The Written, Spoken and Visual Word

Book 11 - Go the F*** to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortes

2012-03-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

Author Adam Mansbach wrote this children's book for adults and it is so, so, so food and so, so, so funny. It is based upon his experiences with his daughter, Vivian, who, apparently, would take up to two hours to fall asleep at night when she was younger. It is written in the style of a children's book but also adds, at the end of each verse, the parent's profane thoughts about the inability of their child to go to sleep at night. I really, really liked this because it's so funny and so true - the child's excuses and the responses that I think that we all seem to have as parents. What I also really liked is that it opens up dialogue about those frustrations that we have as parents but are sometimes difficult to talk about because of the stigma sometimes attached to them and the fear about being perceived as bad parents.

Would I read this to my kids? No. It does con taint profanity and that's all I need - both my four year old and my 18 month old running around dropping the f-bomb (everyone knows I say it way too much anyways - why should I tempt fate by actually reading a book to my child with that word in it?). But would I read it or listen to is (as read by Samuel Jackson - how awesome?!) myself - absolutely because it made me chortle and laugh so hard. Go out and either read this or listen to the audio book or both. It's wonderful.

Book 10 - Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck by Eric G. Wilson

2012-03-06T17:23:00.000-08:00

Can elephants really tell us anything about the macabre or morbid? What about our toddlers: will they ever stop wanting to blow things up? Why are we so drawn to things like the Holocaust Museum, Auschwitz, Ground Zero and Gettysburg? Why is there such fascination with autopsy photos of famous people? These are the questions that Wake Forrest Prof. Eric Wilson attempts to answer in this book, his newest. To answer these questions, Wilson not only draws upon his own experience but he uses philosophers like Kant, Aristotle and Freud as well as Shakespeare, among others (although there weren't any females that he relied upon interestingly enough but more on that later on). He also draws upon the cases of serial killers and the people that collect items that relate to them (because yes, apparently there are people that collect memorabilia that relate to Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and Aileen Wournos among others). We learn about his interviews with some of these collectors and about his attendance at a live re-enactment of the Passion of Christ.

Essentially, Wilson states that we're curious about death because we want the truth about that and we want beauty, as opposed to the view that death is the destruction and failure of the body that the medical establishment perpetuates it as. He claims that hospitals sterilize and hide the macabre aspects of death, creating an imbalance that can only be corrected by TV and our fascination by the morbid that we see and hear about on the television.

I was ambivalent and apathetic about this book. I really appreciated the short chapters but found them to be disjointed and hard to follow at times. I didn't feel that he even grazed the psychological and cultural machinations that lead to our oftentimes morbid fascination with the macabre. What was also disappointing is that he didn't use any female examples or philosophers to explain the experiences of fascination with the macabre. Wouldn't women experience this fascination for the same reason or would they experience it in a different way and why?

All in all, this book had a lot of potential but fell short.

Book 9 - The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliott

2012-03-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

So, I picked up this book by Stephen Elliott expecting it to be the run of the mill memoir about a guy from the streets who has a drug addiction that he kicks and then makes good by becoming what he always dreamed of becoming - in his case a writer - and then writing this particular memoir in order to make sure that other people don't follow those early footsteps (or if they had, to prove to them that they too can achieve their goals). But this memoir isn't like this. It's actually way more complicated (and, by extension, much better). It's not just about Elliott's journey to self-discovery, although he manages to discover himself in the process. He's actually searching for a story that will help him to overcome his writer's block. His "official" story is about a murder that has occurred and the two people that are suspects in it - a soon to be ex-husband and his ex's new boyfriend. This search leads him through the wasteland of his childhood (in which he is a ward of the court and abused/neglected by his father) and his current addiction to Adderall (which he takes in pill form and snorts) and his penchant for S/M sexual relationships. No matter where he looks, though, he can't get around the demon of his father - all the paths that he takes seems to lead there.

I liked this more than I thought that I would. It's not a confessional, tell-all type of thing - more of the process of getting there then anything else and that was refreshing because the tell all memoirs can sometimes become very...old for lack of a better term. I thought it was also a creative take on the memoir genre. It used a real life murder trial to delve into and explore personal demons and that was brilliant, because it was different. It is, therefore, honest, raw and heart wrenching by turns. Elliott remains true to himself and the memories, as he remembers and feels about them. They're not sugar coated or filtered. They just are. And that is also what makes this memoir so interesting. Don't get me wrong, this memoir is sometimes disjointed and is more stream of consciousness or a mix of short stories held together by Elliott's reports of the murder trial, which act as the glue for the whole memoir.

I felt like this memoir was sincere and honest and I really enjoyed it. Go out and get it right now!

Book 8 - A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

2012-03-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

A Storm of Swords is the third in the Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin. It first came out in 2000 in the United Kingdom and then in the United States. It picks up the story lines slightly before the ending of the previous book, Clash of Kings, and features the remaining kings all fighting in the effort to secure their own thrones and secure domination of the entirety of the continent of Westeros. I don't want to provide too much more information because doing so would ruin the surprises (and let's face it, the surprises are the best parts of this series because they truly are gems that you don't see coming at all) but I can say that there are amazing plot twists and fantastic character development that draws you and almost forces you to become attached to the characters without you even realizing what's happening.

What I also really liked about George RR Martin in general, and with this book in particular, is that he is a master at both dialogue and prose. His dialogue is intricate and witty. His prose puts you into the scene and maximizes its use of the reader's senses in establishing scenes and the physical and emotional feelings of the characters that he's writing about. Somehow, Martin also never allows the pace to falter, even as the novel reaches 1100 pages. Definitely go out and get this book, but only after you've read the first two!

Book 7 - From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant by Alex Gilvarry

2012-02-18T02:39:00.000-08:00

This is Gilvarry's first novel and is told in the first person voice of Boyet Hernandez, a young man from the Philippines, who has arrived in New York City 2002 with the hopes of pursuing a career in fashion and design (he went to school for it in the Philippines). His dreams, we learn fairly quickly, have been dashed because he is writing his memoir from a prison cell in Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is sitting awaiting his military tribunal (and a visit from his lawyer that seemingly never arrives) for consorting with and aiding known terrorists. We are given insight into the world that is Gitmo - a place where there are barely tolerable conditions, no lawyer visits and only one two minute shower per week, which must be taken alongside another detainee. We also learned about and are swept up in the hustle-bustle that is the fashion world in New York City.

Gilvary takes a really nice, witty and yet, sharp, look at the American world, post 9/11 and the paranoia that has seeped into the consciousness, thereby obscuring practicality and reasonableness and clouding judgment. Because Gillivarry uses humor, the tension and emotions that surround such a political time bomb of a subject are diffused;however the message is not lost or diluted simply because of it. I think that it actually makes the message easier to accept into your brain and it assists the reader in processing the message that is being conveyed by this remarkable novel. His views on the horrendous treatment of people in Cuba is still clearly articulated. Some of the best moments were the chapters about Cuba, because they were often placed in positions in the book where you could easily note the stark contrasts between Boy's experiences there and his experiences in New York, pre-detainment.

This was a really good first book - the author will have a big task in living up to expectations because of how well-done this book was. Go out and purchase this book for your library immediately.

Book 6 - the Upright Piano Player by David Abbott

2012-02-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

This is a pretty short novel that follows the story of Henry Cage, an aging British businessman that has been pushed out of the company that bears his name, that has an ex-wife that is dying, whose children are alienated from him and who has seemingly acquired a stalker, an ex-con that seems out to destroy his life. But what sets the tone for the novel is the chapter in which we first meet henry - he is attending the funeral of his grandson, who died in a horrific accident. The narrative then jumps back five years, to the time when Henry is kicked out of the company and we must then bear witness to his complete and utter destruction - a destruction that actually culminates in the chapter that initially introduces us to Henry.

Surprisingly, to me at least, this is Abbott's first novel. It was surprising because Abbott writes with a maturity and a knowledge and a voice that is so wise beyond his seeming lack of experience. He writes with the voice of a man that has written many novels previously and who will continue to write for many years to come. I also really enjoyed how we were given insight into Henry's life, personality, his flaws and his destruction -- we are given the best pieces of insight and wisdom through other people that interact with Henry. It did take me a while to adjust to the constant jumps in time and between characters. However, once I did, the novel moved smoothly and seamlessly and I was very happy to be able to get to read this novel.

Rating: BUY!

Book 5 - Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

2012-02-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

I've always been a fan of the Wicked books, ever since I read Wicked way back when it first came out. And then I got to see the musical version of it, which was wonderful, so when I saw and heard that the newest and final version of this series was out, I set out to the library to get it and I didn't even have to put it on hold. So I give you my review of the following book, with the most minimal amount of spoiler age as possible:

When we first open the book, we meet again with Dorothy Gale, who is 16 years old and visiting San Francisco with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. For her, six years have gone by since she visited Oz and rocketed to fame with her killing of the Wicked Witch of the West, but she can't forget about it and her aunt and uncle hope that the trip will cause her to forget about it, make her less loony and therefore, make her more marriageable. While in SF, an earthquake hits and before we know what happens to Dorothy, we are transported to Oz and the social upheaval that is rearing its ugly head. The Emerald City ("EC") is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, which wants its independence and Glinda, the Good, is under house arrest. And Elphaba's granddaughter, the green baby Rain, has come of age and is living with Glinda, masked as her scullery maid. She has, however, an uncanny ability to make the Grimmerie, Elphaba's book of spells, do what she wants it to do even though she's scruffy and illiterate. And to top it all off, because of her gene lines, she can lay claim to the thrones of both Munchkinland and the Emerald City.

So she does what any girl would do: she becomes a fugitive and travels down the Yellow Brick Road with a motley crew of folk that includes Brr, the Cowardly Lion, a Dwarf named Mr. Boss, Little Daffy (a Munchkin that used to be a nun), Auntie Nor (her father's half sister), her father Liir (Elphaba's son) and Tip, a young man that becomes her lover eventually but who remains very mysterious. It also includes Dorothy, who has been transported back to Oz. I loved this novel. Maguire really tied things together and ended it poignantly and perfectly. There were moments where I laughed and moments where I cried. The writing style was wonderful - accessible, satirical and made tongue in cheek bites at the original books and the movie. Go out and grab it right away but not before getting the other books in the series - which I highly recommend that you read before you read this one in order to be able to appreciate the beauty that this book brings with it.

Here are links to the other books:

Book 4: The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

2012-01-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

If I had to classify this book in any way, I would classify it as a dystopian thriller because the main character, Zed, travels from the future (in which there is a "perfect present" similar to that found in 1984) to modern day Washington D.C. in order to make sure that the perfect present is maintained. His job is to make sure that every sort of cataclysmic event occurs, including the imminent Great Cataclysm, so that his future (where there is no war, hunger or anything like that) is maintained. He must protect it at all costs, even if it means killing other people. He specifically targets Hags - or historical agitators - during his mission. The Hags also journey to contemporary time from the future to alter the past so that hatred etc. doesn't lead to so many deaths.

Besides Zed, who views his job almost as a surgeon would, there are a few other main characters: Tasha, a Washington based corporate lawyer that is beginning to question the morality of what she does; Leo, a former CIA spy; and Sari, a 22 year old Indonesian woman and illegal immigrant who is working for the South Korean ambassador and his North Korean wife. All of these characters cross paths in various ways - ways that would be credible in our every day lives and each interaction seems to carry increasing levels of danger.

I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I couldn't put it down and the 400 + pages flew by. I stole moments during my day to read it - breaks from my children, from the work that I brought home. I also really enjoyed the issues that were raised by this novel: America obviously considers itself to be in the perfect present and this novel took advantage of that. There was also the 9/11 paranoia that was imminently and obviously present, which overshadowed everything else. This book is NOT science fiction - while there are elements of time travel, it is more of a dystopic/critical look at contemporary American society then anything else. Definitely a must read,

Book 3- Push by Sapphire

2012-01-15T05:03:00.000-08:00

I picked up Push by the novelist Sapphire after, admittedly, seeing the movie that was based upon the novel. I usually go the opposite way, but the movie was so good that I opted to read the book afterwards.

The novel takes place in 1987 in New York City - mostly in Harlem - and is told from the viewpoint of Clareece "Precious" Jones, who is 16. We find out very soon into the novel that she is obese, illiterate (she's in middle school still) and pregnant with her second child (the product of her rape at the hands of her father - her first, also the product of rape at the hands of the same man, was born when Precious was 12 and has down syndrome). Precious lives with her mother, who supports Precious with food stamps and welfare. Precious' first child lives with her grandmother. As the novel opens, Precious is sitting in math class and is called to the guidance counselor's office because they have learned that she is pregnant. The school has opted to send her to an alternative school, which infuriates Precious. However, the pre-GED class taught by Ms. Blue Rain and featuring other girls from troubled backgrounds has a tremendous impact on Precious and leads to her confidence growing.

Sapphire uses BVE (aka Ebonics) in telling the story of Precious because we are, after all, hearing the story from Precious herself in the first person. While BVE is used, it is not being used to foster contempt or disdain for Precious or the other subjects of the novel; quite the opposite in fact. It's almost as if we are reading poetry. This is a difficult novel to read because everything that happens to Precious and the way that she experiences things are starkly colored by the abuse that she has experienced at the hands of her father and mother. She can't pay attention in class because she's daydreaming (coping mechanism). She curses (coping mechanism). But it brings it to the forefront of the consciousness and reveals the struggles that people like Precious must struggle with and overcome. It is a wondrous novel that is every bit as good as the movie.

Book 2: Among the Truthers by Jonathan Kay

2012-01-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

This is a book published in 2011 by Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay and which is a history of contemporary conspiracy movements, with a focus on the 9/11 conspiracies - their theories and their participants. His main theory is that the conspiracy movements in America have been gathering more and more momentum in the last 10 to 15 years, with more people joining them than ever before. He attempts to define the factors that cause people to believe in these conspiracies wholeheartedly and uncritically.

I found this book fascinating. Initially, I had no desire in reading it but then I picked it up and found it really interesting because Kay, in part, spent a good amount of time immersed in "Truther" culture researching the book and interviewing subjects, such as Alex Jones. This book is an alarm about an increasing paranoid that isn't really based in reality at all. What I found fascinating wasn't necessarily the historical aspect, although being provided the history of conspiracy movements was invaluable in providing me context for the current movements. The most fascinating part of the book were the oral histories given to him by some of the participants, the reasons that were given for their attraction to these theories and Kay's analysis as to why such seemingly intelligent people were subjected to such abject paranoia.

Definitely a must read. If you like it, Kay has a blog that gives more information about his book and his theories.

Book 1: Zone One by Colson Whitehead

2012-01-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

So I'm participating in this challenge this year and I'm going to do DARNIT! This is my first read of the year:

This novel, by Colson Whitehead, is the story of three days in New York City in the life of a fictional character named Mark Spitz. He and two of his contemporaries are "sweepers" and are scouting through Downtown Manhattan in the aftermath of some sort of apocalyptic plague, cleaning the area out and ensuring that it can, at some point, be resettled by people that have not contracted this plague or who haven't gone utterly crazy. The majority of the people that have contracted the plague are now undead and are called "skels" because they look more like skeletons than normal human beings. The majority of the skels have already been taken care of by the Marines that took over the island but it falls to Mark and the rest of the sweepers to dispatch any stragglers that were overlooked by the Marines.

The best part of this novel was the writing, quite frankly. Colson Whitehead is nothing if not a good writer in that he has a masterful use of the language and a phenomenal word choice. However, the wonder of the book ends there. I mean, the book is about a guy whose best quality is his mediocrity? Really?! There is absolutely no plot and no point to this novel. I found myself asking, at various points: "Who CARES?! Get to the POINT!" and yet no point ever came. Things kind of happen in the last thirty pages or so, but not really and it's so brief and so vague that if you are sick or drunk when you read it or you blink, you would miss it. I did really like being immersed in the world, which Whitehead does masterfully. If you're looking for a truly good zombie novel, this is not it. Try World War Z instead!

Monday Musings

2012-01-02T04:03:00.000-08:00

So, yay for first post of 2012...you can also expect another post from me later on today about the top books that I have read this year. I would have posted it before, but life just got in the way.

Here's the question:

What is/are the first book(s) you’re reading for the new year?

I began my year with reading Zone One by Colson Whitehead. For those of you who have forgotten or didn't know, Mr. Whitehead also wrote the novel, Sag Harbor. I really enjoyed Sag Harbor and I enjoyed how Mr. Whitehead writes, so when I saw his latest at the library I snagged myself a copy. I was surprised to find it lying around because it was released in November and was written by a somewhat main stream author. Not that I'm complaining at all. I'm about halfway through so make sure to look for the review shortly.

You can find more Monday Musings questions at this link: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

A Game of Swords by George R.R. Martin

2011-12-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

Everyone has been talking about Game of Dragons on HBO and I even read an article about George RR Martin in the New Yorker right around the time that the fifth novel in the series was released! I'm the type of person that would prefer to read the books before seeing any movie or show adaptations and since I'm sure that I will probably have time to read the first five books of the series before even the first season gets released onto DVD, I thought I would start now.

The book was first published in 1996/97 and won various awards for science fiction when it was released. I'm actually surprised i never heard of it or was ever given a copy given my penchant at the time for authors the likes of David Eddings and Terry Brooks. The novel alternates chapters with various viewpoints through which Martin introduces us to the noble houses of Westeros, a fantastical world that seems to be poised on the brink of civil war and endless winter. The first of three major plot lines follows Eddard "Ned" Stark in his home in Winterfell and the perils that his family faces, including becoming the chief of staff of the reigning King (Robert of Baratheon) and finding a litter of six dire wolf pups that have been seemingly abandoned by their mother (the House of Stark has a dire wolf as its mascot). The second plot follow life along The Wall, an isolated barrier not unlike the Great Wall of China that serves to protect the Northern Kingdoms (of which Winterfall is the seat) and all of Westeros from the forces of darkness beyond. The people that staff the wall are often the exiled that aren't welcomed in any other part of the country.We follow Jon Snow, Ned Stark's illegitimate son, as he becomes inducted into the "black," and follows in the footsteps of his uncle Benjen Stark. In the East, we are introduced to Daenarys Targaryen, whose family was removed from the Iron Throne of Westeros by Robert of Baratheon and Ned Stark many years before (when she was an infant). We follow her in her quest to have her family restored to grandeur and to get her family's throne back from the Usurpers.

