Booking Through Thursday - Goldilocks

Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?
Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?
Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?

Hmmmm... this is a really interesting question and I'm not sure that I have a direct answer. Usually I'm not, but sometimes I am. There are times when it feels like I am just too distracted to read -- I'm antsy, I get up, walk around, disturb the cats, thinking of a million unimportant things I *need* to do at the moment -- but usually I can just set myself down and get into my book, provided it's something I want to read (though I will admit that I sometimes have a hard time in public places when it is very noisy). Then again, with stuff that I have to read (like certain boring articles when I was in school), I get into Goldilocks mode. So, like I said, no direct answer.

mail

I had my mail held while I was away in Chicago last week.
Today, when the mail was delivered, I had the most wonderful little mound of parcels some of which included books (of course).

I received two BookCrossing books:

• Among the Belivers: An Islamic Journey by V.S. Naipaul


• What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin

I also received two wishlist books (which have just been added to my LibraryThing collection) that I'd requested through BookMooch:

• The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going


• Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein

I just had to share.

SAA Publications

Here are a couple of new titles that I wanted to pick up from the Society of American Archivists Publications booth:

- Architectural Records: Managing Design and Construction Records by Tawny Ryan Nelb and Waverly B. Lowell
- Archives and Justice: A South African Perspective by Verne Harris

I'll have the boss order the architectural records book for our book collection at work, but the Harris volume is going to have to go on the wishlist.

(Belated) Booking Through Thursday - Statistics

Ok, I'm a bit late with my Booking Through Thursday entry this week. I've been in Chicago and so busy conferencing and meeting up with family and friends that it slipped my mind yesterday.

There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but... how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?

Russell actually sent me the article in question when it first appeared. I was horrified. I read 200 books in 2006 and have read 130 books so far this year (see my BookCrossing bookshelf for a list).

Now, as to this week's question: Russell is a voracious reader (though he reads primarily nonfiction; I just queried him, he thinks he reads at least 100 a year). My parents both read a lot (as I discussed last week). My sister doesn't read much (her strain of dyslexia makes reading hard), but she does read at least one book a year. One of my nieces, who is in 2nd grade, gets in trouble for reading during lessons. The rest of my inlaws are a mixed bag: a couple don't read at all, a couple read voraciously, and everyone else falls in the middle.

Most of my friends read, a few as much as I do (but those are people I met through BookCrossing and are true book addicts). In fact, I can only think of two friends who've professed a dislike of reading - one is doing his medical residency and probably wouldn't have time to read even if he wanted to and the other definitely read a book in the last year because I found one I thought he'd like and had it sent to him (I nagged him until he read it and he did actually like it).

Booking Through Thursday - Indoctrination

When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading?

I was definitely indoctrinated as a child. My parents are both big readers. My dad reads primarily fantasy and science fiction. My mom loves historical fiction and books set in far-off lands, but also reads mysteries and a variety of other genres. I was a frequent visitor to my local library. I actually remember quite vividly getting my first library card when I was in kindergarten (though that's not particularly family-oriented).

When I moved out, every time I came home to visit I'd find a couple little piles of books in my room, titles that my mom and dad thought I'd enjoy. Now that I'm out of school with more time for leisure reading (and because I'm so involved in BookCrossing), things seem to be switched. I'm constantly recommending books to my parents and every time I see my mom I hand over a huge shopping bag full of books for her to read (I'm like her own personal lending library!).

book clubbing in August

I simply can not believe that it is almost the end of August. Where has this summer gone?

In any case, we had another book club meeting today during which we discussed Arthur Phillips' The Egyptologist.

Set in primarily in 1920s Boston and Egypt, The Egyptologist is the tale of a fanatical Egyptologist searching for the tomb of an apocryphal pharaoh against the backdrop of Howard Carter's famous exploits in the Valley of the Kings.

I came to The Egyptologist warily. I liked the concept behind the novel, but I was expecting not to like it because I had a lot of trouble his first novel, Prague (I started it on four different occasions, but never managed to get through it, which is very rare for me). I am, however, happy to report that I did enjoy The Egyptologist though I did end up rushing through it since a huge ARC arrived along with a very short deadline.

In any case, we all liked the book though we were a bit confounded by it. Half of us who'd finished it (myself included) had figured out the "mystery" early on, but we did not think that detracted from the book. We loved the combination of unreliable narrators and experience of hearing various versions of the same story and having to sort out the "truth" for ourselves.

I'd definitely recommend this one and I know exactly who I'm going to pass my copy to next.

Until I Find You

Until I find you by John Irving

I've been listening to the audio version of this book (unabridged on 28 CDs, 35.5 hours, read by Arthur Morey) for quite some time now. I just finished it this afternoon.

Skipping the plot summary since this isn't a full review, it's hard for me to say what I think about this book. The writing, as expected, is very good, the characters are well-drawn, and there are many things that I liked about it. For long stretches of time, however, I really hated the book and only kept listening because I was invested in it, thinking all the while that maybe this particular book would have been better abridged (that's a very bad sign for me since I really dislike abridged books).

Jack's school years were really hard on me, I hated hearing about everything that happens to him and all the various ways that he is compromised sexually. And I have to say that there is altogether too much sexual disfunction in this book. Even after Jack survives being molested in various ways by various people it continued to feel like Until I find you was simply a history of Jack's sexual disfunction. However after a certain point things seemed to shift, I felt like I could handle Jack and his life, and I really started liking the story and at the end I was left wanting more. Irving makes us suffer through all the not-so-good parts of Jack's life and then leaves us hanging right when all that suffering begins to seem worthwhile.

I can definitely say that Arthur Morey renders the book wonderfully, but beyond my feelings are very mixed.

Booking Through Thursday - Monogomy

Since I've been lax about updating my blog lately (and because I really like the idea behind this meme), I thought I'd start participating in Booking Through Thursday.

This week's question is -
One book at a time? Or more than one? If more, are they different types/genres? Or similar?

I used to be much more strict about only reading one book at a time, but now I'm regularly balancing at least three. However I try to make sure they are of different genres or have different enough plots that I don't confuse them. Right now I'm reading a paranormal romance, a literary novel, a cozy mystery, and listening to an audio book. I've started a couple others, but I'm not actively reading them at the moment.

Villa Serena

Keeping with what seems to be my theme for this summer, I offer you today a very overdue review. The timing, however, isn't completely horrible because this book fits perfectly into WestofMars' Hidden Treasures Contest (read more about it here).

Villa Serena by Domenica de Rosa

First of all, I love the cover design, although I have to say that the subtitle-looking text "falling in love Italian-style" isn't exactly an accurate description of the book. Villa Serena is less about the protagonist falling in love than about her dealing with and overcoming various heartbreaks.

Emily Robertson seems to have a perfect life. She's living her dream in a restored villa in Tuscany, writing a weekly column on Italian life for a British paper. It all seems like an illusion, though, when her husband of many years dumps her - by text message! Suddenly she feels stranded. She can't really speak Italian, she has no money, and her three children are running her ragged, each in a completely different way. It's only when Emily begins to open up to the locals that she is able to really inhabit their home and find herself along the way.

While I enjoyed the novel overall, I have two criticisms. The first (and most important, in my opinion at least) is about how de Rosa handles the youngest daughter's eating disorder. Despite the alternate view of the situation shown in another character, the resolution of the problem seemed too simple and Emily's lack of action distressed me. The second is that the small thriller aspect of the story isn't fully realized so its climax seems a bit out of place in the novel. That being said, that atmosphere, setting, and well-drawn characters make up for these inadequacies.

