Books
« Previous Entries Sunday, July 6th, 2008Bookworms Carnival - Edition #13 (Relationships)
Edition #13 Hosted by Jenn
This month’s theme for the Bookworms Carnival is Relationships (and not the Harlequin Romance type). There are many types of relationships: sibling, parent-child, spouse, lover, friendship, business. I’m probably missing some. I prowled my personal library and discovered several books I’ve read which revolve around friendship. I love books with this theme - especially friendships between women which are often filled with ambivalence, extremes of emotion (anger, sadness, joy), comfort and meaning. Most will agree that if you have one true and loyal friend in your lifetime, you are doing well. I’ve been lucky to find several friendships which I continue to treasure - each one unique and special to me.
Below are some book selections which I think capture the essence of female friendships. Clicking on the picture of the book will take readers to Amazon to learn more about the books.
Author Elizabeth Berg writes books about friendship better than many writers. And for that reason, she has become one of my favorite authors. Talk Before Sleep, published in 1994 is the story of Ruth and Ann - two friends who face a crisis which tests their friendship. The book highlights the strength of unconditional love and the joy and sadness which comes from loving another person. This book made me laugh and cry. It is a tender and honest look at women’s friendships.
I discovered two new authors this year: Meg Waite Clayton and Marisa de los Santos. Both of these talented women write about friendship.
Clayton’s novel, The Wednesday Sisters, revolves around five women who bond one summer in 1968 and eventually form a writer’s group. The novel is brilliantly executed - a story with heart and substance which brought me to tears. Clayton captures the essence of women’s friendships without being sappy or overly emotional. For more of my thoughts, read my review of this book.
Belong to Me, written by Marisa de los Santos and published this year (following her very successful debut novel Love Walked In) also tackles the theme of women’s friendships. de los Santos has a rare skill - she makes you care deeply about her characters, to climb inside their shoes and feel their joy, sadness, doubt, and fear. The characters in Belong to Me first appeared in Love Walked In…and I would recommend reading the books in order (although I didn’t do that!). To read more of my thoughts on this book, read my review which I published here on my blog in March of this year.
Helen Hooven Santmyer wrote “…And Ladies of the Club” at the age of 88. I’ve read this book three times - remarkable given that I rarely re-read a book even once. The novel spans several decades - from just after the Civil War to the threshold of the New Deal. It follows the lives of two women in a small Ohio town who are part of the Waynesboro ladies’ literary society. This is a book which goes beyond friendships and explores the impact of history on the lives of its characters. Santmyer’s novel is huge (more than 1000 pages) and yet the book is a breeze to read. Deeply satisfying on many levels, this wonderful epic will resonate with women.
People of the Book - Book Review
“Well from what you’ve told me, the book has survived the same human disaster over and over again. Think about it. You’ve got a society where people tolerate difference, like Spain in the Convivencia, and everything’s humming along: creative, prosperous. Then somehow this fear, this hate, this need to demonize ‘the other’ - it just sort of rears up and smashes the whole society. Inquisition, Nazis, extremist Serb nationalists…same old, same old. It seems to me the book, at this point, bears witness to all that.” -From People of the Book, page 195-
Of course, a book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand. -From People of the Book, page 19-
Pulitzer prize-winning author, Geraldine Brooks, has written another stunning and impeccably researched book. People of the Book begins in 1996 when rare book expert (and conservator) Hanna Heath is summoned to post-war Bosnia to examine an ancient manuscript.
The Sarajevo Haggadah, created in medieval Spain, was a famous rarity, a lavishly illuminated Hebrew manuscript made at a time when Jewish belief was firmly against illustrations of any kind. It was thought that the commandment in Exodus “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or likeness of any thing” had suppressed figurative art by medieval Jews. When the book came to light in Sarajevo in 1894, its pages of painted miniatures had turned this idea on its head and caused art history text to be rewritten. -From People of the Book, page 8-
Between the pages of this incredible book, Hanna discovers clues to its history: a fragile insect’s wing, a missing clasp, a small wine stain, a drip of salt water and a single white hair. In alternating chapters, the clues reveal themselves and uncover the people whose hands the manuscript passes through…and remarkably the author and illustrator of the Haggadah. The reader visits Sarajevo in 1904, Vienna in 1894, Venice in 1609, Tarragona in 1492, and Seville in 1480. At the same time, Hanna’s story is also gradually revealed as she moves forward from 1996 to 2002.
