This is a fun light book to read. Good for an afternoon on the couch during a snowstorm. You are reading about recipes and looking at wonderful pictures of the different foods mentioned in Leo Tolstoy's novels. Now those recipes are created to be cooked and tasted by the average reader.
Once again there is so much butter added to these recipes, that I cannot in good conscience eat them, But all of the original recipes in the book have been updated and tweaked a little to make them taste good and easy to prepare for the modern audience. I do think I would prefer to see how to really make them the original way with a little more guidance. Some of the new revisions seem to change the recipe completely for the modern reader.
So pulling recipes from the writings of Tolstoy is a creative idea. There are so many other authors where you could create a cookbook based on their novels.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Sunday, December 25, 2016
The Prodigal Son
Written by Sulari Gentill, this short novella is the the back story for her mystery series about gentleman painter, Rowland Sinclair. This book is written in that old world style of the upper crust, gentile society. I must say I think it is extremely well done because for quite awhile I kept checking to see if it was a reprint from the 1930s or currently written. Gentill does a fabulous job of writing about a time in history and a lifestyle that she makes seem very realistic.
This is a fun story about a young man who comes home to his family estate somewhere in Australia when he inherits the house. Reluctant to be back he is excited to meet up with an old school chum who convinces him to take painting classes for the fun of it. Rowland meets some interesting new friends and even falls in love. But when relationships seem suspicious and his friend starts acting strangely, Rowland tries to solve the mystery.
This is a short story but the characters are intriguing so I will be looking for the actual series of Rowland Sinclair mysteries and start with number one of the seven novels Sulari Gentill has already published.
This is a fun story about a young man who comes home to his family estate somewhere in Australia when he inherits the house. Reluctant to be back he is excited to meet up with an old school chum who convinces him to take painting classes for the fun of it. Rowland meets some interesting new friends and even falls in love. But when relationships seem suspicious and his friend starts acting strangely, Rowland tries to solve the mystery.
This is a short story but the characters are intriguing so I will be looking for the actual series of Rowland Sinclair mysteries and start with number one of the seven novels Sulari Gentill has already published.
Faithful
Faithful by Alice Hoffman is again another wonderful story. Hoffman has once again been able to weave a plot that touches so many and is so real.
Exploring the world through the eyes of a teenager who has experienced tragedy the reader is taken to the depths of despair and brought back from the edge. Following through the eyes of Shelby we are taken for a joyride that turns tragic. Shelby and her best friend, Helene, are at the pinnacle of their high school experience. They are popular and get good grades. They have been accepted to the same college. But a mistake changes their lives in a minute and there is no going back.
Shelby people would say was the lucky one, she walks away able to continue on with her life. But, as sometimes people don't see from the outside, Shelby does not feel lucky. She does not feel like she can move forward or go on with the life she had planned. Though her parents try to help, they also are working through challenges in their marriage. Shelby must find her own way, the answers that will resonate for her and bring her back from the edge. She meets Ben, a boy she did not like in high school, who now is trying to help rescue her.
Shelby is not sure she is worth rescuing or that it is even possible. Shelby learns with time that, "Every story had the same message; what was deep inside could only be deciphered by someone who understood how easily a heart could be broken."
Shelby feels that she is broken and is not sure she can be fixed. This is a story that every parent understands as the reason we set rules for our children. This is exactly the kind of heartbreak we are trying to save our children from.
Exploring the world through the eyes of a teenager who has experienced tragedy the reader is taken to the depths of despair and brought back from the edge. Following through the eyes of Shelby we are taken for a joyride that turns tragic. Shelby and her best friend, Helene, are at the pinnacle of their high school experience. They are popular and get good grades. They have been accepted to the same college. But a mistake changes their lives in a minute and there is no going back.
Shelby people would say was the lucky one, she walks away able to continue on with her life. But, as sometimes people don't see from the outside, Shelby does not feel lucky. She does not feel like she can move forward or go on with the life she had planned. Though her parents try to help, they also are working through challenges in their marriage. Shelby must find her own way, the answers that will resonate for her and bring her back from the edge. She meets Ben, a boy she did not like in high school, who now is trying to help rescue her.
Shelby is not sure she is worth rescuing or that it is even possible. Shelby learns with time that, "Every story had the same message; what was deep inside could only be deciphered by someone who understood how easily a heart could be broken."
Shelby feels that she is broken and is not sure she can be fixed. This is a story that every parent understands as the reason we set rules for our children. This is exactly the kind of heartbreak we are trying to save our children from.
Mischling
Written by Affinity Konar, Mischling is a beautiful descriptive story about a subject that is extremely difficult to accept. Though some of these subjects are difficult digest and believe they could even could have happened, Konar does an incredible job of showing us it was real and how it affected the people it touched.
The word mischling means hybrid or half breed. This word was used during the Holocaust by the Third Reich to describe a person of mixed blood. In this novel Konar focuses on the area later referred to by the survivors as the Zoo. This is the part of the Auschwitz concentration camp where Josef Mengele houses the children, especially twins, who he uses for scientific experimentation. The children are given more food and allowed to wear regular clothes, instead of the striped uniforms that adults wear. He has teachers and classrooms for the children and he wants the children to call him Uncle. When he studies the children, he offers them candy. But he was also known as the 'Angel of Death' because the experiments that he performed on these children were horrific. He would inject them with a variety experimental fluids and operate on them changing their bodies all so he could study the results.
In this novel, Konar takes the reader into the camp through the eyes of Pearl and Stasha Zamorski, twelve year old twins, who in the fall of 1944 are sent to Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather. As identical twins who share a secret language and can almost read each other's minds and feel each other's pain, they catch Mengele's eye coming out of the cattle car. The outgoing personalities of Pearl and Stasha draw attention to themselves by not only the other children in the camp, but also they are focused on by Mengele. The plot explores the way that twins are connected, that if one twin feels pain the other also can feel a complimentary pain. When one twin is gone it as if the remaining twin is incomplete. The prose used in this novel makes the subject matter palatable.
As Pearl and Stasha are introduced to the bunker they will be staying in and the nurses who are assisting Mengele in taking care of the children the reader learns about who the two nurses are, "There in the laboratory, I knew only that we were flanked by two women who seemed to fall into interesting positions in the order of living things. They looked to entirely without feeling, their soft forms walled with protective layers. In Nurse Elma, this seemed a natural state; she was an exoskeletal creature, all her bones and thorns mounted on the outside - a perfect, glossy specimen of a crab. ... Dr. Miri was differently armored - though she was gilded with hard plates, it was poor protection, one that hadn't warded off all the wounds, and like the starfish, she was gifted at regeneration. When a piece of her met with tragedy, it grew back threefold, and the tissues multiplied themselves into an advanced sort of flesh with its own genius for survival."
So beautifully written that such a harsh subject become palatable and the reader does not want to put it down, hoping that for these twins, Pearl and Stasha, the Holocaust would not have devastating affects.
The word mischling means hybrid or half breed. This word was used during the Holocaust by the Third Reich to describe a person of mixed blood. In this novel Konar focuses on the area later referred to by the survivors as the Zoo. This is the part of the Auschwitz concentration camp where Josef Mengele houses the children, especially twins, who he uses for scientific experimentation. The children are given more food and allowed to wear regular clothes, instead of the striped uniforms that adults wear. He has teachers and classrooms for the children and he wants the children to call him Uncle. When he studies the children, he offers them candy. But he was also known as the 'Angel of Death' because the experiments that he performed on these children were horrific. He would inject them with a variety experimental fluids and operate on them changing their bodies all so he could study the results.
In this novel, Konar takes the reader into the camp through the eyes of Pearl and Stasha Zamorski, twelve year old twins, who in the fall of 1944 are sent to Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather. As identical twins who share a secret language and can almost read each other's minds and feel each other's pain, they catch Mengele's eye coming out of the cattle car. The outgoing personalities of Pearl and Stasha draw attention to themselves by not only the other children in the camp, but also they are focused on by Mengele. The plot explores the way that twins are connected, that if one twin feels pain the other also can feel a complimentary pain. When one twin is gone it as if the remaining twin is incomplete. The prose used in this novel makes the subject matter palatable.
As Pearl and Stasha are introduced to the bunker they will be staying in and the nurses who are assisting Mengele in taking care of the children the reader learns about who the two nurses are, "There in the laboratory, I knew only that we were flanked by two women who seemed to fall into interesting positions in the order of living things. They looked to entirely without feeling, their soft forms walled with protective layers. In Nurse Elma, this seemed a natural state; she was an exoskeletal creature, all her bones and thorns mounted on the outside - a perfect, glossy specimen of a crab. ... Dr. Miri was differently armored - though she was gilded with hard plates, it was poor protection, one that hadn't warded off all the wounds, and like the starfish, she was gifted at regeneration. When a piece of her met with tragedy, it grew back threefold, and the tissues multiplied themselves into an advanced sort of flesh with its own genius for survival."
So beautifully written that such a harsh subject become palatable and the reader does not want to put it down, hoping that for these twins, Pearl and Stasha, the Holocaust would not have devastating affects.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Among The Living
Jonathan Rabb has brought to the forefront an interesting comparison between the survivors of the Holocaust who immigrate to the United States after the war and the African Americans who have just recently be awarded freedom in the Jim Crow South. This is a story of understanding identity and belonging. It looks at the relationships of blacks and whites and what happens when someone who doesn't follow those established rules responds differently. It also looks at the idea that the Holocaust survivor was also in a different position than the American born Jew.
In Among The Living, Yitzhak Goldah has come to America to live with distant relative in Georgia. This last remaining relative, Abe Jesler, owns a shoe store and employs members of a black family both in the store and as domestic help in his home where he lives with his wife, Pearl. They are members of the shul, which is where the conservative Jewish members of the town observe the holidays. As Goldah learns his way around the town and his newfound freedom, he also learns the distinction between the shul and the temple where the reform Jews attend services. For Goldah having survived the concentration camps, these differences and disagreements seem trivial. He also finds love for the first time, with a member of the reform community, to the Jeslers dismay. This novel presents the story of life in America during that time period and the uncomfortable feelings of American Jews as they confront the Jewish immigrants coming to join their communities. There are uncomfortable discussions as they ask questions and make insensitive comments.
To add suspense to the plot, Jesler is involved with some black market business dealings and a woman from Goldah's past comes to town creating conflict in Goldah's new relationships. Goldah has to choose between living in the past or moving into the future.
In Among The Living, Yitzhak Goldah has come to America to live with distant relative in Georgia. This last remaining relative, Abe Jesler, owns a shoe store and employs members of a black family both in the store and as domestic help in his home where he lives with his wife, Pearl. They are members of the shul, which is where the conservative Jewish members of the town observe the holidays. As Goldah learns his way around the town and his newfound freedom, he also learns the distinction between the shul and the temple where the reform Jews attend services. For Goldah having survived the concentration camps, these differences and disagreements seem trivial. He also finds love for the first time, with a member of the reform community, to the Jeslers dismay. This novel presents the story of life in America during that time period and the uncomfortable feelings of American Jews as they confront the Jewish immigrants coming to join their communities. There are uncomfortable discussions as they ask questions and make insensitive comments.
To add suspense to the plot, Jesler is involved with some black market business dealings and a woman from Goldah's past comes to town creating conflict in Goldah's new relationships. Goldah has to choose between living in the past or moving into the future.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
The Mysterious Benedict Society
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
When Life Gives You O.J.
What a fun story on the surface for young readers. But there is also so much to discuss and think about in this book. Author Erica Perl has done a wonderful job presenting important topics for families to discuss and given readers an interesting and easy way to bring those conversations to the family dinner table.
On the surface this is a story that every child can relate to, Zelly, (Zelda) Fried and her family have moved from the ethnic world of Brooklyn, NY to the very homogeneous country, of Burlington, Vermont. Here Zelly stands out for many reasons and the book deals with her differences, making new friends and fitting in. While her best friend is away at summer camp, Zelly is home with her parents, her brother, Sam and her grandfather, Ace (Abraham) a retired judge.
Zelly is petitioning for a pet dog. Her grandfather gives her some advice on how to show her parents that she is grown-up and mature enough to have a pet. Zelly finds out what it takes to be responsible and also to stand up for your friends and not be swayed by peer pressure. This is a summer of growing up and new adventures.
Today I listened to the author talk about the book and this made it even more interesting. She describes the idea that for Zelly living in a small town where she is one of the only Jewish children in her school and having a pet pretend dog, gives the author a way to examine the idea of standing out and being different. The bully in school focuses on Zelly and her only friend because they are different but is it their Jewishness or is it just because he is mean and sees her walking her oj container? the oj container becomes a way to explore the topic of difference without focusing on religious or racial difference. This is a fun story with so much depth.
