhood memories are necessary to understanding some of Petra's insecurities as an adult, but the adult experiences are what make the book.  (Do not miss the transcript of Pearson's 2004 interview with Cassidy at the end of the book.)

Jackson's story is as fine as her previous novels (Gods in Alabama; Between, Georgia; Backseat Saints; and The Girl Who Stopped Swimming).  Three generations of Slocumb women Ginny, Liza, and Mosey fight, love, and heal with each other.  It sounds a bit hokey I guess, but as the three generations are only 15 years apart there are interesting intersections in their lives.  While Mosey is trying to avoid the fate of her grandmother and mother, Liza is recovering from a stroke brought on in part by her previous drug use, and Ginny (or Big) tries to hold everyone together while neglecting her own needs.  All wrapped up in these issues is the problem of the tiny corpse found in the backyard when the willow tree is cut down.  A "must read" for fans of Jackson, and a good place to start if you have not read her work. 

 
                                  

Flavorwire » A Brief History of Time Travel Literature

I LOVE time travel literature.  I just do, no explanation, no deep meaningful analysis, I just love people mucking about in other times than their own and wish I could do it myself.  

Read all about it!

via flavorwire.com

Rebecca Makkai's The Borrower

I got this book because the book flap said it is about a librarian, and it was, sort of.  The fact that the main character, Lucy Hull is a children's library is somewhat incidental to the story, but not its focus.  It is her job that brings Ian Drake, the secondary main character to her...he is 10 and an avid reader.  Her knowledge of books also weaves itself through the story when she recommends books to Ian, then makes references to various books as they go on their adventure, and again when she makes lists for Ian of books he should read each year until he is 18.  But overall, the book is not really about books, though a "mortal" (inside joke from the book) is about the power books and stories can have in our lives.  (I always love a book about how important books are.)

Even though Lucy is 26 she is still a bit lost in life.  She tries to separate herself from her Russian/Soviet background, but the reader knows one cannot stop being what one is.  Ian is lost because of parents who want him to be what they want, not what he is.  This makes Lucy and Ian perfect quest companions, because in a way they want the same thing...to figure out who they are and how to be who they are. 

While Lucy is clearly the focus of the story, the reader is also drawn to Ian who is so young, but seems to realize the life he is being steered toward by his parents is not the one he wants though he is not able to articulate this because he is after all, only 10.  His journey with Lucy is the only way he knows to run away from what he wants to escape.  A backpack and a trusted adult are really the only thing a boy his age needs.  We love Ian and root for he and Lucy to make their escape....but as we know, there is no escape from reality.  The book is sad and funny and uplifting and wonderful. 

 

Deanna Raybourn - The Dark Enquiry

I have enjoyed Raybourn's Lady Julia nysteries, but this one, my 5th, may be my last.  There is no flaw in the mystery; I did not figure it out until just before the protagonists.  There is no flaw in the characterizations; the characters are exactly the same as they have been.  Therein lies the problem.  I am bored by Julia and Brisbane.  Brisbane revealed a few secrets about himself in this installment, but all the development of these characters is superficial.  Most interestingly this story dovetailed nicely with a non-fiction I am currently reading about the daughters of Queen Victoria.  Her eldest daughter Victoria, married Fritz of Prussia.  Prime Minister, or Chancellor at the time was Otto von Bismarck.  Bismarck plays an ancillary role in this mystery.  But I did not even learn much history in this hictorical fiction.  I wish I could give this story high praise, as I liked the other novels, but it was boring.

The God of the Hive - Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Laurie King's 10th book, The God of the Hive, in the Mary Russell series is a continuation of book nine, The Language of Bees.  Returning are Damian and Estelle Adler, bad guy Thomas Brothers, American pilot Javitz, Inspector Lastrade of Scotland Yard, Mycroft Holmes, and of course Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes.  In this book however, the source of the trouble is revealed as Mary and Sherlock, with the help of woodsman, Robert Goodman work to save their family and themselves from insidious machinations.  It all sounds a bit melodramatic, but this series does tend toward the intense without being ridiculous.  I have yet to read 10 books in a mystery series without finding them predictable and formulaic, not so with this series.  I love Mary Russell, a resourceful sleuth, who is of course a woman unlike her Victorian counterparts. I have looked forward to these books and reading one a year is just about right. 

