Is the book always better?

I've long held a theory that you should always see the movie BEFORE you read the book.  There are two reasons for this.  The first reason is that almost everyone agrees that the book is usually better than the movie.  It's just too difficult to translate an art form into a different medium.  In the process, it becomes something different and much of the original is lost in translation.  The second reason is that chances are, if you liked the movie, you'll love the book.  It's like getting bonus features.  You'll be reading along, come to one of your favorite parts in the story and WOW--the author surprises you with something the screenwriter had to skip.  It's like a treasure hunt.

If you insist, however, on reading the book first, you end up with a bunch of sourpuss book lovers complaining about all the things they left out of the movie.  But if you see the movie first...you come away pleasantly surprised (usually) instead of annoyed.

This is my good friend and serious book lover, Christine.  And she has this awesome shirt...with which I usually agree.

I just finished The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.  As many of you know, Peter Jackson is making it into a two part movie, the first one coming out in December.  I LOVED Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and I'm sure he'll do just as fine a job with The Hobbit as he did with those books.  In fact, I'll wager that I'll like the movie even better than the book, essentially disproving my long held theory.  Here's where we come to the exceptions:  classics, non-contemporary books and poorly written but entertaining action stories. I attribute this to writing style and craft.  I find very few non-contemporary authors to be good writers.  And many contemporary authors are good storytellers are not necessarily good writers.  Tolkien particularly has this annoying habit of calling attention to the narrator when he's not even a character.  It drove me nuts.

My only previous experience with The Hobbit was an animated made-for-tv movie that I remember seeing as a kid.

I remember liking the movie a lot as a child and then seeing it again as a young adult and not appreciating it so much anymore, because it was really a movie geared toward children.  Now that I've read the book, I can see all the things they had to leave out to get the basic gist of the story into one animated short film.  Here's what I remember from watching the movie as an adult:  There were no women in it.  NONE.  Not a single female character.  Maybe there was a woman in the background somewhere, but none that have a memorable part.  Now that I'm done with the book, I'm realizing that the lack of women isn't the fault of the movie but of Tolkien. So what is up with that?

I also read a fair amount of sci-fi/fantasy and what I find interesting about The Hobbit is that in many ways that old animated movie was probably spot-on in gearing it for children, because I find the story quite child-like in many ways.  There are some scary parts, but only a few of the key characters die and only at the end...and the violence is not graphic.  There is no sex. Not even a hint of it.  Almost all modern Sci-fi/fantasy has some kind of sexual undercurrent or theme.  It's often part of a power struggle between characters or kingdoms. It is noticeably absent from this book.

My guess is that Jackson is going to create a total adventure experience with his movie and that the battle scenes will be exciting and the imagery will be beautiful and he'll even include a few women in there once in a while.  And my see the movie before reading the book theory will be shot.  And my friend Christine's shirt will also be proven wrong.  Because I'm 99.9% sure I'll like that movie a whole lot more than I liked this book.

With that said, feel free to comment with any times you thought the movie was better than the book.

I told you I was obsessive...

Hello my faithful readers.  All six of you have been complaining gently suggesting that I need to update the blog.  Apparently someone is tired of seeing the Pride and Prejudice post every time she checks it.  If you recall, on the About Me page, this is exactly what I asked of my readers--to understand I have an obsessive personality and that I am also easily distracted.  And when something distracts me from my true calling, a reminder is greatly appreciated.  So thanks to all of you...you've guilt-ed me back to the page.

Okay, so most of you know what's been distracting me.  I've been training for 3 triathlons....the first of which I completed on June 10th.  My nephew shot this pic as I was coming out of the swim.  Before I was a serious triathlete...I would never dream of posting a picture of myself without makeup on, but I think this one is pretty cool, even without the eyeliner.

(I was 3rd in the swim for my age group, by the way..not that I'm bragging or anything...)

Bike to run transition.

At the finish line.  Click here to see the results.  I'm in the 35-39 age group.  Kerri & I crossed the finish line together, which was cool since we've been friends for 20 years...

Okay, so enough of me being an obsessed triathlete.  Let's talk some books now.  I will never ever ever get caught up with all the reviews I want to do, so I'm going to do a few quick reviews.  We're all busy, afterall, it doesn't mean we can't read some great books.

Did you ever notice that sometimes you end up reading books with similar themes without even intending to?

