I borrowed this book from my English curriculum teacher and seeing as how I loved the other book I borrowed from her, I had high hopes for this one. The cover made me think that it would have a fantasy bent to it, yet she also mentioned it was about children and took place in England so I figured maybe it would be a fantasy/drama/adventure crossover of some kind. To be honest, I spent the entire first half of the book wondering what I had gotten myself into.

I have never been the kind of person who can just give up on a book, but I kept considering it over and over. It’s a very sizable book and took a lot of time to read, so I kept hoping that the next chapter would get better. Or maybe the next chapter. I very slowly got to the middle of the book, forcing myself to continue waking through the text. By that time, however, I was wondering why on earth the novel had been a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

The problem was that the text was so dense with with discussion of politics, finance, drama, and art (particularly pottery), techniques and methods that the story was indistinguishable from all the unnecessary information. There is no denying that the prose was superior, but the text was so excessive that I felt the story was lost.

Underlying all the detail was the story of a family and its various branches, as the children mature and grow in the years preceding WWI. It wasn’t until after the children began to leave childhood and move on into life, establishing careers and starting families, discovering they people they would be come, through trial and error, that I actually began to see the true genius behind this novel.

In the first half of the book I just couldn’t understand the purpose if it. I couldn’t see where the plot was going or what the story was trying to accomplish as it just seemed to relate daily, ordinary and uneventful life of these families. Quite frankly, it was dull, unmoving and difficult to get through because of all the extra information about their society that I really wasn’t interested in. When the children grew up, however, I became invested in the people that those children were becoming. I was upset and sometimes horrified by their mistakes, and I was joyful over their triumphs.

In the end, the novel was a very close look at self realization and coming of age that was intimately revealing and real. All secrets were brought into the open, explored and the effects on the family examined so that by the end of the novel you understood exactly the character’s motivations and feelings. By the end of the novel I understood exactly what what the author was trying to accomplish, I just wish it wasn’t so painful to get there.

By all means, read this novel, especially if you have an interest in art, drama, pre-war politics and/or finance. If you are interested in these things, you will ultimately appreciate the first half of the novel much more than I did.

You can find this novel here:  The Children’s Book

This novel was lent to me by my professor, and I actually expected it to be a bit of work to read in between readings for class, and writing assignments and what not.   I was pleasantly surprised, however.   The book isn’t incredibly long, only about 300 pages, and I flew through it effortlessly, finishing it in just a few day (basically over the weekend).

Shanghai Girls is ultimately a story about family and the bonds that are forged between them, over time.   The novel begins in Shanghai and is centered around two privileged sisters who’s lives are thrown completely upside down with the loss of their father’s money, sudden arranged marriages, and the invasion of Shanghai by the Japanese.  The two girls are forced to flee their country and emigrate to America.  The second half of the story is spent dealing with the life of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, during a time when all Orientals were looked upon with suspicion after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and then again during the communist threat of Mao’s revolution.

The book was incredibly easy to read, which is really a feat in itself considering the incredible depth of description and the completely alien world (at least to me, and probably  most readers) that the author brings the reader into.   However, the entire reason it was so easy to get through is because  Lisa See effortlessly weaves a landscape of incredible detail that truly made me feel that I was witnessing Shanghai, and later Chinatown, of the 40s and 50s.   It honestly boggles my mind, the amount of research that would have to go into creating such a complete environment.  Short of actually seeing and witnessing 1940s Shanghai myself, I couldn’t write with such depth and I am humbled by her ability.

In the end, what Lisa See managed to accomplish was to  open my eyes completely to Chinese culture, beliefs and family dynamic as well as how that changed, and stayed the same, due to Americanization.   I highly recommend this novel to any lover of history and culture.

You can find it here:  Shanghai Girls

On Summer vacation this year I needed to get a real, on-paper, book to read while we were at the cabin in the woods so I headed out to the closest ‘bookseller’ I could find: Wal-Mart. If you’ve ever looked at the book selection in Wal-Mart you’ll know there’s a real dearth of anything there that’s not written by Stephenie Meyer but in the ‘bestsellers’ section I found Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz. Since Koontz, along with King, is one of my fallback authors I decided to pick it up. I’ve had pretty good luck buying Koontz books at random. Life Expectancy and Odd Thomas were both spur of the moment purchases in airports and they’re both truely excellent books. I can’t say I enjoyed Your Heart Belongs to Me quite as much.