While the reader knows the identity of the "god of the hive" early in the book, Mary and Sherlock's search creates the tension.  Since the characters are separated through 75% of the book, the narrative follows each until they come together towards the end to pool their information and nab the perpetrator. 

King does an excellent job of making the reader care about the characters while delivering a tension filled mystery as well as a historical look at Victorian England, though primarily London. I would not jump in and read just this book, or even its predecessor.  There is too much interesting back story in the previous novels, starting with the first, The Beekeeper's Apprentice.  It is well worth it to start at the beginning and enjoy the entire story of Mary Russell. 

 

The Distant Hours - Kate Morton

I have sadly finished the third book by Kate Morton; sad because there are no more to read right now.  I wrote about the first two The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden in a previous post.   I did not read those two in the order in which they were written, but the order does not actually matter as Morton's books are not related to each other.  What they do have in common is fantastic-ness. 

The Distant Hours is again a work of historical fiction revolving around World War II.  Edie discovers, in the present, after the delivery of a 50 year old letter, that her mother was evacuated to Milderhurst Castle during the war.  At Milderhurst, reside the three Blythe sisters; twins Persephone (Miss Percy) and Seraphina (Miss Saffy) and their younger sister Juniper.  They are the now elderly daughters of Raymond Blythe the renowned author of The True History of the Mud Man.  There is not much else I can say without giving the book away.  Just as with the other two, Morton has story-wrighted (just like wheelwrights, shipwrights, and playwrights are crafters, so too is Morton) a story of love, betrayal, death, longing, and loyalty that just carries the reader along.  When I read her books my brain is firing all its neurons trying to figure out where she is going with these characters and their secrets.  Sometimes I get it partially right and other times I am just wrong, wrong, wrong.  But that is what I look for in a good mystery: brain exercise and twists and turns I cannot anticipate.  

Read it!  Then join me in waiting patiently (or not) for Morton's next book! 

Alexander McCall Smith - The Dog Who Came in from the Cold

Alexander McCall Smith's latest is The Dog Who Came in from the Cold, the second installment in the Corduroy Mansions series.  What I like best about the books of Alexander McCall Smith including The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Isabel Dalhousie series, The 44 Scotland Street series, and now The Corduroy Mansions series is the characterizations.  Each of his characters is unique from all the others, and each has a quirk of humanity that all readers can recognize.  The stories are positive and optimistic without being sickeningly sweet.  Even though two of the series Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency and Isabel Dalhousie usually have a mystery at their center, sometimes an actual crime but otherwise mysteries of human behavior they are not frightening or graphic.  Even the series that are not overtly mysteries certainly spend some time presenting human behaviors for our edification, to make us think about our own lives.  I keep waiting in a pessimistic reader way for one of the books to sour me on AMS, but so far I like all that I read. 

The Dog Who Came in From the Cold continues the story of those who live in and around the Corduroy Mansions block in Pimlico in London.  (Incidentally, all of McCall's books make me want to move to their location be it Botswana, Edinburgh, or London.)  There is literary agent Barbara Ragg and her new love Hugo, as well as her business partner Rupert Porter; psychotherapist Berthea Snark and her gullible brother Terence Moongrove and peripherally her son the snarky Oedipus Snark;  the young art students Caroline and James who may or may not be a couple; and perhaps most significant in this book, William and his Pimlico terrier Freddie de lay Hay who is conscripted to work for MI6.  It is not a comedy but there are funny parts, it is not a romance, but there are love stories, it is not a drama, but there is plenty of drama.  The book is unlabel-able, but wonderful. 

Jennifer Weiner - Then Came You

Ever since Good in Bed I have enjoyed the novels of Jennifer Weiner:

1.  They take place in Philadelphia, so I get to hear about places I have been.  In fact, in this book she references a stand in the Reading Terminal Market that is owned by the family of a good friend of mine.

