Ordinary Reader

"Nikolski"

2012-02-04T19:56:00.000-04:00

Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner

"My name is Unimportant." That's the opening line and we never do find out the name of this one character, who is also the narrator. It's just one of the many questions this somewhat strange book leaves unanswered.

Three stories are told simultaneously, that of Noah, Joyce and Unimportant, but Unimportant isn't heard from after the first chapter until about midway through the book. Slowly and subtly the connection between the three of them comes to light, but their paths only cross in the most fleeting ways and they never actually come to know one another. They are all loners about whom we learn little in the course of the story. Noah is followed a little closer, but still I didn't feel I got to know any of them.

I'm having the hardest time deciding how I feel about this book. I more or less enjoyed it when I was reading it, but when it was time to pick it up again I wasn't a bit interested. I made myself finish it for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. I had read reviews that said it was "magical" and "comical" but those aspects of it were lost to me; couldn't find them anywhere. And the funny thing is I think it's probably a very good book. It didn't click with me , but the thought nags at me that if I looked at it more closely, or discussed it with my book club, I might be saying it's amazing. I hope one day I'll care enough to read it again.

Here are a few of the things (possible spoiler alert) about which I would like to hear what other people have to say :

1. The narrator is never given a name other than Unimportant.
2. A book "with no face" is meaningful in some symbolic way all through the book, then seems to be irrelevant.
3. "Unimportant" is going...where?
4. One chapter has no characters in it. It is simply a description of a room.
5. The characters are for the most part transient with few or no family attachments, but there is a car named "Grampa" and a boat named "Granma".
6. The concept of "trash archeology".
7. The book is titled "Nikolski". This is the name of a tiny town on a tiny island in the far north that seems to have only a trivial significance in the story. None of the story is set there. None of the characters go there at any point in the story. ?.

As you can see this is not your average story. It's patchy and broken up, sometimes with years between chapters. It's like a puzzle for which you can find most of the pieces, but in the end you'll have to be content with a number of holes unfilled. Still, the writing is good, the characters get to you on some level and I think I have to recommend it. There's just something about it. Read it. See what you think.

"Hotel Pastis"

2012-01-25T23:14:00.001-04:00

Hotel Pastis by Peter Mayle

Simon Shaw is a highly successful (i.e.very wealthy) ad executive in London, whose current marriage has dissolved in a cloud of resentment and recriminations. He is tired of his ex's constant grasping for more money and the shallowness of colleagues at his advertising agency; in fact he's tired of the whole spinning money-making machine (though not so much the money) and is ready for a change when he meets a savvy, French woman with an interesting idea.

Simon begins the process of disentangling himself from life in the city and together with Nicole (the French woman, who is conveniently gorgeous and available as well as savvy) and his faithful sidekick, Ernest, opens a hotel in the south of France. While this is all happening a group of locals are making plans for a heist that will thicken the plot and complicate things for Simon et al.

The most interesting character is Ernest. He started out as Simon's chauffeur and over the past ten years has become his personal assistant, valet and friend. He takes care of Simon's expensive cars, he cooks and he does pretty much whatever else needs attending to, all with common sense and a healthy dose of wry wit. There's a vulnerability written into his character that makes him both likeable and memorable.

The others, Simon and Nicole especially, are not-very-interesting stereotypes who never stand up from the page as real people. I had little to no understanding of Nicole's personality even as I turned the last page of the book, and though I had all kinds of information about Simon's life, he too remained remote as a person.

The various settings are great, all fancy homes, offices and restaurants in London and New York, both wonderful places to be if you can afford their bright, beautiful sides. Then of course once the story moves to France every scene is inevitably perfect. The sheer "Provence-ness" of it should be enticement enough to read the book.

The plot is (predictably) a little predictable but it makes for a pleasant light reading experience, a fun bit of escapism and sometimes that's exactly what we're looking for. I didn't love it, but it did entertain me and that was all I wanted right now.

"Ex Libris - Confessions of a Common Reader"

2012-01-19T22:01:00.002-04:00

Ex Libris - Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

The front flap of this book describes Anne Fadiman as "the sort of person who leared about sex from her father's copy of 'Fanny Hill'" and "who once found herself pouring over a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in her apartment that she had not read at least twice". I was tickled to find someone whose reading obsession looked similar to mine.

I too got some basic education from a copy of Fanny Hill, not my father's but one a friend and I found in her mother's apartment when I was thirteen. A memorable education but not one I'd recommend. And like Fadiman I've found myself reading the most absurd things when nothing else was available. In Doctor's offices I've read business magazines, children's books and pamphlets on illnesses I don't have. I've read manuals for electronics, appliances and cars, odd volumes of encyclopedias and just last week I read through a credit card application brochure because it was the only piece of paper in a cheerless little hospital waiting room. Desperate isn't it?

Fortunately no desperation is required for "Ex Libris". It's a joy to read, a veritable treasure trove of bookishness. Written as a series of essays over a number of years it chronicles the authour's experience with books in conjunction with life events. It's intriguing and yet so natural you wonder how you could ever have looked at the books you've read in any other way.

The stories here include: how she and her husband merged their libraries, what books she relegates to her "odd shelf", her opinion on writing in margins and dog-earring pages, her passion for inscriptions, something she calls "you-are-there" reading, books about food, and a chapter on her literary heritage. Each one is interesting on it's own but together they are something special. The lucky reader is steeped in books. It's very satisfying.

The writing too is something special. The publisher says she writes "with remarkable grace" and I can't think of any better way to say it. Her writing is light and fun but also grounded in solid intellect and education. I do suggest keeping a dictionary handy; I found 34 words to look up. At first I thought she was throwing words around a bit pretentiously, but I've changed my mind. She doesn't seem pretentious at all. I think she's simply using the words she knows. I hope I'm not misreading her.

The bonus with this book is a long list of titles to add to your tbr (unless of course you have read them all, and if you have why aren't you spending your time on something smarter than my poor little blog?). There's a whole section on 'books about books', the Dom Pérignon of genres for those with serious book thirst.

I was quite taken with a line she quoted from Thomas Mcauley (of whom I had never heard): "What a blessing it is to love books as I love them.". He has hit the nail on the head (do people still say that?). I am grateful for the books I have and those I can borrow from libraries and friends, but I have never thought to offer thanks for the way I feel about books and reading. How different would my life have been if I hadn't had Dickens, Austen, Lewis or Cather to lose myself in when I didn't want to be found? How much trouble did I stay out of because in my youth I spent every spare minute with, as my mother used to say, "my head stuck in a book"? I might have lost myself in other things and had a very different life. My need to read has enriched my life in countless ways and I am indeed grateful.

If you love books, you'll find Ex Libris irresistible. Get a hard cover copy if you can - you'll probably be using it a lot.

Time Was Soft There (A Paris Sojourn At Shakespeare & Co.)

2012-01-19T01:15:00.000-04:00

Time Was Soft There - a memoir by Jeremy Mercer

Mr. Mercer was a journalist for the Ottawa Citizen when he got into a sticky situation over a broken promise concerning a name he was not to publish. The injured party was threatening repercussions so Mercer decided it was a good time to get out of the country for awhile. He wound up in Paris, and eventually on the doorstep of "Shakespeare & Co.", an English bookstore on the Left Bank, just across from Notre Dame.

The elderly proprietor of the bookstore, unkempt, unconventional George Whitman, ran his shop as part store, part hostel for down and out writers/artists who needed a place to sleep till they got on their feet. George's motto was "Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise". Living conditions were well below basic, so no one stayed there who had anyplace else at all to go. Cockroaches, grime and practically non-existent plumbing would not be appealing to anyone who could afford better.

George was a mentor, in a rough sort of way, to his guests, a complicated curmudgeon who would ride roughshod over a thin skin. But for anyone who would pay attention, he was full of stories about writers whose names you will know, books, life, people. There wasn't much on which he didn't have an opinion. And sometimes he had some pretty good advice.

Mercer says "Watching him live was a daily lesson in parsimony", which could have it's good and bad aspects. Saving money on haircuts by using matches to burn your hair to the desired length seems a little extreme, but if you spit out the bones in his philosophy there's some pretty good meat to chew on:

"'People all tell me they work too much, that they need to make more money.', George told me. 'What's the point? Why not live on as little as possible and then spend your time with your family, or reading Tolstoy or running a bookstore? It doesn't make any sense.'"

There's a lot going on in this book and it's a hard one to put down. Still there is a peacefulness about it that comes from Mercer's writing - I do love a book written by a good journalist. They know how to say big things with few words - and from the laid back lifestyle he adopted at the shop.

There are friendships, romances, personality clashes, hope, despair, George's reconnection with his estranged daughter, and his tempting views on communism - true communism, not the Russian or Chinese varieties. In George's words: "Communism just means thinking about the community first." Idealistic, but we could all do with a noble ideal or two.

Running through the entire story are the books. Books being read and books being written. Old books and new books. Books being discovered for the first time and long-time favourites being reread. Books, glorious books! Wouldn't you just love to drown in them?

In the event I've been unclear, I love this book. Do read it and let me know what you think. I think it's a treasure.

PS - When I looked up George Whitman online, I was saddened to hear that he passed away just before Christmas this past year, in his nineties. I'm sure he will be greatly missed by the many grateful people who found shelter and breathing room under his roof. George's daughter, Sylvia, now carries on the great tradition of Shakespeare & Co.

"England For All Seasons"

2012-01-12T23:52:00.000-04:00

England For All Seasons by Susan Allen Toth

This is Toth's third book about England. I've read only this one but it's plain to see that she is completely in love with the place. She and her husband, James, have spent a lot of vacation time there staying in different areas and immersing themselves in their surroundings, exploring and walking until they really know the area they're in.

They stay in apartments or cottages that put them in the center of their chosen destination, searching out local concerts, bookstores, fairs, theaters and restaurants. They visit whatever churches, museums, country houses and ruins may be in the area and they walk the woods, cliffs and beaches until they feel they know the place. The next time they may choose another section of England or maybe Wales or Scotland.

As travel books go, I liked this but it was missing a key part of what makes a travel book so enjoyable for me: there was very little written about their encounters with local people. It's those stories that make a travel story come alive. I like to read what real people's lives are like in a other places, how they spend their days, what they work at and do for fun, what they cook for breakfast. Toth gives us great descriptions of the various places they stay, but I wanted to rub shoulders with the people too.

She talks a lot about the gardens they visited, it seems to be one of their favourite things, and a lot too about the castles and ruins. Some of the museums they toured sound amazing and times they spent on the coast, any coast, made me want to be there with them. All of that was wonderful.

There were one or two sections I found boring where I had to push through a section of details about some museum exhibit till I got to another section that would hold my attention. It wasn't a problem with the writing; it's really quite well written and enjoyable to read. I just wasn't interested in some of the things she was. I came out feeling like I knew England better though and over all it was a very good read.

"Tunnels"

2012-01-04T00:11:00.000-04:00

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Will Burrows, 14 years old, is a lot like his father. He loves digging for archeological finds and spends all his free time working with his dad in a series of tunnels beneath the city of London. Then strange things begin to happen. Weird looking people are showing up too often wherever Will and his Dad happen to be. An object is found that is unlike anything ever seen before. And one day, Mr. Burrows is simply gone with no explanation. Will and a friend set out to find him and discover a whole world they never new existed, a world where their lives are in constant danger.

The story moves along quickly with lots of action and some surprising turns, one so unexpected my jaw actually dropped. I didn't think any authour could still surprise me like that. This is a page-turner, one that has my granddaughter absolutely hooked and now I see why. Eventually this will be a series of six; she's read four now and is on pins and needles (oh dear, I've dated myself with that expression haven't I?) waiting for the fifth.

I must admit I wasn't expecting such a good book, mainly because my recent experience with books for younger readers has been, let's say, less than satisfying. For one thing so many of them are about vampires. In fact most of what I see online and in stores are paranormal romances. I can take the romance as long as there is more to the plot than just that, but I am heartily sick of vampires. I don't want to watch them, read about them or even hear about them any more. I'm vampired up to here (indicating top of head)!

Another reason I've been avoiding Y.A. novels is the writing style. I don't like it when books are dumbed down for anybody. Young readers are young, not dumb, and too many writers treat them like they can't be trusted to handle intelligent writing. I was glad to find within a page or two that these authours give their readers credit for some intelligence by giving them good writing to read.

As for the plot itself, there are a few too many slimy things, slugs, vomit and foul smells for me, but I'm not young and was always queasy about such things anyway. These writers know their audience and do a great job of telling this story for them.

For those who are considering this book for their kids I should tell you there are a few spots where God's name is used as a curse word. Two or three at most I think. That won't be an issue for everyone, but if it is for you at least you know beforehand.

I probably won't read the rest of the series simply because the story doesn't appeal to me, but that's only if my granddaughter doesn't ask me to. If she wants me to read them so we can talk about them later, I will. There's not much I won't do to get them reading more. Otherwise it's back to "Old Adult" books for me, but I am open to trying more Y. A. books now. This one was a nice surprise.

"A Room With A View"

2012-01-02T23:56:00.001-04:00

A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

This is the second book I've read with dailylit.com, and it was a totally different experience than the first. I read War and Peace in installments because I figured, from having attempted it before, that I wouldn't finish it and I'm happy to say Daily Lit was able to keep me on track and get me through to the end.

A Room With A View was another matter entirely. I loved the story, the writing and the characters but didn't enjoy reading it in installments at all. I always wanted more and was irritated by having to stop at the end of the sections. I longed for pages to turn. It's a delightful book, but delightful books need covers and pages which Daily Lit could not supply.

The story has a young woman and her chaperone visiting Italy, where they become friends with other tourists at their hotel. One young man traveling with his father take liberties with the young woman, but she and her chaperone decide to speak to no one about it and to simply pretend it never happened.

They return to their home in England and life carries on as usual with our heroine becoming engaged to a rather pompous man, and I use the term "man" loosely. He's really quite a jerk. Things get complicated when the other man, the liberty-taking young man from Italy, moves into the neighbourhood. I won't tell you any more except to say that it's very entertaining.

Here are a couple of my favourite lines:

“I see you looking down your nose and thinking your mother's a snob. But there is a right sort and a wrong sort, and it's affectation to pretend there isn't."

“…in which people who care for one another are painted chatting together about noble things--a theme neither sensual nor sensational, and therefore ignored by the art of to-day.”

I particularly like that last one because it so nicely explains my problem with modern publishing. I don't want every book I read to focus on the sensual or sensational, but that's what sells so that's what gets published. There are exceptions of course, but not many. I guess that's why I end up reading so many older books. But back to the matter at hand...

I saw a fairly recent movie made from this book and liked it, but the book itself is a thousand times better. I have to get a copy soon and read it again when I can hold it in my hands and turn pages all I want. This one is a keeper and I want it on my shelf.

And, I have to re-think my use of Daily Lit. I'll probably just use it for books I might not otherwise make myself pick up. You know the ones - we want to read them but we don't look forward to investing the time or the energy they'll require. One of my goals this year is to get one of "those" books crossed off my tbr, so I'm choosing Middlemarch. I'm hoping it won't be any more of a challenge than War And Peace was. I guess time will tell.

"A Christmas Blizzard"

2012-01-02T22:31:00.002-04:00

A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor

I'm not sure what to say about this one, except that it sure isn't your average Christmas story. It's not sappy or corny or cliche. It's... well let's say it's different.

More than anything it reminded me of Cold Comfort Farm. Odd things happen without any previous hint that things are going to get weird. When I'm in the right mood, or I know it's that kind of book, I find that sort of thing funny, but I wasn't in the right mood till about page 20 so till then I just thought it was a strange story. After that, I enjoyed it.

The story is about James Sparrow, a wealthy man living with his wife in a Chicago highrise. She loves Christmas but is sick with the flu; he wants to avoid Christmas by going to their Hawaiian vacation home. To complicate matters James gets a phone call from his home town saying his Uncle Earl is probably dying.

James wants to head for Hawaii right away because a storm is coming and he doesn't want to be storm-stayed but a sense of family duty has him flying toward North Dakota and Uncle Earl instead. He ends up stranded there and this is when things begin to get weird. A wolf talks to him and there are other unusual things but I don't want to give too much away. Just be ready for anything when you read it.

This is my first book by Garrison Keillor but it's piqued my interest so I'm going to check out some of his other writing. There's quite a list of titles on the "Also by Garrison Keillor" page, a couple of which sound interesting so I expect I'll be posting more about him sometime in the coming year.

Rant No. 1

2012-01-02T18:10:00.003-04:00

I've decided this blog is a logical place to record the occasional rants that take place in my head. They usually happen when I feel I've finally heard or seen one too many stupid things. For example, the other night I was watching the News on tv. It was a couple of days after Christmas and the 3 or 4 inches of snow that had given us a white Christmas had disappeared with a couple of rainy days, a situation in no way unusual for our area - our Christmases are about 50-50 white and green/brown. One year I picked the last of the pansies for the Christmas dinner table. Another year the snow was so deep most city streets were impassable. The only time our weather is remarkable is if it stays the same for any length of time.

So I'm watching the news report and the announcer is standing outdoors reporting that the snow is all gone, a fact we all know from looking out our own windows. It seemed to be rather important to her so I kept listening. She spoke for several moments about the wetness of the streets, the patches of green where it had so recently been white and the general un-Chrismasy-ness of it all. When I thought they were finally moving on to something that might actually be real news, they began showing footage of the outdoor skating oval. In a concerned voice the reporter told us that just a few days ago this oval had been filled with people enjoying the outdoor skating, but now, because of the rain, the ice was wet and could not be used.

Then, and I am not making this up, the camera took us to an indoor skating rink where people were being asked how they felt about having to skate here instead of at the outdoor oval. Were they terribly disappointed that the rain had created this situation? The people looked like they wanted to ask if the reporter was feeling alright, but with the camera aimed at them they gamely tried to answer the question. Eventually the camera returned to the reporter on the wet street where she re-stated everything we had just been told, which was pretty much nothing.

The entire report took at least ten minutes. Ten minutes to tell us rain fell yesterday and then more fell today. It wasn't even an unusual amount. I don't understand how anybody could think that was worthy of a news report (and they made us go through the whole thing again when it was time for the weather report). There are wars and disasters and crimes happening all around the world and we call a bit of rain news? A while back I watched a reporter standing on a quiet beach saying how big the waves were going to get in just a few hours, then at the end of that few hours he was back on the still quiet beach saying the storm hadn't materialized and these calm waters would remain calm. His intensity was laughable. Two news reports on a beach where nothing is happening.

When did ordinary weather become news? Hurricanes, sure. Tornadoes. Heavy snowfalls, ice storms, dangerous road conditions; anything with an actual story. But how is it news when nothing is happening? Are we so lamentably addicted to sensationalism that we have to create drama out of nothing? Aren't journalists embarrassed to talk so earnestly about nothing at all? I get embarrassed for them just watching, it makes them look so sad and desperate.

Please people. News is news. Severe weather is news. An ordinary rainy day on the east coast is not.

End of rant.

"Aunt Dimity's Christmas"

2011-12-29T01:51:00.000-04:00

Aunt Dimity's Christmas by Nancy Atherton

This is apparently part of a series of "Aunt Dimity" books that I'd never heard of till now. I bought it online mainly because the title sounded sweet and Anne-of-green-gable-ish, the perfect formula for a Christmas story. It wasn't quite what I expected.

It started ordinarily enough, but took a surprising turn when the main character, Lori Shepherd, sat down in the study of her house with a blue book open on her lap and read as the deceased Dimity's handwriting began to appear on the page. Yes, indeed. Dimity is dead. She communicates with Lori by writing her thoughts on the blank pages of this one particular book. Not your typical Christmas story.

The plot built around this oddity is quite good. I liked the characters and thought them plausible and well written, and the story had no problem holding my attention. It was quite interesting but I think it could have been done successfully without the input of dear departed Dimity. I didn't find that she added much to the story.

Had I started this series at the beginning I'm sure I wouldn't have found this book so peculiar and if you are interested that's where I'd suggest you start because jumping in mid-stream with this one is just too strange.

A Merry Christmas To You!

2011-12-25T00:36:00.000-04:00

The best words I have ever heard to describe what Christmas means to me come from two well known Christmas Carols, songs we know so well that it's easy to lose their meaning. The first is It Came Upon A Midnight Clear and I'm writing out the lyrics here in hopes that even one person may stumble upon this page and in a quiet moment be encouraged.

It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold;
“Peace on the earth, good will to men, from Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats o’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains they bend on hovering wing,
And ever over its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not the love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife and hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

The other carol that means so much to me is O Little Town Of Bethlehem. There is one verse that answers all the questions I have ever had about Christmas. When I was a young girl and learning the harsh realities of life I used to ask what possible difference a baby born so many hundreds of years ago could make in my life today or in the lives of ordinary people all over the world. In these words I find the answer, that though Christmas began long ages ago, it did not end then:

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given,

So God imparts to human hearts the wonders of His heaven.

No ear may hear Him coming, but in this world of sin

Where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in.

And so, with meek souls everywhere I celebrate today, and with God's help everyday, the wondrous gift of love and light, Jesus.

God bless us everyone!

"Christmas On Mill Street"

2011-12-22T23:52:00.000-04:00

Christmas On Mill Street by Joseph Walker

I loved this little book! There are similarities to the last one I read, "Wishin' And Hopin' ", and to the movie "A Christmas Story", but I guess that's inevitable if you read enough Christmas books and watch enough Christmas movies, which I do.

This one is about young Sam Andrews whose family has recently moved to Utah from Arizona. He's trying hard to fit in at school, where the other boys are all talking about sledding down the hill to beat all hills.....Mill Street. It's a sharp drop with two very tricky turns, and before Sam really knows what he's doing, he hears himself agreeing to try it, though he has never been on a sled or even seen snow.

Sam has one hope that keeps him believing he can do it - the hope of getting a shiny new "Flexible Flyer" sled for Christmas. With a sled like that he knows he can do it. And besides, he has a secret weapon in Clara Morgan, a woman who gives the kids shivers, but who knows the secret of mastering Mill Street hill.

I've got two short Christmas books left that I hope to finish before the end of the year. I have a feeling that by next year I won't be able to remember any of these books from the others. I'm already getting the characters mixed up. There's an up side to that though - they'll all seem like "new" books again next year (one of the few perks of aging!).

If you get a chance to read this, do. It delivers everything that great cover promises.

" Wishin' and Hopin' "

2011-12-16T23:06:00.001-04:00

Wishin' And Hopin' by Wally Lamb

The year is 1964 and Felix Funicello is a ten year old fifth grader living in small town Connecticut. He attends Catholic school where there are lots of rules and kids to break them. His parents operate a lunch counter at the local bus station which brings some interesting characters into his life, and at home he has two older sisters who tolerate him, but just barely.

Felix is like other boys; he has his ups and downs and makes good choices and the other kind. He knows and uses a few bad words, he's learning about things like french kissing and he laughs at dirty jokes even when he doesn't know what they mean. He's smaller than the other boys his age but on the other hand he has something they don't have: his third cousin is famous actress Annette Funicello, whose posters line the wall at the lunch counter.

The story begins at some point in the fall and leads up to the Christmas Concert at Felix's school. If that sounds a little like "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson that's because it has a similar story line. In both you get some background on the families and become familiar with the characters, all leading up to the night of the big Christmas concert. This one is a little longer I think so you get to know the characters better and it's funnier too - to me that is, humour is a subjective thing - though both are quite entertaining with some hilarious moments.

A very enjoyable read - just don't share it with your kids as there is a bit of language and a couple of jokes you probably won't want them to learn. Do read it for yourself though. You'll fall in love with Felix and more important at this hectic time of year, it will make you smile.

"Corked"

2011-12-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

Corked by Kathryn Borel

Philippe and Kathryn Borel are a father and daughter on a wine tasting tour of France, a trip proposed by Kathryn when she realized that she barely knew her dad. He had raised her trying to teach her everything he knew about wine, a subject in which she took no interest until she came to see that if she wanted to really know her father she should try to understand what he had spent his life doing.

I started the book with the expectation that it would be a quaint story in the same vein as Peter Mayles' Provence books. I was spectacularly wrong; it is anything but quaint. For one thing there's a lot of swearing and for another France and wine serve more as the backdrop to the working out of the father/daughter relationship.

Having said that, there is a great deal to learn about wine from this book. The descriptions of different wine regions, growing conditions, varieties of grapes and different methods of making and bottling wine are well explained and make for interesting reading. Surely it is everyone's dream to take a trip like that - two weeks driving through the French countryside tasting great wine at old family owned vineyards. It sounds close to perfect to me.

