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« 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.
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 Wednesday Sisters - Book Review
It had to do with knowing we were opening ourselves up, cutting ourselves open at our guts and letting the others see inside us in ways we couldn’t even see ourselves. It had to do with beginning to imagine opening ourselves up not only to each other, but also to the whole world. Because wasn’t that what we were hoping? That someday the things we’d squirreled away behind our little white gloves would be right out there on the bookshelves for anyone to see, our souls so pitifully disguised by our tortured prose? -From The Wednesday Sisters, page 82-
Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett and Ally meet each Wednesday in a park near Ally and Frankie’s home. It is there they talk about raising children and being married, until one day, Linda - honest and direct - pushes them to write, and thus begins the Wednesday Sister’s writing group…a place where each woman will discover exactly who she is and what she wants.
The Wednesday Sisters is set in the late 60’s - on the cusp of the woman’s movement, in the middle of the civil rights movement, and during a time when traditional values began to be challenged. Meg Waite Clayton has given us five women, all different and yet similar…women with their own dreams, aspirations, doubts, and fears. Together they demonstrate what is best about women’s friendships - gentle support, cutting honesty, and fierce loyalty. It is a time of growth, not only for the country, but for these women who have set aside their own dreams to support the dreams of their husbands, but who now want something for themselves. Along their journey the reader witnesses their struggles and sadnesses, along with their joy.
I found myself unable to stop reading this engaging novel. So much about The Wednesday Sisters rang true to me. I loved how Clayton captured the frustration and exhilaration of writing, the fear and desire to share what one has written, and the joy of being part of a writer’s group. I could relate to Ally’s fears of never having a child, Linda’s drive to change the world, Frankie’s fear of rejection, Kath’s pain of a failed relationship, and Brett’s secrets which she covers with her white gloves. Clayton has done something amazing with her cast of characters - she has encapsulated women at their best and worst, with all their shortcomings and strengths…and has given us a novel with which women will identify. At the end of this novel, I did something I rarely do - I sobbed. Not because of sadness, but because I felt touched by the lives of these women.
The Wednesday Sisters is a must read for women. Highly recommended.
Songs For The Missing - Book Review
July, 2005. It was the summer of her Chevette, of J.P. and letting her hair grow. The last summer, the best summer, the summer they’d dreamed of since eighth grade, the high and pride of being seniors lingering , an extension of their best year. She and Nina and Elise, the Three Amigos. In the fall they were gone, off to college, where she hoped, a long and steady effort, she might become someone else, a private, independent person, someone not from Kingsville at all. -From Songs for the Missing, page 1-
In the summer of her 18th year, Kim Larsen disappears without a trace - leaving behind friends and family who are bewildered and hurting. This is not an unusual story. It is a story we see every day in America - the young women filled with potential disappearing into the darkness of uncertainty. Many are never found. Many are found murdered or raped. It is an old story. Stewart O’Nan, with his refined and elegant prose, takes this story and makes it unforgettable.
Songs for the Missing is about those left behind. It is about relationships and expectations and faith and the very human need to know why and where. The characters in this beautifully written novel include Kim’s mother Fran, her sister Lindsey (only 15 when Kim goes missing), her father Ed, and friends - J.P., Elise and Nina. Each character deals with Kim’s disappearance differently, and as the months rolls into years they each come to terms with it in their own unique way. My heart felt broken by Ed - the father who searches relentlessly for the daughter he could not keep safe and who wishes for her to come to him in his dreams.
One reason he didn’t take the pill was that he longed for a dream of Kim. He didn’t expect her to tell him what had happened, he just wanted to see her again, to be in her presence as if she were alive and none of this had happened. Every night he went to bed hoping she’d come to him. Every morning he was disappointed. -From Songs for the Missing-
This novel touched my heart, especially because of my own involvement with Search and Rescue. O’Nan got it perfectly when he describes the searches, the role of law enforcement and the nearly unbearable hope of the lost one’s family which permeates every search. As the novel unfolds, I found myself immersed in the emotions of the characters, hoping they would find Kim and come to a resolution.
O’Nan has written a tender, sensitive and all too real novel about what happens when a loved one disappears. Highly recommended.