De Rosa's third novel (after The Italian Quarter and The Eternal City) is written with a clear love of Italy and all things Italian. Villa Serena is a great summer read, perfect for those who daydream of Tuscany and not recommended only to readers who are suffering from (or have loved ones suffering from) eating disorders.

Stay Out of the Kitchen!

Stay Out of the Kitchen! by Mable John and David Ritz

Stay Out of the Kitchen! is the second novel in a series featuring Albertina Merci, a 70-something R&B singer-turned-minister. John and Ritz's sympathetic protagonist is the driving force behind the novels and what will keep readers coming back for more.

Albertina may be a senior, she may be African-American, and she may be a minister, but there's just something about her that transcends those descriptors. She's written in a way that makes her accessible to all readers. She's not perfect: she does lose patience, she does get mad, and she doesn't always have the right answers, but that's what makes her come alive on the page. She has an abundance of fortitude and generosity, and, while Albertina is devout, she is open-minded in a way that keeps the authors from alienating non-Christian readers.

The action of Stay Out of the Kitchen! revolves around two main dramas. First, Albertina (in her innocent way) is involved in a love triangle with two very different men, a Shakespeare-quoting diner owner and an upstanding parishioner who shares her taste in music. Both are pushing her to commit, but she's not sure romance is in God's plan for her. Second, a mega-church is muscling its way into area. They want the land her church stands on and they won't take "no" for an answer. Of course, that isn't the half of it: her single-minded nephew Patrick and sex-crazed neighbor Justine are up to their usual tricks, her son's marriage is on shaky ground, her flock is divided, and it's up to Albertina to sort things out or to "let go and let God."

While Stay Out of the Kitchen! stands alone, readers of Sanctified Blues (read my review) may enjoy it just a bit more because of their previous experience with the characters. All in all, Stay Out of the Kitchen! is a strong addition to the series; better than the first.

Read my review on Front Street Reviews...

Sanctified Blues and Stay Out of the Kitchen! are Hidden Treasures, why don't you check them out?

The Next Thing on My List

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

When 34-year-old June Parker sets off for her first Weight Watchers meeting, her biggest complaints in life are the ten pounds she wants to lose and a relationship that’s on its last legs. Everything changes when she survives a car accident that left her passenger, 24-year-old Marissa Jones, dead. Tucked in Marissa’s purse, June discovers a list entitled “20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday” and is crushed to see that only two of the items had been completed at the time of Marissa’s death. A chance encounter with Marissa’s brother spurs June to complete Marissa’s list... in the six months left before her birthday. What begins as an errand undertaken to save face quickly becomes a noble quest that gives June’s life new meaning.

With entries as simple as “Watch a sunrise”, as difficult as “Change someone’s life”, and as confounding as “Make Buddy Fitch pay”, Marissa’s to-do list is compelling. Told by an endearing first person narrator, The Next Thing on My List is the story of June and her struggle to cross off the items on the list before Marissa’s birthday. Readers can keep track on June's progress by the increasingly stricken-through lists that appear throughout the book.

The Next Thing on My List is a very much a typical chick lit story with a typical chick lit protagonist. A twenty- or thirty-something (in this case, thirty-something) city girl is bumbling through life, career and love, to triumph in the end. In this case, June works at a ride share program in Los Angeles, where she's been passed over for a managerial position. She's single, depressed, and in need of a change. The catalyst for that change is a to-do list written by someone else. However, while completing the list is transformative for June, Smolinski's delivery falls flat. While the subtleties of some list items are thoroughly explored, others are glossed over (much like Marissa's death itself). In the end, though June proclaims herself changed, there doesn't seem to be enough evidence to prove any
lost-lasting effects.

The Next Thing on My List lacks that depth and sensitivity of Cecilia Ahern's debut PS, I love you (a novel this reader recommends on a similar theme). Nevertheless, fans of the genre will rush to pick up Smolinski's second novel and many will be charmed by her relatable heroine.

Read my review at Front Street Reviews...

Harry Potter?

The book's been out for a week and, yes, I did finish it last Saturday, but I thought I'd better hold off for a bit to give others time to read and absorb the book. I've tried to be vague in this post, but there is one spoiler toward the end.
~
With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being the final book in the series, it was hard not to get caught up in the fervor. I'd preordered by copy of the book from amazon (I know, I know, I should be supporting local businesses...) and I have to admit that I was getting very antsy waiting for our mailcarrier to show up with my copy.

While I liked the book overall and think it was a satisfactory ending to the series, it wasn't flawless. Some things were very well done, others could have been handled better.

There were so many things that were not addressed in the epilogue and I found that disappointing. While I'm glad that certain characters lived happily ever after, I wish that we found out what happened to everyone else. (And, no, I don't think I should have to watch The Today Show to find out what happens). The way she ended the series, I can definitely see some spin-off series about the kids at Hogwarts, either done by her or by someone else at some point.

The pacing was a bit schizophrenic, some sections were almost unbearably slow, while others flew by so quickly that it was hard to keep up. There was sooo much action that at certain points that I felt rushed through the book. And, yes, as many others have said, it was a bit of a blood-bath. While I understand why it was necessary, this book doesn't really deal with the consequences of those losses like the earlier ones did (not that they were perfect in that respect, either).

On the other hand, I really liked the way she tied things together with a certain character who features prominently in book 6.

However, I still think that book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is my favorite book in the series.

book clubbing in July

This month's book club selection was Tracks by Robyn Davidson. The book is subtitled "a woman's solo trek across 1,700 miles of Australian outback" and is less an account of the trip itself than a chronicle of that time in the author's (mental) life.

Tracks opens with Davidson and her trusty canine companion, Diggity, arriving in Alice Springs with only $6 and a dream: to travel across the central desert with three wild camels. We follow the author through her preparations (2 years!) and the trip itself--with the accompanying mental angst, injury, romance (?),and wild animal attacks--and in the process we learn much about camels, the Australian outback, and plight of the island's aboriginal inhabitants.

Most of our book club members didn't actually read the book before our discussion today. One member quite liked the book. I thought it was just OK, I expected more (I know, I know, it's not good to come at these books with preconceived notions, but sometimes you just can't help it).

back in business

I've finally beat the (acute) bronchitis so expect a lot of new content this week.

In the meantime, pop over to WestofMars - the meet and greet to learn all about the Hidden Treasures contest (you can also read my post about it), then go read a book so you can review it for the contest!

apologies

I'm terribly behind on my reviews (as I expect some of you may have noticed).
Just when I started to get my act together I came down with what I'm hoping is just a very bad cold.
Suffice it to say that I have a bunch of half-written reviews haunting my various computers and as soon as I'm feeling well enough to write coherently (hopefully next week) there will be lots of new material to read.

The Chess Machine

Penguin is publishing a really wonderful piece of historical fiction this month, The Chess Machine by Robert Löhr. My review appeared in the May 1 edition of Library Journal.