But that isn't the real story here. The real story is how Kathryn and her father connect, butt heads and finally get to a place of honest emotion and acceptance of one another. And that's emotion with a capital E. It gets raw and leaves you feeling like you've been through the wringer, but it's worth it. Knowing it's true and about real people gives you hope that just maybe the rest of us can work out our less-than-functional relationships too.

It took a few chapters to get into because at first it seemed too centered on Kathryn's feelings. In fact both she and her father were so self-centered that I almost gave up on it. The angst and self-analyzing got monotonous and Philippe was just plain obnoxious most of the time. But about half way through Kathryn got to me and I started to care. From that point on I couldn't put it down. She's an interesting writer, very articulate. She uses metaphors - a lot of them - that no one else would ever think of. Her writing is fresh and original and easy to read.

I think this book is worth reading. The gut wrenching honesty and lack of ego needed to put this story out there in public are admirable. She has things she can teach us. As mentioned earlier, there is a lot of "language" so if that's a deal breaker for you, you may want to give this one a pass. If you can get past that, it's worth it.

In spite of the more or less happy ending, I found the last few lines of the story sad. Kathryn and her father joke that something they have in common is how much God hates them both. I know it's meant to be funny, but they've fought their way through such hard situations and come out stronger and closer to each other, and I feel so bad for them that they don't see their worth in God's eyes, how much He cares about them. To end it like that - this story that tells so well how the love between father and child survives the hard times and becomes a healing force in both lives - leaves me wanting more for both father and daughter.

"A Christmas Carol"

2011-12-11T22:04:00.000-04:00

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I am embarrassed to confess it, but I have never read this book until now. I've seen countless versions of the movie, some pretty good and some awful, but I put off reading it because I made the mistake of judging the book by it's movie. Every version I've seen has been a bit stuffy and preachy, and more than a bit over-the-top and maybe that's to be expected; it wouldn't be Hollywood if it wasn't overdone. And let's face it, Christmas movies are seldom subtle. In spite of that I watch one or more versions of it every year, but could never bring myself to risk reading the book and being disappointed with my beloved Dickens.

As it turns out, my fears were groundless. I loved the book. It wasn't stuffy or preachy or overdone. It was beautiful. The same lessons are there but it feels more sincere, more grounded. Another thing - and this was a surprise - the book was less old- fashioned than the movies. It felt like a more current story, much easier to put yourself in the middle of. The characters are more believable, the story flows better and the final chapter, where Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning a changed man, is more convincing than any I've seen in movies.

The writing is typical, wonderful Dickens. No one can make a point like he can. After an eleven line description of Scrooge's... um, scrooginess, he says: "No wind that blew was bitterer than he...". You can feel the chill. Another passage I admire is "...every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!". Harsh, but very witty.

I loved this so much I want to read it again already. I'll be adding it to the list of things I do every Christmas, because truly, how could anyone not want to be reminded of this at the close of each year:

"I have always thought of Christmas-time, when it has come round - apart from the veneration due it's sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that - as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-travelers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

If you've never read it - and I realize I may be the only one so foolish - then go out right now and get yourself a copy. Merry Christmas to you!

"Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast"

2011-12-04T14:10:00.000-04:00

Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson

Finally, a Canadian book that isn't all darkness and angst and swearing. Ok there are a couple of swear words but overall this is a wonderful book.

Hector and Virgil (who in my mind is the spitting image of the authour) are middle-aged twin brothers who have turned the house they grew up in into a bed and breakfast on Canada's west coast. The brothers are book lovers who see their home as a retreat for readers. Their guests are welcome to use the brothers' well-stocked library or to bring their own books with them. They cater to people like themselves, the "gentle and bookish and ever so slightly confused". That description alone had me hooked before I even started reading.

There is no plot, just a casual revealing of the brother's personalities and personal lives and the daily routines of the B&B. I have no objection to a good plot, but a book that is character driven has a much better chance of ending up on my "favorite reads" list and this is completely character driven. These endearing and oh-so-humanly flawed brothers move quietly into your world and make you wish they and their reader's retreat were real.

The chapters are written alternately by Hector and Virgil with letters from guests in between. Hector and Virgil write about their lives as innkeepers, their pasts and each other. The guest's letters tell their own stories and fill in details about the setting and the experience of being the brother's guests.

The lovely old house, the surroundings and the simple lifestyle the brothers offer their guests is nothing short of delicious. Reading the book is getting away for a quiet weekend, relaxing and comforting with enough humour to keep it fresh. Amazingly (because it happens often with books like this) it never becomes trite or even worse, cute. The brothers are quite realistic and that makes them all the more appealing.

The cover says "This quiet charmer is a bibliophiles delight" and that's exactly what it is. Other cover quotes say "a funny, cozy tale" and "a whimsically gentle fiction". I couldn't argue with those descriptions either, though the word "cozy" is dangerously close to "cute" and is recklessly overused in describing fiction. I love this book and I love it's witty, intelligent language. I was sorry to come to the last chapter but fortunately there is a sequel. It's called "Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast Pillow Book". A somewhat odd title, but hopefully it will be as good as this one was.

"Up In The Old Hotel"

2011-12-04T01:24:00.000-04:00

Up In The Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell

There's a lot of reading in this book and very good reading it is. Joseph Mitchell was a reporter in New York city during the 1930's and 40's so he knows how to tell a story; "Up In The Old Hotel" contains 37 of them. It takes a while to get through this book but it's pleasant reading and interesting stories so I don't think you'll mind the time.

The people in these stories are (for the most) real. They are the everyday people he got to know on the streets and in the diners and taverns of the city. There are many of them, so I'll just highlight some that stood out to me.

First, meet the Rev. Mr. James Jefferson Davis Hall, a street preacher who doesn't approve of soda fountains, dry-cleaners or modern women. "They've gone hog-proud and hog-wild. Wearing britches, wearing uniforms, straining their joints for generations to come with high-heeled shoes...their mouths smeared and smiddled and smoodled with paint, and their cheeks and their fingernails." The Reverend spends his days answering calls - he gives out his phone number and invites people in trouble to call him - and his nights walking Broadway, standing in the doorways of bars and preaching the consequences of drinking.

Then there's Jane Barnell, the bearded lady who began her career at the age of four, when she was given away to a traveling circus. She's had four husbands and in public wears a veil and a scarf around her neck to hide the beard.

Mazie P. Gordon is the "bossy yellow-haired blonde" who works the sidewalk ticket booth at a movie theater seven days a week from 9 am to 11 pm. She knows everybody and hears all the neighbourhood gossip. After work at night she walks the bowry handing out cakes of soap and change to people who need them.

And there's Phillipa, a 9 year old girl with an IQ of 185 who has been writing music since she was three years old, and John Smith, who writes big cheques and gives them out to people who are nice to him, untroubled by the fact that he has no money at all.

One of my favourites is Arthur Samuel Colbourn, head of the Anti-Profanity League. Arthur, know as the "No-Swear Man" has handed out over six million cards asking "Please do not swear, nor use obscene or profane language. These cards are for distribution. Send for some - they are free. "His address is included on the card.

One story, called "A Mess Of Clams" is about the day he went out with a "buy-boat" off Long Island that came back carrying 145 bushels of clams destined for various markets and restaurants in the city. Another story is about the KKK, and another about the rodents that live in and around the city.

One story was very different. It was a sad account of a lonely man living in a furnished room. Short, and unique in that the authour wasn't involved in the story in any way, it had a completely different feel, like fiction. Mitchell does say in the introduction that though most of the book is true, some is fictional. I don't think it will matter to you when you're reading, because in the end it's all just good.

I recommend this one to anyone who's looking for something interesting to read; it's not a page-turner so if that's what you like it may not be for you.

Favourite quote:
"...it takes almost a lifetime to learn how to do a thing simply."

"Bay of Spirits - A Love Story"

2011-11-24T20:02:00.001-04:00

Bay of Spirits by Farley Mowat

Another great story from a master story-teller, this one subtitled "A Love Story". It's the story of his first meeting with a beautiful woman named Claire and how their feelings for each other developed, but it is another love story too, of his years living in and exploring the outports of Newfoundland. His appreciation for the people, waters and wildlife of Newfoundland bring this story to vivid life.

Farley Mowat can capture the flavour of a place and it's people beautifully. A picture may to be worth a thousand words, but with just a few lines Mowat breathes life into a place like most pictures couldn't. It's an amazing gift he has.

Speaking of pictures, Bay of Spirits contains some wonderful shots showing a way of life that is mostly gone now. There are beautiful harbours with square wooden houses sitting precariously on the surrounding rock, fishing boats and wharves that look like they've been there forever, whales, dogs and people. It's the people that got to me, the faces, weathered and lined and real; amazing people who built lives out of little more than rock and water and were satisfied with what they had.

There are so many stories in this book: names, places and history, a wealth of information and experience that brings the reader so close to being there you can almost smell it. The hospitable nature of the people and communities all along the Newfoundland coast took the authour into the houses and personal lives of families who were willing and eager to share what they had. Over countless meals of fish and bread, boiled dinners, cups of tea and glasses of rum, people's stories were told and friendships formed. These are priceless glimpses into what it means to be a Newfoundlander and though I was born and raised in another east coast province, the stories gave me a very satisfying sense of place and roots.

There were aspects of the book I didn't find as interesting as the people stories; I learned far more than I ever wanted to know about boats and fishing. I couldn't even begin to sort out the various watercraft mentioned: schooners, skiffs, ships, whalers, motor launchers, herring seiners, steamers, smacks, longliners, longboats, motor boats, destroyers, draggers, dinghies and dories. And as confusing as it got trying to figure out these things they were putting in the water, some of what they were taking out of the water also gave me pause: cod, haddock, herring, lobster, dogfish, wolf fish, lumpfish, sculpins, redfish, squid, flatfish, minnows, blue mussels, horse mussels, moon snails, rock crab and scarlet mud worms. Eww.

Several stories highlight Mowat's well known concern for animals of all varieties. On a storm-tossed ship he finds a dog left caged and unattended on deck, making sure the dog is fed and finding a safer place for him to ride out the storm. When whales are stranded in a harbour and the local people make sport of slaughtering them, he is moved to tears. In another incident, the community gathers and gleefully fires bullets into a stranded whale, stopping only when they run out of ammunition. Mowat is stunned and horrified: "It was beyond me even to imagine the mentality of men who would amuse themselves filling such a majestic creature full of bullets."

As the subtitle indicates, this is also the love story of Farley Mowat and Claire Wheeler. This beautiful girl steps onto his boat and with one smile, in his own words, "I was lost". He writes about making love on a deserted beach and romantic nights aboard his boat. It's a sweet love story.....until he reveals that he is a married man with two small sons. In a world where this happens every day it's not so shocking I guess, but it is a little bit shocking (isn't it?) that he doesn't mention having any qualms about it. He doesn't try to fight his feelings for Claire, but, pardon the pun, jumps right in. As he tells the story of their developing romance it feels as though we are meant to celebrate with him this finding of the love of his life. The only time he expresses any concern about his family is when it's time to go home and tell them he's leaving them for someone else.

Normally, of course, this would be none of my business. But here's the thing. A writer has to give his readers a reason to believe what he's telling them. What he reveals about himself helps you decide if you should trust the theories, philosophies and stories he's asking you to accept. Here, he's asking us to accept that he has a deep compassion for wildlife while he shows very little compassion for his own family. His apparent lack of feeling for his wife and children, his children for pete's sake, leaves the reader with the uncomfortable suspicion that he may not be as compassionate as he would have you believe. I'm not saying he had no compassion for his family, but he has chosen to express none here and that's all a reader has from which to form conclusions.

I love his writing style and admire his amazing skill as a story-teller, and I do recommend the book. But I need to be able to trust that true stories are true and I've got questions now, so I guess that leaves me not quite as firm a fan as I was before this book.

"Christmas On Jane Street"

2011-11-22T22:30:00.002-04:00

Christmas On Jane Street by Billy Romp, with Wanda Urbanska

This is a nice little holiday read, perfect for when you need a quiet hour with a cup of tea in the midst of the all the Christmas chaos. I have a few of these small Christmas books that I like to re-read every year, but this one is new to me. The title was vaguely familiar though and I'm wondering if there might have been a tv movie with the same name. It's a pretty good plot for a holiday movie.

"Christmas On Jane Street" is a true story, and that always makes things a little more interesting, but the writing in this one was lacking a certain something that might keep it off my "favorites" list. I find I'm sometimes disappointed with stories that are told "with" an authour who is helping get it down on paper. They feel a little stiff to me.

Favorite or not, it's still a good story with all the requisite elements for a satisfying Christmas story: family relationships strained and restored, friendly neighbours coming to each others aid and children testing the boundaries and spreading their wings. It all adds up to a low level of sappiness that is more than tolerable in a Christmas story. If you can watch "It's A Wonderful Life" with it's off the charts sap level and enjoy it, you'll be fine with "Christmas On Jane Street".

The corner of Jane Street and Eighth in New York City is where Billy Romp, his wife and three children set up their Christmas tree stand every year. They live on the tree lot in a tiny camper from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve and become part of the neighbourhood where they are welcomed and taken care of by local residents and shop owners. This is the best part of the story to me. It's reassuring, life-affirming to read how generous and helpful people truly want to be even when there is no material reward in it for them.

The story centers around Billy and his relationship with his oldest daughter. Like all parents he's having difficulty letting go of the tight control we keep over our kids when they are little and he feels the pain we all feel when they begin to step away from us and out into the larger world. I'll leave it at that and let you discover the rest for yourself.

I enjoyed this book. I do wish I had waited till tomorrow to read it though because our first big snowstorm of the season is coming and this would have been the perfect book for a snow day. I think it's time to move my Christmas books up from the bottom shelf and see what I can find for a lovely long day of reading and watching the snow fall. That sounds quite picturesque but in truth we usually get a wicked wind that drives the snow sideways past the rattling front window and we often lose our hydro in a storm. That, however, is reality and I don't think I'll consider it right now. Tomorrow will be here soon enough.

"How To Read Slowly"

2011-11-07T21:30:00.000-04:00

How To Read Slowly by James W. Sire

I love this book! What's not to love in a book about reading? The authour's purpose is to help us read better for greater comprehension. He says "Our goal in reading carefully is not only to understand what is being said explicitly but to see why it is being said. We want to learn to recognize the world views of writers and speakers, and thus to know what their basic assumptions about life really are. It will help us decide what kind of attention to pay to their comments or proposals no matter how modest or immodest."

The second chapter deals with non-fiction, the next with poetry, then fiction and it wraps up with a chapter called "A Time To Read: Knowing What To Read and When". What I love about this book is that it leads you through reading exercises and explains point by point what to look for. Sire is a good teacher who's book, according to the publisher's blurb, "has been widely used in higher education classrooms to reach reading comprehension". I found myself underlining a lot of it because there is so much that is pertinent and helpful. I want to read it a few times and start applying it's principles to my reading until it becomes second nature. Not that it's all new ideas; at one time or another you've probably heard most of it before, but if you're anything like me you've probably forgotten some of it too. This authour has a clear and logical way of getting his ideas across that is both highly readable and very effective.

The chapter on poetry was fun. Sire quotes a few short poems and has us read them several times looking for specific things. As you follow his direction the poem begins to open up and you see more in it than you did on the previous reading. He compares understanding a poem to looking at blueprints to understand a building: "...and just as an architect or building engineers know what to look for when they examine the building, so do good readers." This is what he's teaching us: what to look for. He gets into metrical structure, image and sound structure, etc, but not deeply, just enough to help us unscramble the riddles poetry often presents. I found this the most interesting and practical chapter of the book.

In the chapter on fiction the topics of plot, character, theme, point of view, tone and style are looked at, again not in depth but enough to be helpful. He doesn't focus on any particular aspect of fiction but says "There is no point in paying close attention to details if we fail to experience the whole work and, as it were, to perceive it at a glance - to drink it in, savor it's succulent tastes and smells, feel its philosophy of life, see its vision of reality and come to grasp more fully what it means to be human.".

James Sire is a Christian and makes references to that throughout the book. He wants Christians to be better readers, more aware of what is going on in the world and what writers are saying about it. But whatever philosophy of life you hold to, this book is for any and all readers who want to get more out of what they read. As he puts it: "I don't expect any reader to imitate my own lifestyle nor to adopt point for point the precise values that I would at my best affirm. But I do want to announce at the beginning that I love reading and would like to help others love it too - and do it better."

I don't agree with everything Sire says and some of his comments seem a little stuffy but that's not hard to overlook when you consider how very useful his teaching is. I hope I haven't made it sound dry because it really isn't and at only 168 pages there isn't time to get too academic so it moves along and stays interesting. I expect this book to make a real difference in how I read. I recommend it to everyone.

"The Tears Of The Giraffe"

2011-11-02T12:10:00.000-03:00

The Tears Of The Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
(Book 2 in The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series)

In the first book in this series we met Precious Ramotswe, an African woman who opens a detective agency in the small town of Gabarone, Botswana. She is a wonderful character, neither young or old, of "traditional build" (not-so-skinny), plainspoken, sensible and living by the moral code of " Old Africa" as her father had taught her.

Her detective skills are used this time to help a man who is worried his wife may be seeing someone else, and an American mother who is trying to find out what happened to her son when he disappeared in Africa ten years earlier.

In this volume the relationship between Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni continues to develop with the addition of two orphan children bringing a whole new dimension to their life as a couple. On the business side of things, Mma Ramotswe's secretary, Mma Makutsi begins to take a more prominent role in the story as she is promoted from secretary to "assistant detective".

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did the first one, but can't quite put my finger on why, other than that Mr. J.L.B. Maketoni was referred to as Mr. J.L.B. Maketoni every single time he was mentioned. Even his fiance called him Mr. J.L.B. Maketoni. And there's something about the characters' way of communicating with each other that doesn't feel natural. It may be a cultural thing, but it seems like they are overly formal with each other, all the time.

I am enjoying what I'm learning about African life. It's all so completely foreign to me but that alone makes it interesting. I had wondered as I was reading why even the most ordinary of people seemed to have maids and was fascinated to read this: "It was a social duty to employ domestic staff, who were readily available and desperate for work. Wages were low - unconscionably so, thought Mma Ramotswe - but at least the system created jobs. If everybody with a job had a maid then that was food going into the mouths of the maids and their children. if everybody did their own housework and tended their own gardens, then what were the people who were maids and gardeners to do?" That's such a different mind-set than we hold in our society where we feel almost guilty about getting help. I have someone come in for an hour once a month to scrub my floors and after eight years I still feel uncomfortable about spending money on this luxury. I wish I could believe I was merely being a good citizen by paying someone else to do it for me.

Toward the end of the book, I came across a phrase I'd never heard before. Mma Ramotswe was pondering the moral dilemma of having to do a wrong thing to achieve a right thing and wishing her favorite detective magazine would make room for such discussions within it's pages so she could ask for advice. "Perhaps she could write to the editor anyway and suggest that an agony aunt be appointed; it would certainly make the journal very much more readable." What the heck is an agony aunt?

Turns out the definition of agony aunt is exactly what you would surmise from the above quote: "a newspaper columnist who gives advice to people having problems". I found all kinds of them online, mostly women but there are also "agony uncles" out there. Sometimes there is one name used , but with a team of people behind it giving advice in an "agony column". Dear Abby and Ann Landers are agony aunts. I feel rather silly now for not knowing that.

I have the next two books in the series on my shelves now so I'll read those and then decide if I want to go any further. Maybe I'll like the next one better; I had high hopes for this series and I'm not ready to give up on it just yet.

"Who Has Seen The Wind"

2011-10-29T19:58:00.000-03:00

Who Has Seen The Wind by W. O. Mitchell

Brian O'Connal is a little boy living on the Canadian Prairies with his parents, his grandmother and younger brother Bobbie. This is a gentle and touching look at his early years in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and it's hard for a boy to get away with anything.

The authour takes us inside Brian's home life and school life, his ups and downs with friends, neighbours and a new puppy, and then (spoiler alert) the tragedy of losing his father when Brian is still a young boy. His father's affectionate nickname for Brian was "Spalpeen" and the reader can feel Brian's aching loss, knowing he will never hear his father speak that name again.

The writing is quite beautiful. One of my favourite things about reading is coming across a line that perfectly describes a thing I have thought or felt but never found words for. One such in this book is "Within himself, Brian felt a soft explosion of feeling". Isn't that wording lovely? Another line I love is "The poplars along the road shook light from their leaves". So perfect and I can see it, can't you?

Mitchell seems to create that "small town on the big prairie" feeling effortlessly. It's nice to read something that makes you want to slow down and savour every word, breathing in the airy atmosphere that feels safe and yet wild and uncontrollable at the same time.

The copy I read was a library loan and I was lucky enough to get the illustrated version with lots of monochrome, and a few full colour, sketches. It was a sizable book, probably 14"x10" so the artwork was large and, like the writing, easy to get lost in. I recommend this beautifully written book to everyone.

"War And Peace"

2011-10-28T00:14:00.004-03:00

War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I finished it. The whole thing. Every. Last. Word. And I feel as though I understand the word epic better than I ever have before, and tome and other words that mostly just mean really big book. Now, with fear and trembling, I will attempt to articulate what I thought of it.

First I have to say I liked the "Peace" parts more than the "War" parts, but more than either of those I loved the parts where Tolstoy left off telling the story and talked about his own philosophies of society, history, war and peace. That is where his brilliance as a thinker shines brightest, in my opinion, and that's all it is, an opinion. I haven't studied this novel, I have only read it. I don't pretend to offer anything but a very simple response to a complicated work.

I've decided I'm not a fan of Russian Literature. I had the same problem connecting with the characters in this that I did with Anna Karenina. On some levels I believe that people are the same all around the world - but, there are cultural differences that go deep and these sometimes leave us scratching our heads at behavior we don't understand. The thing about Tolstoy's characters that frustrates me is how quickly their moods change. They can go from ecstatic to desperate and back again several times in a mere few minutes depending on what thought flits through their minds or what they read into someone's glance. I get that they are a people of strong feeling, but all that emotion every minute of every day wears a bit thin for me and makes the story heavy and plodding. For me the melodrama is exhausting, something I could take in a short story perhaps, but this, as we are all aware, is no short story.

The "Peace" parts tell the stories of several well-to-do families, their children, their struggles, their romances. And of course, their efforts to get through the war years without their menfolk. I found these sections easier reading and more interesting even with the "all drama, all the time" characters. The Russian names did present a bit of a problem; I spent so much time trying to figure out the right pronunciations that I frequently lost the line of the story and had to go back and pick it up again.

The "War" parts just about did me in a couple of times. I found the long passages about battle strategies and troop movements mind-numbing. Try as I might I can't seem to work up an interest in military things. And that Russian intensity looks almost crazed in the soldiers' obsessive need to impress their leaders, to be noticed or touched by them. They positively swoon if their Great Leader stoops to speak to their lowly selves.

Tolstoy has some pretty good insight into the human condition, as shown in the following great quotes:

"It was as if the thread of the chief screw which held his life together were stripped, so that the screw could not get in or out, but went on turning uselessly in the same place."

“(He) was one of those who purposely put themselves in most depressing conditions to have a justification for being gloomy.”

"Pfuel was one of those theoreticians who so love their theory that they lose sight of the theory's object--its practical application. His love of theory made him hate everything practical, and he would not listen to it. He was even pleased by failures, for failures resulting from deviations in practice from the theory only proved to him the accuracy of his theory."

"At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal power in the human soul: one very reasonably tells a man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of escaping it; the other, still more reasonably, says that it is too depressing and painful to think of the danger, since it is not in man's power to foresee everything and avert the general course of events, and it is therefore better to disregard what is painful till it comes, and to think about what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally listens to the first voice, but in society to the second."

It is that insight that kept me going when I wanted to quit the book altogether. I had to see how his characters turned out, where he took them and who they became. I didn't really connect with them at all but I did enjoy reading what they believed and how they looked at life.

Now for my favorite parts of the book, those where Tolstoy leaves the story and addresses the reader directly. I love his logic, the clarity of his thinking. I'm probably the only person on the planet who doesn't already know this but I need to do a search to see if he has written any non-fiction. He's fascinating to read when it's his personal thoughts and philosophies he's conveying. He writes eloquently about history, human nature, society, etc.

