Blazing a Book Trail

L Reads a Classic: She, by H. Rider Haggard

2012-02-22T16:10:00.001-05:00

Oh what great fun this little book is!

Back when I was a kid, my next-oldest brother and I were given an old black and white T.V. from an uncle who’d scrounged it from an apartment building fire. Despite it still smelling somewhat smoky, we were very grateful for the gift. It meant that we could have a T.V. in our bedrooms, at least some of the time, since we both held a 50% interest in it. Oh the joy of having a T.V. to myself, when I had custody of it! Even if it was black & white! It meant that I got to choose what show to watch, not have to fight with several brothers and my parents, many of whom wanted to watch hockey (blech!). Majority ruled in my house. It also didn’t help that I often wanted to watch some girly show that no one else liked lol.

So I fondly remember those nights of T.V. viewing up in my bedroom, while my brothers watched the hockey game downstairs in the living room. Usually I’d end up with some black & white movie on TVO so it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a colour T.V. set. One movie I watched and greatly enjoyed was the adventure movie King Solomon’s Mines from 1950 starring Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr. Later, in the 1980s, Richard Chamberlain took his turn as Allan Quatermain, starring in King Soloman’s Mines and it’s follow up Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, both great cult classics. Little did I know at the time that both movies were based on novels written in the 1880s by a man named H. Rider Haggard until I picked up She, which is on my Victorian Literature course reading list. As soon as I caught the connection, though, I greatly looked forward to reading the novel. And it didn’t disappoint!

L. Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey travel to darkest Africa in search of the lost city of Kor in order to avenge the murder of Leo’s ancestor, Kallikrates. Despite being eaten alive by mosquitoes and watching lions being killed by crocodiles, the two finally meet up with the Amahagger tribe, who, following orders given by She (or She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed), take them to their village. The Amahaggers are a matriarchal society, where the women rule, or so the men let them think. They are governed by She, a supposedly immortal white woman who has lived for over 2000 years and who rules by intimidation and fear. Anyone who disobeys She is instantly put to death. The Amahaggers fear her implicitly. She, whose real name is Ayesha, has been waiting these 2000 years for the return of her lover, Kallikrates, a man she killed because he would not leave his wife for her. Leo, it turns out, is Kallikrates reincarnated, and She vows they will marry and he will be given the secret to infinite life.

Amid lush descriptions of the African landscape and the Amahagger peoples and customs, including their practice of “hot-potting” (they kill strangers by placing a boiling hot pot on their heads and then eat them) is a story that raises many questions about the Empire and the role of women in society. Haggard was a fervent imperialist supporter, yet he presents a picture of an Empire that is not always desirable. Also, women were re-defining their roles in society at the end of the nineteenth century, and so Haggard creates in the character of She a warning to these women that change and progression of women’s rights is not always a good thing. The misogyny alone, expressed in the character of Holly, is enough to make my inner feminist cringe. But She is a fascinating character, one I’m still wrapping my head around. She represents the Empire, both its good and bad characteristics, as well as serving as a warning to young women, and yet, She is so much more. Ultimately, who or what is She? Literary critics are still answering that question.

H. Rider Haggard’s She, is more than just an adventure story, and it’s a darn good read too. I leave you with a film clip from a fun cult classic:

Ursula Andress in She (1965)

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

PS Lily liked the book too lol

“I do things like get in a taxi and say, “The library, and step on it.”

~ David Foster Wallace

L Reads a Classic and Tries (and Probably Fails) Not to Make the Review Sound Like an English Lit Lecture

2012-02-17T12:11:00.001-05:00

The Mill on the Floss is George Elliot’s second book and reportedly her most autobiographical. Elliot, who was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819, used the male pseudonym George Elliot in order to be taken more seriously as a writer. Her first novel, Adam Bede, won critical acclaim until the critics found out it was written by a woman. In the nineteenth century, women were not supposed to be intellectual beings, after all, and widely read Elliot, who spoke and read several languages, and populated her texts with scientific debate, was a conundrum for the critics and reading public.

Along with her novels, George Elliot may be most famous for openly living with a married man. Having met George Henry Lewes in 1851, the pair chose to live together, and called each other husband and wife, despite being unable to marry due to the fact that Lewes could not divorce his wife. Elliot’s decision caused quite the rift between her and her family, and resulted in her brother choosing not to speak to her until many years later when Elliot finally lawfully married John Cross in 1880.

Getting back to The Mill on the Floss, which I mentioned was purported to be very autobiographical, it is a story about a brother and sister, Tom and Maggie Tulliver, and the trials and tribulations of their lives from childhood to adulthood. Maggie is an incredibly smart, well-read young girl who doesn’t quite fit into her society, a society that expects girls to dress prettily, learn to sew and keep house, and be proper young ladies. Her older brother Tom also struggles with his place in society. His father wishes him to receive a gentleman’s education but Tom is not interested in book learning and would rather build animal traps. Both children, however, have little choice but to be molded into their required place in society, despite how against their nature that place is. When Maggie, as an adolescent, begins an innocent, but forbidden friendship with the son of her father’s nemesis, Tom chastises her for it, and forces her to end the dalliance. But it is not until later, when Maggie spends a night away from town with their cousin’s fiancé, does Tom cut all ties with her, refusing to listen to the truth or acknowledge Maggie as his sister, for she has disgraced the family irreparably. Shades of Elliot’s life story, no?

The novel is a superb example of high realism, in that the characters and their lives are fully realized and simply jump of the page, easily coming to life for the reader. Elliot also intersperses the story with interesting commentary on the nature of man, evolution and various other debates engaging Victorian minds of the day: class issues, scientific advances and discoveries, the woman question, etc. Because of this, it is not an easy read. Most people either love or hate Elliot’s books. I, unfortunately, had to read it in a very short period of time as it is required reading in my Victorian Literature course, and so I am of two minds about the book. I think, had I really taken the time to immerse myself in the novel, I would have enjoyed it far more than I did. I generally read from a feminist critical perspective, and Maggie’s tragic story of being forced to choose between duty to her family and duty to herself and never feeling like she could be happy in life is one that truly resonates.

If you’re looking for a meaty piece of fiction to sink your teeth into, definitely give this one a shot. I’ll be looking forward to the summer when I can give it a more slow and thorough going over in order to tease out all the delightful subtleties. That’s just the English Lit geek I am!

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book”

~ Marcel Proust

L Reads a Classic and Tries (and Probably Fails) Not to Make the Review Sound Like an English Lit Lecture

2012-02-17T12:06:00.001-05:00

The Mill on theFloss is George Elliot’s second book and reportedly her mostautobiographical. Elliot, who was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819,used the male pseudonym George Elliot in order to be taken more seriously as awriter. Her first novel, Adam Bede, woncritical acclaim until the critics found out it was written by a woman. In the nineteenth century, women were notsupposed to be intellectual beings, after all, and widely read Elliot, whospoke and read several languages, and populated her texts with scientificdebate, was a conundrum for the critics and reading public.

Along with her novels, George Elliot may be most famousfor openly living with a married man. Having met George Henry Lewes in 1851, the pair chose to live together,and called each other husband and wife, despite being unable to marry due tothe fact that Lewes could not divorce his wife. Elliot’s decision caused quite the rift between her and her family, and resultedin her brother choosing not to speak to her until many years later when Elliotfinally lawfully married John Cross in 1880.

Getting back to TheMill on the Floss, which I mentioned was purported to be veryautobiographical, it is a story about a brother and sister, Tom and MaggieTulliver, and the trials and tribulations of their lives from childhood toadulthood. Maggie is an incrediblysmart, well-read young girl who doesn’t quite fit into her society, a societythat expects girls to dress prettily, learn to sew and keep house, and beproper young ladies. Her older brotherTom also struggles with his place in society. His father wishes him to receive a gentleman’s education but Tom is notinterested in book learning and would rather build animal traps. Both children, however, have little choicebut to be molded into their required place in society, despite how againsttheir nature that place is. When Maggie,as an adolescent, begins an innocent, but forbidden friendship with the son ofher father’s nemesis, Tom chastises her for it, and forces her to end thedalliance. But it is not until later,when Maggie spends a night away from town with their cousin’s fiancé, does Tomcut all ties with her, refusing to listen to the truth or acknowledge Maggie ashis sister, for she has disgraced the family irreparably. Shades of Elliot’s life story, no?

The novel is a superb example of high realism, in thatthe characters and their lives are fully realized and simply jump of the page,easily coming to life for the reader. Elliot also intersperses the story with interesting commentary on thenature of man, evolution and various other debates engaging Victorian minds ofthe day: class issues, scientificadvances and discoveries, the woman question, etc. Because of this, it is not an easy read. Most people either love or hate Elliot’sbooks. I, unfortunately, had to read itin a very short period of time as it is required reading in my VictorianLiterature course, and so I am of two minds about the book. I think, had I really taken the time to immersemyself in the novel, I would have enjoyed it far more than I did. I generally read from a feminist criticalperspective, and Maggie’s tragic story of being forced to choose between dutyto her family and duty to herself and never feeling like she could be happy inlife is one that truly resonates.

If you’re looking for a meaty piece of fiction to sinkyour teeth into, definitely give this one a shot. I’ll be looking forward to the summer when Ican give it a more slow and thorough going over in order to tease out all thedelightful subtleties. That’s just theEnglish Lit geek I am!

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

“There are perhapsno days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favouritebook”

~ Marcel Proust

Windsor Book Club Reads: Water for Elephants

2012-02-14T15:05:00.001-05:00

I am of two minds about this book. On one hand, I really enjoyed it. It’s quite well written and the story is an interesting one that kept me turning the pages, wanting to know what happens next. On the other hand, its setting is a circus in 1931, when animal brutality was rampant. I’m not a fan of the circus novel, and hate reading about animal cruelty. For much of the novel, I found myself alternating between wincing and cringing, taking pauses to hug my sweet puppy**, and wanting to do serious bodily harm to the circus’ animal director (gnash teeth).

The story in a nutshell: Ninety or ninety-three year old Jacob Jankowski is living out his final days in a nursing home when a circus comes to town and sets up the big tent in the parking lot across the street. This sends Jacob down memory lane to 1931, the year his parents died, when the bank took their house, and he jumped a train, suddenly finding himself a part of the Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth. The world of train circus’ and circus life circa 1930s comes vividly to life, with all its unique characters, animals and events. Throw in some romance, a couple of dastardly villains, and some very cute animals and their antics, and it’s a winning formula for a good book. I just wish there wasn’t such a realistic portrayal of how circus animals were treated back then.

Despite my dislike for the circus novel, I do have to give credit for the author’s skill in drawing realistic characters, and bringing history to life. Jacob’s struggle to leave boyhood behind when the tragedy of his parents’ sudden death thrusts him into adulthood, is compounded with his struggles against August, the schizophrenic animal director, who takes much of his anger out on the animals. Jacob, a Cornell trained veterinarian, is caught between helping/protecting the animals, and keeping himself alive, for working men on the circus train who meddle in the business of circus boss Uncle Al or important performers like August, find themselves “redlighted” or thrown off the train, usually when it’s moving. Add to this is Jacob’s growing attraction to and love for the beautiful Marlena, caught in a loveless marriage to August, and often a victim of his rantings, anger, and before long, physical abuse. Jacob must find a way to save her, the animals and himself. No easy feat for young man on the cusp of adulthood who must also contend with a tanking economy at the start of the Great Depression.

Friendship, camaraderie, and love of fellow man and man for beast are woven like silken threads throughout a story that I would probably describe as beautiful set against any other background. The circus thing just tarnished the story too much for me.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

We had a great turnout at the Green Bean Café last night, which provided for some wonderfully diverse discussion of the book. Reviews were mixed, with some liking the book and others not. We were of two minds regarding the main character. Some found Jacob to be weak; not stepping in to stop the abuse of the animals or instance, and others attributed this to his youth and being uncomfortable confronting an authority figure (in the role of August). Also, the grief he was experiencing at the death of his parents must have played a huge role in how he dealt with experiences. It was felt that he grew up in the end, and was able to take on substantial responsibility with the choices he made at the end of the book. It is also worth noting that the book is told in both present day and in the past, through memory. Some of us liked the ninety plus-year-old character of Jacob, and enjoyed his story more than the young Jacob’s experiences in the circus, while for others it was the other way around.

Many of us agreed that the book was well-written, and that the author had clearly done her research and was skillful in bringing history to life in her descriptions of Depression Era circuses. Even if that setting was not everyone’s cup of tea. And while the male characters were well drawn, the character of Marlena was not as fully fleshed out as it should have been, considering she played such a large role in the great romance. Many of us were left wondering what, other than her great beauty, Jacob saw in her to hold his attraction. I understand, from comments made of those who have seen the movie, that her character is given more justice on the silver screen. I look forward to comparing the two when my hold on the DVD at the public library finally comes in.

Regardless how you look at it, this book led to some lively discussion around the table, and for that alone, made it well worth reading.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

** This is why I don’t understand animal cruelty and never will. How could anyone hurt this sweet face?

This is her "if you put down that book, I could lay in your lap and you could pet me" face. lol

Indigo Lakeshore Book Club reads: The Dovekeepers

2012-02-09T10:57:00.001-05:00

This was a disappointing read for me, made more so, I think, because it kept getting truncated by class reading. I’ve never been a huge fan of Alice Hoffman. I find her characters are weird. A couple of years ago I read and reviewed The Ice Queen, and found it a decent read, but odd, with the main character emotionally frozen in ice. But Hoffman is also the author of Practical Magic, a book I also didn’t particularly like, but which was made into one of my all-time favorite chick flicks staring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. It’s a great sisterhood movie and so because of that, Hoffman will always hold a special place in my virtual bookshelf, but when it comes to actually reading her….well…..

In The Dovekeepers, Hoffman attempts to bring to life a major event in Jewish history and write the women’s story. History is rampant with tales of man’s doing, with little emphasis on the lives and deeds of women, so Hoffman’s book is quite ambitious and from a feminist perspective is to be applauded. However, and I think I’ve made my opinion on this clear in the past: authors who set out to deliberately write a tale based on some real-life event, no matter how talented, always, for me, take a great risk. I am a firm believer in the organic style of writing where the story presents itself out of the ether and is naturally birthed rather than forced from some notion that “this” whatever that may be, would make a great story. (and maybe that’s why I’ve never finished a book of my own lol).

The real-life events inspiring The Dovekeepers is the attempt of the Romans to drive the Jews out of Judea, culminating with a massacre at King Herod’s desert stronghold, Masada. At the end of the day, two women and five children survive this war. Their tale is recorded by Josephus, a 1^st century Romano-Jewish historian, and it is this recount of events which Hoffman tries to bring to life with a fictionalized account of the lives of four women trying to survive events beyond their control from 70 – 73 C.E.

Hoffman’s novel is separated into four books, each one told in the first person voice of one of the four women. It begins in 70 C.E. when Yael and her father are driven out of Jerusalem, crossing the desert to find refuge at Masada, where others fleeing the Roman army have created a self-contained community. The following books are stories of three women she meets and forms friendships with at Masada. Each book tells the individual tale of the life of each woman and the atrocities this war has wrought upon their lives and families.

The problem for me in reading this book (and isn’t there always a problem? lol) was that there was no distinct voice between each book. Each woman’s story started to run together as one tale (and perhaps that was Hoffman’s goal, to show that her story is the tale of all women during this time in history, not just these mere four). But with the four distinct stories, I found there to be a fair bit of retelling, as each told her story prior to Masada, but also her daily life and events living in Masada that intersected with the other three women, which became repetitive at times. Hoffman’s writing chops did, however, show themselves in her ability to weave together and intersect the lives of all four women, so that the novel came to a decent conclusion.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

It’s was a small group that met at Indigo Books in Lakeshore last night. Two of us had finished the book and two hadn’t. Spoiler alerts were not needed as the two who hadn’t finished the book had no interest in doing so. Yikes. We were all in agreement that the first book, Yael’s story, was the toughest to get through, and that though the book improved slightly, it really wasn’t escapist reading. If you enjoy reading historical fiction and learning about other cultures, or more about historical events, then this book would probably be your cup of tea. However, if you’re looking for an enjoyable story, to take you away from it all, you might want to give this book a pass.

Highlights of the evening included some beautiful pictures of places mentioned in the book, which K brought to share, and which helped bring the book to life, and made it for me, a somewhat more interesting read. As well, there were some delicious Vanilla Chai Tea samples to partake of, which the lovely Starbucks girl passed around. And that rather says it all, doesn’t it?

Next month we’re reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, an author I’ve not read before, but as the book does look interesting, I’m quite anticipating it. Why don’t you read along with us?

Till next time, happy reading!

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.”

~ Jane Austen, Persuasion

L Reads Alex Cross #10: London Bridges

2012-01-31T14:15:00.001-05:00

In this tenth installment of the Alex Cross series, Cross once again battles the Wolf, the villain of the previous book. In London Bridges, the Wolf turns terrorist and holds several large cities hostage (New York, Washington, London, Tel Aviv and Paris), threatening to blow them up if he doesn’t received a whopping four billion dollar payout and the release of several hostages held in the Middle East.

James Patterson has clearly bought into the war on terror in writing this novel, as the Wolf is seen schmoozing with Al-Qaeda and several Middle Eastern heavyweights while threatening to end of the lives of tens of thousands of Westerners. While the Wolf very blasély blows up bridges and kills those few who can identify him by sight, Cross races against time to find and stop this Russian madman.

Filled with Patterson’s unique brand of red herrings that make no sense and go nowhere, and do nothing but confuse and frustrate the reader, London Bridges was just an okay read. Blame it on the fact that I’m a girl, but I became quite bored by the constant descriptions of weaponry, vehicles and military maneuvers. International terrorism just isn’t my cup of tea.

One more Alex Cross book read, only eight more to go, until Patterson publishes another of course.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

Emma Donoghue's Room

2012-01-25T11:53:00.001-05:00

Emma Donoghue’s Room was getting a lot of blog press last year as well as it won a number of literary awards and was shortlisted for The Governor General’s award 2010 and the Man Booker prize 2010.

