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Posts from ‘July, 2007’

No Country For Old Men – Book Review

Jul 20th, 2007
by Wendy.
5 comments
I think if you were Satan and you were settin around tryin to think up somethin that would just bring the human race to its knees what you would probably come up with is narcotics. Maybe he did. I told that to somebody at breakfast the other mornin and they asked me if I believed in Satan. I said Well that aint the point. And they said I know but do you? I had ot think about that. I guess as a boy I did. Come the middle years my belief I reckon had waned somewhat. Now Im startin to lean back the other way. he explains a lot of things that otherwise dont have no explanation. Or not to me they dont. -From No Country For Old Men, page 218-

After reading Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road in May, I knew I would read more of his novels. Like that novel, No Country For Old Men is filled with brutal violence and asks deep questions about the nature of evil, morality and the idea of fate vs. choosing our own path.

When Lewelyn Moss stumbles across a drug deal gone bad out in the desert and walks away with a briefcase filled with over two million dollars, he sets off a string of savage murders and places himself and his wife in harm’s way.  Ed Tom Bell, an old time sheriff on the brink of retirement, carries the novel with his dry sense of humor and musings on the philosophy of life and its moral decline. Chigurh (apparently pronounced ‘sugar’ … although I thought this character could better be described as ‘chigger’) seems to be the embodiment of evil – a super human monster who appears to have no respect for human life.

McCarthy takes the reader for a wild ride through the first half of the book. I found myself unable to put the novel down. The scenes are nail bitters, written like a screenplay. It is not surprising that the movie based on the book will be released in November 2007.

But then, McCarthy slows things down midway, giving the reader more to think about than who will be the next victim. Do our choices seal our fate in life? Are our lives merely determined by the flip of a coin? Or do we have the power to control our lives through the moral decisions we make? McCarthy doesn’t give the reader any easy answers, and perhaps that is because there are not any. In the end, we are left with the symbol of a fire being lit in the darkness – perhaps the suggestion that we may still shine our light on evil, and reveal it for what it is.

Recommended.

Unread Authors Challenge

Jul 14th, 2007
by Wendy.
10 comments

My blogger friend, Ariel, is hosting an Unread Authors Challenge. The idea is to choose 6 books by neglected authors, or new-to-me authors and read them between September 1, 2007 and February 29, 2007. I have lots of books on my TBR pile written by authors I’ve never read before…so this one is a no-brainer!

Here are my six books:

1. Alentejo Blue, by Monica Ali (Completed February 22, 2008; read my review here)
2. The Blackwater Lightship, by Colm Toibin (Completed November 9, 2007; read my review here)
3. Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak (Completed November 24, 2007; read my review here)
4. What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman
5. The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck (Completed November 28, 2007; read my review here)
6. Night Watch, by Sarah Waters (Completed February 12, 2008; read my review here)

Alternatives, Substitutes and Extras:

Stones From the River, by Ursela Hegi
A Woman in Jeruselum, by AB Yehoshua
The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly
All Aunt Hager’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
The Emperor’s Child, by Claire Messud (Completed December 12, 2007; read my review here)
A Bend in the River, by V.S. Naipal

Of Mice and Men – Book Review

Jul 13th, 2007
by Wendy.
7 comments
The best laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley [go oft awry]
And leave us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy!
by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759 – 96)


John Steinbeck’s classic novel, Of Mice and Men, is one of three novels he wrote exploring the California agricultural labor phenomenon of the 1930s (the other two were The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious Battle). In this novel, Steinbeck focuses on the friendship between two men – George and Lennie – and their shared dream of owning land and a home of their own. The story is simple and occurs over the span of three short days on a Salinas Valley ranch where the two men have found work as farm hands. Thematically, Steinbeck explores the idea of dreams and how plans may go awry  through forces beyond one’s control. Given the time in which the novel was written, his handling of the mentally handicapped Lennie is tender and compassionate. Steinbeck describes setting beautifully, and wraps it around the characters whose personalities emerge through their dialogue and relationships with each other. There is enough foreshadowing to predict the novel’s tragic end.

Highly Recommended.