Throughout the book, particularly at the beginning of chapters, there are passages that reveal his feelings about war in general and the War of 1812 in particular. Book 9 Chapter 1 begins with this almost angry comment on the criminal nature of war:

"On the twelfth of June, 1812, the forces of Western Europe crossed the Russian frontier and war began, that is, an event took place opposed to human reason and to human nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money, burglaries, incendiarisms, and murders as in whole centuries are not recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes”

Another topic he's keen on is Napoleon. He talks about his rise to and fall from power and makes it clear he's not a fan: "Napoleon, with his usual assurance that whatever entered his head was right..." and "Napoleon- that most insignificant tool of history who never anywhere, even in exile, showed human dignity...." I feel I know Napoleon better after reading this book than I did after reading others where he was the main subject.

Another target of Tolstoy's criticism is historians. He frequently takes shots at them for portraying history in ways that accomplish their own purposes and have no regard for truth. He presents clear, practical arguments for his case that recorded history is wrong about the war of 1812 and that things were not as historians have portrayed them. He is not at all hesitant to point out their errors and to hint strongly at their deliberate falseness and stupidity.

There's an impressive discourse on "greatness of soul" and what that means, and then in the second epilogue, a wonderful essay on understanding "freedom" and "inevitability" as causes of historical events. Even if you never read the whole book, that section is worth looking at.

All in all I found lots to appreciate, and lots I couldn't appreciate, in War And Peace. The sheer volume of it is intimidating but it's not difficult to read. Boredom was my chief adversary but I conquered that by reading other books at the same time and taking War And Peace in small doses over a long period of time. Having finished it, I can now recommend it. Truthfully, I don't think I will ever read the whole thing again but I do expect to reread some of the more philosophical parts, especially the second epilogue, which I found fascinating.

Leo Tolstoy certainly deserves the literary world's admiration. He can at times drone on and on about things (like his endless comparison of the emptied city of Moscow to a queenless beehive that felt like it went on forever) but there's no denying his genius. I can't begin to imagine what would inspire anyone to undertake such a huge endeavor or how anyone's mind could hold all of this story from beginning to end, let alone the tenacity to keep going and getting it all on paper. And without a computer!

So this monster that has intimidated me for ages has been faced and found not so terrifying after all. It is with great satisfaction that I cross this one off my list. And though also intimidating, the writing of this post wasn't really so bad either. It is the longest review I probably will ever write, but then it's the longest book I probably will ever read. And the very best thing is: I didn't hate it!

"Breakfast At Tiffany's"

2011-10-16T17:20:00.000-03:00

Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Another one I can mark off my guilt list, and such a quick read. At only 111 pages it's a long short-story or I guess "novella" is what they're calling them now, it had no chapters, and I was able to finish it in a couple of sittings.

The main characters are Holly Golightly and the narrator, referred to by Holly as "Fred" though that is not his name. Fred is basically just a talking head that we never learn much about. He is trying to be a writer and he's living in his first New York apartment. That's about it. Holly is a young socialite who seems to flit hither and yon with no definite plans. That's what she does; she flits. She doesn't seem to be bothered by any kind of moral restraint or any need to treat others well. She's rather self-centered and shallow, and her affections can be purchased by the highest bidder, but in spite of all this, every man she meets falls in love with her.

There's no real plot at all, just 111 pages about Holly. I don't know if readers are meant to find her as irresistible as all the men in the book do, but I'm afraid I didn't. I'm told the movie with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard strays far from the book and I'm thinking that must be why everyone seems to love it so much.

Capote's writing is of that spare style that I find pleasant to read, a little like Hemmingway. He uses a few words/phrases that were in common use at the time (early 1950's) but they sound dated reading it now. It reminds me of the language I used to hear on early tv shows like "Dragnet" which totally impressed me with it's sophistication when I was a kid but now sounds a bit....dorky.

Included in this book were three short stories of Capote's: "The House Of Flowers", "The Diamond Guitar" and "A Christmas Memory". I read the first two and enjoyed the reading but didn't like the stories. That's the thing about Truman Capote; I don't like the stories or the characters and yet I enjoy the reading experience. I like the uncomplicatedness of his writing, which I should be able to call the simplicity of his writing, but I can't because it isn't the same thing. I did enjoy "A Christmas Memory" more than the others, maybe because the characters were more likeable.

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite passages:

"...the army of wrongness rampant in the world might as well march over me."

"...our understanding of each other had reached that sweet depth where two people communicate more often in silence than in words: an affectionate quietness replaces the tensions, the unrelaxed chatter and chasing about that produce a friendship's more showy, more, in the surface sense, dramatic moments."

"...her smile was fragmentary, it clung to her lips like cake crumbs." (from "House Of Flowers")

"...singing a song that sounded as jolly as jingling coins." (from "A Diamond Guitar")

"Blessed Are The Cheesemakers"

2011-10-14T23:53:00.000-03:00

Blessed Are The Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch

In my search for a "pleasant" book I thought I had hit the jackpot. This one had two eccentric old guys, Corrie and Fee, making cheese at their dairy farm in County Cork, Ireland, a long-lost grand-daughter come to recover from a bad marriage and a just-fired, self-destructive stockbroker sent there to get his head straight. Great setting, lots of cheese (and wine) talk, a plot that might be a little sappy but still hopefully comforting, a bit of romance, a bit of humour..., what could go wrong?

Ugh. There was a lot of swearing that served no purpose I could see other than shock value and it didn't even work for that. I think this authour could have done better. There were huge holes in the story. The tying up of loose ends went way over the top with people who were supposed to be dead but weren't and one who was supposed to die but didn't and one who wasn't supposed to but did. There was at first an appealing hint of the mystical and magical about the cheesemakers and their dairy farm but then absurd coincidences pretty much took over and it got so silly I just skimmed the last couple of chapters to get to the end. The best I can say is I found it ridiculous.

I wanted to love this book and to be able to recommend it, but I didn't, so I can't. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

"Hot Water"

2011-10-10T22:15:00.000-03:00

Hot Water by P. G. Wodehouse

I finally got to read P. G. Wodehouse. The great reviews of other readers had pointed me to the "Jeeves" series of books but I didn't want to start them till I could locate all of them and as yet I haven't. It was certainly no problem finding other titles. The library copy of "Hot Water" that I borrowed listed over 80 of his books on the back cover.

The story is set in the seaside town of St. Rocque in France, where a Mr. and Mrs. Gedge have rented the Chateau Blissac and are inviting guests for the weekend. Her intent is to pull some strings and get the powers that be to appoint Mr. Gedge Ambassador to France. Meanwhile, in a bar in town plans are being made by small time thieves to break into the chateau to steal the diamond jewelry Mrs. Gedge keeps in her bedrom safe.

What ensues is a comedy of identities. Hardly anyone is who they claim to be and as the motives of one character after another come clear and chance meetings threaten to blow cover stories the plot gets complicated and comical. What begins as a pile of puzzle pieces falls neatly into place creating a clear and tidy picture by the end.

Wodehouse's language is great fun to read. Slightly more than tongue-in-cheek and slightly less than sarcastic, it's witty and wry and slightly mad. How satisfying it is to know there are so many of these books to come back to; this is the kind of writing that fits into my "comfort reads" category and it's a rare thing now for me to find anything that qualifies so I'm thrilled with these.

I'm pretty sure you've all been reading Wodehouse for years now, but on the off chance you've been living under a rock like me and have missed the fun of these books you should beg, borrow or buy one immediately. They're that good.

"The Canterbury Tales"

2011-10-03T21:31:00.000-03:00

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (Edited, introduced and translated by Peter G. Beidler, building on an earlier edition by A. Kent Hieatt and Constance Hieatt)

My book club read this a couple of years ago but for some reason that I can't remember I wasn't able to go and that gave me license to ignore it. Since then it's been sitting on a shelf staring at me and accusing me of laziness and other dire character flaws; I got tired of feeling guilty whenever I walked by it and finally picked it up.

The copy I have has 643 pages (see why I dreaded starting?), but I was delighted to find it only half that long because it's a side-by-side translation: old English on the even pages, modern English on the odd pages. I was surprised and relieved at how easy the translation was to read. I was also surprised at how raunchy the "tales" are. In one breath the tale tellers are talking about religion and holiness and Christ paying the price for their sins and in the next they're talking about the lusty behaviour of one knight/prince/hero after another.

Now that I've read it I still question what the appeal is. I didn't mind reading it but that's not much of an endorsement is it? I think it's one of those books that has to be studied to fully appreciate it; I'm sure there's a lot more to be seen in it than a casual reading will reveal. Alas, I have no desire to study it. I might have enjoyed a serious study in school, but that ship has sailed and a casual reading was quite sufficient to satisfy my curiosity. There were some good moments when I was able to get interested enough to follow a particular tale, but there were also many times I found myself bored and reading only to get to the end.

As I said earlier, I found the language quite manageable to read; the modern English flows easily, though it loses the rhyming couplets in the translation. Chaucer is sometimes plain spoken in describing romantic encounters (until there's no romance left at all really) as in lines 1106-1109 in The Merchants Tale:

"Ladies, I ask you not to be angry with me;

I cannot gloss, I am a blunt man.

Without warning, then, this Damien

pulled up his smock, and in he thrust."

As I said; plainspoken. And there is lots of talk about women being defiled and then taking their own lives rather than live with the shame. There is no mention of the defiling men or their shame. Huh.

Some of the tales are more memorable than others; I expect that's a matter of personal preference more than anything else. The one image that has planted itself in my brain and will probably stay there (because of it's utter ridiculousness) as a permanent icon for "The Canterbury Tales" is from "The Merchant's Tale". At one point in the story the merchant is sitting under a tree while his wife and another man have sex in the tree above him. If only I could erase that unfortunate picture.

I'm putting it back on the shelf now where it will not make me feel guilty anymore. I'm moving on to something far more entertaining: "Hot Water" by P.G. Wodehouse.

Friday Blog Hop Sept 30 - Oct 3

2011-09-30T22:30:00.000-03:00

Wow I had no idea how long it had been since I'd taken part in the blog hop. I think it's such a great idea and when I began this blog it introduced me to dozens of other book blogs and hundreds of great books. It got me started and helped me get to know some people I would never have connected with otherwise. I'm very grateful for all the work Jennifer at Crazy-For-Books puts into the hop; it's a great service she performs for all of us.

Each week Jennifer includes a question in her post that we are to discuss in our own Friday Blog Hop posts. This week's question is "In honor of Banned Books Week what is your favorite "banned or frequently challenged" book?" I had no idea there was such a thing as "Banned Books Week" and I had to check out her lists of banned books to even know what I had to choose from. One of the books on the list was "The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time" by Mark Haddon which was apparently banned from a summer reading program somewhere in Michigan in 2010 after parents complained about the "foul language".

I read this book last year and found it profoundly moving. Written from the viewpoint of an autistic boy who is investigating the death of a neighbour's dog, it put me inside an autistic person's mind. I experienced his thought processes and gained an understanding of the disease and how it affects people that has literally changed the way I look at people. It's one of those rare books that made a real difference in my life.

I loved the book. I didn't enjoy the swearing and I wish all books were written without it. I wouldn't have given it to my children to read before they were adults, but still, I loved the book. I wouldn't presume to tell other adults what is right or wrong for them to read and I wouldn't want anyone trying to tell me either. I don't think banning books is the solution to much of anything. There may be some level of evil so destructive that I'd agree to banning books that spewed it's venom, but this one certainly isn't it. On the other hand I think that most people who object to certain books believe they're doing the right thing. Of course there are some control freaks who want to run everybody's lives; I just don't think that the majority of parents who express concern are trying to do anything but protect their children, and that is their job.

Hop on over to Crazy-for-Books and check out some of the other books that have been banned at one time or another. While you're there visit some of the other blogs listed to get some great reading recommendations.

Have a great weekend!

"Saltsea"

2011-09-23T22:50:00.000-03:00

Saltsea by David Helwig

The Saltsea is a hotel set on the shores of Prince Edward Island, though there are few references to the place other than a mention of the red mud so it could just as well have been set on any other island. The hotel was once the summer home of a wealthy family whose daughter and grand-daughter play major roles in this story. I figured that with a combination of beach, old hotel and interesting guests I couldn't really lose; I had to like this one.

And it was very promising in the beginning. I was enjoying the writing and characters and thinking how great it was to be once more reading something I didn't want to put down. Then the language deteriorated, the plot took a nosedive and the characters began to get weird until, in the last two chapters, they all just sort of lost their minds, doing things their previous behavior had never even hinted at. I read in a state of stunned confusion as the story descended into the dark underside of the characters lives. There was barely anyone left to like by the end.

Giving credit where credit where credit is due, I will say the authour did a bang-up job of surprising me. I only wish some of the surprises hadn't been unpleasant. By the time I turned the last page most of the characters were annoying at best, disgusting at worst.

I did enjoy some of the writing and found passages I thought particularly meaningful, like these ones...

"It was beautiful, and then gradually it wasn't, and maybe that was the way things would always be."

"...without Eileen to approve or disapprove he wasn't sure what any of his words or actions meant."

"...objectivity was going out of fashion everywhere, the world an apotheosis of vagueness and mood."

I truly wanted to like this book but I find myself in serious need of a story without despair, and this sure wasn't it. Surely there are still authours who can write well, tell a good story, create realistic characters and do it all without a lot of cursing, violence and raunchiness. I know I'm inviting derision here, but seriously aren't there any pleasant books anymore? I loved The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and would like to find more like them. I guess it's a comfort read I'm looking for, but not fluff. I really don't want fluff.

So please, I'm open to suggestions if you have any. Send lots; I'd love to have a long list of gentle books to choose from for those times when more serious reading leaves me somewhat disenchanted. I ~~patiently~~, ~~impatiently~~, eagerly await your recommendations.

"Cool Water"

2011-09-20T16:16:00.000-03:00

Cool Water by Dianne Warren

This was one of those books that left me wondering whether or not I liked it. I didn't love it, and I didn't hate it, I was simply disappointed with it. It kept me entertained well enough for a couple of days but I don't expect to remember the plot or even the characters very long.

There are five stories taking place simultaneously. The first one is about Lee, the adopted son of a farmer and his wife who died and left the property to him. Lee is trying to run the farm on his own but most of the story we are told about him is played out as he rides a stray horse many miles away from the farm and back again.

Then there are the Shoenfield brothers, Ed and Willard. Willard had lived with Ed and Ed's wife Marion, and since his brother's death Willard has lived with the fear that Marion would move away leaving him alone.

Blaine and Vicky Dolson have six children and serious financial problems. Vicky tries to keep up with all that raising six kids entails; Blaine becomes more and more frustrated as the financial pressures mount and their relationship begins to feel the strain.

Next is Norval and Lila Birch. He is the bank manager, she is a control freak and their eighteen year old daughter, Rachelle, is pregnant and planning her wedding.

The fifth story is about a truck driver, Hank Trass and his wife, Lynn, who runs the Oasis Restaurant. Lynn suspects Hank is not faithful to her and she's taking her anger out on the restaurant staff.

These people all live in and around the small town of Juliet in the Canadian prairies. They all know each other and sometimes their paths cross in the course of the story but I thought this felt more like a series of short stories with overlapping characters than a cohesive novel. There isn't a very clear plot line running from start to finish. I think if I put more thought into Cool Water I would see more of what the authour intended, but I just can't summon up enough interest and I have other books calling my name.

I think the problem for me is that there are too many stories to deal with effectively in the 328 pages given to them. The characters themselves are well constructed and authentic but the book ended just as I was getting involved. I'd have liked it more if there had been fewer stories told in more depth.

Having said all that I still recommend the book, because it's well written with good characters. You might love it as much as others have. I wish I had, and I hope you do.

"The Factory Voice"

2011-09-17T00:28:00.001-03:00

The Factory Voice by Jeanette Lynes

This is the story of four women, Audrey, Muriel, Ruby and Florence, all of whom work at Fort William Aviation, a military aircraft factory in Ontario. The year is 1941 and women are filling the jobs left vacant by the men who have gone off to war.

These women couldn't be more different in situation and personality. The authour has created fresh, believable characters as unique as any you would find in real life. These are the kind of people who work their way into your head and stay there long after you turn the last page of the book. I'm always impressed when an authour can do that - we've all read lots who can't - especially in a debut novel as this one is.

Audrey is 16 and, well.....zippy. She's eager to grow up and get a job and start living her life. Speaking pretty much every thought that crosses her mind, she blows into the factory like a mini-hurricane and endears herself to almost everyone.

Ruby is a typist and writer of the employee newsletter "The Factory Voice". Ruby has big dreams and can't wait for the day when she can put this drudgery and all these sad little people behind her. She knows she is meant for something better.

Muriel is 36 years old, has overcome polio, earned herself a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering and is starting a new job as Chief Engineer at the plant. She's a more complex character than some of the others and is my favorite. I'd like to read more about her.

The fourth woman is Florence. She's been at the factory for five weeks, but remains on probation because she has a German last name. The other workers wear yellow head scarves; those on probation wear red and Florence hates sticking out in the crowd. Awkward and uncomfortable around people, she just wants to be left alone to do her job.

Around these four is told a story that has something for everyone. Drama, romance, intrigue, a little heartbreak and a little victory. I liked this book, even if a couple of characters made me wanna smack'em sometimes. It's a good story - different, interesting, worth reading. And isn't that just a great cover?

"Heave"

2011-09-15T22:03:00.000-03:00

Heave by Christy Ann Conlin

The title of this book comes from a line in a song called "Farewell To Nova Scotia":

"When I am far away on the briny ocean tossed

Will you ever heave a sigh and a wish for me?"

The lyrics and the Celtic lilt of in the music stir up a sadness, a longing for something better that perfectly describes the tone of this book.

The book opens with Seraphina Sullivan, a troubled 21 year old from rural Nova Scotia, fleeing - in wedding dress, veil and high heels - from the church in which she was about to get married. She bolts from the church leaving pieces of her gown in the door, crying and laughing, runs through the town and all the way out a country road to her parents home. She takes refuge in an outhouse, one of several that her father has collected and placed around the property.

From there, "Serrie" looks back over her life - her stint in rehab, her sudden and unexplained flight to England, and the time she spent in an asylum - trying to figure out how she got to this point in her life. We learn about her mother and brother, her gentle father, her grandmother, a practical woman with a sometimes scornful and always pointed way of sharing her opinion (my favorite character in this book), and her best friends Dearie and Elizabeth. The characters are all as quirky and hard to fathom as real people and are what make this book tick, far more than the plot.

On the cover of my library copy a reviewer says this book is "a wildly energetic debut" and another calls it "astonishing" and "gorgeously fun". I didn't find it wild or energetic, astonishing or even that much fun, but I did the like beautiful Nova Scotia setting and the wonderfully flawed, so very human characters. I didn't like some of the language, the fairly creepy cover (mine was somewhat more weird than the one in the picture) or the way the book ended. Actually it didn't feel like an ending to me at all. I was left thinking "Ok. So then what?".

So...I liked "Heave" to a point, but not enough to recommend it. I chose it because other reviewers talked about the rural N.S. landscape and the endearing small town characters; it just turned out to be a little grittier than I'd expected. It certainly has it's good points; it just wasn't what I was looking for.

"Tipperary"

2011-09-14T22:40:00.000-03:00

Tipperary by Frank Delaney

Charles O'Brien is nine years old when he witnesses a neighboring Irish family being evicted from their home and the house being pulled down as mother, father and three young children run toward the safety of the forest with only the clothes on their backs. The evicted family and their ancestors had worked the surrounding fields for hundreds of years, and the father had lost a leg while a soldier in the King's army, but none of that mattered to the ruling English. What Charles saw that day haunted him for the rest of his days. At his father's urging he wrote the story down and it became the first chapter in what he called his "History".

This is a novel and Charles O'Brien is a fictional character but you will meet some real people in these pages as Charles crosses paths with such well known names as Oscar Wilde, William B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw. And behind all of them, behind his training and career as a healer, his persuit of a woman who felt nothing for him but scorn, and the reconstruction project of a castle he had always dreamed of owning is the story of Ireland struggling for independence; Ireland's story is as much a part of this book as Charles'.

The solid, detailed writing is a pleasure to read; the story has lots of twists and turns and brings to vibrant life a period of history that I never get tired of reading. I did find it just a little slow getting started, but I make exceptions for Ireland and it had so much going for it I stayed with it and in the end found it a very satisfying read.

I like the way this book is structured. Sections of Charles "history" alternate with the voice of a present day narrator, entries from Charles' mother's journal and letters written by the woman he falls in love with. There are ten chapters, each separated into short segments that give the reader plenty of places to stop, or maybe make it easier to read just one more section...or two...

Some of my favorite lines from the book...

"'A thing doesn't have to be true', he said, 'for a person to get joy out of it;

what it has to be is not evil or malicious'".

"...he had been born with the poetic advantage of living in a beautiful land."

"Revolutions are born when the drudgery of life aches from

serving the grandeur on the hill."

I have no idea where or when I got this book, but I recently found another Frank Delaney novel on my book shelf as well. It's about three times the size of Tipperary so I'll have to put it off for a while, but it looks like a great read for a long, cold Maritime winter.

Next up: Heave by Christy Ann Conlin

"The Postmistress"

2011-08-12T00:00:00.000-03:00

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Iris James is the Postmistress in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1940. Frankie Bard is a "radio gal" in London reporting on the nightly bombings and hoping to convince Americans to get involved. Their two lives couldn't be more different and yet they find themselves in a situation that brings them face to face and changes them both.

This book has something for everyone: romance and war, small town and big city, drama and destiny, a solid story, interesting characters and good writing. I loved it. Well most of it. There's a fair bit of cursing that I didn't think added anything to the story at all, but other than that, I really did love it.

There's a sexual scene in the book that would keep me from recommending it to younger readers and those who don't like that sort of thing in their reading. I have to say that it's done in very good taste though and is quite beautiful and not (in my opinion) lewd or obscene. The book is worth reading even if you want to skip that part when you come to it.

This is one of those books that leaves you missing the characters when you close the cover. I want very much to travel to Franklin and find Iris and have a cup of tea with her. I feel like she's someone you could just sit with and enjoy the silence. These characters are likeable, so as a reader you find yourself caring about them and it saddened me when some of them didn't survive to the end of the story. (I don't think that's a spoiler because 1] it's wartime so some deaths are expected and 2] I'm not revealing names).

As I said earlier I found the writing enjoyable to read, but I do have to mention one thing that struck me as odd. Toward the end of the book I found a whole sentence repeated and only 25 pages apart. It can't have been intentional; there seems to be no reason for it. On page 265 it says "She brought the canceling stamp down on three letters in a row with a satisfying thump, then turned and tossed what she stamped behind her in quick impatient flicks of her wrist." Then on page 290, "From the door, Frankie watched as she brought the canceling stamp down on three letters in a row with a satisfying thump, then turned and tossed what she stamped behind her in quick impatient flicks of her wrist. I don't remember ever finding a repeat like this before and I'm baffled as to how it got to the printer like that. Anybody else ever seen something like this?

All in all I do recommend this book highly. I found it a very satisfying read and am looking forward to seeing what else this authour has to offer.

"The Poems Of John Keats"

2011-08-02T20:44:00.001-03:00

The Poems Of John Keats

It seems I have found a poet I don't like at all. I know his poetry is loved by many, but I fear I will not be one of them. Granted I have read only the 21 poems found in this book and I really don't know how many more he wrote, although dying at the way too young age of 25 didn't give him enough time to be really prolific. Poetry is such a subjective thing that it's difficult to explain why one likes some and not others but I'll try to pinpoint some of the things that kept me at arm's length.

Keats' language is too flowery and too sweet for me. It makes we wonder if he ever had simple thoughts like the rest of us, though it's probably closer to the truth that he had the simple thoughts but never thought to express them simply. When he writes about love, it positively drips. And for me there's too much talk of dew and mist and moon and such. I realize that this is all a matter of individual taste and I don't mean any disrespect to Keats or his fans. It simply doesn't appeal to me.

These poems are saturated with references to mythology and fairy tales that I am unfamiliar with. That is my lack of education of course and no fault of his, but it's a struggle to stay focused when I have no idea what he's talking about.

On a positive note I did enjoy the rather lengthy poem "To My Brother George". It was wordy but I found it easier to read than most of the others. I liked Keats' thoughts about the legacy of the poetry he will leave behind and how it may one day serve to stir people to action and inspire them to goodness. To be honest I shouldn't really say I enjoyed it, I just sort of disliked it less than the rest of the book.

