Trenton Lee Stewart is off to a good start with his new series. The first book in the series was quite entertaining. It was cleverly written and the characters were well developed. There is plenty of material to continue working with to keep the Benedict Society going with the children and the special school continuing to uncover mysteries.
There are many moral lessons in the book. But Stewart doesn't hit the reader over the head too hard with all the important lessons that kids should get from the story. It is about four orphan children who don't seem to fit in well with the average kids in school. They each have special qualities that when they learn to work as a team use the best of each child to solve the problems they face.
They also learn about friendship, being needed and liked for who they are. They learn about family and doing something for someone else. They mostly learn about trust and being apart of something bigger than themselves. But all these lessons are presented in the context of an action story that has suspense and a bit of fear built in. Will the children be able to save the world from the mastermind evil leader who wants to control everyone's minds? Will the children get caught spying or will they have their minds controlled by the evil villain?
Each child has special powers and those characters are very well developed along with their back stories about how they ended up where they are and why they have the area of expertise they have.
I look forward to following this series and seeing where Stewart takes the children next.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Christmas Caramel Murder
Joanne Fluke continues to write fun light mystery stories. The best part of her series is the recipes. They make my mouth water and I wish I could actually bake them. But, they all use so much butter and sugar that I cannot bring myself to make them...too many calories.
The mysteries are also fun to read. For an afternoon of light reading fun, you can spend time trying to figure out who done it. Sometimes it is easier than others. This story is short and as we came to the end I could tell where the story was leading and who was the guilty party.
Fluke has the formula down though. Hannah and her assistant Lisa are always baking and detecting. Moshie the cat is always waiting to pounce on Hannah when she comes home. There is always good food being described and most recipes follow the descriptions. And the romantic tension continues with police detective Mike looking out for Hannah as she gets herself in hot water while trying to unravel the mystery and dentist, Norman always nearby ready to rescue Hannah or help her out when she needs to figure out a clue.
I must admit I am ready for Hannah to choose Norman, get married and settle down with him in the house they designed and he is having built.
The mysteries are also fun to read. For an afternoon of light reading fun, you can spend time trying to figure out who done it. Sometimes it is easier than others. This story is short and as we came to the end I could tell where the story was leading and who was the guilty party.
Fluke has the formula down though. Hannah and her assistant Lisa are always baking and detecting. Moshie the cat is always waiting to pounce on Hannah when she comes home. There is always good food being described and most recipes follow the descriptions. And the romantic tension continues with police detective Mike looking out for Hannah as she gets herself in hot water while trying to unravel the mystery and dentist, Norman always nearby ready to rescue Hannah or help her out when she needs to figure out a clue.
I must admit I am ready for Hannah to choose Norman, get married and settle down with him in the house they designed and he is having built.
Friday, November 11, 2016
The Waiting Room
Author Leah Kaminsky has written a book that shows how even though the generation who lived through the Holocaust first hand is passing away, they have left their indelible mark on the next generation. Kaminsky writes a powerful novel pulling the voices of the dead into the lives of the living by writing a continuous conversation between the past and the present, from this world to the next.
The Waiting Room, is a story of the day to day existence of Dina, a young family physician, wife and mother. She grew up in Melbourne, Australia and after her parents, survivors of the Holocaust passed away, she tried to escape her past by coming to Israel. She married an Israeli and has a young son, Shlomi and is about to deliver her second child. Though she thought she had run away from her past it continues to follow her. Her mother follows her around in her mind and carries on a conversation explaining the past. Dina also still asks her mother for advice in these imagined conversations.
Interestingly, Dina is trying to escape the history of the Holocaust, the sadness and heartache of living with her mother's stories all her life. She realizes that the fear and anguish her mother thrust upon on her was a weight too heavy to bear, yet Dina herself has run to Israel, to a land that is under attack daily and where she now continues to live in fear for herself and now her children. She starts to empathize with her mother, to understand her and wonder if she is becoming more like her mother, "Perhaps she should pity her mother, rather than blame her. Was this the sense of hopelessness the same her mother had felt throughout her life, bathed in the fear that the end could arrive at any instant?"
Kaminsky examines the survivor guilt when Dina's mother talks to her about how she was able to survive the concentration camps. Dina replays the same stories she grew up listening to her mother tell her including the one about how she chose life instead of death with her own mother, "I'll tell you the answer, Dina, she hears her mother whisper. If you had been in my shoes, there in that line instead of me, you would have done exactly what I did. You would have stepped to the right. Because the only person you can ever truly save is yourself."