The book is a 384 page character study of an Internet billionaire named Ryan Perry who lives the idyllic life of the ultra-rich. One day while surfing with his girlfriend however he has a major heart problem where he goes cold and his vision almost blacks out. He plays this off as just a one time issue but after a while it happens again and he finds himself paralyzed in his bedroom one night. After that he finally goes to his doctor and they find he has an enlarged heart. While discussing the possible causes of this condition his doctor offhandledly mentions ‘poison’. This sets Ryan off, he externalizes his problem and his mind convinces him his staff, his girlfriend, and his girlfriends estranged mother are all out to poison him. He enlists the help of a private detective and goes off on a chase for the supposed poisoners. His girl encourages him to stay the course and let what will happen happen, but instead Ryan goes behind her back and finds a new cartiologist, the best in the nation, and in a month he has a new heart but he’s lost is girlfriend and most everyone close to him.

At this point we’re 3/4ths of the way though the book and I was left wondering when some action might happen, it starts to pay off at this point as he starts getting messages from somone telling him ‘your heart belongs to me’. This escalates quickly and the plot advances rapidly all the way to a rather hackneyed and somewhat disappointing ending. There’s a bland reveal about Ryan’s personallity that didn’t really get sold very well, and when the final showdown between Ryan and the evil stalker it plays out meekly and the ‘bad guy’ character doesn’t get any sort of real resolution.

While I enjoy Koontz’s writing style and he keeps me turning pages, I even managed to read this book in a single day, this book seems to miss the mark. The entire novel is spent exploring Ryan’s character in order to reveal the supposed awfulness deep inside himself but it doesn’t feel genuine, in the end if comes off as forced. You’re meant to see Ryan as a flawed rich guy who uses his wealth to the detriment of those around him but it doesn’t come though, Ryan has been built up to be too nice of a guy during the rest of the novel. The book is decent, and it’s a good quick read if you’ve got some down time but if you looking for a top flight Koontz novel pick up the fantastic Odd Thomas instead.

***

Your Heart Belongs to Me

It was time to go on vacation and I was eagerly awaiting an entire week of nothing more demanding to do but read.   I had planned on doing some writing, too, but my laptop never even made it out my bag.   So I packed up my Kobo along with all my other necessities, only to realize after leaving home that I had forgotten to upload the three galleys I had downloaded from netgalley.com.   So when I found myself in a Walmart for a last minute stop at the pharmacy, I also stopped in the book isle, hoping to find something I might like, that was cheep.  When I found The Wise Woman on sale for $9.95, I jumped on it, and finished it in five days.

The Wise Woman is the story of Alys and her ambition.  Taking place in England during Henry VIII’s reign, Alys is abandoned as a baby at the house of the local wise woman, who raises her.   She lives a hard, poor childhood, and is never really loved so when the opportunity comes to raise her station she takes it by becoming a nun.    The story begins when her nunnery is burnt down by the Lord’s son (Catholics being deemed heretics, by Henry VIII), and she flees without trying to save her sisters or mother at the abby, (a truth about her character which plagues her throughout the novel).  She is forced back to the home of the wisewoman, Morag, who raised her, and again grasps at any opportunity to achieve better for herself by becoming healer and scribe to the Lord.   From there, her ambition causes her to plot to rise to lady of the manor.  She breaks her vows, takes the young Lord Hugo as lover and uses ‘dark arts’ to achieve her ends.

This was a great historical fiction, as it’s not very often that authors choose to write about lower classes, in historicals.  The look into the lives of different classes was eye opening and really set the mood for the rest of the novel and causes the reader to empathize with  Alys’ ambitions.

While it’s easy to empathize with Alys, I found it difficult to sympathize.  She’s a difficult character to grow to like because she spends the entire novel deceiving the people who care for her, to get what she wants.   I think that is more difficult to take because she was a nun and made her vows to be a good person, yet at the first challenge she throws all that aside (albeit with some moral struggle).

My favorite part of the novel was the use of ‘dark arts’.  During the time period many people did turn to ‘wise women’ who would use herbal cures, deliver babies and create love spells and such for people who would pay.  These were, of course, not real ‘spells’ but people were very superstitious and witchcraft at the time was a very serious charge.  I would have enjoyed the novel a lot more if it stuck to historical here and made any results of ‘black art’ and women’s mysteries explainable.   It starts out doing just that, however crosses the line with wax dolls that come to life, a miscarried baby made of wax and Morag turning into a rabbit.