On the surface this is a story that every child can relate to, Zelly, (Zelda) Fried and her family have moved from the ethnic world of Brooklyn, NY to the very homogeneous country, of Burlington, Vermont. Here Zelly stands out for many reasons and the book deals with her differences, making new friends and fitting in. While her best friend is away at summer camp, Zelly is home with her parents, her brother, Sam and her grandfather, Ace (Abraham) a retired judge.
Zelly is petitioning for a pet dog. Her grandfather gives her some advice on how to show her parents that she is grown-up and mature enough to have a pet. Zelly finds out what it takes to be responsible and also to stand up for your friends and not be swayed by peer pressure. This is a summer of growing up and new adventures.
Today I listened to the author talk about the book and this made it even more interesting. She describes the idea that for Zelly living in a small town where she is one of the only Jewish children in her school and having a pet pretend dog, gives the author a way to examine the idea of standing out and being different. The bully in school focuses on Zelly and her only friend because they are different but is it their Jewishness or is it just because he is mean and sees her walking her oj container? the oj container becomes a way to explore the topic of difference without focusing on religious or racial difference. This is a fun story with so much depth.
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Roses in a Forbidden Garden
Roses in a Forbidden Garden is written by Elise Garibaldi. This is written as a memoir about Garibaldi's grandmother, Inge Katz. it is written in a simple style that clearly explains the hardships endured by Jewish families during the Holocaust in Germany. This is an account that is detailed, but not horrific. It can be easily read by Middle School and High School students as well as adults.
Inge Katz is a young girl living in very gracious home, an upper middle class lifestyle. Her father had fought for Germany in the first world war and had a government job. He thought the family would be safe even though there was building Anti-Semitic sentiment building in the town and through out the country.
Garibaldi lays out the story of how Katz's life is turned upside down when the SS come and tell the family to report to the train station. They are deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
They are lucky that they are at that camp, the camp known as the show camp. They treatment is slightly better than some of the other camps. They are also at an advantage because they get to stay together as a family and Inge's father is a respected worker at the camp. Inge also works in an office in the camp. While being interned at Theresienstadt, Inge meets Schmuel Berger, a fellow prisoner. They fall in love and after a few months, of evening walks around the camp, Schmuel learns that he is being transferred. He is sent to Auschwitz. There he works hard to stay alive for the rest of the war.
There is a happy ending to this family's story. Inge and Schmuel and most of their families live through the war and also get the chance to grow old together and have children and grandchildren, defying the Nazi goal of Jewish extermination.
Inge Katz is a young girl living in very gracious home, an upper middle class lifestyle. Her father had fought for Germany in the first world war and had a government job. He thought the family would be safe even though there was building Anti-Semitic sentiment building in the town and through out the country.
Garibaldi lays out the story of how Katz's life is turned upside down when the SS come and tell the family to report to the train station. They are deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
They are lucky that they are at that camp, the camp known as the show camp. They treatment is slightly better than some of the other camps. They are also at an advantage because they get to stay together as a family and Inge's father is a respected worker at the camp. Inge also works in an office in the camp. While being interned at Theresienstadt, Inge meets Schmuel Berger, a fellow prisoner. They fall in love and after a few months, of evening walks around the camp, Schmuel learns that he is being transferred. He is sent to Auschwitz. There he works hard to stay alive for the rest of the war.
There is a happy ending to this family's story. Inge and Schmuel and most of their families live through the war and also get the chance to grow old together and have children and grandchildren, defying the Nazi goal of Jewish extermination.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Sugar: A Tale of Motherhood and Medicine
Though Raissa HaCohen says she wrote the book to be cathartic for other parents in a similar situation, and for her son to read in the future..this book is an inspiration for everyone. It is the story of a young new mother advocating for her child through serious medical problems. It shows the strength of love and how young parents working together can move mountains for their child. Raissa is a young newly married women with a good career pregnant with her first child.
Raissa grew up in The United States in New Hampshire. She attended Brown University and having met her husband on a student trip to Israel has settled in this new country to bring up her family. In this book, Sugar: A Tale of Motherhood and Medicine. Raissa shares all the raw, emotional experiences that happen when a routine situation like giving birth take an unexpected turn. Her son is born with a rare diagnosis, hyperinsulinemia, a disease where the pancreas makes too much insulin.
Interestingly Raissa heads the chapters in this section of the book as Freshman Orientation and Sophomore Orientation. Because it is like an education that we have never been prepared for that parents enter parenthood. No matter the health of your child, it is a job that we have not been properly educated for. In this Raissa and her husband have bigger obstacles to face than most young parents. Raissa and her husband face them and overcome them with aplomb!
Also it is the story of personal growth in the work place as Raissa also learns to negotiate for herself in the workplace. She finds her voice and asserts herself to keep and improve her working situation. Again I could read the book without feeling proud of how she handles herself in the workplace. She is analytical, poised and displays calm, self-assurance, even if she does not feel it inside. She has learned valuable lessons in how to move ahead in work and how to advocate for her child.
It is a rare, in the moment story, with raw emotion and it is thoughtful examination of life and relationships. It is about growth and strength. It is a book anyone can relate to in some way.
Raissa grew up in The United States in New Hampshire. She attended Brown University and having met her husband on a student trip to Israel has settled in this new country to bring up her family. In this book, Sugar: A Tale of Motherhood and Medicine. Raissa shares all the raw, emotional experiences that happen when a routine situation like giving birth take an unexpected turn. Her son is born with a rare diagnosis, hyperinsulinemia, a disease where the pancreas makes too much insulin.
Interestingly Raissa heads the chapters in this section of the book as Freshman Orientation and Sophomore Orientation. Because it is like an education that we have never been prepared for that parents enter parenthood. No matter the health of your child, it is a job that we have not been properly educated for. In this Raissa and her husband have bigger obstacles to face than most young parents. Raissa and her husband face them and overcome them with aplomb!
Also it is the story of personal growth in the work place as Raissa also learns to negotiate for herself in the workplace. She finds her voice and asserts herself to keep and improve her working situation. Again I could read the book without feeling proud of how she handles herself in the workplace. She is analytical, poised and displays calm, self-assurance, even if she does not feel it inside. She has learned valuable lessons in how to move ahead in work and how to advocate for her child.
It is a rare, in the moment story, with raw emotion and it is thoughtful examination of life and relationships. It is about growth and strength. It is a book anyone can relate to in some way.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Indignation
Philip Roth has written another witty, snappy coming of age novel. He once again has set the scene in Newark NJ with a young high school graduate about to leave his family and his job assisting his father in the kosher butcher shop as he heads off to college.
This wonderful novel has been also turned into a movie that I went to see last night. I find it interesting that someone would want to make a movie from this title. The movie stayed very close to the original, just two changes are made to the original story that I guess make it easier to explain the story line in less time. Seeing the movie made me pull the book off my bookshelf and reread the plot to delve back into Roth's world of a Jewish young man facing being Jewish on a Midwestern college campus and the Anti-Semitism on colleges campuses in the 1950s.
The protagonist in this story, Marcus Messner, is also faced with the challenge of a relationship with a young troubled woman. He gets involved romantically with her, though he knows it will lead to trouble. All the problems he experiences on his first journey into the larger world, from his protected childhood, are experiences of growing up. He grapples with foolishness, intellectual resistance, sexual experimentation, courage and error. Trying to escape what he perceives as overprotectiveness of his father and the Korean War, Marcus heads to a small college in Ohio. He is assigned to a dorm room with other Jewish students who make up a very small minority of the students on campus. He is rushed by the Jewish fraternity and resists at first. He gets romantically involved with a beautiful blond girl, who he doesn't realize has a troubled past. The choices he makes in each of these relationships pushes him further into the final results of his follies.
The book is a statement of the times and of how the choices we make in life lead each of us in the direction our lives will take. That each of us, while we are in the middle of life cannot see where we are heading, but that each decision leads to the next.
This wonderful novel has been also turned into a movie that I went to see last night. I find it interesting that someone would want to make a movie from this title. The movie stayed very close to the original, just two changes are made to the original story that I guess make it easier to explain the story line in less time. Seeing the movie made me pull the book off my bookshelf and reread the plot to delve back into Roth's world of a Jewish young man facing being Jewish on a Midwestern college campus and the Anti-Semitism on colleges campuses in the 1950s.
The protagonist in this story, Marcus Messner, is also faced with the challenge of a relationship with a young troubled woman. He gets involved romantically with her, though he knows it will lead to trouble. All the problems he experiences on his first journey into the larger world, from his protected childhood, are experiences of growing up. He grapples with foolishness, intellectual resistance, sexual experimentation, courage and error. Trying to escape what he perceives as overprotectiveness of his father and the Korean War, Marcus heads to a small college in Ohio. He is assigned to a dorm room with other Jewish students who make up a very small minority of the students on campus. He is rushed by the Jewish fraternity and resists at first. He gets romantically involved with a beautiful blond girl, who he doesn't realize has a troubled past. The choices he makes in each of these relationships pushes him further into the final results of his follies.
The book is a statement of the times and of how the choices we make in life lead each of us in the direction our lives will take. That each of us, while we are in the middle of life cannot see where we are heading, but that each decision leads to the next.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
The Bridge Ladies
The Bridge Ladies is a memoir written by Betsy Lerner. This is a mother/daughter story of learning to talk to your mother and understanding her and her friends, the Bridge Ladies.
The nicest thing about this book is that Lerner finds a way to have a better relationship with her mother before it is too late. So many women have a strained relationship with their parents, not feeling comfortable talking about important topics. Lerner finds a way to get to know not only all the ladies who have been playing bridge every week with her mother for many years, but a way to talk to her mother while learning the game of bridge.
The book is interesting and I am sure even more so to someone who plays or at least understands the game of bridge. I have never been someone who can sit and play bridge or mah jong for hours on a regular basis. I do envy the women who have their weekly group that plays and talks every week, sharing their lives, good times and bad together.k
This is a memoir about the lives these women have lived. A generation that is fading away, women who were expected to get married, have children and take care of the home, while the husbands went out and earned a living. This is a vanishing lifestyle.
So though interesting it kept my interest for awhile, but then if you do not know these women personally, there came a point in the book where I felt I had read enough. There was not enough fascinating events or experiences to keep my interest all the way through. Maybe if I was more knowledgable about how to play bridge or interested in learning, I would have appreciated the bridge lessons Betsy and her mother were attending. But there the only thing I appreciated was that they had found area of interest.
I hope Betsy finds the same kind of long term friendships that her mother did. I am always looking for that also. I think that those friendships will be very important as we age.
The nicest thing about this book is that Lerner finds a way to have a better relationship with her mother before it is too late. So many women have a strained relationship with their parents, not feeling comfortable talking about important topics. Lerner finds a way to get to know not only all the ladies who have been playing bridge every week with her mother for many years, but a way to talk to her mother while learning the game of bridge.
The book is interesting and I am sure even more so to someone who plays or at least understands the game of bridge. I have never been someone who can sit and play bridge or mah jong for hours on a regular basis. I do envy the women who have their weekly group that plays and talks every week, sharing their lives, good times and bad together.k
This is a memoir about the lives these women have lived. A generation that is fading away, women who were expected to get married, have children and take care of the home, while the husbands went out and earned a living. This is a vanishing lifestyle.
So though interesting it kept my interest for awhile, but then if you do not know these women personally, there came a point in the book where I felt I had read enough. There was not enough fascinating events or experiences to keep my interest all the way through. Maybe if I was more knowledgable about how to play bridge or interested in learning, I would have appreciated the bridge lessons Betsy and her mother were attending. But there the only thing I appreciated was that they had found area of interest.
I hope Betsy finds the same kind of long term friendships that her mother did. I am always looking for that also. I think that those friendships will be very important as we age.
Dead Wake
I just finished listening to Dead Wake written by Erik Larson and narrated by the very expressive voice of Scott Brick.
Larson once again has put together an incredibly well researched, fascinating history lesson. His books catch the reader in their grasp and like a gripping story of fiction don't release you until the very end. Even though you may know how the story is going to end, you are learning new in depth facts along that way that keep you riveted to the story. Also Brick who has narrated other Larson books, has a smooth, quiet, yet commanding voice that is pleasant to listen to and adds to the reader's connection to the tale being revealed.
Larson presents the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania in precise detail. He has collected incredibly exhaustive amounts of information about many of the passengers who traveled on that fateful crossing. He also has done a extremely thorough job of gathering the information about the ocean liner, Lusitania and its parent company, Cunard. Of course, Larson has also has compiled a comprehensive amount of data about the German submarine, U -20, whose captain Walther Schwieger, called the command to torpedo the 787 foot ship as it was underway from New York to Liverpool, on May 7, 1915.
It is amazing the number of coincidences that seem to have occurred. The happenstance that so many pieces fell into place to put the Lusitania in the direct path of the U-20 at the precise moment and time. Larson points out how if the ship had left at a different time, or had been traveling with all four of its smoke stacks firing, instead of trying to save power and only using three stacks, which slowed the ship down, or if it had taken a slightly altered route, the two boats, the submarine captained by Schwieger and the Lusitania with William Thomas Turner at the helm would never have been in the same waters at the same time.