I bought into the hype and added it to my to be read list, talked it up to people as a book I really wanted to read, had heard was really good. Well I finally read it over the Christmas break, and it is good. Just not as good as I’d led myself to believe it would be. Room just doesn’t live up to the hype.

Told from the point of view of five year old Jack, we discover he and his mother live in Room, a small shed in the backyard of the man who abducted Jack’s mother seven years earlier. The first third of the book explores the day to day life of Jack and his mother, the weekly schedule of chores they keep, the hour of TV Jack is allowed to watch each day, the books they read over and over and over, and the various Sundaytreats they’ve received in the past and what should be asked for next Sundaytreat. Each night at nine o’clock, Jack must be in bed, in the bottom of the wardrobe because that’s when “he” would visit and Jack would count the creaks of the bed on his fingers, waiting until it was safe to come out and join mommy in bed.

It’s a disturbing life, made more so by the fact that it’s told from such an innocent perspective. Jack knows of no other life. Everything outside Room is either on TV or in Outer Space. He has no concept of the real world and so when his mother devises a plan to escape, a plan in which Jack must be the hero and bring the police to free his mom, he has to learn very quickly that more exists outside Room’s four walls than his mother ever let on.

I guess this is where the plausibility of the book broke down for me. The time line is very brief, between the hatched plot and its execution, all hinging on Jack’s ability to escape from the man and alert the authorities, people he’d only ever known to exist in TV land. While having the story told from Jack’s five-year-old perspective added an interesting twist, there were just some details that when revealed, were hard to take coming from that perspective. I think the book may have worked better if both Jack and his mother’s voice could have been heard. But that said, it’s still a book worth reading.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

Unbearable Lightness – Portia de Rossi

2012-01-20T15:37:00.001-05:00

Portia de Rossi candidly shares her struggle with anorexia and bulimia in this candid memoir. As a young girl growing up in Australia, Portia knew she wanted to be a model. Attending photo shoots and runway shows, the naturally healthy 11-year old was told to lose weight. She was given false measurements to put on her modeling card, then had to “fit” into the sample sizes provided for her fashion jobs. Wanting to help Portia realize her dream, her mother helped out with quick diet advice, sending Portia on a decade and a half long spiral into an unhealthy eating regime that saw her restricting her calorie intake to 300 a day while exercising for hours at a time prior to a photo shoot or audition (once she began acting), to binging on thousands of calories of food at one sitting after her “work” was done. These binges were followed by purging sessions so she wouldn’t gain any weight, and although she landed a job on the hit show Ally MacBeal at a healthy size 8, Portia was convinced no one would accept her as an actress until she could fit into the sample size clothing (usually a size 4) sent to the set.

Portia de Rossi openly describes her crazy thought processes and insane diet and eating plans that kept her losing weight until she was an incredibly unhealthy 88 lbs, but still pinching the stomach fat she saw in the mirror. The secret of her sexuality and her family’s refusal to acknowledge that she was gay fueled a lot of Portia’s inability to love and accept herself, and see herself for the beautiful, healthy woman she was, and it wasn’t until a major health scare that threatened lupus and organ failure, did Portia enter counseling and begin getting help for her disordered eating.

A truly remarkable book, Unbearable Lightness is a must read for just about every woman I know. So many of us struggle with weight and acceptance and trying to fit into the very unnatural and unhealthy Hollywood or fashion industry image of what a woman should look like that we fail to recognize we are already beautiful, and much healthier just as we are, regardless of the number on a scale or clothing tag.

To every woman everywhere who has been brainwashed by fashion magazines and the diet industry into thinking you have to be a size 4, 2, or 0 to be beautiful and accepted, please, please, please!! read this book! Hopefully it will help change the way you think and feel about yourself…for the better.

Till next time, happy reading,

L :)

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

~ Elie Wiesel

Windsor Book Club Reads: Night by Elie Wiesel

2012-01-17T10:17:00.001-05:00

I first read this book a few years ago, when it was making a splash on Oprah’s book club (not that I follow Oprah’s book club, but I was in Chapters with a friend at the time who mentioned this book because everyone was talking about it and well, you know me, talk up a book to me and I’m there!)

Reading it a second time for January’s meeting of the Windsor Book Club didn’t lesson the horror of the novel any. Night is Wiesel’s true story account of his life in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Although he and his family came late to the camps (in 1944, when German soldiers finally made their way to his family’s small village of Sighet in Transylvania), the story is no less harrowing or heartbreaking, and the atrocities experienced by himself, his father and others in the camp no less significant than stories of those who spent the entire war in the camps and survived to tell their tale in order that history would never repeat itself.

From the descriptions of the train journey from Sighet to Auschwitz, cramped together in cattle cars with little food and less water, where many Jews perished, to the daily life in the camps, Wiesel spares few details. What stands out for me, as a modern day reader with no firsthand experience of this time in history, is that Wiesel’s words ring with compassion. It is evident he writes his story because such horror to a people must be recorded and learned from, yet there is no anger in Wiesel for the people who perpetrated this crime. Instead what Wiesel struggles with is faith. He questions a God who would choose to allow this to happen to the “chosen” people. His very faith is shaken to the core, yet when he is finally liberated from the camps, he says:

“Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That’s all we thought about. No thought of revenge, or of parents. Only of bread.

And when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge.”

I am not a religious person. A spiritual person, yes, but I follow no organized religion, but to me, these few sentences from Wiesel are what religion and faith should be about and what Wiesel never fully puts into words, but rings clearly for me: forgiveness. It is this message, I think, that makes the book resonate with so many readers.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

It was a very small, intimate group at last night’s meeting, which made for some great discussion. We all to a one enjoyed reading Night, and for some, learned more about this period in history. When asked what the defining moment in the novel was for us, many talked about the relationship between father and son, and how basic survival outweighed family loyalty and what that must have been like for these sons, who chose life over saving their fathers. There is one rather harrowing scene in the book where

Elie’s sickly father is beaten to death in front of him, calling out to his son the entire time. Unable to go to his father, paralyzed with fear that he may be killed too, Elie remains still and silent, and afterwards feels relief over the death of his father, for the sickly man is no longer a burden to Elie. From our modern day, comfortable viewpoint, it is difficult to imagine being in Elie’s position and making that difficult choice. That utter destruction of man, turning him into a mere beast intent on nothing more than pure animalistic survival, is one of the things that truly make the Holocaust so incredibly horrific.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

Indigo Lakeshore Book Club Reads: The Paris Wife

2012-01-12T14:22:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I needed to join another book club like I need another hole in my head, but I just couldn’t help myself when I saw the list of titles this book club, which meets out at Indigo Books in Lakeshore, have been reading. So here I am, reviewing their January selection, The Paris Wife. And a fine read it was too!

Paula McLain’s debut novel is a fictionalized tale of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage told from the point of view of wife Hadley Richardson, and let me tell you, McLain has done her research! Hemingway was a larger than life literary figure in the early half of the 20^th century, and he simply jumps off the pages of McLain’s book, but Hadley is no less an intriguing character, and together, their love story simply unfolds from page one, right through to the end.

Hadley and Ernest meet in Chicago in 1921. Hadley is eight years Ernest’s senior, but has lived a rather sheltered life, looking after an ailing mother. Ernest, a young, exuberant writer falls for Hadley and convinces her to marry him. Unwilling to spend a lonely spinsterish life living in apartments above her sister’s family, Hadley agrees and together they sail for Paris, where the next few years Ernest hones his writing skills amongst literary greats as Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The two travel to various locales in Europe (Pamplona to the bullfights, which inspires his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, and skiing vacations in the Swiss Alps). It is a carefree time when expatriates can live relatively cheaply abroad, and where artists flock together to feed off each other’s collective genius.

Unfortunately, Ernest is not as carefree as his surroundings. Troubled by his experiences in the Great War, and cursed with literary genius, he relies heavily on Hadley to calm his soul. Unlike the progressive women around her, who wholeheartedly embrace the ideas of first wave feminism, Hadley is content to be a supportive wife to Ernest, keeping his house and propping him up whenever needed. Theirs is a marriage harking back to earlier values, and at odds with the rampant infidelity in their circle of friends. It is not long, however, before the cracks begin to show as Ernest falls under the influence of the company he keeps and Hadley must evaluate what’s most important in life.

McLain writes beautifully of the early stages of Hemingway’s career, and showcases not only a remarkable love affair, but the dissolution of a marriage that under other circumstances could have lasted forever. Hadley may have been Ernest’s rock in a creative tempest, but it is her own journey to find herself that fascinates and makes this more than just another tragic love story.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

I have to say I very pleasantly enjoyed myself with the ladies of Lakeshore last night. They are a very friendly and welcoming bunch and we had a good chat about the book. The book club moderator went above and beyond with setting up a Parisian bistro scene (red-check cloth draped our table, and candles in wine bottles were nicely accented centerpieces) around which we could discuss the art scene in that great city in the 1920s. The only thing missing, upon general consensus, was the absinthe. Ah well, perhaps another time we will raise a tipple to Hemingway and friends. Our discussion was also greatly enhanced by pictures of the people we read about in the book. It was really nice to put a face to such familiar names and enriched our reading experience and discussion.

The group overall liked the book, but didn’t consider it a must read. We all liked the fact that neither of us knew much about Hemingway, and certainly his early life as depicted here, despite having read him in school, so for that alone, the book was worth our time and would be recommended. We felt that none of the people portrayed in the book turned out to be favourite characters, perhaps with the exception of Kitty who plays a small role as Hadley’s friend but who came off as the most genuine, and nicest person in the book.

With our more modern, 21^st century sensibilities and stereotypes of the early part of the last century, we were all to a one shocked at the openness of Gertrude Stein’s homosexual relationship, and the rampant affairs and infidelity practiced by this group of artists in 1920s Paris. We concluded that though societal mores and norms were much more open and different in Europe at that time from North America, the Great War likely played a large part in the behaviour of those who had faced death and survived. The war certainly played a huge role in Hemingway’s own character development and his choices in life.

Of the relationship between Hadley and Ernest it was felt that it was one of convenience on each of their parts with Hadley narrowly avoiding a life of lonely spinsterhood and Ernest getting to live off her inheritance while pursuing his writing. It was suggested that Ernest never loved Hadley, and could never love any woman, being far too concerned with his own interests and desires. Re-reading my review above, which I wrote shortly after reading the book last month, I’m not sure I completely agree that there was no love present in their marriage. Should you, dear reader, read this book, please do let me know what you think.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating – Elisabeth Tova Bailey

2012-01-09T15:10:00.001-05:00

Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s beautiful novel The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is simply a delight to read. Findng herself stricken by an unidentifiable virus which leaves her bedridden for months at a time, Elisabeth’s entire world changes. During one episode of lengthy recuperation, she relocates from her beloved farmhouse to a city apartment. Confined to the living room sofa, her day is brightened by the few visits she receives from friends and a caregiver. Unable to sit, stand or walk and with limited abilities to adjust her position on the sofa, Elisabeth’s days are spent staring at the wall in front of her until one friend brings her a transplanted wild violet and a snail randomly picked up from the forest floor. Unable to read or watch TV due to the debilitating nature of the disease, which cuts her concentration in half and impairs her cognition, Elisabeth finds herself fascinated by the snail and its movements. Before long, her world is condensed to the size of that belonging to the snail as she becomes mesmerized by its activity and life. In the encompassing years between her illness and writing this book, Bailey researches snails and other mollusks, peppering her book with interesting facts about the gastropoda that never fail to impress or enlighten the reader.

This book is fascinating in so many ways. It’s a great resource for snails, yet it also tells the story of Bailey’s life at a time when her quality of life was very poor, but she infuses the book with such an upbeat personality and enthusiasm, you stop thinking about her illness and its restrictions and become immersed in the daily life of a common forest snail, much like Elizabeth did herself. A truly captivating read, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating will have you looking with renewed interest at those amazing little mollusks we share this planet with.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

A Reading Year in Review

2011-12-31T11:19:00.001-05:00

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I had some pretty auspicious reading plans for 2011. I set out to read one of my own books (TBR) for each book borrowed from the public library (WPL), I wanted to read one book of Canadian fiction each month and six Classics (published prior to 1900). Let’s see how well I did:

Goal #1: One TBR for every one WPL book read. The final tally? It’s not good, folks....

TBR = 26

WPL = 38 and counting

The TBRs are sadly trailing by 12 books at year end. I’ll rethink this goal for 2012, let me tell you! :)

Goal #2: Read one book of Canadian fiction each month. Hmm, well unless there are only eight months in a year, I sadly missed the mark on this one too.

Goal #3: Read six Classic novels (published prior to 1900). Well, you’d think with my Victorian Literature course, I’d win this goal hands down, but as I don’t count re-reads, which two of the three novels I read this Fall semester were, I also missed the mark here too, reading only 5 of the 6 novels I’d set out for myself. Sigh.

There is a lesson to be learned here, no? Perhaps don’t set such lofty goals? Or do I set the bar too high for myself? Here is my reading year in review:

2011 started out with such promise as I spent the first days of January reading a bunch of TBRs, but then classes started and didn’t leave me much time for reading, either TBRs or library books. Then I happily discovered the Windsor Book Club, only all of the books they chose were none that I owned. More library books were thusly read. But I didn’t despair, using my summer vacation to read my own books, evening out the score a little bit, but then Fall semester hit, and my personal reading time shrunk to a microcosm and did I happen to mention that book club? And then there was Christmas break, which should have seen me turning to my own books to even out the numbers, but alas, library books beckoned, and so there you have it, WPL wins out. It’s true what they say: the grass truly is greener....and a library book just seems far more appealing than one of my own, which is silly because I could read them at any time, on my own schedule, and not bound by due dates. Perhaps I’m just too goal oriented!

So what does all this mean for 2012? Have I put aside my New Year’s Reading Resolutions? Hell no! Resolutions are meant to be broken after all, and of course, I never could pass up a good challenge. ;) Lying in store for this next year is something a little simpler but no less difficult to accomplish ....

Simpler in that there’s just one goal.

Difficult in that it requires that I read one entire TBR shelf.

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Gulp.

From A to C, in no particular order, are such hurdles as A.S. Byatt, James Fenmore Cooper and Margaret Atwood (who I swore I would never read again, but then, she is CanLit royalty, so really I should give her another go). Thankfully I have the delightful Jane Austen and enjoyable Agatha Christie peppered in the mix. Hopefully I’ll be around this time next year to recap how all this reading went, cause don’t think for one moment I’ll forgo WPLing it (did I mention the book club thing? Oh and there’s that grass is always greener bit, and, oh hell, who needs sleep right?)

LOL

Till next time, what are your reading goals for 2012?

L :)

J. D. Robb: New York to Dallas

2011-12-30T12:39:00.001-05:00

One of the better In Death books to come along in awhile, J.D. Robb is back in full force with New York to Dallas.

Ten years ago, when Dallas was a rookie cop fresh out of the academy, she took down a serial rapist, pedophile Isaac McQueen. Investigating a robbery that went south outside McQueen’s apartment building, Dallas notices what few others who encountered McQueen would likely miss – that there was just something off about this charmer. Having been raped repeatedly by her father as a child, Dallas recognized the monster McQueen truly was.

Now, years later, McQueen has escaped from prison and has one agenda – to take down the cop who took him down.

As luck would have it, or not, McQueen decides to take his brand of crime to Dallas, Texas, kidnapping his last victim from ten years prior, Melinda Jones, and keeping her hostage, taunting Eve Dallas to stop him a second time. Eve must travel to Dallas a city rife with personal history, the city where she finally escaped her father and which still haunts her. Added to this is McQueen’s junkie partner, one Sylvia Prentiss who turns out to have a far too personal connection to Eve and her past.

New York to Dallas is, quite simply, a page-turner, and delightfully returns to the series’ roots, that of discovering more about Eve’s mysterious past. It’s J. D. Robb at her best!

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 26

WPL = 34

Kathryn Stockett’s The Help

2011-12-26T22:08:00.001-05:00

This book has been creating a lot of buzz among readers and bloggers, and for good reason. It’s quite simply one of the better books I’ve read in awhile. Maybe not the best, but definitely up among the top ten.

Set in the early 1960s in Jackson Mississippi, the novel follows the daily lives of three women, two of them black servants.

There is Aibileen, who works for Miss Leefolt, a twenty-three year old budding society girl with a young toddler. Aibileen has spent her domestic career raising white children, and it’s no different in Miss Leefolt’s house as she is more of a mother to Mae Mobbley than Miss Leefolt is.

Then there is Minnie, a smart-mouthed mother of five with an abusive, drunken husband. Minnie has lost more jobs thanks to her sass than she cares to count.

Tying the story neatly together is budding journalist Skeeter who sees the civil rights injustices occurring around her and has the courage to fight back with the help of Aibileen, Minny and many of the other African American servants. Over a period of months, Skeeter chronicles these women’s stories, writing a book that is sure to offend most of Jackson’s upper crust society mavens, but it is a story that must be told.

Stockett herself grew up in Jackson Mississippi, raised by her family’s black maid, and so much of her novel rings true. But Stockett doesn’t just chronicle a dark time in America’s history and its treatment of the African American. No, Stockett’s true gift is in her ability to breathe life into her characters making them as real as you and I. The women’s stories are heartfelt, poignant, filled with terrible injustices as well as uplifting triumphs. These women’s lives are irrevocably intertwined, and much needed lessons are learned on both sides of the racial coin. A truly remarkable book.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 26

WPL = 33

L Reads Alex Cross #9: The Big Bad Wolf

2011-12-21T14:42:00.001-05:00

The ninth installment in the Alex Cross books, The Big Bad Wolf, reminds me why it is I still read James Patterson.