I read this book through Daily Lit, a web site that will send you short installments of a book over as long or short a time period as you choose, by email. This one was sent in 21 installments whereas War and Peace has over 600 installments. I am finding it a good way to read books that I might never otherwise get to.You can check out their library at dailylit.com.

"Stories I Only Tell My Friends"

2011-08-02T14:37:00.001-03:00

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

I've been a huge fan of Rob Lowe since I fell in love with Sam Seaborn on The West Wing. I still believe that show is the best ever made, even better than The Waltons and I practically made them my family. I've watched all seasons of The West Wing three times and still I never watch an episode without seeing something in it that I missed before. And I've never found it hard to watch Rob Lowe for an hour. So when a friend told me about this book I was eager to read it and she generously loaned me her copy when she was finished with it.

I don't know why I don't read more biographies and autobiographies. People are so fascinating and it always amazes me that each of us is so different. There are no two lives alike among all the people who have ever lived on this planet. That's just mind-boggling to me. Every single person has a story to tell and I'd like to read them all.

In "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" Rob Lowe talks about how he grew up, got into show business and all the ups and downs a life in the public eye brings with it. He is candid about his wild days of drinking, drugs and sex but it's told tastefully. He isn't bragging about those times but using them to illustrate how money and fame can insulate a person from reality and lead to unhealthy excesses that could destroy your life. Fortunately, he was able to get off that road and start making wiser choices.

We meet a lot of other well known actors who were in Lowe's life at various times. He was a neighbour of Marin Sheen and his sons Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, and while still in his teens he worked with Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, and Patrick Swayze. I had no idea he had started acting at such an early age and to tell the truth I had never heard most of what he reveals in this story. I guess that means I'm not so great a fan because it seems to me that diehard fans of actors, musicians and sports figures know every little detail of their hero's lives. I just knew he was really cute.

It came as a complete shock to me as I read that I've never even seen most of the movies and tv shows he did. He's been in movies since he was 15 and I guess I didn't really know much about him at all until The West Wing started. So now I'm on a mission to educate myself in all things Rob Lowe. If you are interested in seeing what movies and tv series he's been in go to Internet Movie Database and you'll find a complete listing.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. The writing is pretty good and there is humour as well as drama. I will confess to a little disappointment that Rob Lowe is not actually Sam Seaborn. Once he matured and got his life back on track though he did become more and more the man of integrity and noble character that Sam was. It's safe to say that Rob Lowe and I will never meet so it won't hurt anyone's feelings if I keep thinking of him as my Sam. Now, back to The West Wing. Season 1. Episode 1.

"Half-Broke Horses"

2011-08-01T23:47:00.000-03:00

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

This is the second book by this authour that I've read, the first being "The Glass Castle" which impressed me so much I put it on my list of "best books ever". This one was also good, but for me it doesn't come close to the other one.

This book is the story of Jeannette's grandmother, Lily, a tough, feisty woman who never let anything get in the way of what she wanted out of life. She grew up in the western US in the early 1900s and her life was anything but easy as she and her family tried to make a living on a cattle ranch. She learned to work hard and take care of herself and when life knocked her down, she got up, dusted herself off and moved on.

The story is told in the first person from Lily's point of view, though the authour's source of information was Lily's daughter, Rosemary (Jeannette's mother), and not Lily herself. Because of that she calls this a "true-life novel" rather than a biography or memoir. I don't think I'll be shelving it with fiction though. Having read "The Glass Castle" and met some of this book's characters in that, I definitely see it as a memoir.

Jeanette Walls is an excellent story teller. She can bring people to life and make them so vivid that you never forget them and her great writing keeps the story moving along and has, on occasion, made me forget to stop reading and go to bed. I thoroughly enjoy reading her work and I hope there will be a lot more of it.

From what I've read about this book on other blogs the majority of readers finish the book impressed with Lily's grit and head-on way of dealing with life. I, too, can admire her, but from a distance. I don't think she and I would ever have been friends because she intimidates the heck out of me. She's so confident and capable and brave, all things I want to be but, alas, am not. She had some pretty good theories about life though and at times showed real wisdom. My favourite quote is "When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal."

I read this mostly because "The Glass Castle" got to me in a very personal way and I wanted to know more about Jeannette's background so I could try to understand some things. Well, that and my book club chose it for July's selection. I'm glad I read it. It did shed more light on Jeannette's family history and what made her mother (Rosemary) the very unique woman, and incredibly strange mother, that she is.

I recommend this authour highly. I think anyone who appreciates a good story would enjoy "Half Broke Horses" as well as "The Glass Castle".

"Therefore Choose"

2011-08-01T00:47:00.001-03:00

Therefore Choose by Keith Oatley

George is a medical student at Cambridge where he meets and becomes good friends with Werner, a German boy also attending Cambridge. In the summer of 1936, George travels with Werner to Werner's home where the growing military force is visible everywhere and political tensions are rising.

There Werner introduces George to his friend Anna and George falls in love. The rest of the book tells the story of how George, Werner and Anna's relationships develop and change in the pressure cooker that was Europe in the late 1930's and throughout the war.

I've read a lot of books set in wartime, but it isn't often we get a look at WWII from inside Germany and from the viewpoint of German citizens. The authour gives us an interesting glimpse into what war does to people and the kind of group thinking it is so easy to get caught up in. The book also looks at the dynamics of friendship and love and how they are altered by war and the decisions we have to make to survive.

I liked this book because it's a quiet story. There are no dramatic battle scenes or things blowing up; it's more the philosophy of war and friendship and love. The story unfolds in what the characters think, feel and discuss so it's not a page turner, but it is a thoughtful, insightful book, well written and well worth reading. I like quiet books. I love quiet books and would be happy to find more of them.

I would never have chosen this book because I really don't like the cover. Sad isn't it (me, not the cover)? Fortunately I won this copy in a contest hosted by John at bookmineset and since it's a Canadian authour (not born in Canada, but now living here) I decided to make it my first selection for the 5th Canadian Book Challenge, which is also hosted by the same site. So, thanks John; it was a very good read.

"Heaven Is For Real"

2011-07-24T02:09:00.000-03:00

Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent

I must admit I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to people who say they’ve been to Heaven. I am a believer and I am convinced Heaven exists and that I’ll be going there when my life here ends, certainly not because of any merit of my own but because Jesus’ death paid for my sins, and the sins of all who are willing to trust Him. In spite of my faith, my human reason finds it hard to accept, or maybe just thinks it’s too good to be true, that a person could experience Heaven and then return to earth to tell the rest of us what it’s like. I have no problem with the Heaven part, just the coming back part.

This story is particularly touching in that it’s a young child who is sharing his experience of Heaven. And he didn’t just go, come back and start telling his story. What he experienced slowly seeped bit by bit into his everyday conversation with his parents. Because he was so young, he was unaware that what he experienced was not a normal event but a spectacular look into the afterlife that very few people ever get to tell about. He thought it was what happened to everybody so his telling of it was in matter-of-fact bits and pieces as various topics came up over time. That slow unfolding of the story is what makes it so believable for me.

The first indication that something out of the ordinary had happened to their son, Colton, came when he said that he recognized the hospital as the place “where the angels sang to me.” When his parents questioned him, they heard more: “I was sitting in Jesus’ lap” and “Dad, Jesus had the angels sing to me because I was so scared.” Then, when Colton told his parents where each of them had been and what they were doing while he was anesthetized and in surgery, they didn’t know what to think, but it was becoming clear that something big had happened.

Everything Colton said about his experience in Heaven was analyzed by his parents until they had no choice but to believe it. He knew things he couldn’t know and he talked about meeting family members already gone when he was born. Even when asked about things he had already told them, they couldn’t trip him up. There are of course many who will say the parents made it up, or Colton made it up, or it was a dream or the effects of the anesthetic, but I figure I’ve got two choices. I can believe it and look forward to the kind of life that awaits me in Heaven, or I can dismiss it merely as the fantasy of a small child and forget about it.

I choose to believe it. It’s beautiful and inspiring and hopeful, and I get more good out of believing it than not believing it. I read the entire book looking for something that would make it not credible, but didn’t find it. There is a lot more to Colton's story than is told here so check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

I recommend “Heaven Is For Real” to anyone who could use a little hope, a little happiness. Suspend your scepticism and disbelief for a couple of hours and read the book. What have you got to lose?

Canadian Book Challenge #5

2011-07-01T21:03:00.004-03:00

Happy Canada Day! It's July 1st again and that means Canada Day celebrations and The Canadian Book Challenge 5. I signed up for Challenge 4 and my goal was to read 13 but I managed to get in these 16:

The Wise and Foolish Virgins by Don Hannah
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Blue Castle by Lucy M. Montgomery
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowatt
The Hatbox Letters by Beth Powning
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Towes
The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findlay
Glass Voices by Carol Bruneau
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M. Montgomery
The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong
The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowatt

The challenge was a very positive experience for me, discovering Canadian authours whose names I'd never heard and finally getting to some whose names are as familiar to me as my own but whose books I just never got around to picking up. I found writers I loved and writers I didn't enjoy at all, but I ended the challenge feeling like I have a whole new world of unexplored books waiting for me.

For my first year in the challenge I made a list of Canadian books I've been wanting to read but this time around I think I'll just read them as I find them. There's a huge list of them at Canadian Book Challenge 4 Final Roundup. John Mutford hosts the Canadian Book Challenge on his blog www.bookmineset.blogspot.com and keeps a running tally month by month of the total each participant has read. The link above will take you to the list of the 859 reviews written on 638 books by 56 participants in the past year.

I just signed up for Challenge #5 and hope some of you will consider it. All you have to do is send John an email at jmutford (at) hotmail [dot] com with "sign me up" in the subject line. Each month he sends out an email asking us to send links to the reviews of books we've read that month and once he gets your first one you'll be added to the list of participants in his sidebar.

You don't have to have a website or blog to post a review. Places like Amazon and Chapters let anyone post a review without having to sign in. The only stipulation John has is that the reviews be available to everyone, so posting it on Facebook wouldn't qualify because you have to have an account to sign in.

So click on the Canadian Book Challenge 5 button on my sidebar and check it out. And in the meantime, enjoy your Canada Day celebrations!

"Choosing To See"

2011-06-26T23:47:00.003-03:00

Choosing To See by Mary Beth Chapman (with Ellen Vaughn)

Mary Beth Chapman is the wife of gospel music artist Steven Curtis Chapman, a well-known singer/songwriter whose career has spanned two decades and is still going strong. Mary Beth is also mother of six and a public speaker at Christian women's groups.

On May 28, 2008 the Chapman family suffered a horrible tragedy when their little girl, Maria, was hit by a car in their own driveway. The driver of the car was their son, Will. I remember when this story hit the news; the unthinkable circumstances left parents around the world wondering how it is even possible to survive so much pain. This book is Mary Beth's story, from childhood to present day. It includes much more than the accident, but that event has been the defining moment of her life that has coloured every other moment since.

At the time of their daughter's death the Chapman's were in the midst of planning the wedding of their eldest daughter, Emily, and the high school graduation of their eldest son who was the one behind the wheel when the car struck and killed his little sister. The impact on the whole family was overwhelming. Will fought hard with guilt and Mary Beth and Steven struggled with God over why it happened and especially why it had to happen the way it did. The other children were devastated by the loss of their sister.

Their struggle to keep on putting one foot in front of the other, to carry on with wedding and graduation plans, to go back to living a life that would never be normal again is a testament to their faith in God. They chose daily to trust that he would carry them all through this, help them endure the pain and bring something good out of all the bad.

It's a remarkable story of hanging on through a kind of heartache most of us can only imagine. The authour is very honest about their pain and anger as they agonized over the fact that God could have stopped this from happening but didn't. It wasn't and still isn't easy for them, but God has held them together and they continue to believe in His goodness and His love for them.

This tragic story is not an easy one to read but it's not only about suffering. Hope is the thread that runs through every chapter and encourages us all to face the painful realities of our lives with faith, knowing that someone bigger than we are is in control. This is a story worth reading.

"Poems of the Past and Present"

2011-06-26T19:53:00.001-03:00

Poems of the Past and Present by Thomas Hardy

I've enjoyed reading Hardy's novels since I was first introduced to them in high-school, but this is my first look at his poetry. I confess I have no idea how to review a book of poetry so I guess I'll just write what I was thinking as I read.

The overall mood of the book is sad disillusionment, the same feeling that comes through his novels, only more focused because in poetry so much is said in so few words. I expected his poems to be melancholy but this is more than that I think. This is despair, and it never ends. It seeps into every verse, every line. In "I Said To Love" he says:

"We now know more of thee than then;
We were but weak in judgement when,
With hearts abrim,
We clamored thee that thou woulds't please
Inflict on us thine agonies."

It's clear that he has been hurt. You can't read his novels without seeing how disillusioned he is about love but this verse sounds almost bitter. When I was younger I used to think that life must have treated him very harshly, but now I don't expect his life was harder than other people's, I just think that as a poet he is more free, and better able, to express his emotions.

There's a poem in this collection called "A Commonplace Day" that I like a lot. He writes about the day passing without having accomplished anything, an experience common to us all but most of us could never put it into words with so much feeling. I find myself drawn into his disappointment when he says:

                     "Nothing of tiniest worth, Have I wrought, pondered , planned".

In another poem titled simply "To Life" Hardy sounds so tired of the suffering and darkness of life that he asks why life can't, just for one day, pretend that it's good and happy. Where most of us might sigh with a moment's passing regret, he picks up a pen and turns his regret into art

                                                 "But cans't thou not array
                                              Thyself in rare disguise,
                                                  And feign like truth, for one mad day
                                                  That Earth is paradise?

Some (most) of these poems are heart-wrenching to read, full of pain, but honest, his heart laid open for all the world to see. There's one called "God Forgotten" and another "The Bedridden Peasant to An Unknowing God" in which he questions if God ever hears him or if He's forgotten about Thomas Hardy, and, indeed, the whole human race. He believes in God's existence and that He is good, but he feels abandoned. Who can't relate to that from time to time?

There is also, though, a certain amount of cautious hope in what he writes. In "To An Unknown Pauper Child" he advises the baby to stop breathing and not be born into such a mournful life, but at the end he faces the fact that neither he nor the child can do anything to change what will be and he says;

                                               "I can hope
                                                Health, love, friends, scope
                                                In full for thee; dream thou'll find
                                              Joys seldom yet attained by humankind.".

The last one I'll mention is called "The Superseded". I love this one because it touches a sore spot in all of us. He writes about how people drop into the background of life as they age, making room for younger, fresher lives in the forefront. We all understand this process is a normal, healthy part of aging and we have no trouble accepting it for others, but each one of us is a little hurt and surprised when it actually happens to "me".

                                              "Tis not that we have unforetold
                                                     The drop behind;
                                               We feel the new must
                                             Oust the old
                                                 In every kind;
         But yet we think
         Must we, must we
       Too drop behind?"

I think these poems might be a bit too melancholy for some, but I enjoyed most of them. I don't mind their sadness because they speak of real life, and real life is sad. I love the simplicity, the honesty, the beauty of his words and after my first attempt at reading his poetry I remain a staunch Hardy fan.

"The Piano Man's Daughter"

2011-06-22T18:57:00.000-03:00

The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findley

This novel was a little slow starting but once it got going it was fascinating. I found it a bit muddled at first, what with the switching back and forth from one time period to another and from one character's life to another. Written with a detachment that it took awhile to get used to, it was a strong story once I got adapted to the style and got everybody sorted out. Somewhere in Section Two, I was hooked.

I must confess that I have started making lists of characters as I read so that I won't forget who they are and how they are related to the story. This can be looked at in two ways: 1. I'm getting old and forgetful and am more easily confused. 2. I've become more organized and efficient and am taking my reading more seriously. I choose the second theory. If you think the first is more accurate, please leave me to my delusions; they are all I have left. But I digress...

The "Daughter" referred to in the title is Lily, daughter of Tom, who is the "Piano Man". Lily suffers with mental illness, a condition that has plagued her since childhood and that never lets her live a normal life with her son Charlie. Raised by her mother, Edith, who tried to give her daughter as normal a life as possible, she lived in a world that was detached from the reality around her much of the time. In her world the rules were different, and that of course created problems for her family and friends, who could not understand the seizures she sometimes experienced or her unsettling obsession with fire.

The narrator is Lily's grown son, Charlie, who as a child tried to care for his mother during her bad spells, but who eventually went to live with his aunt and uncle when his mother's condition deteriorated to the point where she had to be institutionalized for the first time. When Lily's condition improved enough to be released she would find a place for her and Charlie to live and they would be a family again until her condition worsened and she had to be re-admitted.

The story of Edith, Lily and Charlie is a close-up look at how mental illness can affect a family and even tear it apart when the stress of holding things together becomes overwhelming. It's a tragic illness that can strip the sufferer's life of everything meaningful and destroy relationships that can't bear the weight of it's confines and complexity. And yet, life goes on. As in real life, the characters in this book put one foot in front of the other and keep going because, what else is there to do? This is a well told, consuming story that may not let you put the book down when you want to. It's hard to resist.

This is an amazing story, and I'm hoping to find more like it in Timothy Findley's other novels which include: Headhunter, Famous Last Words, Not Wanted on the Voyage, and The Wars. He has also written two collections of short stories and at least one play. "The Piano Man's Daughter" is well worth the read and I highly recommend it.

"The Stone Diaries"

2011-06-22T05:46:00.002-03:00

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

I know this won't win me any friends among Canadian readers, but I don't like Carol Shields writing. Granted I've only read this one through to the end. A few years ago I started another one and didn't like it either so I quit about a quarter of the way in. I suspected at the time I was not a "good" reader and that her books were over my head. I've gained some "reader confidence" since then and learned that it's ok to not like certain styles of writing just on the basis of personal taste. Hence the freedom I feel to hate Ulysses by James Joyce without guilt, but that's a whole other story.

This novel follows the life of Daisy Goodwill from her birth in her mother's kitchen in 1905 to her death in the 1990s. It wasn't an ordinary life, if there even is such a thing. She never knew the mother who died bringing her into the world. She was raised by a neighbour until circumstances changed, requiring Daisy to go home and live with her father. At that point she is eleven years old and she and her father are complete strangers to one another. Each chapter is titled for a specific stage of her life: Birth, Childhood, Marriage, Love, Motherhood, Work, Sorrow, Ease, Illness and Decline, and Death.

I found the gaps too long between some of the chapters. For example, the "Childhood" chapter ends in 1916, just as she reconnects with her father, then that chapter comes to an end and the next one "Marriage" begins with her as a bride-to-be at 22 years of age. I think gaps like that are what prevented me from arriving at a place where I would care about the characters and how things would turn out for them. The story itself is good and the writing as well, I just couldn't get invested in any of the people in the story.

I found some rather odd figures of speech in this book. They're in the right places and at the right times; my problem is that I just don't understand them. There must have been fifty times throughout the book that I came to a metaphor and stopped, wondering what the heck did that mean. I love creativity, but I think this authour and I are on different wave lengths. I'll give you a few examples:

1. In talking about a professor she said "He rides straight up the walls of his sentences."
2. "For Abram Skutari......religion is an open window as well as the curtain with which he darkens the window"
3. "...the word 'woe' made them fall over laughing, such a blind little bug of a word"
4. "...if she says 'So you two gals are out on the town, huh?' then aunt Daisy will say, shaping her mouth into soft ovals of confederacy...."
5. "Vanity refuses to die, pushing the blandness of everyday life into little pleats, pockets, knobs of electric candy."

I could think through some of these and figure out what she might have meant, (the word "woe" is bug-like though I don't know how it's blind, and maybe I have some idea what "a soft oval of confederacy" looks like) but I can't come up with any connection between "the blandness of every day life" and "electric candy" (electric candy?). As something that should paint a clearer picture for the reader or help us understand a situation more easily, these metaphors and others in this book didn't work for me.

I don't know if I'll read anymore of Carol Shields' books or not. I think I'd like to try one more, but it's way down on my priority list now. I know that a lot of people love her writing so definitely give it a try. I didn't "get" her at all, but you might not have that problem. Would love to hear what you think.

"Agnes Grey"

2011-06-10T22:39:00.001-03:00

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

I didn’t like this book, and it’s by a Bronte so I hate to say that. It’s certainly no Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. I didn’t hate it; I just found it tedious.

Agnes is a young woman who decides she will work as a governess so that her family won’t have to support her any longer. She’s a basically good character; she has all the right qualities for a young woman of her era: modesty, loyalty, diligence, etc. and I think the authour wants us to see her as a heroine. Unfortunately the writing doesn’t let us do that. Too many paragraphs are used to tell us how difficult things are for her and instead of stirring up sympathy for her, it made me wish she would stop whining and get on with it.

The two families who hire her on as governess are stereotypically rich, indulgent parents with spoiled children. The children are different ages but really the second family is pretty much a copy of the first one. It all seemed designed to impress upon the reader how terribly hard Agnes’s life is. After awhile I got tired of feeling sorry for her.

When she met the Curate at her village church and began to fall for him I thought maybe she would mature as a character, but I waited in vain. In fact, the Curate, who also is given sterling qualities so that we’ll see him as a good match for Agnes, turns out to be as self-focused (dare I say conceited?) as she was. I’m pretty sure Bronte intended the reader to call the conclusion of this book a happy ending, but I just thought “What a jerk this guy is!” and was glad I didn’t have to read more about him.

I found this book disappointing, so I can’t recommend it. That’s really all I can say about it.

"No.1 Ladies Detective Agency"

2011-06-09T14:28:00.000-03:00

No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

I think I have stumbled onto a treasure trove with this book. It was sheer pleasure reading it and I have since discovered it is just the first book in a series and that the authour has also published at least two other series that sound every bit as appealing. I love it when that happens.

Precious Ramotswe is the main character in this series. A not young, "well-rounded" woman living in Botswana, she sets up her detective agency when her father dies and leaves her with some money to give her a start in life.. She has no training or experience but she does have confidence that she can do this. She finds an office, hires someone to answer the phone and starts being a detective.

Her cases include ordinary people with ordinary problems and some not so ordinary people with not so ordinary problems. Every one of them she tackles with the same common sense, no-nonsense approach that makes her so very....well, interesting. She's unlike any character I've met in other books. She's a breath of fresh air.

And yet, this is not exactly like all the other "cozy mysteries" out there. Some of her clients are dealing with realistic circumstances that are tragic and for which there will be no happy ending. What I love about this book is that there is no melodrama; the serious cases and the minor cases all receive the same treatment, the same commitment to solving, the same honest care.

I have never been a fan of mysteries but I plan on reading this entire series, not so much for the stories as for the writing and the characters. These books will fit into my "comfort reads" category, the kind of book that's perfect to pick up when my reading has been too heavy for too long. If you haven't read this yet, and I suspect I may be the only one who hadn't, I highly recommend you give this series a try. It really is a treat.

"Cry, The Beloved Country"

2011-06-08T00:02:00.002-03:00

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Here's another title from my "Guilt List" that turned out to be a wonderful surprise. It's absolutely beautiful. Beautiful writing, beautiful characters, beautiful story.

Set in Africa, it is the story of a church minister who receives word that his younger sister is sick and needs help. She had gone to Johannesburg to look for her missing husband and has not been heard from in a long time. The minister's son then went to look for his aunt and he also has not been heard from in many months. Reluctantly taking the very small savings he and his wife have scraped together for other things, the minister, Stephen, travels to the city.

The story of how he finds his sister and his son, what condition he finds them in and how their lives all unfold from that point is heartbreaking and inspiring and so authentic that I have a hard time remembering it's fiction and not someone's true story.

The thing that had the greatest impact on me, and that I don't think I will ever forget, is the nobility of some of the characters, the greatness of their souls. The simple, honest choosing of right over wrong, the humble considering of others first even in the worst of circumstances is heartening. Even knowing the story is a work of fiction, I found my hope for, and faith in, humanity being bolstered, and my own desire to be a better person strengthened. Don't take that to mean this book is in any way sentimental or predictable. As a parent, it was one of the most painful stories I've ever read. But it made me feel hopeful too. Hopeful that no matter what may happen to us, we can choose to do the right thing and to be honorable even when no one's is watching.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I think the world would have to be a better place if every person read it. There's a phrase in the second paragraph of the fourth chapter that went straight to my heart and I think it sums up my feelings about this book: it was "lovely beyond any singing of it." Beautiful.