The Bone People – Book Review

Jul 13th, 2007
by Wendy.
4 comments

They traveled lightly, the Gillayleys, not loaded down with trivia. But then, in the end we all travel very lightly indeed. Nothing to carry more substantial than memories…and maybe that’s the heaviest baggage of all… -From The Bone People, page 323-

Keri Hulme’s Booker Prize winning first novel – The Bone People – is a searing, brutal novel about love, violence, language, and mystery.  Set in the bleak environment of a New Zealand sea town, the novel introduces three damaged characters all seeking something more in their lives, all having suffered loss and trauma.

Kerewin Holmes, a frustrated artist who turns to alcohol for solace, has built herself a tower – a self-imposed prison, where she can hide from the world and stave off the pain of her family’s rejection. She holds tenaciously to her philosophy of life: “…To care for anything deeply is to invite disaster.”

Joe also chooses alcohol to warm his soul. He has lost his wife and is trying to raise his adopted son Simon alone. Joe’s love for Simon is a mixture of tenderness and brutality.

Simon, perhaps the most heart wrenching character in the book, is a child with a mysterious past. Washed up on shore after a shipwreck and breathed back to life by Joe, Simon is mute, angry and disturbed. These three characters come together in a clash of culture and ambivalence and burn themselves into the heart of the reader.

Hulmes writing is poetic and lyrical, filled with mystical ambiance and beautiful imagery. It ebbs and flows like the sea, building to a terrible climax. At times, feeling battered and exhausted, I wanted to put the book down and not finish it; but each time the words and the story lured me back. There are some beautiful and haunting passages in this novel, such as when Simon gifts Kerewin an amber, gold, turquoise and coral rosary and Kerewin thinks:

Who owned you?
Prayed with you?
Played with you?
What prayers, said, in what moods?
Joy, or grief?
Love, or anger,
Or tears?
-From The Bone People, pages 140-141-


Hulme treats the reader to a great deal of Maori culture, weaving Maori phrases throughout the novel (she also provides their translation in an appendix). The book veers into mystical realism at times, which I believe actually added to the mood and flavor of the story rather than taking away from it.

The Bone People is not an easy read – it is disturbing and rips at the reader’s heart – but, ultimately its words and imagery, its message about what it means to be human, will linger with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Highly recommended.

Rockin’ Girl Blogger Award

Jul 7th, 2007
by Wendy.
4 comments

Many thanks to Robin over at Bibliohistoria who just nominated me for the Rockin’ Girl Blogger Award – it is always an honor to have my blog singled out by one of my blogger friends; and in this case to also be honored for starting my Novel Challenges Yahoo group for all of my challenge addicted bookie pals!

I’m supposed to nominate some blogs for this award now – and I am always nervous about doing that because I don’t want to have anyone feel left out. As you probably have noticed if you scroll down the right side of my blog, there are many wonderful blogs that I read; and they are all ROCKIN!!! I love them for their creativity, their sense of humor, their amazing book reviews, their thoughts on life, and their honesty.

So here’s my solution – if you find your blog in my sidebar, consider yourself “tagged” for this award!

The Shadow of the Wind – Book Review

Jul 7th, 2007
by Wendy.
8 comments
“Well this is a story about books.”
“About books?”
“About accursed books, about the man who wrote them, about a character who broke out of the pages of a novel so that he could burn it, about a betrayal and a lost friendship. It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.”
-From The Shadow of the Wind, page 178-

This book has sat on my “to-be-read” shelf for a long time – and after reading it I wonder how I could have let it linger so long unread.  The Shadow of the Wind is a rich tapestry of writing – a gothic tale of love and mystery, of betrayal and suspense. Zafon’s sense of place never wavers. The reader is pulled into the setting and enveloped in the dark, crumbling mansions and the candlelit hallways of post-war Barcelona.

A few seconds later, the weak current of the lightening system, which had defined the shapes of buildings and windows, faded away. On the flooding sidewalks, the streetlamps blinked, then went out like candles snuffed by the wind. There wasn’t a soul to be seen in the streets, and the darkness of the blackout spread with a fetid smell that rose from the sewers. The night became opaque, impenetrable, as the rain folded the city in its shroud. -From The Shadow of the Wind, page 57-

Zafon captures the reader quickly. When Daniel, a ten year old boy, is brought to a mysterious place called The Cemetery of Books, his father swears him to secrecy  and then explains: “According to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, whichever one he wants, and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive. It’s a very important promise. For life,” explained my father. “Today it’s your turn.” 