Journalist Robert Löhr takes the inspiration for his debut novel from one of the most successful hoaxes of all time: the Mechanical Turk, a chess-playing automaton created by Austro-Hungarian Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1770. Although the book is well-researched, Löhr's story focuses on the Turk's early years, of which very little is known. He weaves a fictional back-story for the Turk's relatively well-documented later life. The novel is peopled with historical personages like von Kempelen and Empress Marie Theresia as well as completely fictitious characters like the Turk's first operator, dwarf Tibor, Kempelen's assistant Jakob, a Jewish lothario, courtesan-turned-domestic-spy Elise, and the ill-fated Baroness Jesenák, all of whom are well-executed and sympathetic. Löhr's vision of 18th century Europe seems authentic and the inclusion of a murder-and-revenge plot gives the story a satisfying momentum. Translated by award-winning translator Anthea Bell, this novel is highly recommended for readers of historical fiction.

book clubbing in June

When developing the reading list for my book club, one of my primary concerns was on variety - both to challenge us to read outside of our usual genres and encourage pop-ins who might only come to a meeting because we were reading their favorite genre that month (though now that I think of it, we did manage to miss some pretty big genres like romance and horror). In any case, June turned out to be a science fiction month with us reading Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card.

In one of the most powerful and thought-provoking novels of his remarkable career, Orson Scott Card interweaves a compelling portrait of Christopher Columbus with the story of a future scientist who believes she can alter human history from a tragedy of bloodshed and brutality to a world filled with hope and healing.

Even though I was raised on fantasy, I never really got into science fiction. While I do read science fiction occasionally, the operative word there really is "occasionally." Even though I'd heard murmurings about Pastwatch I probably would never have gotten around to reading if it hadn't ended up on our book club reading list. I'm glad that I did though because I did quite like it, particularly its unique combination of historical fiction (one of my favorite genres) and science fiction. I decided that I was going to like Card (who I'd never read before) and Pastwatch, when I read in his acknowledgments: "A complaint to Sid Meier, for the game Civilization, which seriously interfered with my ability to concentrate on productive labor".

Though a number of us found the book to be slow going at the onset, those of us who finished it found that Pastwatch got much better toward the end and that at a certain point we became very invested in the story and needed to find out what happened.

The Blood of Flowers

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Unabridged audio book, read by Shohreh Aghdashloo

After the unexpected death of her father, a fourteen-year-old village girl is forced to sell the carpet intended to finance her dowry. Faced with the very real threat of starvation, the girl and her mother travel to the city of Isfahan where they are taken into the home of their only living relative, a carpet-maker to the shah. Though she was the best knotter in her village, the girl realizes that she has much to learn. She prevails upon her uncle, who sees in her echoes of himself as a young man, to teach her his craft.

Completely reliant on the goodwill of the uncle and his wife, the girl and her mother are treated as servants. Much to her chagrin, both the girl's carpets and her virginity are used as bargaining chips and traded against future commissions. When the girl fails to see the precariousness of her situation and makes one too many costly mistakes, the damage is irreparable and she must finally take responsibility for her own fate and that of her mother.

The Blood of Flowers is a novel to be savored. Amirrezvani’s writing is sensual and her seventeenth century Persia vividly realized. She blends traditional Iranian folktales seamlessly into a first-person narrative, which is peppered with details on the art and business of carpet-making. The novel’s unnamed protagonist is naïve and headstrong, but eminently likeable. Despite making any number of impetuous and ill-advised decisions, readers can't help but sympathize with her.

Unlike many historical debuts, The Blood of Flowers' narrative is well-balanced: while the historical detail is integral to the plot, it never threatens to overwhelm the story itself.

Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo’s narration never detracts from Amirrezvani’s finely-wrought novel. In fact, her accent imbues the text with authenticity and her voice has a mesmeric quality that draws listeners completely into the story.

The audio version (a sample clip is available on the publisher's webpage) also includes an interview with the author, in which Amirrezvani answers a number of questions about the novel, her background, and her writing process. Of particular interest is the segment about Amirrezvani's decision to not to name her protagonist.
Read my review at Armchair Interviews...

This fabulous novel is on the suggested reading list for the Hidden Treasures read-and-review contest. Pick up a copy to read this summer!

Hidden Treasures Contest

My friend Susan over at West of Mars is hosting another read-and-review contest. This time, the name of the game is Hidden Treasures.

Here are the basics:

1. Find a book that's a "hidden treasure". That means a book that hasn't made it to a best-seller list anywhere that you can find. A suggested reading list is available at WestofMars.com (some of you will recognize two of my suggestions right away, the other is one that I haven't mentioned here before). Feel free to find your own treasure, though.

2. The book MUST be from a royalty-paying publisher. If in doubt, ask.

3. Read it.

4. Post a review somewhere on the Internet between July 15 and August 15.

5. Sign the Mr. Linky at West of Mars. Include the permalink for your review.

6. Yes, you can use a Hidden Treasure book that fulfills another contest or reading challenge.

7. Yes, you can review more than one book.

8. If, for some reason, you don't want to win a prize, let Susan know.

9. If you have suggestions for the Hidden Treasures Suggested Reading List, or a prize for the winners, drop Susan an e-mail.

10. Prizes will be awarded August 20. Winners will be contacted and winning list will be posted no later than 22 August; be sure to have a way for us to contact you!

For more information, check out this post.


If you have any questions about the contest, feel free to ask me. I look forward to seeing what you decide to read-and-review and you can bet that I'll be playing along as well.

BookExpo Canada 2007

My back is sore, my arms are sore. I came back with two huge bags of publishers' catalogs (I'll be posting about exciting fall titles after I've had a chance to read through them) and tons of galleys.

BookExpo was, in a word, overwhelming. Luckily my friend Janelle (reviewer extraordinaire) knew the lay of the land and kept me from wandering aimlessly though the convention center.

I really don't know how to sum up the experience, so here are some of the tidbits:
- I am now the proud owner of a signed copy of The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi, who is both beautiful and "cool" and has written two wonderful novels despite being five years younger than me.
- I needed a whole bag just to carry Penguin's catalogs.
- I can't wait to try out some recipes from I Love Coffee!: Over 100 Easy and Delicious Coffee Drinks by Susan Zimmer.
- I kept far away from James Patterson and all the super big name people signing.
- I heard a great interview with Laura Byrn Paquet about Wanderlust: A Social History of Travel, which sounds like an amazing book.
- I ran into a mystery bookstore owner who recommended picking up a copy of The Faceless Fiend by Howard Whitehouse (they were giving out ARCs at the Kids Can Press booth), saying it looked like a winning combination of Artemis Fowl and Victorian England.
- I drool over the Raincoast Books catalogs.
- I shared a lunch table with Rebecca Upjohn. Her first children's book, Lily and the Paper Man, which will be published by Second Story Press this fall. I'm definitely going to buy a copy for my nieces.
- I just finished reading one of the books I picked up at BookExpo, Villa Serena by Domenica de Rosa (expect a little review later this week).

Keep an eye on my library once LibraryThing is up and running again. There'll be some interesting new additions.

BookExpo Canada

That's where I'll be this weekend. Expect a full report on Tuesday.

Matters of the Blood

Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima

Rio Seco, Texas isn’t your average small town and Keira Kelly isn’t your average small-town girl. She born into a family of necromancers and at thirty-seven, has not yet come into her powers. Tired of her controlling family, Keira opts to stay in Texas when the family migrates to Canada, even though it means keeping an eye on her annoying human cousin Marty and his mortuary business.

