Welcome to my blog. If you're addicted to books, like I am, then you've come to the right place. I mostly write about books and my experiences reading them. These are very personal book reviews. (If you can even call them book reviews...) I’m a true believer that none of us lives in a vacuum. When you read a book, watch a movie, listen to a song, etc., you absorb that art form into your life experience, and it changes you. But you also change it, because no two people see anything the same way. The way I interpret a novel may be totally different from the way you will. It’s still the same novel, but the meaning for each of us is unique. Once you express that meaning, it changes the art. So these posts are about how these books fit into my life. I’d love to hear how they fit into yours. Please make comment and share your experience.
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.
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... :)
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
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 19th 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.
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…
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...
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.
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…
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.
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
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.
I love finding the familiar in a book. When an author can recall your own experiences, it is an amazing thing, because you can now view them from a slightly different perspective. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, I enjoy the process of discovery and reflection. Room is one of those books. It is the story of Jack, who is five years old and has lived his entire life with his mother in an 11'x11' room. His mother has been a prisoner in that room for the last seven years, but since Jack's birth, she has tried to create a life for him in that tiny space with what little resources her captor provides for them. Fortunately, I have never had such an awful experience as that, but as a parent and as someone who has faced depression, this novel had many moments where I saw myself and my children and my jaw dropped. Written by Emma Donoghue, Room is one of the most unique novels I've ever read. Jack tells the entire story and like many child narrators, he often doesn't understand everything that is going on around him.
I didn't want to read this book. I'd heard of it and thought--Yuck, I don't want to read some horrible depressing story about some poor woman who is kidnapped and raped and held prisoner. It's just too awful and too real in some ways, knowing that there are actually sickos out there who do such horrible things to people. But one of my book clubs intervened and forced me out of my comfort zone and as usual, I'm glad. This book was incredibly surprising. It was thought provoking and inspiring and touching.
Jack's mother, known only as "Mama" in the story, is a Bad Ass Babe if I've ever encountered one. She's stuck in this horrible situation and yet she tries to be the best parent she can be in the circumstances. The author truly impressed me with the depth of her ideas, imagining what this situation would be like for both Mama, who remembers a life outside "Room," and Jack, who has no concept of the outside world. And as a parent of elementary age kids, it is incredibly obvious that Donoghue has lived with a five year old boy before. I could see my own son and my nephew doing, speaking, thinking just like Jack. It was incredibly realistic--at times sad, scary, happy, triumphant and hopeful.
Ratings: For an explanation of my ratings factors, please visit the Rating System Key page.
Crack Factor - 8.5. I had to skip ahead more than once because parts of the story were so suspenseful, I couldn't go on until I knew how the current crisis would turn out.
Distraction Factor - 9.5. This book will haunt you for a while. The disturbing setting is really only a small part of it. I continually found myself reflecting on the inner workings of Jack's brain--his observations and revelations are refreshing and recognizable to anyone who has spent time with a child that age. And the little things like his realization that Mama is beautiful...that she's the most beautiful, is so genuine, so typical of a young child whose world revolves around his mother. Every young child thinks his mother is the most beautiful person in the world. That's how filial love at that age works.
Mama's struggles with depression will tear at your heart strings. The reader can imagine Mama's pain, but seen through the eyes of her child, it multiples the worry and the pain because Jack feels it too.
Story Telling Factor - 9.0. This is quite an imaginative story, since undoubtedly the author has no personal experience being locked away in a room. But the way it's told, it all makes sense and comes together well, especially in the second part of the book, once Jack and Mama try to adjust to the outside world.
People Factor - 9.0. These characters are people you know, stuck in an unique and horrible situation.
Bad Ass Babe Factor - 9.0. Jack's Mama continually amazed me with the way she'd raised Jack in such a small space, with so few resources. She learned how to re-use everything and make what little she had do double-duty: eggshells become snakes, food packaging becomes toys. At five, Jack could read and write better than most kids twice his age. Her own struggles with depression only make her more human and believable. I can't imagine anyone could live through what she lived through without a few scars.
