Examining the choices made by a line of women, Mothers and Daughters charts the secret history of one family. The story is told from three different perspectives, focused on the present day and the turn of the century.
I'm not all that keen on the cover art for Mothers and Daughters. It's not bad, but it doesn't match the novel. Its technicolor pop seems out of character with the story and the butterfly wings on the child are whimsical (I suppose they are supposed to represent the innocence and imagination of childhood) where the novel is not. The advanced reader copy I received from the publisher had the cover pictured above, but was encased as pictured to the left. The wooden-box design is a direct reference to the box that Sam receives filled with Iris' mementos. I can't help but think that someone at the publisher must have realized too late that the cover art was a bit off.disclosure: As should be obvious from the above, I received an advanced reader copy of Mothers and Daughters from Henry Holt.
I've been watching the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency television show on DVD.
My second week for this meme.
Aimée Carter's debut novel, The Goddess Test, is a "modern-day sequel" to the myth of Persephone.1ETA disclosure: I received a review copy of The Goddess Test (which I requested after reading a review of the book on WORD for Teens) from Harlequin Teen via NetGalley.
"That's who we were: the last colonials to arrive in Trinidad, before things changed for good" (202).I loved to ride past the big mansions there, the former estate houses of the cocoa barons. Most stood empty, one was a school [...] The house on the corner looked like a Rhineland castle, another like an eccentric gunboat, all spires and cupolas and oval windows. One was like a wedding cake made of coral. Another looked like a French chateau. All mimicked bygone European architecture; all seemed ludicrous rather than stately. A castle on the savannah? A chateau surrounded by coconut trees? [...] These houses gave me a sense of comfort; like me, they were hopelessly at odds with their environment. (219)The White Woman on the Green Bicycle was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize (the winner was Barbara Kingsolver's sixth novel, The Lacuna).
ETA disclosure: I received a review copy of The White Woman on the Green Bicycle from Penguin via NetGalley.
Jack Fletcher is a computer engineer and steampunk enthusiast. When his sister1 accidentally causes an explosion in Jack's lab, both are knocked unconscious. They wake in the hold of an airship in an alternative world that is the stuff of Jack's fantasies. He quickly becomes smitten with the ship's captain, the red-headed Octavia, who believes that the stowaways are spies.
Arsenic and Clam Chowder recounts the sensational 1896 murder trial of Mary Alice Livingston, a member of one of the most prestigious families in New York, who was accused of murdering her own mother, Evelina Bliss. The bizarre instrument of death, an arsenic-laced pail of clam chowder, had been delivered to the victim by her ten-year-old granddaughter, and Livingston was arrested in her mourning clothes immediately after attending her mother’s funeral. In addition to being the mother of four out-of-wedlock children, the last born in prison while she was awaiting trial, Livingston faced the possibility of being the first woman to be executed in New York’s new-fangled electric chair, and all these lurid details made her arrest and trial the central focus of an all-out circulation war then underway between Joseph Pulitzer’s World and Randolph Hearst’s Journal.My second week for this meme.
Announced today: American author Philip Roth is the winner of the 2011 Man Book International Prize.
Winner of the 2004 Premio Campiello (a prestigious Italian literary prize), this debut novel by a former professor of modern and contemporary literature at the University of Padua tells the story of one family during the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey. disclosure: I received an advanced copy of this book to review for Library Journal when the book came out a few years ago. As far as I know the review never appeared in periodical.
My second week for this meme.
"This is not a book about writers, or about houses, or about America. It is a book about where and why and how American writers made a home for themselves--a place to live, yes, but above all a place to work—in a restless, rugged country" (McClatchy's introduction)1Featuring 300 lush and lovely full-color photographs of the homes of 21 American writers American Writers at Home is a glorious, yet substantive coffee-table book.
According to Bookcrossing, I've had a copy of The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green sitting on my shelves (or in a box) for more than four years. It came highly recommended (by someone whose opinion I value), but I just never got around to reading it before now.Dear Effie and Mel Greenstein,As a male's coming-of-age tale, The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green is a bit heavy on masturbation and sexual fantasy. I'd have wished for a bit less, but I understand it's roll. Some readers may also find the details of Jewish religious observances a bit tedious. I'd never heard of the Tefillin (Jacob: "forever my vote for most bizarre Judaic ritual," p. 80) so I found the explanations of that particularly interesting. Mostly though it is my dislike for Abram (Jacob's father) that overwhelms all the positive feelings I have about the book.
I'm so sorry this card is late. [...] I really like the generous gift you gave me for my Bar Mitzvah. I had no idea that they made bookends out of Jerusalem stone. With the help of my brother and my friend Jon we were able to hoist them up on my bookshelf yesterday. They looked really great up there before my shelving collapsed into a cloud of snapped particleboard. No one was hurt. I think I'm going to keep them on the floor. Thank you very much again. You both rock, Effie and Mel. Get it?
Sincerely,
Jacob (142-143)
While wandering aimlessly around the fancy garden store trying to pick out a plant for her, I found myself drawn to this particular plant. Most of what I know about orchids I learned from reading Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (see post). Luckily my parents have the Time-Life Encyclopedia of Gardening and one of the volumes has a section on the care and handling of orchids as houseplants.
Circle time! Time to share. What character in a book would you most like to be, what character in a book would you most like to date?
In the year 4022 amateur archaeologist Howard Carson stumbles upon an unparalleled find, an exquisitely preserved chamber of a "funerary complex" that predates the great disaster of 1985. Closely following the work of Carson, Motel of Mysteries tells of that discovery and its aftermath.Surrounding almost the entire complex was a vast flat area, marked with parallel white lines. In several of the spaces stood freely interpreted metal sculptures of animals. To avoid the misunderstanding that often arises with free interpretation, each sculpture was clearly labeled. They were inscribed with such names as Cougar, Skylark, and Thunderbird, to name but a few. The importance of animal worship in Yank burial customs had never been more clearly illustrated. (40)Motel of Mysteries is insightful and full of wry humor. As Carson and his compatriots excavate the motel, readers can't help but marvel at the lengths to which they must go to fit individual objects into their erroneous interpretation of the site.
I think that it's pretty safe to say that there's never been a novel like Hotel Angeline before. It was written by 36 authors (each writing for two hours) over the course of six days in October 2010. The Novel: Live! made novel-writing a performance art."Nothing's that simple anymore. I just got tossed into this world that I don't agree with, where everything drastically changes in an instant. [...] It feels like thirty-six authors are somewhere writing my life" (126)That kind of self-reflexivity seems absolutely perfect for a novel written like Hotel Angeline. While some transitions between chapters were seamless, others were jarring. It was difficult for me to relate to Alexis because she was portrayed inconsistently enough that she seemed to have some sort of personality disorder (though most of the other characters survived their multiple authorship fairly well1).
disclosure: I received a review copy of Hotel Angeline from Open Road Media via NetGalley.