The plot is very, very intricate making it very necessary to not try to summarize it completely here (or risk spoilers) and also making it necessary to read the books in the series back to back so that you don't forget all of the plot twists that you learned in the previous books. Each book is close to, if not more than, 1000 pages of wondrous description and plot intrigue. I often found myself either referring to the chart in the back of the book to remind me of characters or to the charts that I had made myself. I thought that Martin wrote the plot lines so wonderfully and with such depth that I found myself not wanting to put the novel down because I really wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters. I found myself relating to certain characters more than others (I really like Daenarys and Catelyn and Arya Stark) but all the characters seemed to be really deeply drawn, even the ancillary ones. I also appreciated that the characters and the situations that they were involved in were painted in shades of gray as opposed to being completely black and white, like some of these sorts of novels are. I appreciated this because life is itself shades of gray, and so even in fantasy, Martin makes the point that there are shades of gray. Through the situations and shades of gray, you begin to know the characters on an intimate level usually reserved for close family members and friends and in this manner, Martin manipulates you into a situation where you begin to form some level of attachment to the characters.

On a related note, the world itself is absolutely recognizable because even though there are elements of magic and fantasy, the way that the characters act are the ways that we as humans might often interact and react to the situations at hand. The magic isn't so overwhelming or over the top that it will turn you off. Martin is also an extremely talented writer - one that can come up with witty dialogue at the same time that he can write beautifully expressive and elegant prose that allows your senses to place you in the situation being described. And he demonstrates his ability over and over again to withhold information until the very last minute and that disclosure acts as a hook, making one want to read more an dmore and more (often to the detriment of all things real world). The transitions are usually not jarring even though the chapters move between the different perspectives of the various characters. More often then not, they are seamless transitions. Definitely a must read and addition to your collection.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by

2011-12-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

So, I really like Alexandra Robbins, generally speaking. I have read other books by her - The Overachievers most notably - but I was drawn to this book because the premise was a noble one - to promote (at the very least) tolerance of the non-conformists in high school and, at the best, outright acceptance of the non-conformists. Her philosophy is also a noble one - to encourage acculturation and diversity and appreciation of those things instead of encouraging people to act like drones - thinking alike, dressing alike and talking alike. I think that a part of her also wants to stop the rampant bullying that exists everywhere from our schools to our workplaces. And I genuinely appreciate that - that message is an essential one to get out because that bullying sort of mentality exists even among adults in the workplace.

Her basic premise is also an easy one to understand and agree with - she essentially argues that the qualities that make people non conformists and outsiders in high school are the qualities that make those same people the most successful when they become adults, even if they are excluded in high school by their peers. The narrative follows seven outsiders during the course of one year: the popular girl, the new girl, the the band geek, the loner, the gamer, the nerd. It also includes a lesbian teacher. As someone who would classify herself as a nerdy jock, these categories fascinated me as did this book. I spent a lot of lunches in the cafeteria sitting with my friends as they played Magic (sophomore year), walking out to lunch (junior year) or talking about 90210 (7th grade), depending on what was going on. So I was really interested to see what she came up with.

The most touching parts of the book, for me, were the first person narratives of each of the main characters. I felt so particularly sad when I read about how Danielle joined a club in 7th grade, only to find out that it was the "I hate Danielle club," named as something else and, so, whenever she did anything in that club, not only was she stating that she hated herself, but her so called friends made fun of everything that she did. I also felt tremendously sad for the Gamer, Blue, who put his heart and soul into organizing tournaments for his gaming team only to be ousted by not only the other kids, but by the teacher who was acting as the teacher guidance counselor for the club.

The book, I thought, was well done in some regards and left some to be desired in other regards. I really enjoyed how Robbins made the science and sociological information very accessible for her readers. She broke down the research in a manner that anyone could understand. I also think that having first hand accounts of the experiences that the research discusses is a very effective way of demonstrating that the research is accurate to some extent (it also appeals to me on another level - I studied history in college and my most favorite class was an oral history class. I also think that primary sources are the best sources of information when it comes to history/sociological research). What was somewhat disconcerting, and somewhat dizzying, were the many jumps that Robbins took, often presenting us with many, many different experiences from the same character in the same chapter, but often split up over the course of the chapter. In one chapter, you could have stories told by one character, split up by stories told by other characters and the research segments, so it often got confusing and I often had to remember who was who and where they were in their experiences. It also seems like the information reported was reported second hand by Robbins. It's not like she was writing a transcript of a conversation that the interviewee recorded or that she recorded as she was observing the conversation unfold. The conversations and experiences were, it seems, reported to her by the subjects of the study, making me wonder about how much bias was also given to Robbins.

Altogether, though, this was a decent book that I was happy the tI read because it was easy to read, interesting (because I was one of the fringe to some extent) and served a pretty decent purpose.

Endless Love by Scott Spencer

2011-11-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

As with most books, I heard this one mentioned on NPR and thought I would give it a shot. It was written and published the same year that I was born - 1979 - making it 32 years old but for some reason, I had never heard of this book or the author before. I was, quite frankly, almost hesitant to read it because it is about teenage love. Those books are never good, I thought. They are self aggrandizing and boring - who wants to relive that angst again and again and again? I could just read my journals from that time period after all right? But this book surprised me.

The book opens in Chicago. David, a 17 year old and the protagonist, is dating Jade, a then 15 year old. Jade's family are well known in town - they live a hippie-esque and bohemian lifestyle where just about anything goes. They allow David and Jade to have sex in their house, they smoke pot and would be the type to provide condoms to their children and their children's sexual partners if they had been more readily available during that time. At some point though, they take a stand and bar Jade from seeing David. David is absolutely heartbroken about it - it's absolutely more than he can bear. So one night, he elects to set fire to Jade's home by putting flammable materials on the doorstep and then stepping backwards to watch the house burn. But things don't go according to plan...as we soon find out and by that time, the book has its claws in you so deeply that you can't stop reading.

I was absolutely captivated by this book and mesmerized. I was enthralled about the deepness of David's obsession with Jade and her family. He goes out of his way to have contact with her, often to his own detriment (which I was curious about - I wanted to know more about why HE was so seemingly self destructive). The book moves slowly, but I didn't mind it at all. The pace allowed me to completely savor each and every thought and sensation that David, the main narrator (we are viewing everything through his eyes after all) himself has and that was absolutely wonderful. At some point, I may opt to re-read this book so that I can truly savor it. Definitely pick this one up.

E-Reader v. Actual Book: Which Do YOU Prefer?

2011-11-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

As my e-reader (a first generating Kindle) slowly begins to die, I began to think about what is fast becoming a philosophical debate: which is better, an e-reader or the real thing?

On behalf of:

Perhaps not THAT particular e-reader, but e-readers in general. I like the idea of an e-reader in general. It cuts down on the amount of space that I have dedicated to books (which, for someone like me, can be quite a massive amount of space) - and this was the reason that Izzy got it for me in the first place. He was getting upset about the amount of space that was being eaten up by my book habits. It also makes carrying a TON of reading material on vacation with me that much easier and being able to update it when I'm done with a book and on vacation is super convenient. I so wish that e-readers had been around when I travelled to Europe because that would have made the long flights and travel time all that much more bearable. I have yet to try to download a book from the library but I intend to try to do so in the near future.

However, there is a lot to be said for:

There is something to be said about how holding a book in your hands feels - you can turn the pages as you read, you can see how far you've come and how far you have to go (which for certain books, is much of the battle in getting through) and there is a certain satisfaction to be had in finishing a book, closing it and putting it on the bookshelf. However, you are limited in how many books you can take with you to a certain place - they are notoriously heavy and therefore hard to carry around and expensive to ship.

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

2011-11-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

Like with most of the books that I read, I heard about this on NPR. This novel was Wilson's first and was wonderful.

Camille and Caleb are the heads of the Fang family and are known the world over as conceptual artists, with their roots in Slavic Eastern Europe. They have won many, many awards and receive many grants that would enable them to perform their art and not have to worry about earning the money to support their children: Annie and Buster (known to most of their fans as Child A and Child B). In order to memorialize their art, which often makes use of their children, they use video recordings. An example of their art is this: one day, the Fang family go to the mall. Annie,Buster and Camille go into a candy store separately and un-attached, so there is nothing to attach them to each other. Camille begins to put candy under her dress and Buster tells one of the clerks about it. The ensuing chaos is recorded for posterity by Caleb. As the children get older and enter into adolescence and young adult-hood, they begin to resist being used by their parents in performances and eventually outright refuse.

In the present time of the novel, Annie and Buster are living independently from each other and from their parents: Buster as a novel writer (who has published two novels) and Annie as an actress (who was nominated for an Oscar but who has begun to appear somewhat regularly in the tabloids). The Fang parents have also not presented any new art since Buster and Annie became independent.

This is both an entertaining and disturbing look at a dysfunctional family, a la "United States of Tara" and is very witty. It is entertaining and not predictable - scenes that comprise the Fang "art" are loony and off the wall and completely unrealistic but are nonetheless funny and smart and fresh.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

2011-10-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

Firstly, I must disclose that I have absolutely been in love with Jeffrey Eugenides since I read Middlesex, a few years ago, so I may not be the most impartial of reviewers. I eagerly awaited this new release of his and was happy when my name was up on the library's list.

In this novel, we literally follow a modern day Marriage Plot between three students at Brown University in Rhode Island. They are on the eve of their graduation in 1982 - one is suffering from debilitating bi polar disorder (manic/depression), the second is Madeleine (who is brilliant and beautiful and sells herself short constantly) and the third is Mitchell, who is the journeyman and travels through Europe and India. All three students are brilliant academics, with their own interests and academic strengths, but who often mistakenly follow their sex drives in directions that lead one to wonder : WTF? We follow Mitchell on his journeys, Madeline through her struggles in dealing with a lover that struggles with a debilitating mental illness and Leonard, who struggles himself with the mental illness. What I also loved is that Eugenides somehow manages to capture the tensions and feelings of a late teen/early 20-something involved in these sorts of emotional relationships. It took me back to this period of my life; it was as if I had never left.

The novel itself was wordy, but I personally love that kind of novel. I love losing myself in the minute details of everyday (and the non-typical everyday living as, for instance, we see when we visit the psych wards or a laboratory colony on the Cape), so this didn't bother me all that much. In fact, I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't expect any miraculous revelations to come out of this novel; it doesn't expand the boundaries of what we know about love triangles, college or mental health issues. And yet, I found it highly satisfying to read and complete. It's not as good as Middlesex, but most novels aren't. This novel is definitely better than most and gives some insights.

Definitely take the time to read this one.

Her Husband: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes - a Marriage by Diane Middlebrook

2011-10-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

Ever since reading The Bell Jar, I have been in love with Sylvia Plath. I loved her writing and her strong, strong feelings. So I have been reading everything that I could about her and her life, from her journals, to her letters and her poems. So when I saw this book at the library, I picked it up and brought it home with me, even though it's not solely about Plath, but about the often volatile relationship that she had with her husband, Ted Hughes.

Diane Middlebrook examines the relationship between the two poets from the moment that they meet while studying in England until after Sylvia dies, and beyond. She begins with their meeting and courtship and ends with Hughes' passing. She must have done an immense amount of research in writing this book, because her narrative was very detailed and very articulate. It was a pleasure to read, in part because I could tell that she was truly striving to give us an unbiased account of their relationship and what, in her opinion, really led to Sylvia's death - depression and anxiety and not necessarily Ted Hughes himself (since Sylvia apparently struggled with intense depression even before she met Ted, including a suicide attempt that left her underneath her porch to be found by her brother and then sent to the State hospital for electroshock therapy).

The message that I got from this book is that their marriage was often very intense and was the muse for each of them, in the sense that it fueled her poetry as it did his. I felt that this book gave me insight into Plath, just as much as Hughes. When they first met, I realized that she was like me in some senses: she wanted it all in the sense that she wanted a home and babies and a wonderful domestic life in addition to a satisfying career as a writer. And she thought that Hughes could help her to have that. I also got some insight into Hughes that I hadn't had before - he really wasn't the jerk that we all thought he was and perhaps truly loved Plath or at the very least, felt badly about treating her the way that he did during their marriage. For instance, after her death, Ted Hughes managed her work and got it published and re-published. He memorializes their relationships and his feelings for her in Birthday Letters, which he published after Plath's death.

While I'm not sure that I agree with Middlebrook completely about Hughes (really what excuse does anyone have to be mean and/or abusive to their spouse), the book is a wonderfully researched and informative read.

The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson

2011-10-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

I was browsing in the library and saw this book. When I read the inside flap, I thought it looked really intriguing so I picked it up. After 9/11, I've been really interested in Islam and Muslim conversions. I also had a pretty big interest in women in Islam - their role, how they perceive their roles and what the Koran says about their roles. This particular book intrigued me more then other books about gender and Islam because G. Willow Wilson is a white, American woman that converted to Islam after studying Arabic and Islam extensively as a college student in Boston, living in the Middle East for some time and marrying an Arab man.

Before reading this memoir, I think it's safe to say that the readings I had done previously about women in Islam had been mostly negative: women were treated poorly and had to straggly mightily in order to gain some degree of recognition. I think that this sort of portrayal leads the reader easily to believe that women that follow Islam are completely lacking in power or say at all in everything from their everyday life to who they marry and to the religious choices that they make. In this particular memoir, G. Willow Wilson narrates her journey from an atheist American to a Muslim woman who is getting married to an Arab, Muslim man. She attempts to explore the struggles that she faces in attempting to reconcile Western Cultural beliefs with Middle Eastern Cultural Religious beliefs and the religion that she is attempting to convert to. She explores the struggles that she had as a white, American woman attempting to convert and assimilate to the culture of the country that she was living in and she also attempts to describe the struggles that she had in surpassing the sometimes negative mindsets that she had with regards to Islam. In so doing, she presents a generally positive interaction and conversion.

This memoir was absolutely beautiful. I really enjoyed reading about Wilson's experiences in college and abroad. I felt like she was completely honest and up front - she opened herself up in this memoir and her writing was fluid, accessible and beautiful. Sometimes, I felt that I was standing right next to her as she was having an experience because I could smell what she smelt and feel what she felt on her skin or with her hands as she was feeling it. It was astounding. Wilson was often brutally honest with us: she was particularly honest about her anxieties about converting and how her family would react. She was also nervous about how her background would impact her relationship with her now husband, Omar. Wilson expressed a lot of anxiety about walking the line between asking questions to solve her ignorance and offending the people that she desperately wanted to accept her into their lives.

This was an honest and rich portrayal of an American woman's conversion to Islam and her take on women's roles in the Muslim world. I would highly recommend it.

As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto

2011-10-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

This book tells the true and heartbreaking story of David Reimer. At the age of 8 months, he suffers a botched circumcision at the hands of apparently inept doctors, who then refer David's family to a sex specialist by the name of John Money. Dr. Money, to use the term lightly and loosely, recommended that David's parents have him physically reassigned as a female and then suggested that they raise him as such. Dr. Money firmly believed and convinced David's parents that if David was physically re-assigned as a girl and then raised as a girl, he would grow up firmly believing and feeling that he was a girl. So that's what they decided to do after consultation.

As the experiment progressed (because that is what it was essentially - this was the first time that this sort of thing had ever been attempted), Dr. Money reported that David was adjusting wonderfully to being a female, but this was less than accurate reporting to say the least. David was depressed and acting out at school. He had to be held back at least once in school. As a result, it was decided that they would tell David that he was really born a male and, as a result, he ended up reverting to a male, taking hormones and getting a mastectomy.

I found this book to be really very interesting and immensely readable. I found that there was a really nice balance between the oral history and individual perspectives of the family and person that was impacted. Colapinto somehow managed to win the trust of David and his family and was able to empathetically and touchingly describe the angst and tragedy that this family underwent while at the same time describing the scientific theories, politics and sociological issues that were in play at the time that this "experiment" was occurring. It was a harrowing and aching tale to read about that was offensive on so many levels: that Money thought that he could do this sort of experiment on a human child and that then, he completely lied about the results for purely selfish reasons, at the doctors who screwed up to begin with and then started backtracking to cover themselves, at society and doctors who think that they know everything about what our children are made of and demand that the physical body is what actually makes the person and only the physical. It was extraordinarily and thoroughly researched.

This was a really good book - one that should be read - and when you are done, make sure to read the Wiki entry for David - it will break your heart further.

Banned Books Week - an honorary posting

2011-09-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

So, Banned Books Week is a week dedicated specifically to books that have been banned. It's a week set aside each year by the ALA. Banned books are books that have actually been removed from libraries and school curriculums; they aren't books that have simply been challenged. Banned books won't be found in the particular library that you are in, if they have, in fact, been banned. Books are challenged and/or banned for three main reasons: containing sexually explicit material, containing offensive language or being unsuited for any age group.

Examples of books that have been challenged are: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Ulysses by James Joyce, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1984 by George Orwell, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Native Son by Richard Wright, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie, Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hunger Games by Susan Collins, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

So, my rant. Banning and challenging books is absolutely garbage in my mind. It's nothing more than censorship dressed up as concern and good parenting. No. I respectfully disagree (and sometimes not so respectfully depending on my mood). In my opinion, good parents don't look to stunt their child's intellectual development or exposure to different ideas simply because they disagree with those ideas. By doing so, I firmly believe that you hold your child back from reaching their full potential. Additionally, if the concern is that your child may be exposed to things that you consider to be immoral, perhaps you should be taking a more active role in talking to your child about what they are reading and why you believe that it is immoral. Having conversations like this and trying to teach your children about your viewpoint and what you consider to be right or wrong is part of your job as a parent.