2.  She deals mainly with the lives of females as her main characters.  It is always interesting to read various perspectives on the relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters, friends, etc. 

3.  Her topics are not sooooo trendy that the books will become dated quickly. 

While I liked Then Came You, it is not my favorite of Weiner's books.  The premise is that four women come together in the life of one child.  One woman provides the egg, another is the surrogate, one is the mother, and the fourth is the aunt.  Of course it is all much more complicated than that.  I liked each of the women individually, and do enjoy books in which the perspective switches so the reader can get to know all the pertinent characters. But (obviously there was going to be a but...) I felt the idea that these four women would come together they way they did was too contrived, it just did not feel real to me.  

Despite this assessment, I would still recommend the book.  It has so many positive aspects relating to the individual reasons each woman becomes involved and her relationships with the people in her life who.  Each of the women is likeable but realisitically flawed.   Overall this is another strong story fom Weiner with fully developed female characters, I just did not care for the ending. 

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

I finished The Help a few weeks ago, but wanted to wait until after my book club met to discuss it before blogging.  I liked it about 100 times better than Wench.  Sadly, I was one of two people who had finished the book in the group, so the conversation was a bit stilted. 

The Help was everything Wench was not.  The story was told from multiple perspectives, I cared about the characters, and there was a solid historical perspective.  As I used to teach, all truly good novels that will live on beyond their time include commentary on religion, politics, economics, and society.   While the society of rich/middle class white ladies in Jackson, Mississippi is the focus,the assassination of Medgar Evers takes place in the scope of the novel.  The politics of a few characters who are running for state and national office is also an undercurrent.  Additionally the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed "Christians" who treat the help as if they are not people touches every part of the story. 

There are parts of the novel that made me angry, as they were meant to.  Other parts made me cry.  Any book that can truly raise the emotions of the reader is a success.   As the author grew up in the area where the story takes place, I can only hope she got the historical details correct as I have no basis to judge.  A non-fiction account of the same time period with interviews of both employers and employees would be a wonderful supplement to The Help. 

The Help is all over the place these days in part because the movie is coming out this summer.   I am a little wary about seeing it because I rarely think the movie version lives up to the book.  But I will probably see it anyway as I liked the book enough to want to see the characters come alive, especially Miss Celia and Minny who were my favorites. 

 

Kate Morton - Two for the Summer

So far, I have read two novels by Kate Morton.  The first was The Forgotten Garden, which I did not read all that long ago, but did not blog about for some reason.  Maybe the I needed to wait for the impact of the second book I have read called The House at Riverton.  The books are not related to each other, but I did read Morton's second book first.  I think though I may have liked her first better, which I finished this morning in my jammies because I could not wait to find out how it would turn out.  I went as long as I could last night, but my eyes just would not stay open for another moment.  There is a third book called The Distant Hours, which I have placed on hold at the library. 

All three of these books deal with family mysteries. The Forgotten Garden switches back and forth from the present of a young woman who has lost her husband and child in a car accident.  After her grandmother dies Cassandra seeks to solve the mystery of her families origins.  The story moves in to the past as Morton allows us to discover the clues along with Cassandra.  While pieces of the mystery come out quite early one, the last one does not click in to place until the very end.  In this way, the reader may feel like she has it all figured out, but does not.  The main character in the past is a children's book writers who is herself adrift without family support.  I read this on the recommendation of an English teacher friend who liked the inclusion of a literary mystery along with the family mystery.  The garden is also a bit reminiscient of Frances Hodgeson Burnett's The Secret Garden. 