She also wonderfully presents the life of living under the bomb threats that plague Israel on a regular basis. Her descriptions of the city of Haifa and the feelings of native Israelis and Arabs to these threats is realistic. Eitan, Dina's husband, is a native Israeli and feels her fears are extreme. Her son, Shlomi, is humiliated by her extreme reaction to the ideas of terrorist bombings at his school. "She is losing him. For too long she grasped him tight, trying to keep him safe. But she has been playing out her false tragedies at her son's expense."
In each of the stories we hear Dina listen to from her mother, we see Dina learning that her mother had no choice in how she reacted to life after the Holocaust, and that Dina can make it to the other side of her own conflicts and choose a happier life.
The Waiting Room, is a story of the day to day existence of Dina, a young family physician, wife and mother. She grew up in Melbourne, Australia and after her parents, survivors of the Holocaust passed away, she tried to escape her past by coming to Israel. She married an Israeli and has a young son, Shlomi and is about to deliver her second child. Though she thought she had run away from her past it continues to follow her. Her mother follows her around in her mind and carries on a conversation explaining the past. Dina also still asks her mother for advice in these imagined conversations.
Interestingly, Dina is trying to escape the history of the Holocaust, the sadness and heartache of living with her mother's stories all her life. She realizes that the fear and anguish her mother thrust upon on her was a weight too heavy to bear, yet Dina herself has run to Israel, to a land that is under attack daily and where she now continues to live in fear for herself and now her children. She starts to empathize with her mother, to understand her and wonder if she is becoming more like her mother, "Perhaps she should pity her mother, rather than blame her. Was this the sense of hopelessness the same her mother had felt throughout her life, bathed in the fear that the end could arrive at any instant?"
Kaminsky examines the survivor guilt when Dina's mother talks to her about how she was able to survive the concentration camps. Dina replays the same stories she grew up listening to her mother tell her including the one about how she chose life instead of death with her own mother, "I'll tell you the answer, Dina, she hears her mother whisper. If you had been in my shoes, there in that line instead of me, you would have done exactly what I did. You would have stepped to the right. Because the only person you can ever truly save is yourself."
She also wonderfully presents the life of living under the bomb threats that plague Israel on a regular basis. Her descriptions of the city of Haifa and the feelings of native Israelis and Arabs to these threats is realistic. Eitan, Dina's husband, is a native Israeli and feels her fears are extreme. Her son, Shlomi, is humiliated by her extreme reaction to the ideas of terrorist bombings at his school. "She is losing him. For too long she grasped him tight, trying to keep him safe. But she has been playing out her false tragedies at her son's expense."
In each of the stories we hear Dina listen to from her mother, we see Dina learning that her mother had no choice in how she reacted to life after the Holocaust, and that Dina can make it to the other side of her own conflicts and choose a happier life.
A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes
Aileen Baron has started a second career as an author writing mystery novels. She was 76 years old when she wrote this book. She had been an extremely successful archaeologist and professor at a California University. Now she tried to take what she had been teaching and studying and write mystery stories.
I read her first novel, A Fly Has A Hundred Eyes. I did not really enjoy this mystery novel. It was jammed pact with historical and archaeological facts and information. But, the author does not do as good a job with the dialog and the story line so the plot does not pull you into the story and the characters are well defined. There are many characters so it is hard to keep track of who is who. Even the main character, Lily, who in the end is the one who solves the crimes, in a way, is not someone who the reader can identify with or relate to.
Then I mentioned to my book discussion group that though we had all not enjoyed this first book in the series, I wanted to give this author the benefit of the doubt, so I would read another of her mystery novels. I went ahead and listened to The Scorpion's Bite as an audible book. Actually it was funny that I had started listening to this mystery without realizing that it was by the same author as the book I had just read. But again I was having trouble following the plot and understanding who each of the characters were. I had to laugh to myself, when I realized that it was the second book in the same series. I did finish listening to the book, but unfortunately came to the same conclusion. Baron, is a very learned archaeologist and historian. She knows her facts and dates. But she has not perfected the suspense building technique that is most important when writing an mystery story.
Sadly I did read that Aileen Baron has passed. She did write a few more novels, but will never have a chance to develop into a great mystery writer. I do think it is great though that she tried and has left not only her legacy as an archaeologist and teacher, but someone who tried her hand at writing also.
I read her first novel, A Fly Has A Hundred Eyes. I did not really enjoy this mystery novel. It was jammed pact with historical and archaeological facts and information. But, the author does not do as good a job with the dialog and the story line so the plot does not pull you into the story and the characters are well defined. There are many characters so it is hard to keep track of who is who. Even the main character, Lily, who in the end is the one who solves the crimes, in a way, is not someone who the reader can identify with or relate to.