The end of the novel also through me for a loop.  Alys spends the entire novel deceiving people to get her way – she’s the highest person in the house after the Lady dies, pregnant with the Lord’s child, and what does she do?  She repents!   After all of that she just turns away from it all.   I think I would have preferred to see her giving birth to a daughter and end up working as the wise woman back in the hovel where she grew up.  It would have been a perfect turn around and counterpoint.  Instead, the moral of the novel becomes about salvation, rather than consequence.

Regardless, I really enjoyed the novel.  The writing drew me in completely and the research was excellent.  I really felt like I understood the time period and the motivations of the different classes, and class structure.   I like how Phillipa Gregory writes and will definitely seek out more of her work.

You can find the novel here:  The Wise Woman

It’s difficult to do a review on a novel that is such a classic as to be consider canon for University literature classes.   Basically by elevating it to the status of canon means that there’s plenty of room for literary praise, discussion and dissection, but the time for reviews is long gone.   So I hesitated, when I first thought of discussing the novel-to-movie transition of such a highly esteemed, if controversial, classic.

I won’t lie, the very first time I read this novel, I wasn’t paying much attention and certainly didn’t appreciate it for what it was.   There’s a lot to be said (that has been said) about it’s subject matter, and a lot of people steer away from the novel for that very reason.   When I matured a lot more and went back to the novel of my own volition, I was a lot more impressed by the writing style than put off by the story.  It really is a beautifully told, sophisticated novel that opens up the world and thoughts of a disturbed mind, while subtly hi-lighting the character, strength and bravery of a young girl, turned victim.

That being said, because it is a novel, the literary genius of it can be focussed on, tothe exclusion of the disturbing subject of pedophilia.  This, unfortunately, doesn’t transfer over to the movie,  which I found infinitely more disturbing.  (The novel has been turned into two film adaptations, but I’m most familiar with the original 1969 version so all mycomments about the movie relate to it.)   Without the prose, all that is left is a director’s vision of a man who falls in love with, kidnaps (essentially) and sexually assaults a young girl until she finally runs away with another man, and goes on with her life as best she can.

The synopsis (a extremely brief as it is) doesn’t make it sound too horrible.   My problem with the movie is the sheer amount of time that focuses on Lolita’s ‘nymphete’ status, showing why Humbert Humbert finds her so desirable, and the very disturbing scenes of their sexual relationship.   It makes me shudder just to think of it – I have no need what-so-ever, to see a grown man have sex with a 12 year old girl.

However, my personal feelings on the subject matter, however, I’m not saying that it’s a bad movie; quite the contrary.  The novel does a fairly good job of following the plot, and the actors are disturbingly convincing in their characters.   In the end, the novel and the movie helped to alter society (both literature and film) significantly and some would say that it lead to a sexualization of children than is unfortunate, however,  undeniably more and more prevalent.

Ultimately, it continues to beg the question of if the novel and movies  should have been allowed to be published and produced.  Which is more important, do you think, sharing the art or banning the subject?

You can find the novel here:  Lolita

and the movies here:  Lolita (1962), Lolita (1997)

I put the call out on Twitter to my followers, promising a guaranteed review if they sent me ebook copies of their novel.  I realize it’s rather poor bribery, but my dream for this blog is to become one of those reviewers who have too many submissions to read.  *sigh*  I just want free books.

Anyway, I was lucky and very grateful to get a submission by Christa Polkinhorn, an author originally from Switzerland who self published her first novel, using Create Space.  At it’s core, this novel is about family and relationships and the struggles and triumphs inherent in them.   The concept is noble, and the idea of combining art – both painting and sculpture –  with the story and characters, immersing the reader into the mind of the artist, is clever.

The novel spans several countries, notably Switzerland, Peru and Italy however I have to admit that I had trouble relating to some of the discriptions, as they were about towns, cities and roads that I have no foundation in.  This goes back to yesterday’s post about the importance of setting.    I would have loved to read more about what Switzerland and Italy were like, as it was I just couldn’t envision them.  There was a lot more description about Peru, however, and liked it that way; it seemed a lot  more vivid and real than the other locations.

My one big complaint about this novel is that it has a lot of untapped  potential.   A lot of the time I felt like I was being told a story, rather than shown one.   There was a lot of passive tense and unfortunately it brought me out of the story and made me an observer rather than a participant.    I also think that this was the cause of poor pacing, as some of the sentences seemed to be choppy. This could be improved upon by adding more description and really showing what the characters are experiencing.   It’s not enough to just say, “He looked angry” or “She didn’t feel well.”  The reader wants to know how and why; giving them this will make them sympathize with the characters and draw them further into the story.  I really would have loved to feel the love between the two characters, rather than be told they loved each other.  Likewise, I wanted an explanation for the rift between them, I wanted to feel when and why they started to drift apart, I needed to understand Karla’s frustration, more.