As a lawyer and blogger and avid reader, I also find the banning of books to be completely offensive to everything that our Constitution and our laws stand for. The First Amendment is absolutely one of the bedrocks of our society. Granted, you can't walk into a theater and shout fire, but literature is hardly akin to that situation at all. It's censorship, pure and simple and I don't see any difference between the burning of books that the Nazis in Hitler's Germany engaged in and the banning of books here. It absolutely makes me sick that in 2011, we still have to have the discussion about censorship and banning books.

Here are some resources that I thought were good:

The American Library Association's Banned Books website
Banned Books Week new website
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (Tony, I think you'll like this one!)
Kids Right to Read Project

Just my two cents!

"There Are Things I Want You To Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me by Eva Gabrielsson

2011-09-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

This is a memoir written by Eva Gabrielsson, Stieg Larsson's life partner, in which she details her life with Mr. Larsson and the complications regarding his legacy and his estate which his untimely death caused. Stieg Larsson is the author of the insanely popular "Millennium Trilogy," which includes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

The book was initially written in Swedish and translated into English in 2011, and begins with diary entries that Ms. Gabrielsson wrote in order to help her cope with the grief of losing a man that she had been in an extensive relationship with. Gabrielsson apparently took the title for the memoir from a letter that Mr. Larsson had written to her before a trip to Africa that he thought that he might not survive. The memoir details how the couple met and how Stieg tireless fought the right wing fascist movement. He was also a tireless crusader for the rights of women, having become a feminist after witnessing the brutal rape of a girl during his youth. As a result, he and Eva were often placed in danger and often received threats. Ms. Gabrielsson states that the major reason that they never married was because their marriage would make him an easy target for his enemies on the right, a valid concern after they received hateful voicemail messages and bullets in the mail.

She further describes the impact of Larsson's death on both her emotional life and her physical life. Gabrielsson was, essentially, a wreck and became worse when Larsson's brother and father began to fight her over Larsson's estate and work. Gabrielsson discusses feeling dispossessed and disempowered because she was not recognized as a wife, even though she and Larsson had lived that way for years.

I wasn't particularly thrilled by this book. I felt like the writing wasn't that great and that it had been written and published with an eye towards getting support for a cause that might not otherwise have a lot behind it. I felt that it was too clean and that gave the impression of being disingenuous and dishonest. Life isn't that clean. I was left with a not so good taste in my mouth, as if the book was written to manipulate my feelings to get support for a cause and I didn't really like that. I found the bits about Stieg Larsson's youth and life to be fascinating though, so if you're looking for information about that, the book does it justice.

The Good Wife by Stewart O'Nan

2011-09-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't the CBS series (which is also wonderful and a must see!), but a novel by Stewart O'Nan.

This novel follows the life of a seemingly ordinary woman over a tremendously long period of time: we meet her when she is pregnant with her first and only child and we leave her after her son has graduated from college and taken his first job. When we meet Patty Dickerson, her husband, Tommy, has committed a crime at the beginning of the novel while he is drunk and ends up serving a sentence of 28 years for first degree murder. Patty gives birth to their son while Tommy is incarcerated.

I loved this short novel for quite a few reasons. The novel is told from Patty's perspective, so you really get a good feel for what it's like to be in her shoes. You get the sense of the time from the snippets of the outside world that seep into the small portion of Patty's conscience being that isn't preoccupied with Tommy, his case and surviving. For instance, at the beginning, Patty and her family watch Hawai'i: 5-0. At other points during the novel, she talks about watching documentaries about the hostages in Iran that are freed when Reagan is sworn into office. This is also powerful because it highlights the isolation that Patty must surely feel, even though she is surrounded by a family, albeit a somewhat dysfunctional one, that manages to bond together to support her and her son, Casey, in their years of need. Patty's life is difficult - her physical pleasures are few and far between. She lives from paycheck to paycheck and often works in the most demeaning and menial jobs that one can find - waitressing, roadwork and construction, housekeeping in a hospital - barely making minimum wage and working so hard just to make ends meet.

She struggles to raise her son, Casey, who is an overweight, sensitive, introspective but really f'in' smart kid that applies everywhere from Cal Poly to MIT and Cornell. While raising him, she struggles to impart to him that Tommy as a father is more than a concept, even though Casey has only known Tommy as the guy in the greens that he sees once in a while at the prison and on family reunion weekends, when he and his mom are allowed to spend the weekend with Tommy in a trailer on the prison grounds. Talk about tough...and yet O'Nan is able to convey all of these struggles in such an delicate and wondrous manner. There aren't any histrionics or fireworks and yet, you get the struggles that Patty faces and the marginality that she endures.

It also completely humanizes the families of the people that stand accused of crimes as well as the Accused themselves. This reason, in and of itself, would make this novel worth the read; however it on top of the other wonderful things that O'Nan accomplishes make this a must read for all.

Love it...a must read.

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell

2011-09-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Wow. That's all I can say about this powerful, gritty novel. NPR really picked a winner for this one.

Margaret "Margo" Crane is the protagonist of this novel - she lives in rural Michigan in the 1970's. When we first meet Margo, she is 15 but is no way your ordinary 15 year old teenage girl. Margo lives with her father on the river, after her mother abandoned them, and can shoot, skin and hunt like no one else. In some ways, she's like her idol: Annie Hall in that she is a trailblazer - no other girls in the area are like her. Margo is often in extremely heartbreaking situations. Her uncle rapes her quite early on in the novel and she is such a good shooter that she manages to shoot off the tip of his penis. She also watches her father die in front of her and that is just the beginning of the heartbreak.

This book doesn't have a strict plot per se. It's more about how Margo learns about herself, learns to become self-sufficient and learns to accept herself for who and what she is. I found myself really liking Margo initially and, as I got to know her character during the novel, admiring her spirit, her gutsiness and her unabashed sense of who she was. She was who she was and she wasn't going to change it for anyone - you could take or leave it. What you saw was what you got. I loved that. Campbell managed to write a novel that was raw and sharp in portraying Margo's life - her life isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination and often, I felt like I was reading about the lives of others that I have met during my life. And yet, Margo doesn't give up. She keeps going and in the end, she perseveres because she has learned to support herself without the assistance of anyone, let alone a man.

Wonderful, powerful, amazing. a must read for this year.

The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly

2011-09-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

Reading seems to be the only way for me to escape these days. I picked up this book because the premise was interesting but to be quite frank, it ended up falling flat for me.

In this novel by Gabrielle Donelly, the Little Women that we all know and love aren't the main characters per se: they are the foremothers to the main characters in the novel. Emma, Lulu and Sophie are sisters and their great-great- grandmother is Jo March. Of course, her sisters are Amy, Meg and Beth. Emma, the oldest, is smart (but not brilliant), has a settled career and is soon to be married. Lulu is brilliant but less settled - she doesn't have a job even though she graduated at the top of her class with a science degree (chemistry I think) and on the romance front she doesn't appear to have many prospects either. Sophie is the youngest and a flighty actress. They live in London - their American mother and English father also live in London in a house where Lulu finds old letters to and from Jo March in the attic.

I loved Little Women - it was a fantastic book and I absolutely loved reading it. Of course, Jo was inspirational and Beth and her short life were sad. So I was really hopeful that this book would pan out. But it fell flat. I didn't find the premise or the characters or anything about the novel original. It was as if Donelly had taken Little Women and tried to adapt it to modern London. The characters were so obviously modern day versions of the Little Women and the other characters in Alcott's novel. This annoyed me to no end - if you're going to do something like this then come up with something new. And because Donnelly seemed to be a creative and decent writer otherwise, I was even more disappointed in her inability to come up with a novel idea.

Pass on this one.

Catching Santa (The Kringle Chronicles, Book 1) by Marc Franco

2011-08-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

Just to be up front, I got this as an advance reader copy to review from LibraryThing.Com.

This is the first in the Kringle series by Marc Franco and is a young adult novel. In it, Jakob is an 11 year boy that is easily distracted, doesn't pay attention and can often be found doodling in class instead of listening to his teachers. On the last day before Christmas vacation, Jakob is teased mercilessly when his classmates steal some of his doodles (featuring Santa!) and pass them around to each other. Jakob, later that day, receives two mysterious emails from S.R. that essentially tell him that the best way to make people who don't believe in Santa actually believe in him is to catch Santa. Later on in the novel, we learn that the main antagonist from the day before break - Rick- is missing and actually makes a panicked call to Jakob, prompting Jakob to being his search for Rick and eventually, Santa himself.

The story itself was was a tremendous story. I enjoyed it and I think that it would appeal to younger children as well - there is a lot for them to relate to and to imagine. However, there were some drawbacks that would make me hesitate to recommend this for a child say under the age of 7. Mr. Franco uses some words that may not be understandable to younger readers. Some words used by Jakob aren't words that I would think that an 11 year old would understand, let alone use in their everyday speech. For instance, the word portly is used - what 11 year old actually knows what that word means let alone uses it? Other words, such as hyperactive, appear when Jakob is talking, which is also unreasonable for most 11 year olds. The editing also needed some work - there were a lot of run on sentences that could have been split into multiple sentences. It was a good first book, with good ideas and showed a lot of creativity and potential. Hope to see more from this author.

Simple Justice by John Morgan Wilson

2011-08-27T05:02:00.000-07:00

So, I had never heard of the Benjamin Justice mystery series and I'm not quite sure what led me to request this particular book from the library. I was immediately drawn into this novel by John Morgan Wilson.

In the first of the series, a young man is murdered outside of a gay bar in Los Angeles. A young Latino man is found kneeling over him and is arrested and charged with his murder. Perhaps most damning, he has has confessed to killing the young man that he has been found with. The young man turns out to be related to a wealthy family and is also discovered to be a coke head. Benjamin Justice is a disgraced journalist - he had written a series for the LA Times that had won him prestigious awards and was soon discovered to have been completely made up - and also struggling with alcoholism and the loss of his partner. He is asked by his former boss to look into the murder of the young man, so he does.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book when I first started it but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mr. Wilson's writing style is simple and the novel is a quick read. But appearances can be deceiving - this book is hardly shallow or simple. Benjamin Justice is a character that is deep and has extensive mental and physical wounds and an intriguing back story and current struggle that quickly hooked me and made me want to know him more. He was the sort of character that, if he were a real, live person, would be someone that I would take out to lunch or dinner in the hopes of learning more about him and his life experiences. The cast of characters that flesh out the book are also memorable, although I found that some of them could be stereotypes - for instance, the brother of the young man charged with homicide is a colorful, homophobe complete with violence and guns. He was so predictable and so stereotyped and that turned me off a little bit. I did enjoy the issues that Mr. Wilson tried to take on in this book - the AIDS epidemic in the gay male community in LA, some homophobia (yes, the out and out violent type, but also the more subtle type - a woman who is obviously attracted to Ben Justice and is constantly making both physical and emotional passes at him in the hopes of changing him), the struggles of being in the closet.

Generally a pretty good read.

Daughters of the Revolution by Carolyn Cooke

2011-08-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

I was mesmerized by the review that I read of this book in the Times. I tend to enjoy reading books about colleges and prep schools and the strife that often occurs between students and/or within the students that are the center of the novel. So that's why I was drawn to this novel.

The novel focuses, mainly, on a New England all-male prep school in the 60's. The school, which is nearly all white and is all male, is struggling with issues of race and socioeconomic status and the headmaster is trying to decide if the school should go coed when the first female is accidentally admitted (her name is Carole, a name that the secretary mistakenly thinks is male). Not only is Carole female, but she is black and from the lower middle class, so she makes everyone uncomfortable.

This book was a bit disconcerting to read, although it ended up being moderately enjoyable. It was disconcerting because it often jumped around from first person to third person and often dealt with many different characters - sometimes you were learning about EV (the daughter of one of the prep school boys), the headmaster, Carole or EV's mother and it often took me a few pages to get used to the change in voice and figure out who I was dealing with exactly. The characters themselves were what made the book enjoyable. They were engaging, multi-faceted, entertaining and three dimensional. I wanted to see more of them, learn about the challenges that they faced and were facing and I wanted to see them through until the end. They made the novel worthy of the limited amount of time that I have to spend on books.

Moderately enjoyable enough to get out of the library but probably not enough to buy.

The Whore's Child and Other Stories by Richard Russo

2011-08-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

I have loved Richard Russo ever since I read Empire Falls way back when. So when I saw this book in the library I picked it up and brought it home.

This is a collection of short stories about mundane, ordinary lives. But I was still enthralled and absolutely enamored nonetheless. Russo has a way of depicting such lives in a way that you absolutely can't rip your eyes away from, no matter how "boring" you would think that they would have been normally. Somehow, Russon manages to draw you into these lives and make them interesting.

Perhaps the best story in the book is the title story. It is about a nun who was born out of wedlock to a woman that worked as a prostitute and who had, essentially, had her pimp drop her off at the school run by the nuns of the order when she was a young child.

All of the stories are a pleasure to read. As I say, Russo has a way with words and draws you into the lives of the characters so much so that you just can't rip your eyes away. A must read.

The Halfway House by Kathleen Noel

2011-08-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

I was at the library one day picking up one of the multitude of books that I had requested (you know, because I had seen it on NPR or something) and I was walking by a book display and saw this novel in it. I think the display was about summer reading or something like that - and I was intrigued, so I picked up the book and read the inside flap and decided that I would get the book.

Angie Voorster is 17 at the start of this novel and she is everything, seemingly, that you would want your daughter to be, at least on the outside. She is a star athlete - a swimmer that has broken, is breaking and continues to break records - and she has a future in swimming at a division one school. She is also a straight A student, making her a candidate for the Ivy League. She lives with her mom (Jordana), her dad (Pieter) and her younger brother, Luke, who is also a swimmer. Things seem to be going well until, in the middle of the boys' race, she dives headlong into the pool and to the bottom, convinced that she can breath underwater. Thus begins Angie's struggles with seemingly depthless mental illness (I think bipolar disorder because she is alternately manic and then depressed). The book focuses on Angie's battle with her mental illness and her family's struggles to deal with their loved one's illnesses.

What was absolutely wonderful about this novel is that Ms. Noel is somehow able to channel the thoughts of a mentally ill person so authentically. Her novel's chapters alternate between all four family members, and are told in each of their voices. Angie's chapters reflect her current mental state - whether medicated or not - and it was wonderful.

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

2011-08-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

I picked this up because it looked intriguing to me and boy, was it fantastic. In this novel, Christine is a middle-aged woman who has a bizarre form of amnesia. She cannot remember anything from day to day and whenever she goes to sleep, her memory is wiped clean. Each morning, she wakes up and has no clue who she is, where she is, how old she is or any other bits of knowledge that we take for granted. Imagine having to re-create your entire life history each day that you wake up - that's what she has to go through. She lives with a man named Ben - her husband - and her only way to remember is by reading the journal that she keeps daily.

This is SJ Watson's first novel and I hope that he will continue to write more for us because it was fantastic - a good premise, wonderful writing and great characters. It was a page turner - I found myself constantly thinking about the novel, the characters and what would happen at inopportune moments. I also wondered when the next time that I could sit down to read the novel would be. The book is particularly jarring in the first few pages, but continue on with it - it becomes jarring because you have no idea what is going on and that is what makes the start of the novel and the entire novel itself brilliant - you experience what Christine is actually experiencing on a daily basis. And it is wonderful. Totally worth it.

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

2011-08-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

Jake Bergamot is your typical, upper middle class New York City student - he is 15, goes to a prestigious school and likes to party with his friends. At a party, he rebuffs the advances of a pretty drunk eighth grader. But, in the early morning hours, he gets an email with a salacious video attached to it - one that the eighth grader made specifically for Jake and for Jake only. On some level, Jake was honored but on another level, he was absolutely horrified and shocked by the lewd and lascivious video that ended up in his email in box, so he forwarded it to his friend, in part an attempt to get rid of the hot potato. And you can see where this goes. Within a few hours, the video that was private initially has been posted everywhere on the internet and has thousands of hits. As a result of this video gone viral, Jake's and his family's lives are turned upside down.

Schulman's book raises a lot of good themes: privacy in the internet age, shame, gender roles, internet protocol, and how they all intersect with each other and with the law. I particularly liked how Schulman focused on the domestic impact that this had on Jake and his family - I felt like it wasn't forced and was, somehow, more authentic. It would have been too stereotypical if Schulman had focused exclusively on the girl that made the video. I also thought that it was really noble for Schulman to attempt to take on such extensive themes and topics as the ones that she has taken on. However, it was a tad predictable in its outcome. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style itself - it was quick and not complicated and easy to break into small segments (essential for a mom!).

Get from library but don't add to your own personal collection.

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

2011-08-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

This was hands down one of the best books that I have read this year. Geraldine Brooks has absolutely outdone herself with this novel.

Caleb's Crossing mostly takes place in 17th Century Martha's Vineyard and 17th century Cambridge (most notably, Harvard Yard). Bethia Mayfield is a teenage Puritan whose family is quite wealthy by colonial standards - her grandfather is the founder of the island itself and had emigrated there in order to establish a haven that was outside the purview of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Bethia is an intelligent young woman, who learns Hebrew, Greek and Latin seemingly by osmosis - she listens in on the lessons given to her older brother and learns not only the ancient languages but the language of the native American tribe also inhabiting the island. Bethia also has an aptitude for wandering and, during her wanderings of the island, meets a young Native American man who is eventually adopted by her family and renamed Caleb. Caleb is tutored extensively by Bethia's father and eventually "crosses" into Anglo-American culture, thereby earning the title of the novel. We follow Caleb, Bethia and her brother, Makepeace, as they travel from the island, to prep school in Cambridge and, eventually, to Harvard University.