People of the Book is inspired by the true story of the of the Hebrew codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. Brooks novel, however, is richly imagined - borrowing certain facts and then creating multi-layered characters and situations which immerse the reader in a fictional world of intrigue, emotion and wonder. Brooks did her homework - and People of the Book includes fascinating facts about early art history and the skill of book conservation, as well as the history of the Jewish people.
I turned a page. More dazzle. The illuminations were beautiful, but I didn’t allow myself to look at them as art. Not yet. First i had to understand them as chemicals. There was yellow, made of saffron. That beautiful autumn flower, Crocus sativus Linnaeus, each with just three tiny precious stigmas, had been a prized luxury then and remained one, still. Even if we now know that the rich color comes from a carotene, crocin, with a molecular structure of 44 carbon, 64 hydrogen, and 24 oxygen, we still haven’t synthesized a substitute as complex and as beautiful. There was malachite green, and red; the intense red known as worm scarlet - tola’at shani in Hebrew - extracted from tree-dwelling insects, crushed up and boiled in lye. Later, when alchemists learned how to make a similar red from sulfur and mercury, they still named the color “little worm” - vermiculum. Some things don’t change: we call it vermilion even today. -From People of the Book, page 15-
I found this novel immensely satisfying and one which I highly recommend for readers who enjoy world literature and have a fascination for books and art history, as well as for those who enjoy unraveling mysteries.
Down River - Book Review
“Christians talk of a white stag that carried a vision of Christ between his antlers. They believe it’s a sign of impending salvation.”
“That sounds nice.”
“There are legends that go back much further. The ancient Celts believed something entirely different. Their legends speak of white deer leading travelers deep into the secret parts of the forest. They say a white deer can lead a man to new understanding.” -From Down River, page 86-
John Hart’s 2008 Edgar Award winning novel Down River is a suspense-thriller which is all about redemption, misunderstanding, and self-discovery. Adam Chase returns to his childhood home in Rowan County, North Carolina when an old friend contacts him and requests his assistance. Five years before this Adam was acquitted of the murder of a young man, even though the testimony of Adam’s step mother fingered him for the crime. Forced to choose between his wife or his son, Adam’s father chose his wife. Now Adam will be forced to reconcile those events with his father, his ex-lover and the people of Rowan County. Hart doesn’t make the reader wait long for action. Almost immediately upon Adam’s return to his old stomping grounds, family and friends begin to be victimized, and once again Adam must defend himself against old suspicions.
Hart writes magnificently with gritty, believable dialogue and gorgeous descriptions of the North Carolina landscape. The characters are painstakingly drawn - showing the reader both their strengths and weaknesses. As Adam works to clear his name, he must uncover long buried secrets and betrayals and Hart’s ability to create tension and keep the reader guessing make this a fast-paced and compelling read.
John Hart has also published a New York Times bestseller: The King Of Lies.
Down River is a book that readers of the suspense-thriller genre will not want to miss.
Highly recommended.
Springtime On Mars: Stories - Book Review
“For years, people imagined they saw canals dug into the planet’s surface. They called these canals proof of life. They worried what intelligent life on Mars might mean to us earthlings, to our safety. But, it was nothing. An optical illusion a cosmic misprint. There’s no life. There’s nothing.” -From Springtime on Mars, page 112-
Susan Woodring’s wonderful book of short stories is a joy to read. They are linked in theme - women growing older and looking back on their lives; loss and hope; the idea of gravity keeping our feet on the ground; searching for meaning somewhere between science and God. All Woodring’s stories take place among ordinary people and families - but they are at the same time people who are extraordinary without realizing it. They could be any one of us. And that perhaps is where these stories gain their power.
Woodring writes with an eye on the small details of life and explores the every day push and pull of relationships. There is sadness mingled in her characters’ lives, but also a twinkle of hope and meaning. I especially liked her female characters - women who still were looking for their dreams.
I believe: love deep, give marshmallows and other treats to children, and sleep as long and often as you can, but wake early, eat breakfast. I’m sixty-eight years old; I’m not going backward. -From Morning Again, page 27-
Woodring has had her short stories published in a number of literary magazines and anthologies. She is also the author of the novel The Traveling Disease. This collection was published by a small press: Press 53. If you only read one collection of short stories this year, I would recommend this one. Beautifully crafted with a deep sense of American life and what it means to be human, Springtime on Mars will captivate you.