Then I mentioned to my book discussion group that though we had all not enjoyed this first book in the series, I wanted to give this author the benefit of the doubt, so I would read another of her mystery novels. I went ahead and listened to The Scorpion's Bite as an audible book. Actually it was funny that I had started listening to this mystery without realizing that it was by the same author as the book I had just read. But again I was having trouble following the plot and understanding who each of the characters were. I had to laugh to myself, when I realized that it was the second book in the same series. I did finish listening to the book, but unfortunately came to the same conclusion. Baron, is a very learned archaeologist and historian. She knows her facts and dates. But she has not perfected the suspense building technique that is most important when writing an mystery story.
Sadly I did read that Aileen Baron has passed. She did write a few more novels, but will never have a chance to develop into a great mystery writer. I do think it is great though that she tried and has left not only her legacy as an archaeologist and teacher, but someone who tried her hand at writing also.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Days of Awe
A gripping novel that keeps the reader thinking while reading.... how easily life can change. Author, Lauren Fox compares the mother daughter relationship in multiple generations, showing how outside influences can affect those relationships. Isabel Moore has a precarious relationship with her mother, Helene, a Holocaust survivor and now after the death of her best friend, Isabel is in danger of ruining her relationship with her own young daughter. Fox examines how close to the edge a marriage and friendships sit when a person loses their balance and life events leave them on the precipice of a cliff of depression. We follow Isabel as she struggles away from the edge of the cliff, with a look back at her friendship with Josie and her everyday interactions going forward with her daughter, her mother and her almost ex-husband.
"I didn't want to see for miles. I didn't want to peer into a telescope and spot the highway in the distance, the farms on the periphery, the birds in formation. I wanted to stand at the base of the bird tower and crane my neck toward Chris and Hannah, bathed in the sunlight, golden. Love was foolish and inevitable. We were just waiting to be shattered by it. The days were finite, full of awe."
This quote is Isabel thinking about a day she and her young family are on an adventure together, before her world seems to fall apart.
There is a wonderful tension through out the book that keeps the reader engaged as you think about what the big reveal will be a the end. Josie, Isabel's best friend has died but there is both an uncertainty about the death and how she lived the end of her life. Isabel is both devastated about loosing her friend and feeling guilty that she may have played a part in its inevitability. She cannot get past this horrible event and it starts to affect her interactions with her daughter and her husband. It pulls her marriage apart and her husband and daughter draw closer together. Her daughter starts to feel about her the same way she had resented her mother as a child.
Interestingly Isabel and her own mother, Helene have had a difficult interaction her whole life because her mother suffered through the Holocaust. As a survivor her mother was withdrawn emotionally. Author, Fox, shows the similarities between these two loses and their reactions to the lose. the idea of living your life not knowing how it can be torn apart, not being able to foresee what
is just around the corner.
But most of us are able to see both sides of the picture. We are able to live through horrific events in our lives and move through them, through the depression and sadness and come out the other side and enjoy life again. That I think is the message of this novel. Knowing how to navigate the hardness and regain our positive attitude that keep our equilibrium.
"I didn't want to see for miles. I didn't want to peer into a telescope and spot the highway in the distance, the farms on the periphery, the birds in formation. I wanted to stand at the base of the bird tower and crane my neck toward Chris and Hannah, bathed in the sunlight, golden. Love was foolish and inevitable. We were just waiting to be shattered by it. The days were finite, full of awe."
This quote is Isabel thinking about a day she and her young family are on an adventure together, before her world seems to fall apart.
There is a wonderful tension through out the book that keeps the reader engaged as you think about what the big reveal will be a the end. Josie, Isabel's best friend has died but there is both an uncertainty about the death and how she lived the end of her life. Isabel is both devastated about loosing her friend and feeling guilty that she may have played a part in its inevitability. She cannot get past this horrible event and it starts to affect her interactions with her daughter and her husband. It pulls her marriage apart and her husband and daughter draw closer together. Her daughter starts to feel about her the same way she had resented her mother as a child.
Interestingly Isabel and her own mother, Helene have had a difficult interaction her whole life because her mother suffered through the Holocaust. As a survivor her mother was withdrawn emotionally. Author, Fox, shows the similarities between these two loses and their reactions to the lose. the idea of living your life not knowing how it can be torn apart, not being able to foresee what
is just around the corner.
But most of us are able to see both sides of the picture. We are able to live through horrific events in our lives and move through them, through the depression and sadness and come out the other side and enjoy life again. That I think is the message of this novel. Knowing how to navigate the hardness and regain our positive attitude that keep our equilibrium.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)