I loved this novel. I loved Bethia quite frankly. On some level, I connected to her internal struggle. She was continuously struggling to answer the question of how to exist within the narrow confines of what society dictated that she be, even though she was so much smarter and empathetic than society would allow her to be. For instance, she was so much smarter than her brother, Makepeace, especially with regards to the classics. However, while her brother got the opportunity to at tend prep school and, potentially Harvard, Bethia was indentured to the dean of the prep school in order to enable her brother to become educated. Bethia also was particularly empathetic and friendly towards Caleb and the other "salvages," often considering them her friends and often viewing them sympathetically and as friends and family; however, the majority of the society around her viewed them with repugnance. What I also particularly loved about Brooks' narrative is how authentic it seemed - Brooks wrote the novel in colloquial speech, never once breaking from the speech patterns and written patterns that a woman in Bethia's socioeconomic status would have engaged in. This level of authenticity went a long way in contributing to the richness and powerfulness of the novel itself. In this way, I felt like I was really inside of Bethia's head - hearing and experiencing her thoughts as she herself was thinking them.

This book is beautifully and engagingly written and a must read for all.

My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe

2011-08-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

This is a memoir by Ben Ryder Howe that follows his life as he works as an editor at The Paris Review while also buying and operating a deli with his wife and her mother. Howe and his wife, Gab, buy the deli as a last, Hail Mary, attempt to make enough money to move out of her parents' basement and into their own place. Howe hopes that the deli will make them enough money that they can either buy or rent their own space and begin their own family. Gab puts additional value on the deli - it's her way of giving something back to her mother, a Korean emigre who raised Gab and her siblings seemingly on her own in a foreign country.

The memoir follows the intense ups and downs and the trials and tribulations of owning a deli in New York City. The trials include a mugging, busts for selling cigarettes to underage customers, fines and massive tax bills in addition to being taken advantage of by vendors and the weather alike. During the same period, Howe works at his day job - as a senior editor on The Paris Review during the last few years that George Plimpton ran it. Howe struggles at that job too, sometimes failing massively in a professional sense and also dealing with tragedy that would lead to most of the staff leaving for other jobs.

Howe may not be a successful businessman or a successful editor at an amateur magazine but he is an engaging and evocative storyteller. This was a funny, down to earth and tremendously readable account of owning a small business in one of the biggest cities of the world. I often enjoyed learning about the day to day minutiae that he had to endure in order to work and own these jobs and his tangents often got a chuckle out of me. Howe was able to talk about the places and people he dealt with in such color that you almost felt like you were there with them while all the action was occurring.

Go out and get this one right away.

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon - contains spoilers

2011-08-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

This book is the third book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I read Outlander, the first book in the series, years ago and then Dragonfly in Amber in October right around the time that Gabby was born and the series will occasionally call to me. And call to me it did now, so I picked up the third book.

This book picks up where Dragonfly in Amber left off - Claire has returned to her own time. Twenty years has passed by and it is 1967. Clair is living in the United States with her daughter, Brianna and they are visiting in Scotland attempting to determine whether Jaime has survived the battle of Culloden. Assisting them is Roger Wakefield, who maintains a consistent interest in Brianna romantically. Claire, Roger and Brianna must discover whether Jaime Fraser has survived and, if he has, whether any of them should go back in time to meet him. If she goes back, she must attempt to rekindle a romantic relationship with a man that she hasn't seen in 20 years and who could have changed, and who has a period of his life that she knows nothing about.

I adored this book - I liked it somewhat better than Outlander actually but not as much as Dragonfly in Amber. I thought that Dragonfly was really well done, historically and the research that went into it in order to get the time period was phenomenal. However, this book was phenomenal in the sense that the research was there and Gabaldon did a masterful job in balancing the historical fiction aspect and the romance aspect. I generally get pretty turned off by books that are so over the top "romance" that everything else is sacrificed. That wasn't present here. Gabaldon did really well in balancing the romance aspect with what was going on historically at the time. It was also apparent that Gabaldon educated herself extensively on the historical atmosphere of the time as well as certain aspects of the natural environment that the characters encountered - not an easy task - and is able to make us feel like we are there, in the middle of the scene and the action without overwhelming us.

This is not a book that should be read piecemeal - it is a long book and many of the things that happen in the beginning of the novel come back into play at the end, as do many of the characters, so it is best to devote a few days to this book in chunks at a time. This shouldn't be too hard because the book itself is very difficult to put down.

Loved it...

Favorite novel?

2011-08-01T08:13:00.001-07:00

So I recently wrote an essay here about why I have two favorite novels and what they are. Please head on over there to read the article!

Post 100 is here!

2011-07-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

And I'm reviewing The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva. I don't remember where I heard about this book.

Gabriel Allon is an aging and retired Israeli operative who has retired to the English coast with his wife, Chiara, in order to enjoy the good life. Instead, an old friend has managed to wrest him from exile to find a missing painting - a painting created by Rembrandt - a pairing that has actually been stolen. The painting is the source of many dark secrets related to the Holocaust, its perpetrators and its victims and the dark side of Swiss banking that helped to perpetuate thefts and stolen money.

This is a mystery novel that details a multinational and eccentric group of people that are forced to work together in order to solve the crimes surrounding the money, the painting and the evildoers that have stolen it. Very enjoyable and a wonderful novel.

The Great Journey by David McCullough

2011-07-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

So I'm absolutely plowing through my books for the summer. This was another recommended both by NPR and by The NY Times.

In this masterpiece and monster of a book, historian (and Pulitzer Prize winning author) David McCullough (who wrote about John Adams the last time around) writes about the American expatriate community that lived in and around Paris during the 19th century - he focuses on the ENTIRE century, not just a small portion of it. He chose this era to focus on because these expats inspired the expats of the 1920's and 30's in their journeys in and around Paris. In writing about this time period, McCullough looks at such figures as Samuel Morse, George Healy, Charles Sumner, Mary Cassatt, James Fenimore Cooper and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

This book was intriguing. It took me a relatively long time to complete the book - about 5 or 6 days (which is a long time for me) - but it didn't feel that long. I attribute this in part to how wonderfully written the book was. McCullough did extensive research in writing this book and looked at diaries, journals, letters and other primary sources of his subjects in learning about that time period. He also quoted extensively from those items. It made me really feel like I was in Paris during that time period and actually inspired me to continue with my paper journalling (and maybe find a pen pal or two or three to write letters to!).

This was a wonderful book that you should hurry to read right away!

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

2011-07-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

This was again a book that I found on NPR's summer reading recommendations and it intrigued me initially because of the subject matter. It's a cross between drama/literature and crime but it isn't really any of both - it's not a crime novel like a novel by James Patterson would be but it isn't really dramatic literature either.

The book is written from the perspective of Dr. Jennifer White. At the time of the novel, Dr. White is a 65 year old retired orthopedic surgeon - she specialized in hands - who is suffering from Alzheimer's/dementia. There are days when she's completely lucid and knows what is happening to her and days when she doesn't remember anything, including her own history, children or caretakers. She is living in the beautiful family home in Chicago with Magdalena, her caretaker and is visited occasionally by her two adult children - Mark, a lawyer and Fiona, a financial analyst and college professor. When she didn't have the disease and in her lucid moments, Jennifer is witty, sharp and, quite frankly a brilliant doctor. She was hugely successful in her career and in her volunteer work at a medical clinic that provided free services to people without medical insurance.

The narrative, because it is told from Dr. White's perspective, mirrors the decomposition of her mind as it is decayed from the dementia. We learn that aids are employed to help her remember - a notebook that people, including Jennifer and her family and caretakers make notes in, pictures, clothing - to help her remember what happens to her from day to day and even across longer periods of time. Quite often, Jennifer is told to just write in the notebook about anything that comes to mind - from the things that just happen to her to the things that happened to her years ago that come to her mind unprompted. Sometimes, the story jumps from memory to memory in different time periods. For instance, one moment Jennifer will be talking about what is happening to her in the present moment and then, in the next, she is back when she was young or practicing medicine. It can be disconcerting and, sometimes, confusing; however after thinking about it, I think that the author may have intended this as a way to have us experience, ins some sense, what it must be ike to have a disease like the one that Jennifer has.

The crime plot comes out bit by bit in Jennifer's narrative - she is visited occasionally by detectives from the local police department and family members of the victim. They ask her about her friend Amanda, who was found dead.

This is a fantastic (and potentially very important) novel about the impact of dementia upon a family and an individual. The subject is treated very well - with dignity and respect but also with an eye towards education. The crime plot wasn't really all that great, but it really is ancillary to the point of the novel - an educated woman suffering from a debilitating disease. Go out and get this right away!

Soul Clothes by Regina D. Jemison

2011-07-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

In the manner of being ethical and up front, I wanted to let people know that I got this book from Librarythings for free to review. Now onwards!

Soul Clothes by Regina Jemison is not a particularly long book - it is comprised of 44 pages and 12 poems, with a mostly African-American and law based leaning. However, I found that it really and truly packed a punch that I, at least, associate with a much larger, more dense book. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from it - I'm not normally someone that reads a lot of poetry, with the exception of a former co-worker's published works, so I was really hesitant at first. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

The poems reflected Ms. Jemison's history and taught us a lot about her personal story, her feelings about topics from the criminal justice system all the way to religion and spirituality and relationships. I learned, for instance, that she went to law school and taught criminal justice and criminal law classes. I also learned her perspective on things like religion and the role that it played in her life. All in all, this was a wonderful and heartfelt first work of poetry and I look forward to reading more by Ms. Jemison.

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

2011-07-10T04:51:00.000-07:00

At the recommendation, yet again, from the people at NPR, I elected to read this novel. I had never read anything by Victor LaValle before, even though this is his third novel apparently.

Ricky Rice is the flawed hero in this novel - he's a recovering heroin addict who has been summoned from his janitor's post in Central NY to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont by a mysterious man that everyone has taken to calling The Dean. While there, he and several other recovering social misfits become a group called The Unlikely Scholars and they begin to peruse newspapers from all over the country and investigated The Voice that spoke to the founder of the library at which they study. At some point, Ricky is selected by the Dean to go to California with another scholar - Adele - to assassinate a former scholar that has defected and has started his own rogue group intent on bringing down the Unlike Scholars. During his mission, we learn about Adele and Ricky and the lives that they abandoned in order to become Unlikely Scholars.

I found this book initially very difficult to get into - it was hard for me to see where LaValle was going with it. But as I read on, I became more fascinated with the story and the characters. Through them, LaValley attempts to answer questions that related to faith - how do people accept things on faith? Why is it easier for some than others? Can anyone do it or only those that have been "saved?" Do we even know what to believe in and why we believe in that or should believe in that?

It was a pretty interesting read.

22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

2011-07-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a lot of my reads lately from NPR and this is no different. NPR has consistently recommended quality books and continues to do so in this debut novel by Amanda Hodgkinson.

World War II survivors - a husband, wife and child - are attempting to re-create their lives together after surviving the war. He was in the Polish Army and, eventually, the British RAF and spent time in France after getting injured. His wife and child were refugees in Poland during the German occupation and spent most of the time in a refugee camp hidden deep in the woods of rural Poland. They are rescued by American liberators as the end of the war. Superficially, the family has all the ingredients for a successful post-rescue life: a home in Britain, jobs, food, clothing and all the amenities. They even have a connection to the black market that will get them the things that they need for free and they have a car (which was almost unheard of for most middle class British at this time). But all three are changed, and have been changed by the war - they are not the same people that they had married and each have secrets that could, potentially, devastate the tenuous family life that they have set up in the house at 22 Britannia Road.

I think that this quote accurately summarizes a part of what made this book so powerful for me:

The boy was everything to her. Small and unruly, he had a nervy way about him like an animal caught in the open.

This book, in large part, was about parenthood and what it means to be a parent. Hodgkinson attempts to answer questions about whether mothers and fathers have different priorities and handle things differently. She also tries to define what makes a parent. Some of the scenes between mother and son, and between each person in the family unit were absolutely gut-wrenching and poignant at the same time. I felt that Hodgkinson also did a masterful job in describing and portraying the weight that all parents, and specifically mothers, must carry. It was also beautifully written.

The book was also a masterful portrayal of war and the impact that it has on the families that have lived through it. Granted, this tale was specific to people that have served in it and also been refugees, which may not necessarily always apply to many Americans' experience in dealing with war. However, it is quite clear from the novel what the tragic impact of war was on this particular family.

A must read, although I am not sure that you want to actually purchase the book for your library.

A Singular Woman by Janny Scott

2011-07-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

So, I had read Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father a while ago - maybe during the election season - and was sorely disappointed in the seeming lack of attention that he paid to his mother even though she was, by all accounts, a driving force in shaping him. So when NPR had a story about this book, I immediately decided to get it.

Stanley Ann Dunham led a completely unconventional life from the beginning apparently. Her parents gave her the first name "Stanley," although later in her life she often went by just "Ann" or "S. Ann" if she were writing something professionally. As an adolescent, she moved to Hawai'i with her parents (who had eloped) and began to study Anthropology. Her love of anthropology, and industry/textiles in particular drove her life. During her studies, she met Barack Obama, Sr., a Kenyan national also studying at the University of Hawai'i. At 18, she found herself pregnant with his child, so they got married and then divorced in short order when she found out that he was still married to a woman in Kenya, had two children with her and a third on the way. So, in essence, she became a single, divorced, teenage mother of a bi-racial child voluntarily at a time when society was, perhaps, not as accepting as it is today of any of those things. Ann eventually married Lolo Soetoro and moved to Indonesia in 1966, where she had Maya. Barack moved there with her in 1967 and was schooled there until high school, when he returned to Hawai'i to live with his grandparents and complete high school. Ann remained in Indonesia with Lolo and Maya, conducting research, working and writing her Ph.D. thesis.

The book relates Ann Dunham's life from her birth through her death from uterine cancer in 1995 and her struggles with health insurance, parenting and expatriate society.

This book was astounding and a book that I fully intend to keep in my library forever. Janny Scott, an award winning journalist, shows that the awards that she was won were well deserved. Her subject - Ms. Dunham - was well researched. Ms. Scott had read extensively from Ms. Dunham's own letters, journals, papers and notes and this was apparent in how extensively they were quoted throughout the book. It was as if Ann were telling us her story herself, instead of through Ms. Scott (which is what makes her such a good biographer and writer - she is, essentially, channeling her subject). Ms. Scott also interviewed the people closest to Ann Dunham, including the President himself and Maya Soetoro-Ng, his half sister, as well as other family members, close friends and co-workers. She was then able to cobble together all of this information into a beautiful and coherent picture of a multi-dimensional women that excelled in some areas while struggling in others.

Definitely a must read.

Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz

2011-07-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere, probably NPR (because that's where I normally get all of my stuff to read) that John Burnham Schwartz had a new book out but he's perhaps best known for Reservation Road, so I was determined to read this one first to see if I liked it before I delved into the new stuff.

After a wonderful, peaceful and idyllic summer concert, a youngish family is driving to their home one evening. The Lehrners think that their night has been perfect. The couple pulls into a little gas station in Wyndham Falls, CT so that Emma, the eldest child, can use the bathroom. Grace, her mother, accompanies her. Ethan Lehrner, the father, remains outside momentarily with Josh, their son. He is there long enough to tell Josh to get away from the side of the road before he goes inside as well to buy some windshield wiper fluid. Within a matter of seconds, a dark blue car plows around the corner and hits Josh, throwing him feet into the air and away from the side of the road and killing him instantly. This all happens in the first chapter. The car, driven by local lawyer Dwight Arno (who is accompanied by his ten year old son and who is in a rush to return him to his mother after a baseball game has gone too long) doesn't even pause; he continues on and tells his sleepy, groggy son that they have hit a dog.

In essence, the remaining portion of the novel is about how an average seeming family (not really *average* in the sense that both parents are moderately successful) attempts to cope with a tragic loss and a failed criminal investigation. It is also about how the driver, Attorney Arno, deals with his role as the person that hit a boy the same age as his son.

I was just beginning to cope with a massively painful ear infection (including a ruptured ear drum) while reading this book, so it's safe to say that I was somewhat distracted while navigating through this novel; however, it still managed to reach to me and talk to me. I attribute this, in part, to the fact that I have my own children, so I could relate to the feelings that Grace and Ethan had in dealing with the tragedy of their son's loss and their sense of a lack of justice. At the same time, I could also empathize with Dwight Arno because his life and his crime is the sort of thing that I deal with on a daily basis. I really enjoyed how Schwartz wrote this novel. Schwartz, somehow, manages to have razor sharp insight into all of the emotions and actions of just about every character in this novel from Emma, (a "tween" girl) to Dwight (an alcoholic, abusive loser) to Grace (who falls into the depths of despair so much so that she can't get herself out) to Ethan, her husband, who will go to any length to figure out what happened to his son. Schwartz has a seemingly endless capacity to see into the depths of the souls of each of his characters; so much so that one wonders if he has ever experienced something like this before (or has known a family that has!).

I absolutely adored this book. And I look forward to reading more by Mr. Schwartz in the future.

Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin

2011-07-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

I am finally catching up on my reviews - I've been so behind lately because of health issues but now I'm finally getting there!

Unfinished Desires is a fictional account of an all girls Catholic school - Mt. Saint Gabriel's - in the early fifties. The school is located in a small Southern town that isn't exactly known for its tolerance of anything other then Protestantism. We are told the story by Sister Suzanne Ravenel, who is telling the story to us as she writes her memoirs in 2001 at the age of 85. Sister Ravenel was a student there and she was also the headmistress of the school during the 1951-52 academic year. Sister Ravenel is haunted by what happened to her during that year, and, in particular, the actions of the small, freshman class.

I particularly loved the characters that Godwin introduces to us, in part because they are so vivid and in part because they embody the narrative device that was used so effectively by Godwin. There is Sister Ravenel, who is plagued by her secrets and her memories and is unable to move forward, even though time has not stopped for her. There is also Chloe, a shy girl who is orphaned and able to attend the school because she comes from a well off family and is a legacy. There is also Maud - a controversial and elusive girl mature beyond her years because she has to deal with the ramifications of being from a broken home - one in which her father has remarried, but her mother is single and living alone with Maud. There is also Tildy, the assertive and entitled girl that seems to be the root of all the problems. My favorite character was Madeline - Tildy's sister - who was like a breath of fresh air. She was smart and called it like it was. Sister Kate Malloy and Cornelia round out the cast of characters. Kate Malloy is known for her giving nature and her ability to get her students (the ninth graders) to push themselves to the limit while Cornelia is petty and known for her waspish tongue.