Alex Cross is now working for the FBI. Facing two years of probation and a whole lot of orientation classes, Alex thinks he’ll finally get to spend some quality time with the kids. But Alex is special, so special that he’s immediately pulled into a serial kidnapping case. Well-to-do white women are disappearing at an alarming rate, and white slavery is on the rise. The latest victim, Katherine Connelly, the wife of a judge, pushes this case straight to the top of the pile for the FBI.

Alex is on the hunt for the leader of the kidnapping ring, one nasty Russian, former KGB and now head of the Red Mafyia that goes by the code name: Wolf. This is one seriously bad dude, and is one of Patterson’s better villains. The novel is replete with twists and turns and creditable red herrings, all of which make for a fun rollercoaster of a read.

Not that there isn’t room for improvement, I mean, it is James Patterson. The book started off a little clunky for me, as Katherine Connelly is ingeniously kidnapped by the poorly named villains, The Couple. (eyeroll) Patterson clearly doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking up clever names for his characters. I liken it to the initial start of the rollercoaster ride, you know, that trek up that first incline. About the time we reach the top, the Wolf in all his evil glory has been introduced and oh boy hold on cause here’s where Patterson shines, at least when all the stars align to give us a decent villain and a decent plot.

The kidnapping ring gives Alex something to sink his teeth into, but as he’s jumped from the Washington PD to the FBI, he’s also hogtied by bureaucracy, and not all of the Feebees play nice with our Alex. He is a bit of an upstart, after all, waltzing in and landing a big case without first paying his dues like the other agents had to.

And then there is the obligatory personal crises (or what I like to call filler) for our intrepid cop/psychiatrist/FBI agent. In books past it was little Jannie with a brain tumour, the death of just about every woman Alex hooked up with, the kidnapping of fiancée Christine, even Nana Mama was playing the sick card for a book there. In The Big Bad Wolf, we find Alex entangled in a custody battle with former fiancée over Little Alex, Cross’ toddler son. Whatever helps Patterson reach his required word length, I guess.

But don’t let my cynicism steer you away, this truly is one of the better Cross books I’ve read in quite some time. Here’s hoping I won’t have to wait so long for another as I reach for #10 in the series….

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 26

WPL = 32

Windsor Book Club Reads: Animal Farm

2011-12-12T11:58:00.001-05:00

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George Orwell’s satire on the Russian Revolution, and indeed all revolutions, is a classic that still resonates today. When inebriated Mr. Jones once again forgets to feed the animals and milk the cows, they rise up and stage a revolt, kicking Mr. Jones and his wife off the property of Manor Farm which is quickly renamed Animal Farm.

Led by the pigs, seven commandments are painted on the barn wall, among them such sage rules as:

No animal shall sleep in a bed

No animal shall drink alcohol

No animal shall kill another animal

All animals are equal

Etc.

The animals agree to work as a cooperative, planting and harvesting food to be shared equally by all. Under the tutelage of the pigs (who are the smarter animals of the barnyard) they attempt to learn reading and writing, but not all animals have the capacity for such knowledge, like the sheep who can’t manage to learn the new commandments, so follow the simplified motto “four legs good, two legs bad,” instead. For a while, life improves for the farm animals, and it seems the revolution was a success, until one day the pig Napoleon stages a coup and becomes dictator of Animal Farm. Under the leadership of Napoleon, the animals once more suffer from shortened food rations, neglect and other abuses, making one question the validity of the initial revolution. The animals traded one master, Mr. Jones, for another, Napoleon. Had anything improved?

The novel leads up to a rather brilliant and shocking conclusion and is truly Orwell at his finest.

What my fellow book clubbers that to say: We had a great turnout for this month’s book which sparked some good discussion on both the historical aspects of Animal Farm (Communism and Stalinism) and the state of the world today (we’ve seen recent revolutions in Egypt and Libya, though time will tell if things will improve long-term in those countries or if Orwell’s message is a lesson still to be learned). Most enjoyed the book, though clearly it’s not escapist literature and was perhaps too realistic for some. Others pondered which animal they most identified with, with Boxer and Clover being popular choices for self-reflection. I personally found myself leaning towards Benjamin, the Donkey who bore a very striking resemblance to A.A. Milne’s Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh books. I’m afraid to delve too deeply into what that may mean. The novel also prompted us to discuss the merits of education and freedom of speech, and having access to all sides of a story. We are very lucky, living in Canada, that we are encouraged to develop and use critical thinking skills and be more than just sheep: “four legs good, two legs better!” (has to be one of my favourite lines from the book). A thank you to our intrepid book club leader for the following movie still, highlighting another favourite quote from the book: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” George Orwell, truly a genius!

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Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 26

WPL = 31

L Re-reads a Classic: Mary Barton

2011-12-09T11:42:00.001-05:00

Ever since reading North and South in an English Lit survey course, I have been in love with the writings of Mrs. Gaskell. Many of her novels, set in the industrial north of England, showcase the horrors of the working classes, and speak to the need for employers (those “Captains of Industry” as Carlyle called them) to do everything in their power to improve the living and working conditions of their employees. Her first published novel, Mary Barton, is no different.

John Barton is a working class father who dotes on his family. As the novel opens, he is living in a time of relative prosperity. His wife is pregnant with their third child (a son, Tom, died some years earlier) and his daughter Mary is not yet thirteen. He has steady work in the factories of Manchester, and more than enough food and money to share with those less fortunate then himself.

But as life doesn’t stay static, it is not long before John Barton’s fortune changes. His wife and child die in childbirth, he loses his job, and sinks into a morass of opium induced disparity. Lamenting over the ever widening divide between rich and poor, John Barton makes choices that put himself, his family and his closest friends at terrible risk.

Set in the early 1840’s, Gaskell is one of the first Victorian writers to shine a spotlight on the deplorable conditions of the working classes in Manchester. At this period in England, trade tariffs where destroying the country. Manufacturers could not afford to compete with offshore factories and so many factories turned out its workers, and though the middle classes had to tighten their belts some, the working classes all but starved to death, waiting for tax laws to be repealed and factory jobs to open up again. A working class movement to improve living conditions and get the vote for working class men was afoot. Called Charterists, these delegates of the Trades Unions travelled around the country trying to spark interest in their cause and effect change. They failed, but Gaskell puts her main character, John Barton, firmly in the forefront of this political uprising and uses it as a backdrop of her novel that debates the working class problem.

Finding the middle classes and Parliament unsympathetic to their cause, the Charterists in Gaskell’s novel take a drastic approach to punishing those who, in their opinion, have caused their strife. A murder plot is hatched and lots are drawn, and poor John Barton, who would rather give his last mouthful to a hungry child and starve himself, than see another suffer, is charged with the murder of a factory owners son.

The murder plot is a rather drastic way to finally wake up the middle classes to see the working class side of things, which Gaskell finally allows to happen near the end of the novel. But before we can get there, she diverts her readers with a romantic plot. Young Mary Barton has grown into a beautiful woman who has caught the eye of two very different suitors – Henry Carson, the ill-fated son of a factory owner, and Jem Wilson, the son of her father’s best friend. When Henry is murdered, Jem is charged with the crime, and Mary, knowing her father to be the guilty one, must find a way to save both men from the gallows.

Both plots seem a bit incongruous, but Gaskell does a fine job of weaving the threads of the plot back together in the final chapters. But though her solution to the problem of the working classes was not a popular one (she, like Carlyle, promoted emigration), her abilities to show the living conditions of the working classes were very much appreciated.

I first read Mary Barton one summer shortly after my survey course, but did not overly enjoy it, most likely because I didn’t have the historical background knowledge that infuses this book, and which makes it such a rich read. Having a greater understanding of the plight of the working classes and the Chartist movement, my second reading of this book was so much better that I enthusiastically recommend it.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 26

WPL = 30

L Reads Alex Cross #8: Four Blind Mice

2011-11-29T16:48:00.001-05:00

When last we saw Alex Cross he was vowing to leave his job as a cop, and it left me wondering what direction these books would take from here on out. I should have known it’s never that cut and dried in a Cross book; the character is far too wimpy and wishy washy to stick to a decision. So, here we are with Four Blind Mice, where Alex agrees to take on one last case, at the request of best bud John Sampson whose old army buddy has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Unfortunately for our hero, although he manages to stop the bad guys in the end, he doesn’t do it in time to save Sampson’s friend. Cue the violins. Just one more death on Cross’ conscience.

Here’s the premise:

Three army Rangers are on a killing spree in the U.S. and framing a number of active and retired army personnel. Soldiers who’ve fought for the freedoms the USA stands for. It’s timely reading, considering I’m writing this review on Remembrance Day. As Cross digs into the murders and tracks down the killers, he connects them back to An Lao Valley in Vietnam, where killers and those they’re framing for murder not only fought together but committed some pretty nasty war crimes too. Hence the modern day killing spree – just one big cover up. Here, though, is where I disconnect from the story. Vietnam? Really? Four Blind Mice was published in 2002, thirty-plus years after ‘Nam. So much has gone on, military-wise since, that Patterson has his pick of wars to write about. I mean, there was the Gulf War in the ‘90s, the current Afghanistan/Iraq clusterfuck, the terrorist attacks on US soil (which he does give a nod too – Alex Cross looks up at a jet flying overhead and wonders if he’ll ever feel easy again seeing those planes flying by). Instead, Patterson chooses to write about men who fought in ‘Nam, describing them like they’re in their thirties or forties, when really, they’d be quite a bit older than that by now. It just doesn’t jive for me.

I remember reading a ton of Harlequins back in the ‘80s when the wounded ‘Nam veteran was a hugely popular hero. I guess I’m a little surprised to find ‘Nam playing out so prevalently in a 21^st Century novel; it seriously dates Patterson as an author in my opinion.

Anyway, I’ll quit gripping now and just say this wasn’t the best Alex Cross book I’ve read. But hope springs eternal, so maybe the ninth book is the charm.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 25

WPL = 30

Windsor Book Club Reads: Left Neglected

2011-11-15T11:23:00.001-05:00

Sarah Nickerson is a busy wife, mother of three and high-powered business woman on the fast track to financial success. A graduate of Harvard Business School, she and husband Bob live in affluent Welmont, a suburb just outside Boston, and both are barreling down the rat-race track, when Sarah’s life is irrevocably changed by a car accident that’s leaves her with a brain injury.

Suffering from Left Neglect, a brain injury whereby Sarah cannot recognize her left side, she must relearn to walk, read, and force her brain to remember the existence of the left side of her body.

The injury irrevocably changes Sarah, her family and her life. She must re-evaluate what is important in this life, like family and health, and make some major changes in her work and home life.

This is the second book by Lisa Genova and is a heartwarming read about the human capacity to overcome tragedy and triumph; written with great insight, compassion and laced with a fair dose of humour to keep it all in perspective. Simply a lovely read.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say: This book sparked some really good discussion. We had fun talking about gender roles and how women are still expected to be supermoms. We acknowledged the book serves as a good reminder to stop and smell the roses, to live in the slower lane, and appreciate what you have, rather than working all the time to acquire more stuff. And we debated on the merits of rural or small town living verses the big city for raising kids and spending quality time as family. The overall consensus was that the book was quite good, though very light reading, and the only real criticism was that there could have been more character development throughout the book, and that it was difficult at times to identify with Sarah and her lifestyle, but other than that, it was quite a good read, really.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 25

WPL = 29

L Finally Finishes August’s CanLit

2011-11-07T12:38:00.001-05:00

Jane Urguhart’s dense little novel The Stone Carvers really took a beating from me these past months. As the title of this blog post suggests, I had intended it to be my August CanLit selection, but then my book club picked The Historian for its September read (a tome of 700+ pages) and I started back to school with an upper year English Lit course to read for. Poor Urquhart just kept getting shunted aside.

I think had I the time to sit and read just this novel, I would have enjoyed it more. As said above, it’s quite dense, with a lot going on and a lot of switches between place, time and character. Picking it up and putting it down repeatedly did not help my following the story any, and so often after weeks of reading something else, I would return to this book, utterly lost as the next chapter dealt with an entirely different character, setting or situation then when last I had read it.

Not that there aren’t threads that weave between and tie things all together in a nice little package. There are, but the novel’s continuity is in very broad strokes, while Urquhart’s writing is often far more minute.

This is a multi-generational story, much of which is set in Shoneval, a community in Southern Ontario. The novel opens with Father Gstir emigrating from Bavaria to form a church in the middle of a forest, which later becomes the community of Shoneval. His zealotry is inspiring, and local carver Joseph Becker is enlisted to help build the church. More than half a century later, his descendants still reside in Shoneval and carve figures for the church.

The story continues from there to chronicle the life of Klara, Joseph’s granddaughter who has his skill, but is unfortunately female. Her brother Tilman rejects the family legacy, becomes a hobo and is absent for much of Klara’s life.

When first introduced to Klara, we learn she is a spinster, working as a tailor and carver, living alone on the family farm. Her story is a tragic tale of love lost – her fiancé, Eamon, fought and died in the Great War. From the loss of Eamon, Tilman and her father and grandfather, Klara turns inward, becoming as frozen in time and existence as the statues she carves. It isn’t until Tilman returns and she learns of a great war memorial being constructed at Vimy Ridge, does Klara experience a resurgence of desire and purpose in life. She and Tilman travel to France to work on the structure and both finally find purpose and fulfillment.

An interesting read, that again, I wish I’d had the proper time and attention for. I quite look forward to reading more by Urquhart as I suspect her novels are gems waiting to be discovered.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 25

WPL = 28

L Re-reads a Classic: Jane Eyre

2011-10-26T14:14:00.001-04:00

There is no better film adaptation and no better Mr. Rochester, in my opinion, than the 1997 Samantha Morton, Ciaran Hinds TV version of Jane Eyre. But then I’m rather partial to Hinds. He does a wonderful Captain Wentworth in Persuasion (1995). Sigh. And as Mr. Rochester, he is delightfully surly, filled with pathos and burning desire for Jane. Double sigh.

As the second novel in my Victorian Literature course I had the pleasure of re-reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, though I write this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, for although I love the Hinds movie version, and I love the parts of the book, much of it has always wondered off into too much Christian mumble jumble for me to truly love it. It was with much hope then that with a close re-reading of the novel I would find a new appreciation for the book. I did and I didn’t.

I still found moments in the book far too preachy for my tastes. Little orphan Helen Burns is just too filled with goody two-shoeness at the beginning of the novel, and St. Johns Rivers is too much the religious zealot, and all the Christian hyperbole and rhetoric just makes me yawn and roll my eyes. But despite all this, there is something in the romance of Jane and Mr. Rochester that brings me back for more, time and time again.

For those of you who don’t know the tale (and honestly, have you been living under a rock?!), we are introduced to our intrepid heroine, Jane Eyre, at the age of ten, living penniless and parentless on the spurious charity of her uncle’s widow, Mrs. Reed, who turns out to be no fit mother to little orphan Jane. The moment Mrs. Reed can farm out poor Jane to Lowood Institution, she does and there Jane spends the next eight years (six as a pupil, two as teacher). Lowood, by the way, is one horrible, nasty place where the food, what little there is, is burnt more often than not, and the ill-clothed girls, when not at their studies from morning to night, are tramping miles in the frigid weather to Sunday services. I jest not, though the old joke’s punch line “uphill both ways” resounds in my head.

At Lowood Jane meets fellow orphan Helen Burns who is far too good and angelic for this world and soon dies of consumption. It is also at Lowood where Jane encounters the antithesis of Mrs. Reed in Miss Temple, a much gentler and kinder mother-figure who abandons Jane for marriage to a clergyman less worthy of such an esteemed woman, at least in Jane’s opinion. This abandonment unearths the wandering spirit long suppressed in Jane, and she advertises herself out as a governess. The only reply is from a Mrs. Fairfax at Thornfield Hall.

Ah Thornfield, home of the troubled Mr. Rochester. We soon learn that little Adele, who Jane is hired as a governess for, is the daughter of his former mistress, because Mr. Rochester lived a life of unhappy dissipation for many years. The why of which is eventually revealed in the form of a mad wife locked away in the attic. Of course, Mr. Rochester falls in love with Jane, but their marriage is thwarted by wife #1.

The mad wife and her antics gives us a nice gothic twist to this tale, with bumps in the night, mad laughter echoing from behind closed doors, and so forth. Delicious!

Broken-hearted Jane flees Thornfield and falls upon the mercy and charity of the Rivers family, clergyman St. John and his two sisters Diana and Mary. This is the part of the book that is most boring for me, because I just want to see the lovers united. But the reader’s forbearance is rewarded, as is Jane’s goodness when she receives an unexpected inheritance from a long lost uncle leaving her a woman of independent means, and she returns to Thornfield to find out whatever happened to that guy, Mr. Rochester. Cue the violins and pass the Kleenex, because the lovers are about to discover they are both finally free and socially equal enough as to join hands in holy matrimony and live happily ever after.

Very big, satisfying sigh for all is once again right with the world, which calls for a pot of tea in celebration, so…

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 24

WPL = 28

L Reads a Classic: Oliver Twist

2011-10-21T16:07:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time, in the ninth grade, I was handed a thick little book with an unprepossessing yellow cover. It was the first book assigned for reading in English class that year, and I opened it with great expectation as I was an avid reader as a child and never considered school books a chore to get through. This novel was by an author I had never read before, a classic novel about a boy named Pip growing up on the English moors and a dusty old broad who lived in her wedding dress and zzzzzzz.

Yup, the book was Great Expectations and it was a total snoozefest for a 14-year-old me. I might not have done so great in English class that year, but I slept well. Of course, it put me off Dickens for over a decade until I finally sat down and read A Christmas Carol one year. My favourite movie version is the Alistair Sims black and white one from 1951. I watch it every Christmas, so decided it was high time to read the book from whence it comes. I loved the book so much I figured I should give Dickens another try…but I’m chicken you see. Just didn’t want to be sucked into another bad read. This year, however, I’m studying Victorian Literature at the U, with Oliver Twist on the reading list. No opportunity to avoid Dickens now, thankfully, because much to my surprise, I quite enjoyed it. I believe I’ll have to tackle Great Expectations again one day soon. Who knows? From my advanced years of maturity J I just might find I like it after all.