All told, this is a novel with great potential and heart, which I think could have benefited from a professional editor.  Ms. Polkinhorn has talent, and with a little practice and polishing could grow into a respectable author.   Thank you for the opportunity to read your novel, I appreciate it!

Love of a Stonemason is available in ebook formats on amazon, and just came out in paper back.   You can find it here:   Love of a Stonemason

I can hear the thoughts now:  ”What?”  ”Really?”  ”You’re seriously doing a review on this?” Okay, maybe that’s not what you’re thinking, but I’m imagining it is because those were my first thoughts when I picked up this book.

I was actually waiting for  new book to read (which one of my lovely followers emailed to me, yay!) when I picked up my Kobo ereader and decided to go through some of the 100 free books that were included with it, just to pass the time.    After reading the first few pages of “Religious Myth and Ritual, vol 1″ and nearly falling asleep in a puddle of my own drool, (I’m really not a classics person…unless you add zombies, but that’s a different post), I decided to start on a childhood favorite.    I’d never actually read Anne of Green Gables before; it was one of the classic novels, like Little Women (which, incidently is also included in the 100 free books on my reader), that I had only ever seen in movie form, yet absolutely loved.

Now, I’m not sure how popular Anne of Green Gables is outside of Canada.   It is a Canadian novel, taking place in Canada, and despite there being movies made of it, and having it’s own offshoot television series, Road to Avonlea (on CBC, so I doubt anyone outside of Canada has seen that one), I don’t know if it’s known outside our borders.  Is it?  When I was a kid, the series was one that all of my friends had read at some point, and I just never got around to.

Anyway,  this novel was written in 1908, and was intended for a young adult audience, seeing as how the main character, Anne, begins the series at 11 years of age.   Like the Harry Potter series, however, the books get more sophisticated as Anne grows up, keeping up with an aging readership, and by the end of the series she’s an adult dealing with adult problems, dreams and aspirations.

If you have absolutely no idea about the novels, let me interject here that Anne is a delightfully imaginative and expressive orphan who has been moved around between homes all her life, before being adopted by Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert (who are brother and sister). The Cuthbert’s wanted a boy to help with the farm, however they quickly grow to care for Anne and decide to keep her.  The novels follow her life as she grows up in Green Gables, P.E.I.

Back to the first novel, however.  What I like about it the most, is seeing the world through the eyes of an imaginative child.  This isn’t just a novel about a little girl, this is life lived by her.   It completely opens up the world of childhood, from dreams, fears and adventures to self esteem issues, dealing with peers, and growing relationships.    What this novel shows me is a more simple world than what we have today, however it demonstrates that children remain the same.    If I was a child reading this book, I’d feel a kinship; as an adult, I gain understanding.

I feel that reading this book leaves me feeling like there’s magic in the air.  Anne sees past the mundane and gives new vibrancy to the world.  It’s refreshing to see things through her eyes.   I’m really glad that I decided to read this, on a whim, and think that I will have to finally read this series to see what I’ve been missing.

If you haven’t read the book, you should give it a try; it’ll make you feel like a kid again.  You can find it here:   Anne of Green Gables, complete set

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is an old favorite of mine, that I’ve already discussed in a Sunday Favorites post, so I won’t go into the series here.   An Echo in the Bone is the seventh book in the series, after a four year break, and to be honest it had been so long that had forgotten a lot about the other books, much less the fact that the story was left open for another novel.  So, when I discovered this book on the store shelves I was both surprised an excited to get reading and be reunited with my favorite characters again.

The four year break really worked against me, however, and it really would have been to my advantage if I was able to pick up the entire series and read it over again to refresh my memory.  However, seeing as how I’m trying to read as much as I can, as quickly as I can, in order to keep posting fresh reviews, that wasn’t really an option.  As such, while first getting into the novel I ended up feeling like I was missing a lot.