Each perspective lends a new layer to things and new insights into how memory may often be difficult to wade through and get beyond. I also really enjoyed how Godwin seemed to be making a commentary on the culture of mean girls and how the acts of one, maybe two, can ruin someone's life. Godwin did a masterful job of keeping the story in control and not making it sappy or over the top. She gave it so many layers. And it was wonderful!

In the Garden of Beasts By Erik Larson

2011-06-24T03:35:00.000-07:00

After reading Devil in the White City, I became a huge fan of Erik Larsen, so when I heard on NPR that he had written another book, I knew that I had to read it. I even thought enough of Larsen to actually purchase this book as a hardcover!

In The Garden of Beasts is the story of Hitler's Germany in its infant stages, when Hitler had just been made chancellor and Hindenberg was still President (and some control over Hitler) as observed through William Dodd (the newly minted American ambassador to Germany) and his daughter Martha (who was scandalous by anyone's standards, but perhaps more so considering the time at which she was living). Dodd was an interesting pick for the position - and it's made clear pretty early on that he wasn't FDR's first choice - because he is a history professor, extremely frugal, had no real experience in politics (in spite of his friendship with Woodrow Wilson, of whom he wrote a book), and is very unassuming (which makes him an oddity in the ambassador society and among the Nazis, who are very extravagant). Martha initially falls in love with the burgeoning Nazi movement - she seems to romanticize the movement and sees it as a revolution. She is connected romantically, at various points, to the head of the Gestapo and, when she's not with him, a Soviet spy. She even meets Adolf Hitler at one point. We read not only of Martha's affairs but of Dodd's interactions with the Nazi leaders and the novel culminates with the Night of Long Knives.

This book took my breath away. Absolutely astounded me. From the get go, I was absorbed into the lives of William and Martha Dodd, their relationships, their trips, their parties and the people that they met. I was also impressed by the depth of Larsen's research. He used mostly primary sources - a lot of the stories and descriptions that he gave were taken from letters, diaries and other writings composed by the people that he was writing about. The depth of his research and the material was also absolutely remarkable.

What perhaps most impressed me about this was how interesting and accessible Larsen made this topic. He took an extensive amount of information, compiled it and narrated this true story in a way that was interesting, educational and accessible. He taught about a topic in a humble, everyday manner that would appeal to anyone, even if you don't like history.

Definitely read this one.

A Strange Stirring by Stephanie Coontz

2011-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

So I heard about this book on NPR and it sounded really interesting - it is described, accurately, as a biography of a book that changed the discourse in this country: The Feminine Mystique. It was actually better than the book that it was about!

Coontz writes this book after having talked with the women that The Feminine Mystique impacted (and those who didn't) and looking at other primary sources: letters written to Ms. Friedan and by Ms. Friedan for instance. It was a wonderful perspective really and raised not only the old, tired arguments about the work but continued to peel back the layers of the onion and pierce the veil so to speak.

What was also really interesting to me was the chapter in which Ms. Coontz talked about the current mystiques that prevail. I wished that there had been more discussion about the prevailing modern mystiques but I also realize that this could really be a complete book unto itself.

A really good, accessible read that provided really good analysis of an important work. A must read.

Muhammad by Deepak Chopra

2011-06-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through the stacks at the library and saw this and was immediately intrigued. Deepak Chopra attempts to tell the life of the prophet of Islam through the eyes of the people that are often closest to him - his wife, his daughters, his followers. And it was amazing, to say the least. I had never read anything by Deepak Chopra before, so I was a little nervous, but it was totally worth it.

This book is one of a trilogy of sorts - Chopra also wrote fictional accounts of Buddha's life and Jesus' life (aptly - Buddha and Jesus) and I intend to read at least the one on Jesus but will probably end up reading the one on Buddha as well. This is a really well researched novel that discusses Muhammad's teachings and how they relate to Christainity and Judaism, both older religions relative to Islam. I was also really impressed by how Deepak Chopra chose to tell the tale - he told each part of the Prophet's life through the viewpoint of an important person in his family. It included everyone from his nursemaid, to his wife and children, to a slave and even his worst enemy. It was a very effective way of conveying the Prophet's life and his belief system and i was absolutely enthralled.

This book was also really good because it provides a very simple explanation of the basic tenets of the Islamic faith. People that have read the Koran or have a much better education in the Muslim faith would probably not get a whole lot of out of this but for everyone else, it would be a pretty good introduction. It has inspired me to learn more about the Muslim faith!

The Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

2011-05-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

So, I read a review of this novel on the NY Times review blog/book review and thought that I would take a look at it.

Bitter End is a "young adult" novel - I think mostly so because the protagonists are in high school. The main character is Alex, the middle of three girls whose mother died when Alex was young (but old enough to remember her at the same time). Alex's dad, also, unfortunately, checked out sometime before the events in this novel - he's emotionally unavailable and doesn't really pay attention to the girls, even though he generally provides the physical necessities to the girls. While she isn't close to her sisters, Alex is very close to her two best friends with whom she is planning a trip to Chicago. She eventually meets cole, the new guy in town, because she is his English tutor. They start dating and Alex is tremendously happy - cole seems to be the perfect guy. But things go downhill once Cole begins to get jealous and possesive.

Maybe it's because I see this sort of thing in my real life work. Or maybe it's because I studied domestic violence and the cycles of violence in law school. Regardless, I didn't like this book all that much - it wasn't very well written and I thought that it dealt too much in stereotypes. It was too smarmy and too tidy. It was also way too predictable and the writing wasn't even that great - this book was too much like a Lfietime movie to really engross me or to make a point.

Pass on this one.

This Won't Hurt a Bit (and Other White Lies): My Education in Medicine by Michelle Au

2011-05-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to hear that Michelle had a book coming out, particularly when I learned that it was a memoir about her time in medical school and how she balanced it with being a parent. Michelle is the author of The Underwear Drawer, a popular blog that she updates pretty much everyday. So I was super excited to see that she had a book coming out.

Michelle went to Columbia for law school and this memoir details her training in precise, exqusite detail that isn't too much to get into. She's also really funny. The book starts off, literally, with Michelle sticking her finger up a patient's butt in an attempt to get a stool sample. It then proceeds to talk about her motivations in going to medical school, all the way through her medical training, intern years and residencies (including deciding to change residencies while pregnant and halfway through her previous residency).

I loved Michelle's voice - she's down to earth, funny and honest. She's brave too - she really puts herself out there in ways that not many people would have the confidence too because, of course, as with any parenting or professional decision, people are going to second guess every breath you take (or so it feels). I really, really liked this book generally and can't wait to see if she writes another one.

Onward by Howard Schultz and Joanne Gordon

2011-05-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

So, I spend time at Starbucks. Anyone who works with me or lives with me or knows me knows that. So I was curious. I know about how Starbucks is supposed to be the evil coffee company that drives other, independent coffee houses out of business so i was curious to see how Howard Schultz, the current CEO, handled that. And he handled it poorly.

In 2000, Howard Schultz left the company to become chairman of the board; however in 2008, he returned to the position of CEO. The economy was tanking and so was Starbucks (which is no big surprise - I mean, people don't want to spend $2.00 for a cup of coffee when you can pay $1.00 for the same size coffee at the independent, fair trade, organic local coffee shop and the coffee is better!). This book is a business memoir, for lack of a better way of describing it and covers the period of time from 2007 to 2010. This is the period where Schultz retakes the helm as CEO and attempts to bring Starbucks through one of the worst recessions in recent memory.

What I disliked the most about this book was not the premise of it. I really like transparency. I like it when companies, no matter who they are, strive to make their decisions and the methodology by which they get to that decision public. It gives me faith and makes me feel like I can give feedback about the process and the decision. However, that isn't what necessarily happened here. There were definitely times where Mr. Schultz attempted to be honest about the decisions he made and why. But I also feel like he was sugarcoating things and making Starbucks out to be this great, wonderful company when I'm not sure that it's all that different from any other big company - the bottom line. So i found that he came across as smarmy and slimey and trying to sell me on Starbucks, when really, it isn't all that great. I felt like it was fake and it was forced.

Sorry, you didn't sell me and, as The donald would say, you're fired.

No Permanent Scars by Michael Hemery

2011-05-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

I must disclose that I got this book for free as a review copy from LibraryThing... but don't let that scare you away. It's actually a really good, enjoyable read. This book is a non-fiction collection of essays that details the author's life. In essence, it is a memoir, but not one that is told necessarily as one continuous narrative. Its stories jump from time period to time period in the author's life and aren't in chronological order.

I really enjoyed this book much more than I thought that i would. Lately, I've been reading a lot of memoirs, so I thought that I would be memoir'ed out, but this one actually gave me a lot energy. I attribute that to how Hemery actually writes. The stories were short and written in elegant language, but they were still really richly done. It was almost like reading a novel. The people that i met were so memorable. I felt like I was there with Hemery listening to them as they spoke. For instance, Hemery spends a period of time working on his uncle's farm, helping to pick and process garlic. I felt as if I could smell the garlic and hear his uncle talk to him and feel the swarm of bugs around his head.

The book flew by. I would highly recommend this book to anyone - it's exactly as a memoir should be.

The Color of Water by James McBride

2011-05-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

This is a memoir written by McBride detailing his life, at the same time, it also serves to detail the story of his mother's life. James is one of 12 children who grew up the son of a black man and a white woman, living mostly in New York and New Jersey. His mother, Ruth, grew up in Suffolk, Virginia. Her family was a conservative, Jewish family where her father was a rabbi and her mother spoke only Yiddish. Ruth had a really tough childhood and adolescence that included everything from being sexually abused to having a black boyfriend (which was illegal in the South in the 30's and 40's and 50's, when this occurred) to having an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy.

I really, really liked this book. It tells the stories of people in spare prose that is still magnificently poignant and the struggles that he had as a mixed race child that appeared black trying to deal with how his mother stuck out like a sore thumb in the predominantly black neighborhoods they grew up in. I really thought that this book did a really decent job in exploring the intersection of race and religion and economic class. The way that the book is constructed was also really effective. McBride alternated chapters between his own voice and his mother's voice. Both voices were equally fascinating.

Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

2011-04-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

I don't remember where i heard about this novel originally but I had put it on my Amazon wishlist and my spectacular husband got it for me for Christmas. I finally got around to reading it (yes about five months after the fact, but I have a ton of books that I want/have to read and so little time!).

This book is easily one of the best that i have read this year. It is told through the eyes of a 14 year old girl in 17th century Persia. Interestingly, this girl remains nameless even though we are intricately involved in every aspect of her life and she really looks forward to getting engaged by the end of the year, in order to protect herself and her family from poverty. This young girl is also, perhaps most importantly, a rug maker, and even though she still has a lot to learn about the art, she is widely considered to be talented. When her father dies suddenly, she and her mother travel to live with a distant family member and his wife in their household as slaves. Even though they are treated as servants, her relative is a carpet maker that breaks with tradition, takes our protagonist under his wing and teaches her the art of rug making. Our protagonist's luck does not last and she is sold into a a three month long marriage contract that is renewable by her husband - renewal is based upon how much she pleases him -= making the contract hedonistic and ruining her chances for a more permanent marriage. The contract is entered into in order to ensure her family's finanicial security; however, her own self worth and self respect violently conflict with that.

I really enjoyed this novel. I loved the images that I got and I grew to admire and empathize with the protagonist even though we grew up and live/lived in different times and cultures. The author also writes beautifully and seemed to have meticulously researched her subject matter. It was a beautiful tribute.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

2011-04-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

I think that i read this book a while ago and didn't get it then because it was so long ago. I really liked Franzen's new novel, so I picked this one up again and it was all right.

The novel is about the Lambert family - mom, dad (Enid and Alfred), and three children - tow boys (Chip and Gary) and a daughter (Denise). The novel starts out telling Chip's story - he is the middle child and a PhD who lost his tenure track position after conducting an affair with one of his (really) young students. He then decides to head to Lithuania to participate in a company that steals money from people by convincing them to invest in the newly blossoming country. We also meet Gary - the eldest - who has the most conventional life. He works for a bank, is married to a beautiful and smart woman and has three children. But we learn that his marriage is absolutely miserable, with both he and his wife conducting warfare and making their children pawns in the process. We also meet Denise, who is a chef in high demand in Philadelphia. Enid is caught in a love triangle, with her at the point - between herself, her boss and his wife. Enid and Alfred are their parents. Alfred is beginning to suffer the ravages of age, including dementia and adult underwear. Enid actually is the character that ties everything together by trying to convince all her children to come home for one last Christmas together in the house.

I just wasn't all that impressed by this novel, in spite of the hype (and there was apparently hype associated with this novel when it came out). There are too many loose strings that were tied up in such a way that I thought that Franzen was like "OH! I totally forgot - I have to DO something with that storyline." But there are also loose ends that remain dangling in the wind. I don't know if Gary and his wife split up. Or what happens with Diane and her relationship issues. I DID love the writing style itself. IT was very wordy and thick and I really like that sort of style - it's a style that you can really sink your teeth into. Franzen has a mastery of the language that very few authors have.

Get it out of the library if you want to read it but don't add it to your library.

It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong

2011-04-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, I'm a mommy and I read. And when I had my first - Nate - I read a lot of Mommy memoirs. I read this one because I love Heather Armstrong, who authors a popular blog in the mommy sphere. I also really wanted to learn about another woman's experiences with post-partum depression and Ms. Armstrong went through a very, very tough time (and I wanted to talk about it on my podcast let's be honest). She had a breakdown and was actually hospitalized briefly in order to be stablized on her meds.

While I enjoyed the fact that it was a quick read and the writing style was fun, it didn't even begin to scratch the surface with regards to the big issues: post partum depression, the struggles to be perfect, the struggles in breastfeeding and whether to continue in the face of such mental health issues. At times, I did laugh but I wish that the issues and the struggles had been tackled with much more depth than Heather actually tackled them.

I think that Ms. Armstrong is really good at telling stories. In some ways, her talent at telling stories disappointed me all the more because she could have told stories that reached out and helped women through their darkest moments.

I would recommend getting this book out of the library and definitely reading her blog, but don't know that I would add this book to the home library.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

2011-04-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

I think that I must have been the only person in high school that didn't have to read this book for English class. And I have this wierd, almost romantic, notion that i will get through a lot of the classics, if not all of them, before I die. I also have this thing about books that occur on college campuses or at prep schools And this was one of those books that, on its face, seemed to fit all of those interests. But I was disappointed, I must say and I was happy that the book was so short, comparatively speaking.

The novel is set at Devon, a prep school in New Hampshire (that is obviously loosely based on Exeter) during the 40's. World War II is raging on. The novel focuses on Phineas (Finny for short) and Gene (the protagonist) who is best friends with Finny. They are seemingly best friends - at the very least, they became friends quickly. The honeymoon period is followed by a period of one sided animosity with Gene hating Finny with such intensity that it's surprising that nothing worse happened sonner than it did. It culminates, at least initially, with Gene knocking Finny out of a tree that they were using to jump into a river and with Finny receiving a shattered leg that ruins his athletic career. The book meanders on until the ending, which threw me a little bit for a loop, but then I became embarassed because I really thought that I should have expected it.

I didn't mind the fact that there wasn't a lot of action. Some of the best books, in my opinion, don't have a lot of action in them but have a ton of stuff that you can still sink your teeth into - relationships, philosophy, a good story, characters that you connect with and care about. But this novel didn't have anything like that. It didn't have a story, I didn't particularly care for the characters (or how Knowles created them) and I didn't particularly empathize with anything that happened either. Which meant that the story was just plain boring. And disappointing. And made me glad that I didn't have to read it in English class.

I would pass.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

2011-03-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Finally, I finished a series! It's been quite some time that I have finished a series and have enjoyed the books as much as I did this series.

Mockingjay is the final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins and I was so upset to see them end. I don't want to give too much away so I can't really talk about the plot, except to say that it is the culmination of Katniss' struggles in the country of Panem.

Go out and buy it NOW!!!

Book 11/100

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

2011-03-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa I heard about this book on NPR, which reviewed it and praised it to no end. And that praise was well deserved.

In this book, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells are now famously known as the HeLa cells. We learn quite quickly that the cell line was derived from Ms. Lacks' cervical cancer cells and what made them unique is that scientists were easily able to grow them indpendently of anything, thereby allowing an infinite number of cells upon which to perform research. Henrietta's cells were used to develop things like the polio vaccine and were sent to space. Rebecca learned about them initially in one of her science classes and was immediately hooked upon finding out more about the biography of the woman whose cells had this huge impact on our world. I mean, in essence, Henrietta's cells were used to eradicate polio and may one day be credited for having sponsored the cure for things like cancer. Rebecca learned quite quickly that there was very little to be found out about Henrietta so she decided to find Henrietta's family and write a book about it.

I loved this book - it's part science (in that Skloot explains the cells etc), part biography and part social commentary. She tells the story of the Lacks family and how they were treated unjustly by scientists - they were never told that Henrietta's cells were taken and cultued and people have made money off of them, while her children and grandchildren couldn't afford medical care. Her research and her passion were admirable and impressive - Ms. Skloot spent ten years of her life researching this masterful piece and she was able to become trusted by the family. Without that trust there is no doubt this book would have been a much less book than it is.

I highly recommend this book!

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-03-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

So I picked this novel up in the airport as I was waiting to get on my flight to Orlando, mostly because it is coming out as a movie and I wanted to read it before seeing the movie. That's my general rule after all. And I was sorely disappointed.

In this historical novel, Jacob Jankowski, the protagonist, has left Vetrinary school at Cornell after suffering the loss of his parents, who have died in a tragic car accident. He learns fairly quickly that his father, also a vet, was heavily in debt and actually died owing money. So Jacob leaves school and his home and literally joins the circus. He travels cross country with the circus, acting as the show's vetrinarian and working under August, the head trainer and Uncle Al, the show's ringleader. August is an interesting man, alternately charming and brutal. He's also married to the beautiful Marlena, a performer, that Jacob forms a special bond with. This novel is about Jacob's relationship with Marlena, with the new elephant, Rosie and with Uncle Al.