Back to Oliver Twist, this is Dickens’ first fully realized novel (his previous publication was the Pickwick Papers consisting of serialized sketches of loosely-related adventures that were suggested to him to write. Oliver Twist on the other hand is directly out of his own head) and was first published in serial form. Being an early novel of a young writer, it has its numerous flaws, and yet the trials and tribulations of poor, orphaned Oliver (“Please sir, I want some more”) are quite griping. Born of an unwed mother, raised in the workhouse and tossed upon the streets of London to fall victim to pickpockets (like the Artful Dodger) and other unsavoury characters, Oliver manages to retain his inherent goodness and is suitably rewarded in the end.

What I love about this and other classic novels is how they’re woven into the framework of our modern day existence. Who hasn’t heard of the Artful Dodger? Little perhaps did you know he found poor Ollie starving on the streets of London and took him home to become yet one more of Fagin’s boys. Of course there is also the iconic “please sir can I have some more?” from the movies, which is actually “I want some more,” an incredibly important distinction in the earlier Victorian period when man’s spiritual being was being ignored for the benefit of mechanism (it was the industrial age, after all). I joke about this phrase, since it was in my head from the moment I picked up the book, only to discover it happens in the second chapter, probably about as far as most people get when reading Dickens haha. But truly, the novel has much to offer in the way of suspense. It is a story that takes many twists and turns and comes to a rather satisfying end, and as I’ve already mentioned, I very much enjoyed the reading of it.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 23

WPL = 28

Windsor Book Club Reads: The Historian

2011-10-12T16:27:00.001-04:00

What a great book for Halloween month!

I LOVED this book and very highly recommend you read it. Run, don’t walk to your library or local bookstore and pick up a copy. Right now. It’s okay, I’ll wait.

(Jeapardy theme)

Back? Okay, without too many spoilers, here’s why you should read it and will love it as much as I did:

It’s effin’ awesome, man!!!

No, seriously.

From the very first sentence on the very first page I was gripped by the story and it didn’t shake me loose until the final word on the final page, and I am left gasping for more. The book is written from the viewpoint of an unnamed female narrator, a young woman of 18 who finds a book in her historian father’s library and is told a remarkable and at times unbelievable story. At first, while traveling throughout Europe with her father, the young girl listens to her father’s tale about his university days where he is mysteriously given a rare book, a book whose blank parchment pages encase a disturbing woodcut at its very centre, an image of a dragon with looped tail that has evil ramifications. Upon showing this book to his advisor (Prof. Rossi), he learns his is not the only book in existence. Paul (the father) sits enthralled while his advisor tells him a strange and at times wildly unbelievable tale of finding a similar book and beginning to research the history of the Dracula myth and the man who started it all, Vlad III, or Vlad Tepes, or Vlad Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, whichever title you prefer to know him by. At the end of the tale, Paul is given a packet of letters and maps detailing his advisor’s research. Saying goodnight, Paul leaves and while walking along the sidewalk outside his advisor’s office, he senses some oddity in the atmosphere, but dismisses it. The next morning, his advisor has disappeared, leaving behind a pool of blood, a missing dragon book, and many, many unanswered questions.

On the hunt for those answers, Paul follows in Prof. Rossi’s footsteps, continuing his research in the hopes of locating his beloved friend. He soon meets fellow grad student Helen, who turns out to be Rossi’s daughter from a brief affair in Romania and the two work in tandem to unravel this mystery, traveling to wonderfully remote locales in Cold War Europe, places like Budapest, Istanbul, Romania, and Bulgaria, all on the trail of a man who lived in the 15^th century and who they fear may still be alive these many centuries later for all of their research leads to the belief that vampires still exist today and the greatest one of them all, Vlad himself, is somewhere in Europe.

It is a remarkable story for this young girl to hear, and more remarkable yet when the tale barely begun, her father disappears himself, leaving behind a packet of letters for his daughter, further explaining his past and her parentage and laying the groundwork for her own research into the legend of Vlad Dracula in the hopes of finding her beloved father.

A beautifully written book in near complete epistolary form, the tale unfolds before you, the reader, as if you were that unnamed 18 year old girl, listening to this most amazing story. The historical and geographic descriptions are breathtaking and you can imagine yourself walking beside Paul, experiencing his discoveries and travels first-hand. And throughout it all is the mystery: what happened to Prof. Rossi? What has happened to Paul? And the young girl, who upon first reading about her father’s encounter with Helen Rossi gasps “Helen, that was my mother’s name….” And so the mystery thickens: is Helen her mother? What has happened to her? For she has been raised by only her father and a housekeeper most of her life. Dun dun da.

This brief synopsis barely does justice to the intricacies and plot twists contained in this powerhouse of a novel, all of which is handled by a master of the written word. Elizabeth Kostova truly has an amazing talent as both a writer and more importantly a storyteller. She captures the nuance of the oral tradition of storytelling perfectly in her use of letters to tell her tale for you, the reader, are given the impression Paul is speaking directly to you, and not that you are merely reading a bunch of dusty old letters. Truly remarkable! (I know I’ve used that word a lot, but I can’t help gushing, I loved this book so much!) Quite frankly I am enamored of Ms Kostova and can’t wait to read her second book, The Swan Thieves as I trust it will be just as captivating as The Historian was.

Read it. Do.

Now, turning to what my fellow book clubbers had to say: Reviews were mixed on this book. Some loved it as I did, others hated it and didn’t bother to finish reading it. Reasons for the dislike? There was simply no character development in the novel and readers could not get into or like any of the characters. Lacking an emotional connection made for some pretty dry reading. Others disliked the vampirism and occult subject matter, either for religious reasons or that such tales just were not their cup of tea. Many readers did enjoy the historical detail of the novel, and the references to actual persons (like Vlad), places (like Saint Matthieu’s Monastery in France) and events (like the clashes between Christians and Muslims during the days of the Ottoman Empire). Kostova clearly did her homework and enriched her tale accordingly.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 22

WPL = 28

L Reads Alex Cross #7: Violets Are Blue

2011-10-06T14:11:00.001-04:00

Poor Alex Cross, he just can never catch a break. Following on the heels of Roses are Red, which introduced The Mastermind, a particularly vicious psychopathic serial killer, Violets are Blue opens with the villain hot on Cross’ tale, out to destroy Cross and everything he holds dear.

In the midst of dodging The Mastermind’s disturbing phone calls, and trying to keep family and friends safe, Cross must uncover the murderers behind a series of gruesome and chilling vampire murders that span both East and West coasts and a dozen years.

Added to all this is the conclusion Cross eventually reaches of The Mastermind being a close, dear and trusted friend and co-worker. Betrayal is but one emotion Cross must overcome.

In typical Patterson style, the book jumps from plot to plot, mixing in a bunch of memories of characters, criminals and crimes from the previous six books. I think I’m finally getting the essence of these novels, in that they’re meant to be Cross’ memoirs of the cases he’s worked, and so they read a little bit like the meanderings of the mind, jumping from subject to subject … or perhaps that’s too deep an analysis of what are nothing more than poorly written books. I hope for better when I read an Alex Cross, and so I search long and hard for it amongst the cheesiness of Patterson’s phraseology.

Violets are Blue was, for me, the worst Cross book yet. It was a boring read, one I struggled to get through. The crimes and criminals lacked the usual thrill-ride I associate with the Cross books, making lackluster writing even more difficult to stomach. The book does end however with Cross’ decision to finally give up police work. Will he? Won’t he? What will the next book be about if Cross is no longer a detective? It’s this kind of investment I now have in the character that will keep me reading, mores the pity.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 22

WPL = 27

Windsor Book Club Reads: The Hunger Games

2011-10-03T12:25:00.001-04:00

Okay, so there has been a lot of buzz about this book, the first of a trilogy set in a dystopian future where North America ceases to exist and people now live in a country called Panem that is divided up between the Capital (a glittering city where the rulers of Panem live along with the haves) and twelve districts populated by the have nots, with poverty increasing along with the district number. The general consensus seems to be that you either love or hate this book. While it did start off extremely slowly for me (I’m getting a little tired of the dystopian future currently being portrayed in YA books and animated movies), by the second half of the novel, I was so caught up in the story it was very difficult to put down.

Initially we are introduced to 17-year old Katniss who lives in the Seam in District Twelve with her mother and younger sister, Prim. Her father having died in a mine explosion five years ago, Katniss is left with the responsibility of feeding the family as her mother sank into a pit of abject grief, unable to look after her daughters.

District Twelve is one of the poorest districts, and so Katniss must sneak off to the woods everyday to hunt and forage for food, an activity that is punishable by death, but since there is very little food to go around and Katniss is able to trade her daily catch with the Peacekeepers of the District, her illegal actions are overlooked.

There are hints of George Orwell’s 1984 and other books of that ilk in The Hunger Games, in that the citizens are monitored on a regular basis and must always guard their speech for subversive thought and behaviour is quickly stamped out with death. Indeed, Katniss explains a district uprising or rebellion resulted in an entire district (thirteen) being irradiated, resulting in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death competition where the Capital pits two tributes (a boy and a girl) from each district against each other. The victor returns home to great fame and fortune, including the ability to feed their families for a lifetime. These Games are the Capital’s way of keeping the districts obedient and submissive.

Katniss, of course, is District Twelve’s female tribute, and once she reaches the Capital and the games arena, this book really takes off. Its fast-paced action and compelling characters kept me turning the pages right up to the very end, and left me hungry for the second book in the series, which I promptly placed on hold at the public library. The Hunger Games is an excellent YA novel that will appeal to adults as well as teenagers.

What my fellow bookclubbers thought: It was unanimous this time, everyone loved the book, though some thought Katniss left a lot to be desired as a main character, being rather deeply flawed. But sometimes those are the best characters to read about, particularly if they’re given a decent arc and grow and change significantly. We’ll have to see how the rest of the trilogy plays out to see if she is redeemable or not.

The subject of kids killing kids really hung up some readers, but considering the escalating violence on the street between teenage gangs and even in urban high schools, Collins’ plot wasn’t too unrealistic to consider. Still rather disturbing though.

All in all it was deemed The Hunger Games was a pretty decent read.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 22

WPL = 26

She May Not Leave

2011-09-29T14:03:00.001-04:00

New mom Hattie feels confined by her role of stay-at-home mom to newborn Kitty and advises partner Martin she is hiring an au pair and going back to work posthaste. On the recommendation of a co-worker, Hattie hires Agnieszka Wyszynska, a Polish nanny working in England, sight unseen. When Agnieszka arrives, she quickly whips baby Kitty and the household into shape, leaving Hattie and Martin to wonder what they ever did without her. But as the cover blurb says…”be careful who you invite into your home” for Agnieszka is nothing like she seems and Hattie and Martin’s relationship pays the ultimate price.

The story is narrated by Hattie’s grandmother Frances who dips down memory lane on several occasions and discloses many family secrets along with her own brushes with various nannies and au pairs. Frances’ matter-of-fact storytelling gives much depth and shape to this intriguing domestic story that has wonderfully gothic overtones, making it a delightfully British read.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 22

WPL = 25

A Little Restoration Drama Never Hurt No One

2011-09-21T13:25:00.001-04:00

After reading Aphra Behn’s Ooronoko in an 18^th Century Literature course, and learning about her fame in Restoration drama, I quickly snapped up a copy of The Rover during a visit to Juniper Books on Ottawa Street. Behn was apparently a prolific and popular playwright during the later 1600s and had quite an interesting life for a woman of those times. She was a spy, was briefly married (widowed after less than a year), took many lovers and apparently suffered unrequited love of a gay actor. Her plays are often bawdy in nature, not unlike Shakespeare’s of a century prior.

In The Rover, a comedy, three virtuous sisters intrigue behind their overbearing brother’s back to meet suitors and marry for love under the cover of masqueraders performing in the city. The usual mistaken identities, double entendres, sword fights, etc., ensue, making for a rousing play. I quite enjoyed a reading of it, and would love to see it staged. Could you imagine the costumes? Delightful!

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 21

WPL = 25

L Spends Some Time with a Beatle

2011-09-16T10:54:00.001-04:00

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird fly, blackbird fly

Into the light of a dark black night”

Blackbird Singing: Paul McCartney Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999 was a real find for me at this year’s Raise a Reader book sale. I spent a pleasant afternoon humming Beatles’ tunes as I sang through the lyrics published in this collection, as well as enjoying some of Sir McCartney’s poetic stylings. From the call to keep pushing for change because change happens, if slowly, to the lament for deceased wife Linda, to short quirky poems like the one about Tchaikovsky who he labels “Tchaiko the psycho” heehee, the collection is quintessentially Paul.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 20

WPL = 25

The Secret Lives of the Sushi Club

2011-09-12T14:15:00.001-04:00

Sushi! Yummy!

This book was a bit of a clunker for me. Christy York sets out to write a book about Idaho and well that kind of motivation always frightens me. I’m a firm believer in organic writing, in that you should write about what ideas are coming out of the ether as opposed to having an agenda and forcing a story. Anywho….

The four women friends of the sushi club meet monthly for sushi and gossip, sharing of themselves and their lives and supporting each others endeavors:

Irene is an aging soap opera star, married to plastic surgeon Naji with an Islamic extremist brother who has never approved of Irene.

Mary is a 40-year-old virgin who’s just never found the right man and isn’t willing to settle for second best.

Jina is a twice married single mother who lost her second husband in a tragic accident on the Salmon River in Idaho. Zach had the brilliant idea to traverse the river in a scow, like in olden days with his pregnant and unskilled bride. Tragedy, quite obviously ensued. Problem is, Jina has raised their son Daniel on her own and never recovered from the loss of Zach.

Alice is the struggling writer who listens to everyone’s story then one day has the bright idea to write a book entitled The Secret Lives of the Sushi Club exposing Irene’s adulterous affairs, Mary’s frigid singlehood, and Jina’s tragedy that has left her frozen in time, and is ruining any chance at happiness with her current boyfriend, Mike.

The book is an instant hit, complete with movie deal, rocketing Alice to instant success but the three women whose stories are so brutally exposed are left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. They decide to take a rafting trip on the Salmon River and the close confines, not to mention the struggles of the trip, help the women put their lives and friendship back together.

Some interesting plot twists with Jina and Zach help make the trip and story bearable, but though Mary, Irene and Alice have problems to battle the book is predominantly told from Jina’s point of view and the focus Is very much Jina’s battle with the Salmon River, the river that took Zach’s life, and her struggle to overcome her fears. It’s not a bad read, I just found the book a little contrived at times. Unfortunately the highlight of the book was picking one more off my TBR bookcase (ouch).

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 19

WPL = 25

L Boosts Her TBR Stats With Some J.D. Robb Anthologies

2011-09-02T14:53:00.001-04:00

I have recently entered renovation hell. I live in a rowhouse and could no longer stand hearing noise filtering through from the neighbours’, most notably low-frequency bass, which I swear is enough to turn me into Grendel’s mother, on a bad day, not when she’s trying to lure unsuspecting Beowolf into her lair!

But in order to soundproof the common wall, I had to pack up my many belongings, truck them down to the basement, and stack and plastic wrap my furniture out of the contractors’ way. This included my many, many, many books. One good thing to come out of this, though, while pulling out enough TBR’s to last me a few months, I came across two older anthologies containing J.D. Robb stories from the In Death series featuring Eve Dallas and Roarke. The perfect quick and easy light reading when all else around you is total chaos.

I shamefully admit I willingly buy these anthologies in order to have a complete set of J.D. Robb titles, but never read the other stories in them. Well, maybe someday. For now, here’s what’s been happening with Eve and Roarke:

In Ritual in Death, the story contained within Suite 606, which I think may have purposefully been released around Halloween, Eve must find the people who viciously murdered Ava Marsterson during a Satanic ritual in Suite 606 (so close to 666, get it?) of one of Roarke’s posh hotels. As you can imagine, the fact that Roarke’s people and property have been targeted doesn’t sit well with the billionaire and sparks fly between husband and wife as each pursue differing angels to catch the killers. A very fun Eve and Roarke story to say the least! Micro J.D. Robb always tides one over while waiting for the next book in the series to be published.

While touristing on the Staten Island ferry with her family, Carolee Grogan visits the ladies and disappears, leaving nothing behind but a whole lot of blood – that belongs to another female victim. Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD must figure out how Carolee disappeared and who the owner of all that blood is. With nearly 4000 passengers and no way off the ferry, people don’t just disappear, yet somehow a killer managed to spirit himself, the body and Carolee Grogan, the only witness from the scene of the crime.

A pretty decent Eve Dallas story, though not as riveting or as well plotted out as Ritual in Death, still, Missing in Death is a pleasurable read on a hot summer’s day.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 18

WPL = 25

L Reads a Classic: Voltaire’s Candide

2011-08-31T14:09:00.001-04:00

Candide satirizes the philosophy of optimism that states “all is for the best.” When Candide is kicked out of his home for presuming to fall in love with the Baron’s daughter and travels the world suffering one misfortune after another, he struggles with his philosopher’s teachings that “all is for the best”. How can wars and earthquakes be for the best? How is suffering for the best?

Poor, innocent Candide travels from Europe to the Americas and back gaining and losing wealth, dining with kings one moment, thrown into prison the next, escaping certain death everywhere misfortune takes him, until he finally learns life’s greatest lesson, that happiness is brought not by wealth or kingdoms, but rather the man who lives an honest, hardworking life enjoys riches far beyond measure. Man was born to work, not to rest, therein life is made bearable. “We must cultivate our garden.”