Keira relishes her independence for two years before strange things start happening in Texas Hill Country. Horribly mutilated animals start appearing after a mysterious stranger purchases Wild Moon, a ranch outside of town, and converts it to an exclusive inn. When Marty is found dead on his embalming table with bite marks in his neck, Keira can't explain her true suspicious to the county sheriff because he knows nothing of the supernatural. It's up to Keira to figure out the cause of the recent spate of deaths while fighting off the advances of the sheriff, a former fling. If that wasn't enough, Keira has to deal with an onslaught of vivid and disturbing nightmares, which she recognizes as the first symptom of "the change," her supernatural coming-of-age.

Matters of the Blood starts out with a bang -- “I know the dead and the dead know me" is an intriguing first line if there ever was one -- and maintains a strong pace throughout. The novel has mystery, intrigue, and a number of unexpected twists. There is also plenty of sexual tension. Beyond a satisfying storyline, the novel is buoyed by a strong cast of supporting characters. They include Keira's brother Tucker, a sexy bisexual hellhound; Beatriz Ruiz, Keira's spunky best friend who owns the local café; Adam Walker, an enigmatic love interest; and Boris and Greta Nagy, a pair of Holocaust survivors; as well as a variety of vampires and other paranormals.

One of the things that makes this book stand out is how Lima leaves room for a sequel while still tying things up nicely at the end. Unlike some other paranormal series, this one seems to have been conceived with intent. While the mystery is resolved, the core story remains unfinished. Additionally there are plenty of interesting characters that deserve attention and a whole cast of family members at which readers have only had a peek.

My one complaint about the book is that, especially in the beginning, I really felt like I was grasping at thin air when it came to understanding Keira and her back-story. Upon reflection, however, I've determined that my initial response was a result of the fact that Lima was trying to create in Keira a more full-bodied character that could unfold in future books (something of which I wholeheartedly approve). In short, some readers (like me) will be disoriented at the onset, but if they persevere they will find Matters of the Blood compulsively readable and close its covers hoping for a sequel.

Read the review at Front Street Reviews...

Greed

My review of Greed by Elfride Jelinek (translated from the German by Martin Chalmers) appeared in the May 1 edition of Library Journal.

Jelinek's latest novel (published in German four years before she won the Nobel prize) is one that will appeal to her fans and most likely infuriate her detractors as well as casual readers previously unfamiliar with her writing.

Set in southern Austria, Greed tells the story of a country policeman with a mania for property acquisition and an appetite for rough sex that leads to the murder of a 16-year-old girl. The storyline, however, is not the important element of this novel. Its driving force is Jelinek's inimitable style of commentary on relationships between men and women, the struggles of the writer and of aging, the state of the environment, and Jelinek's love-hate relationship with her native Austria, among other things. The stream-of-consciousness musings of the novel's unidentifiable female narrator may drive some readers to distraction, with their repetition, lack of plot progression, and often incomprehensible wordplays. Like her or not, this "extraordinary linguistic zeal" is why Jelinek is a Nobel laureate.

Read the proper review at Library Journal...

book clubbing in May

I for one can't believe that it is almost the end of May already. Where has the month gone?

My book club's monthly meeting took place yesterday. Our selection for this month was: Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman (subtitled: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary). It was another book that we all enjoyed, though maybe not quite as much as we expected to.

I know that my opinion of the book was definitely clouded by the fact that I'd already read (and read relatively recently) The Meaning of Everything, Winchester's other book about the OED. Because the subject of the two books is the same there are passages that seem to have been copy-and-pasted from the first book into the second. That, however, wasn't my complaint. Actually, I just thought The Meaning of Everything was a much stronger book. In The Professor and the Madman, Winchester is trying to tell the story of Minor (the madman) as well as the story of Murray (the professor and longest-reigning editor of the OED) and the broader story of the OED itself. Because he is trying to accomplish so much in one relatively short volume, he doesn't really manage to tell any of the stories satisfactorily.

One of the things I did like about the book (well, both books) is Winchester's use of what in my family we call "SAT words" (in reference to one of the standardized tests that we Americans need to take before entering university). I'm not sure if Winchester made an attempt to use more arcane words because he was writing a history of a dictionary or if he always writes like that, but it's definitely something I noticed and appreciated.

I'm sure that I'll be reading more from Winchester in the future because we have a number of his other books kicking around the house (The Map that Changed the World and Krakatoa are two I've happened across recently). I think that I may try to search out audio versions though as Winchester is a really wonderful reader.

some recent reading

In addition to the books for which I need to write reviews (I have three reviews in progress and am still reading another book I need to review), I have managed to squeeze in some lighter reading.


Kafka's Soup by Mark Crick
Subtitled "a complete history of world literature in 14 recipes," Kafka's Soup is a light, amusing read. I was intrigued when I first saw the book on the shelf at the book store and was ecstatic when one of my BookCrossing friends had a copy to share (my first instinct about the book--that it would be a fun read, but not worth the cover price--turned out to be quite correct).

In Kafka's Soup, Crick creates recipes in the style of different authors (from Homer to Graham Greene). I particularly enjoyed Tarragon Eggs à la Jane Austen and Coq au Vin à la Gabriel García Márquez--possibly because in those recipes Crick was mimicking two of my favorite authors. I also enjoyed Clafoutis Grandmère à la Virginia Woolf partially because a recipe for that dish appeared in the most recent Williams-Sonoma catalog giving me a wonderful sense of connection. The Marquis de Sade's poussin recipe was amusing, but seemed to drag and left me skimming after the first few pages.

My issue with the book is really with the word "complete" in its subtitle. I just fail to see how fourteen authors (all Western it seems) can illustrate the complete history of world literature.


You Slay Me, Fire Me Up, and Light My Fire, the first three books in the Aisling Grey, Guardian series by Katie MacAlister.
These books are very similar to MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and... books (see my comments on those books). In the Aisling Grey, Guardian series, the protagonist is a guardian (soon to be responsible for her own portal into Hell) and a wyvern's mate (destined to be the partner of a dragon clan head). If you liked the Undead and... books, you'll probably enjoy Aisling Grey and her adventures. I, for one, had a very similar reaction to the books: I had a hard time relating to Aisling (a reaction that did diminish in the later books) and found that the secondary characters (particularly Jim) really made the books.

My biggest complaint about these books is that MacAlister seems to have written them without a plan for how the series was going to progress. There are things that happen in books 2 and 3 that have no grounding in the earlier books. They necessitate huge leaps which really can't be explained away by Aisling just not being in the know (some of them can, but others really can't). Book 3, Light My Fire, is really the first book where MacAlister seems to be laying the groundwork for the rest of the series.

A Mortal Glamour

A Mortal Glamour by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Dark historical fiction set in fourteenth century France, A Mortal Glamour tells the tale of one turbulent year in the life of a convent. Although A Mortal Glamour was originally published in 1985, this new edition--published by Juno Books with wonderful new cover art--includes over twenty-five thousand words cut from the first edition.

Young, headstrong Seur Aungelique (nobly born into the d'Ybert family) enters la Tres Saunte Annunciacion convent rather than marry the man chosen by her father. Stifled by the Rule of Order, Aungelique becomes increasingly frustrated with convent life after the introduction of a strict young superior. Fleeing under cover of night, she takes refuge with Comtesse Orienne, the most accomplished courtesan in France. Though openly admitting her desire to receive tutelage from the Comtesse, Aungelique also seems to have an ulterior motive: to meet her true love Pierre Fornault (Duc de Parcignonne), who she knows to be a patron of Comtesse Orienne. Though she is returned to the convent before she has the chance to commit any real sins of the flesh, Aungelique's appetite for lust has been whetted, an appetite that soon becomes irrepressible.