Unlike a lot of authors, Gabaldon doesn’t spend a lot of time recapping what happened earlier in the series.  On one hand, this is a good thing, because recaps can get annoying, especially when an entire chapter devoted to it.  On the other hand, this left me feeling lost.   I had completely forgotten the back story of many characters,  and even the existence of some, and so when their names were brought up I was left confused.  However, lucky, there were enough small hints and memories shared throughout the novel that the rest of the series very slowly came back to me, with great feelings of relief.

One of these characters is that of William Ransom.   I had forgotten entirely that he existed and was very confused, in the beginning, when it was suggested that he was Jamie’s son.  I had no recollection as to how this could be possible, and had completely forgotten the entire story line of Jamie as an indentured servant in England and his relationship with William’s mother.

The reason why this was such a glaring omission of my memory is that half of the chapters taking place in 1777 were told through the perspective of William, and his adoptive father Lord John, as he fights in the Independence war on the side of the British.  It took me a very long time to figure out how this was significant or even necessary, before being led to remember his history.  In the end it made perfect sense, as all of their stories converge, but at the time I found it difficult to care about his story.

One of my favorite aspects of this series is the whole idea of time travel, however some people have said that this leaves the novel feeling disjointed.   I can understand that view, as half the novel is written about Brianna and Roger, in the 1980s while the other half takes place during the latter part of the American Revolution.  The switch between time lines can be a little jarring, as it brings you out of the action, but its also necessary to further the story, as it reveals how much the lives of this family revolve around the phenomenon, and how history is affected by small changes, which is a key theme.

In the end it all comes down to the characters and their relationships.  Jamie and Claire’s relationship is as intense as ever, and as usual frought with tension as Jamie continues to fight in the war and get injured (he loses a finger, this time).  Roger and Brianna are back home with their children and experience a little bit of marital tension as they each try to define their roles back in the 20th century.  Ian is reunited with his parents again, just in time for tragedy, but he also finds love, again.  In the end everyone is brought back together through extraordinary circumstance and we are left, with bated breath, waiting for the next installment.

*sigh*  To be content, but wanting more, is always the best way to end a novel.

You can find this one, here:  An Echo in the Bone

Around eight years ago (wow, how time flies!) I was living in the Caribbean on a tiny little island that didn’t have very many amenities.   There was no book store, besides the tourist shops that sold Harlequin romances, and the library was the top floor of a house about 500 sq ft in size, and frankly, scary to go into.   All of my books, therefore, were passed down or borrowed from friends; it’s how I came to read the Harry Potter books, and this one, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden.

I can honestly say that I didn’t have very high hopes for this novel, mostly because it just wasn’t my type; At the time drama wasn’t really my thing and I hadn’t discovered my affection for historical novels yet.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, when the novel drew me in from the very first pages.  Part of this was because the narrative of the story makes it seem as if it’s a true story, after all, crediting a fictional person as the translator and author of the story.  It actually took me a long time to figure out that it was in fact fictional, it was so well done.

Secondly, I enjoyed how the beginning of the novel focussed on the main characters childhood and family; it establishes where her personality and perseverance comes from.  Throughout the novel it is said that she has ‘too much water’, which is evidenced by her blue eyes, but it is always said in a derogatory way.   Her mother, before her death, however, is the only person who refers to her ‘water’ as her strength, and tells her it’s a good thing.

The character is very strong and it’s what makes her enjoyable.  She may be sold and stuck in a situation beyond her control, but she doesn’t let it defeat her, she always tries to gain the upper hand and take control of her life.   The entire premise of the novel – from her being sold to a geisha house, to her determination to become the most popular geisha in Japan, to her life during the war and comeback afterwards – is a testament to her strength and determination to survive and make her life the way she felt she deserved it.

When the movie came out I was satisfied by the way the novel was represented on screen, however I felt that it lost some of it’s heart.   Without the personalization the narration provides, and with only a minimal of time spent on Sayuri’s the history, her motivation is lost and she is seen only as a character that is strung along in the stream of events, rather than dictating their direction.   Instead of having the strength of character of the novel, she is turned in to the typical female heroine.

Besides the treatment of the main character, the majority of the novel is covered in the movie accurately enough that none of the plot is lost.  I also have to commend the directors for not ignoring small details and actualy focussing on scenes that might seem insignificant, such as Sayuri’s first time pouring tea for the Chairman, only to find the pot is empty.

I’ve enjoyed the movie and have even watched it more than once.  I feel that a person could watch it in place of reading the novel and not lose too much.  However, I do think that to really understand Sayuri, to really feel for her character, the novel needs to be read.

You can find the novel here: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

and the movie here: Memoirs of a Geisha (2006)