"The Flying Troutmans"

2011-06-07T01:13:00.001-03:00

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

Interesting. I think that's the word I'd use to describe this book. I didn't love it, but the story is quite original and there's a lot to be said for that. The characters are fresh and funky and vulnerable and they left me curious to take a look at her other novels.

It is about a woman, Hattie, who comes home from Paris after her boyfriend dumps her. She has come to take care of her sister, niece and nephew when the sister, Min, is hospitalized for the depression that has plagued her throughout her life. Hattie doesn't really know what she's doing but Logan, 15, seldom says anything and Thebes, 11, talks nonstop and Hattie needs help. She decides they should all take a road trip to find the father they haven't seen in years. She has no clear plan, just a desperation to find someone who can take responsibility for the kids.

Logan drinks, smokes pot and drives without a license; he writes poetry about death and is withdrawn and anti-social. Thebes talks constantly and like a 60 yr old. She doesn't like to wash. Hattie smokes pot with Logan and doesn't argue when he carves a picture of a bashed up head into the leather dash of the car with a knife. Issues all around. It's a very...troubled...family dynamic.

Their drive across country, with the odd assortment of people they meet and the even odder situations they find themselves in makes up the bulk of the story. As a mother I was horrified at some of the things she had the kids doing or allowed them to do, but I could also relate to the tired, sad state that finds it easier to say "sure, why not" than to argue and lose. It got a little far-fetched but never boring.

As with many of the books I've read lately there was more bad language than I really needed, but I found the writing good - very easy to read - and the story moved along quickly. I just realized as I've been writing that this book is very sad. It was touted as "hilarious and heartbreaking" but I didn't find the hilarity. The characters make the best of a bad situation and there are a few ironic moments but I can't recommend it as a funny book. I do recommend it though if you're ready to read something a bit raw and gritty. It will pull you in and maybe, like me, it will get you interested enough to check out some more of Toews work. I like her writing and her thinking.

I, for one, am ready for a lighter read. The steady literary diet of tragedy, illness, perversion and cynicism I've been on is taking it's toll. Fortunately, abebooks.com, has just offered a list of "feel good" reads that I think I'm ready to sink my teeth into. I just have to finish posting on the books I've already read and then I'm going to move on to something light and maybe even fun.

"The Stone Angel"

2011-06-06T22:45:00.000-03:00

The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

This is my first Margaret Laurence book, a bit of an awkward confession for someone who likes to push Canadian authours on fellow readers. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. This is a great story, painful and beautiful and real. I think I have sometimes lumped all Canadian authours into a group called “Too Intellectual for Me” and as a result I have missed out on some great writing that I am only now beginning to enjoy.

Hagar Shipley is the main character, an elderly widow living with her son and his wife. Things have come to the point where she needs more care than her Daughter-in-law, Doris, can provide. Hagar is suspicious that they want to put her in a “home” and she is adamant she won’t go. She won’t discuss it with them and becomes defensive and hostile when they try to talk to her.

So she hatches a plan. She takes her uncashed old age security cheque, hides it in her purse and when Doris goes out to run errands, Hagar makes her escape. She manages to get the cheque cashed and buy some crackers, cheese and a bus ticket and is on her way to some vague beach destination she recalls from her past, though she sometimes forgets on the way where she is and what she is doing there.

She finds a run-down abandoned house where she can hide out – it even has a musty old bed – and she sleeps. When she awakes cold and damp, aching and hungry, she gets angry at Doris for letting her room get so cold and with her son, Marvin, for not paying enough attention to his mother's comfort. Then she remembers where she is and how she came to be there. Soon, she is surprised to find she is not alone in her shelter.

While she is taking this one last fling at independence her mind travels back to her days as a young wife and mother and the story of her life, not a happy one, is revealed. And now I’ve said enough; to know the rest of the story, you’ll have to read the book.

Margaret Laurence is a good story teller. She had me feeling sorry for Hagar, who was piteous in her fear and weakness, and exasperating in her rudeness and short temper, all at the same time. Hagar is a very human woman, one in whom I think most of us would find something of ourselves, though we may not like to admit it. I look forward to reading more of Laurence’s stories and hope to find their characters just as real and interesting as this one.

"A Dangerous Mourning"

2011-05-10T21:17:00.001-03:00

A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry

I'm so glad I found Ann Perry. (Thanks to all you bloggers who recommended her!) Her novels are the perfect antidote to stress, insomnia, boredom and any number of other unpleasant conditions. You don't have to think too much or analyze anything, just open the book and lose yourself in someone else's life for awhile. It's very satisfying to know there's a pool of books available to dive into whenever I need an escape read and know it will be something I'll like. I won't be blindsided with a string of curse words or graphic sex scenes. I can count on there being noble characters, an interesting story and even decent writing. They may not be great literature but they sure are fine escapism.

A Dangerous Mourning is about a high society family that falls apart when one of them is murdered. When Inspector William Monk (the subject of series of A.P. books) determines that the crime was perpetrated by someone within the household, bonds are tested and trust is strained. The unraveling of family relationships provide a framework for the details of the story, all the secrets and melodrama that come with Victorian mysteries.

Monk is assisted in his hunt for the truth by a young nurse, Hester Latterly, a strong, opinionated woman hired to nurse the lady of the manor when she becomes ill from the stress. Hester is able to pass on to Monk the stories, opinions and gossip she hears as a member of the household and together they piece together the story of what actually happened. There is a tension between them that adds another dimension to the story.

If you're a fan of mysteries or if you're just looking for something to lose yourself in for awhile, I think you'll like this book. I'm looking forward to reading a lot more of these.

"The Song Of The Lark"

2011-05-03T17:21:00.000-03:00

The Song Of The Lark by Willa Cather

I'm having trouble deciding what I want to say about this book. When I don't like books I want to forget about them and move on as quickly as possible. I fell in love with Willa Cather's writing when I read My Antonia last year but this one didn't charm me in the same way. The writing is good, but it's missing.....I don't know, something. Maybe it's just a lack of likable characters.

The main character is Thea Kronberg, a girl growing up in Moonstone, Colorado. She takes music lessons, looks after her little brother and spends time with her friend Dr.Archie, whose office she visits frequently to borrow and read books. She has several different music teachers as she grows up, then leaves her hometown to make a career on the stage.

Thea becomes more of a diva and less likable as she ages. She's smart and interesting as a child, but she becomes haughty and self absorbed as she gains notoriety and it's hard to understand why the two men in her life are so utterly taken with her. She still has moments of vulnerability, but they are too few to admire her as a character. She turns her back on her family, all but forgetting them, showing very little gratitude for all they've done for her. She could use a serious dose of humility.

I was disappointed in Song Of The Lark but not enough to write off this authour. I still look forward to reading One Of Ours, Death Comes For The Archbishop, The Professor's House and several others. I do recommend Willa Cather but not so much this particular novel.

Update on Mum: She is still in hospital (ten weeks now) having good days and bad. It's more like good hours and bad really. It's been hard to get a full 24 hours without a crisis situation. She's suffered too long with nausea, weakness and difficulty breathing and is becoming depressed. She feels better for a few hours then it starts all over again. It's terrible for her and hard for us to watch. We try to encourage her and make plans for when she gets home so she'll have something positive to think about, but she's just so tired of feeling miserable. Her heart isn't pumping strong enough to get rid of the fluid so her legs are swollen and congestive heart failure is an ongoing problem. She sleeps with both her head and legs raised so as you can imagine the nights are long and uncomfortable. Most nights now she has to be on oxygen to make breathing more comfortable.

I'm not getting much reading done right now but I am getting caught up on posts for books I've finished. I've started several novels but couldn't concentrate on them so I'm reading an Anne Perry book now that doesn't require too much thinking on my part. Hope to have better news soon.

"The Boat Who Wouldn't Float"

2011-04-14T20:33:00.003-03:00

The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat is a wonderfully entertaining writer. His books are more fun than anything I've come across in a long time; if you haven't read them you are missing out on some of the liveliest, and often looniest, reads out there.

This time he's telling the story of his sailboat and the unbelievably crazy experiences he had with it. If it was fiction I'd say it was overdone, too far fetched to make a credible story, but all these things actually happened, and thankfully he had the urge to write them down so we could share it all with him.

The boat, Happy Adventure, has a personality of it's own and is, in fact, the main character in this story. She is a cranky, stubborn, vindictive old vessel that seems bent on doing exactly what she wants to do, which is usually the opposite of what her captain would have her do. I had to keep reminding myself that a boat is an inanimate object and it could not possibly be thinking on it's own.

Farley Mowat has a genius for finding the comedy in odd people and unpleasant situations. I wish I could see life as he does. It would be so much more fun. All the quirks and foibles that come with being human are examined and used to turn out stories that you wish would go on forever. It's a shame he only has one life to live and write about.

Treat yourself to this or another of Mowat's books soon. They are parties that you've been invited to and you will be glad you decided to go!

"The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz"

2011-04-08T17:48:00.000-03:00

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

Duddy Kravitz is a Jewish boy growing up in Montreal. He and his brother are raised by a single father, a taxi driver, and Duddy has a burning drive to be somebody, to make money and have influence. He will do whatever he must to to get where he wants to be, and it doesn't matter who he has to lie to, take advantage of or hurt. He's a jerk. With a foul mouth. And not much of a conscience.

I didn't enjoy this book. There are a lot of reasons why I should have: it's by a Canadian authour and set in Canada, it got great reviews when it was published (1959), it was made into a movie that was nominated for an Oscar in 1975, and it's been in the back of my mind for decades as a book I should read soon. Somewhere I read that this is "the novel that established Mordecai Richler as one of the world's best comic writers", so I was expecting to laugh. Boy was I disappointed.

It's a good story in that it's realistic and honest, showing us a slice of life that many would never see otherwise. It's well written with sub-plots enough to be interesting. It's easy to read. I think my problem is that I didn't ever get invested in any of the characters. There are fifteen or so of them, but I didn't like any of them. There were a couple of spots where I was so sick of Duddy's soulless arrogance (and bad language) that I wanted to quit, but this is one of the books I'm reading for the Canadian Thirteen challenge so I stuck it out.

I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm glad I'm done. I can't really recommend it.

"Still Alice"

2011-04-06T23:16:00.000-03:00

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice is the amazing story of a Harvard Psychology professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the age of 50. She is a brilliant teacher and researcher, highly respected in her field, married to another Harvard professor and mother of three grown children. The diagnosis is shattering for Alice and her family and it only gets worse as the disease progresses and deconstructs her life piece by piece.

Genova does an admirable job of taking the reader inside the mind of an Alzheimers' victim, and with a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, she is qualified to tell the story. The narrator is Alice herself which helps the reader connect the dots between her thoughts and her actions. An effective technique the authour uses toward the end of the book is leaving complete blanks in the story. In the space between sections you know that time has passed, but you don't know what happened. It leaves you stranded, as Alice is, in the present moment. I finished the book understanding more about the illness and more about the thought processes of the person afflicted with it.

In a way there was a kind of relief in reading how the Alzheimers patient's mind works. We have dealt with this disease in my husband's family and it's been hard at times to make any sense of the behaviours we saw. This book suggests that the patient's actions are completely logical to her and rise naturally from what she's been thinking. They may look random and even insane from the outside, but they aren't. The behaviour comes from not having all the information needed for a particular situation and for me that made it a little easier to understand and a little less frightening.

I'm glad I had a chance to read this; it has changed my thinking. It is also a great story and well written, even if you don't have a particular interest in Alzheimers disease. It's beautiful and it's sad, a very impressive first novel. I definitely recommend it.

"The Wise And Foolish Virgins"

2011-04-01T14:51:00.001-03:00

The Wise And Foolish Virgins by Don Hannah

This is the second of Hannah's novels I've read, but it is the first one he wrote. Neither leave any doubt as to his story-telling abilities. As soon as you begin reading he grabs your attention with such realism that it's more like watching real people live real lives than reading a book. What a wonderful talent this writer has.

The setting is small town New Brunswick on Canada's east coast. The authour was raised in the area and knows it well, so local details are plentiful and accurate. A Maritimer myself, I love reading books set in my home province.

The story follows four main characters as their lives gradually become increasingly tangled up in each other. There is Margaret, a middle aged single woman, survivor of abuse, living with her sister, Minnie, one of the most annoying (and familiar) characters I've ever read. Then there is Gloria, still living at home with her parents, working as a house cleaner and trying to get her three brothers home for a family reunion none of them want. Chaleur is a teenage boy agonizing over his girlfriends decision to get an abortion and in a strange twist later finds himself the victim of unlawful confinement. The perpetrator of this crime is Sandy, an aging, tortured man living alone after the mother he'd nursed for years passes away. Sandy is.....odd.

All of these characters and many others are portrayed with all the gritty reality you'd ever want. Nothing is romanticized; all the sad, sweet, mean, funny and horrible things human beings do to each other are a part of this story. This is about as real as it gets and I love that about Hannah's character's. I love that I recognize them. I don't love all the cursing or the weird sexual stuff. I realize those things are part of what makes these characters and their stories so real and I know I'm very old fashioned when it comes to these things, but there you have it. I'll never get used to it because I don't want to, even it does reduce the enjoyment I get out of reading some really great books. Like this one.

The thing I enjoy most about Don Hannah's writing is its naturalness. In both The Wise And Foolish Virgins and Ragged Islands it's as though instead of just writing them he breathes the stories out There is an even rhythm that you never have to stop and think about; for the reader it's a lovely experience.

All in all a great story and great writing, with the one caveat of strong language. My favorite line from the book? "A shining future was behind him." A sad fact of life for so many of us and a perfect example of Hannah's capacity for poignant authenticity.

Things Are Looking Up

2011-03-31T22:22:00.000-03:00

Much to everyone's amazement, my mother is getting stronger every day. She gets out of bed and dressed every morning. She's going to physio, eating better, feeling less weak and nauseous and is walking with a walker and very little assistance. We are all beginning to relax a bit and are spending our nights at home now instead of in the hospital family room. The change since last week at this time is absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for your prayers and supportive comments. Hopefully my next post will be about books!

Troubled Times

2011-03-27T01:13:00.000-03:00

Thought I'd better explain why I've been neglecting my blog the past couple of weeks. I have been reading, finished three books in fact, but haven't had the time or energy to write reviews. Ten days ago my mother (86) went into hospital for knee surgery. We'd been talking about it but with her history of heart disease she decided it wasn't worth the risk. Then one morning she couldn't get out of bed. She couldn't stand and certainly couldn't walk. The knee had gotten so bad that without the surgery she would have to live in a wheelchair from that point on. She decided to take the risk and have the surgery. A few hours after the surgery she was awake, sitting up and talking. We were all thrilled it went so well. The next day, she had a heart attack. The hospital called the family in because it didn't look like she'd make it through the night. When we got there, her blood pressure was 46/24. They moved her into ICU and she began to rally. That was nine days ago and it's been a roller coaster ever since. One minute we're losing her and an hour later she's sitting up, talking and laughing. Some days she can't eat at all, then the next day she'll eat three meals. Some days the least little bit of energy expended, like moving from the bed to a chair, leaves her heart pounding, her stomach nauseated and her body drained. Her kidney's have malfunctioned. She had a bleed into her stomach. She's been wheezing on and off as fluid builds up but then her breathing returns to normal and she feels better for a while. We can't really say it's day to day, it's more like hour by hour. At some point in every 24 hour period her condition deteriorates badly, but so far she's been able to bounce back every time. Most nights we've stayed with her overnight because it was just so unpredictable, but tonight and last night we felt reasonably comfortable about leaving her. She's exhausted and frustrated, but keeps bouncing back. She's been transferred to different floors 4 times now and we're finding that difficult. It absolutely wears her out, and each time we have to bring the new nurses up to speed on what's been happening. She's in a rehab section now, with the emphasis on getting the use of her leg back. I'd rather she be in a Cardiac unit where her heart can be monitored, but I know the nurses are doing the best they can.

We don't know if things will settle down or continue like this. For those of you who pray, my Mum needs peace of mind and my sisters and I need strength to deal with whatever each day brings. Nerves are beginning to fray. I'll check in again in a few days. Thanks for your support.

Dianne

"Looking For Anne"

2011-03-06T14:04:00.001-04:00

Looking For Anne by Irene Gammel

Looking For Anne is the story of how the beloved childrens book Anne Of Green Gables was written. The author has searched through Montgomery's personal and family correspondence, court documents, journals and popular publications of the era to piece together Lucy Maud Montgomery's life experiences leading up to and during the writing of her most famous novel and presents it here as the solution to the "mystery" of Anne.

I didn't enjoy this book at all until I was at least three quarters of the way through it. I was very disappointed because I love the Anne books and I wanted so much to enjoy reading how it all came about. Unfortunately, instead of enjoyment I got the uncomfortable feeling Gammel was working very hard to make me dislike Anne.

The overall tone of Looking For Anne is negative and critical. And I found the author making some very big assumptions at times. Writing about Montgomery's mother, who died when Maud was a baby, she says "...neither of the two photos available suggest that she would have possessed the wit or the intelligence that Maud valued in spiritual kin such as her great -aunt Mary, who was a brilliant conversationalist and literary mind." That seems a rather harsh judgment to make from just a couple of photographs. It doesn't come across as reasonable. Then there are scenes where she tells us what Maud was thinking at the time and again, that's not very realistic to me. I was never sure what was fact and what was assumed from circumstantial evidence.

Gammel writes at length in this book about female friendships in Montgomery's era and about those in the book, and has a great deal to suggest about the sexual qualities of those relationships. "Through clever wit and irony, Maud had a gift of bringing her readers tantalizingly close to unspoken feelings of sensuality and sexuality, while ingeniously portraying these feelings as universal and innocent." She says a lot more about Maud's sexuality but I'm not going to go into it here, because it's not Maud's sexuality I have a problem with. I do have a problem when she begins to imply Maud wrote sexual feelings into the children's friendships in the Anne books. These are 11 year old girls. I've never, ever picked up even a hint of that when reading the Anne books and frankly I find it more than a little bit creepy. She suggests strongly that Montgomery was bisexual and perhaps she was, but I will never in a million years believe that we are meant to think the relationship between those little girls is in any way sexual.

Gammel clearly has a taste for the melodramatic. It shows up when she calls Anne of Green Gables "a much more secular and subversive novel" than other novels of the day. And again when she refers several times to Maud Montgomery being a "virtual prisoner" during the years she lived with her aging grandmother; she probably did feel trapped at times, but say it too many times and eyes will roll. Then, when Maud is returning home from a business trip to Boston (the one get-away approved by her grandmother), Gammel, to emphasize the empty life she is going back to after a happy, fun-filled time away, writes "When she arrived at the train station on Prince Edward Island, George Campbell picked her up on the cold and rattling buggy. Sleet blew into her face the whole way home." Overkill? For me, yes.

Another thing that struck me the wrong way was Gammel repeatedly referring to Anne as a pagan. In fact she implies that all lovers of nature are pagan. I looked up the definition of pagan just to be sure I wasn't overreacting and it seems she does mean to say that Maud, Anne and anyone else who loves flowers, brooks and fields are unbelievers, and "unbeliever" is the dictionary's definition, not just mine. Now, I believe in God. But I'm also very fond of growing things, bodies of water and night skies. These things are really not mutually exclusive. I think Gammel is taking way too big a leap here, and when considered together with the leap taken from friendship to sexual feelings, and her tendency toward melodrama, this author loses pretty much all credibility with me.

As I said earlier I didn't like it at all till close to the end, and the reason for my interest at that point was that she might say other outrageous things I wouldn't want to miss. Or maybe she'd somehow make all the other stuff make sense. And, this was our book club selection for March and I didn't want to miss anything. So I read through to the end, and now, truthfully, I sort of wish I'd never read it at all.

"The Moonstone"

2011-03-02T19:47:00.000-04:00

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

I've overlooked this book for a while because I thought (blush) it was sci-fi. It's called The Moonstone so it had to be sci-fi. Obviously I haven't read much Wilkie Collins or I would have known better. Well, when I'm wrong, I do it big and I now find myself more than a little embarrassed.

This, of course, is a Victorian era mystery as was the only other Collins I have read, The Woman In White . It has the lovely language that I so love to read and is full of propriety and manners and all things English. Needless to say, and yet I will anyway, I loved it.

In both of the mentioned novels, Collins hands the narrative duties from one character to another to tell the story from their particular point of view, or at least whatever small part they may have experienced in the bigger story. I find this a very effective way of retaining reader interest, though I confess it can get irritating in sections narrated by the more unlikable characters. Fortunately they seem to be the shorter sections and if nothing else they serve to confirm your misgivings.

There is a paragraph early in the book that I found very entertaining and I'm going to quote the whole thing to give you an idea just how delightful Collins' writing is:

"Here follows the substance of what I said, written out entirely for your benefit. Pay attention to it, or you will be all abroad when we get deeper into the story. Clear you mind of the children, or the dinner, or the new bonnet, or what not. Try if you can't forget politics, horses, prices in the City, and grievances at the club. I hope you won't take this freedom on my part amiss; it's only a way I have of appealing to the gentle reader. Lord! haven't I seen you with the greatest authors in your hands and don't I know how ready your attention is to wander when it's a book that asks for it, instead of a person?"

That puts a smile on my face that isn't easily removed. It's fresh and imaginative and just a little bit cheeky; I keep reading it and getting the same charge out of it I got the first time. But enough about me; I really should tell you what the book is about.

The "moonstone" is a yellow diamond (and not a piece of space rock...), taken from it's home in India where for centuries it had "been set in the forehead of the four-handed Indian god that typifies the moon". The jewel, long kept hidden in England, is bequeathed to a young woman and presented to her on her birthday. That night the jewel goes missing and the fun begins. Scotland Yard gets involved, the servants are all suspect, tragic deaths occur and "three mahogany-coloured Indians in white linen frocks and trousers" are spotted in places where they shouldn't be. The story gets complicated, as a mystery should, and comes to a satisfying conclusion at the very end.

I'm so glad I discovered Wilkie Collins. My usual response to discovering an author I like is to find and read all his novels as fast as I can. I don't know if I'm finally growing up or just getting old, but this time I'm going to space them out and enjoy looking forward to them. I heartily recommend them; they are one hundred percent enjoyable.

A Sweet Award

2011-02-14T21:25:00.001-04:00

A big thank-you to Whatcha Readin', Books? for passing the Irresistibly Sweet award on to me. Click the link and check out some of her reviews. I'm asked to list 4 guilty pleasures and to pass on the award to 6 bloggers.

My four guilty pleasures would have to be
   1. Sci Fi movies, which I love. Why is it I never read sci-fi books?
   2. Chai Latte. I could drink it everyday, but I do make an effort to limit my indulgence to two or three a week.
   3. Playing word games online. I love words.
   4. Afternoon naps - there's no reason in the world why I shouldn't take an afternoon nap, but I doubt I'll ever stop feeling guilty about it.

Now for the 'passing on' part of this award. In a post a few months ago I said I would be passing awards on to one or two people rather than the 5 or 12 or 15 that the rules of the award say is required. It seems there are a lot of people for whom awards have become a chore instead of an encouragement. It can eat up a lot of time looking for other blogs to pass the award on to and then writing a post with all those links, so I'm doing my admittedly very little bit to help put the fun back in these things by making the ones I pass on less labour intensive. (I know there are people who will disagree with this and I completely respect your opinion and understand that it might mean disqualifying myself for further awards.)

I am passing on the Irresistibly Sweet award to : Kim at Page After Page.  Her blog is a lovely place to spend some time, with lots of interesting reviews and it has a nice spirit about it. Very sweet indeed.

Thanks again to Whatcha' reading, and Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Now go eat some chocolate or smell the roses or whatever it is you do on Feb 14th. I'd like to spend the rest of the evening reading, but I have to try to figure out why this stupid font keeps shrinking on me. Arghhhh.

"Jude The Obscure"

2011-02-12T19:56:00.001-04:00

Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy

I love Thomas Hardy. I love his fatalism and his fearlessness. My favorite of his novels always seems to be the one I'm currently reading, but I think I mean it when I say that Jude the Obscure is really my favorite. At least until I re-read Far From The Madding Crowd.

This novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, a young stonemason obsessed with a desire to study for the ministry among the learned men, and in the hallowed stone buildings, of Oxford University. That desire haunts him as it is thwarted again and again, usually by his own failure to think his actions through. He works hard to make the best of whatever situation he finds himself in, staunchly adapting when change, even cruel change, comes his way. But even Jude eventually comes to the end of his tolerance.