Larson describes in great detail about a number of the passengers as they board the ship in New York City. He follows their experiences, interactions through their correspondences while on the ship. He learns many minute details about the passengers and also follows them as the ship is sinking and then afterwards. Who escapes and lives, who dies. Out of a guest list of almost 2,000 people, 764 people were rescued and about 1, 195 perished.
The hardest part of this book to read is that in so many ways the tragedy could have been averted or at least after the torpedo had hit its target fewer people could have died. There are many lessons learned from the sinking of this fabulous superliner and other ships sunk which led up to the United States entering World War One. Reading about the British Admiralty and the knowledge they had but did not follow through with. The story of Woodrow Wilson, recently having lost his wife and being depressed. Wilson busy meeting and wooing Edith Galt with rides in his favorite car the 1919
Pierce- Arrow.
Larson constructs a wonderful depiction of building suspense as the Lusitania steams toward its inevitable doom.
Larson once again has put together an incredibly well researched, fascinating history lesson. His books catch the reader in their grasp and like a gripping story of fiction don't release you until the very end. Even though you may know how the story is going to end, you are learning new in depth facts along that way that keep you riveted to the story. Also Brick who has narrated other Larson books, has a smooth, quiet, yet commanding voice that is pleasant to listen to and adds to the reader's connection to the tale being revealed.
Larson presents the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania in precise detail. He has collected incredibly exhaustive amounts of information about many of the passengers who traveled on that fateful crossing. He also has done a extremely thorough job of gathering the information about the ocean liner, Lusitania and its parent company, Cunard. Of course, Larson has also has compiled a comprehensive amount of data about the German submarine, U -20, whose captain Walther Schwieger, called the command to torpedo the 787 foot ship as it was underway from New York to Liverpool, on May 7, 1915.
It is amazing the number of coincidences that seem to have occurred. The happenstance that so many pieces fell into place to put the Lusitania in the direct path of the U-20 at the precise moment and time. Larson points out how if the ship had left at a different time, or had been traveling with all four of its smoke stacks firing, instead of trying to save power and only using three stacks, which slowed the ship down, or if it had taken a slightly altered route, the two boats, the submarine captained by Schwieger and the Lusitania with William Thomas Turner at the helm would never have been in the same waters at the same time.
Larson describes in great detail about a number of the passengers as they board the ship in New York City. He follows their experiences, interactions through their correspondences while on the ship. He learns many minute details about the passengers and also follows them as the ship is sinking and then afterwards. Who escapes and lives, who dies. Out of a guest list of almost 2,000 people, 764 people were rescued and about 1, 195 perished.
The hardest part of this book to read is that in so many ways the tragedy could have been averted or at least after the torpedo had hit its target fewer people could have died. There are many lessons learned from the sinking of this fabulous superliner and other ships sunk which led up to the United States entering World War One. Reading about the British Admiralty and the knowledge they had but did not follow through with. The story of Woodrow Wilson, recently having lost his wife and being depressed. Wilson busy meeting and wooing Edith Galt with rides in his favorite car the 1919
Pierce- Arrow.
Larson constructs a wonderful depiction of building suspense as the Lusitania steams toward its inevitable doom.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Ways To Disappear
Ways To Disappear written by Idra Novey is a light fun story about an author who has lived life beyond her means and now decides to disappear rather than face her creditors. She leaves behind her publisher, her translator and her children to pick up the pieces.
Her American translator, a young woman named Emma, flies from Pittsburgh, PA to Brazil to help track down author, Beatriz Yagoda. She feels that having translated all Beatriz's novels has given her incite into where Beatriz may have disappeared off to. Emma is also escaping her own personal life in America. The cold winters and an engagement she is not sure she wants to continue. Emma teams up with siblings Raquel and Marcus to help find their mother. They are shocked to learn that their mother has incurred major gambling debts.
In a humorous style, author Novey, builds a sense of mystery as a hitman comes looking to collect the debt Beatriz Yagoda has accumulated from the loan shark. The characters are involved in romance, kidnapping and ransom as they search for the illusive author, who the longer she remains hidden the more her novels build in popularity. Her longtime editor reissues her original books and edits her latest manuscript. As a translator, Emma feels that her life is lived quietly in the shadows. Never the center of attention, always interpreting someone else's words. "And wasn't the splendor of translation this very thing - to discover sentences this beautiful and then have the chance to make someone else hear their beauty who had yet to hear it?" Later in the novel, Emma also describes the role of the translator as someone who helped clarify to the reader the author's intent, "A translator could justify moving around the objects in a sentence if it made it easier for her audience to grasp what was going on. She could even change an object into something more familiar to the reader to avoid baffling him with something he wouldn't understand."
Written using short chapters, some laying out the story as it unfolds, some giving us dictionary style definitions that explain a plot point. There are chapters that are written as news reports, moving the story to another direction and emails written to Emma by the fiancee she left behind in Pittsburgh.Then either to make light of a dramatic scene or for emphasis at one point, Novey, writes in poetry verse. All these varied styles make reading the novel more enjoyable.
Her American translator, a young woman named Emma, flies from Pittsburgh, PA to Brazil to help track down author, Beatriz Yagoda. She feels that having translated all Beatriz's novels has given her incite into where Beatriz may have disappeared off to. Emma is also escaping her own personal life in America. The cold winters and an engagement she is not sure she wants to continue. Emma teams up with siblings Raquel and Marcus to help find their mother. They are shocked to learn that their mother has incurred major gambling debts.
In a humorous style, author Novey, builds a sense of mystery as a hitman comes looking to collect the debt Beatriz Yagoda has accumulated from the loan shark. The characters are involved in romance, kidnapping and ransom as they search for the illusive author, who the longer she remains hidden the more her novels build in popularity. Her longtime editor reissues her original books and edits her latest manuscript. As a translator, Emma feels that her life is lived quietly in the shadows. Never the center of attention, always interpreting someone else's words. "And wasn't the splendor of translation this very thing - to discover sentences this beautiful and then have the chance to make someone else hear their beauty who had yet to hear it?" Later in the novel, Emma also describes the role of the translator as someone who helped clarify to the reader the author's intent, "A translator could justify moving around the objects in a sentence if it made it easier for her audience to grasp what was going on. She could even change an object into something more familiar to the reader to avoid baffling him with something he wouldn't understand."
Written using short chapters, some laying out the story as it unfolds, some giving us dictionary style definitions that explain a plot point. There are chapters that are written as news reports, moving the story to another direction and emails written to Emma by the fiancee she left behind in Pittsburgh.Then either to make light of a dramatic scene or for emphasis at one point, Novey, writes in poetry verse. All these varied styles make reading the novel more enjoyable.
The Two-Family House
I just finished reading the last page of The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Logiman. I am still wiping away the last tears from my eyes as I start writing this review. It is surprising that even though the secret that occurs early in the novel and that is supposed to have a suspenseful build up throughout the novel was not really a surprise ( I had it figured out right away), I still could not put the book down and was waiting to see how Logiman would use it at the end. Also I was so caught up in the characters and plot line that even though I knew what would be revealed I could not wait to read about it and I was so emotionally moved by the ending.
This a story about family, love and loss, selfishness, greed and longing. The classic, "the grass is always greener in someone else's yard" plot line runs through this book. This book illustrates how jealousy can not only tear apart relationships, but can tear a person apart inside themselves.
Logiman follows the lives of two brothers who work together and share a two family house with their wives and children. For a while I thought about how much fun it seemed to be sharing your children upstairs and down, sharing meals and having coffee with your sister-in-law whenever. But of course life does not always follow a perfect course. We see how misperception can start to naw away at people when they think things are better in another person's life. We see how secrets and deception can unravel relationships. It does not always work out for the best when you alter the course of destiny.
The two brothers have issues they have never been able to discuss and come to terms with. One is envious of the other. One is intimidated by the other. The two wives who seem so close make a decision that will tear their relationship apart. So many people living under one roof and in the end it shows how little they all know and understand each other. As readers we are almost privy to a secret, but we are on the outside hearing the story of life in their Two-Family House from the perspective of each different family member. So the suspense is built as time goes by and we find out the outcome of the secret when the members of the family do.
Logiman has written a terrific plot that grips the reader from the beginning and makes you wonder who are the good guys and who is at fault. Are there evil characters in this novel or are all the family members just naturally flawed as real human beings are flawed?
This a story about family, love and loss, selfishness, greed and longing. The classic, "the grass is always greener in someone else's yard" plot line runs through this book. This book illustrates how jealousy can not only tear apart relationships, but can tear a person apart inside themselves.
Logiman follows the lives of two brothers who work together and share a two family house with their wives and children. For a while I thought about how much fun it seemed to be sharing your children upstairs and down, sharing meals and having coffee with your sister-in-law whenever. But of course life does not always follow a perfect course. We see how misperception can start to naw away at people when they think things are better in another person's life. We see how secrets and deception can unravel relationships. It does not always work out for the best when you alter the course of destiny.
The two brothers have issues they have never been able to discuss and come to terms with. One is envious of the other. One is intimidated by the other. The two wives who seem so close make a decision that will tear their relationship apart. So many people living under one roof and in the end it shows how little they all know and understand each other. As readers we are almost privy to a secret, but we are on the outside hearing the story of life in their Two-Family House from the perspective of each different family member. So the suspense is built as time goes by and we find out the outcome of the secret when the members of the family do.
Logiman has written a terrific plot that grips the reader from the beginning and makes you wonder who are the good guys and who is at fault. Are there evil characters in this novel or are all the family members just naturally flawed as real human beings are flawed?
Monday, August 29, 2016
The Atomic Weight of Love
Another wonderful love story, that transcends the pages of this book. Author Elizabeth J. Church has created a novel that explores relationships and personal dreams. She had this reader thinking about her personal relationships and life expectations even before she reached the end of the book.
This is the story of Meridian Wallace, who comes of age during the war years. She is turning 17 in 1941, and going off to college as a naive young woman from a sheltered childhood. As she pursues her degree in ornithology, she is also learning about friendship, men and relationships. She dates two men, one young and brash, one older and more mature. She is a very bright young student with a chance to go onto graduate school. She gives it all up for marriage. Would things have turned out differently if the Unites States had not entered World War Two at that particular time? Meridian will never really know. But what she does know is that along the way she has made many personal sacrifices in the name of love. As we follow Meridian and her husband Alden Whetstone through their relationship, Meridian follows Alden out to Los Alamos, New Mexico has he advances his career working on the secretive atomic bomb project.
As Meridian enters her 40s she becomes a woman of the 1960s and she explores the world of women's liberation. She becomes an advocate for women's rights and equality. Meridian had given up her dreams of post graduate work studying birds. As she grows she finds ways to feel stronger as the woman she has become. She returns to studying the birds and she draws parallels between the way different species interact with each other. " Actually, I thought, the small birds' behavior made perfect sense - they were so low in the pecking order, so vulnerable. Their predators were bountiful, between the roadrunners, crows, raptors, dogs and cats. The entirety of a sparrow's world was peopled with threats. Of course women are flighty, I thought. We have more predators than men; we have to operate constantly with greater wariness. Women alone in parking lots can be singled out, mugged, or worse. Our own mates can beat us, kill us."
She goes as a person finds strength within herself. Though Meridian does not think this is a story about Los Alamos or the development of the atomic bomb or the war; this reader thinks that is also an important topic touched on in this novel. We hear the viewpoint of Alden who has helped create the bomb that killed thousands of people and ended a war. We also meet Clay Griffin, a young man who has returned from fighting in Vietnam. He puts forth the viewpoint of a pacifist, who felt that he was fighting a war that was unjustifiable. The reader has a chance to also reflect on her feelings about the dichotomy of these two wars. This is another great topic to think about in this book.
Lastly there is the great discussion topic of relationships between men and women. The give and take between a husband and wife. The equality or inequality of those relationships. The book gives a discussion group some great jumping off points both about those interactions and how they may have changed from one generation to the next.
Not to be overlooked there is also the wonderful small details in the book. Each chapter heading is a type of bird. With a definition that relates to the birds relationships. One of the chapters, "A Murder of Crows 1. Among the smartest animals on earth, the American Crow is highly adaptable."
What a beautiful descriptive story.
This is the story of Meridian Wallace, who comes of age during the war years. She is turning 17 in 1941, and going off to college as a naive young woman from a sheltered childhood. As she pursues her degree in ornithology, she is also learning about friendship, men and relationships. She dates two men, one young and brash, one older and more mature. She is a very bright young student with a chance to go onto graduate school. She gives it all up for marriage. Would things have turned out differently if the Unites States had not entered World War Two at that particular time? Meridian will never really know. But what she does know is that along the way she has made many personal sacrifices in the name of love. As we follow Meridian and her husband Alden Whetstone through their relationship, Meridian follows Alden out to Los Alamos, New Mexico has he advances his career working on the secretive atomic bomb project.