After her return to the convent, Aungelique begins to experience nightly visitations accompanied by loud moans of pleasure and pain from her cell. No penance, it seems, can relieve her of these visitations: neither performing vigils nor fasting helps and, indeed, scourging seems to exacerbate the problem. Whether demonic or no, the visitations are contagious and soon other sisters, a priest, and even a soldier stationed at the convent are affected. As the convent falls prey to otherworldly chaos, it is left to languish and questions begin to multiply.

The novel’s backdrop is one of desperate, turbulent times. Europe is still cowed with fear of the Black Death. France and England are embroiled in what would later be known as the Hundred Years’ War. And, with Pope Urban VI reigning in Rome and Pope Clement VII reigning in Avignon, the Church is divided and distrust is rampant.

Tied to what seems to be the author’s intended commentary about women’s status (or lack thereof) at that time, what is most horrific about the story is the lack of action by the Church in Avignon. As Père Guibert, the priest tasked with shepherding the convent’s inhabitants, explains the situation most succinctly:

I pray that it is only the perfidy of women that must be corrected and not the incursion of Hell. The Pope has recently warned that the forces of Rome are growing stronger and seek to undermine the proper authority of Avignon and the French throne. To have demons present would weaken his assertion that it is Avignon that is the right. It might be thought that these nuns were acting on behalf of Roman interests, that the women entertain Roman lovers and for that seek to cast doubt upon the sanctity of Avignon. (212)

The Church, it seems, would rather lose dozens of innocent souls than risk a loss of power.

A Mortal Glamour is a compelling read. Though set in a different era, it is similar to Joanne Harris' Holy Fools and will appeal to readers who enjoyed that novel.

Read my review at Front Street Reviews...

Queen of the Underworld

Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin

Bright-eyed, independent Emma Gant arrives in Miami in the summer of 1959 with the world at her feet. She has a married lover who'll show her the ropes, and a reasonably-priced residence orchestrated by a family friend, and an upwardly-mobile job at the Miami Star, the most important accessory for a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill journalism school.

Emma joins the Star's reporting staff at a tumultuous time, shortly after Fidel Castro enacted his First Agrarian Reform. Living in a hotel run by Cuban émigrés for Cuban émigrés makes the upheavals of Castro’s revolución more than just news to Emma. Placing her in this context, the author seems to be drawing a comparison between Emma’s situation and that of the Cubans. As Emma is struggling to figure out her place in the world and gauge her future success, so are her newly exiled neighbors.

The more one reads into the life history of the author, the more Queen of the Underworld begins to seem like a semi-autobiographical novel. Godwin herself graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1959 and spent a year on the staff of the Miami Herald before embarking on the world travels that sparked her literary career.

What is most curious about the novel is that it takes place over such a short period of time. The story of Emma's coming into her own, Queen of the Underworld is a window into what seems to be a key moment in Emma’s development, one that may affect her entire career. Godwin, however, manages to squeeze an unbelievable amount of action into less than two weeks. Emma's life during the span of the novel is so full, it is almost surreal; as she herself recounts, “in one week and three days, I met a gangster walking a dog, sat behind a notorious boss at a funeral, became friends with [an] ex-madame […], and helped two Cubans smuggle arms out of Florida” (331), and that’s not even the half of it.

By contrast, the novel’s ending is unsatisfying and somewhat abrupt. While Emma fantasizes about writing a novel, there is nothing (besides Godwin's own history) that gives any indication that Emma will become a novelist. The narrative ends with both Emma and the reader waiting on her future, filled with unanswered questions.

Godwin’s characterization, however, is the novel’s saving grace. Emma is amazingly sympathetic despite her naïveté and the fact that she seems to have no compunction about sleeping with another woman's husband (although her sexual relationships do seem to be at odds with her history of sexual abuse). More significantly, Queen of the Underworld is full of finely drawn secondary characters. One such character is Don Waldo Navarro, a prominent academic who fled Cuba with his memoirs sewn into his wife’s skirt. A minor character, who could have easily been shunted aside after his grand entrance, Don Waldo is made real in Godwin’s attention to detail: he swims breaststroke in the hotel pool “in billowing maroon trunks” (260) with “his leonine head erect” (259) and has the ability of seamlessly incorporating a nine-year-old Spanish-speaking girl into a English-language conversation: “the great educator’s consecutive translations into Spanish on Luisa’s behalf bore no trace of pedagogy. Don Waldo made it seem merely as though he suddenly chose to complete the rest of his discourse in another tongue” (272).

Read my full review at Front Street Reviews...

my daemon

I'm not crazy about having a spider as my daemon, but I took the test twice (once when I first heard about the test and a second time when a friend told me about the cool change-your-friend's-daemon feature) and ended up with a spider both times (my first one was named Inachus) and it seems that it's meant to be. Feel free to see if you can't change the daemon to better suit me.

If you haven't read my comments on The Golden Compass, check out this post.

some recent reading

I have had a chance to do some lighter reading recently, most notably the first two books in Angie Sage's wonderful Septimus Heap series: Magyk and Flyte. I read Magyk a couple of weeks ago. I needed something that could help me decompress from a long week and it was just the ticket: a captivating story full of sympathetic characters. I later read Flyte. It isn't quite as good as the first book, but that's to be expected of the second book in a series. I thoroughly enjoyed both books, am looking forward to reading Physik (the third book in the series), and am planning on procuring a copies for my own personal collection (I'd borrowed the books from a friend).

Here's a little passage that struck me as being very apt to my own situation: "Everywhere you looked there were books. On sagging shelves, in boxes, having in bags from the ceiling, propping up the table and stacked up in such precariously high piles that they threatened to collapse at any moment" (Magyk, 21). Things here aren't quite that bad, but we definitely have the same book hoarding problem as the Heaps.


I also read the first three Shopaholic books: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic takes Manhattan, and Shopaholic Ties the Knot. My coworker has been bugging me to read the Shopaholic books for some time. Honestly I was a bit reticent because I know how easy it is to get in debt and the books really seem to trivialize the problem (yes, I know it's chick lit, but a little realism wouldn't hurt... with Becky's spending habits she should be much more in debt than she is in the book).

In any case I finally got around to reading the first few books in the series. They were OK. I actually liked Shopaholic takes Manhattan better than Confessions of a Shopaholic (I'd classify Shopaholic Ties the Knot as more of the same).

book clubbing in April

This month my book club discussed The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I first read The Time Traveler's Wife in late 2005. Here's what I had to say about the book at that time (taken from my BookCrossing journal entry):

What a wonderful book! I was afraid that this might be one of those books that just doesn't live up to the hype, but I was not disappointed.
A love story, an interesting premise, and well-developed, sympathetic characters... what more could you want?

And, honestly, I enjoyed my second reading as much as the first. I really do think that The Time Traveler's Wife is a wonderful book and - come to think of it - I should pick up a copy for my permanent collection.