My thanks to Susan Woodring for sending me a signed copy of her book.
Highly recommended.
The House At Midnight - Book Review
And despite my best attempts to be rational, I was afraid. I could feel the house’s atmosphere, that eerie swirling in the corners of the room and the folds of the curtains and behind the furniture. It wasn’t explicit; there was no sudden breathless rush, sucking the air out and dragging the walls in on me, but there was a feeling of underlying menace, a flexing of muscle. I kept my eyes pressed tightly shut all night, childishly afraid of what might be standing at the end of the bed if I were to open them. -From The House At Midnight, page 193-
Lucas Heathfield’s Uncle Patrick commits suicide and leaves Lucas a rambling country house in England along with his accumulated wealth. Lucas invites his collegiate friends to escape their lives in London and party on the weekends at his new digs. But what begins as sheer abandon from responsibility soon becomes a dark, psychological mystery. Joanna, Lucas’ best friend, narrates the novel and slowly reveals the throbbing sexual undercurrents and malevolent forces hidden between the walls of the house. The novel is full of buried secrets and uneasy parallels between generations. Nothing is as it seems; and beneath it all is a tension which builds to a shocking conclusion.
Lucie Whitehouse knows how to structure a novel of suspense, but her writing was sometimes uneven and the end leaves the reader wondering at the future of its characters. There is a lot of heavy drinking and a strong sexual theme to the book which may offend some readers - although I actually thought the sexual tension was the strongest part of the narrative.
The House At Midnight is a story of growing up in the shadow of family secrets, and about betrayal and fear. The strongest character in the book is non human - the monolithic house which Lucas inherits and the ghosts which inhabit it. Whitehouse lends a gothic feel to her writing which drives the story.
The House at Midnight is Whitehouse’s first novel - and it is a well-written debut that reads like a ghost story. Readers who enjoy gothic novels and are not put off by sexual themes and moral excesses will find this to be a compelling read.
Comfort Food - Book Review
There was only one birthday that Gus was getting tired of organizing. Tired, really, of celebrating at all. Her own. Because in short order - March 25 - August Adelaide Simpson was turning fifty. -From Comfort Food, page 4-
Gus Simpson is a huge TV personality on the CookingChannel. After the unexpected death of her husband (leaving her alone to raise two daughters), Gus discovers her inner cook and rises quickly to stardom. Her daughters are now in their 20s and struggling with their own issues, while Gus is dreading turning 50 and forced to deal with losing her Cooking With Gusto! show. She re-groups, reluctantly pairing with the beautiful Carmen Vega (an ex-beauty queen with a penchant for spiciness), to birth a new show: Eat Drink and Be.
Jacobs introduces a vast cast of characters including Gus’ two unlikeable daughters, her daughter Sabrina’s ex boyfriend Troy, Gus’ love interest Oliver, and the mysterious Hannah. I disliked them all - finding them flat, predictable and shallow. I also didn’t understand why Jacobs felt it necessary to give us involved descriptions of their hair (maybe because otherwise we couldn’t tell one from the other?).
I received this uncorrected proof from Penguin Book Group. The novel was released earlier this month on the heels of Jacobs’ first novel The Friday Night Knitting Club. I normally appreciate a well-paced chick lit book - but this one was tough to get through. I wanted to like Gus, but I never felt like I knew her. Hannah’s character was better developed, but her mysterious background grew tiresome for me. My least favorite character was Sabrina - a girl who is terrified to commit to a relationship and so she sleeps around and toys with men, using her beauty as a way to waltz through life.
As you can tell, this was not a book I can recommend. Some readers, however, had a different viewpoint. Check out Kit’s review (at Mango and Ginger) and Trish’s review (at Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’?) who both liked this book a lot better than I did. Deb’s review at Here and There seems to agree with mine.
I won’t be recommending this book. But, there are some readers out there who probably will love Jacobs’ latest novel…so if you are heavily into chick lit and food, you might still want to read this one and come to your own conclusions.