Total Rating: 9.0. This is a quick read, and well worth your time.
Hello from Birmingham, England! I'm here on a business trip for a couple of weeks and today I had a literary experience that I just have to share with you.
Yesterday we were visiting two customers outside of London. My colleagues and I decided to take a slightly different route on our way Birmingham so that we could visit Stonehenge this morning. This necessitated our stay in Salisbury last night, as it is the closest town with a hotel room available. Before we left Salisbury, we took a quick tour of the Salisbury Cathedral. A little thought kept nagging me as I walked through this overwhelmly impressive medieval cathedral. I knew I've heard of this place before...but where?...then I thought, could this be the inspiration for the fictional cathedral in Kingsbridge? When we arrived in our hotel tonight, a quick visit to Ken Follett's website confirmed it. Salisbury Cathedral was one of the two cathedrals that Follett had in mind when he wrote Pillars of the Earth, one of my favorite crack books. It's an amazing story set in medieval England, chronicling the building of a cathedral and the lives of the people who built it. It is a sweeping epic tale.
I felt like I was walking in the pages of a book today. I could imagine the characters I loved so much carving the statues and designing the buttresses. So cool.
I really appreciate my regular readers. But it never occurred to me that you were actually waiting for my reviews until my lovely friend and fellow BABB, Shannon, bless her book-addicted soul, emailed me saying, “I hate to be one of those people, but you haven’t reviewed The Hunger Games yet.” Two of my book clubs, including the BABBs read the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy in December. Apparently it was quite noticeable when I posted the review for January’s book before the one for December. J All I can say is that some reviews come easily. With others I like to start and stop and go back and reflect. It’s often more difficult to review a book I really enjoy than a book I only sort of enjoy. And I know I’ve been neglecting the blog...I do have several excuses for this—the Holidays were insanely crazy and when they were done, I had business travel, work emergencies, triathlon training, and absolute truth be told, I’ve been having so much fun reading, that getting to the page to write has just not happened. Books are my crack, after all. Writing about books is my crack therapy, but the addiction is still stronger and always easier.
Now onto the review…This is another one of those books that everyone is talking about. There are actually three books: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, all by Suzanne Collins. The first movie adaptation is also coming out next month, so that gives you an idea how popular these are. These are “young adult” books about a dystopic future. The story begins instantly. You learn very quickly that at the base of the story is an oppressive government that enslaves the people in their outlying territories. A rebellion some 70+years ago ended in one of these territories, called “District 13” being completely destroyed and the remaining 12 districts being forced into participating in and watching the annual “Hunger Games,” as a reminder never to rebel again. In the Hunger Games, each district must send two of their children, a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 & 18 to fight to the death in an arena. This isn’t gladiator-style. The arenas are huge, many acres, even miles across and could be located anywhere in the world, from deserts to forests to oceans. The contestants, called “tributes,” train for several weeks, have personal stylists and often have cosmetic alterations done because the entire games is recorded and broadcast to the whole country, and the “Capital” government wants to put on a good show.
Tributes are chosen by random drawing, although volunteers are accepted. Our protagonist, sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen from District 12, volunteers to take the place of her 12-year old sister, Prim, when they pick her name out of the pot. The plot thickens when her fellow tribute from District 12, Peeta Mellark, announces in his interview that he has been in love with Katniss since they were little children.
The plot line sounds horrific, and of course it is horrific to send 24 kids out to kill each other. When I told my sister about this book, she said “That doesn’t sound like anything I’d ever want to read.” BUT WAIT---keep reading. If I do my job with this review, you’ll be another one of those crazy Hunger Games fans before you know it.