Other readers who have reviewed this book:
Thursday, April 17th, 2008Angle of Repose - Book Review
What interests me in all these papers is not Susan Burling Ward the novelist and illustrator, and not Oliver Ward the engineer, and not the West they spend their lives in. What really interests me is how two such unlike particles clung together, and under what strains, rolling downhill into their future until they reached the angle of repose where I knew them. That’s where the interest is. That’s where the meaning will be if I find any. -From Angle of Repose, page 199-
Lyman Ward, a retired history professor and writer, returns to his grandparent’s home in Grass Valley, California - wheelchair bound and facing a progressive, crippling bone disease. His intent is to research his grandmother’s life through the news clippings and letters of her past. To write her story, Ward must fill in gaps, imagine conversations, and uncover the truths which lie hidden in Susan Burling Ward’s history. During this one hot, dry summer in a quest to know his grandmother, he will discover the meaning beneath the shadows of his own life.
Wallace Stegner penned Angle of Repose in 1971 for which he won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. The novel - said to be his masterpiece - connects two points in American history…that of the late nineteenth century West with that of the turbulent, sometimes self-indulgent Vietnam era. Stegner creates complex and intriguing characters. Susan Burling (based on the historical figure of Mary Hallock Foote - a nineteenth century writer and illustrator) becomes an unlikely pioneer when she marries the quiet and ambitious dreamer Oliver Ward. Their adventures in mining camps and the vast wilderness of Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, and California create a backdrop of unbelievable beauty and isolation from which their lives unfold.
She guided her horse through willows and alders and runted birches, leaned and weaved until the brush ended and she broke into the open. She was at the edge of a meadow miles long, not a tree in it except for the wriggling line that marked the course of the Lake Fork. Stirrup-high grass flowed and flawed in the wind, and its motion revealed and hid and revealed again streaks and splashes of flowers-rust of paintbrush, blue of pentstemon, yellow of buttercups, scarlet of gilia, blue-tinged white of columbines. All around, rimming the valley, bare peaks patched with snow looked down from above the scalloped curve of timberline. -From Angle of Repose, page 237-
Angle of Repose is not simply an historical novel. It explores the idea of identity and how the past often intersects the present. When Lyman Ward explores his grandmother’s story, he is really seeking to find understanding in his own life.
Fooling around in the papers my grandparents, especially my grandmother, left behind, I get glimpses of lives close to mine, related to mine in ways I recognize but don’t completely comprehend. - From Angle of Repose, page 5-
Stegner’s prose is alluring, filled with gorgeous descriptions which engage the reader’s senses. His characters are bigger than life, but carry real flaws which allow the reader to identify with them; to nod in understanding; to empathize with their torments and cheer for their successes. I can understand why Angle of Repose is lauded, why it captured the Pulitzer and why readers are quick to recommend it. I found myself completely immersed in the lives of Susan, Oliver and Lyman Ward and I was sad to turn the last page of this sprawling and satisfying novel.
Highly recommended; a must read; rated 5/5.
Sunday, April 13th, 2008A Weekend of Cooking - Gardeners’ Community Cookbook
As part of the Soup’s On Challenge, I immersed myself in Smith & Hawken: Gardeners’ Community Cookbook this weekend and made several recipes over a two day period. This cookbook came about through a community effort of more than 350 gardeners from around the United States, including some well known professional chefs like Barbara Kafka and Sheila Lukins. Victoria Wise has written 10 cookbooks - and if they are all as wonderful as this one I will have to go looking for them.
Wise divides this cookbook up into ten sections: Starters, Salads, Soups, Pasta Aplenty, Main Dishes, Vegetable Sides, Sauces/Salsa/and Pestos, Pantry Perks, The Bakery, and Sweets. She not only includes a recipe index, but also a contributor’s index for those cooks who want to try a specific chef’s recipe. Interspersed throughout the book are interesting facts about food, technique, and tools of the trade. The recipes are easy to read and follow and include a short blurb by each contributing cook.
I chose to create two dishes for Saturday evening: Artichoke Supreme (page 277 - from Vegetable Sides), and Grilled Chicken Salad with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Dressing (page 79 - from Salads).
Artichoke Supreme requires some time to prepare - including about 40 minutes for boiling the artichokes. During that time, I prepared the stuffing using sweet onion, 2 medium tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, and bread crumbs from a loaf of good, day old bread. This is a dish which can be served hot or cold - my husband and I ate it hot on Saturday, and ate the leftovers cold for lunch on Sunday. I liked it better cold. I also thought it would have been tastier with melted butter dripped over it before adding the stuffing. But, regardless, it was a satisfying dish with plenty of flavor.