As Meridian enters her 40s she becomes a woman of the 1960s and she explores the world of women's liberation. She becomes an advocate for women's rights and equality. Meridian had given up her dreams of post graduate work studying birds. As she grows she finds ways to feel stronger as the woman she has become. She returns to studying the birds and she draws parallels between the way different species interact with each other. " Actually, I thought, the small birds' behavior made perfect sense - they were so low in the pecking order, so vulnerable. Their predators were bountiful, between the roadrunners, crows, raptors, dogs and cats. The entirety of a sparrow's world was peopled with threats. Of course women are flighty, I thought. We have more predators than men; we have to operate constantly with greater wariness. Women alone in parking lots can be singled out, mugged, or worse. Our own mates can beat us, kill us."
She goes as a person finds strength within herself. Though Meridian does not think this is a story about Los Alamos or the development of the atomic bomb or the war; this reader thinks that is also an important topic touched on in this novel. We hear the viewpoint of Alden who has helped create the bomb that killed thousands of people and ended a war. We also meet Clay Griffin, a young man who has returned from fighting in Vietnam. He puts forth the viewpoint of a pacifist, who felt that he was fighting a war that was unjustifiable. The reader has a chance to also reflect on her feelings about the dichotomy of these two wars. This is another great topic to think about in this book.
Lastly there is the great discussion topic of relationships between men and women. The give and take between a husband and wife. The equality or inequality of those relationships. The book gives a discussion group some great jumping off points both about those interactions and how they may have changed from one generation to the next.
Not to be overlooked there is also the wonderful small details in the book. Each chapter heading is a type of bird. With a definition that relates to the birds relationships. One of the chapters, "A Murder of Crows 1. Among the smartest animals on earth, the American Crow is highly adaptable."
What a beautiful descriptive story.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Moonglow
Moonglow, is the newest novel written by Michael Chabon. This book takes us on a ficticious journey that follows Chabon's family story starting with his Grandfather's life as a young man.
Moonglow is written in quite an unusal style. The narrator writes in the first person and only refers to his grandfather as grandfather, not really naming him until quite far into the book. He refers to his mother also by just her title, mother, and not her name. It is not until near the end of the book where he talks about an uncle named Sam Chabon, and a family company called, Chabon Scientific So as a reader you keep wondering how biographical this book really is.
The story takes place at the end of his grandfather's life and uses the style of flashbacks and rememberences to fill in the plot. His grandfather is living out the last days of his life in the author's mother's home. The author and narrator has come home for a last visit with his grandfather. As his grandfather reminisces he tells stories about parts of his life he has never revealed before.
In his storytelling he also uncovers secrets about his wife that were never discussed in the family before. The narrator's grandmother had been a victim and survivor of the Second World War. The grandfather had been an American soldier who helped fight at the end of the war and liberate some of the concentration camps in Europe. The grandfather has always been very interested and involved with the United States space program. He has built model rockets and watched every space launch. He talks about the involvement of German scientists who were able to escape Germany after the war and become apart of the US space program.
"I’m disappointed in myself. In my life. All my life, everything I tried, I only got halfway there. You try to take advantage of the time you have. That’s what they tell you to do. But when you’re old, you look back and you see all you did with all that time is waste it. All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn’t finish. Things you fought with all your heart to build that didn’t last or fought with all your heart to get rid of and they’re all still around. I’m ashamed of myself.” These are the words of the narrator's grandfather, as he lies on his death bed talking to his grandson. He is telling stories of his life and revealing the family secrets that have been kept during his lifetime.
This was an interesting family story. Maybe writing your family history as fiction is a good way to take a family story give it the ending you the way you would really want it to turn out. You can listen to the stories you relatives tell and recreate the facts to make it all end positively.
Moonglow is written in quite an unusal style. The narrator writes in the first person and only refers to his grandfather as grandfather, not really naming him until quite far into the book. He refers to his mother also by just her title, mother, and not her name. It is not until near the end of the book where he talks about an uncle named Sam Chabon, and a family company called, Chabon Scientific So as a reader you keep wondering how biographical this book really is.
The story takes place at the end of his grandfather's life and uses the style of flashbacks and rememberences to fill in the plot. His grandfather is living out the last days of his life in the author's mother's home. The author and narrator has come home for a last visit with his grandfather. As his grandfather reminisces he tells stories about parts of his life he has never revealed before.
In his storytelling he also uncovers secrets about his wife that were never discussed in the family before. The narrator's grandmother had been a victim and survivor of the Second World War. The grandfather had been an American soldier who helped fight at the end of the war and liberate some of the concentration camps in Europe. The grandfather has always been very interested and involved with the United States space program. He has built model rockets and watched every space launch. He talks about the involvement of German scientists who were able to escape Germany after the war and become apart of the US space program.
"I’m disappointed in myself. In my life. All my life, everything I tried, I only got halfway there. You try to take advantage of the time you have. That’s what they tell you to do. But when you’re old, you look back and you see all you did with all that time is waste it. All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn’t finish. Things you fought with all your heart to build that didn’t last or fought with all your heart to get rid of and they’re all still around. I’m ashamed of myself.” These are the words of the narrator's grandfather, as he lies on his death bed talking to his grandson. He is telling stories of his life and revealing the family secrets that have been kept during his lifetime.
This was an interesting family story. Maybe writing your family history as fiction is a good way to take a family story give it the ending you the way you would really want it to turn out. You can listen to the stories you relatives tell and recreate the facts to make it all end positively.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
They May Not Mean To, But They Do
Here is a novel that explores a topic very much at the forefront of every baby boomer's social conversations. We are not of the age yet to talk about our own aches and pains. But if we are lucky enough to have parents who are still alive, we are discussing our guilt and the troubles taking care of them as they decline in health and mental acuity. Being apart of the sandwich generation is filled with both happiness that we still have family to get together with for holidays and other celebrations, but frustration that there are demands on us as our parents age and guilt about how we are handling it. Do we take them into our lives and fit them in between our work and social life? Do we put them in assisted living or let them age in place at home? Though you may not think this is a topic for an enjoyable novel, Cathleen Schine has written this story so well that you do not want to put it down. She has made the characters so believable that there is someone in the book every reader can relate to.
Joy is the matriarch who is going through the loss of her husband, Aaron, as he slowly declines with alzheimer's complicated by cancer and a colostomy bag. Joy is determined to take care of him in their apartment until the end which takes a great toll on her health also.
Molly is the daughter who has moved the furthest away. Having divorced her husband, she has found a new relationship and career in California. She has left her parents in their New York City apartment and her brother close enough to be the one who can stop by for a short visit. She feels guilty that she lives so far away, but relieved also when she can get away and go back to her separate world. Molly has a grown son, Ben, by her first marriage, who comes to stay with Grandma, for awhile, after she is alone.
Daniel, the son, lives in New York with his wife and two young daughters. Daniel's wife and children give us the perspective from the point of view of the in-law and grandchildren. They also are struggling with their Judaism. So as the novel progresses Ruby, the oldest granddaughter, is exploring her Judaism and preparing for Bat Mitzvah. The daughter in law, Coco, thinks at one point about how this life experience can be used a teaching moment for her children, "Coco said nothing. She was thinking about her own old age. Would Cora and Ruby want her to come and live with them when the time came? She would set a good example." So Coco tries to be understanding of her mother-in-law and even suggests they invite her to move in with them.
To round out the plot Molly is now married to Freddie, a woman who also has a parent living in assisted living near them in Los Angeles. Freddie and her siblings, of which there are many, have very different family dynamics with their father. Their family thread, though not the main storyline, presents a different view of family and aging parents.
Molly and Daniel talk to their parents on the phone constantly and try to help Joy as she is taking care of Aaron. They try to offer advice and suggest caretakers coming into the apartment. Joy resists as long as she can until her health is also compromised. From her point of view the children are trying to take away her autonomy. She is still working as a conservation consultant at a small museum on the Lower East Side. But, as the computer and technology get more advanced, Joy was being left behind there also. Her new boss is changing the department and squeezing her out. "...Joy had begun to identify with her artifacts, out of date, obsolete, left behind." Joy is struggling with her own identity, still wanting to feel important and needed.
Cathleen Schine captures that adult child guilt so wonderfully in They May Not Mean To, But They Do. When I read the title on the bookshelf I thought the meaning would be that parents do something to their children, like making them feel guilty to drive them crazy. I thought it would be a book that would justify my feelings that my parents have always been the crazy ones, not me. The title is taken from a favorite poem of the author by Philip Larkin called This Be The Verse which starts out, "They f**k you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had. And add some extra, just for you." But Schine turns the verse on its head in the novel and has Joy the mother in this story deliver the line from the parent's point of view. Her son, Daniel suggests she get a dog when she mentions she is lonely and her daughter Molly suggests she go out more.
"When Joy said her head was muddled and she sometimes was so tired she could not breathe, but so worried about the cost of the caretakers that she could not sleep. Molly suggested she go to the 92nd Street Y's poetry readings. Poetry.
They meant well, they did. But they f**k you up your son and daughter, Joy thought, pleased with her clever Philip Larkin allusion, 92nd Street Y or no 92nd Street Y. They many not mean to but they do."
There were a few times as I was reading this novel that I asked myself why I would continue to read a book that hit so close to home on a subject that when you are living it may not seem funny, but Schine does try to point out some of the humor in the everyday life that you may not be able to see when you are involved but if you stand back seems just crazy enough to laugh at. Maybe after reading this novel each of us living with a similar experience will be able to step back and see some humor in our own situations. It can also be a comfort that our stories are not that unusual. That maybe we also have material in our everyday lives that could be written down as a story someday.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
The Swans of Fifth Avenue
Historically accurate, socially compelling and emotionally intriguing, The Swans of Fifth Avenue written by Melanie Benjamin does not disappoint. Benjamin has written another fabulous plot based on the real lives of Truman Capote and the women he called his swans. Benjamin has captured the glorified society and the lifestyles dripping with wealth that Truman Capote was desperate to be apart of.
Truman Capote came from nothing. He was a sad, bitter man raised by a mother who did not love him. He comes to New York with so much emotional baggage to find the fame and love denied him through out his life. It was never enough. Though he is in a relationship with a someone who loves him it is not enough. He writes Breakfast at Tiffany's and then In Cold Blood and develops some success and a following from that success. It is not enough. He creates a persona that is surrounded by and socializing with the beautiful people of New York society, it is all never enough to fill the hole left by his mother's lack of love for him.
We are also introduced to all the "Swans". Gloria Guinness, who came to New York from Mexico, Nancy Gross whose married name is Keith and answers to the nickname "Slim" from California. Barbara Cushing Paley nicknamed, "Babe", Marella Agnelli and C.Z. Guest.
Babe Paley was an icon for American fashion and style. She was a major player in the New York society scene attending important charity social functions and socializing at exclusive clubs. Her unconventional fashion style was inspirational many women who copied her clothing and makeup.
Benjamin uses her knowledge of the facts surrounding the characters in this story to create the dialog and emotions fleshing out the story of how Truman infiltrated New York society and then was shunned by the same company that had so recently included him. It happens after he writes the beginning of his newest novel, Answered Prayers, which appears in the "The New Yorker" magazine. When his friends start to recognize themselves int he story they feel Truman has gone too far. That is the end of his relationship with the "Swans".
These are women who work hard to cover up the the person they really are with all their flaws with clothing and make-up. To project the ideal woman they want to portray to the world of the wealthy class, perfectly made -up, with the latest fashion eating at the best restaurants drinking champagne.
One of the women describes how they feel and think so well when she says, "All those men, those Hollywood men, those legends - how they'd all fallen for her, every one, and she'd pretended to be embarrassed or shy or confused or surprised. But she wasn't; she had made them all fall in love with her by being her truest self to the point that it became a costume she put on in the morning, mask she slipped over her head."
A beautifully painted picture of the times and the characters who lived this fairy tale lifestyle. The money that made their lives so easy, exciting and glamorous. A way of life that has disappeared.
Truman Capote came from nothing. He was a sad, bitter man raised by a mother who did not love him. He comes to New York with so much emotional baggage to find the fame and love denied him through out his life. It was never enough. Though he is in a relationship with a someone who loves him it is not enough. He writes Breakfast at Tiffany's and then In Cold Blood and develops some success and a following from that success. It is not enough. He creates a persona that is surrounded by and socializing with the beautiful people of New York society, it is all never enough to fill the hole left by his mother's lack of love for him.
We are also introduced to all the "Swans". Gloria Guinness, who came to New York from Mexico, Nancy Gross whose married name is Keith and answers to the nickname "Slim" from California. Barbara Cushing Paley nicknamed, "Babe", Marella Agnelli and C.Z. Guest.
Babe Paley was an icon for American fashion and style. She was a major player in the New York society scene attending important charity social functions and socializing at exclusive clubs. Her unconventional fashion style was inspirational many women who copied her clothing and makeup.