The House at Riverton kept reminding me of Masterpiece's wonderful mini-series Downton Abbey because of the inclusion of the perspective of the servants in a grand English home.  The novel begins just before the start of World War I but is told by Grace who is now 98 years old looking for someone to whom to tell her story before all the secrets of the Hartford family are lost with her.  She chooses to record her message on tapes she sends to her grandson whose whereabouts are unknown to her and his mother, though he sends postcards.  Grace began as a housemaid at Riverton, but by the time she left service she was a ladies maid to Hannah Hartford, the eldest daughter in the family.  It is difficult to talk about this book and The Forgotten Garden without giving away any of the mystery.   One of the strongest elements of the book besides the characterization is the attention to detail when describing the time.  I love historical fiction of this time period; so much changed in the way people lived and saw their place in  the world because of World Wars I and II.  So much of our modern sensibilities were formed by these incredibly destructive experiences.   One can read history books to review the facts, but biographies and historical fiction are the only way to understand what people's lives were like if you are not able to speak with someone who lived through it all. 

I am looking forward to the third book hoping for more of Morton's attention to detail and vivid portrayals of the way people are affected by history. 

Ann Brashares for adults - Sisterhood Everlasting

I liked the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series as well as The Three Willows, a book for tweens more than teens.  Sisterhood Everlasting is the first adult book I have read by Brashares.  And yes, it is an adult book, but it is clearly aimed at all the girls who read about the sisterhood when they were teens and have themselves become twenty-somethings.  I am a bit older than that, but can remember my 27-self well.  Ann Brashares is not likely to be recognized with a Pulitzer or Nobel, but her books are solidly written, with few to no holes or implausibilities.  What she does is make the reader feel what her characters feel, something I am highly susceptible to, so I laughed out loud a few times, garnering odd looks from my boyfriend who does not understanding my immersion in books. and cried some other times.  I enjoy finding out what has happened to characters...later.  I do not need to be there for every tiny step, but it is satisfying to come back to characters you liked the first time around.  This is not a fluffy beach read, but it does still feel like a summer book and it moves quickly and switches from girl to girl...they begin the book together and each appropriately walk their own path until they come back to each other in the end. 

I like Brashares because she reminds us about the strength of female friendships, the importance of love, the power of grief, the need for connections and all those other things we know, but need to be told again from time to time.  There are no great revelations about life in this novel, but sometimes the comfort of familiar characters just living is exactly what we need.  

Caleb's Crossing - Geraldine Brooks

Overall I really liked this book.  I do think the title was a bit misleading though.  While Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk is a significant element of the book, the story really belongs to Bethia Mayfield.  I found her and her experiences as a woman on Martha's Vineyard and the mainland in the mid-1600s very interesting.   Not to go all English teacher on ya, but I always taught my students that a book that is truly "good"  (And yes I know that "good" is all a matter of subjectivity.) will comment on religion, politics, economics, and society.  This book covers them all.  Having read Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, (which I recommend if you want a detailed history of the time and historical figures) which discusses the Pilgrims and King Philip's War, which is touched on in this book, I felt well prepared for the historical elements Brooks was covering.  Without a background in the time period, I would have like a bit more history mixed with my fiction.  But Brooks was attempting to tell the story of a man about whom very little is known.  Her fiction therefore is a really comprehensive look at the life of a teen girl and the harsh reality of her life and that of native peoples in the region. 

You may notice I keep tempering any criticism with praise because I really have very little to criticize about the novel.  I have read both March (which won a Pulitzer) and People of the Book by Brooks and will continue to read her work as long as she keeps writing it.  Brooks approaches historical fiction the way it should be done...she takes real historical events and people then gives them life with voices and personality.  It is one of the best ways to touch history without doing the research.  The bonus is she dreams up the people and conversations and day to day events to give shape to the greater historical significances that sometimes obscure the real people. 

 

The Mapping of Love and Death - Jacqueline Winspear

I have been reading the Maisie Dobbs mysteries since the beginning.  I have liked them all.  As much as I am still drawn in by the mystery after seven novels (there is an 8th out in hardback: A Lesson in Secrets, but I have not read it yet.),  I really enjoy the historical elements of Maisie's life.  I also appreciate that Maisie's life progresses.  Too many mystery series just stagnate around the life of the sleuth as he or she just solves case after case...Maisie on the other hand keeps growing and developing her skills.  The stories all take place in London between WWI and WWII.  The Germans have not quite risen again and the scars of the first war have not yet healed.  In this installment Maisie is asked by parents to discover what happened to their son, who they believed to have died in the war, which he did, but an autopsy report reveals it is likely he was not killed by the enemy.  This is a book in which we find out so much about the deceased and REALLY like him that I truly was sad to have to accept that he died.  Winspear's characters are always full and richly characterized.  After seven books readers really feel close to the recurring characters who Winspear has not stopped exploring.  We also are drawn to the characters who will only appear in one novel; she does not sacrifice characterization because they are temporary and only exist to serve the mystery. 