Voltaire’s classic satire is a delight to read, resonating in humour and life lessons 250 years after it was written.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 16

WPL = 25

L Reads Alex Cross #6: Roses are Red

2011-08-29T14:09:00.003-04:00

Six books into the Alex Cross series and things are not improving. Cross is as whiny as ever and I’m seriously getting tired of his voice. More, it’s been ages since I saw the movie versions of the first two books and therefore I no longer hear Morgan Freeman’s voice in my head when reading Alex Cross, which is a shame, as it gave some cache to the character. I mean let’s face it Morgan Freeman could make even dirt sound interesting, if dirt suddenly started talking. Without Freeman’s dulcet tones, Cross just ends up sounding wimpy, whiny, and weak. How’s that for alliteration? J

In Roses are Red, James Patterson gives us another great villain in The Mastermind, a bank robber turned murderer who has Cross and the FBI running in circles trying to catch him. It’s a great little mystery, and is patented Patterson, the stuff that keeps me reading. The problem for me with these books is that I don’t find Cross all that likeable anymore. He can never seem to get his life in order and stumbles from relationship to relationship while dealing with one orchestrated family drama after another. This time, his little girl Jannie develops a non-cancerous brain tumor while fiancée Christine can’t overcome the kidnapping incident and is hightailing it out of his life pronto. Good thing Special Agent Betsy Cavallierre of the FBI is waiting in the wings…. Yeah, okay, whatever. Can we get back to The Mastermind now? He’s far more interesting.

Too bad Patterson doesn’t focus his attention on the crimes and villains of these books as much as he does Cross. The novels would be so much better.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 15

WPL = 25

L Reads Alex Cross #6: Roses are Red

2011-08-29T14:09:00.001-04:00

Too bad Patterson doesn’t focus his attention on the crimes and villains of these books as much as he does Cross. The novels would be so much better.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 15

WPL = 25

Windsor Book Club Reads: A Reliable Wife

2011-08-23T14:07:00.001-04:00

OMG. As I was reading this book, I kept wanting to turn to the back cover, to the author’s photo,

and yell “you’re a dirty old man!” I’m certainly no prude, but the characters in Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife were just a tad too preoccupied with sex, particularly the sex they aren’t getting and that everyone else supposedly is.

Warning, this review contains some serious spoilers. I’ve been lavish with the spoilers only because I don’t think the book is worth reading, and thus this review will save you several hours of your life that I myself will never get back. Indeed this book has reminded me just what it is I always disliked about book clubs: reading selection.

Wealthy tycoon Ralph Truitt has advertised for a wife. It is winter of 1907 when the novel opens and Truitt is standing on a cold train station platform awaiting his “honest, reliable” wife-to-be, Catherine Land. When she arrives, Catherine in no way resembles the picture enclosed in their exchange of letters. And so it begins. Both Ralph and Catherine have pasts they desperately want to forget. Orphaned at a young age, Catherine turned to the oldest known profession to survive. She has come to Truitt, Wisconsin to marry the town patriarch with one goal: to become a rich widow and entice her feckless, faithless lover back into her arms.

Ralph has his own disturbing past filled with decadence and depravity in the whore-houses of Europe. He returned to Wisconsin only after his father’s death, to take up the reins of the Truitt empire, bringing his Italian Countess bride along with him. Emilia did not adjust to life in cold, forlorn Wisconsin however, and soon lived her own life of dissipation, taking lovers under her husband’s roof.

A vengeful, cuckolded Truitt manages to drive away both wife and son, and now years later, having lived life as a monk in reparation for past sins, he marries deceitful Catherine Land and begs she travel to St Louis to bring back his prodigal son whom Pinkerton detectives have finally tracked down.

Catherine does as she is bid, and lo and behold, the prodigal son turns out to be the feckless, faithless lover. Who didn’t see that one coming? No surprise, Catherine and lover have plotted Truitt’s demise, but once married and living respectably where no one knows her past Catherine has experienced a change of heart. She finally has the life she’s always wanted and can no longer kill an innocent man.

The story is a good one, filled with many soap opera-ish twists and turns, and Goolrick’s language is quite beautiful and lyrical, but much of the above is told in backstory, and I think it would have been a much stronger novel had Goolrick let events play out in an epic saga rather than encapsulating years of Ralph or Catherine’s life in a few explanatory paragraphs. For that reason, I struggled to enjoy the book. I became far too tired of Goolrick’s tell, don’t show writing style.

At the end of the novel Goolrick mentions a book of photographs he discovered in 1973 that told the story of the people of a small Wisconsin town in the early 1900s. For Goolrick, this book profoundly changed his life. In A Reliable Wife, he’s attempted to put words to those photographs by giving us a town full of depraved characters and unhappy events. It’s an interesting concept, but falls flat when Goolrick’s novel begins to read as a series of photograph descriptions instead of a cohesive story about real, living and breathing, individuals. Goolrick may have received critical acclaim with his first book, the biting family memoir The End of the World as we Know it, but his follow-up A Reliable Wife is an overly indulgent second book that probably should have stayed at the bottom of a desk drawer. Had it not been for this being a Windsor Book Club selection, I would have given it a pass.

What the Windsor Book Club members had to say:

Well once again the cheese stands alone. I was the only one of the group who didn’t like the book. Everyone else enjoyed the plot twists (which I thought were obvious) and thought it was a very interesting story. The highlight of the evening for everyone was being joined by the author via speakerphone (and no, I did not call him a dirty old man in person ;p). It was fun hearing the author’s perspective of the characters and the personal experiences that led him to write such a book. For Goolrick, who was abused as a child, the characters in A Reliable Wife all suffered some form of abuse in childhood that impacted the paths they took and the adults they became. Some overcome and find redemption and renewal, while others sink deeper into dissipation. Not everyone can be saved, after all. An interesting point that I missed on first reading the book is that although there is much fixation with sex by the characters, what they really desire and are missing from their lives is affection and companionship. It’s more the desire to return to the innocence of childhood which they never knew then to exploit themselves further with physical sexuality. So perhaps there are a few redeeming qualities that warrant another look at the book.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 15

WPL = 24

Yet More CanLit in July: Remembering the Bones

2011-08-19T14:47:00.001-04:00

Georgie Danforth Witley shares her birthday with Queen Elizabeth and has been specially invited by lottery draw, to attend an 80^th birthday party hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. On the way to the airport, just metres away from her driveway, Georgie’s car goes off the road and over the edge of a ravine. Not wearing her seatbelt, Georgie is thrown clear of the car and wakes up lying on her back at the bottom of the ravine. She quickly takes stock, realizing she has a few broken bones but otherwise is okay. How though to signal for help? Will anyone find her in time?

Georgie is a survivor. Stuck at the bottom of a ravine, she is not completely helpless. She knows if she can just inch her way along the ground, reach the car, she can blow the horn to summon help. But she is 80 years old, with a broken right leg, and an unusable right arm, yet still she prevails and forces herself to drag her body inch by miniscule inch towards the car.

Over a period of days, we are with Georgie in her struggle to survive, while she keeps herself hydrated sucking on her sweater’s buttons, and keeps her mind sane by remembering past events. Life really does flash by at moments of great peril. In Georgie’s case it’s a trip down memory lane that is fascinating reading. From learning about her grandmother surviving news of her husband’s death in WWI, to the family’s struggle through the Great Depression, to living through WWII, we understand the strength of stock Georgie descends from, that gives her the will to survive the car accident that has stuck her in a ravine, unseen from above.

Georgie shares with us family antidotes passed down in stories from her grandmother and mother, as well as tales of her own upbringing in Grand Dan’s house, where she discovers her grandfather’s copy of Gray’s Anatomy and becomes fascinated with the human skeleton. As a young married woman, there is the mix of heartbreak and happiness that all lives endure. Georgie invites us into her life with warm and practicality, not afraid to pull back the curtain, revealing the bad along with the good. Georgie soon becomes someone you’d love to have over for tea, an endearing soul who’s stories you never tire of hearing. Truly heartwarming, Remembering the Bones will have you laughing, crying, and pondering the important things in life.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 15

WPL = 23

L Reads More CanLit in July: The Electrical Field

2011-08-08T10:32:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know, the calendar says August, however I’ve been living in home renovation hell these past several weeks, so am horribly behind in my blog posts. Which just means you get to hear about all the lovely CanLit books I read last month, this month. Enjoy! J

Canadian author Kerri Sakamoto tackles the impact of the Japanese internment camps on immigrants and first generation Japanese thirty years after the war in her book, The Electrical Field.

Asako Saito lives with her ailing, bed-ridden, ninety-year-old father and younger brother in the old veterinarian’s house across the electrical field from the rest of the town’s settlements. Many Japanese, once released from the camps in British Columbia, moved east and settled in small communities, trying to put their shattered lives back together.

Across the field, Asako watches her neighbours come and go – Keiko and daughter Sachi, Yano and his wife Chisako and children Tamio and Kimi. These are the lives that intersect with hers as she walks the electrical field. Yano is desperate to see some form of government compensation for the Japanese who endured the camps, but few go to his redress meetings. Sachi’s mother ignores her, and so she spends most of her time with Asako, fueling her mother’s jealousy.

When Chisako is found murdered with her Caucasian lover and Yano disappears with the children, Sachi clings to Asako even more, desperate to find her boyfriend Tamio before it’s too late. Asako is drawn reluctantly into the child’s drama, dealing with her own guilt over confessing the affair to Yano.

The trauma and guilt arising from her friend’s death plunges Asako into a whirlwind of memories of life in the camps and her favoured brother’s death – another death she had a hand in – and her life begins to spiral out of control.

An interesting novel that travels back and forth through time in memory, and presents events from differing angles so the reader is left to wonder exactly what really happened, but then again, that’s what memory is – it’s not perfect and we always remember things a little differently than they actually were.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 14

WPL = 23

L Reads New CanLit for July: Falling Angels

2011-07-29T10:31:00.001-04:00

Barbara Gowdy is a Canadian author I’d heard lots of buzz about but had never read. After reading Falling Angels, I now want to read more of her. She has an interesting voice and in Falling Angels, beautifully tackles dysfunctional family dynamics. Coming from a dysfunctional family myself, I found much to relate to and much that was cringe-worthy in this book.

The book focuses on the three Field sisters – Norma. Lou and Sandy – and the differing ways they cope with a tyrannical military father and a perpetually drunk mother. At a young age the girls learn that their elder brother was tragically killed as an infant while their parents visited Niagara Falls. Although there is suspicion their mother threw baby Jimmy over the Falls, no evidence supports this. Unable to overcome her grief or guilt, Mrs Fields crawled into a whiskey bottle and has stayed there until her own tragic death, or was it suicide? Many events are unclear and left to the reader’s interpretation, as so many things in life are. This makes for a fascinating read.

The sisters each cope with their father’s abuse and mother’s illness in varying ways: Norma uses food as a cushion for the pain and struggles with self-image and sexuality; Lou hides behind a wall of anger that is mostly directed at her father, who she sees as the root of all the family’s problems; Sandy turns to older men for love and approval and struggles with self-worth and the inability to love or respect herself.

In a broken home with parents who alternately ignore or tyrannize them, the sisters must learn to raise themselves and fight for a future they can be content with.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 13

WPL = 23

Of Cats and Men

2011-07-25T15:58:00.001-04:00

Nina de Gramont’s delightful collection of relational short stories creatively manages to weave cats in all their pernicious glory through each and every tale. Her stories are fresh and intriguing, and each features a cat that is as important a character as the protagonists themselves. Here’s just a taste of what’s in store in Of Cats and Men:

In The Wedding Bed, an upper middle-class pampered daughter learns to accept her less well-off husband’s rugged lodgings with the help of a mangy stray cat.

A barn cat who desperately wants to be a house cat gives Elizabeth the strength to end a dysfunctional relationship in Human Contact.

And in By His Wild Alone, an aloof former stray who yearns to return to his footloose roots helps Natalie understand her own sister’s wild ways and need to free herself from familial attachments.

As varied as cat personalities are, so too are the people who populate de Gramont’s stories and in each story, a lesson is learned or a greater understanding of one’s own or another’s humanity is gained with the help of beloved, furry, four-footed creatures.

Till next time, happy reading!

L:)

TBR = 12

WPL = 23

June Was a Two CanLit Month. Lucky June.

2011-07-21T11:09:00.001-04:00

While on vacay the final week of June, I picked up this delightful little novel from my TBR pile and discovered a new Canadian author whose style is quite engaging.

Eric Walters’ young adult novel about the night Hurricane Hazel hit Toronto in October of 1954 is a riveting read. Lizzie is the 13-year-old babysitter of David and Suzie who live on Raymo Road beside the Humber River in Weston Ontario, the area that was hit hardest by the hurricane when the Humber overflowed its banks and wiped out several homes, killing dozens.

All alone in the house, with rapidly rising water levels, Lizzie and David must make some very difficult decisions and act rather heroically, showing maturity far beyond their years, in order to ensure the safety of all three children and the family dog, Daisy.

Safe as Houses is a gripping and enjoyable read for young and old adults alike.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 11

WPL = 23

L Visits Austenland

2011-07-18T11:56:00.001-04:00

Delightful!

Here is Colin Firth in a wet shirt.

I’ll let you enjoy that image for a bit. Take your time. I’ll wait.

Imagine if you will, a British holiday spot called Pembrook Park, where it is 1816 all the time, where guests dress in Regency period costume, address each other as Miss so’n’so and follow strict etiquette rules. It is Jane Austen era, and in visiting Pembrook Park, you’ve just stepped into one of her novels. Where do I sign up!

Jane Hayes is a graphic artist living in New York and drifting from one bad relationship to another. She is obsessed with Jane Austen, and hides her copy of the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle movie version of Pride and Prejudice in a house plant. Why? Because even after all these years of dating, she’s still looking for Mr. Darcy, a fictional character she rationally knows doesn’t exist in the real world, but that hasn’t stopped the fantasies.

When an elderly aunt bequeaths Jane a three week vacation to Pembrook Park, Jane figures it’s time for one last Austen hurrah before leaving the fantasies behind for good. So off to England she goes and finds herself immersed in Austenland where nothing is real and actors are paid to fall in love with her. Struggling to find herself, she comes to the realization Mr. Darcy in real life would have been “a boring, pompous pinhead” and that what she longs for is simply “someone who made me feel all the time like I felt when I watched those movies.” And in the end, isn’t that what we all want?

Shannon Hale writes a delightful book that speaks to all Austen fans. What if we could step back into Austen’s world for a brief time and live out her stories. Be Fanny Price for a few weeks, pining for her Edmund, or Anne Elliot, reuniting with her Captain Wentworth, or best of all, Elizabeth Bennett, sparing verbally with Mr. Darcy. And where in the end, all things have a happy ending.

The starry-eyed romantic in me is off to revisit the best of Austenland....Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 10

WPL = 23

L Reads a Classic: The Picture of Dorian Gray

2011-07-15T10:23:00.001-04:00

Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a timeless classic and very fun read. Part Gothic tale, part morality lesson, part social commentary, Dorian Gray has a little something for everyone, and certainly a lesson to be learned about the pitfalls of vanity.

Young Dorian Gray sits for painter Basil Hallward, who puts his all into the portrait of his friend. Upon seeing the completed picture, Dorian Gray is overcome with vanity – is he really that strikingly handsome? He immediately makes wish that becomes a pact with the devil: his soul for the chance to stay forever young. We all know the story, made famous by the 1945 Hollywood movie, where the image in the portrait ages while real-life Dorian Gray stays youthful, untouched by time.

Perhaps it is his loss of soul that results in Dorian Gray developing rather questionable morals. Perhaps it is merely the influence of the men he chooses to surround himself with, like the irascible Lord Henry “Harry” Wotton. Whatever it is, all of Dorian Gray’s deeds show themselves in the twisted, evil visage of the portrait, but mars not his youthful, golden-locked self.

Conscience is an interesting thing. One can never seem to escape it and for all Dorian’s pleasure-taking in his evil ways, he can never truly escape the ugliness his life has become because he can never escape his portrait. It haunts him, as does its possible discovery by servants, or anyone who enters his house.

In the end, desperate to destroy the albatross the painting has become, he inevitably destroys himself.

A fascinating read, one I very much enjoyed on a sunny, lazy, vacation afternoon.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 9

WPL = 23

L Reads a Classic Part II

2011-07-12T11:24:00.001-04:00

I finally got around to finishing reading Bunyan’s sequel to his seminal work The Pilgrim’s Progress in which Christian’s wife, Christiana follows his pilgrimage from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Published in 1684, The Pilgrim’s Progress The Second Part is less interesting a tale. Unlike Christian, who encountered many foes and obstacles along his Way, Christiana and her children are accompanied by Mr. Great-Heart, a protector, who explains Christian’s journey and slays the last of the evil dwellers along the Way, giving the women and children easier passage.

I’m not sure if this is meant as a discourse on the weaker sex, or if Bunyan was merely using The Second Part as a vehicle to further explain his vision and message. Quite frankly I would have preferred to have Christiana battle some of these demons on her own, but I guess her husband, having gone before, helped pave the Way for her own salvation. Puh-lease! Bunyan’s work is clearly a product of its time.

Worth reading if for nothing more than it’s a well-known classic. Those more religious than I may get more out of it than I did.

Till next time, happy reading,

L :)

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."

~ Mark Twain

L Dishes about The Book Thief With the Windsor Book Club

2011-07-07T23:25:00.001-04:00

This is going to sound like an odd statement, but: I love Holocaust fiction.

It’s so emotionally charged and character driven, two elements I look for in novels, and is what makes a book good in my opinion.

Most Holocaust fiction focuses on the atrocity experienced by Jews or witnessed by foreigners. In Australian author Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, we experience WWII from the perspective of a 10-year old German girl and her friend. Set in Molching, Germany, Liesel Meminger is sent to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Huberman because her parents are Communists. On the train ride to Molching, Liesal watches her younger brother die and is haunted by this image, plagued by recurring nightmares.

Growing up on Himmel Street in a poorer part of town, in the days leading up to WWII, Liesel is befriended by Rudy Steiner and together they join Hitler Youth, steal food, and otherwise try to survive this world gone mad. There is one other thing Liesel steals: books. Yearning for the knowledge to make sense of the tragedies of life, Liesel steals her first book at the grave of her dead brother. Later, books, and the words they carry will prove to be lifesavers.