Benjamin uses her knowledge of the facts surrounding the characters in this story to create the dialog and emotions fleshing out the story of how Truman infiltrated New York society and then was shunned by the same company that had so recently included him. It happens after he writes the beginning of his newest novel, Answered Prayers, which appears in the "The New Yorker" magazine. When his friends start to recognize themselves int he story they feel Truman has gone too far. That is the end of his relationship with the "Swans".
These are women who work hard to cover up the the person they really are with all their flaws with clothing and make-up. To project the ideal woman they want to portray to the world of the wealthy class, perfectly made -up, with the latest fashion eating at the best restaurants drinking champagne.
One of the women describes how they feel and think so well when she says, "All those men, those Hollywood men, those legends - how they'd all fallen for her, every one, and she'd pretended to be embarrassed or shy or confused or surprised. But she wasn't; she had made them all fall in love with her by being her truest self to the point that it became a costume she put on in the morning, mask she slipped over her head."
A beautifully painted picture of the times and the characters who lived this fairy tale lifestyle. The money that made their lives so easy, exciting and glamorous. A way of life that has disappeared.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Under the Egg
I picked up Laura Marx Fitzgerald's novel for middle schoolers because it was about art. I read it before giving it away as a gift to one of my young friends. What a wonderful surprise it turned out to be. Fitzgerald has written an intriguing suspenseful novel about Holocaust stolen artwork that will appeal to a young reader and teach them some history at the same time. The history is told in a careful non -threatening style, that includes the facts simply and subtly as part of the storyline.
Theodora Tenpenny, Theo for short, is happily living with her grandfather and her mother in a two hundred year old brownstone in New York City. When her grandfather passes away unexpectedly Theo is left to manage the house, the chickens, the vegetable garden and her mother, who has her head in the clouds still writing her PhD thesis on solving theorems, after fifteen years.
Theo makes a rare find in the paintings Grandfather Jack left in his studio. In her search to find out the truth about the painting and Jack's past, Theo makes friends and leaves the cloistered world she has been living in.
Bodhi is the new girl down the street. Her parents are both movie actors, who don't spend much time or attention on Bodhi. Left to her own devices, she finds Theo and her simple lifestyle exciting and they are off and running to uncover the mystery behind the painting. Their research takes them both to the New York City Library, where they meet Eddie and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Along the way the reader learns about some of the "Old Masters". We learn about Raphael and the Renaissance period of art. We also learn about paintings and forgery detection. Then of course, there is the history lesson about stolen artwork from World War II. The reader is introduced to the Monument Men and others who tried to save some of the artwork and return it to its rightful owners after the war.
As Theo's world is turned upside down, she learns many important lessons, makes friends, saves herself, her mother and their house. It is a very eventful summer and though she will miss her grandfather, he has left her wealthy in so many ways. A wonderful story of love, loyalty and how sharing an adventure can really cement a friendship even when you come very different backgrounds.
Theodora Tenpenny, Theo for short, is happily living with her grandfather and her mother in a two hundred year old brownstone in New York City. When her grandfather passes away unexpectedly Theo is left to manage the house, the chickens, the vegetable garden and her mother, who has her head in the clouds still writing her PhD thesis on solving theorems, after fifteen years.
Theo makes a rare find in the paintings Grandfather Jack left in his studio. In her search to find out the truth about the painting and Jack's past, Theo makes friends and leaves the cloistered world she has been living in.
Bodhi is the new girl down the street. Her parents are both movie actors, who don't spend much time or attention on Bodhi. Left to her own devices, she finds Theo and her simple lifestyle exciting and they are off and running to uncover the mystery behind the painting. Their research takes them both to the New York City Library, where they meet Eddie and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Along the way the reader learns about some of the "Old Masters". We learn about Raphael and the Renaissance period of art. We also learn about paintings and forgery detection. Then of course, there is the history lesson about stolen artwork from World War II. The reader is introduced to the Monument Men and others who tried to save some of the artwork and return it to its rightful owners after the war.
As Theo's world is turned upside down, she learns many important lessons, makes friends, saves herself, her mother and their house. It is a very eventful summer and though she will miss her grandfather, he has left her wealthy in so many ways. A wonderful story of love, loyalty and how sharing an adventure can really cement a friendship even when you come very different backgrounds.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
The Extra
A.B. Yehoshua has written a novel that through the story of Noga, a woman who has returned to Israel from abroad illustrates the conflict between religious and secular Jews and with Arabs living in Jerusalem. Yehoshua is one of the Israeli writers who is thinks Judaism cannot survive without Israel. He sees Israel's future impossible as it is. Jews are the uninvited guests who cannot leave because they are also among the hosts of the party.
Noga, a harpist, who grew up in the Jerusalem apartment she has come back to watch over, left when as a professional musician she could not find work in an Israeli orchestra. She has come back to help her brother Honi with an experiment with their mother. After a long very close marriage, her father has passed away. Honi wants to move his mother out of the family apartment in a neighborhood section of Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, where he now lives with his wife and children. His mother is not sure she is ready for assisted living. She proposes an experiment that will bring Noga back from the Netherlands to live in the rent controlled apartment while she tries out assisted living.
Noga agrees to the experiment for three months. Leaving her position in the orchestra, they promise to wait to play Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp until she returns. She leaves behind her harp and does not arrange for a substitute which means she will not practice her instrument for three months. Her brother arranges for her to be an extra in some television projects that are in production while she is in Israel. This is to keep her busy and earn some money. Now that she is back in Israel she is open to conversations about the experiment and also her personal life. She is divorced and has no children. Why people want to know doesn't she have any children? Is it because she cannot? No she tells people she is divorced because she did not want children. Her music is her life.
Slowly the plot advances. More and more information is released helping the reader understand Noga and her feelings. Also we see her interactions with her mother and brother as they try to understand the woman who did not want children of her own. At one point her mother, who thinks that having a child is the answer to everything, says, “Listen to what a wise woman has to say to a beloved daughter, hear me out and don’t interrupt. Give him that child, give it to him, and that way something real from you will stay in the world, not just musical notes that vanish into thin air. Make an effort, then go back to your music. Give birth to a child, and I will help him raise it.”
Noga has many interactions that bring her touch with children. In her apartment building two Haredi children from downstairs break into her apartment to watch TV forbidden to them in their own home. An encounter with her ex-husband, who has remarried and has two children. In her work as an extra she is apart of a greater story but not really a lead character in the moving the plot of those programs forward. Always on the side or in the background. Noga is trying to redefine her life and figure out who she really wants to be.
This is a story of every woman's dilemma, balancing children and work, family and career. Also it is a story of balancing elderly parents and how much the children should be involved as caregivers and how long the parents can remain independent. The reader and the family are all watching and wondering how the experiment will resolve itself. it is quite a puzzling story, that the reader must follow closely as it develops to a slow crescendo.
Noga, a harpist, who grew up in the Jerusalem apartment she has come back to watch over, left when as a professional musician she could not find work in an Israeli orchestra. She has come back to help her brother Honi with an experiment with their mother. After a long very close marriage, her father has passed away. Honi wants to move his mother out of the family apartment in a neighborhood section of Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, where he now lives with his wife and children. His mother is not sure she is ready for assisted living. She proposes an experiment that will bring Noga back from the Netherlands to live in the rent controlled apartment while she tries out assisted living.
Noga agrees to the experiment for three months. Leaving her position in the orchestra, they promise to wait to play Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp until she returns. She leaves behind her harp and does not arrange for a substitute which means she will not practice her instrument for three months. Her brother arranges for her to be an extra in some television projects that are in production while she is in Israel. This is to keep her busy and earn some money. Now that she is back in Israel she is open to conversations about the experiment and also her personal life. She is divorced and has no children. Why people want to know doesn't she have any children? Is it because she cannot? No she tells people she is divorced because she did not want children. Her music is her life.
Slowly the plot advances. More and more information is released helping the reader understand Noga and her feelings. Also we see her interactions with her mother and brother as they try to understand the woman who did not want children of her own. At one point her mother, who thinks that having a child is the answer to everything, says, “Listen to what a wise woman has to say to a beloved daughter, hear me out and don’t interrupt. Give him that child, give it to him, and that way something real from you will stay in the world, not just musical notes that vanish into thin air. Make an effort, then go back to your music. Give birth to a child, and I will help him raise it.”
Noga has many interactions that bring her touch with children. In her apartment building two Haredi children from downstairs break into her apartment to watch TV forbidden to them in their own home. An encounter with her ex-husband, who has remarried and has two children. In her work as an extra she is apart of a greater story but not really a lead character in the moving the plot of those programs forward. Always on the side or in the background. Noga is trying to redefine her life and figure out who she really wants to be.
This is a story of every woman's dilemma, balancing children and work, family and career. Also it is a story of balancing elderly parents and how much the children should be involved as caregivers and how long the parents can remain independent. The reader and the family are all watching and wondering how the experiment will resolve itself. it is quite a puzzling story, that the reader must follow closely as it develops to a slow crescendo.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Murder at the 42nd Street Library
A new mystery series has been launched by Con Lehane. Ray Ambler, amateur detective and the curator for the mystery and crime fiction collection of the New York Public Library joins forces with NYPD homicide detective Peter Cosgrove to solve the murder of a fellow employee at the iconic library.
Con Lehane, who has written a series of mysteries that features Brian McNutley, an Irish bartender, who is along with mixing great drinks and telling Irish stories is a good listener. He solves crimes in his own series and now appears in the neighborhood where Ray Ambler goes for his after work drinks. Ambler calls on McNutley for his listening skills and assistance.
In this first mystery novel we are introduced to Ambler and some of the colleagues at the Library. The story begins when Harry Larkin, library supervisor who is sitting at the entrance to the second floor of the library narrowly escapes being shot as a murder is taking place right at the door. Word spreads through the Library employees and Ambler who enjoys reading crime fiction decides to help investigate. There is also Adele who works at the library and seems to be a romantic interest for Ambler. She also is someone who gets involved with solving the mysteries presented in this book.
A new acquisition recently donated to the library of a famous writer's papers has many characters who are necessary to this particular plot line coming to the library to do research. There is a controversy over who should be allowed to write the author's biography and the candidates for this position are arguing and using different methods to get access to the materials donated to the library. Could this be a incentive for murder? The plot is further complicated by the disappearance of the famous writer's daughter many years ago and a search by these biographers to reach her first for added material for their books. In the meantime, Adele has moved to a new apartment and is getting involved with a young boy and his mother and asks Ray for assistance helping out this young family.
This is a complicated set of events to follow, with many characters who are intertwined and a bit hard to keep straight. Who is married to whom and who knew who in college? There were a few times where as the reader I thought I had the mystery all figured out, my killer was murdered. Though I did realize one piece of the puzzle before it was explained the book itself and the main characters are interesting enough to make me want to see where things will develop in the next book of the series. So I am looking forward to meeting up with Ray Ambler, Adele, McNulty and Mike Cosgrove again.
Con Lehane, who has written a series of mysteries that features Brian McNutley, an Irish bartender, who is along with mixing great drinks and telling Irish stories is a good listener. He solves crimes in his own series and now appears in the neighborhood where Ray Ambler goes for his after work drinks. Ambler calls on McNutley for his listening skills and assistance.
In this first mystery novel we are introduced to Ambler and some of the colleagues at the Library. The story begins when Harry Larkin, library supervisor who is sitting at the entrance to the second floor of the library narrowly escapes being shot as a murder is taking place right at the door. Word spreads through the Library employees and Ambler who enjoys reading crime fiction decides to help investigate. There is also Adele who works at the library and seems to be a romantic interest for Ambler. She also is someone who gets involved with solving the mysteries presented in this book.
A new acquisition recently donated to the library of a famous writer's papers has many characters who are necessary to this particular plot line coming to the library to do research. There is a controversy over who should be allowed to write the author's biography and the candidates for this position are arguing and using different methods to get access to the materials donated to the library. Could this be a incentive for murder? The plot is further complicated by the disappearance of the famous writer's daughter many years ago and a search by these biographers to reach her first for added material for their books. In the meantime, Adele has moved to a new apartment and is getting involved with a young boy and his mother and asks Ray for assistance helping out this young family.
This is a complicated set of events to follow, with many characters who are intertwined and a bit hard to keep straight. Who is married to whom and who knew who in college? There were a few times where as the reader I thought I had the mystery all figured out, my killer was murdered. Though I did realize one piece of the puzzle before it was explained the book itself and the main characters are interesting enough to make me want to see where things will develop in the next book of the series. So I am looking forward to meeting up with Ray Ambler, Adele, McNulty and Mike Cosgrove again.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Murder in Marais
Cara Black has written a terrific mystery set in Paris. Her descriptions are wonderful and detailed. You can almost feel like you are in Paris. Her plot line is in depth and keeps the reader guessing which direction the mystery will go to the end. This is a thrilling quick-paced novel with plenty of red herrings and misdirection.