Daniel chooses a book – or perhaps the book chooses him. It is a book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, written by Julian Carax and it entrances the boy and takes him on a convoluted journey which is swathed in mystery. Who is the man with no face who has set out to destroy every book every written by Julian Carax? What became of the author?

Zafon’s novel is filled with memorable characters – my favorite being Fermin Romero de Torres, a homeless man saved from the gutter by Daniel and his father and who comes with a dark and cryptic history of his own. Fermin’s wonderful philosophy of life, filled with bawdy humor made me laugh out loud at times.

The novel’s plot is twisting – weaving back in time and making unexpected turns. No one is who they seem to be. Characters in Daniel’s found novel become intertwined with people he knows or has known. Zafon keeps the reader guessing with his compelling and dramatic story filled with betrayal, murder, missing people and romance.

The Shadow of the Wind is a giant of a book and a must read for bibliophiles and those who love epics with a gothic flavor.

Highly Recommended.

The Saturday Review of Books Reading Challenge

Jul 4th, 2007
by Wendy.
7 comments

July 1 – December 31, 2007

Challenge COMPLETED December 12, 2007:

Thank you Sherry for hosting this fun challenge! It got me to read some books on my TBR pile that I have had for quite some time. Of the six books I read, none was rated less than a 4/5 and four were rated 5/5! See the links below to all reviews.

*****************************


Sherry at Semicolon has been hosting The Saturday Review of Books for quite some time now – and has decided to do a challenge whereby participants pick 6 books from the review archives to read in a 6 month period of time. Since you all know I cannot resist a good challenge, I’ve decided to sign up. I’m picking books which overlap other challenges or are for scheduled book club reads.  Here are my choices:

1. The Echomaker, by Richard Powers (reviewed by Ruth at There is no Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town) – Completed September 6, 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review here.
2. The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud (reviewed by K at Unprintable Version) – Completed December 12, 2007; rated 4/5; read my review here.
3. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood (reviewed by Tanabata at In The Spring It Is The Dawn, Michelle at 3M, and HeidiJane at Adventures in Bookland) – Completed November 5, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review here.
4. The Pearl, by John Steinbeck (reviewed by Sarah at It’s A Small World) – Completed November 30, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review here.
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving (reviewed by booklogged at A Reader’s Journal) – Completed September 20, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review here.
6. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (reviewed by magistramater and Trish) – Completed December 8, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review here.

The Evening Star – Book Review

Jul 1st, 2007
by Wendy.
2 comments

He had always supposed that passion would eventually subside, and that when it did life would be calm. He had once rowed a little boat across the Bay of Naples at sunset, and when he though back on the experience he realized that he had hoped that was more or less how old age would be: serene, beautiful, calm, with sky and water in harmony. But here he was, his hands shaking, calling from the second floor of Aurora’s house to the first floor, pleading with her to come back up and see him and, if possible, bring him a scrap of bacon, or something to eat. It wasn’t much like the Bay of Naples at sunset with the evening star bright in the sky. -From The Evening Star, page 165-

In Larry McMurtry’s wonderfully funny and poignant novel The Evening Star, the reader meets up again with one of literature’s most compelling and honest characters in the name of Aurora Greenway. Feisty, brutally direct and lively – Aurora takes command of this novel from beginning to end. McMurtry sets the novel many years after his blockbuster Terms of Endearment and shows the reader the fates of that novel’s beloved characters: Tommy, Melanie and Teddy (Emma’s children), Aurora’s gruff lover The General, and the unflappable Rosie. Told in alternating points of view and spanning nearly twenty years, the reader is tugged into the life of each character to experience all the turmoil, joy, humor and sadness that their journey has to offer.

Some of my favorite parts of this novel were Aurora and Rosie’s meditations on age and sex. Their relationship is a fine tribute to long standing women’s friendships that only grow stronger as the years pass.

Filled with humor, philosophical meanderings, and the sometimes heartbreaking process of aging, The Evening Star does not disappoint…it is McMurtry at his finest

Recommended.

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