Aside from being well written and action packed, these books really make you think. Imagine if you were thrown into that arena and forced to kill or be killed. What would you do? The televised aspect of these games is a huge factor. If you put on a good show, your “sponsors” may help you by sending you a tool, or food, or medicine that you desperately need. Would you be able to perform? Fake it when you need to in order to manipulate an audience? And how resentful would you be of a government that forced you into this situation? Wouldn’t you want to bring them down? How can you appeal to the audience and send a message to your oppressors at the same time? And would you have the guts to do it when they hold your life, and the lives of people you love in their hands? Katniss struggles with all these things and readers can’t turn the page fast enough to see how she deals with them.
Ratings (For an explanation of my rating factors, please visit the Rating System Key page.)
Crack Factor – 9.9. Can’t put it down? Neglecting things? PB & J for dinner? All marks of a crack book. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire had me, my husband and my entire book club glued to the pages. Mockingjay unfortunately fell during the holiday craziness, so I had to put it down to cook and wrap presents and be hostess and stuff, but all are quick reads, definite page turners. Even my husband, who almost never reads books, finished the first book within a couple days. I even got text messages from him like “OMG! Peeta just….” And if a non-reader like Adam can get caught in a book, you gotta imagine it’s good.
Tears Shed Factor – I wouldn’t necessarily call these books emotional, although there are many emotional parts. It would always hit me, however, when Katniss was feeling the weight of her responsibilities. Once you have loved someone enough to be willing to die for them, you know what I mean. Ever since the death of her father, Katniss has supported and cared for her mother and sister. Her love for Prim is so fierce, and the thought of losing her to the games is so terrifying, that it’s easier for her to volunteer herself than let her little sister die in the arena. Love like that gives you chills.
Distraction Factor – 9.0. All dystopia books are frightening---most of me says “This could never happen,” but then there’s that little voice in the back of my head that sees current disturbing trends taken to extreme ends and realizes that somewhere in the historic record, something similar has probably already happened or is happening somewhere in the world. Slavery, exploitation, gladiators: these are not the stuff of imagination, but of history and reality.
PeopleFactor – 9.0. Great characters show up all throughout this book. It has good guys and bad guys and the ones in between, all marvelously flawed, both love-able and odious. I was frequently angry with Collins when she would kill off my favorites. UGH!
Story Telling Factor – 9.0. You can’t just read one of these books, you really need to commit to all 3 to get a good sense of the story, but books one and two will leave you wanting more, so you won’t want to wait. They are well plotted and move along fast. If I had any gripes about the story, it was that a few times, the story had to halt because of its ‘Young Adult Fiction” literary category. I found this incredibly irritating. The author definitely stopped the story in a “teen appropriate” place a few times when I really wanted it to go to the adult place. This was even more irritating because I felt that stopping in the teen place was contrary to what probably would have happened in real life. The natural progression of some of these parts would have been to take it further, but the author had to stop where she did. Frustrating.
Writing Skills Factor –Okay, this is not great literature, but never once did I sit up and say---wow—the writing is bugging me, or this doesn’t make sense, or she could have done this better. Collins’ writing skills are good—she can tell a story well, and keep you coming back for more.
Bad Ass Babe Factor – 9.5 The best heroes and heroines are the ones who never want to be one in the first place. They are the ones created when the world needs them, who step into the role that is forced on them and rise to the occasion. Katniss is an amazing, if reluctant, heroine. She carries the weight of responsibility on her young shoulders most of the time, but she has her moments of self doubt, of protest, and of anger, which makes her human and more appealing. She makes sure to take care of the people she loves. She is smart and tough.
Hotter than Adam Factor – 9.5. I think anyone would admit that it’s hard to resist someone who is completely in love with you. Peeta’s love for Katniss is continually touching in its innocence and selflessness. I felt so bad for him so many times and I wanted to smack her over the head for not getting it…until. I’m not going to give anything away, but Peeta is an incredibly appealing leading man. (And then there's Finnick...I imagine him somewhat like a blonder Adam with a trident...yummy...) One of the BABBs sent this pic to the rest of us, so I must include it:
Total Rating: 9.31
For serious Hunger Games fans, here's the trailer:
Usually when I finish a non-fiction book, I’m a little awed. This makes sense if you think about it, because nobody is going to take the time to write a story about something boring. Writers pick the interesting and amazing stuff, the suspenseful and scary stuff. It may even be heroic and humbling. Diet Eman’s stories of the German occupied Netherlands during WWII are all that and more. In Things We Couldn’t Say, she tells of her life as a young woman in the Nazi occupied Netherlands and how she and her fiancée, Hein Sietsma, and their friends worked to hide Jews with the Dutch underground resistance.