Life of Pi - Book Review
I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific, hanging on to an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me. Had I considered my prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping that I might drown before being eaten. But I don’t recall that I had a single thought during those first minutes of relative safety. I didn’t even notice daybreak. I held on to the oar, I just held on, God only knows why. -From Life of Pi, page 107-
Yann Martel’s Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi is about a sixteen year old boy named Pi who sees no reason why he cannot be a Muslim, a Christian and a Hindu all at the same time…after all, the rhinos in his father’s zoo get along just fine with the goats, and all Pi wants to do is “love God.” When Pi’s family decides to move to Canada and boards a Japanese cargo ship along with their wild zoo animals in cages below deck, the story takes a sudden turn. Only days into the journey, the ship sinks leaving Pi the only survivor aboard a 26 foot life boat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a 3 year old male Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The story becomes one of survival for Pi as one by one the animals are killed off until only Richard Parker remains.
The Life of Pi is not really about a boy castaway and a tiger. Instead it is an exploration of faith and tolerance. Pi is literally set adrift with only himself and God to chart the waters of survival. Richard Parker is symbolic of all the challenges and fears we face in life - those we must overcome to not only survive, but to find meaning in our lives. Early in the novel Pi tells the reader:
My religious doings were reported to my parents in the hushed, urgent tones of treason revealed. As if this small-mindedness did God any good. To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity. -From Life of Pi, page 71-
And so when the worst happens and the depraved, instinctive actions of the animals horrifies us, we are reminded that Pi will find dignity anyway. And so he does - through the practised religious rituals which he adapts to his circumstances, Pi recognizes: Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love - but sometimes it was so hard to love. (page 208)
Life of Pi leaves us with a twist - a question really of what actually happened. What is the truth of Pi’s adventure? What do we want? A story which makes us think, or one filled with only dry facts?
I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.” -From Life of Pi, page 302-
So how did I like Life of Pi? It was a unique book and one which took me almost 100 pages to really sink into and begin to appreciate. This is not a light read - it is a novel filled with deep thoughts and hard questions. I can’t say I enjoyed it - although I did respect the writing and felt it was one of those novels which should be read and digested, and then read again.
Recommended for those readers who like a thought-provoking book.
Home of the Gentry - Book Review
‘So here you are, you’ve returned to Russia - what precisely do you intend to do?’
‘To plow the land,’ answered Lavretsky, ‘and to strive to plough it as well as possible.’ -From Home of the Gentry, page 136-
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) was born into a landed and wealthy Russian family. He was a shy and soft spoken man, and never married. He wrote Home of the Gentry in 1859 to great acclaim - it is his most widely read novel.
The novel opens in the small Russian town of O- and introduces the reader to Marya Dmitrievna Kalitin - a widow who is raising her daughters alone. Marya Dmitrievna is ‘more emotional than kind-hearted‘ and is a woman of wealth and comfort. Her elderly aunt, Marfa Timofeyevna Pestov, also resides in the house and is a striking contrast to Marya Dmitrievna. In the first pages, the reader learns that a distant relative by the name of Lavretsky has returned to Russia after having spent several years abroad with his beautiful, yet unfaithful wife. The marriage has gone by the wayside and Lavretsky has vowed to return to the land and ‘plough it as well as possible.‘ Not long after his return, Lavretsky’s head is turned by Marya Dmitrievna’s eldest daughter Liza. As the novel unfolds, the reader witnesses the expected plunge into love, and then the tragic unraveling of Lavretsky’s happiness.
Home of the Gentry is full of numerous secondary characters with long names - something I have come to expect when reading the classic Russian novelists. Turgenev reveals the depths of his characters’ motivations, drawing detailed sketches of their thoughts, backgrounds and philosophical musings.
On one level, the book deals with the idea of a young generation of Russians who have become enamored with European ideas which leave them uprooted from Russia. But, on a more intimate level, it examines the idea of happiness and whether or not man (or woman) is destined to ever find contentment. Turgenev’s philosophy seems to be one of cynicism when it comes to marriage - his characters are either faithless or motivated to marry for financial gain. The novel puts forth the belief in God within a religious framework ruled by rigid adherence to moral pathways…and this belief ultimately enslaves rather than frees an individual. Poignant, bleak and sad, the novel is not an uplifting story.