As war breaks out, another friend enters Liesel’s life in the form of a promise kept by Hans Huberman. Years before, in WWI, Hans life was spared thanks to the actions of friend Eric Vandenberg. After the war, Hans visits Eric’s widow and son, promising to be of service should they ever require his assistance. Young Max Vandenberg, a Jew, is smuggled to Hans’ home in Molching one night, where he takes up residence in their basement and Liesel and her adoptive parents become Jew rescuers.

Narrated by Death, The Book Thief is a beautifully written novel about the Holocaust told from the perspective of everyday Germans. It is so easy to hold the country and its people as a whole accountable for the atrocities committed against the Jewish peoples during WWII, yet we must remember so many Germans were sympathetic to the Jewish plight, but were powerless to stop it. They lived in a police state where any outward sign of rebellion or anarchy was punishable by death, the same death they witnessed occurring to their Jewish friends and neighbours.

I got to sit down with the Windsor Book Club this past Wednesday at delightful Evolve Cafe, who were incredibly kind to open especially for us, and we chatted about this book. The overall consensus was that the book was really very good. Where I thought it may have dragged in places and been a bit slow, I was quickly shot down as everyone else thought it was a quick read. Go figure. One good point was made that it isn’t exactly a suspenseful novel, so that may have been what I was missing. The book is based on many actual events that happened in Germany to the author’s parents or witnessed by them, and this made the book resonate with readers. Some members mentioned stories they’d heard growing up from grandparents and parents who’d been in the war, and how the novel brought back memories of those stories.

Another interesting point that was made, and that speaks to the literacy advocate in me, is how important words, books and reading are to the characters in this novel. Scenes like book burnings were offset by townsfolk huddled in bomb shelters being read to by Liesel which very much helped to pass the time and ease fears and worries. The juxtaposition of Hilter burning books or using words to kill was nicely offset by Liesel using books and words to save friends and neighbours.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 8

WPL = 23

L Reads New CanLit for June

2011-07-02T12:01:00.001-04:00

What Boys Like is a collection of short stories by promising Canadian author Amy Jones. Although vividly and beautifully written, each story tackles such similar themes that the collection becomes a bit of a bore by the middle. However, the final three stories are stellar and really worth reading.

I particularly liked Where You Are, which is about a woman who talks to the daughter she might have had, planning out what her life might have been like had things turned out differently ten years previously. Speaking to this imaginary daughter whom she has christened Natalie, she describes the kind of young woman she would become, the life they would have, the relationships she would form with her father and step-father. Alternatively filled with regrets, yet much promise and hope, it is a heartbreaking read to know this beautiful 10-year girl doesn’t really exist.

Then there was Post Mortem, about a family travelling to the site of the car crash that killed their son, brother and husband. The story is told from the perspective of two family members, Jeremy and his sister-in-law Theresa and they are coping in the aftermath of tragedy.

Finishing up the collection is Church of the Latter-Day Peaches, about a young pregnant widow attending her husband’s funeral. Jones is very adept at drawing our attention to the minutiae of life; all the quirks and foibles that make us uniquely human and that make life as fascinating as it is.

The other stories in the collection tackle the same relational themes: Mother/daughter, sisters, husband/wife, girlfriend/boyfriend. Jones explores what it means to connect with each other in urban landscapes that shift from Toronto to Halifax, and that play as much a part of these stories as the characters themselves.

Jones is a talented writer with a unique voice, and on their own, these stories are powerful. Tied together in a collection, many of them read too similarly and I would have preferred more variety. By halfway, the stories started to blend into one another rather than standing apart on the strength of their uniqueness from each other (I’m thinking here of Selecky’s This Cake is for the Party which covered the same relational subject matter, but with varied characters, settings and situations which helped to differ one story from another). Jones tends to place similar characters in similar urban settings dealing with similar relationship problems. After awhile, it just gets boring.

Definitely check this book out, but don’t read it in one sitting like a novel. Space yourself through the stories and you’ll likely get more out of it than I did, who naively read it cover to cover as quickly as possible.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 22

10th Anniversary

2011-06-29T10:39:00.001-04:00

Ah James Patterson, will I never learn?

After a rocky start with his early books in the Women’s Murder Club series, I’ve come to really enjoy the books, so was looking forward to the tenth installment, 10^th Anniversary, with much anticipation. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations. It was, quite frankly, a mess! All over the place, with not one decent storyline to follow from beginning to end. Sigh.

Once again the four ladies who make up the Women’s Murder Club are back. We have Lindsey Boxer, a detective with the SFPD’s homicide division, returning to work fresh from her honeymoon where she is handed the case of a young girl found bleeding near Lake Merced, who’s just given birth and claims she doesn’t remember a thing beyond getting into a car with two men. Where is the baby?!?!? Lindsey is hot on the trail. – Wait a second, she’s homicide right? There’s no murder, there’s no killer to catch, so why is she running around looking for a kidnapped/sold baby? Oh, yeah, because she’s just gotten married and her baby clock is tick tocking away, and this is the only way Patterson can tie in Lindsey’s screeching biological clock with the job she does. Um, okay….

Then we have intrepid reporter Cindy Thomas who stumbles across a story about women being drugged, raped, and waking up with no memory of the incident. But other than this story serving to give us about 25 pages of splash and dash near the end of the book when Cindy is abducted by said rapist, this plotline pretty much fizzles out. It’s especially disbelievable since although Cindy’s paper prints the story, there’s no police investigation whatsoever. Yeah, right!

Next is lovable medical examiner Claire Washburn who plays an incredibly brief role, popping up only when Lindsey needs someone to dish baby with. An incredible disappointment that Claire has so little ink time.

Finally, the only interesting plotline in the entire book, is struggling Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano’s murder trial of Dr. Candace Martin, accused of killing her husband. Now this is some good ink, with suitable plot twists to keep a reader interested. Frankly I would have preferred the focus of the book be on this trial and have the four women working together to uncover the truth, not going off in ten different, incoherent directions.

Overall, the book was disappointing and I can only hope book eleven has a better thought out, cohesive plot that engages all four beloved characters.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 21

The Land of Painted Caves

2011-06-24T10:33:00.001-04:00

In the sixth and final book of the Earth’s Children Series, Auel returns to her roots, offering a read rich in historic detail. Set in prehistoric times, around 35,000 – 25,000 BCE, Auel writes about the daily lives of early man in a story that has spanned six books published over 3 decades. Her novels are steeped with detail that can only come from a life-time of research, making Auel revered by archeologists and anthropologists the world over.

Ayla was first introduced in The Clan of the Cave Bear, published in 1980. An orphan who lost her family in an earthquake, Ayla is found by a Clan of Neanderthals and raised by their medicine woman, Iza. She learns the art of healing from her adopted mother, but is forever branded as an outcast because she was born to the Others. Ayla is Cro-Magnon, or Modern Man, with all the inherent abilities this superior species possesses, namely the ability to speak, to learn new skills, and puzzle out and solve a problem. As the novel closes, she is cast out of the Clan and bidden to find her own peoples.

The follow-up Valley of Horses finds Ayla living a solitary existence, hunting and fending for herself in the harsh land. Quite by accident, she befriends a young horse, then a baby cave lion, who become her friends and helpers, and highlight the mental abilities modern man has over the Neanderthal, which is purportedly why Neanderthal died out and we descended from Cro-Magnon. It is in this novel that Ayla meets Jondalar, the love of her life.

The subsequent novels detail their journey, adventures, perils, and the peoples they meet as Ayla and Jondalar leave her valley and make the return trip to Jondalar’s home among the Zelandonii, a large group of semi-nomadic cave dwellers settled in the region that is now modern France.

In The Land of Painted Caves, Auel brings Ayla’s story to a conclusion. It is summer and time for the Zelandonii peoples Summer Meeting. Ayla is continuing her studies with the zelandonia, the group of healers and spiritual leaders who have recognized her unique gifts with herbs and animals. She is mated to Jondalar and has a young child and must balance home life with her training. Orphaned at the age of five, and raised by a Clan of Neanderthals, Ayla has only ever wanted to find and be accepted by her own peoples. She has finally found acceptance among Jondalar’s family, the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii. But the life of a zelandonia, a healer, is not an easy one and she must make many sacrifices that threaten her family’s happiness.

The relationship between Ayla and Jondalar is a secondary story thread, one that ties the books together. What brings such richness to the novels is Auel’s minute descriptions of early man’s existence – the food they gathered, hunted and ate. How they prepared it. The clothing they wore, their ceremonies and burial methods, and most importantly in this novel, their cave art. Much of this is conjecture, but more is based on archeological research from digs that have taken place in Europe and Africa. The archeological discovery of early man, how and where he lived has greatly enriched Auel’s work, and she is a true historian, punctuating her fiction with fascinating factual data.

In The Land of Painted Caves, Ayla embarkes on a Donier Tour, visiting all of the region’s sacred sites, namely painted caves. Auel visited these existing caves while researching her novels, and the detail provided in the book is a wonderful tribute to this period in history.

Anyone fascinated by early man and our human origins, as I am, will find these books steeped in historic fact and rich in detail. Auel fleshes out the facts to create believable characters and situations you’ll remember long after closing the cover on the final page.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 20

The post where L reveals a new TBR bookcase*

2011-06-18T17:49:00.001-04:00

*and admits she really does have a problem. So this is how it all went down. I arrived at work on Monday with an assortment of flyers that had been dropped off at my mailbox after I’d done my weekly grocery shopping, thus making the flyers irrelevant, but still fun to browse through. Plus, I like to share with a co-worker who’s much more of a sale fiend than I am. It also helps the day go by faster, because let’s face it, working in an academic library isn’t exactly a party. I pass most of the ads on to my co-worker sight unseen anyway because flipping through adverts for things I have no interest in purchasing doesn’t exactly turn me on.... For some strange reason, though, the Tepperman’s ad caught my eye. I couldn’t even tell you why, but there I was, turning its pages when I reached their Bargain Annex sales. There, at a ridiculously low price, was a 5-shelf bookcase. Perfect for my library. The sale was limited quantity and first come first served. I immediately called to see if they had any left. They didn’t, but the saleswoman tipped me off to more sales the coming two weekends with different style bookcases. I waited all week for Friday to arrive. Which it finally did, and as I was walking Lily in the morning, I stopped to pick up a copy of the week’s ads from the piles dropped at the curb a couple blocks from home. When we got back to the house, Lily waited not so patiently for her food while I pulled out the Tepperman’s ad and flipped to the Bargain Annex page. There it was, the same bookcase with doors that was featured last week, but no 5-shelf bookcase beside it. Harumph. I didn’t particularly want a quasi bookcase with doors for my library – I’m a traditionalist after all.

Lily finally got her food and I headed off to work to bitch and moan to above mentioned co-worker, talking myself around to checking out the great deal. I mean, it was advertised for $40. When would I ever see that price again? And so what if it had doors? I didn’t have to use it in the library. I have so little furniture after moving from a one bedroom apartment to a three bedroom house, that I could use it anywhere: the living room, the office. Endless possibilities. I had myself convinced to stop in after work and pick one up.

I got to Tepperman’s around 1:30 having used some banked vacation time to leave early that Friday. I sailed right past the showroom salesman who commented that I had my Bargain Annex flyer ready. “Yup and I know just what I want,” I exclaimed, thinking: so don’t try to distract me and put the hard sell on me. Just give me my bookcase and no one gets hurt.

Just inside the Annex entrance was my bookcase with doors. I paused to look it over. Yup, it’s good quality for $40. Definitely want one. I made my way over to the saleswoman, Kari, and asked if they had any left. We walked back to the bookcase so she could write down the stock number. “How much was it originally?” The bargain hunter in me wanted to know. Kari pulled back the sale sticker to reveal the original price: $169.75. Holy crap! I’d be paying like a quarter of the regular price. Cha-ching! I happened to mention I wasn’t keen on the doors, but for that price, I guess I couldn’t quibble. “Oh,” said Kari, “I think you can leave them off. There’s nothing special about the doors and it would look like just a regular bookcase without them.” We opened the doors and checked them out. Sure enough, other than the hinges that didn’t need to be installed, there was nothing structurally requiring me to have the doors on the bookcase. Hello!

I walked out of Tepperman’s that day with not one, but two beautiful and cheap, but not cheaply made, bookcases.

The next step was to get them home and assembled, which caused me much bruising and aching muscles, cause I mean six-foot high, five-shelf, Sauder bookcases are not light! But assembled them I did, and now I have five, count’em, bookcases in my library. I definitely have a problem. And because the new bookcases are so huge, and the floor in my house is somewhat uneven at the wall and my carpet so thick, I had to move out my original TBR bookcase and replace it with one of the new ones, which fit better against that wall (snug up against the wall instead of sitting several inches out of it...my worst nightmare is waking up one night to a big crash as the bookcase and books comes tumbling down). The pic at the top of this post shows you the new TBR bookcase in all its finely filled glory.

So, here are my TBR books, after bookcase removal. The only spot for them, piled into my chair:

Just like my reading tastes, they are one big messy pile of mixed genres.

This is where the old TBR bookcase now sits, empty and forlorn, though I don’t imagine I will have much trouble filling it up:

The other new bookcase, I’m currently using for my unread magazines, of which I have loads, oh, and my waiting to be read library books. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of it filled, but to give you an idea of the size of these beautiful suckers:

See, it’s so huge I can’t fit it in the entire frame!

And finally, what’s a library without a furry friend in it? In this case, my sweet doggie, Lily:

I think she’s as concerned as I am at the size of these new things, and how I will fill them. Either that or she needs to piddle and I’ve been too busy assembling bookcases and re-organizing my library to notice.

Guess it’s time for walkies!

Till next time, happy reading.

L :)

Pop Goes the Weasel

2011-06-13T14:24:00.001-04:00

Ah good ole Patterson, the king of the stock character.

In the fifth installment of the Alex Cross books, Cross is on the trail of the Jane Doe murderer. Indigent women in Southeast Washington (one of the poorest neighbourhoods) are turning up dead, and Chief of Police Pittman refuses to admit a serial killer may be in their midst. Undaunted, Cross continues to follow his gut and track an insane killer, and his actions once again puts those closest to him in jeopardy.

One of the recurring storylines in these books has been Cross’ love affair with school principle Christine Johnson. In Pop Goes the Weasel, Christine agrees to marry Cross, despite misgivings over his career choice and the dangers it involves, and the two, along with Cross’ family, take a trip to Bermuda where Christine is kidnapped, ostensibly by the very killer Cross is trying to catch back in Washington.

There are so many things wrong with this book, I don’t know where to begin. Dead bodies pop up everywhere, though most never get discovered by the police. The police work is incredibly shoddy, and Cross spends most of his time mooning over Christine and thinking about future career paths, then he does chasing the killer. Much of the plot is contrived, and when Christine disappears, it’s so obviously a trumped up plot ploy to throw obstacles in Cross’ path, that it’s beyond believable. Also, Cross and his family seem to be the only ones affected by Christine’s kidnapping – no family, friends or co-workers come out of the woodwork to lament her disappearance. Months jump by from one chapter to the next in which Cross does nothing to find Christine nor solve the multiple deaths in Southeast. I could go on, but you’re probably as tired of reading this as I was of the book by the end.

That being said, there were elements of the book that still kept me reading. The killer’s character was quite well drawn, and the book had the usual James Patterson thrill rides, though often disrupted by his use of stock characters and banal plot twists. And the ending I found maddening. Once again, Cross fails to follow through and properly catch his man, so I expect the killer to pop up again in the next book or two. I like characters that are flawed – makes them relatable, but really, Cross is turning out to be less flawed and more just plain inept with each subsequent book. I can only hope the series improves with later books, because I’ve unfortunately committed myself to reading the lot of them.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 19

L Meets up With Windsor Book Club to Dish John Grisham

2011-06-07T11:08:00.001-04:00

I am so excited about Windsor Book Club. It’s new and they meet once a month at various coffee shops around Windsor. I have been looking to join a book club, mostly because I can’t get enough of talking about books, but when I learned the inaugural meeting in May would be discussing James Patterson’s Alex Cross’ Trial I had to bow out. I’m still back at book 5 in the Cross series, and didn’t want to ruin anything by reading ahead. When I heard what June’s book selection was, it didn’t prove to be much better: John Grisham’s The Confession. I am not a Grisham fan. Indeed, from the time I read The Pelican Brief, back in the early ‘90’s I vowed never to read him again. I did not enjoy his style of writing and found him very repetitive. But trouper that I am, and because I’m dying to meet this fantastic group of readers, I shelved my cynicism and put the book on hold at WPL.

Much to my surprise, I quite enjoyed The Confession, which is a lesson: Never judge a book by its author or anything they previously wrote. You never know when a book will enthrall.

In typical Grisham fashion, we have an underprivileged young black man on death row, awaiting execution in Texas for the killing of school mate and cheerleader Nicole Yarber. For nine years, Donte Drumm’s hot shot lawyer Robbie Flak has exhausted all avenues in the justice system to exonerate his client. Texas is unique in that a murder conviction can be garnered with merely a confession – no dead body is required. Coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit after hours of police questioning that was more like battering, Donte was sentenced to death.

To make matters worse, Texas has a new governor that is determined to cull the prisoners on death row, and executions are occurring fast and furiously. Drumm’s days are numbered, and his appeals are all but exhausted. With mere days left before his execution, a serial rapist with multiple convictions visits a Lutheran minister in Topeka, Kansas and confesses he is the real killer. A frantic battle ensues to save the life of Donte Drumm.

For the first two-thirds of the book, I was gripped in the story of Donte and his wrongful conviction. I was convinced The Confession was Donte’s story, and how he narrowly cheated death by lethal injection. But this is a Grisham novel, and so I should have known better. The true protagonist of this story is the death penalty, and the risk of killing innocent lives because the American justice system is far from perfect and wrongful convictions do happen.

Although it didn’t have the happy ending I so very much wanted, still The Confession was a worthwhile read.