Le Marais is the historic Jewish district of Paris spreading across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements in Paris. During World War II this area was targeted by the Nazis when they were occupying France. Here many jews were rounded up and taken to concentration camps.
In this first in the series novel, Aimee LeDuc, a private investigator who usually only takes corporate security cases, is on the trail of killer, who has ties to the Nazis. At first its seems she is being asked to find a missing person, but when that woman turns up dead, LeDuc is off on a much more violent, dangerous search. This search takes her into a Nazi supremacist group who are intent on creating violent disturbances around modern day Paris in hopes of disrupting a meeting of the European Union delegates attending the trade summit that is arranged to be taking place at the Place de la Concorde.
One man, Hartmuth Griffe, a German trade advisor, is returning to Paris for the first time since he served in the German army during the occupation. He is staying at the Hotel Pavillion de la Reine in Marais with all the memories that stirs up for him. He has a secret he is holding close to his chest.
There are others in the French government that are also hiding secrets.
As LeDuc investigates the murder of the woman she was asked to find, other people she speaks to are also dying unexpectedly. Then she is personally threatened. Aimee is not one to give in to threats, so she just starts searching deeper. When the Interpol Inspecteur Morbier , her mentor, is called of the case she knows she is on the right path. The trail of violence and intrigue will lead all the way to the top of a corrupt government.
A story that intertwines the Holocaust and its violence with the human condition and love. That balances the results of war with human life. Aimee interviews older residents asking about their recollections of the war years, a time they would rather forget. Clara Black intersperses the backdrop of the war and the round ups in Marais against the modern day City of Lights. And just to add a bit of spice to the novel LeDuc gets involved with a Aryan sympathizer as she tries to unravel the complex circumstances that surround the murder of Lili Stern.
Le Marais is the historic Jewish district of Paris spreading across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements in Paris. During World War II this area was targeted by the Nazis when they were occupying France. Here many jews were rounded up and taken to concentration camps.
In this first in the series novel, Aimee LeDuc, a private investigator who usually only takes corporate security cases, is on the trail of killer, who has ties to the Nazis. At first its seems she is being asked to find a missing person, but when that woman turns up dead, LeDuc is off on a much more violent, dangerous search. This search takes her into a Nazi supremacist group who are intent on creating violent disturbances around modern day Paris in hopes of disrupting a meeting of the European Union delegates attending the trade summit that is arranged to be taking place at the Place de la Concorde.
One man, Hartmuth Griffe, a German trade advisor, is returning to Paris for the first time since he served in the German army during the occupation. He is staying at the Hotel Pavillion de la Reine in Marais with all the memories that stirs up for him. He has a secret he is holding close to his chest.
There are others in the French government that are also hiding secrets.
As LeDuc investigates the murder of the woman she was asked to find, other people she speaks to are also dying unexpectedly. Then she is personally threatened. Aimee is not one to give in to threats, so she just starts searching deeper. When the Interpol Inspecteur Morbier , her mentor, is called of the case she knows she is on the right path. The trail of violence and intrigue will lead all the way to the top of a corrupt government.
A story that intertwines the Holocaust and its violence with the human condition and love. That balances the results of war with human life. Aimee interviews older residents asking about their recollections of the war years, a time they would rather forget. Clara Black intersperses the backdrop of the war and the round ups in Marais against the modern day City of Lights. And just to add a bit of spice to the novel LeDuc gets involved with a Aryan sympathizer as she tries to unravel the complex circumstances that surround the murder of Lili Stern.
City of Secrets
Stewart O'Nan has written a captivating plot of espionage and intrigue that also gives the reader insight into what life was like when Jews escaped Europe to Jerusalem in 1945. At this point in history, Israel was not yet a state flowing with milk and honey. This is a story that gives the reader insight into the relationship between Arabs, Jews living in Palestine, Jews coming over from Europe and all the different groups interactions with the British. The British rulers control Palestine and have strict quotas for immigration of Jews. The Haganah and other underground groups are working to expel the British and make Palestine an open state that will welcome all Jews.
Israel is still called Palestine when our main character, Brand comes to escape the horrors of the Holocaust. He has survived but at the tremendous cost of losing his entire family. He is constantly wrestling with the question; why did I survive when so many did not? He takes on his false identity and joins the underground for the protection it offers. He feels a need to give back and make a statement. This time he tells himself he will not go like a sheep to slaughter. So he joins a resistance group, the Irgun, a pro-violence, paramilitary organization. As part of the Haganah their mission was to drive out the British and make Palestine a homeland for the Jews. Brand is a man who has lost respect in himself. His contact, Asher, seems to believe in him. He starts to think they may be right as he drives members of the Irgun to destinations, also transporting guns and bombs, and taking part in raids.
Brand is not so sure he agrees with the resistance's theory of attacking as a means solving problems. He is entrusted with secret information about bombing buses, buildings and trains. He is given a gun to carry. Brand is given a old Peugeot, stolen and refitted with a false bottom to hold guns and bombs, using a false registration along with his false papers is a taxi driver.
He also is the driver for many of the cell's assignments. But there are many questions that cannot be asked. There are so many secrets. There are the secrets of identity, everyone has a false name and a new business. There are secrets of the organization, who is involved or not. There are the secret missions. He would prefer the Jewish Agency's method of nonviolent resistance.
One of his passengers is Eva, now known as "The Widow", who meets with various men during the day. Brand drives her to her appointments. Eva is a Latvian survivor who also works for the Irgun and she explains, "You weren't around for the riots. They killed hundreds of us. They broke down doors and cut children's throats. It's like they went mad." These weren't the same Arabs," he said. She says, "We're not the same Jews. That's the point. We won't sit around and be killed anymore. That's what they have to understand. We'll fight." ... "You have to remind them., otherwise they'll go back to their old ways."
He and Eva realize they have so much in common especially being lonely and missing the loved ones lost to the Holocaust. Brand and Eva keep each other company on the lonely nights, when they are missing their families and their previous lives.
This is a story of the life in Palestine under the British Mandate. O'Nan gives the reader an idea of what it was like trying to live in Jerusalem with the British and the Arabs, always going through checkpoints and watching out for yourself and others. Not knowing who to trust, or when there would be an act of violence. Never sure if one should step in to defend someone else or keep a low profile and avoid unnecessary personal questioning. These are some of the moral dilemmas Brand wrestles with.
Also this is a story of one man's fight to maintain his principles after suffering such great loss. Caught up in a feeling of wanting revenge but also knowing that is not the right way to achieve inner peace. Brand, caught in the web of the Irgun's dangerous missions, starts to realize this is not the way he wants behave. He struggles with wanting to show strength but also wanting to be a righteous person. This is a story of the complex morality of the people, their actions and intentions. This is a story of personal change and growth. In the end, Brand wants to reclaim the person he really is.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Goodbye, Ms. Chips
This is the first Ellie Haskell mystery novel I have read. It is a fun entertaining mystery novel. A good summer or beach read. You do need to be able to concentrate a bit though because there seem to be so many characters. it was a bit hard to keep them all straight, who was friends with who and who had had a run in with who. this mystery takes place on a school campus. It is the boarding school that Ellie went to as a young girl. She has her own demons to release while she is again on campus after all these years. As other women from her past come to join her at the school many old quarrels come to light. The women now more mature and settled in their lives can work through the old arguments and let go of the past. Well most of them can, but not all of them do.
Dorothy Cannell has written many more Ellie Haskel mystery novels before this one. I cannot speak from experience about the main characters in her books, but Ellie Haskell seems to be an interesting amateur detective who is in real life an interior designer. She is married to a restaurant chef, who must be a really great husband because he was very supportive in this book about letting Ellie go off and he stayed home with the two children.
What seems to start out as just a case of a missing trophy, turns to murder when a school girl prank goes desperately wrong. As at most boarding schools there is a long held ghost story that travels through time from one class of girls to the next. There are girls who are bullies and use the story to their advantage to scare the girls who are easily intimidated, homesick or not in the popular groups at school.
I will probably be looking into reading some of the other Ellie Haskell mysteries in the series in the near future.
Dorothy Cannell has written many more Ellie Haskel mystery novels before this one. I cannot speak from experience about the main characters in her books, but Ellie Haskell seems to be an interesting amateur detective who is in real life an interior designer. She is married to a restaurant chef, who must be a really great husband because he was very supportive in this book about letting Ellie go off and he stayed home with the two children.
What seems to start out as just a case of a missing trophy, turns to murder when a school girl prank goes desperately wrong. As at most boarding schools there is a long held ghost story that travels through time from one class of girls to the next. There are girls who are bullies and use the story to their advantage to scare the girls who are easily intimidated, homesick or not in the popular groups at school.
I will probably be looking into reading some of the other Ellie Haskell mysteries in the series in the near future.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Anna and the Swallow Man
Carried away on the wings of a bird, Gavriel Shavit takes his readers on a beautifully poetic journey
through a horrific time in world history. The Swallow Man could be real or an allegory for someone or something that helps a young girl to escape the atrocities of the Holocaust.
This novel, Anna and the Swallow Man explains the horrors in a very shrouded way. Anna is a young child at the start of the German takeover of Poland. Her father, a professor, is rounded up during the purge of Polish intellectuals. A family friend takes her in for a day until it becomes clear that Professor Lania is not going to return. Turned out into the street, Anna Lania must learn to take care of herself at the young age of seven.
She meets a man who reminds her of her father. The Swallow Man has many talents, the gift of speaking many languages, how to survive in the wilderness, dodge bombs, tame soldiers and to make friends. He can speak Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish. He can even speak Bird, when he entices a swallow to swoop down into his hand. There are many mysteries surrounding the man who leads Anna into the Forest. Who he is, his background and what he escaping are all questions that follow us through the book. But these seem to be unimportant to Anna as she follows him adnd learns how to live the life of secrecy needed to survive.
He takes Anna under his wing and they survive for years in the forest creating their own language, "Wood". She becomes Sweetie and he is Swallow Man. They do not talk about the reality they came from. He explains that there is a different sounding word in every language for birds and other objects. So he continues the logic, "The thing is, I'm trying to teach you a whole new language. My language: Road. And in Road there's more than one to say everything. It's very tricky."
Wonderfully written this story touches on the terrible behaviors of human kind during World War ll, but in such a subtle way that it is readable by teens and those who do not want too much detail about the Holocaust.
through a horrific time in world history. The Swallow Man could be real or an allegory for someone or something that helps a young girl to escape the atrocities of the Holocaust.
This novel, Anna and the Swallow Man explains the horrors in a very shrouded way. Anna is a young child at the start of the German takeover of Poland. Her father, a professor, is rounded up during the purge of Polish intellectuals. A family friend takes her in for a day until it becomes clear that Professor Lania is not going to return. Turned out into the street, Anna Lania must learn to take care of herself at the young age of seven.
She meets a man who reminds her of her father. The Swallow Man has many talents, the gift of speaking many languages, how to survive in the wilderness, dodge bombs, tame soldiers and to make friends. He can speak Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish. He can even speak Bird, when he entices a swallow to swoop down into his hand. There are many mysteries surrounding the man who leads Anna into the Forest. Who he is, his background and what he escaping are all questions that follow us through the book. But these seem to be unimportant to Anna as she follows him adnd learns how to live the life of secrecy needed to survive.
He takes Anna under his wing and they survive for years in the forest creating their own language, "Wood". She becomes Sweetie and he is Swallow Man. They do not talk about the reality they came from. He explains that there is a different sounding word in every language for birds and other objects. So he continues the logic, "The thing is, I'm trying to teach you a whole new language. My language: Road. And in Road there's more than one to say everything. It's very tricky."
Wonderfully written this story touches on the terrible behaviors of human kind during World War ll, but in such a subtle way that it is readable by teens and those who do not want too much detail about the Holocaust.
Monday, June 13, 2016
The Story of My Tits
Jennifer Hayden has taken a very personal and painful story about her relationship both with her parents, especially her mother and her own body and made it into a snarky graphic novel.
This is the story of Jennifer growing up and learning how to appreciate your own body as it develops. This is a plot line that every girl and woman can relate to. Who has not lived through the pain and trauma of not feeling like you are becoming a woman at the same rate as the other girls in your school class? Who has not worried that you will never grow in height or develop in breast size to be attractive to the one you want to win over. This is the story of first stuffing your shirt hoping for bigger breasts, and then when cancer strikes in later life, learning to live a full, happy life without those breasts.
Though Hayden tries to use the graphic novel with cartoon drawings comic book speech balloons, this is in the end a serious story about her family and how they deal with the trauma of breast cancer.
How her father sees her mother and their relationship. How her mother sees her own self image and their mother/daughter relationship. And finally how Jennifer Hayden deals with her own body image and her relationship with her husband and children.