There are definitely several themes that are prevalent in this novel, which are super easy to pick out. Water is for cleansing, for instance and the train tracks are for choosing a life path.

I was not impressed by this book at all. The themes were easy to spot and the ending was just as easy to spot. The characters were shallow and one dimensional and I found myself annoyed with them more often than I was intrigued by them. I just didn't really like it - I kept expecting it to get better and it didn't. It was a complete and utter failure.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

2011-03-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

I'm so woefully behind in my reviews!

This is the second book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. It continues the story of Katniss Everdeen and the futuristic, post apocalyptic world of Panem. After winning the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss and her co-victor/lover Peeta return to their home District - District 12 - located in Appalachia and the poorest of the Districts (with the exception of 13, which has been obliterated). There are rumors of rebellion among the other districts, which hold Katniss up as their leader/figurehead. As a result of her, rebellion has been sparked and President Snow threatens to kill Katniss' family if she doesn't comply with his orders. After going through the districts on their victory tour and having Peeta propose, the two victors learn that the 75th hunger games will pit past victors against one another. The balance of the book is about the 75th Hunger Games.

I loved this novel as much as I loved The Hunger Games. It is unique, has un anticipated twists and turns and I love the characters, even the ones that you're supposed to hate. They are all so deep and their motivations multi-layered. Collins had done what many authors have tried, unsuccessfully, to do: write a deeply powerful sequel that rivals the depth and power of the first. I can't wait to read the third!

Batte Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

2011-02-26T04:58:00.000-08:00

I read this because one of my upcoming podcasts is going to be about the Tiger Mother phenom that is taking over the country AND because one of my co-workers went to Yale Law, where Ms. Chua and her husband both teach. I really enjoyed this book, even though I may not subscribe to her parenting style wholeheartedly (but that's for the next podcast!).

This book is actually a mommy memoir - which I think gets lost in the shuffle of the hoopla that has surrounded this book. In it Chua tells of her struggle to raise her children in the traditional "chinese" way while living in the United States and, specifically, in a culture that seems to espouse what she calls "Western" syle parenting, in which children seem to have all the flexibility that they want without all the discipline. This isn't a parenting guide - Ms. Chua doesn't tell one how to be a "tiger mom."

I respect Ms. Chua's complete and utter honesty in writing this book. She really put herself out there for all the world to see and to talk about and to criticize or take pot shots at. It takes great courage to really put yourself out there the way that she did, because she must have known that this book would be controversial; how could an intelligent woman like her not know that? What I also really appreciated about this book was it's read-ability. Ms. Chua is a very good writer and a very good storyteller. The stories that she tells evoke such poignant images that it's almost as if you're there, witnessing the events that she tells from the concerts and lessons to the fight in Russia.

I really enjoyed reading this book - what I think about the style that she espouses must be left for a different day!

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

2011-02-20T16:10:00.000-08:00

I picked up this book because I have a daughter. My son also goes to school with daughters - some of whom are totally going through the princess phase. Some women think it's "just a phase" by Orenstein wholeheartedly disagrees and this book is her argument as to why it isn't just a phase and why it can hurt more than help. Orenstein does this by looking at things like the little girl beauty pagents to sexting and other online communiques by girls. She also looks at the Disney Princesses and fairy tales and what that means to our daughters as well.

I think that this is an important book, albeit a flawed and limited one. it would work wonders, perhaps, for the white mother of privilege that has a white daughter at home but it wouldn't translate well to multiracial or children of color or to people that aren't so well off. Aside from a very brief discussion of Disney's recent The Princess and the Frog, there isn't any other discussion about race and gender and how they intersect (and we all know that they do - just think about how Asian or Black women may be more eroticized because they are seen as "exotic" or how the push to be more "white" impacts them). I also don't like how Orenstein tried to hide the Disney stuff from her daughter (who I think is Asian - she's adopted - which is interesting considering how limited the discussion about race and gender are). I mean, why not just take it head on with your child? The one thing that I have learned from being a parent is that children are smarter than we give them credit for and they don't live in a void. They are constantly watching everything and everyone around them and it's the very rare instance where a toddler, pre-schooler or kindergartner, let a lone an elementary scool kid misses something. This stuff is ripe fodder for discussion! Take the bull by the horns and deal with it!

An important book but take it with a grain of salt - I was so much more hopeful and was disappointed in the results.

Pink Brain, Blue Brain by Lise Eliot

2011-02-20T15:57:00.000-08:00

In this masterful book, Lise Eliot looks at a tremendous amount of studies that compare boys and girls in an effort to determine whether there really is a biological difference that contributes to gender or if it's nature. Dr. Eliot says that it may be a little of both - there are miniscule biological differences between boys and girls at birth that form our core assumptions. Our assumptions are then projected onto our sons and daughters, thereby solidifying the differences and creating a self fulfilling prophecy - in essence, while there may be a biological difference in why boys are better at spatial projections than girls, our assumptions that girls are worse at it than boys makes those differences wider, which is a shame because Dr. Eliot believes that those gaps can be closed with socialization in the opposite direction. After clearly explaining the scientific research conducted in areas such as the role that testoterone plays in development while in utero and why boys lag behind in verbal and language skills, Dr. Eliot provides the readers with a list of things that they can do to ensure that their children close the gaps that exist.

I really enjoyed this book because it seems that everyone that was anyone seems to believe that the biological differences are actually bigger than they are. Dr. Eliot eloquently and thoroughly debunks these theories and lays out exactly why those theories are incorrect (for instance, sometimes information is left out or the experiment's results haven't been replicated). I also really appreciated that Eliot put in ideas at te end of each chapter that would enable parents to attempt to use nurture to counteract the other gender stereotypes that our children are exposed to.

Very good book!

The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger

2011-02-14T16:31:00.000-08:00

This book was on The NY Times list for 2010's most notable books and I thought that it was a good book, but maybe not one that should have been on the list.

It is obvious that Ms. Freudenberger was heavily inspired by the Chinese art of the early nineties because that is the crux of her novel. Her story actually focuses on a group of artists that comprised the East Village art consortium of Beijing. One of them travels to Southern California to teach art at a prestigious, private all girls academy and lives with a family of one of his students. Yuan Zhao is the fictitious member who lives with a somewhat disfunctional family - the Travers family. The four family members barely interact with each other and have no interest in their supposedly famous guest.

i didn't feel that the Travers family and the sections that focussed on them were very well developed at all. Perhaps Fruedenberger did this intentionally to make it obvious to us that this family is super shallow, but I wasn't interested in reading those sections at all. The more intriguing sections were the sections that discussed Yuan Zhao's time in Beijing with the other members of the East Village. They were fascinating, as were their motivations. These were people that I wanted to watch, listen to and get to know because they were very interesting, deep and passionate people.

Generally, this book was all right - there was nothing fantastic about it but nothing overtly horrible either. This may be good as an audio book for a long drive.

Standing Alone in Mecca by Asra Nomani

2011-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Since 9/11, I've been pretty interested in Islam. I have specifically been interested in women's roles in Islam. There is often a lot of information about it in the media, but I've really tried to read memoirs - things like Reading Lolita In Tehran and this book really hit the mark. I learned about Ms. Nomani after watching the movie A Mighty Heart, which is about Mariane Pearl and her search for her husband Daniel. Asra is actually very close to the family, having worked with Daniel at the Wall Street Journal. She plays a prominent role in the movie.

This memoir is about Ms. Nomani's experiences during her hajj, which she went on with her son, Shibli, her parents and her niece and nephew. She was very self-conscious during the hajj and afterwards, painfully so, about being a single mother - something that was frowned upon in Islam and sometimes led to death.

I generally really enjoyed this book, even though at times, the writing became pretty choppy. I enjoyed feeling like I was getting a glimpse into Nomani's journal or diary and I enjoyed learning about the hajj, because as a non-Muslim, I will never be allowed to enter into the areas that she describes. Generally a book that should be read.

3/100 for 2011

Faithful Place by Tana French

2011-01-19T17:00:00.000-08:00

So the first Tana French book I read was In the Woods and I'm kind of glad that I read that one first, because it was so much better than this novel.

This novel focuses on Frank Mackey, an undercover detective in Dublin's police force. We learn quite early on that Frank's first love, Rosie Daly, failed to meet him when they were 19 (they were planning to elope) and Frank believes that she has crossed the chanel to England without him. Ever since then, he hopes that Rosie or her family will contact him to let him know how she is doing, but that doesn't happen. Faithful place is the neighborhood that Frank grew up in and left at 19. Twenty two years later, he opts to return to the neighborhood when he receives a phone call from his baby sister Jackie. Jackie told Frank that a suitcase was found in a derelict house on the street and that it appears that it belonged to Rosie. So begins this novel and how Frank must investigate and discover what happened to his dear Rosie twenty two years before.

While Tana French's prose and the conversation between her characters was a joy to read, I grew tired of this novel really quickly. Her main character was way too similar to her main character in the previous novel that I read. In fact, they were the same exact characters - native sons turned police officers/guards who return to the places where they grew up in order to solve some awful crime that occurred there when they were young. In that sense, it was boring and repetitive. I did and do enjoy the glimpses that she provides into contemporary Irish society, so if you're interested in that, then definitely pick up this novel, but other than that I would pass.

Book 3/100 for 2011

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick

2011-01-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

I've totally been slacking in blogging my reviews but with two children and a Full Time Job, I guess it happens! Anyways, the protagonist in this novel is Bea Nightingale. Bea is in her fifties and is a teacher in the New York City public schools, which was pretty difficult even in the fifties when she was teaching. Her life has been in stasis ever since her divorce from a musician best known for his movie soundtracks. She is estranged from her ex husband, who lives in California. She is also estranged from her snobby brother, Marvin, who also lives in California, but this estrangement ends when she gets an urgent letter from him begging her to go to France to rescue his son. So, Bea goes to Paris, France where she finds his son and his wife. This novel is about how the floodgates of Bea's life are finally opened, enabling her to reclaim it and deal with the issues that she has hidden.

I really enjoyed this novel - this is apparently her sixth or seventh novel. She used a wonderful combination of letters and regular chapters to tell Bea's story and she also adeptly used a variety of voices. Sometimes, she wrote as Bea, sometimes as Bea's niece, sometimes as Marvin. This was an effective way to tell Bea's story and to give us a good, full picture of who Bea was and how she changed. Definitely an ejoyable novel.

Book number 2/100 for 2011

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

2011-01-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

I was browsing the new releases at my local library and this one caught my eye, in part because I enjoy books about colleges/prep schools and in part because some of it takes place in the North Country of New Hampshire and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. And I'm so glad that I did.

This novel is about a thirty something woman named Portia Nathan that is an admissions officer at Princeton University, after having begun her career as an admissions officer at Dartmouth (where she is also an alum). The title actually has two meanings, one of which is clear right away (Portia and her colleagues must decide which students to admit to the in-coming class at Princeton) but the other takes a bit more time and wonderful, masterful language to develop. It relates to Portia's search to develop her own life and future and to come to terms with her past.

The characters were very well drawn and interesting. The admissions process of an Ivy League school was also absolutely fascinating, although I wonder if that actually happens or if, like in the movies, there are artistic licenses taken. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the characters and was interested in their history and their struggles. I found it hard at times to put down this book.

Defintiely a must read.

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

2010-12-29T02:37:00.000-08:00

Danielle Trussoni's first novel is completely about the study of angels and is absolutely wonderful, if you are into books that resemble the Da Vinci Code as far as type of novel (but are much better written!). It is a mystery novel that incorporates elements of religion, history and popular culture into a memorable mystery novel that anyone can sink their teeth into.

Trussoni's novel focuses on a group of angels - the Nephilim - the results of angels mating with human beings. According to Trussoni, they are monsters that belong in cages, even though they are physically, extremely beautiful. It also focuses on Evangeline, a young nun who, on a snowy day in Westchester, NY discovers that the former mother superior had been corresponding secretly with Abigail Rockerfeller (yes, the philanthropist of Rockerfeller Center fame). She meets Verlaine, an art historian who has been hired by one of the nephilim families and together, they are drawn into a centuries old struggle between humans known as angelologists and the Nephilim, who are slowly dying due to a degenerative disorder.

This novel was beautifully and sensuously written - it was hard to put down because of the writing style. There is a lot of alliteration, which makes it so nice to read. You can hear the words in your imagination as you read and feel them going by you, like silk. The characters are beautifully developed and described in such a way that you can see them in your mind. It is also apparent that Trussoni did an impressive amount of research in preparing to write and actually writing this novel. She must have read extensively of memoirs, diaries, letters and research in writing this book and the history that she gave also made me love this novel even more. I also really appreciated that her female characters were very, very strong, spunky women.

LOVED this novel so much...and it totally deserves to be on the NY Times best of 2010 list.

Cairo Time, starring Patricia Clarkson

2010-12-26T18:16:00.000-08:00

So I haven't reviewed a movie in a while because very rarely will a movie move me to actually review it. I mean, I like movies but not as much as I like books. However, this movie was just so beautifully done that I had to share about it.

This is a Canadian independent film that was directed by Rubba Nadda and stars Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig. Patricia Clarkson plays Juliette, a Canadian journalist who arrives in Cairo in order to vacation with her husband who is a UN official in Gaza. Her husband has been delayed so he asks his friend, Tareq (played by Siddig) to be her guide and protector in Cairo until he can escape from his duties to vacation with her. Juliette finds herself falling in love with Cairo but also with Tareq, much to her surprise.

Now, I've never been to Cairo, although I really want to go there someday but this movie made me believe that I had a really good feel for the city - its people, its traffic, its mosques and its coffee shops. And yes, even the pyramids, although I'm sure that it won't be the same as sitting there and feeling the dust or smelling the pyramids themselves. It's very elegant and masterfully done and the acting was absolutely beautiful to watch. Highly recommended.

So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

2010-12-15T04:47:00.000-08:00

In this novel, that I think that I saw referred to on NPR, Shriver takes on the health care system and uses his novel to provide social commentary about how it is broken. It also tends to rail against the system of taxation that is currently in place.

The main character is Shepherd (Shep for short), who spent much of his life building up a handyman business. The business was successful and Shep had a pretty good life - he was married to a wonderful woman and they had two children together. Shep sold the business and put the money into an account so that he could go to Pemba on a trip and retire there. However, his wife contracts mesothelioma - a particularly virulent form of cancer - that begins to decimate his savings. Glynis, his wife, naturally becomes bitter and blames Shep ( thinking that the asbestos he worked with caused the cancer) and herself, for using art supplies that had asbestos in it as well. As it turns out, the person that he sold the company to has agreed to keep him on but the health care plan that the new owner purchased is absolutely horrendous and so Shep ends up having to foot a lot of the bills.

His best friend,Jackson is also in a similar situation - his daughter Flicka has a serious genetic medical condition that will lead to her death soon and which requires constant around the clock care and medications.

This novel was hard to get into but once I got into it, I enjoyed it. The characters are very vivid and well drawn and the diatribes are very relevant to today's issues. The writing style was all right - nothing to fawn over - and was part of the reason that I had a hard time getting into the novel.

Grade: B

American Subversive by David Goodwillie

2010-12-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

This is one of the books on the New York Times 2010 list, for good reason. It was a fascinating read. This novel focuses on two people: Paige and Aidan. Aidan is a 30 something blogger who becomes fascinated with Paige after the bombing of a local agency in post 9/11 New York City. Paige is a 29 year old woman with a history of working for non profit organizations that exist to lobby for the benefit of noble causes. She becomes radicalized after her brother's death as a soldier in Iraq and becomes instrumental in organizing bombings of targets. Paige and Aidan eventually meet and become friends of necessity. Goodwillie's wordy novel details the relationship between the two.

I loved this book - it was ambitious and sometimes fell a little flat but the overwhelming majority of the novel was absolutely wonderful. It's wordiness was something that you could sink your teeth into and the story and writing style were such that it was engrossing - so engrossing that I couldn't put it down. The novel was also really funny in some parts. For instance, Aidan heads to suburbia where he visits with aging hippies and the way that they are portrayed made me giggle. The novel was also tender and achingly endearing in some ways - it's quickly apparent that Aidan has fallen in love with Paige and how Goodwillie describes their affair is very touching.

This is a wonderful read, well worth the time and the money to add it to your library.

The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Moore

2010-12-03T03:53:00.000-08:00

This book is a few years old but is, nonetheless, a wonderful read. AJ Jacobs, at the time, was a writer and editor at Esquire magazine. He decided that he was going to spend one year living according to the word of the Bible, but not just as metaphor. He was going to try to live the words of the Bible as literally as possible. I picked up this book because, on some level, I related to Jacobs - he was/is a secular Jew who wasn't religious and wanted to see what he could find out about his spirituality by doing this project. It's something that I found intellectually interesting.

The book is a memoir that is written almost like a journal or diary. Each chapter encapsulates one month in the experiment and each chapter is further split up by day. For instance, he would start a particular entry as "Day 245" for instance. I loved this book. Jacobs' voice is completely authentic - he's the sort of person that would be really fun to have a beer in a bar with because he's got so many interesting stories. He managed to pull the stories off by using the right combination of seriousness and poignancy along with the appropriate level of comedy, when necessary. I felt like the material was treated respectfully at the same time that Jacobs attempted to soul search by questioning the parts that he felt contradicted.

All in all, a wonderful book.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

2010-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

I, in spite of my best intentions, saw the movie version of this novel before I read the novel. I usually go the other way - reading the novel before I see the movie because inevitably the book is better than the movie. The movie in this case was actually pretty good and fairly true to the book. However, the book itself was absolutely divine.