His first, second and only wife is Arabella, an earthy and opportunistic woman who knows how to make her way in the world. Jude is drawn to her sexually but never really loves her. His heart is given only to Sue, a cousin and the one great love of his life. Through marriages and divorces and re-marriages his feelings for Sue never change. Theirs is probably the most complicated romance I've ever read. And it's a Thomas Hardy novel, so don't expect any happy endings.

Sue is an interesting, and frustrating, character. Ethereal, frigid, intelligent and selfish, she becomes Jude's other obsession. As a reader I found her fascinating, as a woman I wanted to shake some common sense into her. The people who get involved with her don't fare well and yet she seems to mean well. Jude, and others before him, are tortured by her inability to love or to give herself to those who love her.

I found this novel of Hardy's different than the others in that his own voice comes through more clearly. When Jude is in need of a friend Hardy says "...but nobody did come, because nobody does." Hardy's own sadness and disappointment with life/people are apparent. But he takes a stab at humour as well, something I haven't seen often in his writing, if at all. There's a remark about the sense of humour of the people of Shaston that is too long to quote here but is more lighthearted than usual for Hardy.

The authour's views on marriage and the established church are written on every page, sometimes with bitterness sometimes with sarcasm. In one scene, a landlord thinks Jude and Arabella are living together without being married and he is about to tell them they can't stay. "...till by chance overhearing her one night haranguing Jude in rattling terms, and ultimately flinging a shoe at his head, he recognized the note of genuine wedlock: and concluding that they must be respectable, said no more." And of the church and her people: "He had been knocked about from pillar to post at the hands of the virtuous almost beyond endurance."

I don't hold to all of Hardy's opinions and prejudices, but I love his books. He has a gift for brevity, a gift I admire deeply because I don't have it. Thoughts it would take someone else a paragraph to express, he packs neatly into one sentence. Things like: "Principles which could be subverted by feeling in one direction were liable to the same catastrophe in another." I shudder to think how many more words it would have taken me to say that.

All in all a good story with good writing. I recommend this, and all of Thomas Hardy's novels.

"A Town Like Alice"

2011-02-03T01:10:00.001-04:00

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

This novel has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time. I bought it second hand a couple of years ago mostly because I liked the title (my middle name is Alice - yeah I know, that's a poor excuse to buy a book, if there are, in fact, any poor excuses to buy books) and threw it on the shelf thinking I'd get around to reading it sometime. Sometime arrived this week.

This is my first Neville Shute novel and I have to say I'm very impressed with his story-telling ability; he has whatever gift it takes to grab and hold a reader's attention. A Town Like Alice tells the story of Jean Paget, a young British woman living in Malaya when World War II breaks out. When Malaya is occupied by the Japanese, the British families are split up, the men are sent to prison camps, and Jean and the women and children are forced to walk hundreds of miles with almost no food or medical care. Every time they arrive at one destination, the authorities there refuse to take responsibility for them and order them to walk on to the next place. They lose many as disease and exhaustion take their toll.

On their trek they come into contact with an Australian man, also a prisoner of the Japanese, who does what he can to help them. When he steals chickens for them he is tortured and by all appearances killed. When the war ends, Jean goes home to England and tries to resume a normal life. (Spoiler alert) Then she gets word that the Australian who did so much for them in Malaya has survived. In the way of star-crossed lovers everywhere, he goes to England to look for her, while she goes to Australia to look for him, and that's all I will say about the story for now.

One of the best parts of this book is the character who narrates the story. He is the elderly solicitor who meets Jean when her uncle includes her in his will. He develops a great fondness for her and a regular correspondence is established between them. I love this character and the way he tells Jean's story. He is a combination of old school manners, noble character, and good, honest, heart. This one character alone makes the book worth reading, but other things do, too. The book has a strong story line and it is very well told.

The only aspect of the book that gave me pause was a question that Jean asked about serving whites and (Australian) aboriginals in the same ice-cream shop and was told she would have to create a separate area for them. I realize the book was written in the 1950's and it was a different time, but I lost some respect for the two main characters when that became an issue. I don't care what societal norms were, wrong is wrong and will never be right. It was a disappointment to see that in an otherwise very good book.

So, all in all I liked the book and recommend it if you're looking for a good story to get lost in. While it is basically fiction, it does have it's inspiration in a true story that took place in Sumatra, not Malaya, during the second world war.

"Anne Of Green Gables"

2011-01-30T22:28:00.000-04:00

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M. Montgomery

How could anyone not love this book? The characters are all wonderfully flawed and loveable, the setting idyllic and the story sweet, funny and satisfying. I'm quite willing to admit I'm biased, living in the Canadian maritime provinces, but I am fully convinced that I'd love the book as well no matter what the setting. Well almost convinced. Somewhat.

The story follows the life of Anne Shirley, an orphan adopted by aging sister and brother, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert who live on Green Gables farm in Prince Edward Island, Canada. They meant to adopt a boy who would be a help on the farm but wires got crossed and when they arrived at the orphanage to pick up their boy, Anne was waiting for them. Eleven years old, red headed and the possessor of a wildly overdeveloped imagination that gets her into trouble repeatedly, Anne's open heart and genuine goodness win everyone over eventually.

The writing is a delight to read. Anne can talk what my mother used to call "a blue streak" barely taking a breath between sentences, but her prattling includes such gems as "It's always wrong to do anything you can't tell the minister's wife. It's as good as an extra conscience to have a minister's wife for your friend." The language the author uses is lovely, an almost poetic pleasure. The book is full of beautiful phrasing like "The Barry garden was a bowery wilderness of flowers which would have delighted Anne's heart at any time less fraught with destiny." I want to have written that phrase "any time less fraught with destiny".

At the end of this book Anne is I think, 17. There are several more books in the series that follow her into adulthood, marriage and having children of her own. They are all very good and I heartily recommend the whole series for young and old, but for me none of them quite measure up to this first one. Anne is such a wonderful, precocious, joy-filled child, it's a shame she can't stay a child forever. If that can't happen, and it can't, the next best thing is to read about her growing up.

I didn't discover the Anne books till I was an adult. I read continually as a child so I have no idea how that happened. I certainly had no problem finding my way to books that I should not have been reading. I don't know how I could have missed these books that were aimed specifically at girls my age, but I am grateful I found them when I did. Reading "Anne" this time was even lovelier because I was reading a hardcover copy I found in my grandmother's house just before it was sold and torn down. It was printed in 1945 by Ryerson Press and the pages are yellowed and in places stained by generations who read it before me. The book smells like the house smelled, aged and earthy and comfortable. I miss that house and that smell more than words can say.

If you haven't read Anne of Green Gables yet, you're missing out. Don't deny yourself this pleasure any longer. Book Depository has copies for under $5.00, so do yourself a favor and order one. I promise you you'll be glad you did.

"The Hatbox Letters"

2011-01-25T23:53:00.000-04:00

The Hatbox Letters by Beth Powning

Oh dear. Another book written in the present tense, though I didn't find that as annoying in this one as I did in The Nine Lives Of Charlotte Taylor. The narrator spends a lot of time reminiscing about the past which gives her plenty of opportunity to switch into the past tense so I guess that made it easier to read. And somehow the present tense seems to fit this story better, giving a feeling that there is no past or future, just the interminable now.

The title refers to nine old fashioned hatboxes found in Kate's grandparents house and filled with old letters, pictures, receipts, invoices, ticket stubs, etc. They have been in the attic for years but now her siblings want her to sort through them and decide what to do with them. Recently widowed and grieving she finds little else to interest her and so begins to put together the pieces of her family's history from the old documents and lots of imagination.

I found the book well written, but the story slow getting started. In the first two or three chapters there was little about the letters and much about the loss she has suffered and how it has changed her. And for me it was a bit heavy on similes and metaphors in the early chapters. There were so many of them they began to get in the way. Fortunately the tempo picked up and I got caught up in the story, both stories actually, past and present.

The sections dealing with Kate's grandparents lives were great, but very little of it came from the letters she found. It's all fictional of course, so Powning could have said anything in the letters, but instead she wrote most of the grandparents' story from Kate's imaginings. She imagines them responding to a situation in one way or another or she pictures them going here or there or saying certain things. It made it all a bit hard to believe for me. And even though it is fiction, the goal should still be to tell a convincing story.

The present day story of Kate dealing with the death of her husband and trying to figure out her place in the world now as a single woman is insightful and compassionate, but sometimes heavy and difficult to wade through.The title doesn't really give an accurate idea of what the book is about. There are hat boxes and there are letters, but what the book is really about is dealing with grief. That's the main story. And just as I found it slow to start, once I got within a chapter or two of the end I found myself getting bogged down again. I kept checking to see how much was left to read.

So I'm conflicted on this one. When I read this over it sounds like I didn't like it much and it's true I think it's weak in a few areas, but I still have to say it's a very good read and I'd be open to reading more of her writing. I do think you'll find it worth the time you'll invest in it. If you decide to read it, please stop by and let me know what you thought.

"The Piano Shop on the Left Bank"

2011-01-20T12:15:00.010-04:00

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart

This book wasn't quite what I expected, but I quite enjoyed reading it. First of all I love the title. Put pianos and Paris together and I'm hooked; the title gave me no choice but to find it and read it. I think I expected a little more Paris and a little less piano, but this works too.

The author lives with his wife, daughter and son in Paris. Walking his children to school every day, he noticed a small piano shop in his neighborhood and became curious. He had played piano as a child and began to think about buying one and bringing music back into his life. So one day he rang the bell and went in, and that began a friendship that would lead him into a Paris world of rare and antique pianos, music schools, teachers and students. Wading through typical French reserve he found friends, the perfect piano for his apartment, and music teachers for himself and his children.

There is a lot of information in this book about pianos, old and new. There is history, tradition and lots of detail about how pianos are built and tuned. There was one chapter that got so detailed I began to get a bit tired of it, but the pace picked up in the next chapter and I finished the book quite happily.

The tone of the writing is a little more scholarly than I expected, but don't let that deter you. It's not a text book at all, but more of a memoir recounting the author's journey back into music. It's personal as well as very well written.

Paris and pianos. Turning the last page made me feel like I was leaving a world of beauty that I'm going to miss for a while. Ah well. All good things, including this charming book, must end.

"The Nine Lives Of Charlotte Taylor"

2011-01-18T13:00:00.004-04:00

The Nine Lives Of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong

There are things I loved about this book and things I didn't like at all. Let's start with the good stuff.

The book is set in New Brunswick, Canada where I have lived all my life, so I recognized the place names, the weather conditions, the season changes, etc. I absolutely love reading about local history and this book is full of it. It tells the story of Charlotte Taylor (an actual historical figure) from the time she arrives as a young woman in the unsettled wilds of 1700's New Brunswick through her marriages, children and various living situations until her death in 1841. The bones of the story are true, the fleshing out is fictional.

It is a fascinating story and quite well told. It gives a nicely detailed picture of what daily life was like for the brave souls who settled in the Miramichi river area in the very early days. Their interactions with the native people who were here long, long before the white man and with the Acadien people who endured a shattering expulsion in 1755, make for a story full of beauty, suspense and pathos.

However. In the first half of the book I sometimes wished Charlotte had had less than nine lives. As interesting as she was, I found myself wishing things would move along a little more quickly and checking to see how many pages were left to the end. Then in the second half, and especially close to the end, years would pass with the turn of a page and in one place five years passed between paragraphs. I wish the tempo of the story had been a little more regular.

Another thing I didn't like was that the entire book is written in the present tense. Not "She thought" but "She thinks"; not "The summer of 1825 was hot" but "The summer of 1825 is hot". I found having the entire story written that way a little disconcerting. It seemed to halt the flow of words at times. Or something. I'm not sure why I didn't like it, it just felt strange.

There was one more thing I didn't like: Charlotte herself, especially in the latter years of her life. Of course there's no way to know what her real personality was like, but in the book I found her stubborn and lacking in compassion at times. On one hand it's realistic that every character has faults, on the other hand I didn't find her an appealing character.

Overall I'm glad I read it. It was good to learn some local history and it really is interesting. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good pioneer tale. It's not a great book, but it is a good story.

And the winner is.....

2011-01-16T14:19:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Melody from Fingers and Prose! She is the winner of the $20 gift certificate for Better World Books being given away to celebrate my first year of blogging.

This was my first giveaway and I must say it was fun! I hope to do more of this in the future. Thank-you to everyone who took time to enter and thanks for giving me a great first year in the blogging world.

Dianne

One more day to enter for $20 Gift Certificate

2011-01-14T17:23:00.003-04:00

Saturday is the last day you can enter to win a $20 betterworldbooks.com gift certificate. On Sunday the winner will be announced and contacted by email. Click here to enter. The link will take you to the "First Anniversary and Giveaway post". Leave a comment on that post saying you want your name included in the draw and that's all you have to do! Good luck!

Friday Blog Hop

2011-01-14T01:49:00.002-04:00

Time for the Friday Blog Hop hosted each weekend by Jennifer at Crazy For Books. This week's question is "Why do you read the genre that you do? What draws you to it?"
My answer:
I read a lot of classics and books that aren't classics but just old. I also read modern literature. I enjoy books that use good language. I like a good story, but I can do with a lesser one as long as the language is beautiful. Perfectly crafted sentences and flowing paragraphs are my ~~addiction~~ comfort reads. I find good writing much easier to find among older books than newer ones, but thanks to the book blogging world I'm finding more and more present day authors who write what I can enjoy reading. I do also sometimes read lighter books that don't offer much except entertainment value, but sometimes entertainment is what I'm looking for. There are so many genres for so many moods and I don't ever want to get stuck in one just because I think I should. I confess I am prejudiced against paranormal romances, but if someone could convince me that they have found one with beautiful writing, well composed characters and a well built plot I might bring myself to try one. Maybe. Check the linky list on Jennifer's blog . You'll find lots of great blogs and bloggers, and many titles to add to your to-be-read list.

And now there are just TWO DAYS LEFT to enter the draw for a betterworldbooks.com $20 gift certificate. Contest closes midnight (atlantic time) Saturday, Jan 15th, 2011. Who wouldn't want to win a prize you could use to order new books? In 48 hours the contest will be closed so enter now! Just leave a comment on this blog post and you could be the winner! Winner announced Sunday the 16th. Good luck!

Three Days Left !

2011-01-13T00:46:00.000-04:00

And then there were three. Days that is. Days left to enter the draw for a $20 gift certificate for betterworldbooks.com. Just leave a comment on this blog post to say you want your name included and you will be entered. That's all there is to it! Winner will be announced here Sunday, Jan 16th and will be contacted by email. Enter now!

Only 4 Days Left To Enter

2011-01-12T00:57:00.000-04:00

There are only four days left to enter for a twenty dollar gift certificate to betterworldbooks.com. This is my first giveaway and I don't seem to be doing very well with it. I've got very few entries and am not sure how to convince more people to enter. I guess it's good for those who have because their odds of winning are way better than they would be with more entries. It's just sort of...deflating. On the other hand since the entrants are all familiar to me, it will be fun to tell one of them that they have won. I guess in this as in other things, size doesn't matter! Good luck!

5 days left for $20 gift certificate giveaway!

2011-01-10T22:47:00.001-04:00

Enter now to win a $20 Better World Books gift certificate. All you have to do is scroll down to the post entitled "First Anniversary and Giveaway!", leave a comment to say you want to be entered and cross your fingers. The winner will be announced Jan 16th. The clock is ticking...

6 Days left for $20 Gift Certificate!

2011-01-10T00:10:00.000-04:00

Six days till the deadline for entries for the $20 Better World Books gift certificate. They have free shipping all over the world so if you win, the $20 can all go toward books and not shipping charges! All you have to do is scroll down to the post entitled "First Anniversary and Giveaway!", leave a comment to let me know you want to enter and cross your fingers. The winner will be announced Jan 16th. Enter now!

"Eat, Pray, Love"

2011-01-09T18:48:00.001-04:00

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is one of those books that got so much hype I didn't want to read it. Then it was chosen for our January book club meeting so I pretty much had to. I liked it well enough I guess, but I don't think I'll ever read it again. There are sections of it I didn't enjoy at all.

Gilbert writes about a year in her life when she was traveling and trying to make sense of her life. Her story is divided into three sections: the first part is set in Italy where she spent four months in "pursuit of pleasure", the second part in India spending four months in "pursuit of devotion", and the last in Bali in "pursuit of balance".

I will admit it was an enjoyable read. I sometimes felt as though she were here telling me her story in person. Words come easily to her; she's one of those lucky people who can talk to anybody and make a friend in ten minutes. She is able to share her thoughts and feelings freely, which makes for great story-telling. It also makes for too much information at times. Why do authors think we want to read about their sexual experiences? If that isn't private, what is? I can't be the only one who feels this way. Am I?

I liked the first part of the book because it's set in Italy. What's not to love? The language, the people, the architecture, the food - it's all good. Then she goes to India where her stories of the people and the culture are again fascinating, but the spiritual aspect begins to get a little confusing for me. The book wraps up with her four months in Bali, Indonesia, another really interesting place with interesting people. Gilbert amazes me with her ability to connect with strangers. I could spend a year traveling and never get to know anyone. Her way is far better.

In Bali, the spiritual part of her journey becomes even more muddled for me. By the end of the book, she's taken (what looks to me like) bits and pieces of various religions and rolled them all into something that works for her. It's isn't clear to me if she believes in a God who is creator and sovereign and separate, or if she believes God is in everything and everyone and therefore she, herself, is also God. Some things she says seem to contradict other things and that leaves me losing interest rapidly.

So did the book live up to it's hype? Not for me. It was interesting visiting the three cultures she lived in and her writing is easy, and fun, to read. That's enough to make it a good book for lots of people, but for me the way-too-personal stuff and the really odd mix of spiritual practices and beliefs got in the way. I haven't seen the movie but I've heard from some that it's great and from others that it's awful. What do those of you who have both read the book and seen the movie suggest? Should I watch it? Will I like it? Hate it?
Let me know what you think.

Next up: The Piano Shop On The Left Bank by Thad Carhart

7 Days left for $20 Gift Certificate!

2011-01-09T01:58:00.000-04:00

One week from today is the deadline for entries for the $20 Better World Books gift certificate. They have free shipping all over the world so if you win, the $20 can all go toward books and not shipping charges! All you have to do is scroll down to the "One Year of Book Blogging" post, leave a comment and cross your fingers. The winner will be announced Jan 16th. Enter now!

"Empire Of Illusion"

2011-01-09T00:43:00.001-04:00

Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges

Wow. I don't know where to begin. I was so fascinated by what this author was saying I could hardly breathe, let alone put the book down. I started underlining the parts that really hit me and soon traded in my bookmark for a ruler so the book wouldn't be completely ruined by hundreds of crooked ink lines. The whole book hit me.

What Hedges does in this book is step back and look at the big picture of our culture. It's written about the U.S., but Canadian culture is going the same way. What he says applies to all of North America.

The language of the book makes it obvious that this is not a casual look at the state of our society; the author is deeply concerned. He believes our culture to be in swift decline and probably with good reason. It isn't hard to see how out of balance things have gotten.

Tons of bailout money have been handed to the very people who created the financial crisis in the first place while ordinary people lose jobs, homes and retirement funds.
We pay our entertainers and sports stars vastly more than our teachers and healers. And that doesn't even sound unreasonable anymore.
More and more tv shows and movies have us cheering for what used to be the bad guys. We're feeling sympathy for misunderstood blood-sucking vampires for pete's sake. One of my favorite tv shows, NCIS, has shown two different episodes in the past year or so in which a murder was covered up because it was committed by a friend or family member of a main character. These are characters who hold everyone else to the high standard of the law and yet the writers (and viewers by accepting it) are saying it's ok to have a different standard for those in positions of power. I can't be the only one who finds that frightening.

Things have indeed gotten twisted and we just don't seem all that concerned.

Hedges looks closely at five areas where we are living under the illusion that things are fine when in fact, they are far from it. He tackles the illusions of literacy, love, wisdom, happiness and finally the illusion of (North) America. Within those topics he looks at education, pornography, positive psychology and corporate control of government and media. What he says will not only confirm those nagging little doubts you've had about things being as ok as State-of-the-Union speeches and endless media talking heads would have you believe, but it will also give you a clear look at just how alarming our situation is.

I think this is an important book. I don't say that very often because most of the books I really love haven't had much of an effect on how history unfolds. But I think this one qualifies, not because I agree with everything he says (I don't) but because I do agree that we, North Americans, need to be shaken out of our complacency before it's too late.

I've been talking about the content of the book and haven't said anything at all about the writing. So, let me say that it is beautifully written. Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize winner (as part of the team that won the 2002 Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism),
writes intelligently, and honestly I think. He quotes freely from other books, interviews and media reports and he provides a 7 page biliography at the end of the book. He has done his research and knows what he's talking about.

I love that the book ends with hope. The situation may be dire, but it is not, and never will be, hopeless. The closing paragraph acknowledges the truth that hope and love exist now and will still exist when our world of illusion comes crashing down on us. In the "wreckage that remains" they will endure.

Friday Blog Hop

2011-01-08T01:20:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the Friday Blog Hop hosted by Crazy For Books. On her site you'll find a list of book blogs where you're sure to find someone who has the same reading tastes as you and who can give you more reading recommendations than you ever thought possible. Be sure to stop by her site and check it out.

Each week she asks a question for us to answer in our hop posts. This week she asks: What book influenced or changed your life? How did it influence/change you?"

That's not easy to answer because I've read so many books that have made a real difference in my life. One in particular though was The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge. It helped me to understand that my relationship with God is one of love, and that He is not some angry father waiting for me to do something wrong so he could punish me. It showed me that I was seeing Him in the wrong way and that I could trust Him to just simply love me, always. And that changes everything. It's been a long time since I've read it, but the effect has changed who I am forever.

Have fun checking out lots of blogs at Crazy For Books and have a great weekend!

Twenty Dollar Gift Certificate Givaway!

2011-01-07T01:03:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder to post a comment on my anniversary post before January 15 at midnight (Atlantic time) for your chance to win a $20 gift certificate from betterworldbooks.com. Just take a minute and you could be shopping for your next new book by next weekend. Maybe even two or three if you're a good bargain hunter.
Good Luck!
Dianne

First Anniversary and Giveaway!

2011-01-02T21:58:00.002-04:00

January 8th will be the first anniversary of Ordinary Reader. When I started I had no idea if I would keep it up or if I would even be any good at it. A year later and I'm enjoying every minute of it and hope to keep blogging for a long, long time. The blogging community has been very friendly, and a treasure trove of book recommendations. I've been introduced to so many wonderful authors I'll never get to the end of my to-be-read list. Thank goodness!

I want to thank all of you who have taken your time to read Ordinary Reader, comment on reviews and/or sign up as followers. Your support means a lot to me. To celebrate the anniversary and show my appreciation I'm having my first giveaway. I know everybody does giveaways all the time, but this is my first so let me feel cool for just a second or two. Ok there I'm done.

So, the giveaway is a $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE from betterworldbooks.com. All you have to do to enter is comment on this post before midnight on Saturday, January 15th, 2011. One name will be drawn on January 16th and the winner will be announced in that day's post. The winner will then need to send me their email address so I can send them the gift certificate. I've bought from Better World Books several times and have always had good service, so I think you'll be pleased with them. They have clear instructions (on their home page) on how to use the gift certificate and they've got a huge selection of books.

And now it's time to start on my second year of reading and blogging. I've got a long list of titles I hope to finish this year and I can only hope they will be as good as the books I read last year. My hands down favorite from 2010 was The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. Absolutely one of the best books I've ever read and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet had the pleasure of reading it.

Don't forget to get your entry in and good luck! Here's to a new year filled with great books and happy bloggers!

Dianne

"Silent Nights"

2011-01-02T04:14:00.001-04:00

Silent Nights by Anne Perry
(This book includes two of Anne Perry's Christmas mysteries: A Christmas Beginning and A Christmas Grace)

I've never been a fan of mysteries, but I am becoming a fan of Anne Perry. So far I've only read some of her Christmas novels and Tathea, a fantasy. I enjoy the victorian settings of her Christmas stories and I like the way she writes. A Victorian mystery is going to have drama of course, but she doesn't go overboard, at least not in the ones I've read. I'd like to get started on one of her series, which include a series about Detective William Monk and another about Detective Thomas Pitt, both also set in the Victorian period. She has eight Christmas novels of which I've read three, a series of World War I novels, two fantasy novels and several others set in various times and places. She first published in 1979.