What was really interesting about our book club meeting today is that we all liked the book and we had a good discussion. For some reason we tend to have much better discussions when we are talking about books we didn't like all that much. We discussed the author and her writing style, how Niffenegger's theory of time travel deviates from the "rules" that govern most time-travel fiction, Henry and Clare as characters and how they acted in certain situations, the implications of Alba's time traveling, and whether or not we found the ending satisfactory among other things. All in all it was a very successful meeting.

Niffenegger is definitely a gifted novelist evidenced by her ability to manage The Time Traveler's Wife's complex plot and present it so seamlessly. I'm very curious to see what her next novel will be like.

lately

Lately it seems that I have taken an unintended break from blogging.
I've been strangely unmotivated. Originally this was due to winter's tenaciousness. Then the weather started to get better, but last week happened. I know it shouldn't affect me more than most other people, but if I wasn't here I would have been there... not that it would have made any difference, but still.

In any case, I'll be back tomorrow with my comments on my book club's April selection. Then, with any luck, the usual reviews and comments will start to trickle out.

Kabul Beauty School

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez

Deborah Rodriguez, known by Kabul shop owners and Michigan prison inmates alike as “Miss Debbie,” first came to Afghanistan in 2002 as part of a group from the Care for All Foundation, a Christian Humanitarian Organization. A hairdresser by trade, Rodriguez is deemed significantly less useful than her medically-trained compatriots and is given any number of odd jobs and a good deal of free time to explore the city. Little did she--or the relief group--realize exactly how desirable her skills might be in that war-torn city.

When the expatriate community discovers a hairdresser in their midst, Rodriguez is swamped with requests. One woman summed up the situation quite succinctly: “We have literally risked our lives for highlights. […] Once I drove ten hours over the Khyber Pass to get my hair done in Pakistan” (39). During Taliban rule, hair salons and their feminine space were banned. In 2002 salons were only just starting to reopen, struggling without the supplies and skills needed to be truly successful.

As she begins to befriend both westerners and Afghans in Kabul, Rodriguez begins to see a niche that she can fill. She returns to Michigan hoping to find a way to open a teaching salon in Kabul. Armed with her dream and a lot of gumption she manages to get $500,000 worth of donations from Paul Mitchell and other large beauty companies. Just when Rodriguez is at a loss as to how to proceed, she discovers Mary MacMakin and her nonprofit, PARSA. Aligning herself with PARSA, she returns to Kabul in Spring 2003 as a founding faculty member of the Kabul Beauty School, eventually becoming its lead instructor and administrator.

While Rodriguez’s story of an American woman helping to make a difference in the lives of Afghan women is not unique, it is both moving and powerful. Kabul Beauty School is compulsively readable. A strong opening chapter illustrates both the struggles of modern Afghan women and Rodriguez’s inimitable blend of brazenness and kindness, leaving readers with a desire to know more about this spunky, resourceful hairdresser and her students.

The stories of Rodriguez’s students fill the pages of this memoir: the wife of a Taliban-aligned opium addict, the bride who must fake virginity, and the young girl sold by her parents to an older man, just to name a few. The author, however, is just as interesting as her students.

One of the things that sets Rodriguez apart is her ability to empathize with her students. Having suffered an abusive husband, she is attuned to the indignities--both large and small--that affect Afghan women every day. Rodriguez is dynamic and personable; more than that, she clearly loves Afghanistan and its people. As she so elegantly puts it, “as soon as I set my foot on this soil, I knew I’d somehow managed to come home. I’ve been renewed by the spirit of this place and roused by its challenges” (269). While Rodriguez maintains both her personality and independence throughout the period covered in this memoir, she becomes ever more a part of the Afghan community, even allowing her friends to arrange a marriage to an Afghan businessman.

The history of the school--and Rodriguez's life in Kabul--is not without drama. The school has political and financial problems. There are cultural misunderstandings, most perpetrated by the clueless, but well-meaning Rodriguez. At the memoir's end, we learn that both the school and affiliated salon have been closed. Nevertheless, the reader is left with a sense of hope: if anyone can turn things around, it is Rodriguez.

The narrative is a bit uneven (for example, the handling of her son’s stay in Afghanistan is cursory, simply tagged onto a story about one of her students). However, that is almost to be expected in a first effort and the natural charisma of the author, and the compelling tale of the school, will be enough to keep readers interested.

Read the review at Front Street Reviews...

I think of you

I think of you by Ahdaf Soueif

Ahdaf Soueif's first fiction offering since The Map of Love, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Man Booker Prize, is actually a repackaging of nine stories originally published between 1983 and 1996.

Set primarily in Egypt and the United Kingdom, each of the stories features a female character. Throughout the collection Soueif focuses on the interior life of her protagonists and the ordering of the stories lends some sense of a progressively maturing voice. The collection, however, does seem a bit uneven. With the first five stories developing two specific characters, the protagonists of final stories seem comparatively inchoate.

The first three stories--"Knowing," "1964," and "Returning"--show three different epochs in the life of Aisha, an Egyptian woman who immigrated to the United Kingdom in her teens. "Mandy" and "Satan" feature Asya, a woman separated from her husband who dealing in different ways with the repercussions of their broken marriage and his philandering.

In the title story, which is arguably the collection's strongest, the unnamed first-person narrator has been hospitalized due to a high-risk pregnancy. With her husband in London unable to get a visa and her family in Cairo, she is alone, the only patient not observing purdah. She survives her hospitalization by invoking an elderly friend, confidante, and role model who died of cancer.

If the stories have a unifying theme it is that of estrangement; estrangement (both emotional and physical) from husbands, as well as from the homeland and the culture of one's childhood. While I think of you lacks the refinement of Soueif's later work it is nevertheless worth reading. Her stories are touching, nostalgic, but never overly so. Soueif's prose is lyrical and this collection is buoyed by her ability to give her readers an extraordinary sense of place.

Read the full review at Armchair Interviews...

River Secrets

River Secrets by Shannon Hale

The whole of Bayern is ill at ease when its king and queen decide to send a delegation to Tira, a rival nation that attempted to conquer Bayern the previous year. The losses incurred in that campaign’s final battle, most as the result of a Bayern fire speaker, have only fueled tensions between the two countries. No place is more dangerous for Bayerns to travel than the Tiran capital Ingridan, but King Geric and Queen Isi are convinced that a diplomatic mission is necessary to avert further conflicts. River Secrets is the story of one young Bayern, Razo of the Forest, and his role in securing peace with Tira.

When Captain Talone announces the twenty men selected for the ambassador's guard, Razo is astonished that a substandard soldier like himself has been chosen to be part of the elite group. While he is a member of Bayern’s Own, the king's personal fighting force, he is probably its most incompetent member. Regardless, Razo relishes the chance to be a part of the adventure and to keep an eye on his friend Enna, the fire speaker who puts herself at personal risk by joining the delegation.

Facing pressure from its citizens, the Tiran assembly has agreed to a fall vote on whether to go to war with Bayern, leaving the ambassador only a few months to convince them otherwise. When burned bodies start to appear - seemingly placed to incriminate the Bayern delegation - the group realizes just how impossible their mission is. In addition to convincing the Tiran assembly to vote against war, they must figure out the mystery of the burned bodies without implicating themselves.

The tense political situation between the Tira and Bayern is handled masterfully. Throughout the novel, Hale is able to balance the two competing fantasy cultures, highlighting their differences and similarities, and in the process saying some profound things about both their world and ours. One such profundity comes early in the novel from the mouth of Queen Isi: "It's easy to believe that complete strangers are your enemies" (18).