The grilled chicken salad was a disappointment since I used salad greens which were too tender to hold up to the hot chicken. The recipe called for hearty greens (arugula, watercress or frisee), but my supermarket didn’t carry those, so I substituted baby lettuce to the recipe’s detriment. On the plus side, the roasted red pepper dressing (made with roasted red bell pepper, roasted garlic, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar) was outstanding - flavorful and not overpowering, but rich enough to stand up to the chicken. I think this would also taste wonderful over steak.
This evening’s menu utilized some leftovers from Saturday to which I added Rosemary-Roasted Walnuts (page 3 - from Starters), Deviled New Potatoes (page 5-6 - from Starters), and Spinach and Strawberry Salad (page 50 - from Salads).
None of these dishes was difficult, but the Deviled New Potatoes is a bit fussy and takes some time to prepare. It is well worth the effort, however. Delicate, creamy and with a bit of crunch from the diced celery, carrots, sweet pickles, and scallion…it makes a luscious side dish with left over chicken drizzled with roasted bell pepper dressing. The spinach and strawberry salad with Kentucky salad dressing (made with olive oil, cider vinegar, sugar, minced onion, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and a dash of Worcestershire sauce) provides the bit of sweet to this meal. The roasted walnuts would have made a nice addition to the salad, but my husband and I ate them by the handful instead. This meal, served with a cold glass of Hayes Ranch Chardonnay (Central Coast-California), was satisfying and filling. My husband’s favorite dish was the spinach salad, with the deviled new potatoes coming in a close second.
As an aside - I would recommend purchasing an immersion blender if you don’t have one. It made preparing the dressings for these dishes a snap. I love mine and don’t know what I did before I got it.
I’m really happy I joined this cooking challenge as I’ve had this fantastic cookbook on my shelf now for more than a year without having made a single recipe until this weekend! This is a cookbook I can recommend, especially if you are looking for a special recipe to serve to friends fresh out of the garden.
*NOTE: Please click on the photos above to view them in a larger size.
Friday, April 11th, 2008
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Book Review
“Why do you suppose he’s there? Is he playing for the people who died? Or is he playing for the people who haven’t? What does he hope to accomplish?” -From The Cellist of Sarajevo-
The Siege of Sarajevo began April 5, 1992 and lasted almost four years. Approximately 10,000 people were killed, and 56,000 wounded - most were civilians. Embedded in these numbers are thousands of personal stories. One of those stories includes Vedran Smailovic, a musician who witnessed 22 of his friends and neighbors killed by a mortar shell while they were waiting to buy bread in May 1992. In response to this horrific event, Smailovic sat in the square where his friends had died and played his cello for 22 days - one day for each life. This small, but significant human response to the war touched Steven Galloway - a Canadian writer who had never been to Sarajevo, but who began to think about hate and the essential ingredients of humanity. The result is The Cellist of Sarajevo - a profoundly moving and universal novel about what it means to be human in the face of atrocity.
The Cellist of Sarajevo is the story of four regular people and their response to war and hate. The cellist is the character who unites the story threads. His music is the backdrop to the core stories which Galloway tells in taut, yet simple prose. Kenan is living with his sister and her family - he has managed to send his wife and son away from Sarajevo to safety and he often thinks about what it would be like to leave Sarajevo and join them. In the meantime, he avoids old friends and focuses on his survival - trying to cross an intersection where a sniper waits. Dragan lives with his wife and two small children. He has avoided engaging in the conflict and every four days must go to get water for his family and elderly neighbor - a woman who is unkind, cold, and selfish. Arrow is a young woman who will not acknowledge her real name - the name that represents who she was before the war. She now works as a sniper for the forces within the city. Before the end of the novel, all three will have to decide whether or not they will allow the war to make decisions for them and steal their humanity, or if instead they will reach out to another person and do what is right, even if it means they will not survive.
I was moved to tears at the end of this short novel. Galloway writes exquisitely. He shows the reader the simple lives of his characters and defines the essence of what it means to be human. The novel makes the reader wonder what he or she would do faced with similar circumstances. It asks the big questions. As Galloway points out in his short introduction: The themes and characters exist wherever ordinary people find themselves caught in war. Sarajevo could be Lebanon or Chechnya or Iraq or a half-dozen other places.
The Cellist of Sarajevo is required reading. Beautifully crafted and heavy with truth, it is one I can highly recommend. Rated 5/5.