This is a mystery series I can continue reading because the stories still stump me and the historical elements are consistently revealing. 

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

While the premise of Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez was interesting, the execution was poor.  The story centers on Lizzie who is a slave and the mistress of her master as well as the mother of his only two children.  For three summers Drayle takes Lizzie to Tawawa House, a resort in Ohio.  The existence of such a resort where southern slave owners took their slave mistresses away each summer is historically accurate, though the women in the story are not based on real women.   I think I might have been more invested in the story if the women had been historically based.  My disappointment with the book can be related to two elements. 

1. There were four women at the resort each year, Lizzie, Mawu, Sweet, and Reenie, yet the novel only details the life of Lizzie.  The fictional device of alternating narrators by chapter is beginning to bore me, but an omniscient narrator, who could have brought the reader into the minds of all four women, would have been more effective.   The expereinces of the women were so different despite the commonality of being slave mistresses, that an exploration of each woman would have emphasized the individuality of their lives  beyond the label "slave mistress."

2.  I would have liked a more thorough exploration of the difficult position of the plantation wives.   While a look at the psyche of the men would be interesting, that is really an entirely different book.  As the title indicates, this is the story of women and should therefore have delved into the experiences of all the women affected by this societal hypocrisy. 

While reading the book and afterwards I read many reviews on-line.  Generally readers liked it more than I did.  I also found the other members of my book club appreciated it more than I did.  I just wanted a different book and wanted this one to fit what I wanted to read. 

Lemon Cake and Major Pettigrew or Why I Love Fiction

Two books I wavered about reading I ended up really liking.  I had The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender on my TBR list for a while, then took it off, then was in the library picking up a book to listen to in the car and there it was on the "New Books" display so I grabbed it.  I purchased Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and put it near the top of the TBR pile, then moved it down, then moved it off the pile and back on the shelf, but after reading 84, Charing Cross Road I was in the mood for something British...so out came Major Pettigrew again. 

The premise of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is that at age 9 Rose begin to be able to feel the emotions of others from the food they have prepared.  When she feels her own mother's sadness, loneliness, and disappointment she is devastated.  Over the years she develops tricks to avoid food cooked by people, especially ones she knows, and eats lots of vending machine snacks and prepared meals.  These are by no means satisfying, but they are cold and remote rather than heavily emotional.  Even a piece of toast buttered by her brother is overwhelming.  When Rose finds a restaurant whose chef is content and loves cooking she gets a job washing dishes so she can eat there all the time.  Meanwhile, while Rose learns to get by her brother is discovering his own ability to disappear in a unique way.  While Rose must endure unsought intimacies with people, her brother discovers the ability to withdraw from others completely.   Their opposite powers are a commentary on the way we must all navigate relationships and closeness with others. 

I originally thought Major Pettigrew's Last Stand was historical fiction, instead it takes place in contemporary Edgecombe St. Mary where Major Pettigrew leads a satisfying but sometimes lonely life as a widower.  This changes when he becomes friends with the local convenience shop owner Mrs. Ali, a widow.  Even in modern times, this causes a stir because she is of Pakistani heritage though she was born in Cambridge.  The racism and mistreatment are generally subtle, but at times the townspeople are significantly racist and often without realizing why their behavior is offensive.  Major Pettigrew is a proper English, retired officer, who is appalled by a great deal of modern behavior.  He is charming and thoughful and a bit cumudgeonly, but we are thrilled as he is swept up by love.  Mrs. Ali is well-read and well-spoken and fiesty and we root for her too as she falls for Major Pettigrew.  While the book contains social commentary and a good bit of humor, it is the love story that makes it wonderful.