I noticed this when I found I'd read 3 sister books within a couple months--Shanghai Girls, Pride & Prejudice & True Colors.  The latter was not worth reviewing, if you were wondering.  

Then I realized that I was duplicating other themes:  When reading The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, I noticed both were about pre-teen boys on coming-of-age journeys.  The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny and The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon are both historical fiction mysteries with unrequited love stories AND both included gay male characters that detailed said characters' sad love stories as well.  That kind of blew me away, actually...finding the plot similarities in books that are so completely different.  

Now for some quick reviews:

Michael Ondaatje is the Sri Lankan-born Canadian author of The English Patient, which was made into one of my favorite movies.  His writing is very beautiful, poetic and lyrical.  I've read some of his poetry, too, from The Cinnamon Peeler. The Cat's Table is the story of a eleven year old boy who is on a ocean liner traveling from Sri Lanka to England to be reuinted with the mother he hasn't seen in several years.  It's part adventure, part mystery, part coming-of-age story, as the adult narrator tells the journey retrospectively.  It's a quick read, with engaging characters and unexpected plot twists.  Well worth the 269 pages.  Rating 8.75.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a book club pick for two of my book clubs.  One had talked about it and then didn't choose it, and since I'd never read it, I thought I'd suggest it for another book club and they did choose it, but then the first club picked it the next month, so I had two chances to read it and didn't make it all the way through either time.  I feel like a classic drop out.  I bet I got about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through.  I mostly didn't like Twain's writing style.  I find contemporary writing styles much more sophisticated; I often find "classics" to be irritating.  Additionally, I never really liked any enough of the characters to get invested in the story, so it got abandoned.  (I'm not rating this one.)

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny is set in northern Canada in the mid 1800s.  It starts out when a woman discovers her neighbor murdered in his cabin.  When suspicion falls on her son, who has disappeared, she heads out into the wilderness with a mysterious trapper to find her son and prove his innocence.  There are also many other side stories here that all weave together beautifully.  This book has engaging characters and heartbreaking moments.  My book club was split on it, however; some people couldn't get into it, but those that did really loved it.  Rating 9.0. 

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon is part of the Lord John series, which is sort of a spin-off/parallel series to her Outlander series.  The Lord John books focus on Lord John Grey and Jamie Frasier, two of the characters from the Outlander books.  While it's not necessary that you read the Outlander books before you read these, you'll understand a lot more of what these characters are facing if you have read the Outlander books.  With that said, this is a good book on it's own--it has mystery, action, and in classic Gabaldon style--emotion.  And there's some hot sex in it too...but it's not the kind of sex that Outlander fans are used to...  Rating this one is unfair because of the HTAF...If I leave out that category, it's a solid 8.75.  Once you add Jamie into the HTAF factor it's off the charts...  :)

I'll try not to be a stranger... 

Review of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

During my stay-at-home-mom years, I had a few favorite movies that I watched over and over again.  They may have been entertainment while I sat nursing a baby, or they were the background noise as I cooked and cleaned and did laundry and changed diapers.  There are too many to list them all, but the BBC six episode min-series version of Pride and Prejudice was one of my go-to DVDs.  It’s 5 hours long, so I could never watch it all in one sitting, but because I knew it by heart, it didn’t matter.  I could start it and stop it at any point and if I was called away for kid-duties, it was okay, because I knew every line, every scene in my head.  My pre-school age son even called it “The Mr. Darcy Show” because it was such a regular in our house. 

I’ve owned a copy of the book for years, have skimmed it many times, but never have I picked it up and read it cover to cover.  I knew I would like it, love it even.  But considering the book was published 199 years ago, I didn’t think it would be a crack book. OMG! Was I wrong!  Once I started it for the BABBs, I couldn’t put it down.  I devoured the last 350 pages in less than a day and finished it in no time flat.  And I loved every word.

I’ve always said I much prefer to see the movie first, because if you love the movie, chances are you’ll love the book too and the movie won’t be so much of a disappointment than if you do it the other way.  It was hard to imagine that I’d like a book more than I love my BBC mini-series.  I didn’t think there was any way I’d think the book was better.  But it was.  Of course it was.  Not that I in any way find my beloved mini-series lacking.   In fact, if anything, I now appreciate it even more as an expert adaptation.  They were so true to the dialogue in the book, so faithful to the course of the novel that I found myself nodding in approval in numerous places, acknowledging the BBC’s portrayal of a scene or they way they condensed several weeks in the book, etc.  It was fun to have the real book version in my hand and now feel like I know it just as well. 

