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.

The Library Hotel

Ok, I knew about The Library Hotel in NYC (afterall they were sued by OCLC, the owners of the Dewey Decimal Classification system, in 2003), but I never really investigated it. This weekend I saw an episode of Samantha Brown's Travel Channel show, Great Hotels... and, well, suffice it to say that I was drooling. The rooms are wonderful, but it's the common space that makes the hotel stand out.

Of course to book a "petite" room with double bed for one night in July would cost $331.15, which is a bit outside of my price range. Maybe one day...

Because she can

Because she can by Bridie Clark

Because she can opens on an extravagant New York wedding. Book editor Claire Truman is marrying the man of her dreams, Randall Cox, her college crush. Everything is going well until her nightmarish boss, the notorious publishing queen Vivian Grant, shows up in the bridal suite to work on some projects.

The novel then flashes back exactly one year to Claire sulking in her tiny apartment. Fresh from a breakup, she has just found out that her beloved mentor is retiring. When her best friend drags Claire to an opening in hopes of raising her spirits, she reconnects with the fabulously successful Randall Cox. After they hit it off, Randall offers to introduce her to Vivian Grant. Though Grant is the most reviled person in the industry, Claire takes a job at Grant Books to forward her career. When the rumors about Vivian turn out to be more true than she could have imagined, Claire sticks it out in order to see her new friend Luke Mayville's first novel published.

Debut novel from Bridie Clark, who once worked for the infamous Judith Regan, seems to be a blend of fiction and tell-all. One can't help but describe it as a The Devil Wears Prada for the book publishing world. While Because she can is not a cookie-cutter book, the similarities are striking: including a crazy boss and stressful work environment, the need for the protagonist to stay a year in the position, weight loss, and a public scene marking the end of the protagonist's employment.

Claire is a very sympathetic character, more realistic than many chick lit heroines. Her personal struggle is less about her career than it is about coming to terms with the fact that sometimes Mr. Perfect isn't perfect for you. While readers may get impatient with Claire, her eventual self-realization is satisfying.

Read my review of the audio version on Armchair Interviews...

The New Moon's Arms

When checking out one of my review assignments for Armchair Interviews, I stumbled upon this wonderful novel and promptly requested a review copy. There's so much in this book that I had a hard time writing a review within the given parameters. The following is taken from a wordy draft of the review. You can read the full and final review at Armchair Interviews...

The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson

53-year-old Calamity Lambkin's life seems to be coming loose at the seams. Beginning "the change of life" and grappling with the loss of the father that she nursed for the past two years, she is amazed when pieces of her past begin to materialize out of thin air. With the onset of menopause, Calamity seems to have reawakened the "finding" gift she had as a youth. Only now, the lost items come to her – everything from her favorite stuffed animal, which literally falls from the sky landing on her head, to her father’s cashew grove, which appears one evening in the yard of her new home.

Things become even more complicated when Calamity begins to look into her father’s past and when she finds a mysterious 3-year-old boy, who she suspects to be one of the sea people, washed up on the beach. She cares for him like her own son, causing a number of problems with her own grown daughter and young grandson.

A fiercely independent woman, the novel’s protagonist became a single mom at age sixteen. As an adult she eschewed her given name Chastity, for Calamity, a name she insists everyone from the local minister to her own daughter use. A very real character, Calamity is fraught with imperfections: she is honest to a fault, she curses like a sailor, and she’s unknowingly cultivated a hard heart caused by being in love with a man she can never have.

Set in the lush West Indies and imbued with their culture, The New Moon's Arms is a mesmerizing book. Hopkinson deftly handles both the mystery of the sea people and the anomaly of the local Mediterranean monk seals, adding both fantastical and historical elements to the mysteries.