A Christmas Beginning
For me this was a "relief" book. I'm also reading "Empire Of Illusion", a very serious look at the decline of North American civilization. It's both fascinating and alarming and I'm only digesting one chapter at a time. A Christmas Beginning is the book I turn to when I've finished a chapter of "Empire". It's light reading, well written and just plain enjoyable. I do so enjoy a story in which people treat each other, and speak to each other, with respect and thoughtfulness.There just isn't a whole lot of that going around these days, so it's a great escape from reality when I need it.

The characters are fairly well written. There isn't a lot of time to develop them in a novella, but I find Perry's characters quite believable. They have strengths and flaws to round them out and we do learn a bit more about them as the story proceeds.

The story itself is about a London Detective who finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation on a small island off the coast of Wales. His "city" ways are not always appreciated, but local authorities have never dealt with a crime of this magnitude before so they enlist his help. I won't reveal any more of the plot except to say that it's called "A Christmas Beginning" because it takes place at Christmas time and the story does end with a new beginning for some of the characters. It's not really a Chrstmassy book in the way other stories might be. The mystery and the characters are the focus, not Christmas.

A Christmas Grace
Of the two stories contained in the book this one is my favorite, probably because it's set in Ireland. I've never been there but that doesn't stop me loving it and even sometimes longing to be there. Not so much the cities, but the countryside, the cliffs, the pounding surf and salt spray. I do love wild places and everything I read about Ireland makes me think I'd find lots of wild and windy places there.

This story is about a young woman who, while preparing Christmas for her husband and children, gets a letter asking her to go to the bedside of her dying aunt in Ireland. She goes reluctantly, and her experience there changes, and matures, her. She becomes friends with some of the local people and uncovers a mystery that needs solving, which of course she will do in the nick of time.

I find Anne Perry's mysteries a bit anti-climatic. There is a good build up to keep the reader guessing, but once the truth is uncovered it all comes to a quick end. There is no surprise or "aha" moment. At the end of one of these stories, I had to go back to find out who the criminal was; I had read it but the story was wrapped up so quickly I wasn't sure what had happened.

I will read lots more of Anne Perry's books because sometimes I just want something easy. I love the language of her books. I find it difficult to find books that are easy to read, yet written well, using a decent vocabulary. I'm looking forward to many more.

Dianne

Nothing Day

2010-12-27T18:30:00.003-04:00

Finally. December 27th is here. The day I get to do absolutely nothing. I'm not even getting dressed today. No meals to cook because the fridge is groaning with leftovers, no visits to make or company to receive because it's all been done, no wrapping, cleaning or preparing because it's just plain too late. It is Nothing Day in my house. I can read, watch tv, read, play games, read, write in my blog, and read. I am responsible for absolutely nothing. I love Nothing Day. I slept, or at least stayed in bed till 1 pm. I've been reading since then and may go back for a nap in a few minutes. I'm even stepping over stuff on the floor that any other day would have to be picked up. I don't have a "to do" list. I won't even make one for tomorrow. Because Nothing Day, my friends, is inviolable.

So. Books. Did you get books for Christmas? I got two: Empire Of Illusion by Chris Hedges, a book I've been reading about for a long time and Anne Perry's Silent Nights, which contains two of her Christmas mysteries. I plan to read one or both of them this week, then I have to get into Eat, Pray, Love for book club on January 12th. That will be our travel book/dinner meeting, so I have to find a couple of recipes from Italy, India or Bali to cook for the meal.

I'm reading War and Peace with Daily Lit, the site that will break a book up into sections and email you one daily. It's a great way to read those books that will take forever without having to put off all the other books you want to get at. I get 2 sections sent to my inbox every day and it takes about 5 minutes to read it. It'll get me through War and Peace in about a year, whereas I might never get through it otherwise. I'm a few days behind right now but I can get caught up in half an hour or so. I think Daily Lit is a brilliant idea.

This year I took part in the Book Blogger's Christmas Card Exchange hosted by Anastasia of Birdbrained Book Blog. It was one of the most fun parts of Christmas this year. I got names to send cards to in various parts of the world, and I received cards from around the world as well. They all came with long notes/letters telling how they celebrate Christmas in their part of the world. Thank you to: Carla of cuidadocomodalmata.wordpress.com , Ana of things mean a lot, Jess of start narrative here, Ryan of wordsmithonia and Courtney of stiletto storytime for the cards and letters. Thank you for the time and effort you took to tell me about yourselves and your Christmas celebrations.You reminded me just how enjoyable it is to get a lovely chatty letter in the mail. Everybody uses email now, but wouldn't it be nice to write letters again? Wouldn't it be fun to have a penpal and look forward to real letters on paper?

Christmas Eve here is very busy, but I always wish it wasn't. I like Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. I like wrapped presents better than opened ones. I like thinking about Mary, Joseph, Jesus and Bethlehem before the busyness of present opening, dinner making and family visiting takes over. I like the anticipating, the preparing, the readiness. Music that I'm tired of on the 26th still holds profound meaning on the 24th. I'd like to spend the day quietly, but the clock is ticking so I get ready for the influx of family after church. It is long standing tradition that there will be homemade eggnog and a table filled with things like baked brie with crackers, puff pastry hors d'oeuvres, spinach/artichoke dip with baked pita chips and of course the requisite tray of Christmas sweets, cookies with a whole cherry hidden inside, mocha cakes and peanut butter balls and sugar cookies in the shape of snowflakes frosted and topped with sanding sugar to make them glisten like real snow. This year after we were all stuffed to the gills, my granddaughter read The Night Before Christmas and my son read the Nativity Story from Luke chapter 2. I had asked everyone to come prepared to share a favorite Christmas memory, sing a song or read a story. A few brave souls complied. We heard a few favorite memories, heard my daughter and her daughter sing "We Wish You A Tasty Fruitcake", and had a few laughs over funny stories.

Christmas morning, we were all together for the first time in years. My son, Nick, and his girlfriend have been staying with us for a while and my daughter, Amanda, and her family are here for the week. There were eight of us and two dogs and a mountain of presents to open. We opened our stockings first then the men made breakfast and we tackled the presents. I love watching people open gifts. The surprise and delight on their faces makes up for all the hours and effort put into making Christmas happen. In the afternoon, Amanda and her family went to my son-in-law's parents to have dinner with his family. The four of us here had a traditional turkey dinner and pumpkin pie. Our usual Christmas dinner dessert is steamed cranberry pudding with butter sauce, but my son's girlfriend always had pumpkin pie at home and I wanted to have something that would make it feel like Christmas for her. After the kitchen was cleaned up (10 pm or so) we spent the rest of the evening watching Christmas-y things on tv.

Boxing day starts with sleeping in, but not too late because things have to be prepared for the family gathering at my mothers. This is where I will see my sisters and family, and my brother. All in all there will be thirteen of us there. The meal this time is all finger foods, so I take teriyaki meatballs and another tray of sweets. This is a tricky gathering to navigate because certain topics can't be raised and certain opinions can't be expressed if peace is to reign. So we keep it light and hope for the best. We got home from that around 8 pm. I put on my Christmas red robe, poured a Bailey's, put my feet up, and thought "Woooo Hoooo! Tomorrow is Nothing Day!"

And that was Christmas. I love most everything about the season including the music, the gift-choosing, the pretty paper and cards, the story of Jesus, the candles, the lights, the decorated tree and the fancy foods. I don't like the family tensions, the hurry and fatigue or the budget limitations. I like it when Christmas comes and I like it when it goes and I get my living room and my time back.

I love today. Nothing Day. A wonderful invention if I do say so myself. I highly recommend it to one and all. Now, I believe I'll go back to reading for a while. And then, well, then I'll do just whatever I feel like doing.

Have a great week everyone.

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"

2010-12-20T20:56:00.001-04:00

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson

My book club read this for our Christmas selection this year. I was surprised when I heard someone mention it because I read it many years ago and haven't really heard much about it since. In the early 80's we turned it into a play for the children's concert at our church and my daughter played the role of Gladys. At the time I thought it was rather a brilliant bit of character casting; if you read it you'll understand. My little girl is all grown up now and has two girls (14 and 9) of her own, but this book brought back a lot of great memories.

I don't know if anyone is reading this book anymore but it really is worth the couple of hours you'd have to invest. It's entertaining, sweet and funny and it's a Christmas book so of course it has a happy ending. Sometimes it's a bit over the top, but that also is expected in a Christmas book.

The story centers on a nativity play being put together by a harried church member who has to include in the cast a family of children who are unchurched, uncouth and unpredictable. They are refreshingly imperfect and outspoken (even swearing a couple of times), but that's easy for me to say because I'm just the reader. I'd have pulled my hair out as the poor woman who had to cope with it all and come up with something presentable for Christmas Eve.

If you get a chance to read this one over the holidays I'm sure you'll be glad you did. It would also make a great gift or stocking stuffer for someone else. I've heard there's a movie based on the book but I haven't seen it. Maybe next year.

Getting Back to Reality

2010-12-08T23:41:00.005-04:00

December. I can't believe it's just over two weeks till Christmas. I haven't been very attentive to this blog the past couple of months and I apologize to my readers. It's been kind of a crazy time and I didn't get much reading done, hence the lack of regular posts. For six mind-numbing weeks I was waiting to get tests results to find out if the cancer I had last year has come back. The symptoms pointed to that, but the tests didn't show anything conclusive. I was told there is "something" there (abdominal) but my Oncologist doesn't think it's cancer. I have to have one more test to make sure. An x-ray showed a spot on my lung as well, so I'm waiting now to have a CT scan that will show more clearly what that is. It will be the end of March before the testing is done, results are in and I see him again, so it's going to be another long wait. I think I'm past the shock and panic stage of those first six weeks though. I'm able to read and concentrate on what I'm doing and not feeling quite so scatterbrained as I did. There is Christmas to be celebrated and life to be lived and I'm not going to let what "might be" change all that. So here's hoping I'll get some reading done in the coming weeks, well, once I finish the shopping, wrapping, baking, etc.!

Several weeks ago 100 Thoughts very generously awarded me the Life Is Good award and I am only now getting around to thanking her and passing it on. I have linked back to her blog so you can check out some of her reviews. I'm passing it on to Jamie at perpetualpageturner. I chose her and her blog because 1.-I like her positive attitude and 2.-although I am a lot, lot older than her, I'd still like to be her if I ever grow up. Which I probably won't. Go have a look at her blog;. She's....well she's likeable. You'll like her!

Award recipients are asked to answer the following questions:
1. If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now? I did consider anonymity in the beginning but it didn't feel right for me. I was a little nervous about family/friends reading it but I don't think many of them do anyway. Only a couple of friends are regular readers.
2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side. Well....I assured myself it would be a good idea to cut back on Christmas this year, a small tree, very little baking, fewer gifts, etc. I'm sitting here looking at the biggest tree we've had in years, there is already baking in the freezer and I have a stack of recipes sitting on the kitchen counter, and I can hardly get to my bed because there is a mountain of bags and boxes that need to be wrapped and put under the huge tree. Stubborn or stupid?
3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror? Someone whose outside and inside don't match.
4. What is your favorite summer cold drink? A mango margarita.
5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do? Read.
6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in life? What is it? I want to write something good.
7.When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching? The shy person. I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life what would you see? There was a moment when my son was about 5 and my daughter 10. It was a Saturday and we were all at home. My husband was reading the paper, my son playing with cars in the hallway and my daughter was in her room doing nothing in particular, just enjoying a day off school. I was sitting in my chair in the livingroom reading when I became aware that the moment was perfect. Everybody was together at home, healthy, happy and doing something they wanted to be doing. It was so perfect, and I knew how precious it was and that it had to be savoured because there was no guarantee of having that moment again. I've never forgotten it.
9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events? I tend to write mostly about the books I'm reading. I'm not very comfortable making myself vulnerable, so this post is going to get read and reread and rewritten a hundred times before it's posted.
10. If you had the choice to sit down and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why? Read, always. I'm sort of anti-phone. I don't like making calls and I don't like it when the phone rings. I may be the only person left on the planet who doesn't have (or want) a cell phone.

I hope to have a review ready to post soon now that I'm reading again. Thank-you to all my readers for your patience. And thanks for being here.
Dianne

"A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"

2010-11-28T18:50:00.000-04:00

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

This is yet another one of those books I've been hearing about all my life but never got around to reading. No real reason, it just never fell into my path. When I started reading book blogs, it was everywhere. It always got good reviews so I found a copy at a used book store and threw in in my pile.

I finally got around to reading it a couple of weeks ago, and oh my it was really good. I couldn't put it down. The story hooks you and reels you in with writing so good that you don't even notice it. That's so refreshing. Description and dialogue flow naturally so both story and characters develop at a good pace.

The setting is Brooklyn, NY, 1912. Francie, the main character, is 11 years old when the story starts and 17 when it closes and is one of the more memorable characters I've read in a while. I guess this is a "coming of age" story, but I hate to use that term. I don't know why I dislike it so much, but I tend to not read a book if that's how it has been described to me. Just one more of a long list of reading quirks I seem to operate by.

Francie's story is enjoyable to read because she doesn't waste any time feeling sorry for herself. She and her brother, Neely, make the best of whatever comes their way. They live in poor and always unpredictable circumstances but they live, really live, every moment, and they live it with hope. It's that hope that is never lost or abandoned that makes Francie and her family so very endearing. Francie is smart, funny and vibrant. I love her tenacity, her refusal to let life break her spirit and her quiet acceptance of all the little (and the big) idiosyncracies of her family members.

I like that the tone of the book stays positive through all the hardships yet never becomes sappy. It is realistic, neither a fairy tale nor fatalism. I'm finding so many books, old and new, that have nothing to offer but hopelessness. Pointlessness. Sometimes it seems like the more jaded or cynical the author, the more the book is esteemed. On the other end of that spectrum are books that are nauseatingly sweet. Characters are one dimensional, the plot never thickens, and everybody lives happily ever after. I don't like those any better than the hopeless ones. I like them like this one, real, sometimes even gritty, but still finding good in people and beauty in the world.

I think this is one book I will read again one day. It's a great choice for anyone looking for a good story and a positive outcome. I most definitely recommend it.

"A Homemade Life"

2010-11-28T17:45:00.001-04:00

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

What an enjoyable book to read! The friend who loaned it to me is one of a handful of people whose recommendations I always read, and I don't recall ever being disappointed. This is one more I'm glad she told me about.

This is a memoir, and a recipe book, and it's successful at both. The stories the author tells about her family and friends are well told and interesting enough that you really want to know more. Well, except for that one story about how and to whom she lost her virginity. I didn't need to know that. Call me old-fashioned but I still think private things are best left private.

There are a lot of impressive recipes here. As I read each one (they are scattered throughout the book at chapter endings) I made a note of the ones I wanted to try for myself. Then I realized I was actually making a note of every single recipe in the book. They sound that good. And that's without pictures.

The ones I finally settled on are: Blueberry and Raspberry Pound Cake, Fresh Ginger Cake with Caramelized Pears, Jimmy's Pink Cookies, Cream-braised Green Cabbage and Caramelized Cauliflower. Just writing the words makes me hungry. The one I'm most looking forward to is the Caramelized Cauliflower (strange I know. Not the recipe, me, for anticipating cauliflower more than Fresh Ginger Cake with Caramelized Pears). I love cauliflower, but let's face it, it's boring. Unless you bury in it cheese sauce and most of the time that's just too much work/too many calories.

Molly Wizenberg writes a blog that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. It's at www.orangette.blogspot.com. You can probably get a good idea of what the book is like from the blog. All in all I found it a lovely read and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves cooking and/or memoirs.

"Never Cry Wolf"

2010-11-07T23:46:00.001-04:00

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

I have no idea why I haven't read Farley Mowat before, but I am sure I'll be reading more. Very well written and entertaining as well, "Never Cry Wolf" is the story of Mowat's Arctic adventure as a biologist with the Canadian Government. He was sent to study the wolves the government believed were responsible for the diminishing caribou population. His assignment was to find a solution for "the wolf problem".

One of the review blurbs on the first page says "...even if you don't give a hang about wolves or the arctic you will enjoy this book...", a sentiment I can wholeheartedly agree with. I don't particularly like either the Arctic climate or animals (don't condemn me, I do rather enjoy kittens), especially wolves, but I loved this book.

The only reason I picked this book up is because in July I signed up for the Canadian Book Challenge and in choosing books for that, my guilt over never having read this well-loved Canadian author was stirred up. I did my duty, read the book...and fell in love. Now I want to read everything Mowat has written.

He's interesting, honest, easy to read and he has a delicious sense of humor. Interested in wolves or not, I found myself fascinated by his story. So fascinated, in fact, that I forgot to make notes and underline quotable passages as I read, so I don't have much to offer except to say it's a delight to read.

I may not be a convert to the Arctic or to wolves, but I am definitely a convert to Farley Mowat. I loved this book and can recommend it to pretty much everyone of any age.

This is my 6th book for the Canadian Book Challenge hosted by John at Book Mine Set

"Christmas Treasury"

2010-11-06T23:20:00.001-03:00

Christmas Treasury by Louisa May Alcott

I know it's a little early for Christmas books, but our book club chose this for our November selection so here we are. And besides I'm accumulating such a collection of "read this every Christmas" books that there isn't time in December for all of them anymore. I'm going to have to start earlier or give some of them up.

If you loved "Little Women" then you will probably love this collection of Christmas stories too. They are each centered around a young girl, and are sweet, wholesome and altogether lovely. Each one delivers a moral lesson, but it's done gently and isn't preachy. It's everything we know and love about Louisa May Alcott.

Unfortunately I don't think this was a good time for me to read this one. I simply haven't been in the right frame of mind and so didn't enjoy the stories as much as I should have.

I will make a point of reading them again, closer to Christmas, and I know I'll find them as touching and satisfying as I ought to then. I'll let them convince me that right always wins, that good always comes to those who do good, and that hard work is always rewarded. I want to believe those things and it's easier at Christmastime. The beautiful music, the sentimental movies and stories all tend to soften our hearts and for a few weeks we believe in a world that sparkles and shines. We know that come January we will go back to the real world, where good things do happen, but not all the time and people are good, but not all the time. It's fun to take a break from those realities in December and let down the walls we build to protect ourselves. At Christmastime we open up and let life be what we want it to be all year round. The stories in this book will be perfect then.

"Christmas Treasury" would be a lovely gift for any reader. It has a very nice red hard cover and a beautiful glossy dust jacket. From little girls to grandmothers, I think any girl would enjoy reading this collection.

"Of Human Bondage"

2010-11-02T14:55:00.001-03:00

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

After finishing this book I feel the way a marathon runner must feel when he crosses the finish line. It took every ounce of perseverance I could dredge up to stick with it to the end.

The first thirty or so chapters were rather dull. For a long time, a very long time, none of the characters seemed to grow or learn anything or change in any way. They lived by their feelings, consequences never considered, thinking only of their own instant gratification. For a while I thought I was reading The Picture of Dorian Gray again. Then, happily, the setting changed to France and that piqued my interest for a while longer.

At this point, Philip Carey, the main character, begins a series of strange relationships and makes so many bad decisions he should have won a prize for the sheer volume of them. He falls passionately in love with the most unsuitable woman on earth and allows that passion to rule him for years. The woman, Mildred, uses him viciously and breaks his heart over and over again. She is one of the most selfish characters I have met in literature.

Maugham doesn't have much good to say about women. At one point a friend of Philip's says:"I don't think that women ought to sit down at table with men. It ruins conversation and I'm sure it's very bad for them. It puts ideas in their heads and women are never at ease with themselves when they have ideas."

Later he makes this statement about women in hospitals (attributed to Philip, but it sounded more like the author's own voice): "Like everyone connected with hospitals he found that male patients were more easy to get on with than female. The women were often querulous and ill-tempered. They complained bitterly of the hard-worked nurses, who did not show them the attention they thought their right and they were troublesome, ungrateful and rude." Well, ok then.

I got frustrated waiting for Philip to grow up. He kept shooting himself in the foot then wringing his hands in despair over his own bad judgment. By then I was wringing my own hands in despair and questioning how much longer I wanted to read disappointment, discouragement and misery.

Then....ta da!....Philip began to look within himself, waxing philosophical and gleaning some wisdom from life. I also found some great lines which helped considerably. About three quarters of the way through these seven hundred and sixty pages, Philip began to grow on me. He had hit rock bottom, often the place where humans begin to grow up, and the book took on a more positive tone. Once it became more fun to read, it ended.

Just as your children only leave home after they get through the roller-coaster teen years and become pleasant, functioning adults you like having around, so this book ended with Philip's life changing for the good as he matured. The reader is given every sad detail of his misery, then is left alone with the assurance that things would be better now. So unfair. I wanted there to be another chapter or two about his life now that the future held some promise. I wanted to experience happy Philip. Alas, it was not to be.

I thoroughly enjoyed Maugham's writing. I wondered at times if he was a tad pretentious, or maybe he does just actually have a formidable vocabulary and know how to use it. These gave me pause and sent me running for the dictionary: "With the spring, Hayward grew dithyrambic." and "...he found an unexpected fascination in listening to meta-physical disquisitions."
Really? Dithyrambic?

Some of the great quotes I will take away from this book:

"He formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading; he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life. "

"One mark of a writer's greatness is that different minds can find in him different inspirations."

"But he had a feeling that life was to be lived rather than portrayed, and he wanted to search out the various experiences of it and wring from each moment all the emotion that it offered."

And my favorite:

"Kant thought things not because they were true but because he was Kant." I love it.

Of Human Bondage is worth reading. It may take some patience as it did for me, or maybe you'll be able to get into it from the very beginning. Either way I think you'll find it worth your time in the end. I'm glad I read it. And I'm glad it's over.

"Rebecca"

2010-10-18T13:15:00.002-03:00

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". Such a great opening line. Immediately you feel Manderley is a wonderful place that is now out of reach, an experience that once was but can never be again. The sense of longing that line creates lingers throughout the rest of the story.

Rebecca is the deceased wife of Maxim de Winter, owner of Manderley. Though she is never present physically, the memory of her, her larger-than-life personality and the impact left on the living characters are the core of the story.

The narrator is a young woman traveling in Monte Carlo as companion to an rather nasty older woman. She meets Maxim, falls in love with him and the rest of the book is about their relationship with each other, with Manderley and it's staff, and with Rebecca, whose memory just will not go away.

The interesting thing about this story is that the narrator is never named. She is only ever referred to as Mrs. de Winter and "she". At first I found it annoying that I didn't know her name because it made her seem ineffectual, more of a shadow of a person than a real one. I've read that Daphne Du Maurier didn't name her because she couldn't come up with a name to suit her. Whether that is true or not, leaving her nameless certainly was effective in diminishing her as a person and leaving her secondary to Rebecca and pretty much everyone else.

It's hard to talk about someone who doesn't have a name: I'll have to call her "She". She had difficulty adjusting to life at Manderley and to her position as lady of the manor. Her nervousness was understandable. She was very young and inexperienced and had never lived the sort of lifestyle required of her present situation. Understandable or not, I got frustrated with her at times. She was afraid to explore the house and and get caught somewhere she didn't need to be, she was afraid of dealing with the staff and she just could not make herself take charge of situations when she needed to. Once, when she broke a china ornament in the morning room, she quickly scooped up the shattered pieces, put them in an envelope and hid them in the back of a drawer, not telling anyone until she was forced to because someone else was accused of stealing it. I wanted her to stand up to people more; her insecurity was almost embarrassing.

As for Maxim, I don't think I like him much. For the first half of the book, he's remote and sometimes slightly superior. He treats "She" (that just sounds so wrong) like a puppy, rather than his wife. Then there is a scene where he confesses what actually happened to Rebecca and his entire personality changes. He becomes tender and kind and starts telling her how much he loves her and how lost he'd be without her. I realize that unburdening oneself of guilt will bring relief, but if he really loved her so much, why didn't he mention that when he proposed? Really, it was a proposal, people, and he couldn't bring himself to say he loved her? And what was the purpose of treating her like a child or a pet? Why could he not call her "darling" until after he confessed? If his guilt didn't prevent him marrying her, why did it prevent him being loving toward her?

I was a little dismayed that it never seemed to bother "She" that she was married to someone who could do what Maxim had done. Good grief, she was afraid of the servants but not him? The ending bothered me too. I don't want to give it away, so I'll just say that in some way justice was done, but in another way, it just didn't feel right at all.