I always feel awkward “reviewing” a piece of classic literature.  Somehow it seems terribly redundant; as if there was anything I could say about this book that hasn’t already been said over and over again.  It wouldn’t have endured for 199 years if it wasn’t fabulous.  Even doing a plot summary seems silly.  Who (honestly) doesn’t know the story?  Anyone?  So I’ve been having a little fun with some of the basic ideas of the story—alliteration and rhyme.  Comment if you can come up with better ones…

Five fortuneless females ferret for fellows

Lizzy loves licentious Lieutenant then learns large lesson

Darcy disinterested due dim dowry

Caroline catty, Collins captivated, Kitty capricious…

Joyful Jane wants jovial joining

Bingley beguiled but buddies boggle with bogus bunk

Elizabeth enchants, Darcy recants

And they all live happily ever after. 

Ratings  (For an explanation of my rating factors, please visit the Rating System Key page.)

Crack Factor – 10.  Really, it’s a 10. 

PeopleFactor – 10.  Austen’s gift is how well she can convey a character’s personality.  And she gives you a cast of characters that is incredibly rich.  From dull and annoying Mr. Collins, to the arrogant Caroline Bingley to the conceited, condescending Catherine DeBourgh, Austen leaves you in no doubt about these characters.  And I love that she gives you just as many that are odious as likeable.   

Story Telling Factor – 9.5.  I was worried that the book would be kind of rambling and boring, just like the lives of these 19^th century rich people, who have no occupation other than to exist and be waited on.  And while the plot seems simple, there is enough drama in this book to propel it forward quickly. 

Writing Skills Factor – ?  Okay, so this was written 199 years ago.  But I was never lost or confused by the language and actually enjoyed it more than books that are only 50 years old.

Bad Ass Babe Factor – 9.9.  Lizzy is totally Bad Ass. 

Hotter than Adam Factor – 9.5.  If Darcy isn’t the epitome of a man who can learn from his mistakes and become the partner he needs to be for his beloved, then I don’t know who is. And he’s hot, too.  

Total Rating 9.78

Review of the Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost

I’ve had my fair share of travel adventures.  In Argentina, I survived 3 robbery attempts and a pervy bus passenger who thought it was okay to rub his genitals on me.  In Venezuela, I stayed in a roach infested hotel and paid 10 times more than a local for bus fare.  In Bolivia I survived tropical fire ants and I flicked llama poop at my cousin.  I’ve seen the favelas in São Paulo and a Paraguayan no-man’s-land border crossing where everything is for sale.  In Patagonia, I walked so much I had quarter sized blisters on my feet.  In China, I watched my husband eat pigeon on a stick and fried scorpions.   

My sister has lived on 4 continents and she’s probably got just as many stories.  Some will make you laugh, some will make you shudder and some will just make you thankful that you don’t have to live there.  I got the same feeling reading J. Maarten Troost’s The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, a humorous travel memoir of Troost’s two years living on the atoll island of Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati.  The story begins with Troost’s ramblings about a string of dead end jobs and gen-x confusion about what to do with his life.  Then his girlfriend gets a job offer in Kiribati.  They are both entranced with the idea of living on a South Pacific island—the palm trees, ocean breezes, friendly people, relaxed atmosphere.  They were wrong about almost everything. 

If you’ve never heard of Kiribati (pronounced “kir-ee-bas”) you’re probably not alone.  It’s a tiny nation, composed of 33 islands of which only 21 are inhabited with its less than 80,000 citizens.  This is how Troost describes it: 

To picture Kiribati, imagine that the continental US were to conveniently disappear leaving only Baltimore and a vast swath of very blue ocean in its place.  Now chop up Baltimore into 33 pieces, place a neighborhood where Maine used to be, another where California once was, and so on until you have 33 pieces of Baltimore dispersed in such a way that 32/33 of Baltimorians will never attend another Orioles game again.  Now take away electricity, running water, toilets, television, restaurants, buildings and airplanes… (p16)

Troost narrates incidents with peeping Tom neighbors, stifling equatorial heat, empty rain water tanks, fish, fish and more fish to eat.  And if you don’t want to eat fish your option is canned corn beef that is several years past its expiration date. 