I bought this book intending to pass it onto a friend with breast cancer, hoping it would be an uplifting, lighthearted story that would lift her spirits as she goes through breast cancer surgery and recovery, but I don't think I will pass this book along to her. Maybe there will be someone else who will benefit from this book but I am not sure who will really find it uplifting or funny.
This is the story of Jennifer growing up and learning how to appreciate your own body as it develops. This is a plot line that every girl and woman can relate to. Who has not lived through the pain and trauma of not feeling like you are becoming a woman at the same rate as the other girls in your school class? Who has not worried that you will never grow in height or develop in breast size to be attractive to the one you want to win over. This is the story of first stuffing your shirt hoping for bigger breasts, and then when cancer strikes in later life, learning to live a full, happy life without those breasts.
Though Hayden tries to use the graphic novel with cartoon drawings comic book speech balloons, this is in the end a serious story about her family and how they deal with the trauma of breast cancer.
How her father sees her mother and their relationship. How her mother sees her own self image and their mother/daughter relationship. And finally how Jennifer Hayden deals with her own body image and her relationship with her husband and children.
I bought this book intending to pass it onto a friend with breast cancer, hoping it would be an uplifting, lighthearted story that would lift her spirits as she goes through breast cancer surgery and recovery, but I don't think I will pass this book along to her. Maybe there will be someone else who will benefit from this book but I am not sure who will really find it uplifting or funny.
Everyone Brave is Forgiven
Everyone Brave is Forgiven is a novel written as another wonderful character study by Chris Cleave. In his previous book, Little Bee, the reader was taken into the world of the poverty of Nigeria and the upscale life in London, England. It is about the relationship between Little Bee, an illegal Nigerian refugee and a London widow. You are captured by their lives and Cleave can make you see the story from each person's perspective at the same time.
Cleave has accomplished this task again in Everyone Brave is Forgiven. Once again taking the Second World War and placing the reader directly in the line of attack, he skillfully describes the war for both a soldier at the front and those left in London during the Blitz. He puts the reader inside the minds and thoughts of the characters as they live through a day fighting the enemy and those trying to live their normal lives through the attacks. Cleave so wonderfully captures the feelings of each character, Tom who has stayed behind while his best friend, Alistair enlists. Mary, who feels guilty about her position of wealth and wants to escape her life as a gentry and help the war effort. Her friend Hilda who is looking to marry a man in uniform. Their lives all intersect as the fighting in both London and on the island of Malta intensifies.
This is of course a novel based on fact and true events that happened during World War II. It is also a story of romance and coping with the feelings war brings out between people and its affect on their relationships. As these characters are struggling with the war and their place in society, they are trying to maintain friendships and create love affairs. The war seems so unfair that it is interfering in their lives. What is love each of them wonders, how do you know when it is real? At one point when Alistair returns from a leave where he has met Mary and Hilda he is not sure. He has strong feelings for Mary but Hilda was his date and he is not sure if he should pursue her. "He would reply to Hilda's letter, and he supposed it would be the start of things between them. Perhaps this was what love was like after all - not the lurch of going over a humpback bridge, and not the incandescence of fireworks, just the quiet understanding that one should take a kind hand when it was offered, before all light was gone from the sky." Such a beautiful sentiment about love before finding the one true real love of your life, when you do have fireworks and passion.
But this book is also about learning that real love is not about uniforms and glory but about real caring, even in the face of ugliness and injury. It is about caring about others without prejudice and hate. Mary fights for the underdog, and rejects the life of privilege she was born into. She feels everyone is equal and should be treated fairly even during war time.
Cleave has again given us a story of the human dilemma. The difference between classes in England and the idea that underneath we are all human beings that should be treated equally. We follow our five main characters as they each experience the war. We are given the view of the war and what it is like to live during this time by seeing the war from each of these characters viewpoint. Two young women, who live a wealthy society life, little affected by the war around them, but they choose to get involved and experience the war close up. Two young men, one of whom enlists and sees the war first hand fighting in France and the island of Malta. His friend who stays behind and how he feels not being in uniform and on the front lines of war. Lastly, a young boy of color whose life experience is extremely different than the adults he comes in contact with. We see life and war from the child's perspective.
Cleave has accomplished this task again in Everyone Brave is Forgiven. Once again taking the Second World War and placing the reader directly in the line of attack, he skillfully describes the war for both a soldier at the front and those left in London during the Blitz. He puts the reader inside the minds and thoughts of the characters as they live through a day fighting the enemy and those trying to live their normal lives through the attacks. Cleave so wonderfully captures the feelings of each character, Tom who has stayed behind while his best friend, Alistair enlists. Mary, who feels guilty about her position of wealth and wants to escape her life as a gentry and help the war effort. Her friend Hilda who is looking to marry a man in uniform. Their lives all intersect as the fighting in both London and on the island of Malta intensifies.
This is of course a novel based on fact and true events that happened during World War II. It is also a story of romance and coping with the feelings war brings out between people and its affect on their relationships. As these characters are struggling with the war and their place in society, they are trying to maintain friendships and create love affairs. The war seems so unfair that it is interfering in their lives. What is love each of them wonders, how do you know when it is real? At one point when Alistair returns from a leave where he has met Mary and Hilda he is not sure. He has strong feelings for Mary but Hilda was his date and he is not sure if he should pursue her. "He would reply to Hilda's letter, and he supposed it would be the start of things between them. Perhaps this was what love was like after all - not the lurch of going over a humpback bridge, and not the incandescence of fireworks, just the quiet understanding that one should take a kind hand when it was offered, before all light was gone from the sky." Such a beautiful sentiment about love before finding the one true real love of your life, when you do have fireworks and passion.
Cleave has again given us a story of the human dilemma. The difference between classes in England and the idea that underneath we are all human beings that should be treated equally. We follow our five main characters as they each experience the war. We are given the view of the war and what it is like to live during this time by seeing the war from each of these characters viewpoint. Two young women, who live a wealthy society life, little affected by the war around them, but they choose to get involved and experience the war close up. Two young men, one of whom enlists and sees the war first hand fighting in France and the island of Malta. His friend who stays behind and how he feels not being in uniform and on the front lines of war. Lastly, a young boy of color whose life experience is extremely different than the adults he comes in contact with. We see life and war from the child's perspective.
Saturday, June 4, 2016
The Improbability of Love
The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothchild is such a wonderful and creative way to tell a story.
Told, for the most part, in the third person by the invisible narrator this is a story about the relationships. But then, magically, there are chapters of the story that reveal parts of the story yet unknown to the characters. The reader is now privy to more information than the characters, and this is achieved by hearing the story from the point of view of the famous painting itself, "The Improbability of Love".
Maybe as is suggested by one character with a slight slip up in repeating the name of the painting it could be called the "Impossibility of Love". There are so many characters in the beginning it was hard to keep them all straight, but as the story develops the relationships all start to intertwine and the reader can see how they all will start to interact. So as a story of intrigue and European history are uncovered, at the time a story of love blossoms.
Annie McDee is a young woman who has struck out at love and is trying to create a new life for herself in London. She has a new job as chef and has come into possession of a small but compelling painting. She discovers the idea of using the feelings of art and food to create elaborate parties for very wealthy clients. Just as she feels her career is taking off, she is thrown into the middle of a battle for the painting, having been discovered to be a long lost masterpiece, that will send her on an unexpectedly dangerous journey uncovering an unscrupulous history and possibly love.
The painting plays an integral role in this novel filling the reader in on art history and on the thinking and passion of the artist himself. This book while a wonderful story of suspense also dabbles in the world of auction houses and how famous masterpieces were painted, how their value was increased over time and how they were authenticated and put up for auction. Listening to the painting itself tell his side of the story is very creatively done. In the beginning we are introduced to the painting with his quick wit and sassy tongue, "My future depends on people believing I am worth something and need protecting. Art only survives by striking a chord in someone's heart and offering solace and reassurance. .... Right now, I am worth less than 100 lire, my absolute nadir. The some of total admirers is two. And one of them, the old drunk, smeared my foliage in butter and animal fats. ....
I need prosperity; my best chance of seeing out another century is wealth."
The character development in this novel was wonderfully colorful. The reader can see the vivid colors and personalities of the different kinds of people who are caught up in the search for happiness, love and success as they try to get their hands on this illusive work of art.
Told, for the most part, in the third person by the invisible narrator this is a story about the relationships. But then, magically, there are chapters of the story that reveal parts of the story yet unknown to the characters. The reader is now privy to more information than the characters, and this is achieved by hearing the story from the point of view of the famous painting itself, "The Improbability of Love".
Maybe as is suggested by one character with a slight slip up in repeating the name of the painting it could be called the "Impossibility of Love". There are so many characters in the beginning it was hard to keep them all straight, but as the story develops the relationships all start to intertwine and the reader can see how they all will start to interact. So as a story of intrigue and European history are uncovered, at the time a story of love blossoms.
Annie McDee is a young woman who has struck out at love and is trying to create a new life for herself in London. She has a new job as chef and has come into possession of a small but compelling painting. She discovers the idea of using the feelings of art and food to create elaborate parties for very wealthy clients. Just as she feels her career is taking off, she is thrown into the middle of a battle for the painting, having been discovered to be a long lost masterpiece, that will send her on an unexpectedly dangerous journey uncovering an unscrupulous history and possibly love.
The painting plays an integral role in this novel filling the reader in on art history and on the thinking and passion of the artist himself. This book while a wonderful story of suspense also dabbles in the world of auction houses and how famous masterpieces were painted, how their value was increased over time and how they were authenticated and put up for auction. Listening to the painting itself tell his side of the story is very creatively done. In the beginning we are introduced to the painting with his quick wit and sassy tongue, "My future depends on people believing I am worth something and need protecting. Art only survives by striking a chord in someone's heart and offering solace and reassurance. .... Right now, I am worth less than 100 lire, my absolute nadir. The some of total admirers is two. And one of them, the old drunk, smeared my foliage in butter and animal fats. ....
I need prosperity; my best chance of seeing out another century is wealth."
The character development in this novel was wonderfully colorful. The reader can see the vivid colors and personalities of the different kinds of people who are caught up in the search for happiness, love and success as they try to get their hands on this illusive work of art.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Florence Gordon
Florence Gordon, written by Brian Morton is a story of family dynamics and relationships. I looked back a few times while reading this book to make sure I was really reading a novel about so many female characters and their relationships really written by man. It is interesting how easily Brian Morton seems to have been able to enter the minds of Florence, the feminist icon and matriarch of the family, Janine her fawning, insecure daughter in law and Emily, her granddaughter.
Florence Gordon has reached the pinnacle of her career and is beginning to face old age. She has put aside personal relationships to further her life dream as a feminist leader. She has a hard cantankerous shell, but is finding herself a bit lonely and unsure of the choices she has made over the years. Her granddaughter has come to New York from Seattle for the summer. They are coming together over the writing of Florence's memoir. Emily is doing research for her grandmother and learning how passionate and successful she has been over the years.
All the members of this family have so much trouble communicating with each other. Daniel cannot talk to his mother and really tell her how he feels. He and his wife, Janine are having trouble talking to each other, as their marriage flounders. Emily is going through the emotional roller coaster of young adulthood without anyone to confide in. They are all frustrated, angry and scared and don't know how to reach out to each other.
Emily and her father, Daniel are walking to the train station where Emily travel onto Boston to meet up with an old boyfriend. She wants to talk to her father and cannot start the conversation. Daniel wants to connect with his daughter and walks her to the train and buys her ticket, but cannot start a conversation that will give her the space to talk to him. She asks if he has any life lessons he wants to share, he replies that he cannot think of any he needs to teach her at this point. Emily thinks, "When she came back she'd be someone different from who she was now. And he would be someone different too. He wouldn't be the father of the same girl he was the father of now. he would be the father of a girl who was older and more worldly and sneakier and more cynical, and he wouldn't even know."
As a reader you are thinking just talk, just say what you are thinking, you can work this out. Each of the characters is this novel are flawed. Each of the characters need help and want to work together but just don't know who to reach out and ask for what they need. It can be aggravating as an outsider looking in to see how dysfunctional this family is. It is sad also that they are having so much trouble. It is a chance for the reader to look at themselves and see if they can learn to be more open with the people around them, so as not to fall into similar traps.
Florence Gordon has reached the pinnacle of her career and is beginning to face old age. She has put aside personal relationships to further her life dream as a feminist leader. She has a hard cantankerous shell, but is finding herself a bit lonely and unsure of the choices she has made over the years. Her granddaughter has come to New York from Seattle for the summer. They are coming together over the writing of Florence's memoir. Emily is doing research for her grandmother and learning how passionate and successful she has been over the years.
All the members of this family have so much trouble communicating with each other. Daniel cannot talk to his mother and really tell her how he feels. He and his wife, Janine are having trouble talking to each other, as their marriage flounders. Emily is going through the emotional roller coaster of young adulthood without anyone to confide in. They are all frustrated, angry and scared and don't know how to reach out to each other.