River Secrets is well-plotted, mixing action, mystery, and romance in just the right combination to perfectly satisfy readers. Hale's writing is lyrical, her characters enchanting. A page-turning adventure, River Secrets is also a touching coming-of-age story. At the beginning of the novel, seventeen-year-old Razo is insecure. Still reeling from the loss of his first love to another man, he can't see beyond his obvious failures to the unique talents that he does possess. It is only when Razo is able to see himself through the eyes of others that he begins to realize his potential. Young adults - especially those going through an awkward phase themselves - will have no problem relating to the novel's endearing protagonist.

Although this book does follow Hale’s The Goose Girl (2003) and Enna Burning (2004) - Razo is a secondary character in those two novels - it does stand alone. While many fantasy enthusiasts will want to immerse themselves in Hale's fully-realized world by reading all three novels, knowledge of the earlier books is not necessary to enjoy River Secrets.

Read the full review on Curled Up Kids...

Happy BAFABW!

Happy Buy a Friend a Book Week, everyone!


Celebrate this week and buy a book for someone you love (or someone you just like).

book clubbing in March

This month my book club discussed The Golden Compass, the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

The Golden Compass is a young adult book that can definitely appeal to adults as well. Everyone in my book club enjoyed the book, even those you generally shy away from fantasy and young adult books.

I think one of the things that sets The Golden Compass apart is how Pullman is able to present this wonderfully complex world, one that is very much not our own, but that bears enough resemblance that things feel familiar. One of Pullman's best inventions is the daemon, a physical manifestation of each character's soul in animal form (when the characters are children their daemons are continually changing form, at puberty the daemons set for life).

The Golden Compass includes a wonderful array of characters -- including witches, child-stealing "Gobblers", armored bears, absentee parents, evil scientists, and ship-going gypsies -- and an interesting plot.

The novel is a page turner and readers quickly become invested in protagonist Lyra and her quest. Once I read The Golden Compass, I had to continue the series so I also read The Subtle Knife (definitely the second book in a trilogy, somewhat disappointing) and The Amber Spyglass (a good conclusion to the series, satisfying).

If you haven't read these books, I'd encourage you to pick them up. They're not perfect, but they are good reading. I don't want to say too much more for fear of giving too much away (I had to zip my lips a bit at the book club meeting precisely because of that). A few more descriptive words should suffice: unique, subversive, enchanting...

Random "literary" discovery of the week

Moonstruck Chocolates of Portland, Oregon is offering a drool-worthy new item... a "Chocolate Novel"What a novel idea! Go get yours now at their online store...

Ten books you can't live without

Inspired by The Guardian's poll to mark World Book Day, Kailana set out to conduct her own poll to create a list of bloggers' essential books. She's asked bloggers to post about their ten essential books (read more about this here) and I'd encourage all of you to participate.
--To give credit where credit is due, I found out about this from Susan at WestofMars--

Personally, I had a hard time trying to narrow down to a list of ten. In the end, I decided to focus on rereadability (books I have read multiple times). So, here's my list of ten books (or sets of books) I don't think I could live without...

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
I just adore this book. I've read it so many times...

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My favorite Austen, though many of her books bear rereading.

3. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books
Yes, I'm one of those people who rereads all the Harry Potter books each time a new one debuts.

4. The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa
I haven't reread this book in quite a while, but for some reason, I still count it as my favorite book.

5. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Two words: magical realism.

6. 1984 by George Orwell
A wonderful, timely book.

7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I first read this book in high school.

8. The Wump World by Bill Peet
This was one of my favorite books as a child. I have no idea how many times I've read it.

9. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books
My mom read these aloud to my sister and me.

10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
While I could never appreciate Lord of the Rings as others have (I given up every time I tried to read the massive trilogy), I have read Tolkien's earlier novel a number of times.

Blue Shoes and Happiness

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith

Blue Shoes and Happiness is the seventh installment of Alexander McCall Smith's successful No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Not typical mysteries, the books meander gracefully to their conclusion rather than proceeding with page-turning thrills. As Assistant Detective Grace Makutsi says, "Mma Ramotswe [proprietor of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency] does not solve crimes. She deals with very small things. [...] But [...] these small things are important for people" (53).

Set in Botswana, the books are full of full of wisdom and humanity as well as sympathetic and subtly drawn characters. Smith writes in such a way to emphasize the different pace of life in Botswana. Just reading one of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books forces the reader to slow done and relax, making them the perfect fare for a weekday evening.

In Blue Shoes and Happiness, Precious Ramotswe and her detective agency take on a number of new cases; her new assistant-assistant detective gets a chance to prove his detecting skills; and a new character appears in the form of Aunty Emang, the local newspaper's agony aunt. Additionally, Grace Makutsi's relationship with her new fiance is on rocky ground after she admits to being a feminist. The novel's most shocking thread, however, concerns Precious Ramotswe's decision to go on a diet. Yes, there's blackmail, and a home intruder, and a cobra in the office, but none of these things is nearly as significant as Ramotswe, a champion of the rights of the "traditionally-built," deciding that she needs to lose weight.

While the books do stand alone--each begins with a little summary of what has happened in the previous books--people new to the series should probably start with a different book. Blue Shoes and Happiness, while continuing in the same vein as the earlier books, may be slightly less accessible to neophytes. Readers familiar with Ramotswe and the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency novels will appreciate the mysterious pumpkin that threads its way through the book and Smith's exploration of gender issues. To others, these things may feel just a bit too foreign.

Read the full review at Armchair Interviews...

work in progress

Despite the fact that I haven't posted recently, I have been reading.

Right now I'm busy working on reviews for:
Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith,
A Mortal Glamour by Chelsea Quinn Yarbo, and
River Secrets by Shannon Hale.

Expect some more posts later in the week.

Sacred Hunger

Yesterday my friend Milan asked me what I thought of Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger. He'd noticed its disappearance from my "currently reading" sidebar.

Obviously I don't post about every book that I read (according to my list, I've read 45 books so far this year), but there's not always a rhyme or reason to what I do blog about and what I don't. Since he asked, though, I figured I might as well post about Sacred Hunger.

The first thing I need to admit is that I had the book as a book ring (for those of you who aren't in the know, here's a link to relevant section of the BookCrossing FAQ) and probably didn't give the book as much time as I normally would (as it was, I kept the book for just over a month).

Honestly I was a bit disappointed in Sacred Hunger, but I think that's because my expectations were too high. I expected it to be a fabulous book (Booker Prize and all). I was really intrigued by the mulatto at the beginning of the novel and the reference to the utopic community in which he was born, but I felt like I had to read so much to get to that point (especially because Sacred Hunger is not a book that you can rush through). That being sad, I thought it was a very powerful book.

And Baby Makes Two

And Baby Makes Two by Judy Sheehan

Jane Howe is a thirty-seven-year-old single woman living in New York City. She has what some would call a perfect life: a satisfying and well-paying job, a great apartment in Greenwich Village, good friends, and family close enough to visit, but not close enough to be involved in her daily life.

When her biological clock starts ticking, Jane realizes what is missing in her life and readers learn the reason for her childlessness and her single status. Apparently the love of Jane's life died of Lou Gehrigs Disease. Although throughout the novel, this relationship is mentioned only in passing, a part of Jane's back-story that has relatively little bearing on her current life. Jane's mother seems more affected by Jane's younger sister Sheila eloping than Jane is by the death of her fiancé. To anyone who suffered a significant loss, this is incongruous.