 

What I appreciated most was Troost’s explanations of how completely foreign this culture is to anything a westerner can imagine.  These islanders’ sense of time, property, order, cleanliness, safety, health,  food and just about everything else is 180 degrees from what we are used to.  I found myself wondering over and over again, why anyone would choose to stay in such a desolate place.  And yet, the way Troost tells the story, you often find yourself laughing as much as you’re horrified at some of the things that take place. 

    

Ratings (For an explanation of my rating factors, please visit the Rating System Key page.)

Crack Factor – 7.5.  This is an entertaining book, not great literature, but enjoyable enough to keep you coming back to the page.  

Enrichment Factor – 9.5. Have you ever heard of Kiribati before? Yeah, me neither...Did you think all South Pacific island nations were little slices of paradise?  Can you imagine a place where nothing grows, but people still live?  Troost also does a great job of going over Kiribati’s history, economy, society, government and examines the social issues and challenges these people face.  It was certainly eye opening.  I had no idea such a place could exist.    

PeopleFactor – 8. Troost, his girlfriend and neighbors make entertaining characters. 

Story Telling Factor – 7.5 There’s not a whole lot of plot here.  It’s mostly a collection of vignettes; they are well woven and in the end, you get a sense of what he and his girlfriend gained and lost (both positive and negative) by living in this place. 

Writing Skills Factor – 8.5 Troost does a pretty good job with the humorous travelogue. I am always impressed with someone who can make a career out of seemingly nothing. For him to narrate his life as a house-husband in the middle of nowhere and turn it into a book is pretty cool.  Makes me wonder if I’ve got a novel somewhere in my own life…

Total rating - 8.2

Hunger Games Fandom...

This is what a day is like when you have book loving friends.  Check out this email string.

BAAB#1:

I do work, I swear. (BABB#2) just told me about the amazon shop for hunger games though.

Peeta pillowcase anyone??

 

I might prefer to drool on Gale’s face. 

Me:  

I think Adam might have a problem if I brought Peeta or Gale into our bed… 

BABB2:

Lol….

What if you had this shirt….i want this.

(okay-so the images are disappearing on me, so just imagine a t-shirt that says "I love the boy with the bread.") 

Me:  Me too.  Do they have any Katniss shirts so I can buy one for Adam and then we’re all even?

BABB2:  This is all I am seeing. It is very B.A.

(Imagine a shirt that says "Team Katniss") 

Anyone going to the movies this weekend??  I'm trying to convince Adam that we need to see the Hunger Games on Friday night.  Now we just need a babysitter...

Review of Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Sister.

If you have a sister, that word probably brings a few emotions to mind.  Sister relationships are fascinating and multi-faceted.  They can be supportive and loving or antagonistic and critical.  And they can be all at once. 

I’m thankful that I have a fabulous relationship with my sister.  I can call my sister and talk for hours.  Back when we were both stay-at-home moms, we often called each other 3-4 times a day, for all kinds of reasons, from mundane to profound.  I trust her completely.  I know she’s there for me, no matter what.  It’s a comfort to really understand the depth of your relationships, in your heart, in your mind, in your gut. 

But every relationship has its boundaries.  They all have places where you don’t go.   My two closest girlfriends each have sisters with whom they are extremely close and yet, there are some things they just don’t talk about with each other.  Even my sister and I, for all the closeness and supportiveness in our relationship, have boundaries, too.  I imagine all relationships have them, no matter how close or significant. 

 

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See is a story about the Chin sisters, Pearl and May.  Their relationship is as complex as any sister relationship, with love and support and betrayal and heartbreak, and quite a lot of antagonism.    It begins in 1937 Shanghai.  We follow their lives through the Japanese invasion and their escape to America, to find them begrudgingly settled in San Francisco during WWII and afterwards.  It spans several decades in the characters’ lives, and through many life stages.  Even with a rich historical and cultural backdrop, the sister and family dynamics are what I found most interesting throughout this book. 

The Chin sisters’ relationship is strewn with jealousy.  Each felt that the other one had it better than she did, or one was the parents’ favorite, or had the better husband or the better job, or one sacrificed more than the other…it got a little annoying a few times because I just couldn’t relate.  I don’t see my own sister the way Pearl and May see theirs—with as much resentment as love.  This did however, give the BABBs much to discuss---as we all have family and everyone can identify with a family story.  Mostly I pitied the Chin sisters because all that hurt and resentment held them back.