Emily and her father, Daniel are walking to the train station where Emily travel onto Boston to meet up with an old boyfriend. She wants to talk to her father and cannot start the conversation. Daniel wants to connect with his daughter and walks her to the train and buys her ticket, but cannot start a conversation that will give her the space to talk to him. She asks if he has any life lessons he wants to share, he replies that he cannot think of any he needs to teach her at this point. Emily thinks, "When she came back she'd be someone different from who she was now. And he would be someone different too. He wouldn't be the father of the same girl he was the father of now. he would be the father of a girl who was older and more worldly and sneakier and more cynical, and he wouldn't even know."
As a reader you are thinking just talk, just say what you are thinking, you can work this out. Each of the characters is this novel are flawed. Each of the characters need help and want to work together but just don't know who to reach out and ask for what they need. It can be aggravating as an outsider looking in to see how dysfunctional this family is. It is sad also that they are having so much trouble. It is a chance for the reader to look at themselves and see if they can learn to be more open with the people around them, so as not to fall into similar traps.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
The Dead Key
A complex exciting mystery novel. The Dead Key, by author, D.M. Pulley has a complicated plot that spans twenty years, traveling back and forth between 1978 and 1998. In 1978 two women from the secretary pool at the large Cleveland bank are trying to bring down a scam being implemented by the leaders of the bank. Beatrice Baker is a young woman, new to the big city and assigned as a secretary to one of the bank managers. As she makes friends with the other "girls" she becomes involved in a mystery. Beatrice and her friend are risking their lives when everything is closed down.
Twenty years later Iris is assigned to create blue prints for an engineering company that wants to buy the building and renovate it for its new owner. As she starts to measure the rooms and layout the floor plan, she finds a questionable situation. Her investigation brings her into dangerous, scary circumstances. A well woven story line that ties up all the loose ends neatly at the end.
Using the modern day company coming in to clean out a long deserted building as the background for this story of intrigue and adding in a new young girl fresh out of school at her first job, along with a bit of possible romance with a few young fellas and you have the right amount of suspense that keeps you reading to the end. As Iris Latch is making her blue prints she starts investigating some of the unusual things she is finding in the building. The descriptions of the bank, both past and present, are haunting. You feel like you are in the building exploring with Iris and like you are there back in the secretarial pool with Beatrice Baker as she is trying to save herself and reveal the secrets and dishonesty that is being carried out at the bank. There are some interesting twists along the way and also the possibility that there could be a sequel.
Twenty years later Iris is assigned to create blue prints for an engineering company that wants to buy the building and renovate it for its new owner. As she starts to measure the rooms and layout the floor plan, she finds a questionable situation. Her investigation brings her into dangerous, scary circumstances. A well woven story line that ties up all the loose ends neatly at the end.
Using the modern day company coming in to clean out a long deserted building as the background for this story of intrigue and adding in a new young girl fresh out of school at her first job, along with a bit of possible romance with a few young fellas and you have the right amount of suspense that keeps you reading to the end. As Iris Latch is making her blue prints she starts investigating some of the unusual things she is finding in the building. The descriptions of the bank, both past and present, are haunting. You feel like you are in the building exploring with Iris and like you are there back in the secretarial pool with Beatrice Baker as she is trying to save herself and reveal the secrets and dishonesty that is being carried out at the bank. There are some interesting twists along the way and also the possibility that there could be a sequel.
The Dream Lover
The subject matter is very interesting and that kept me reading through till the end. I always love learning something while reading historical fiction. This is the story of George Sand, the how and whys of her life as a writer and a woman. She was a modern, liberated woman before society was ready to accept a liberated woman. She defied society's conventions and lived her life the way she wanted. She socialized with some many of the writers, composers and poets that today are thought of as famous classical masters. She led quite a fascinating life.
The reader will recognize many of the names of characters in this story from history. It keeps a steady pace through the book. It is really a character study and explanation of Sand's life and not a plot driven story. The author , Elizabeth Berg does a good job of recreating the world that Sand was living in and making the facts readable. This novel seems like it could almost be a memoir.
Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant, née Dupin, grew up the daughter of an aristocratic father who also defied convention and married a courtesan. Aurore Dupin later givers up a life of wealth and certainty, a unsupportive husband and her children for a life in Paris surrounded by artists and writers. She changes her name to George Sands and dresses as man both professionally and personally. Sands though possibly the most famous writer of her day, never quite escapes the stereotype of the female role in society. She takes a lover, who in the beginning is supportive of her choices. As she becomes well known and published, his masculinity is threatened and he also deserts her.
George Sand was a woman who created her own rules to live by despite her personal risks and loses that accompanied the choices she made.
The reader will recognize many of the names of characters in this story from history. It keeps a steady pace through the book. It is really a character study and explanation of Sand's life and not a plot driven story. The author , Elizabeth Berg does a good job of recreating the world that Sand was living in and making the facts readable. This novel seems like it could almost be a memoir.
Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant, née Dupin, grew up the daughter of an aristocratic father who also defied convention and married a courtesan. Aurore Dupin later givers up a life of wealth and certainty, a unsupportive husband and her children for a life in Paris surrounded by artists and writers. She changes her name to George Sands and dresses as man both professionally and personally. Sands though possibly the most famous writer of her day, never quite escapes the stereotype of the female role in society. She takes a lover, who in the beginning is supportive of her choices. As she becomes well known and published, his masculinity is threatened and he also deserts her.
George Sand was a woman who created her own rules to live by despite her personal risks and loses that accompanied the choices she made.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Stealing Mona Lisa
What a fun delightful story of mystery. intrigue and romance. This is a novel based on the story of the theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Portrait of Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911. Author, Carson Morton, has taken the facts of the news story and created what might have happened in his imagination.
Using the facts from a story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1925 that was supposed to be an interview with Eduardo de Valfierno, a self confessed con artist who purported to be the mastermind behind the theft of the Mona Lisa and the forgery of the original work of art. Also arrested in connection with the theft of the painting was an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, who tried to return the work of art to Italy, claiming that he was bringing it home to its right owners.
Known in France as La Joconde and in Italy as La Gioconda, The Portrait of the Mona Lisa has always been surrounded in mystery. Morton has created a wonderful story of art forgery and intrigue that makes the reader wonder how many of the famous original pieces of art that adorn the museum walls could possible be incredible copies. In this novel Valfierno is the mastermind who leads a band of co conspirators from the art forger, to the thieves who help convince the buyers that they are getting the original paintings stolen from the museum, to the actual sale to the rich unsuspecting buyer, who then hides the famous painting away in his home.
To flesh out the story Morton played fast and loose with the great Paris flood of 1910 moving it to help build the drama around the theft of the painting. He also builds into the story some romance and a few extra assistants who all live together in Madame Charneau's boarding house in Paris. This is also a story of selfishness, greed and love. Choosing love and relationships over ownership of artwork. Which are more important in life, material objects and money or love? When it is a matter of life and death, which should you choose? Valfierno is caught up when the water floods the streets of Paris, he holding a valise with thousands of dollars and the woman he may love is slipping away in the rushing water. "He had to do something quickly. He looked at the valise. It held no small fortune. He turned back to Ellen and he knew in an instant the terrible truth: He couldn't possibly hope to save both of them...."
This will be the group's final and most ambitious caper. The twists and turns keep the reader guessing all the way to the end.
Using the facts from a story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1925 that was supposed to be an interview with Eduardo de Valfierno, a self confessed con artist who purported to be the mastermind behind the theft of the Mona Lisa and the forgery of the original work of art. Also arrested in connection with the theft of the painting was an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, who tried to return the work of art to Italy, claiming that he was bringing it home to its right owners.
Known in France as La Joconde and in Italy as La Gioconda, The Portrait of the Mona Lisa has always been surrounded in mystery. Morton has created a wonderful story of art forgery and intrigue that makes the reader wonder how many of the famous original pieces of art that adorn the museum walls could possible be incredible copies. In this novel Valfierno is the mastermind who leads a band of co conspirators from the art forger, to the thieves who help convince the buyers that they are getting the original paintings stolen from the museum, to the actual sale to the rich unsuspecting buyer, who then hides the famous painting away in his home.
To flesh out the story Morton played fast and loose with the great Paris flood of 1910 moving it to help build the drama around the theft of the painting. He also builds into the story some romance and a few extra assistants who all live together in Madame Charneau's boarding house in Paris. This is also a story of selfishness, greed and love. Choosing love and relationships over ownership of artwork. Which are more important in life, material objects and money or love? When it is a matter of life and death, which should you choose? Valfierno is caught up when the water floods the streets of Paris, he holding a valise with thousands of dollars and the woman he may love is slipping away in the rushing water. "He had to do something quickly. He looked at the valise. It held no small fortune. He turned back to Ellen and he knew in an instant the terrible truth: He couldn't possibly hope to save both of them...."
This will be the group's final and most ambitious caper. The twists and turns keep the reader guessing all the way to the end.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem
This is a very interesting novel written originally in Hebrew by Sarit Yishai-Levi, and translated into English by Anthony Berris. This book found acclaim in Israel and now is receiving popularity in the United States and other countries.
I found that I was learning a new perspective on the history of the relationships between Arabs and Jews under British rule in the 1940s. Also I found quite surprising the animosity between Sephardi Jews and Ashkanazi Jews in Palestine. So from a historical perspective this is a very interesting novel. the only thing I found difficult in the book was remembering all the names and relationships. It might have been helpful to have a family tree that the reader could refer to every once in a while.
The story line of the novel is about the Ermosa family. Starting with Great Grandmother Mercada who is married to a man who does not love her, the family curse begins. In each generation women are married to men who do not love them. The story is revealed by Grandma Rose and Aunt Rachel finally to Gabriela who is trying to figure out her own life and marriage. In each generation the mothers have loveless marriages which make them cold and harsh to their daughters. Each mother has forced their sons into unhappy relationships to keep the family within its tight community. The mother daughter relationships are hostile and emotionally distant. It has been a long held secret that is now finally being exposed, as Gabriele hopes to end the chain of unhappy marriages and unhappy mother, daughter rejection. Gabriele's mother Luna was considered one of the most beautiful women in Jerusalem but her husband is in love with another and she cannot win his love no matter how she tries. It has been the family curse for generations. The mothers can be emotionally attached and involved with their sons but not with their daughters. The fathers love their children but not their wives.
Yishi-Levi has created a fascinating love story of family betrayal, conflict and misunderstanding that intertwines with the history of Israel's beginning. The family members are part of the Haganah, Atzel, and Lehi organizations. All these organizations played a part in the British control of Palestine and how the area was divided between the Arabs and the Jews. the author shows how the Sephardim kept to themselves in an insular world where they can maintain their identity by following precise customs, eating certain foods and speaking a language that keeps out Ashkenazi Jews and all others.
Sarit Yishi-Levi has written a beautifully descriptive novel that spans the time from the scary world of World War II to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the 1970s. She covers the history of the times from the British rule to the birth of the State of Israel with interesting clarity. You can picture the streets of Jerusalem as you are reading.
I found that I was learning a new perspective on the history of the relationships between Arabs and Jews under British rule in the 1940s. Also I found quite surprising the animosity between Sephardi Jews and Ashkanazi Jews in Palestine. So from a historical perspective this is a very interesting novel. the only thing I found difficult in the book was remembering all the names and relationships. It might have been helpful to have a family tree that the reader could refer to every once in a while.
The story line of the novel is about the Ermosa family. Starting with Great Grandmother Mercada who is married to a man who does not love her, the family curse begins. In each generation women are married to men who do not love them. The story is revealed by Grandma Rose and Aunt Rachel finally to Gabriela who is trying to figure out her own life and marriage. In each generation the mothers have loveless marriages which make them cold and harsh to their daughters. Each mother has forced their sons into unhappy relationships to keep the family within its tight community. The mother daughter relationships are hostile and emotionally distant. It has been a long held secret that is now finally being exposed, as Gabriele hopes to end the chain of unhappy marriages and unhappy mother, daughter rejection. Gabriele's mother Luna was considered one of the most beautiful women in Jerusalem but her husband is in love with another and she cannot win his love no matter how she tries. It has been the family curse for generations. The mothers can be emotionally attached and involved with their sons but not with their daughters. The fathers love their children but not their wives.
Yishi-Levi has created a fascinating love story of family betrayal, conflict and misunderstanding that intertwines with the history of Israel's beginning. The family members are part of the Haganah, Atzel, and Lehi organizations. All these organizations played a part in the British control of Palestine and how the area was divided between the Arabs and the Jews. the author shows how the Sephardim kept to themselves in an insular world where they can maintain their identity by following precise customs, eating certain foods and speaking a language that keeps out Ashkenazi Jews and all others.
Sarit Yishi-Levi has written a beautifully descriptive novel that spans the time from the scary world of World War II to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the 1970s. She covers the history of the times from the British rule to the birth of the State of Israel with interesting clarity. You can picture the streets of Jerusalem as you are reading.
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