Sunday, April 6th, 2008The Tenderness of Wolves - Book Review
Sometimes you find yourself looking at the forest in a different way. Sometimes it’s no more than the trees that provide houses and warmth, and hide the earth’s nakedness, and you’re glad of it. And then sometimes, like tonight, it is a vast dark presence that you can never see the end of; it might, for all you know, have not just length and breadth to lose yourself in, but also an immeasurable depth, or something else altogether. -From The Tenderness of Wolves, page 55-
Stef Penney won the 2006 Costa Book Award for this first novel. Set in 1867 in the wilderness of Ontario near Georgian Bay, the novel is a panoramic, fast paced murder mystery. Penney’s cinematic experience as a screen writer is evident in the novel’s structure: short, tension filled chapters from alternating points of view.
The novel opens with the gruesome murder of Laurent Jammett, a French fur trader. His body is discovered by a neighbor - Mrs. Ross - who reports the crime to the local magistrate. Later when she discovers her 17 year old son is missing and he becomes the focus of the investigation, Mrs. Ross becomes obsessed with finding the killer. Penney brings together a wide range of characters besides Mrs. Ross and her son, Francis. There is Mr. Knox - the magistrate - and his daughters Susanna and Maria who tell the story of two girls (their cousins) who walked into the wilderness and were never found; the mysterious Thomas Sturrock arrives to claim an artifact promised to him by Jammett; a team of investigators from the Hudson Bay Company, including Donald Moody - a clumsy, young man with mixed loyalties - arrive within days of the murder; and William Parker, a half breed native American who becomes Mrs. Ross’ guide through the wilderness.
The Tenderness of Wolves is not a simple crime mystery. Penney deftly explores themes such as commercial conflict between the large fur companies and the smaller traders, addiction, infidelity, and sexuality. She has an eye for setting - placing her characters in the snowy landscape of the Northern Territories with wolves lurking in the dark woods. Her skill lies in drawing the reader into the story through a gradual awareness of the facts as tension thickens between key characters. There are parallel stories which weave through the novel - and become as engrossing as the main mystery.
I read The Tenderness of Wolves late into the night, compulsively turning the pages. It is easy to see why Penney won the prestigious Costa Award.
Highly recommended; rated 5/5.
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Belong To Me - Book Review
It seemed impossible that you could stand in a kitchen making hot chocolate and grilled-cheese sandwiches with your best friend dying in the next room, the voices of her children tangled up with the voices of your own, that you could butter bread and watch, through the window, the trees relinquishing their leaves and hear the silvery tumble of water into a kettle, and be suddenly aware that what resided at the heart of every shape and sound was peace. A rightness hovering above all that was wrong, shimmering, like heat rising from a street in summer. -From Belong To Me, page 85-
Marisa de los Santos has penned a novel filled to the brim with laughter, tears, friendships, dreams, and love. It is a novel so genuine and real that I found myself nodding and thinking ‘exactly!’ over and over again.
Cornelia Brown moves with her oncologist husband, Teo, from the city to the suburbs - envisioning a perfect life complete with manicured lawns. Instead she finds a world filled with a grounding reality; a world more rewarding than she could ever have imagined.
All of Santos’ characters are authentic - flawed and all too human at times, they wiggle their way into the reader’s heart. Piper, Cornelia’s queen-bee next door neighbor, introduces Cornelia to the neighborhood with biting judgment tinged with anger - but, later reveals herself to be a person filled with self doubt, a character whose depth and honesty made me love her. Dev, a thirteen year old boy with an absent father, embodies the awkwardness of adolescence mixed with a maturity beyond his years. Lake, Dev’s single mother, holds a devastating secret - one that will rock all the characters to their core when it is uncovered. Santos draws her male characters splendidly…Teo, Toby, Rafferty and Tom all made me wish I lived in Cornelia’s neighborhood.
Santos is an award-winning poet (and best selling author of her first novel: Love Walked In), and her love of language shows in her radiant descriptions and acute ear for dialogue. Santos builds the tension slowly, revealing her characters chapter by chapter, until the final and unexpected end. Belong To Me is not just Cornelia’s story, but the story of all women - and it ultimately reveals the redemptive power of love and forgiveness.
This was a novel I resisted putting down for even a few minutes. It is Women’s Fiction at its best. I loved it, and I can’t wait to read Love Walked In.
Santos is a talented writer - one who will touch the reader’s heart and make you wish the book will never end.
Belong To Me is highly recommended. Rated 5/5.
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