This book may never be one of my favorites, but I liked it well enough and it was well written so I can recommend it, especially to anyone who likes a mystery. I've been putting off reading it because the cover is old and beat up (pathetic aren't I?) and I'm glad I can finally cross it off my list. And if that's the only real benefit I can see from having read it, I'm ok with that.

Friday Blog Hop

2010-10-15T19:16:00.000-03:00

I haven't taken part in the hop for the past few weeks and I almost forgot about it this week. Just made it! For those of you who are new to the hop, it's a weekly blog party hosted by Crazy-For-Books every weekend. You sign up on that site, post about it on your own blog, then start visiting the over 200 blogs listed every week. This is how I've found most of the blogs I follow and I can't tell you how many great book recommendations it's given me.

Each week the host asks those taking part to answer a question. This week it's -

When you read a book that you just can't get into, do you stick it out and keep reading or move to your next title?

This is something I've struggled with a lot. For one thing it isn't fair to review a book I haven't finished, and besides that so much work goes into writing a book that it seems almost disrespectful to the author to not finish it. However, as middle age has begun to fade in the distance for me, I realize I no longer have an endless number of years to read all the books I want to read. So, in the past year I have "not finished" 4 books and I have a page on my blog listing the titles and why I didn't finish reading them. These are books from my tbr. Books on my "Guilt List" are different. I put them on the list because I feel bad, or uneducated, or negligent or something about not having read them. So I'm finishing them whether I like them or not as part of my continuing education. So far so good, but if I come to a really horrible one I don't know if I'll be able to force myself to finish or not. I got all the way through Anna Karenina though so that probably bodes well for the others on that list. Time will tell.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend,
Dianne

"The Cellist Of Sarajevo"

2010-10-14T00:23:00.000-03:00

The Cellist Of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

This is a story told without a lot of emotion, as though a numbness has settled into the pages. Such horrific loss, unthinkable living conditions and fear from which there is never a moment of relief, probably leaves you with only two choices: become numb or go insane.

It is the characters who drive this story and not the plot itself. These people are braver than I can begin to comprehend. My favorite character is the cellist. He has determined to play his cello on the street where 22 people were killed by a bomb as they stood in line waiting for bread. He will play one day for each person lost. His refusal to be beaten down, even when he too is numb with suffering is a stunning testament to the strength of the life force within human beings.

The other main characters are: Kenan, a young man trying to provide for his wife and children in a bombed out shell of a city with no ready source of food or water, Dragan, a 65 year old man whose wife and 18 year old son got out of the city just before the war started, and Arrow, a young female soldier. Arrow is a skilled sniper who is turning into someone she doesn't recognize anymore and believes it has to be that way if she is to survive this war. Then she is assigned to protect the cellist.

The description of the city in ruins is as real as the room you're sitting in. The loss of the theater and the library, the image of a city once so full of life dying all around them is heartbreaking. Here are a couple of quotes that really got to me:

"Everything around him is grey. He's not sure where it came from, if it was always there and the war has simply stripped away the color that hid it, or if this grey is the color of war."

"For days afterward the ash of a million books floated down onto the city like snow" (describing the burning of a library housed in a century-old building).

I love the way this book is written. The four stories are told from their own unique viewpoints, but still they fit together like pieces of a puzzle to give a bigger picture of what war is doing to this city and it's people. The cellist and his music are the thread of hope running through all their stories. I couldn't quite imagine how the author was going to tie it all up at the end, but wow, it was beautifully done I thought.

Rather than give too much away, I'll just quote another few lines to transition from the sense of despair in the first part of the book to the hope that begins to rise toward the end:
"The men in the hills didn't have to be murderers. The men in the city didn't have to lower themselves to fight their attackers. She didn't have to be filled with hatred. The music demanded that she remember this, that she know to a certainty that the world still held the capacity for goodness. The notes were proof of that."

Each character, in their own way, comes to the same conclusion. They would hold on to their humanity no matter what and refuse to become the soulless creatures their enemies would turn them into. It's a sad story, but there are good things too. The ingenuity of people who have only themselves to depend on and the raw hope that is still there when everything else is gone make this a beautiful book. I watched a movie the other night that asked "Is it better to live as a monster or die as a good man?". These characters face that question and their journeys to the answer make this book well worth reading.

This is my fifth book for the Canadian Book Challenge hosted by John at Book Mine Set

"Sarah's Key"

2010-10-09T17:04:00.002-03:00

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

This is one of those stories that will stay with me a long time I think. It tells of ten year old Sarah, her parents and her little brother, who were living in Paris in 1942. Sarah and her parents were among the Jewish people rounded up by Paris police under Nazi command, dragged from their homes and herded like cattle into the Velodrome d'Hiver stadium where they were kept for days with little water or food, no beds, no facilities and no idea what was going to happen to them.

Sarah's little brother, Michel. was sleeping when the Police arrived at their apartment. When she woke him he was terrified and didn't want to go with her; he wanted to hide in their secret place, a hidden cupboard in the wall where they played together every day. She knew he would be safe from the police there and they had toys, books, cushions and even a flask of water in there so he'd be fine till they got back. She quietly locked him in and promised to come back for him later when the police were finished with them. She slipped the key into her pocket, sure it would not be long.

The story alternates between 1942 and 2002. The more recent time setting concerns another family living in Paris. Julia, mother of eleven year old Zoe and wife of native Parisian, Bertrand, is an American journalist assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of the "Vel' d 'Hiv" roundup of Jews in Paris. As the story unfolds, a connection between the two families in discovered and Julia becomes consumed with learning more.

About halfway through the book the alternating between time-lines stops and the rest of the story is told in Julia's time. Anything else we learn about Sarah and her family is told as history and not from Sarah's time. I rather wish the author had continued writing Sarah's life as she lived it. It was by far the most intriguing of the two stories, and by that point I was completely invested in this little girl so it was disappointing when her voice was gone, though I do understand it was necessary to heighten the mystery.

Throughout Sarah's story she is referred to as "the girl", which helps the reader to feel how quickly people were stripped of their personal identities. They were treated like a pack of unwanted animals. Who they were, their occupations, their pasts, what they thought or felt, none of these made any difference at all to their captors. They were considered nothing, all equally nothing, and that part of the book is hard to read.

The present day story of Julia and her family feels a little tame in comparison. Though it was perfectly readable, for me it was missing the fascination of Sarah's story. The characters are fairly well drawn, except for Zoe. I found it impossible to accept her as an 11 year old; she was just too adult in all her conversation.

I liked this book. I knew nothing of the experience of Jewish people in Paris during the war, and though it is a horrific part of history it is important to know. The author does a good job of unraveling the mystery of Sarah's life at a pace that keeps you involved and she provides a couple of subplots to give the story depth. And then, it's set in France which gives any book extra points in my view.

Sarah's Key is definitely worth reading and would make a great book club selection.

"Letters For Emily"

2010-10-03T19:56:00.001-03:00

Letters For Emily by Camron Wright

Well this book certainly was the change I was looking for after Anna Karenina. I read the entire book in one day of just picking it up now and then as a break from something else I was doing. It's quick, light and easy, which leads me to a question I want to ask.

Do you review books you'd class as literature and this lighter kind of novel in the same way? I always struggle with that and would like to hear some of your opinions on it. It seems almost unfair to use the same criteria for a book like this one as I would for Willa Cather or Jane Austen.

If I compared "Letters For Emily" to serious literary novels, I'd have to say it's a tad cheesy. The characters don't develop much and neither does the plot. It's not really memorable in any way. But, if I compare it to other books of this type it's not bad. It's an ok story and not too badly written. I read it quickly at a time when I needed a light read, so for me it accomplished it's purpose, or at least my purpose for it.

So. I have this struggle every time I read a book like this. I can't say it's very good, but I don't know if it's fair to dismiss it as fluff. There are books I would dismiss as fluff, but they'd have to be, well, fluffier than this one. And maybe what I say about it doesn't matter anyway since I'm not making a judgment on whether books are good or bad. This blog contains "thoughts on books I'm reading", so maybe I don't have to worry about being fair. I don't know. I just don't want someone who would love this book to skip it because of what they read here. Some of my favorite books got terrible reviews on other sites but fortunately I read the book before I read those reviews.

I'm getting tired of hearing myself talk about this so I'm stopping now. I do want to hear what others have to say though. Do you have one standard for all novels, or do you critique them within their specific genres?

"Anna Karenina"

2010-10-03T19:52:00.001-03:00

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

(clears throat)............I HAVE FINISHED READING ANNA KARENINA!!!

There really should be balloons, or seventy-six trombones leading a big parade.
I am going to my guilt list to cross it off now. Ok, I'm back and that was very satisfying.

Now to give some kind of review. Hmmmm. Where to start. This novel has been read by millions and analyzed and reviewed and studied and critiqued by far more learned people than I and any review I attempt could only sound pathetic. So, I will simply say what I thought as I was reading it, though not everything I thought, because this is a family-friendly blog.

First of all did it really have to be over 800 pages long? Surely what Mr. Tolstoy was trying to accomplish could have been done in a few hundred less. But he is nothing if not thorough in making his point.

And I have to ask: are all Russians bi-polar? If this is the only Russian book you ever read, you would certainly think so. One minute they are ecstatic with joy and the next they have sunk into the depths of despair and there is no reasoning with them. And this dramatic change seems to come about with only a word, or a look, or a thought. I thought my house was all drama all the time, but we don't have anything on these people. Every conversation is an emotional roller coaster. Every love affair is passionate, dying, passionate again, etc. It's exhausting.

Tolstoy himself gives a good description of this when Levin refers to a concert he attended. "Gaiety, sadness, despair, tenderness and triumph appeared without justification, like a madman's feelings. And, just as with a madman, these feelings passed unexpectedly." Madmen indeed. I questioned the sanity of some of these characters frequently. He goes on to say "All through the performance, Levin felt like a deaf man watching people dance." Perfect. He has described exactly how I felt all the way through Anna Karenina.

I didn't dislike the book, but I also didn't love it. I couldn't relate to any of the characters much. I didn't like any of them really. The Anna of the title seems brittle and distant. She isn't the character I will remember most from this story. All the characters have a harsh and blundering way of speaking to one another that I found un-natural.

I'm beginning to think I should stick to books written in English. There is only so much a translator can do. When a writer puts together a phrase in his native language, he chooses words that will both make his point and flow well together. The translator can choose English words that will make the same point, but much of the time the flow will be lost. Since I read more for the "poetry" of the prose than for the story, what I'm looking for is often lost in translation.

From what I've read, people consider this a great love story. There is a love story in it, two actually, but to me they seemed secondary to the social, political and spiritual principles being analyzed. The last few chapters of the book deal almost exclusively with one character's spiritual struggles and awakening. I enjoyed all the philosophical discussions about the workers vs. the landowners and who was entitled to what. Tolstoy made some interesting observations about profit being immoral if it does not correspond to the work done to earn it. All of these things would make good topics for discussion at a book club, but my book club would shoot me if I asked them to read anything with 800 pages, because they all have lives.

One section I thought wonderful was where Levin knew that the woman he loved was also in love with him. I loved how he believed everyone he met was in on the secret. He found everything he looked at beautiful and all people kind and generous. The world was turning just for him and there was no flaw to be found in anything. What a lovely picture of what being in love does for you.

Tolstoy also addresses the other side of that when Anna is overwhelmed by her feelings of despair. Everyone she looks at is unfriendly and unattractive. Her eyes see people as ugly. She sees no worth or beauty in anything around her. Life loses all meaning and there is no point to anything. Not as pleasant to read as the happier side of that coin, but just as real.

I must be honest and say that in places it was just plain boring. Bang-my-head-on-the-wall boring. Can you say that about Tolstoy without being struck by lightening? The truth is, if Tolstoy had never written a book, I don't think it would have affected my life in any detrimental way. Now don't get all mad and tell me how uneducated and shallow I am. I know already. I just couldn't get into this story and I didn't enjoy the writing. I am glad I read it though, because it was such fun crossing it off my guilt list and now I can recognize references to it in other books. And I will confess, that even now as I'm writing about it, the book grows better in my memory. Funny how that happens.

The Brothers Karmazov is also on my list. I don't know how long it is and I'm not going to find out until after I reward myself with a couple of lighter novels. Tolstoy and I will have to pace ourselves if we're going to have any kind of relationship at all. I think it's best to take it slow. Real slow.

"Glass Voices"

2010-09-27T23:08:00.000-03:00

Glass Voices by Carol Bruneau

At long last I got a copy of this book into my eager hands. I've been reading about it for a long time and finally was able to get a copy through the local library. It had been described to me as a novel about the Halifax explosion, referring to the accidental explosion of a munitions ship in the Halifax, NS harbor in 1917.Because it happened in my corner of the world, I've been interested in reading more about it to get a better idea of who was affected and how. I know that 2000 people were killed and 9000 injured and that there was a horrific amount of damage, but I thought a novel would give me a better feeling for how people's lives were impacted.

The main characters are a married couple, Harry and Lucy, who have two children, one of whom is lost in the explosion and the other of whom enters the world amidst the chaos of that horrible day. The story is told from Lucy's point of view and begins with the now elderly Harry experiencing a massive stroke. As Lucy adjusts to her changed circumstances she looks back over the years at how the disaster changed their lives and brought them to this point.

The novel does deal with the explosion, but only as the event that catapults Lucy and Harry into the lives they live out in the book. Then the story moves back and forth between the years immediately following that event and the 1960's, the "present day" of the book. I was disappointed that the story wasn't what I hoped it would be, but I decided to give it a chance and keep reading.

There was something about the writing that didn't appeal to me. I found the flow of the narrative broken up in places, made a little confusing with too many similes and metaphors. Sometimes it seemed like every thought Lucy had included a figure of speech and some of them were odd, without a clear meaning, like "when Lucy wakes the air in the room tastes black." um...? Other than that the writing was ok, the dialogue realistic and natural. There was more "language" than I like but that's a personal preference.

In addition to not enjoying the writing, I didn't like any of the characters. Lucy is fairly interesting, but I kept wishing she'd stand up to her husband. At the beginning of the book I didn't like Harry, then that developed into an active dislike, and by the end of the book I hated him. I did feel some pity for him as a stroke victim, how could anyone not, but I couldn't get past his vulgar behavior, his coarse treatment of his wife and his apparent belief that being a father brought with it no responsibility. It's not that I think him unrealistic, on the contrary, he's all too real and reminds me of several men I know. Harry made me very angry.

"Glass Voices" is an unhappy book from the beginning, then in the last chapter one more tragedy is thrown in and the story ends. My feeling about it can be described in some of the author's own words: it was "gloomy enough to make you jump in front of a train." I really wish I could say something better.

This is a Canadian book, but it's not one of the 13 I had chosen to read for the Canadian Book Challenge hosted by Book Mine Set. I'll include it as an extra one for that challenge.

Home Again

2010-09-21T19:57:00.001-03:00

I've been back home since late Friday night and am settling back into a routine of sorts. I miss my daughter and her family (and that room of my own). I have to say it was a very educational visit though. I learned:
1. to tell the Jonas brothers apart
2. that if I never see Miley Cyrus again it will be too soon
3. how to make toasted banana sandwiches
4. that a cat will throw up if it eats enough icing
5. there is still a place in the world where restaurants close at 8:00 on a Saturday night
6. a suitcase will expand in direct proportion to the number of books you buy while traveling - this last one was a revelation to me and has changed my life forever.

When I got home I picked up a book the Library was holding for me. It's called Glass Voices and is the story of a family who survived the devastating explosion of a munitions ship in the Halifax harbor in the early 1900's. I'm also still reading Anna Karenina and I'd say I'm about a third of the way through. I'm pleasantly surprised that it's more interesting than I expected it to be. I am hopeful that I will get all the way through it, but we'll see.

Thanks so much to Book Loving Mommy for awarding me the One Lovely Blog award. It's always encouraging to hear that others enjoy and appreciate what you do. If you haven't been to her blog yet, drop over and read a few of her reviews and check out the photo of her adorable kids. As a recipient it is my privilege to pass it on to other bloggers so I'm giving it to Reader's Respite, Literate Housewife and Kelly's (Former) France Blog. I'll email each one and let them know, then they can grab the button and post about it on their own blogs.

I realize that awards can be a bit of a sticky issue, and I do understand they can be time consuming. It's a shame something meant as a simple encouragement is becoming a chore more dreaded than appreciated. Originally this one was supposed to be passed on to 15 bloggers, but I'm only sending it to three. Maybe if we all cut way back on how many we send them out to, awards could become a good thing for all again. I think it would be great if we passed all awards on to just one other blogger. What do you think?

Friday Blog Hop

2010-09-17T15:43:00.001-03:00

Friday has rolled around again and that means it's time for the blog hop, hosted by Crazy For Books. The hop is a way for book bloggers to meet each other online and share book recommendations and reviews. Each week we are given a question to answer or a topic to comment on and this week's is as follows:

In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, let's take time this week to honor our favorite book bloggers and why we love them!

I have found so many great blogs that it would be impossible to mention them all, but on my side-bar you'll find a list of the ones I try to read weekly. A few that I particularly like are The Literary Amnesiac, Dead White Guys and Eclectic Indulgence, but really there are so many more that are terrific as well. Blogging has opened up a whole new world to me. There aren't many avid readers in my family, so finding them online, and being able to chat about books any time, is wonderful. And the books! Authors I had never heard of are now on my favorites list and my TBR grows every week. The great thing is you get to know which bloggers share your reading tastes, so when they recommend a title, you can trust it. Blogging has been a very positive, and fun, thing for me and I hope to continue for a long time.

Check out the Crazy For Books link above for a long list of book bloggers to browse through. I know you'll find something you'll like.

"Heidi"

2010-09-14T17:22:00.001-03:00

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

I have always loved this book, but am not getting the same enjoyment out of it that I did when I was a child. I still love the story, only now I can see how cheesy it is. I don't want to see it, but it is rather glaring.

Still it's a lovely story of a little girl who is sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. She's a storybook girl so she has no problem adapting to this huge change in her life. Her aunt, the only mother she has ever known, drops her off at the cabin of the somewhat grumpy old man, and leaves for a new job. Heidi makes friends immediately; she loves everyone and everyone loves her for her sweetness and innocence.

Her happy days in the mountains end abruptly when she is sent to Frankfurt to be a companion for the sickly daughter of a rich man. Heidi doesn't adapt so well to this change. She becomes fast friends with the sick girl, Clara, but finds life in the city stifling. Her life is much more structured in this grand house and she doesn't get the fresh air and exercise she's used to. In addition to that, not all of the staff find her tendency to be disruptive amusing and they are rather hard on her. She begins to decline until the Doctor says she must return home to get well.

Back in the mountains Heidi returns to the life she loves and regains her health. After a time, Clara and her grandmother come to visit. Clara also begins to get better in the mountain air and soon she is out of her wheelchair and walking. My skepticism says it's a bit ridiculous that she is healed simply with fresh air and goat's milk. Their daily diet is bread and cheese. No vegetables, very little fruit if any. Wouldn't they all end up with scurvy or something? But, common sense must be suspended for awhile to really enjoy children's stories, so suspend it. I do and choose to believe that Clara is healed. And that Heidi really is that rare small child who is so full of wisdom that everyone who comes in contact with her is changed for the better.

It's not great literature, but I love it. Sometimes it's nice to read something that ends with all being right with the world. And sometimes it's just nice to read something wholesome. Such an old fashioned concept now, but sweet and lovely to find in a story for children.

I think Heidi is a wonderful book. If you've never read it, do indulge yourself. You'll find it a breath of fresh air in our often somewhat-less-than-wholesome society.

Happiness is finding a new used-book store...

2010-09-13T01:01:00.001-03:00

I've been visiting my daughter and her family this past week and it's been the closest thing I've had to a vacation in a long time. Sleeping in, reading books, being goofy with my granddaughters and playing solitaire online. So peaceful. So relaxing. And a room of my own! And on top of all that, I discovered a used-books store just up the road. The guy at the counter is a bit of a curmudgeon but then, nothing's perfect. And when he saw I was buying 4 books, he lightened up a little.

I bought a small book of dog stories by James Herriot for my younger granddaughter and something for her older sister but I can't for the life of me remember the title. It's something girly with a pink cover and she seems quite happy with it.

While they were choosing their books I found about 20 I wanted, but I managed to beat myself into submission and buy only two. I got a nice copy of Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I started reading it today, but I suspect it's going to take awhile to get through the 817 pages. It's one of the books on my Guilt List so I'm feeling quite happy with myself for buying it.

My other purchase was The Cellist Of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, one of the books I'm reading for the Canadian Book Challenge hosted by John at The Book Mine Set. The curmudgeon said it was one of the best books he'd ever read (and I got the impression he's not so easy to please). At 250 pages, it looks like a baby sitting next to the Tolstoy; and with fairly large print and wide margins all around, it should be a quick read.

I wanted to start The Cellist right away, but didn't think it wise to put off starting Anna because I might keep putting it off indefinitely. I've been known to set aside the hard stuff till "later" a point in time that may never arrive. I'll probably read Anna for awhile and keep the other for when I need a break from that.

Really, is there anything better than a used-books store, the smell and the connection with other readers who have held these books in their hands before you? It's a treat just to walk into one, and walking out with a great find in your hands is even better.

So tell me about your favorite used-books store. Is there a great one in your town? Or someplace special you make a point to visit when you're in another area? Or do you prefer the big bookstores full of shiny new books?

"The Forgotten Garden"

2010-09-12T04:06:00.005-03:00

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

There is something about Kate Morton's novels that doesn't click with me. I read "The House At Riverton" a while ago and though I found it interesting and had no problem finishing the book, it just for some reason didn't appeal to me much. Unfortunately I've had the same experience with The Forgotten Garden.

Again, I liked the cover and title, the settings, the era and some of the characters. It is set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the 1970's and present day.

The plot was complicated, but fairly well organized. It shuffles back and forth among four generations of women and I must admit I found it confusing at first. I like stories that are told in flashback, but this one has a lot of characters and it took me awhile to fit all the people into the right generation and time period. I had to flip back a few times to remind myself who I was reading about and why they mattered, but by the time I got into the second half of the book I was able to follow it more easily.

The Forgotten Garden is the story of Nell, her granddaughter Cassandra, and their attempts to unravel the mystery of Nell's past. She was adopted at the age of 4 by a couple who found her alone and abandoned on a ship bound for Australia. She remembers bits about her life before that, enough to send her searching for answers about who her mother was and why she'd been left to fend for herself on a ship full of strangers, and enough for her granddaughter, Cassandra, to continue the search when Nell no longer could.

As with 'The House At Riverton' I finished this book unsatisfied. All the loose ends got tied up, but I just got tired of people having so many secrets and nobody ever answering a question directly. Over and over again characters would think they had finally come to the right place for answers, then someone would walk away without saying what they knew, or they would tell what they knew but their disclosure changed everything they thought they knew before.

The central characters, the Mountrachet's, could be the poster people for the dysfunctional family. There was Linus, a disturbing man who was overly fond of his sister, then his sister's daughter, and then her daughter in turn. I found it peculiar that his strangeness was quite a strong thread thoughout the story, but it didn't go anywhere. He vows to himself that he will not lose them as he did his sister, then he more or less fades from the story, just showing up now and then to stalk his prey and make my skin crawl. I was quite glad to see him go, because I really did not want to read about him taking his obsessions any farther.

Linus's wife was Adeline, who was 'low-born' but whom Linus married to spite his parents (who also had some serious issues). Adeline spent her life trying to make people forget her past so that she would be accepted in "good" society. She pulled it off, but became a miserable old cow in the process, ruining life for just about everyone around her.

Rose is Linus and Adeline's daughter. Eliza is the daughter of Linus's beloved (in a creepy way) sister, Gorgianna. Eliza is brought to Blackhurst Manor to be a companion for the sickly Rose. They become friends as children, but then they grow up and it all starts to fall apart.

I know I said the story was about Nell and Cassandra and I'm am getting to them but I don't want to give too much away. Suffice it to say that Nell's life winds through the lives of all the characters mentioned above. Chronologically, Cassandra comes along later and is the one putting together all the pieces to the puzzle that is her family history.

At the end of the book, I had the same regret that I had at the end of 'The House At Riverton'. I wanted some good things to happen for certain characters but, alas, it was not to be. I think I'd put both of these stories in the category of 'tragedies'. There is a lot of unhappiness, though some of the characters are finally able to escape it.

I recommend 'The Forgotten Garden' to anyone who likes a good mystery to solve,and can live without an all around happy ending. For me it was just ok, nothing special. If you do read it, I hope you'll enjoy it more than I did.