Shanghai Girls is a thoroughly enjoyable read and very good historical fiction, even though the subject material and setting are often disturbing and depressing. 

Ratings  (For an explanation of my rating factors, please visit the Rating System Key page.)

Crack Factor – 8.0. 

Tears Shed Factor –  N/A. There’s plenty of drama in this book but I didn’t find it emotional, although I imagine many people would.

Distraction Factor – 9.25.  Shanghai Girls is a haunting tale.  Just like in See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, (one of my favorite books) there are images from this story that I’ll never forget. 

Enrichment Factor – 9.0.  Immigrant stories are frequently stories of hardship and discrimination.  I really wonder if there was every any group that came here without it.  The Chinese immigrants in this story had it pretty bad; they maneuvered through the anti-Japanese sentiments during WWII and then the anti-communist rampage right afterwards.  I love fiction that gives me new knowledge and understanding of history and culture.  This time and place was something I’d never studied before.

PeopleFactor – 8.5. See wrote the book in the first person.  All the characters and events are narrated by Pearl, which definitely adds some limitation as you can’t always get inside the heads of the other characters.  I don’t see that as a problem here, because through Pearl’s eyes, the reader gets a very good sense of all the characters and See crafts them like onions, with layers that Pearl peels away over time to reveal just how complex each one is.  As soon as you think you’ve got them all figured out, See gives us a little more insight and…You’ll change your mind about everybody over and over again.  It made for a more interesting read because the characters and their relationships evolve so much over time. 

Story Telling Factor – 8.5. The majority of the BABBs had a couple of complaints about this book: 1) It ends very abruptly, and 2) they didn’t always like how See turned the plot. On a whole, however, I found See’s plot twists quite pivotal and necessary to keep the pace of the story going and bring certain characters to their destinies and certain plot lines to their climaxes.  But I do have to admit the ending did tick me off.  Apparently See had to set it up for the sequel:  Finding Joy.  Why write one book, when you can sell two at twice the price?

Writing Skills Factor – 8.5.  See’s writing is raw.  It’s very simple and clear and to the point.  That rawness adds to the distraction factor as well.  She doesn’t leave out the nasty and upsetting details.

Bad Ass Babe Factor –  I’m abstaining from this rating.  I didn’t really like Pearl or May that much as people, even though they were well developed characters.  In the Bad Ass Babe arena, however, Pearl gets points for sheer endurance and their mother gets Mama Bear points. 

Total Rating: 8.625

Review of The Grace of Silence: A Memoir, by Michele Norris

I’ve been an NPR listener for almost 20 years.  It’s almost always what I’ve got playing in the car, and it’s often my background sound when I’m at home.  I’ve probably heard Michele Norris on the radio a thousand times or more.  Like most television and radio journalists, you hear them all the time, recognize their voices as much as those of your friends and family and yet you almost never know anything personal about them.  That’s not usually part of journalism, whose goal is to remain as objective as possible.  Journalists don’t usually put themselves in piece; they just try to tell the story for what it is. 

I was intrigued with this book club pick because it takes one of my most familiar voices and it put a whole context of life behind it.  As Norris explains, the idea for this memoir came to her as she was trying to capture the racial dialogue in the aftermath of Barack Obama’s inauguration.  As she was encouraging this conversation to come to the surface and she listened to the stories of many American families, she uncovered her own family’s stories that had been deliberately kept from her. 

Hence the title---The Grace of Silence---Her parents’ silence was their grace.  By not giving new voice to these stories, they believed they gave Michele and her sisters an advantage.  They withheld that which could have embittered or prejudiced their children; they chose not to burden them with that information so that their children could rise above it.  The question Michele asks all these years later is was that silence necessary?  Should it always have been part of the story?  Could they all have achieved what they achieved with this knowledge?  Would they have the same attitudes?

True to her journalist form, once Michele learns her family’s unspoken stories, she uncovers every detail possible.  The first part is about her maternal grandmother’s story, who had been a traveling aunt Jemima selling pancake mix throughout the Midwest.  The second is her father’s story of being shot by a white police officer in Birmingham, Alabama.  As she researches these stories, she gives the reader the historical and racial context, and a true understanding of what life was like in those times and places for people of color.