The book club met up at the Old Town Sweet Shop in Olde Walkerville and amongst tea and espresso, we shared our views of the novel. Opinions were fairly unanimous. The group as a whole found the book predictable, and those who read Grisham religiously found The Confession to be typical – Grisham writes about causes, not so much people or inner conflict. The Confession was likened to Grisham’s fact-based books, that detail specific trials and judicial procedure, and was declared to be very factual in regards to the South, racial attitudes and police procedure. Although we thought the characters to be fairly stereotypical and rather cookie-cutter, we found the Lutheran minister’s actions heart-warming because he believed the real killer’s claims and did everything in his power to stop the execution, and also this character experienced the most growth in the novel. But truly, the book was less about people and more about the ills of the American judicial system and the barbaric practice of the death penalty. We attributed much of America’s judicial ills on the fact that judges are elected. They are likely less concerned with truth and justice and more with keeping their voters happy so they’re re-elected.

All in all, a lively discussion ensued. I met a great group of people and can’t wait for next month’s meeting! If you’d like to learn more about the book club, feel free to contact me.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 18

L Reads New CanLit for May

2011-06-01T10:48:00.001-04:00

What defines gender? What makes us male or female? Kathleen Winter explores the nature vs nurture debate in her beautifully written novel, Annabel.

It is 1968 and a baby is born in Croyden Harbour, Labrador to first-time parents Treadway and Jacinta Blake. Attending at the home birth, Thomasina Baikie notices something unusual about this little bundle of joy – it is a child born with both male and female genitalia, a hermaphrodite.

Treadway decides the child will be called Wayne and raised as a son. The doctors agree the penis is developed enough to allow this, and an operation is performed in Goose Bay. Only three people and Wayne’s doctors know the truth, that little Wayne is a boy-girl child. To everyone but Jacinta and Thomasina, he is Wayne. Jacinta sees the daughter she could have had when she looks at her child, and this creates a barrier between mother and son. Thomasina has lost her husband and daughter, Annabel, in a boating accident, and so she christens Wayne “Annabel” and calls him this in secret.

Although Wayne believes he is a boy, and is taught the life of a hunter/fisherman as all Labradorian boys are, he is fascinated by geometric shapes, music, and synchronized swimming. He longs to be like Elizaveta Kirilovna and make beautiful patterns in the water. He saves his money and orders a bright orange swimsuit from the Eaton’s catalogue, hiding it from his father, knowing instinctively this is something boys don’t wear. He wants nothing to do with the boys in his class and their rough and tumble play; rather, he falls for sweet Wally Michelin, a budding opera singer, who shares his passion for music and daydreaming.

As he grows, Wayne continues to visit the hospital in Goose Bay, and is prescribed various pills, because although he is raised as a boy, his body is showing signs of the girl-child within. The pills help his body form the masculine lines of a boys, they help his voice deepen and his shoulders to broaden, and although Wayne knows he is different from the other boys in his class, he doesn’t know why. The truth of his birth is kept secret until one fateful trip to the hospital at the age of twelve reveals all, and Wayne begins to explore the other part of himself on a journey of self-discovery to find his true identity.

A truly remarkable and captivating novel, Annabel doesn’t disappoint from page one to the very end.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 17

L Makes out like a Bandit at the Raise-a-Reader Book Sale

2011-05-30T14:18:00.001-04:00

The Raise-a-Reader book sale was held this past weekend at the Windsor Crossing Outlet Mall, and not one to miss an opportunity to pick up books dirt cheap, I stopped by Saturday and bought an armload full. Paperbacks as cheap as $1??? Can’t beat that!

I picked up several Canadian authors, many new to me, among them being:

Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2006 and was made into a series on CBC. Lam was born in my home town of London, Ontario which is pretty cool J

Emma Donoghue’s The Woman Who Gave Birth To Rabbits. Donoghue has received some press lately for Room, a dark, disturbing book about five-year old Jack who’s locked in a small room with his mother, which I’m dying to read. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the 2010 Governor General’s Award, and won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Hoping Rabbits is just as good.

Jane Urquhart’s Away. Urquhart is a Canadian author I’ve heard much about, but never read, so I was pleased to pick up this title.

Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost. Ondaatje is best-known, I think, for The English Patient. I have not read him yet, so was happy to pick up one of his novels.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s best known work, One Hundred Years of Solitude. A Columbian writer and a book I’m very much looking forward to.

Joyce Carol Oates We Were the Mulvaney’s. I may have read something by Oates in school, though nothing readily comes to mind. She’s a rather prolific American author and I’m quite looking forward to reading her.

And of course, I picked up a classic, Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady. I tend toward more 18^th Century and early Victorian novels, but just couldn’t resist James when I saw him amongst the piles of books on sale. Can’t wait to tackle this classic.

And finally the piece de resistance, Paul McCartney’s Blackbird Singing: Poems & Lyrics 1965-1999. Being a HUGE Beatles fan, this is a true book sale find!

Now I know my TBR reads are woefully limping along behind my WPL reads this year, but summer is finally here, bringing with it no classes, lots of vacation, and lazy weekends spent reading on the patio and with these new tempting additions to my TBR bookcase, I hope to balance out those reading stats as soon as! That is, of course, after I finish reading the three library books I already have checked out. *blush* (once an addict always an addict….)

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

“Hello, my name is Lisa, and I am a library-oholic.”

L Reads a Classic

2011-05-25T08:48:00.001-04:00

I was first introduced to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress in Louisa May Alcott’s delightful novel Little Women. Whenever I read great works of literature, I like to pay attention to novels the characters are discussing, because it gives depth to the novel by showcasing the thoughts and feelings of the day. In Little Women, the four sisters, Amy, Jo, Beth and Meg act out scenes from Bunyan’s pivotal spiritual work, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Many Brits immigrated to the new world due to religious persecution and in North America, they were free to practice their Quaker and Puritan beliefs, without pressure to reform to the Church of England. Bunyan was the son of a tinker who was exposed to different forms of worship when fighting for the Parliamentary Army, who wanted to depose King Charles I. Imprisoned for his beliefs, Bunyan wrote several books of spiritual discourse, The Pilgrim’s Progress being his most famous and most read.

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian is on a quest to relieve himself of the burden of sin and enter the kingdom of heaven. With him, he carries the Bible, the book that will tell him how to get from this world to the next. Along the way, he encounters many barriers and obstacles in characters like Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Obstinate, Pliable, etc., that attempt to dissuade him from his purpose as he traverses through dangerous places like the Hill Difficulty, the Valley of Humiliation, Vanity Fair, etc. The journey though is not so much a physical path, as a spiritual one.

It’s a simple story, of course, an allegory of spiritual belief, that by reading the Bible, one will discover the secrets to the Kingdom of Heaven, but if one strays from the right and true path, then therein lies death and perhaps even Hell, and eternal life will be forever lost.

In its day, The Pilgrim’s Progress was a lesson every young child needed to learn, as religion played a huge part in each and every life. Today, however, this cynical, non-religious mind determines it’s an interesting tale, one worth reading for its classical and historical significance, rather than any religious lesson.

Note: The edition I own carries both The Pilgrim’s Progress and its sequel, The Pilgrim’s Progress Part II in which Christian’s wife and children attempt to follow him from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. As I had many library books piling up, I decided to split the reading of The Pilgrim’s Progress into its two parts, and blog about them separately as two individual books. As they were technically originally written and published separately, and although they are now often published in one volume, as one complete work, C says it’s perfectly okay to treat them as two separate entities. So I will. Talk to her if you have a problem with that. ;p

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 8

WPL = 16

Another off the TBR pile

2011-05-16T10:41:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I can’t say I always pick winners, and admittedly read some really odd stuff, but British writer Jonny Glynn’s The Seven Days of Peter Crumb has got to take the cake for the weirdest book I own. Definitely bizarre, disturbing, and horrifically graphic, Glynn tells the tale of a bereaved father descending into psychotic hell and taking unsuspecting citizens of London with him in a week of terror told with the blackest of humour and in very graphic detail. This is not a book for the faint of heart.

That being said, I did enjoy it. There are moments of such abject humanity, that you can’t help being drawn in. Peter Crumb has lost his five-year-old daughter in a most horrific crime. His marriage and life have fallen apart, and he now lives in a basement flat dealing with a splintered psychosis. The story is told from Crumb’s perspective, and so you witness first-hand that psychosis, the movement between rational and irrational thought and action, and Crumb’s splintered personality becomes a separate character, alive and breathing, at turns lurking in dark corners and overtaking Crumb’s body. Fascinating stuff.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 7

WPL = 16

L Reads New CanLit for April

2011-05-05T10:52:00.001-04:00

I was extremely excited to read Alexander MacLeod’s collection of short stories, Light Lifting, for my April CanLit selection, especially after I was introduced to it as a selection for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize. MacLeod is the son of veteran Canadian short story writer Alistair MacLeod who is something of a local legend in my adopted city of Windsor, Ontario. You will sometimes find Alistair in the University of Windsor’s English Department, where he is Professor Emeritus, and I had the very great fortune and pleasure of meeting him several years ago when he sat down with Marty Gervais’s (another local author and publisher) writing group to discuss his writing methodology. There is nothing more fascinating than listening to a published author discuss how they come up with story ideas and their work habits. I can still picture Alistair’s 8.5 x 11 exercise book in which he writes all his stories by long-hand. He writes on one side of the page only, leaving the other side blank for edits and revisions. That night, he talked about a new story he was working on and the struggle to find descriptions for snow. Fascinating!

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to begin reading Light Lifting, stories written by his son Alexander, who was raised in Windsor, Ontario. The collection is locally published by Dan Wells’ Biblioasis press, and is filled with references to local sites, which thrills this reader. I love reading books with local flavor and Light Lifting doesn’t disappoint, from the title story about bricklayers working during one of Windsor’s boom times, laying down driveways in Southwood Lakes, among other neighbourhoods, to the boys racing trains long the underground rail line between Windsor and Detroit, to the story about accidents on Number Three highway and the protagonist who walks down University to Huron Church and along Huron Church to the 401 overpass, heading for the Number Three highway and describes, as he passes, the University buildings, the malls and strip club, Tim Horton’s and McDonalds. I’ve driven this route, which made the pictures so much more vivid in my head as I read MacLeod’s story. So much of the CanLit fiction I read is Toronto-based and so it’s nice to read something local and close to home, to remember that Ontario is more than just Toronto, and great fiction can be written about this province’s smaller towns.

A delightful read that will bring back memories for many Windsor and Essex County residents, Light Lifting is Canadian fiction at its finest.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 6

WPL = 16

L Reads One of Her Own

2011-05-02T14:22:00.001-04:00

Claudia Casper’s The Reconstruction was meant to be my March CanLit read especially since my TBR numbers are lagging behind the WPL books and this is a title I actually own, however, between classes and falling ill, I only just finished it now. But since I started reading it in February, and read half of it in March, I’m still counting is as March’s book (plus I have April’s CanLit waiting in the wings….)

There’s a lot going on in this tiny book. So much so, that I very nearly abandoned it. I haven’t wanted to be very cerebral of late, being quite depleted mentally and physically, but I’m glad I stuck it out, because it really is a gem of a book, if you can get past the graphic dental detail.

I hate dentists and avoid them like the plague, visiting only under duress. It stems from childhood trauma in which I had the dentist from hell dig around until he found a cavity, no matter how miniscule, just so he could drill, drill, drill. Blech. So when Casper started with her female protagonist, Margaret, in the dentist’s chair, I was quite put off. But I persevered, and despite Margaret’s repeated visits to the dentist, all richly detailed in Casper’s masterful voice, I did end up enjoying much of the book after all.

Margaret is an artist whose husband of ten years has announced he wants a divorce. This emotional punch leaves Margaret spinning down into depression and apathy as she struggles to redefine her life as a newly separated woman. When asked to reconstruct an Australopithecus afarensis based on the fossil Lucy, for a display in the Natural Museum, Margaret begins to reawaken a primal being within herself that allows her to face important truths about the past as she places herself firmly within the chain of evolution.

As always, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 6

WPL = 15

L is Hooked on Slice

2011-04-25T13:12:00.001-04:00

Okay, okay, I know. I’ve completely caved to the Bethenny Frankel hype. I’m completely hooked on her show, and now am reading her books. Pathetic!

For those who don’t know, Slice TV has tons of reality crap – Real Desperate Housewives of insert city name here, Bethenny, Party Mamas, Project Runway, Little Miss Perfect gag, etc. etc. It’s basically train wreck TV and I just can’t stop watching!

So when Bethenny’s latest book came out this March, I had to put it on hold at the public library. No surprise, there wasn’t much waiting for the book when it came in. A Place of Yes lists 10 rules for getting everything you want out of life (in fact I think that’s the book’s subtitle) and is all about approaching everything you do from “a place of yes”, or positivity and empowerment. The book addresses various noise issues we have, like food noise, money noise, childhood noise, etc., and encourages us to address our past hurts, failures, and patterns so that we can move forward and get the wonderful life we’ve always wanted and deserve. Bethenny’s approach in showing us how to do this, is to parade her life story before us, so that we can learn from her mistakes. Well, as entertaining as Bethenny’s life is, she’s no expert psychologist, and so her knock-off pop psychology fails to fully deliver.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Bethenny. I love what’s she’s doing with her line of Skinnygirl Margaritas and healthful eating message, and her show is just good, plain fun. It’s the chance to peak through someone’s curtains, into their home, to see all the horrors and triumphs of their lives. It’s tabloid viewing at its best! But when it comes to writing a book to help people (namely women) improve their lives, well Bethenny should have stuck to what she knows best – food. Because as much as I enjoyed reading about her life, there wasn’t much meat on the bones of life-altering, meaningful messages this book supposedly offers. As a neighbour once said to me of these types of books, “you have to take the meat and leave the bones.” In other words, take what’s important, what speaks to you and leave the rest. Unfortunately, I left a lot of this book because rather than being full of advice it really was just all Bethenny all the time. Quite entertaining, fans will definitely enjoy this book.

Guilty pleasure -- check. Lessons learned or adopted? -- not so much.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 5

WPL = 15

Gail Vaz-Oxlade as the teacher in a Peanuts cartoon

2011-04-21T14:28:00.001-04:00

* a very apropos cartoon from http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts

Wa wa wa waaaa. I love Gail. I devoured her Debt-Free Forever book, implemented her suggestions and have since changed my life immensely (2 credit cards paid off with just my line of credit to go, and all that in only 6 months!!). So as I got to thinking about saving for retirement and will I have enough, I decided to read her latest book, Never Too Late: Take Control of Your Retirement and Your Future. Now, I’m no math whiz but I do feel confident that I understand investments enough to choose wisely for myself, but as I read Gail’s book, I started to hear the teacher from the Peanuts cartoon in my head: wa wa wa wa waaaaa. Now perhaps it’s just that I’ve been ill lately and unable to grasp all of Gail’s knowledge, but I really struggled to get through this book and came out the end feeling like I didn’t know nothin’ about money and investing. So the confidence boost I was hoping to get, and the tips on improving my portfolio I was hoping to take from the book fizzled quickly. Gail was just too technical for me.

If you read the book and make better sense of it than I did, please enlighten me. Or perhaps I’ll tackle it again later this summer when I’m back in fighting form.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 5

WPL = 14

L Takes a Walk Down Memory Lane

2011-04-19T16:23:00.001-04:00

Some weeks ago I stumbled across news of a most epic proportion. Sweet Valley High, that teen romance series I so loved so much as a kid may be made into a movie. Yup, Jessica and Elizabeth might just be coming to a big screen near you. YAY!!! Okay, so I am that much of a geek that I had to hunt down a copy of the first ever book in the series, Double Love, so I could re-read it and remember what all the fuss was about. And remember I did, but mostly just what a geek I was at the age of twelve. Sigh. I was first introduced to the Wakefield twins when my sister started buying the books. My sister, ten years older than me, was not much of a reader and I think she thought these short little books would peak her interest enough to actually get her reading. It wasn’t long though before I got my twelve-year-old hands on the books and fell in love with the series and the characters – who didn’t love Elizabeth? Okay she was just a little too goody two shoes, playing victim to her evil twin who I abhorred, but really, Jessica did have all the fun. And then there was Todd. Sigh. I always fell for those boy-next-door heartthrobs….

Rereading Double Love, I realized just how much of a geek I was back then as whole sentences read so familiarly it was like I’d just read the book … but then I had read and re-read the first dozen ad nauseum because sister dearest was such a slooowww reader, that I could read five books to her one, and she wouldn’t buy more until she read the ones already purchased, so I had no choice but to read them again and again and again (I actually remember reading one of the books out loud to her, as she was working on a quilt, thinking this would help her get through the books faster. I mean, really, who would quilt when they could read about Jessica’s latest shenanigans?)

Anyway, Double Love introduces us to the Wakefield twins and their classmates in fictional Sweet Valley, California, a land of perpetual sunshine and beautiful people. Head cheerleader Jessica likes Todd, captain of the basketball team and is desperate to get him to ask her to the upcoming dance, even though whenever Todd calls their house or runs into the girls in the halls of Sweet Valley High, it’s Elizabeth he wants to talk to. But Elizabeth doesn’t like Todd, so Jessica is free and clear to go after him … right? What follows is the usual teen heartache as Elizabeth and Todd navigate the rocky road to romance.

Considering there are about a couple hundred books written in the series and all its spin-offs, I won’t be continuing this trip down memory lane, but I will be looking forward to the movie, which I hear is being written by Diablo Cody who also penned the screenplay for Juno so I couldn’t be more excited!!

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

TBR = 5

WPL = 13

L plays catch-up

2011-04-06T11:43:00.001-04:00

Just when I think it’s time to set aside the J.D. Robb books, out comes one that reminds me just what I love about them. Treachery in Death is J.D. Robb at her best, weaving in just about everything I like about the series and characters. Eve Dallas is at her kick-ass best, and Roarke is her ever steady, loving, supportive post with just enough print time of his own to make reading this book extra enjoyable.