Eman is a resident of Grand Rapids, which makes her my neighbor. She is not a professional writer and this definitely comes through in the book. She’s also not a native English speaker and I often felt like the book may have been better served if she had written it in Dutch and had it professionally translated. BUT, I also have to admit, that these same facts also added to the realization that she is a real person and these are her real stories. The rawness of the writing helped the rawness of the story come through.
The story begins in 1938 when Eman meets Sietsma. When the occupation begins and her Jewish co-worker needs a place to hide, she and Sietsma help him out of The Hague and into the country to a safe house. With this, they begin their resistance work. Throughout the course of the war, both will undergo numerous name changes and will have to change residences multiple times, doing different jobs for the resistance along the way. Both will be imprisoned. They will be separated almost the entire time, their story told through letters, journal entries and first person narrative by Eman. At the end of the war, Eman learns Sietsma died in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
[Normally this is where I start my “ratings”, but it feels disrespectful to trivialize Eman’s life experience with my silly little rating system. However, I use the rating structure to shape my thoughts while I’m building the review, so I am going to include those thoughts here anyway.]
Tears Shed Factor –I cannot imagine living through what Eman and her countrymen lived through--what any occupied people lived through during the war years. This book is about the horrors of war and the heartbreak that comes with that. It’s also a book about love—Eman and Sietsma’s love, and also mankind’s love for each other. It’s about doing the right thing when it’s most needed. And as a reader, you will feel that love and hurt and heartbreak all over when you read this book.
Distraction Factor – Eman’s stories will haunt you for a long time. As I read, I would reflect on stressful or frightening times in my own life and then I’d realize that they were nothing compared to what Eman and her countrymen faced. I cannot imagine life under those circumstances and yet she makes it clear that faith and love saw her through those tough times and it inspired me to know how someone can suffer so much and keep going. It’s a story of resilience and triumph as much as it is about hardship and pain.
Enrichment Factor –We all know the basics about WWII, but aside from knowing that it happened, I’ve never read anything like Eman’s stories of the Dutch resistance and the underground movement to hide Jews, it’s a personal first hand account of the front lines of a very important part of history.
Writing Skills Factor – Like many memoir authors, Diet Eman is not really a writer. Nor is she a native English speaker, so at times the writing style, word choice or organization is distracting. Some of my book club members had a very hard time with the journal entries and prayers scattered throughout, finding them distracting as well.
Bad Ass Babe Factor – 15—I have never before given a book character higher than a 10 in this category, and I sincerely I hope no one finds this rating factor offensive for this particular book, because I mean it in the highest respect. Diet Eman is a true heroine, not only for her wartime deeds, but also for re-living them and writing them down for the world to share.
As readers, we all know that a well written, entertaining, thought provoking book is a true treasure. To find one that you can share with your kids is a gift. I first heard Neil Gaiman’s name last summer, when an acquaintance of mine, a former librarian, recommended his books, including The Graveyard Book. My List-Of-Books-To-Read has achieved record lengths recently… and this one was on The List, but it took a second encounter to push it to the top. A member of my Sci-Fi Book club suggested we read it, because it won the Hugo award in 2009. It is also the only book ever to win both the Newberry (US) and Carnegie (UK) medals. So, in other words…lots of people think this book is amazing.