Jane stumbles across a reference to a group on single motherhood and, from that point on, seems propelled along a trajectory that leads to her adopting a girl from China. While Jane is supposed to be making the most important decision of her life, it never really seems like she's consciously making a decision. Jane doesn't choose to adopt from China after thoroughly investigating international adoption and the various options available to her. Someone else adopts a baby from China and it just seems right to her -- so, China it is. Yes, she faces roadblocks -- a traditional father who disapproves of her becoming a single parent, a demotion at work, delayed paperwork -- but these things end up seeming like minor hiccups in the great scheme of things. Jane's biggest problem really has nothing to do with the adoption, it has to do with a love interest, a married love interest.

Apart from Jane's love interest Peter (who is horribly indecisive, but a very realistic character because of that), And Baby Makes Two has a wide variety of strong supporting characters. There's Ray, Jane's gay best friend and "hubstitute," who despite being a stock character is probably one of the most sympathetic characters in the book; Sheila, a scattered stepmom who was disowned after the incident mentioned above; the Chinamoms, a support group of women adopting babies from China; and a mother-figure in the head of Jane's adoption agency, who turns out to be her former professor (the same one in whose class she met her fiancé).

Read my full review at Front Street Reviews...

Wind Rider

Wind Rider by Susan Williams

Set on the steppes of western Asia six thousand years ago, Wind Rider is a multifaceted tale of one girl’s coming of age interwoven with a narrative about the first domestication of horses by the Botai people of modern-day Kazakhstan.

Fern and her brother Flint live with the stigma of being the only set of twins in their community. By all accounts, Fern should have been left to die, but, after suffering from stillbirths for many years, Fern’s mother Moss fought against the odds to keep both children. Already an anomaly in the superstitious ahne (a group of families that travel together during the warm months), Fern’s unique personality makes her stand out even more. She’s a strange girl who befriends animals and would rather be out hunting than sewing herself a new tunic.

As Fern begins to become an adult, she envies her brother’s freedom:

Choices, excitement, and honor lay ahead for Flint. I, on the other hand, would no sooner find blood running between my legs than I would be packed off to begin growing babies, tending pots and scraping skins for some young man as reckless and stupid as my bother, who, like him, would not listen to anything I had to say. (6)

Everything changes for Fern when she finds a young horse trapped in a bog. Unwilling to let the filly become her ahne’s next meal, she rescues the young horse and cares for her in secret. With Thunder, Fern’s life has new purpose. As Fern experiments riding, she and Thunder only grow closer.

It is only when Thunder is needed to bring an injured Flint to safety that Fern risks revealing her secret. While many in the ahne see Thunder only as a potential meal (and Fern with her animal “magic” as a witch), a few elders are convinced of the efficacy of keeping Thunder as a pet and workhorse. As Fern shows the community all the things that Thunder can do, they become more accustomed to and accepting of the horse in their midst. However, when famine strikes, it becomes increasingly difficult for Fern to justify keeping Thunder.

While this first-person narrative is a bit slow to start — which may be reflective of the pace of the life in this prehistoric community — it evolves into a suspenseful adventure story, in which both Fern and Thunder’s lives are at risk.

Courageous and rebellious, Fern is an imperfect character sure to strike a chord with young readers. Fern’s coming of age is less about becoming an independent woman than it is about growing into her role in the community. When severe depression makes Moss unable to care for Fern’s baby sister, Fern does everything in her power to keep Spring alive. It is only then that Fern begins to realize that the life of a wife and mother is more than just a life of servitude.

More than the story of the domestication of horses, Wind Rider charts the course Fern must take in order to develop the self-confidence to be comfortable in her own skin. While Fern becomes a legend in her own time, her greater accomplishment is learning to see her twin as a friend and partner rather than a rival.

Well-crafted and carefully researched, Wind Rider is a novel that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Williams’ descriptions of the Botai people and their life are at once completely foreign and surprisingly recognizable. Her mix of folklore and anthropology, as well as her obvious love for her characters, lend the novel a sense of authenticity.

Read my full review of this lovely book at Curled Up With a Good Kids Book...

Christine Falls

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black

Christine Falls is the debut crime novel from Booker Prize-winning author John Banville (writing under the name Benjamin Black). Set in 1950s Dublin and Boston, the novel is slow, but well-paced. Its finely-drawn protagonist is pathologist Garret Quirke, who as an orphan was sponsored by a prominent judge (and who will hopefully be starring in future Black offerings).

Quirke stumbles into his office late one night after a hospital party to find his brother-in-law Malachy Griffin (the city's most prominent obstetrician) working on a file. When Quirke compares the file to the corpse it refers to he realizes that Griffin was falsifying the record and wonders why. When he begins to ask questions he receives thinly veiled warnings not to look further. Those are followed by the murder of one of his contacts (which rather than scaring him off makes him more determined) and gross physical harm to his own person. The closer Quirke gets to the root of the mystery the more it seems that both his family and the Catholic Church are somehow implicated.

Banville/Black's characters -- Quirke as well as many of the novel's secondary players -- are multidimensional and satisfyingly real. And, the 1950s setting is perfect for what the author is trying to accomplish in the novel.

Christine Falls is atmospheric. It definitely reads more like literary fiction than a traditional crime novel. Banville/Black's prose is precise and beautiful, however his attentiveness does slow down the plot especially at the beginning of the novel (I can see many crime novel enthusiasts losing patience with him). That being said, toward the end of the novel there are enough twists and revelations to satisfy the reader.

Travels in the Scriptorium

Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed three of Auster's novels in the past year, I was surprised when I had a hard time getting into this one. I was excited to read Travels in the Scriptorium especially since it's foreshadowed in The Book of Illusions (my favorite Auster novel so far), but each time I picked it up I couldn't get much past the first ten pages. Eventually I figured out why: I was spoiled. After listening to audio versions of two of Auster's novels, I'd become addicting to hearing him read (he's a wonderful reader); to me, Auster novels weren't Auster novels without his voice. Armed with this realization, I decided put Travels in the Scriptorium away for bit, to wait until the right time. That time, it seems, was this afternoon. I devoured the slim volume in one sitting.

Travels in the Scriptorium focuses on one day in the life of a character known only as Mr. Blank. Blank suffers from a certain amnesia. Under constant video surveillance, he's being held in room. But he doesn't know why... is he in a prison? a mental institution? Throughout the course of the day Blank has a series of visitors. From each of them he gleans more information about his past, sparking of vague memories. Only at the end of the novel do we readers/viewers come to understand who Blank is and full meaning behind the novel's title.

One of the things I like most about Auster's work is the sense of interconnectedness. Auster is a bit repetitive in his devices (though he handles them masterfully each time), but beyond that there are references and cross-references, subtle and not-so-subtle. For readers familiar with his work, this lends a incomparable (and joyful!) sense of discovery to the act of reading.

In The Book of Illusions, Travels in the Scriptorium is one of Hector Mann's lost films. And, Travels in the Scriptorium reads very much like something that could be a Hector Mann film. Once I got myself to read beyond the first few pages, I found my hook: the reappearance of things thought lost. I won't say much more than that because I hate to spoil surprises, but that, for me, is what makes this book special.