Briony is the youngest of the Tallis children. The year is 1935 - Hitler is a rising star but hasn't done much of anything yet. The Tallis family lives on a tremendous compound in the English countryside. Robbie Turner also lives on the compound - his mother is a chambermaid in the Tallis household. Briony is 13 and very imaginatve - the novel opens with her completing a play that she had written for performance by she and her cousins - Lola (15), Pierrot and Jackson. It is readily apparent that she is an avid writer with an overactive imagination. Cecilia wants to fill a vase with water at the fountain in front of the Tallis house. She meets Robbie and they start talking but the conversation quickly becomes awkward. When Robbie wants to help Cecilia with the vase, she remains stubborn, the vase breaks, and two pieces fall into the fountain. Cecilia strips to her underwear, jumps into the fountain and retrieves the fragments while Robbie only stares at her. Briony witnesses the ensuing moment of sexual tension from an upstairs bedroom and is confused as to its meaning. In fact, she thinks that Robbie has coerced her sister in some way and is a "maniac."

Leon Tallis arrives with his friend, Paul Marshall. They meet Robbie on their way to the house, and Leon invites him to dinner. Cecilia is irritated at Robbie's coming, but does not know why he bothers her so much.

Meanwhile, Robbie wants to write a letter to Cecilia to apologize for his behavior at the fountain. He indicates that he also feels awkward around her, and, like her, does not know why. After finishing it, he unthinkingly writes another letter, using the word "cunt," suggesting his subconscious desires towards Cecilia. Although he then writes another version of it, the first version is accidentally delivered to Cecilia via Briony, who reads it. Briony consults her cousin Lola. Briony is then convinced that Robbie is a "sex maniac" and that she must "protect" her sister from him.

Upon reading Robbie's letter, Cecilia realizes her love for Robbie and they end up making love in the library. Briony interrupts them, and interprets their lovemaking as a sexual assault upon her sister.
During dinner, the twin cousins run away, leaving a letter. The dinner party divides into groups to go out searching for them. Robbie and Briony are the only ones who are left alone, as Robbie has to acknowledge later. In the dark, Briony comes across Lola being raped by an unknown attacker. Briony blames Robbie as the attacker. Lola, afraid and disturbed, lets Briony do the talking. The police arrive to investigate, and when Robbie arrives with the rescued twins, he is arrested solely on the basis of Briony's testimony. Apart from Robbie's mother, only Cecilia believes in his innocence.

This book was wonderful. It was beautifully written and meaty - something that you could sink your teeth into on a cold winter's night with a glass of red wine or some tea. I also really loved how Ian McEwan dealt with the themes of false charges and mistaken identity and the far reaching impact such a false allegation can have upon many people - in this case, Cecilia, Briony, Robbie, his mother - the entire Tallis family in fact. I enjoyed how Briony attempted to atone for it throughout the entire novel, but didn't really ever fully atone or was ever fully able to forgive herself for her sins. This novel is perhaps the closest ever to being the perfect novel because it has developed its themes, story, characters extremely well.

You must read and own a copy of this exquisite novel!

The Town (previously published as Prince of Thieves) by Chuck Hogan

2010-11-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

I picked up this book because I want to see the movie eventually and because Boston is one of my most favorite, if not my absolute favorite, American city. Four life long friends - Doug McRay, James "Jem" Coughlin, Albery "Gloansy" McGloan and Dez Eldon grew up on the streets of Charlestown in Boston, MA, in the shadows of the Bunker Hill Monument. Doug is the de facto leader of the group and sets up a hit on a local bank. The robbery is successful but something unexpected happens - Doug falls hard for the manager, Claire, that he robbed during the course of the crime. He is pursued by an FBI agent that is dead set upon catching them. The group is made aware of an opportunity to rob Fenway Parkat some point. This novel is about the crimes themselves and about the relationships between Doug, his friends, Clair and himself - his identity.

I had never read anything by Chuck Hogan, even though he is apparently a very talented mystery/criminal thriller writer. I, in a few words, loved this book in part because I knew exactly where everything took place. I have been to Charlestown and I have been to Fenway and to Kenmore Square, where the bank was robbed. It was also, in tremendous part, based upon the writing, the characters and the story itself. The characters fascinated me. I was intrigued and curious about what drove them and that kept me reading and the pages turning. They are so richly drawn that it is impossible to remove them, the acts they perpetrate and the neighborhoods that they come from from your imagination. I loved this book and I hope that the movie is as good as the book.

Someone To Blame by CS Lakin

2010-10-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

I don't normally read Christian fiction but I received this novel as part of an early reviewer program, so I'm reviewing it here. When you hear about Christian fiction, or at least when I do, I think about people that are self righteous and preach-y and I assumed that this book would be the same thing. But I was completely wrong. This is a novel that combines Christian themes with mystery, somewhat successfully; however in general, it wasn't that great a first attempt.

Irene and Matt Moore are married and opt to escape their previous lives by moving themselves and their fourteen year old daughter Casey to the small town of Breakers. Breakers is literally on the edge of the country on the Pacific Northwest and is cold and unforgiving. The family moves there in the hopes of escaping family tragedy. While there, the family meets Billy Thurber, a young man that is battling his own demons, including an alcoholic father and being judged by the local town folk. Irene, Matt and Casey are walking on eggshells around each other and the introduction of Billy to the family seems to make things worse.

I didn't particularly enjoy this novel because the writing style was just so blech. It was overly simple and I didn't enjoy reading it - it was choppy - and it pained me to read it at times. I also didn't like the characters - they were too shallow and predictable. They weren't complex at all. The whole plotline was actually pretty predictable and this was frustrating too. I mean, if I am going to read any book, i want it to be good and this just wasn't it. I did appreciate how the author attempted to take on complex topics - death of family members among other topics. However, in general, this wasn't a particularly enjoyable novel.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

2010-10-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

This is Franzen's fourth novel, but only the second that I have read. I read The Corrections quite some time ago; however I picked up this novel not because of The Corrections (because, quite frankly, I don't remember too much about that novel) but because I've heard about this novel all over the place, from NPR to the Times.

Franzen begins by introducing us to his main characters - Walter and Patty Berglund - who are living in St. Paul, Minnesota in a run down part of town. They have purchased a home that can only be called a fixer upper. They seem to be a perfect couple - Walter works and is a sensitive husband to Patty, who stays at home, raises her children and makes staying at home her profession. And she does it well. The novel takes place in the years just following the September 11 attacks. Walter's son, Joey, is Patty's favorite and she becomes the classic helicopter parent to such an extent that she literally drives Joey away - he begins to sleep with the neighbor girl (Connie) and ends up living with her family because he can't stand to be in the same home as Patty. Jessica is his sister. The story focusses on the questionable choices that each of Franzen's characters make.

I really enjoyed this book - it was a pleasure to read, even in my currently sleep deprived state. Franzen's prose makes it so easy to enjoy this book and to strive to read the entire 500 pages in one sitting. The characters were well drawn and in depth. It was a wonderful book to read.

Must add to your collection. I have an extra copy if anyone wants. Please email me at mkowalewski[at]gmail[dot]com if you would like it. First one to respond gets it. Please include mailing address.

A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

2010-10-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

This is the third installment in the books about the "Wicked" years - the series that began with the ever popular book, Wicked. Both were written by Gregory Maguire, whose poularity seemingly hinges on re-writing fairy tales from a different perspective. Where Wicked was witty, unfortunately Maguire's subsequent books tend to lack the wittiness and the uniqueness that made Wicked so wonderful to read.

A Lion Among Men begins with the Cowardly Lion, whose name is actually Brrr, meeting with Sister Yackle, an ancient oracle who is living in the same convent that Elphaba lived in before starting off on her tryst as the Wicked Witch of the West. Brr, who is employed by the new Emperor of OZ, has been sent to meet with Yackle in the hopes of getting information about Elphaba, Liir (her son), the Thropp family and the Grimmerie (the witch's book). Sister Yackle is a pretty good adversary for Brr because she sets up a system of give and take: for each piece of information that she gives him about Elphaba and the Grimmerie, he must give her some information about himself, leading him to recall repressed memories of his childhood through the present and which includes his interactions with Elphaba, Dorothy and the current administration of Oz.

The book starts off quite slowly - I had trouble getting into it mostly because Maguire uses winding prose and similarly winding plotlines that don't always make sense until the end of the novel. For instance, we learn about a young woman who life is intertwined with the infamous clock dragon; however these interludes don't make full sense until the end of the novel and are pretty confusing. I didn't like this novel nearly as much as Wicked because i didn't think it was as creatively written and there were no interesting revelations about the Lion or the other characters, as there were in Wicked. It was slow and sometimes boring.

I'd pass on this one.

In The Woods by Tana French

2010-10-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

This is Tana French's first mystery novel and it was merely all right. There were some things that I really enjoyed and some things that I really didn't like.

Ms. French's first novel follows a snapshot in the career and life of a detective on Dublin's murder squad. It specifically follows him on one case - the murder of a 12 year old girl that occurred in the town that he grew up in and how it draws him back into the tragedy that led to him becoming a detective in the first place. Because when he was 12, Detective Ryan's two friends - Jamie and Peter - went into the woods in the town of Knocknaree and never came out, although Detective Ryan did. He was found in a catatonic state, against a tree, with Jamie's blood in his shoes but with no memory of anything that had happened to them while they were in the woods. The mystery of what had happened to the youngsters was never resolved. Since this has happened, Detective Ryan has changed his name from Adam to Rob, has adopted the British accent that was so popular at the boarding school that he was sent to and is a murder detective with a cool partner named Cassie.

Cassie and Rob catch the recent murder case, which also occurs in Knockaree and appears to have a very tenuous link to Detective Ryan's past.

I really enjoyed the characters that French has developed - they are so vivid and three dimensional and human. They aren't heroes in the sense that Superman and Wonder Woman are heroes are and their flaws make them that much more easily related to. For instance, Rob struggles with whether to tell his boss that he in fact has this case in his past that may impact his ability to work on the case that he just got put on with Cassie. This is something that people may have their own struggles with - it's easy to see people in the same position professionally. I *hated* the ending and the loose ends that were left. I have no idea if French did that intentionally because she was planning on writing a sequel but it really, really irked me when things that had been built up during the course of the novel weren't resolved in any way - whether by closing it out or letting the reader know that another book was forthcoming.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

2010-10-02T04:07:00.000-07:00

The Imperfectionists is Tom Rachman's first novel. It's about a group of journalists that work for a daily in Rome. This daily was founded about 50 years or so before the stories in this novel take place by a millionaire for reasons that are never really clear. Each chapter is about one of the employees from the publisher down to a copyeditor and even a reader. There are also a few short pages at the end of each paragraph about the history of the paper from when it was founded to its modern day. The stories reference the characters in the other, but aren't interlaced in the sense that they tell the same story from differen perspectives. They each tell different stories that are supposed to tell us something about the person that Rachman is narrating about.

This book was just delightful. I really enjoyed Rachman's writing style - it was quick, witty, intelligent and fun. And his characters! I loved them because they were imperfect. They aren't romantic heroes, like you sometimes find in other books - they are flawed, just like normal human beings are and that's why I loved them. They have the same insecurities and joys that we all do. Absolutely wonderful.

Breaking Night by Liz Murray

2010-09-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. There. I said it and now that I've totally gotten rid of the anticipation of what I recommend, let me tell you about this book. Liz Murray was born in 1980 addicted to crack (because her mom used consistently throughout her pregnancy), but otherwise healthy and lived in the Bronx, New York. During her time growing up, she watched her parents struggle with drug addiction and struggling to provide for her and her older sister, Lisa. Liz also dealt with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in a way that most of us may never, ever know about. At 15, Liz became homeless. She had no place to live and, for a long period of time, did not go to school. However, Liz did manage to get into an alternative school - the Humanities Prepatory Academy in Manhattan, where she managed to complete all of her assignments in the subway stations that she slept in. She earned enough credits to graduate in two years and was eventually accepted into Harvard University.

This young woman showed an uncanny maturity beginning at an early age - she knew how to mainline drugs at age 6 (even though she never used them) and had to care for her parents when they both hit their rock bottom moments (which seemed to happen often enough in Liz's early life). She showed that she is a fighter by being able to scramble to care for herself in the girls' home that she was placed at during her early adolescence and then during the period of time that she was homeless. I was deeply impressed by her writing style - no holds barred, but classy at the same time. This isn't just some morality tale for the reader; she literally just tells it like it is.

Worth the read.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

2010-09-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

This is Paul Murray's second novel. It takes place at an all boy's Catholic school in Ireland and focuses on Daniel "Skippy" Juster. Skippy got his nickname because he bore an uncanny resemblance to a children's kangaroo character of the same name. He is a boarder at Seabrook College, a Catholic school, at a time in most young boys' life when they're undergoing certain, shal we say, changes. Skippy's best friend and roomate is Ruprecht, a portly boy that is a genius. The novel opens with Skippy and Ruprecht having a donut eating contest at a local eatery that is popular with the Seabrook boys. Ruprecht looks on in shock as Skippy collapses, falls off his chair and dies, while writing "Tell Lori" on the floor in jelly, even though he doesn't seem to be choking. So yes, Skppy dies in the first few pages. But this satire of contemporary Irish society doesn't just end there. It proceeds for about 650 more pages, in which we meet the mysterious Lori referred to by Skippy, Howard the Coward (a history teacher at Seabrook and an alum who lives with his girlfriend Halley after a failed attempt at invest banking in the city), Ms. McIntyre (a substitute geography teacher, who tells Howard that she won't sleep with him no matter what he does), and the other boys and teachers at the school who are impacted by Skippy's untimely death.

I loved this book - it took me only a few days to read it even though it's 661 pages long and sometimes difficult to read, emotionally at least. Murray does a wonderful job in conveying all points of view - at times, he's poignant, at times cynical, at times nieve and at other times just really, really witty. Totally worth the read, even though some parts of this novel are heavy, or dark or both at the same time.

Anthropology of an America Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann

2010-09-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

I heard about this book on NPR. This book first came out in 2003 when Hilary Thayer Hamann self-published it. Then, recently, it really took off and hit the mainstream press. It is 620 some odd pages and covers some years in the life of Eveline Auerbach, a girl that lives in East Hampton, NY and New York City in the late 70's and early 80's. She is raised by her divorcee, professor mother and sometimes, her father takes part in her upbringing - he lives in New York city after all. During her junior year in high school, she meets and falls in love with Jack. Jack is a rebel in every sense of the word, and is, in particular rebelling against his father, a wealthy man who seems to ruin everything that he touches. When that relationship ends, Evie meets and falls in love with Harrison Rourke during her senior year in high school. Harrison is a substitute drama teacher at her high school who also boxes professionally and has ties to the New Jersey mafia. After spending a magical summer together, Evie and Harrison split up and Evie enrolls at NYU for college. She also ends up moving in with Mark, a rich stockbroker type who is als very, very slimey and reptilian and just rubs everyone the wrong way. Mark hates Harrison with a passion that is almost unseen in other people. Evie lives with Mark for three long, unhappy years.

This book was pretty good - I can see why it became popular so quickly. It tells a really good story of a girl whose voice is absolutely authentic and true. Her opinions regarding relationships - romantic and otherwise - all seem so true. She's also very charming and beguiling, particularly at the beginning of the novel. We've all been in high school and had relationshps while we're there, so this part is interesting and easily related to. The second part moves a bit more slowly and perhaps tries the patience more so than the first part of the novel. It annoys the reader that she doesn't get herself out of what is obviously a bad situation that is continuously getting worse.

While this isn't going to be on any prize winning lists, it is an entertaining read that is addictive and distracting. Worth the read for sure.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

2010-09-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

This was another of of those book blogger cult favorites that I just barely got around to reading. It's a 784 page monster of a book (no pun intended) about vampires, but it's not like Twilight or Bram Stoker or Anne Rice type of vampire novel. In fact, these vampires are highly trained killing machines created by the US government from people that were on death row after committing capital offenses in their home states. The recruits are found and signed up by FBI agents after the ranks of death row inmates were culled. They have no mercy and nothing to tell them what is right or wrong, but they do often wonder who they are. 12 death row inmates (a Biblical reference I wonder?) are the original test targets and a six year old orphan is also found, to be a potential test subject. The 12 become jumpers, who eat the animals thrown into their cells until they escape and begin to prey on humans, who become vampires in their own right once attacked.

There are humans that somehow survive. In order to continue their survival, they band together and it's this group of people that form the First Colony in the World After. They begin to pair off and have children, who aren't told about the vampires until they are old enough to go into the world and fight. The main character is Amy Bellafonte, the six year old girl that we are introduced to whose role it seems is to save the world.

I can't wait for the next installment in the series because there is no doubt that this is the first in a sequence where Amy is the cathartic character. The book was never dull - I was always looking forward to the next page, hell the next sentence. It is definitely a page turner. It made me constantly look over my shoulder, hoping that a Jumper wouldn't be lurking behind me or above me waiting to make me a vampire.

Can't wait for the next!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2010-09-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

I think that I'm the last blogger to have read and reviewed this book but I finally got around to it. This is technically classified as young adult science fiction but there were some themes that were pretty mature in it and which adults could relate to, perhaps for different reasons.

The setting is the country of Panem. Panem is a fictional country that rises out of what once was the United States, Canada and Mexico. It seems to be almost a post apocalyptic society in the same way that The Handmaid's Tale was. The country consists of a wealthy Capitol district in the Rocky Mountains and twelve poorer districts who are known for certain types of industry. The main character comes from the 12th district - Appalachia - known for its coal mining. There is a 13th district that was torn apart and literally wiped off the map by the Capitol due to a rebellion - it no longer has residents or industry and exists in name only, literally. The story takes place sometime in the future, although we are never told when in the future it takes place. As punishment for the 13th District's Rebellion against the Capitol District, one boy and one girl, aged 12 to 18, from each district is selected to compete in the Government sponsored Hunger Games, which are broadcast live on TV (think Survivor but where the competitors actually die). Each competitor, or tribute, must fight in an undisclosed outdoor arena to the death, until one remains.

Katniss, a fatherless girl from District 12, is the protagonist for this novel. After volunteering to be the girl tribute from her district in order to spare her sister (who is selected), we follow her as she travels through the Capitol and participates in the games.