 

At times this story is difficult to read.  Racial issues are sensitive and the treatment of minorities throughout history is shameful.  More than once I felt angry and sad, at times even horrified and ashamed that one human being would treat another with so little respect.  And yet, Norris’s gift is that despite the heavy content of the book, in just as many places, I smiled, because she shared so many personal family stories that are familiar—stories of parents and children, siblings and neighbors and people.

I really enjoyed this book; it’s a quick read, well written, thought provoking and even entertaining.  Norris’ style is down to earth and frank.  The book comes off as a journey:  She uncovers these stories from her family, frames them in historical context and then pieces them back into the memories she has of her parents and grandparents.  The characters she meets along the way play crucial roles in the racial dialogue and she paints vivid pictures of them, too. 

Crack Factor – 9.5.  This book goes fast.

Tears Shed Factor 9.0.  You can’t read this book and not feel.  It evokes many emotions throughout.

Distraction Factor/Enrichment Factor 9.0.  Even if you’ve studied racial issues and civil rights, this story is fresh.  It’s rich with new material, new ideas, new perspective and it will keep the wheels turning in your mind for a long time.

Writing Skills Factor 9.875.  I hope I’m not gushing too much.  I’m just really awed by Michele Norris.  I’ve respected her as a journalist for so many years and top of all of that, she can turn out a book as impressive as this.  It’s amazing and humbling.  I’m a forever fan now.

 

Story Telling Factor.  9.5.  98% of this book is fabulous.  It moves quickly and is informative and well constructed.  I do have to say at one point I got bogged down with some of the historical details and I had to skim through it.  It was probably just me at the time---a quick glance back through the book and I couldn’t even find what I’d missed, so it wasn’t like it was 20 pages, probably only 3 or 4.  I can’t mark her down for that, when it was probably just me being a lazy reader…

Total Rating:  9.375

Here's an NPR interview/article about the book.

Review of Blackout by Connie Willis

There is nothing like an incredibly long business trip to help you catch up on your reading.  I just recently returned from a trip to the UK and while I was there I was able to finish three books.  In fairness, I was mostly done with two of them, but it still felt good to cross three off the list.  I found it incredibly interesting, however, to be finishing Blackout by Connie Willis while I was in London, because much of it is set in London, so that made it fun to be walking the streets in which part of the story takes place.

Big Ben & The Houses of Parliament, Feb 2012-JJWBaker

Connie Willis is an award winning Sci-fi author that I first learned about from Grigg, the sci-fi loving character in The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.  I trust his recommendations, having read two Ursula LeGuin books because of him, and Connie Willis was one of his favorite authors.  Turns out, she’s also won the Hugo award a few times, among other awards.  Blackout is the first volume of a two volume novel, All Clear is the second volume and together they won the Hugo for best novel in 2011, so I figured they were worth a look.

Westminster Abbey, Feb 2012 - JJWBAKER

Blackout is the story of three historians from Oxford, England in 2060.  In Willis’ world, time travel is possible and historians regularly travel back in time to observe history as it is happening.  They have quite a complex theory about this, and genuinely believe that they cannot affect history as long as they stay clear of “divergence points,” which are critical times in history when a small change could have a big outcome.  These three historians are studying what seem to be mundane aspects of the war.  One is working as a shop girl in London during the Blitz, to study how Londoners cope during the air raids.  One is a maid in the countryside studying the evacuated children.  And the third is posing as an American reporter, studying the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk, France.  One by one these historians encounter unforeseen problems and slowly come to the realization that despite the time travel theory, they may have altered the course of the war and their way back to the future may no longer exist. 

Fountain in Trafalgar Square, Feb 2012-JJWBaker

It seems I’ve read a good many World War II books recently.  I hadn’t realized it until one of the BABBs was complaining that we’d picked too many WWII books and she hates that time period.  Consequently I’ve added it as a label for the blog because I do have quite a few WWII stories in here.   What I found particularly interesting about this novel, however, is that all 3 of these time travelers are studying areas of history that you don’t normally hear about.  I’d never thought much before about quotidian life for Londoners during the Blitz, sleeping in Tube stations and the camaraderie that would engender.  Same thing for the life of a maid taking care of evacuated children.  They were unique perspectives on the war, and it was a nice change to get a new perspective.    