The story begins with a murder. “The man Jack,” as he is called, murders a man, woman and child in their sleep, but their toddler escapes from his crib and out the front door. He wanders down the street to the nearby graveyard. The ghost residents hear the pleading cries of the recently murdered family, who beg them to help their baby. Mrs. Owens, dead some 200+ years, and her husband promise to take care of the baby and become his parents. The mysterious Silas, who is neither dead nor alive, but has the ability to leave the graveyard, unlike the ghosts, agrees to be his guardian and provide things like clothes and food that the ghosts cannot get for him. They name the boy Nobody Owens, “Bod” for short.
From this point, we watch Bod grow up and learn life lessons from ghosts and ghouls, werewolves, witches and the undead. Some of the lessons are simple ones about learning to listen to the people who love and care about you, when they warn you about something dangerous---and others are more complex, like lessons about learning to do the right thing, about helping and caring for others. It’s almost as if each chapter has a different coming of age story for each stage of Bod’s life. I found it particularly charming that many of the views of morality, community, tolerance, justice and common sense decency are taught by these otherworldly creatures that in most stories are depicted as evil.
Even though this is technically a kid’s book, I never felt as though the story or writing were dumbed down or cleaned up for children. If anything, Gaiman offers splendid learning opportunities within the story---beautiful images that an adult can fully appreciate and enjoy, like “he walked up the side of the hill, to where a picnic some thirty years before had left its mark in the shape of a large apple tree.” I grinned when I read that passage, but my kids didn’t get it right away. This book is filled with places like this, where I could stop and ask my kids what they thought, how they felt, if they understood, etc.
Ratings (For an explanation of my rating factors, please visit the Rating System Key page.)
Crack Factor – 9.5. I read this book twice. It’s not the first book I’ve read twice, nor will it be the last, but it’s the only book that I have read twice within a two week time frame. It was even better the second time. A definite crack book.
Tears Shed Factor – 9.5. I also think this is in some ways a love story, not in the romantic sense, but in the filial and platonic sense, definitely. As Bod grows and learns, he learns about love from his parents, guardian and friends and it tugged at my heartstrings in more than one place. This book has it all—you’ll laugh, cry, triumph and tremble along with Bod and his friends. Gaiman’s gift is to help the reader feel the story as he reads it.
Enrichment Factor – 9.5. Multiple pearls of wisdom adorn the pages of The Graveyard Book. One of my favorites is when Bod is asking his guardian about the difference between the sacred ground of the graveyard and the unconsecrated ground beyond it. Silas explains how different beliefs hold different things sacred. He also makes it clear that most of the people buried outside the bounds of the sacred ground are most likely no worse than those within. In this small passage, they touch on the idea of judgment and how it can be unfair and how rules and laws change from time to time. Like this passage, there is so much discussion material throughout this book---not only topics I can bring up with my kids but also reminders for the grownup in me that sometimes forgets.
PeopleFactor – 9.5. I’m a true character lover. Gaiman’s characters don’t disappoint. I felt invested in their lives and despite a perfect ending to the story, I had a hard time saying goodbye to them.
Story Telling Factor – 9.5. One of the things I loved about this book is that each chapter is a separate adventure in Bod’s life—a complete story, set within the larger novel, and all along you get clues to the mystery of why bod’s family were killed. It makes for a quick read—definite page turning action within each smaller story, and propulsion to keep going to know the whole picture.
Writing Skills Factor – 9.9. This book is beautifully written. I found our copy of the book dog eared with parts I found memorable, picturesque, and moving.
Total Rating: 9.57
End Note: I hate to write things like “If you like the Harry Potter books, you’ll love this book.” But I’m still going to write it. While this one book is quite different from the world of Harry Potter, I put them in the same league for many reasons. The writing quality of both is excellent, and while reading the graveyard book, I felt the same reactions as when I read the Harry Potter books—a kind of excitement, joy, fear, protectiveness. They not only thrilled the kid in me, but they stirred the parent emotions in me, too. The reader in me loved every minute in the graveyard, same as at Hogwarts, so I bet Potter fans will also like Bod.
One More End Note---Neil Gaiman's website is cool. He writes a journal on it--almost like a blog. It's worth checking out. http://www.neilgaiman.com/
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