The major themes in this novel are big government and Big Brother as well as personal independence and freedom, as the government is involved in just about every aspect of their citizens' lives. I wasn't able to put this book down for a second once I started it, to the anger and frustration of my household. Yes, it probably would have gone by quickly simply because it's a young adult book, but it seemed to fly by even faster because it was such a good book. It was entertaining and disturbing and fascinating all at the same time. Very believable and a great read.

Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mantel

2010-09-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ms. St. John Mantel's first novel is about Lilia Albert. At seven, Lilia Albert is visted by her father, a man that she hasn't seen in about one year, and taken by him from her rural Canadian home in the middle of the night. As a result, she never sees her mother or brother, with whom she already lives, again. Instead her father, who has his own money, moves her from one American city to another, sometimes not spending more than a few hours or a night in one place. Along the way, he provides for Lilia's education - she mostly learns languages while he's driving, upon which she is quizzed later on.

At the beginning of the novel, though, we know none of this. We meet Lilia as a twenty something dishwasher who is living in New York City - Brooklyn to be exact - and she is dating a young graduated student named Eli. Eli is in love with her so when Lilia leaves him somewhat unceremoniously as only she can, his spirit is utterly ravaged and he is left devastated. As Eli begins to search for her, he learns about Lilia and we learn about her at the same time, as the story is told through the alternating viewpoints of a private investigator (hired by Lilia's mother to find her), Eli, and the private investigator's daughter, who feels and actually is utterly neglected by her father's obssession in finding Lilia.

I loved this book - it was a wonderfuly, quirky and deep novel that kept me reading. I really wanted to learn all that I could about Lilia - she was so mysterious - I wanted to know why she did what she did and where she had come from and why she had been taken by her absentee father. Nothing seemed to be revealed at once and making revelations in a manner like pulling back onion peels also made this book really, really special.

Scout, Atticus and Boo by Mary McDonagh Murphy

2010-09-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

I remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee for the first time in ninth grade Honors English class. It was one of the few books where our English teachers also showed us the move, which is also one of my favorite movies. I liked it then and I liked it now, albeit for different reasons. For me, Atticus was the main figure, where for others it may have been Scout or Boo Radley.

Anyways, this book by Mary Murphy is based upon a video documentary that she is working on, in book form. The first of two sections is written aby Murphy's own personal experiences with the book. She discusses her feelings, thoughts and reactions to the book version and the movie version and why she was inspired to compose her own documentary and accompanying book. The second section is composed of essays written by famous people, including Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brokaw and Mary Badham (who played Scout in the movie) and which includes their own impressions of the book.

I generally enjoyed the first section and the first few essays of the second section, but the book quickly grew repetitive. A lot of the essayists had the same reactions and many focussed on how Harper Lee didn't write a second novel, was a very private person and how Truman Capote, one of Lee's friends, didn't ghostwrite or otherwise assist Lee in writing the novel that garnered her a Pulitzer Prize. Because of the repetitiveness, the book took me a little bit longer to read than it normally would have - the writing style is such that if it had been more unique, I would have flown right through everything. I did appreciate that gossip and speculation about Harper Lee was not included in this book - smut like that has no place in a celebration of a book that is still extremely important to American society 50 years after its first printing.

Worthwhile read, but get it out from the library instead of purchasing.

Lit by Mary Karr

2010-08-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

I loved reading Mary Karr's other memoirs so I was excited when this one came out. Unfortunately, it took me until now to get to it.

Lit, Karr's latest memoir, details her struggles with alcohol, her road to sobriety and her converstion to Catholicism. The focus is on her early years as a writer and young parent and how alcohol impacted those things as well as contributed to the dissolution of her marriage. Timeline wise, this book takes place 9 years after the events discussed in Cherry, Karr's coming of age memoir. The story begins with Karr as a teenager and then as a college student, then as a poet and grad student and finally her family life.

I loved this memoir. There were some parts of it that really struck home for me as a young parent - especially when Karr details the impact of her drinking on her son in particular. It was poignant and touching and emotional and raw, but eloquent and wonderful at the same time. She's also really meticulous and frank in her descriptions and stories. Karr doesn't spare the reader or herself the memories and the pain and the other emotions that are attached to her struggles. She excellently conveys the tension that she experiences between her heart/emotion and her brain/intellectualism in a way that very few authors could do.

Karr's story is inspiring and wonderful and a must read for all.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

2010-08-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

This novel by Tatjana Soli is about a female photojournalist that covers the Vietnam War from 1969 until a little bit beyond its close in 1972. Helen finds that the violence that she photographs changes her life in numerable ways and that she can't just leave the country, no matter how many times she nearly dies in the process. It's an addiction, akin to that possibly felt by extreme sports fanatics. Helen arrives there in Vietnam obsessed with learning about her brother, who died in the war. She is young and naive and inexperienced. She quickly becomes hooked to Sam Darrow, another photographer, who becomes her mentor and lover. He's already a ton of time doing what Helen will spend the next decade of her life doing. He can't return home, even though he constantly promises that he would do so. And Linh is, perhaps, the most complicated of all - he is Vietnamese with ties to both the NVA and SVA and the underground, black market.

The title is a reference to the Greek myth of Lotus Eaters, who eat the narcotic plants and become obsessed, possessed and addicted by them. And that reference comes out during the entire book from Sam Darrow, who can't leave to Helen who keeps returning. They're addicted to war, the endorphins that trail behind it and what they see there. It also explores violence and the role that it plays on relationships - most notably love and longing between Darrow, Helen and Linh.

I really enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it.

The Good Son by Michael Gruber

2010-08-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

This is one of the books that I heard about on NPR and decided to read, and was wildly glad that I did.

The Good Son was written by Michael Gruber, a man that had a lot of careers before becoming a novelist, including chef and journalist. I'm convinced that his background as a journalist helped him in composing this novel about the intersection of the Muslim world of Pakistan/Afghanistand and the West.

The protagonist, Sonya Davis, is a white, American woman that practices both Islam and Catholicism and married a wealthy Pakistani. After working briefly in a circus, she and her husband, Farid Laghari, moved to Lahore where they had three children - one of whom (Theo) we get to know intimately in this novel. Theo is raised in Lahore. At ten, a family tragedy inspires Theo and his best friend (and adopted brother) Wazir to run off to join the jihad against the Russians (it is, after all, the late eighties when the Russians were in Afghanistan). At 13, Theo becomes a legendary jihadist after he single handedly kills 60 soldiers and takes over their fort. As the novel begins, Sonya is leading a group of activists into the Afghani country and mountains in order to hold a convention that promotes peace. They are taken hostage. Theo promptly sets out to rescue his mother.

I really enjoyed this novel because it was a spy/mystery novel that contained a lot of information about the Muslim world and discussion about comparative religion/culture. That was what interested me the most about this book. Gruber's writing style made this discussion accessible and interesting while not letting it drag a whole lot (though in some places it did). Each plotline (of which there are three) are told in alternating chapters from different points of view, but it's hardly confusing or difficult to follow and actually makes the book more enjoyable because, in my opinion, it becomes easier to follow.

Mr. Gruber obviously has a talent and it's one that you must enjoy with this novel.

The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman

2010-08-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

I heard about this book on one of the podcasts that I listen to - the Manic Mommies interviewed Hope Edelman on one of the podcasts that I listened to (I'm really behind) and the book sounded really interesting. And it was really interesting.

This memoir takes place in 2000. Hope is living with her three year old daughter (Maya) and her husband, Uzi, in California. She's a writer and her husband works for a start up computer company. Hope is going through a rough period - she's not happy with her writing, she feels like she gives up a lot of time with her daughter and Uzi has been working long hours at the start-up so her relationship with him is suffering. She resents him for not being around for her or for Maya. So the family plans a trip to Belize. As the trip approaches, Maya begins to act strangely. She begins to act out by becoming violent towards her parents, playing alone and blaming everything on her new imaginary friend, Dodo. All the doctors and social workers that Hope talks to reassure her that this is normal for a child that is Maya's age, but Hope's instincts tell her something else is at work. Uzi suggests that they meet with shamans in Belize to see if they can help Maya and Hope is very resistant to the idea.

The trip starts out poorly because Maya is physically ill - she has a fever and a nasty cough that is, in all likelihood, Croup. Two trips to two different shamans occur. The first one is ended early by Hope herself, who is still suspicious of them. The second one is a much more positive one for her and her family.

This story is really about Hope Edelman, couched in her daughter's story. She details her struggles as a working, professional mother who wants to do the best that she can for her child while still making money and having a career. What it is, perhaps, most of all is about a woman that pushes against the boundaries of her belief systems and learns what faith is: what it means to have faith in something that one normally wouldn't believe in, even where there is no explanation for it. And I thought that Hope had a lot of guts to put herself in the position where she was trusting someone like a shaman and then, on the second level, writing about her experiences and her fears and belief systems so publicly. And her writing was so beautiful and accessible. At one point, she describes her family's trip to the ancient Mayan ruins in Belize and I almost felt like I was there.

Highly recommended and one that I would purchase for your home library.

Fun With Problems by Robert Stone

2010-08-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

This is a short collection of seven stories written by Robert Stone. I heard about this collection on NPR I think, but I had never heard of the author before.

The main characters in each of Stone's stories seem to deal with the same issues - dissatisfaction with their life in some way, shape or form that they deal with by consuming massive amounts of alcohol. Some consume so much alcohol that they are literally and figuratively drowning in it (there are at least two drownings/near drownings in this collection).

When I first started reading, I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get through the entire collection. While some of the stories drew me in immediately, some of them did not. I lost interest in some of the characters easily, perhaps because all of the main characters were male and their struggles were not like mine, not because they were male but simply because I didn't have their issues and couldn't relate to their issues. But I kept on and when I ask myself why, I figured out why. Stone is an exquisite author who manages, somehow, to dig to the root of his character's problems and present them in such a raw manner that you can't help but continue. It's almost like you can't look away, no matter how hard you try to. He's a good writer in that his word choice is so pleasurable but his plots also made it difficult to plow through his stories or even to savor them. He needs to work a little bit on plot at least as it relates to his short story work.

Generally, decent.

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

2010-08-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is the 11th novel by Guy Gavriel Kay and I'm surprised that I haven't heard of this author or read anything by him before because this book was an absolute treat. It is set in 8th centruy China, during the Tang dynasty, but the country is only loosely based upon that time and place. The main character is Shen Tai, the second son of a reknowned general that has passed away. Shen's older brother, Liu, is the assistant to the prime minister of Kitan (as Chinas is known n this novel). The brothers have a younger sister that becomes a princess and part of the royal family.

Their father has recently died and part of Shen Tai's mourning was to go to a remote village, where a battle has recently occurred and where there are many unburied bodies. Of course, ghosts roam the area as well, at least until their bodies are buried. Shen Tai buries the bodies of the dead soldiers that he comes across. As a result of his work, he is given a gift of 250 horses; horses from the nieghboring country that are prized in Kitan. They are workhorses, warhorses, beautiful and they bring honor to whoever owns them. He is swept up in the national political scene and makes friends and connections. He is the subject of at least one assassination attempt.

This novel, perhaps unsurprisingly once you have read it, took five years of work and it shows. It is well written and well researched. The book is beautiful and full of life. It doesn't drag along and isn't smarmy, like some historical fiction books tend to do. The characters are beautifully developed and drawn. They are multifaceted. This novel is everything that one would want it to be.

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

2010-08-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

I think that this is the second or third book in a month that waxes eloquently on marriage - specifically bad ones. I hope that it doesn't say anything about my unconsciousness or whatever (it doesn't, but seriously, why are all the books that I have been picking up about dysfunctional relationships in some way shape or form?).

This novel begins with a diary entry written by Irene America - she actually keeps two diaries. One of the diaries is for herself and she keeps it in a lockbox at her local bank - a lockbox that only she has access to. The other she keeps in her desk drawer in her home and she writes in it what she wants her husband to see. Both Irene and her husband, Gil, are of Native American descent and both are raised by single mothers, but the novel doesn't delve into typical Native American Indian themes. Its focus is more on relationships. Gil, a painter, paints portraits of Irene and uses them as weapons and, sometimes therapy, in much the same way that Irene uses her diary (at least the public one that she knows Gil reads) as a weapon against him. Gil is plagued by jealousy that causes him to lash out at their older son, Florian, while at the same time causing him to lash out almost passively/aggressively at his wife, through his paintings (some of which are disturbing).

This novel was very raw but very well done. The characters are flawed but somehow, you manage to figure them out and relate to them on some level. The ones that you really feel for are the three children, that must bear witness to their parents' steadily sinking marriage, and their hate of each other. They often bear the brunt of their parents' fights. Vert enjoyable.

Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

2010-07-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't been put off simply because my last foray was just plain awful! I picked up Amy Bloom's newest edition of short stories and I wasn't disappointed at all.

This collection of short stories looks at a few different families who must deal with certain common American themes: they often must deal with death, aging, love (or the lack of it) and children moving away. But the one common silver thread in all of these stories is strength: strength to leave or stay, to stand up for what you believe is the right thing to do. Of all the families that she focussed on, my favorite was about Julia, a white woman, who marries Lionel, a black musician with a son from a previous marriage. I loved following this family through all of its tumultuous events.

Amy Bloom is an extraordinary writer. She manages to hook you with the very first words that she writes and manages to keep you interested throughout her entire story. The words that she uses were obviously carefully considered and the joy that I got out of them were immeasurable. That sort of care goes a long way. I wouldn't go into this expecting a completely happy picture of marriage or love or relationships, however. This is a somewhat bittersweet and sometimes unhappy view of the institution.

Overall though, wonderful!

Free to a Good Home by Eve Marie Mont

2010-07-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I read reviews of books on blogs and I think that I might enjoy the book enough that I should buy it, so I do. And more often than not, I'm not disappointed - I end up liking the book enough that I'll keep it and am glad that I bought it. But there are also times that I can't believe that I purchased a particular book because I end up not loving it (in purchasing books, it's become important to me that the book is either a classic or one that I love before I purchase it - it's a way of saving money!). This book is one of those books that I didn't love and almost (dare I say) regret buying.

This novel is about Noelle Ryan, a vet technician whose husband Jay has told her that he's gay and filing for divorce, thereby eviscerating her hopes and dreams of a family with him and forcing her to re-evaluate her life and her goals for it. Noelle has a lot of stuff going for her, although dealing with her issues and problems isn't one of them. She's a successful vetrinary technician with a penchant for organizing charity events and convincing people to donate money, so that she can make the shelter that she works at more hospitable for the animals she cares for. She's also dedicated to her family, although she sometimes borders on obssessing about them. Throw in a family that is pressuring her to have kids, a sensitive musician boyfriend type and an apparently vindicative ex-mother in law and you have a stereotypical chicklit book.

And that's all this novel was - fluffy, disappointing and unsatisfying chicklit. It was predictable as far as plot line went and the prose was completely unsatisfying. The characters were very two dimensional - Noelle acted only as a doormat in my opinion. She was walked over so many times that it was beyond boring and beyond me having the energy to even want to reach into the book and hit over the head or shake her to get her to come to her senses. I just wasn't interested in the characters and so found myself slogging through, thankful that it was a really quick, mindless and easy read.

Pass on this one.

Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky,translated by Tim Mohr

2010-07-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

This short and yet heavy novel is Alina Bronsky's debut novel. Originally published in German, it has been translated into English by Tim Mohr. Sasha Naimann is a teenage girl. She, her mother (Marina), stepfather Vadim, younger brother Anton and younger sister Alissa moved from Russia to Germany, where they settled into a Russian ghetto. Sasha, a brilliant woman, opens the book by saying that she plans to murder her stepfather because he murdered her mother and her mother's new boyfriend. Vadim is incarcerated, giving Sasha the belief that she has more time to plan his execution. Sasha takes care of her brother and sister with the assistance of Maria, also a Russian immigrant and Vadim's cousin. Sasha struggles with the powerful desire to remain in the apartment that her mother was murdered in, in the housing project known as the "Emerald," because her neighbors (also Russian immigrants), want her family to leave and take their bad luck with them. Sasha also feels like she doesn't wholly belong because she refuses to participate in the drunken, drug driven parties that her peers engage in in nearby Broken Glass Park - a park that literally has glass strewn about.

What I loved about Sasha is that she has great capacity for love, in spite of the harsh hand that life has been dealt her. She is very protective of her younger siblings and she even agrees to tutor a neighbor in order to help her pass her exams and not be left behind in school. However, her capcity for actually being kind most of the time is non-existent because of what she has suffered. The translation and the writing style along with the memorable Sasha made this book a wonderful and memorable read. It went by insanely fast. I think that I read it in about a day and a half, which is a record for me having a child and a full time job and not as much time as I would like to read.

This is definitely one for you to read.

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

2010-07-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

Island Beneath the Sea is Isabel Allende's eight novel. It's historical fiction set in the 1700's and 1800's in both Santo Domingo/Haiti and New Orleans during the slave uprisings, the French Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase. Zarite, also known as Tete, is the heroine of the novel. She is a slave that was brutally raped by her master, Toulouse Valmorain, at the age of 11. Somehow, Tete manages to survive this and subsquent harsh injustices through her indomitable spirit and her religious beliefs - a mix of voodoo beliefs and Christianity.

I loved the historical backdrop of this novel. The details about the sugar plantations in Haiti and the fights that occur between slaves and freepeople/planters as well as the tension between mulattos and blacks is just delightful. Her cast of characters was also particularly memorable - it wasn't just about Tete, Toulouse and their children. It was about a revolutionary former slave that Tete falls in love with (and who fights with Toussaint L'Ouverture), the mulatto courtesan who marries the white military man and Toulouse's second, controlling Creole wife, as well as his brother in law. They were fun, memorable and interesting.

To me, what perhaps made this book the most memorable, was how Allende describes these important historical events and their impact on the lives of the women in her novel. I also really like how Allende describes and tells the story of how women were important to the historical events in this novel.

This is a magical novel that you should read right away.