Eve’s stalwart partner, the ever steady Peabody, Detective Delia has overheard a couple of dirty cops plotting death. While Eve generally stands for murder, this time, she must protect the blue line and route out a squad full of the dirtiest of dirty cops – cop killers.

While I generally don’t like knowing who-done-it right off the bat, Robb makes it work in this latest installment to the series, which is a satisfying read of one-up-man-ship between opposing lieutenants. It’s good cop verse bad cop at Robb’s finest and a very satisfying read.

Till next time, happy reading,

L J

TBR = 5

WPL = 12

The Color Purple

2011-04-06T11:27:00.001-04:00

I read Alice Walker’s pivotal novel The Color Purple for a Women’s Studies course called Gal Pal’s: Women and Friendship. I saw the movie, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, many years ago so vaguely recalled the story. The book is a beautifully written epistolary novel about the struggles of four women spanning several decades in the early 1900s. Celie, the female protagonist, tells her story first in letters addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. The story begins when Celie is twelve, and pregnant with her second child by her father who has told her she better not tell anyone except God, or it would break her mother’s heart.

Celie’s children are taken from her at birth and she is soon married off to local widower, Mister, in need of a woman to clean, cook and look after his children. Tragedy strikes when Mister preys on Celie’s younger sister Nettie. Not wanting Nettie to go through what she did, Celie helps Nettie get out, but is soon left alone to undergo abuse and neglect by Mister and his bratty children. The years pass, and Mister’s oldest boy brings home a bride, the feisty Sofia, who refuses to be a battered wife. This is Celie’s first opportunity to realize women do not have to be slaves to their men.

Although Celie is brutalized by the men in her life, she finds solace in the female friendships she forms, the “sisters” she bonds with and who together transform each other’s lives, giving Celie the much needed strength to fling off male oppression and stand on her own two feet as a strong independent woman.

The Color Purple is a truly wonderful read about the strength of female friendship and the redemption and reconciliation that can arise from true hardship.

Till next time, happy reading,

L J

TBR = 5

WPL = 11

What L’s been reading lately

2011-03-21T16:39:00.001-04:00

Not a whole heck of a lot, actually. I have been grossly neglectful of this poor blog, but only because I’ve been reading academic articles on ethical hacking, net neutrality, free speech and porn in libraries. Needless to say, the coursework this semester has kept me from reading for fun. But I have managed to fit in a quick book or two here and there, namely Skinny Bitch and The SkinnyGirl Dish.

I am so addicted to Slice TV. Sad but true. Several months ago I spent a quiet Saturday afternoon glued to a Real Housewives of New York marathon. Yes, it was misspent time, wherein I wasted several hours of my life which I will never get back, but it’s like watching a train wreck. I just couldn’t tear my eyes away. Then I saw the ads for Bethenny Getting Married?, a reality show focused on the more famous housewife of New York, Bethenny Frankel. I quickly became obsessed. I clearly have no life. It’s my dirty little secret laid bare, please be gentle with your criticism.

Bethenny (I have to use her first name, cause it’s like we’re best buds!) is a cook and founder of the SkinnyGirl Margarita, a line of 100 calorie cocktails that’s taken New York and now elsewhere in the States by storm. She advocates a healthful eating plan that helps you lower the fat, while not skimping on the taste. I’m not a complete convert, but her book The SkinnyGirl Dish, which is a cookbook companion to her Naturally Thin “diet” book, takes any recipe and shows you how to modify it using the ingredients you have on hand. Just what this new-to-the-whole-cooking-thing girl needs to gain confidence in the kitchen. This book is a great take on the traditional cookbook and I’m eager to try some of her offerings.

While checking out Bethenny’s other books on Amazon, I came across a mention for Skinny Bitch, which is a similar philosophy to The SkinnyGirl Dish. Essentially these books are not about dieting and setting up yet another diet meal plan for those who have some pounds to shed, but instead look at how you can make your favourites less fatty and caloric. Bethenny advocates the “taste everything, eat nothing” philosophy, in that you shouldn’t deny yourself any type of food, or make food your enemy, but that you should have some, in moderation, but fill up on good, healthy food like veggies.

In Skinny Bitch, former Ford models Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin also advocate not denying yourself previously labeled “bad” food, but to eat in moderation and consider healthier choices – namely vegan choices. Skinny Bitch is blatantly vegan and is not a read for the weak stomached as it graphically details the hell that is the killing room floor in most slaughterhouses, not to mention just what crap is put in our food chain (antibiotics, growth hormones, bacteria, etc). It’s enough to make this meat eater seriously consider going full vegan (in fact, while reading the book, I had to give my dog extra cuddles to ease my guilty conscience).

Both books are a refreshing take on “diet” books. Rather than giving you a list of don’ts and foods to avoid eating, or put you on ridiculously restricting diets (anti-carbs, super low cals, etc), they focus more on the psychology of eating – eat when you’re hungry, not when you’re stressed; think about what you are eating and why; think about your food choices – what’s healthy, what isn’t and how food makes you feel. When food stops becoming your enemy or your friend, but is just food, only then can you obtain the skinny girl, or skinny bitch you were naturally meant to be (oh and neither book expects you to weigh yourself obsessively, count calories, weigh food, or obtain a specific weight/size).

In April Bethenny Ever After starts up. I’ll be hooked again. Don’t laugh. And don’t call me on Saturdays either, cause I’ll be watching Slice.

Till next time, happy watching, er reading!

L J

TBR = 4

WPL = 11

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

2011-02-22T13:59:00.001-05:00

Picking up where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off, Larsson’s third novel blows it right out of the water. A gravely injured Lisbeth Salander slowly recuperates in hospital while Mikael Blomkvist searches for the truth behind a government conspiracy buried within Sweden’s Security Police. A small, elite group of SIS officers formed a secret agency in the 60s to deal with spies and stumbled across the Russian defector Alexander Zalachenko. Zalachenko, who worked for Russia’s GRU (similar to KGB) sold information in return for absolute immunity, including freedom to commit crimes against the citizens of Sweden. As a result Zalachenko’s daughter, Lisbeth Salander, was grossly denied her civil rights and locked up in a psychiatric hospital at the age of twelve for fear she would leak the truth of Zalachenko’s existence. Now in her 20s and still a ward of the state, Lisbeth faces re-incarceration in a mental ward by those who still protect Zalachenko and must fight to regain her life and freedom.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the very best of spy novels, with so many intricate twists and turns and revelations, it will keep you turning the pages until the very end. Larsson is a master storyteller who has polished off his trilogy with his best writing yet.

Till next time, happy reading,

L J

TBR = 4

WPL = 9

L Reads New CanLit for February

2011-02-16T11:46:00.001-05:00

Jeff Lemeire’s graphic novel trilogy, Essex County, is true down home reading. Lemeire’s hometown of Woodslee ON, located in the heart of Essex County, is the backdrop for this tale of rural family life.

In Tales from the Farm, young Lester lives with his uncle Ken on a farm in Essex County, ON. His mother has recently died and he does not know who is father is. Lester spends his days feeding the chickens, reading comic books and playing down at the creek. He is befriended by Jimmy LeBeuf, a one-time NHL hockey player who took a hit in his first major league game and is now “a little slow” as a result. Jimmy runs the local Esso and is kind to Lester when he badly needs a friend.

Ghost Stories is the tale of two brothers who share a dream to move to the big city (Toronto) and play major league hockey. Vince has all the talent, but yearns for quite days on the farm with his best girl Beth. Lou busts out his knee in the minor leagues, falls for his brothers girlfriend, and lives out a lonely existence as a TTC driver in Toronto.

Rounding out the trilogy is The Country Nurse, a woman who makes house calls to the neighbouring farmers, repairs family rifts and has her own unique ancestry.

Lemeire’s Essex County trilogy is a beautifully written and illustrated graphic novel filled with community, family, grief and reconciliation. Jeff Lemeire writes for every kid who grew up in rural Ontario. Essex County is truly a delight.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

Update on the WPL vs TBR challenge

Well gentle readers, it appears I have a conundrum to solve. The Essex County trilogy was published in three separate volumes, and I had to sign each of them out from the library individually. So, would you count this as one (1) WPL book or three (3)? The librarian in me says three, since they were individually catalogued and barcoded. But man, that really skews my stats!! I’m now four TBRs behind. Boo. L

TBR = 4

WPL = 8

The Girl Who Played With Fire

2011-02-14T11:29:00.001-05:00

Stieg Larsson knocked another one out of the ball park with his second novel and follow-up to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Kiss-ass girl power is back in the form of Lisbeth Salander, who finds herself framed for a triple murder. Her lurid past dragged out in the press, her few friends targeted and beaten by very bad criminals, who can she turn to for help? Friend and journalist Mikael Blomkvist staunchly defends Lisbeth’s innocence and will not rest until the truth and real killer are discovered.

Once again Larsson draws you in to his wonderfully written web of plot twists and turns that will keep you captivated to the very end, and leave you wanting more. I am now dying to read the third book, yet so very sad it’s his last one. (For those unaware, Stieg Larsson died shortly after handing in three complete novels to his publisher).

I do have one criticism of Larsson’s work, and I’m left to wonder, had he lived through the editing process, would the flaws have been polished before the books were printed? The first two books have started off incredibly slowly for me, but once I got past the first 50 – 100 pages, the story completely grabbed me and didn’t shake me loose until the final page was turned. As I don’t normally read books of this genre, I found the reading went easier after first watching the movies, and even knowing how they ended, I was nonetheless completely enthralled with the books, so much so that I literally couldn’t put them down until finished.

I highly recommend both The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its follow-up The Girl Who Played With Fire as they were excellent, but unless you normally read books of this ilk, watch the movies first, it will enhance your reading enjoyment to no end.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 4

WPL = 5

Listen up, you wanker!

2011-01-29T12:37:00.001-05:00

Yup, you read that right. I have spent the week immersed in Dawn French’s A Tiny Bit Marvellous, and now I can pepper my speech with the best of British slang. It’s a total cock-up! So, you twatty wonk, here’s what I think about this book:

First, it’s not minging, in case you were worried. Second, it didn’t quite blow me away as I had hoped. Dawn French is a British comedienne who has worked alongside Jennifer Saunders (of Absolutely Fabulous) in the hit show Saunders & French and has many TV, theatre and film credits to her name. She’s bloody hilarious and I expected much of the book, especially since, when I picked it up at the library and read the first couple of lines I nearly laughed out loud. Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

The novel is written in a series of journal entries by three different people. There is Mo, nearing her 50^th birthday, married and the mother of two teenagers: Dora aged 17 and Oscar aged 15. While dad is basically the supportive glue that keeps this dysfunctional family together, he only gets one chapter or journal entry to give voice to his character. The rest of the book is taken up by Mo and the kids.

Dora is a typical teenager, finishing up high school and unsure what she wants for the future. She suffers from the usual teenage angst: poor self image, boy trouble and a love-hate relationship with the ole Mater.

Oscar, christened Peter, believes he is channeling the spirit of Oscar Wilde, and insists everyone call him Oscar. He is enchanting, fashion conscious and very definitely gay. His story is a real treat to read.

Mo, a child psychologist, is going through a mid-life crises while attempting to deal with her daughter’s tantrums, her son’s peculiarities, and the interest of a much younger male colleague at work.

The book is an interesting read, filled with wonderfully quirky British characters, but it never really seems to build or go anywhere. Other than the rather weak family conflict there is really no actual story going on. It was just a series of stream of consciousness jottings by three distinctly unique characters. Plus a lot of British slang. So A Tiny Bit Marvellous turned out to be a tiny bit disappointing for me.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 4

WPL =4

L Returns to the TBR Bookcase

2011-01-23T11:49:00.001-05:00

Tomson Highway’s beautifully written novel Kiss of the Fur Queen is delightfully bizarre and mystical, tender and heartbreaking. It begins in 1951, when caribou hunter Andrew Okimasis wins the World Championship Dog Derby, is kissed by the Fur Queen, arrives home in triumph and nine months later welcomes baby boy Champion (Jeremiah) Okimasis. Two years later, the caribou hunter’s wife gives birth to their twelfth child, Gabriel. The young Cree brothers grow up on Mistik Lake in Northern Manitoba, where at the age of seven, children are flown south to Birch Lake Residential School, run by the Jesuits. Anyone aware of Canadian history will know sexual abuse was rampant at these schools. Tomson Highway himself was born on an Indian reserve and sent to a Residential school. He knows firsthand what went on there. His book does not sugarcoat this knowledge.

Jeremiah and Gabriel are two incredibly gifted boys. Jeremiah’s musical talent leads him to a career as the first Indian pianist while Gabriel dances his way to cities around the world. Both must deal with the abuses suffered at the Residential School in their own unique ways. Jeremiah by suppressing it, which leads to a life half-lived, drowning in alcohol, and Gabriel by embracing his sexual proclivities which leads to disease. Neither is able to overcome the past, but for Jeremiah, after years of struggle, there is hope in catharsis through his art.

Worse than the sexual abuse, though, seems to be the loss of culture, of language, of religion that alienates these boys from both their own people and the white man’s world. The Cree in Northern Manitoba have been forced to embrace Roman Catholicism and their myths and shamans deemed evil, never to be spoken of. At the Residential School, Cree is forbidden, and so the boys struggle to walk in both worlds, never truly fitting in. It’s a horrific account of the alienation of an entire generation of native peoples, with consequences that continue to trickle down through the years.

Kiss of the Fur Queen in an enchanting book filled with myth, sorcery, heartbreak and the essence of humanity. It is a book I wholeheartedly recommend.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 4

WPL = 3

L Reads a Page-Turner

2011-01-17T22:09:00.001-05:00

I must be one of the last people in the known universe to finally read Stieg Larsson’s acclaimed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Everywhere I go, people are talking about this book and the movie. Some months ago I watched the movie and blogged about it. I found the movie riveting and immensely enjoyable. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Having now finally gotten around to reading the book, I can confidently say the same about it. OMFG this book is a totally awesome read!!! Seriously if you haven’t read this book, put down the book you’re currently reading and go out and get it. It won’t disappoint!

As I progressed through the story, I was fascinated to discover how close the movie was to the book but despite already knowing the denouement, I simply could not put the book down. Larsson has an easy way with words that will draw you in and keep you enthralled as the story progresses from one revelation to another and just when you think you’ve reached the end, he’s got another surprise in store in the next chapter.

The characters are intriguing and fascinatingly portrayed and the story of the 30+ year old disappearance of sixteen year old Harriet Vanger is wonderfully complex and never tiring. Having turned the final page, I am left wanting more. More Larsson, and even more Lisbeth Salander, a most intriguing heroine with a dark, mysterious past I can only hope is further revealed in the next two books.

If you like crime novels and mystery novels you will love The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It completely lives up to the hype.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

TBR = 3

WPL = 3

Beatrice & Virgil

2011-01-12T22:07:00.001-05:00

Henry, following upon the success of his first novel, attempts to sell the idea of a “flip book.” Not the cartoon-kind, in which each page has a cartoon drawn slightly differently than the page before so that when you flip the pages of the book, it appears to be in motion (a horse galloping for example). Henry’s flip book will consist of a novel on one side and an essay on the other, both addressing the same subject matter and when you reach the centre of the book, and thereby the end of the novel, the essay will be written upside down, so that you will have to “flip” the book in order to read it. A novel idea if you’ll pardon the pun.

Henry wants to re-imagine the Holocaust. He wants to write about the Holocaust only represent it differently and when his sales pitch falls on deaf ears, Henry has a crisis of faith, moves out of the country and gives up writing entirely.

Though Henry now spends his days taking music lessons and learning new languages, his pivotal, critically acclaimed first book is still impacting people’s lives and these readers write to him, care of his publisher, who diligently forwards on the mail. Henry faithfully reads and responds to each letter. One day, in the mail is an envelope containing pages of an unpublished play about two characters discussing a pear: Beatrice and Virgil. The playwright, who lives in the same city, encloses a brief note asking for Henry’s help. Henry decides to hand deliver his response and this is how he comes to meet Henry the taxidermist and playwright. Together they form an unusual alliance, meeting irregularly to discuss the play and as Henry becomes more and more involved in the taxidermist’s drama, he realizes the playwright has accomplished what he himself failed with his second novel: “he was representing the Holocaust differently.”

Pieces of the play are interspersed throughout the novel, and reveal a horror that only Holocaust literature can. Beatrice and Virgil are a donkey and howler monkey and the play is told from the perspective of the animals, imagining they are being tortured and killed just as sadistically as the Jews during the Holocaust (or the Horrors as Virgil calls it).

A truly riveting novel that is not for the faint of heart, Yann Martel, author of the critically acclaimed Life of Pi, has created another masterpiece with Beatrice & Virgil. This is a book that will linger, long after the final page has been turned.

Till next time, happy reading.

L :)

L reads new CanLit: This Cake is for the Party

2011-01-10T13:40:00.001-05:00

In an effort to read new-to-me Canadian authors, I picked up one of the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists, Sarah Selecky and her collection of short stories entitled This Cake is for the Party, and spent the weekend delightfully enmeshed in her tales of urban and small-town fiction. This is not your typical prairie harvest CanLit.

Selecky writes in a number of voices, tackling both female and male points of view. Relationships are the focal point of her work and she explores how we relate to each other in very unique ways – like looking through a microscope she brings us to the heart of each relationship, examining its strengths and conflicts in thought-provoking ways.

This is a small collection of stories that left me wanting a whole lot more Selecky. Her characters are endearing, quirky, wonderful and lovingly brought to life through the simplest details of life. In some instances, specifically with Standing up for Janey, I felt the story ended too abruptly and I was left yearning to know what happens next. This is the magic of Selecky, who has a terrific gift for storytelling and if you haven’t read her yet, do so at once!! You won’t be disappointed.

I very much enjoyed my CanLit read for January, discovering a new-to-me author I’m dying to read more of.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

TBR = 3

WPL = 1