The London Eye, Feb 2012-JJWBAKER

While there is a lot of action in this story, it didn’t leave much room for serious character development.  Honestly I didn’t really miss it until I started writing the review…  The secondary characters I found more interesting than the three main time travelers, which make sense in retrospect as the time travelers are forced to blend into their surroundings, so aside from their inner monologues, you don’t see them doing many unique things to set themselves apart from their subjects.  The WWII contemporaries, however, are quite interesting:  The elderly boat captain with delusions of grandeur, determined to do his part in the Dunkirk evacuation, the mischievous Ralph & Binnie, evacuee children wreaking havoc on their country safe house, and the eccentric Londoners trapped in the Tube station during air raids with their attempt to put on a stage play underground to pass the time. 

Liberty Department Store, London, Feb 2012-JJWBAKER

This is a pretty good page turner, but at some point, I did feel like the story was dragging a bit.  About ¾ of the way through the novel, I thought—all of these characters know something is wrong, but they didn’t seem to be moving on to the next part—I felt like, let’s get on with them finding each other and fixing it already and it seemed like it took forever to get to that point.

Westminster Abbey, Feb 2012, JJWBAKER

One thing I really enjoyed about the time travel perspective was how these historians are constantly trying to blend in and fit the WWII roll they are playing.  Imagine if part of your job entailed pretending to be someone else and do her job.  It’s like these historians are doing triple duty:  1-the historical roll, 2-the historical job and 3-the historian, and they have to do it in a war zone... of course the stress catches up to each of them at different points.   They have to call on their historical and cultural knowledge and sometimes common sense or modern ideas trip them up because they forget that something hasn’t been invented in the 1940s, or they have to recall historical dates or bombing data and then worry that their actions look suspicious and they might be hauled in for suspicion of being a German spy.  And in many ways they are spies, just from the future.  It made for added complexity in the story.    

I think this is Whitehall, but I really don't remember. London Feb 2012 - JJWBAKER

Overall, this was an enjoyable, entertaining read, I’d even go so far as to categorize it as historical fiction as well as sci-fi. 

Why edit an old post, when you can write a new one...

I was going to go back to my Eat Your Heart Out Pillars of the Earth Fans post and put in a few of my own pictures from Salisbury Cathedral, but I changed my mind, and figured it was better to make a new post.  Here you are...enjoy...

Salisbury Cathedral, February 2012-JJWBAKER

Can't you just see Jack Jackson Builder carving this statue--look closely, she's got a mini cathedral in her hand.

More statues, Salisbury Cathedral, Feb 2012-JJWBAKER

Interior Courtyard, Salisbury Cathedral, Feb 2012-JJWBAKER

Restoration efforts.  It costs the UK Government GBP12,000/day to maintain this cathedral.  Check out the flying buttresses, I know what their purpose is thanks to Ken Follett.  Feb 2012-JJWBAKER

Out of the Mouths of Book Babes

Today one of the BABBs missed our final book discussion because she had to take care of some important personal business.  Her sweet husband apologized to her that she had to miss work to accompany him and she replied..."I don't care about work---but I missed Book Lunch!"  Out of the mouths of babes...well, book babes anyway...

As a fellow book addict, I get it completely. I hate missing book discussions.  The BABBs have it pretty good because we see each other every day and meet once a week for lunch, so we have a continual book dialog going, and even then, we still manage to fill the last meeting for each book with tons of discussion.  It's a good thing.

Here are a couple of other random tidbits I've been meaning to post, so I'll just compile them all together.

The first is a link to a review of the Diana Gabaldon "Outlander" series written by a man.  This is pretty unique, because most of her fans are women. It's a good review and totally something you should print out if you want your husband to read these books so he can pick up some Jamie tips.  It's called "My Outlander thing: How a brainy guy like me wound up reading historical romance novels" by Gavin McNett.  (If you haven't read the blog long enough to know why I think all men should be more like Jamie Fraser, you need to read The Hotter Than Adam Factor post.)

The second is a link was forwarded to me by another BABB.  It's several maps of Panem from The Hunger Games.  It is really cool and here are a few things you should know:  The book babe that wrote this map is a bigger book nerd than I am (and I mean that as the highest compliment.)  She paid way better attention to the Hunger Games books than I did because I don't remember any of this stuff.  I'd even go so far as to say she put more thought into Panem than Suzanne Collins did.  It's super cool, very intelligent, well researched and worth a look.  It's called Suzanne Collins' Map of Panem, created by AimMyArrowsHigh.livejournal.com and BadGuys.livejournal.com  The final map is below, but follow the link, because they go into super detail describing how they came to this final map version.