It is always difficult for me to rate these kinds of intellectual classics as I believe there is much I miss in terms of interpretation. Students of Russian history and literature undoubtedly will gain more from this novel than those of us with limited knowledge in those areas. The novel is short but dense. Much of the style is reflective of the time in which it was written. Although I am happy I read this classic, it is not one I could recommend to most readers. But, if you love Russian literature and want to experience a uniquely Russian novel, this is probably one you should add to your list.
Atonement - Book Review
Real life, her life now beginning, had sent her a villain in the form of an old family friend with strong, awkward limbs and a rugged friendly face who used to carry her on his back, and swim with her in the river, holding her against the current. That seemed about right - truth was strange and deceptive, it had to be struggled for, against the flow of the everyday. This was exactly what no one would have expected, and of course villains were not announced with hisses or soliloquies, they id not come cloaked in black, with ugly expressions. -From Atonement, page 147-
Ian McEwan’s NBCC award winning novel (which was also shortlisted for the 2001 Man Booker Prize) begins in England during a heatwave. Briony Tallis, a dramatic child obsessed with writing stories, prepares for the arrival of her Northern cousins - beautiful and manipulative Lola and her twin brothers - and her brother Leon. Briony’s older sister Cecilia meanwhile laments the long summer ahead of her and spars with the charwoman’s son Robbie. The initial chapters of Atonement move slowly, setting up the characters and establishing the sense of place. Set in the mid-1930s, the novel feels old-fashioned. Despite the slow pace, I enjoyed McEwan’s beautiful writing…and so once the plot and characters are fully established and things begin to unravel at the Tallis residence, my interest was quickly engaged.
The structure of Atonement is unusual - spanning several decades, and written from multiple points of view in three distinct parts which take the reader from England to France during WWII. But, the structure is one of the things that works well for a novel which thematically examines the interpretation of truth. McEwan manages to keep his reader unsettled, wondering at the characters’ motivations and leaving loose ends. It is not until the final page is turned that the reader is able to verify the whole story.
I can understand why Atonement captured the attention of the judges for prizes like the NBCC and the Booker, as well as the scriptwriters. It is a fully realized, very literary effort by an author who understands how to string together words which inspire, intrigue and tug at the heartstrings. I am happy that I waded through the early parts of the novel when the going was methodical. The reader who sticks with McEwan as he sets up the story will be rewarded in the end.
Recommended; 
Another excellent review of this book can be found here at What Kate’s Reading.
Saturday, June 14th, 2008The Kite Runner - Book Review
Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name. Looking back on it now, I think the foundations for what happened in the winters of 1975 - and all that followed - was already laid in those first words. -From The Kite Runner, page 11-
The Kite Runner is the story of two boys - Hassan a Shi’a, Amir a Sunni; one from wealth, the other a servant - who grow up in Afganistan the best of friends, until one fateful day when Amir is twelve in the winter of 1975. What Amir witnesses changes the boys’ friendship forever, and sets events in motion which will have lifelong consequences.
Khaled Hosseini begins his novel in Afganistan, then takes the reader across the ocean to San Francisco where Amir and his father begin a new life as immigrants. A telephone call one day from his father’s old friend summons Amir back to an Afganistan which has changed - a place where Taliban soldiers patrol, where people are hung in the street or stoned to death during an intermission at a soccer game, and where children are no longer children. It is here where Amir must face his demons and where lies, betrayal and secrets will be uncovered.
This is a novel which explores many themes: family loyalty, the rigidity of religious division, the cruel effects of war, and the power of love and redemption. Hosseini’s writing is simple and powerful; a no frills, spare style which stuns. Readers should be warned - there are graphic scenes which involve child rape and molestation. The violence in the book is painful to read…and heartbreaking.
Earlier this year I read Hosseini’s second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns (reviewed here), and so comparisons between the two novels was inevitable. I thought Hosseini’s writing matured from the first book to the second, and A Thousand Splendid Suns affected me more strongly on many levels. Flaws with The Kite Runner include some plot twists which bordered on the unbelievable, and so parts of the book felt contrived to me.
Despite this, The Kite Runner is a impressive first novel which reveals the horror of what has happened, and continues to happen in Afganistan. The Kite Runner has been banned by the Afghan government because of a rape scene of a young boy and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights. It has faced challenges and bans in the United States as well.
This is a book which leaves a lasting impression. Highly recommended.