Reading 84, Charing Cross Road made me think about my preference for fiction, as Helene Hanff who wrote many of the letters that make up the narrative did not care for unreal people doing things that did not really happen.  While I like non-fiction, I believe that the power and importance of fiction lies in what it shows us about people who are not like us as much as it shows us the truth of what we are.  The power to literally taste feelings in food is an element of magical realism, but we really should be more attuned to the feelings of others.  Similarly, Major Pettigrew live in a society that is becoming more and more old-fashioned, but is preserved in a book like this that mirrors the reality.  Fiction can be just as informative and educational as non-fiction, but it can also capture possibilities in a way non-fiction cannot. 

Flavorwire » Books - Hester Prynne Mix Tape

Since Hester Prynne is the protagonist in my favorite book of all time, I thought this from Flavorwire was brilliant!!!!

Literary Mixtape: Hester Prynne

If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s dubious heroine, Hester Prynne.

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via flavorwire.com

Audrey Niffenegger - Graphic Novelist- Whoda thunk it?

Certainly not me.  I enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife, enough in fact to avoid tainting it by seeing the movie.  And Her Fearful Symmetry was right at my level of weird; just enough to draw me in, keep me reading, and creep me out at the end, but not enough to force me to sleep with the light on.  Now I have read The Night Bookmobile, which should be called "The Reader's Dream."   One evening Lexi encounters the night bookmobile, or more accurately, her night bookmobile, which contains everything she has ever read.  Through the years she encounters the bookmobile and its librarian, Mr. Openshaw, just when she least expects, and each time the collection has grown to include what she has read since her last visit.  It is a wonderful premise.  I do not want to give away the twists of the story, but for a short, graphic story it is chock full.  Loved it!  The whole idea of a library of just what I have read, including all the things I cannot remember having read would be a wonderful stroll through my reading life.  For lifelong readers this would be a time machine.  Loved it! 

Flavorwire » Famous Last Words: Our 20 Favorite Final Lines in Literature

Famous Last Words: Our 20 Favorite Final Lines in Literature

11:00 am Saturday Apr 2, 2011 by Emily Temple

Endings, as we all know, are important. An entire novel can be ruined by a disappointing ending, but by the same token, an entire novel can be made by a wonderful one. We’ve already given you a rundown of our favorite opening lines in literature, but since every beginning needs an ending (and you’d be surprised at how many works with awesome first lines also have awesome last lines – or perhaps you wouldn’t be surprised), we feel compelled to treat you to a list of our favorite last lines as well. Click through for 20 of our favorite endings from our bookshelf of classic and contemporary greats, and let us know your own picks for best last lines in the comments.

via flavorwire.com

I was not sure they would include it, but my Number 1 favorite last line is from The Great Gatsby.  It is a last line that even has some impact if you have not read the rest of the book, but will completely wreck you if you have read it, especially if you have read it straight through all at once.  Gatsby is a book I think everyone should read in as close to one sitting as possible..it is just that powerful. 

 

Thursday Next...

and no I do not mean next week on Thursday, I mean the star of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.  The latest in the series is One of Our Thursdays is Missing, and it is the written one...not the real one, who is the star of the book, or is she really the real one suffering from some memory and delusion issues.  I would definitely recommend starting this series at the beginning with The Eyre Affair, in which the premise of being able to move in and out of books is introduced and book tourism is huge.  It is a clever fantasy premise that Fforde has carried through five previous books. 

If you are not a reader these will be difficult to get through as there are frequent allusions to classic and contemporary literature and liberal references to various literary devices.  (A former English teacher's nerdy fantasies in mystery form.)   Each book does have a serious premise lurking under all the banter and this one is no different.  Written Thursday's dilemma stems from her  identity crisis as she grapples with being different from and maybe inferior to "real" Thursday.  She is certainly leading a very different life and cannot quite decide if she is ok with that or not.  But if you are not interested in introspective, humorous characters, then just read the series for the fun of romping through literature.