By Anna Burns
This book won the Mann Booker Prize this year.
I found it a very interesting book. It was a bit unusual both in the writing style and the story. The author seemed to write almost in a stream of consciousness style at times. You had to read every word, I found I had to re-read at times so I wouldn't miss what she was saying.
The story takes place in an unnamed country but it sounds a lot like northern Ireland. There is a lot of turmoil and chaos. The people don't mention the "other country", even hits of familiarity with or attention to the other country can get you branded a traitor. There is fighting between people of different religions but also it seems that the government is spying on everyone.
The young woman tries to mind her own business. She walks along reading books. She navigates by various local landmarks including a bombed out zone. She has a person she refers to as her maybe-boyfriend as they have not made a real commitment to a relationship. The girl's mother is urging her to settle down and marry. The people she proposes as potential husbands are creeps. Her boyfriend likes to work on cars and collect car parts.... he gets part of a Bentley car and one person implies that by virtue of having a part of this car he could be considered a traitor.
The young girl tries to remain emotionless in her speech, motions and reactions.... This behaviour makes her a suspect. She is taking a french class. The Teacher tries to get the students to really look at things, sunsets, etc. She is trying to make the children aware of beauty in the world.
The young woman somehow attracts the attention of a local tough guy, known as the milkman. He stops to talk to her, walks with her, seems to be spying on her. She rebuffs his attention but by virtue of the rumour mill she gains some acclaim as his girlfriend (he is a married man). She becomes frightened when he threatens to hurt or kill her maybe boyfriend.
In another part of the story there is a real milkman in the neighbourhood. He is considered a loner. He is suffering from an unrequited love. Anyone considered unusual or a loner are considered dangerous, on the edge, by the locals. The real milkman doesn't carry about others' opinions and goes about helping people including the girl's mother. One day the real milkman is shot. The girl's mother and other single women in the neighbourhood rush to comfort him at the hospital. The other women are jealous when the girl's mother wins him over. Eventually they get married. The girl's maybe boyfriend discovers he loves his best friend "Chef" and they make plans to leave and move to the carribean.
This write up may not make the books seem very interesting but I really enjoyed the story and the interplay of the lives of the character and how the author told the story but also the girl's perspective.
It was a worthy winner of the MB Prize.
Monday, 31 December 2018
Sunday, 7 October 2018
Little Comfort
by Edwin Hill
This book has been getting a lot of promotion. It is supposed to be about a Librarian who works to track missing people down.
The woman is a Librarian but she is on leave because she and her boyfriend have become the care givers for her boyfriends niece as the child's mother (the librarian's friend) has run away.
The Librarian, Hester, loves the child but resents that she has become the babysitter and has to give up her job.
She is contacted by a woman whose brother has been missing for years. The woman says she wants to tell her brother that she plans to sell the family's lake cottage and wants to share the proceeds with him. The woman gives Hester postcards that she has received over the years from various cities in the U.S., they all have quotes on them which Hester figures out pertain to movies.
She learns that the woman's brother and a young foster boy he befriended ran away together.
The story then switches to the woman's brother and his friend. It turns out they are living in the city as Hester. The woman's borther keeps trying to make himself rich by hooking up with rich women but things keep going wrong. His friend, Gabe, supports them both by being a programmer. Every time they move the brother insists they change names. He adopts the identity of dead people.
Hester manages to track the men down because of a photo on the latest postcard.
At this time the brother is trying to woo a socialite. He thinks he is finally going to make it big with her and have a good life. However, one day the brother's cover is blown when a good friend of his lover recognizes him as a boy who used to clean and look after her family's lakehouse. He of course kills her and sets up an army veteran for the crime.
As the story progresses we find that the brother and Gabe originally left around the time a body was found near their house. They murdered that person and have subsequently killed other people
As the story nears its conclusion the brother has told Gabe to kill Hester but she has been kind to him and he thinks he loves her so he kidnaps her instead. While he is kidnapping her, unbeknownst to Gabe, the brother is kidanpping the niece.
The story ends at the brother's home. Gabe ends up killing the brother and is arrested for all the murders. Hester realizes that the Sister never really wanted to contact her brother she actually wanted him dead so she could inherit all the money from the Lakehouse.
The book was tense. From the very beginning we knew that the brother was evil and dangerous. Things were tied together well at the end. I just don't know why the author bothered to give Hester a career as a Librarian, while it is hyped in the writeups for the books it had no role in the book.
This book has been getting a lot of promotion. It is supposed to be about a Librarian who works to track missing people down.
The woman is a Librarian but she is on leave because she and her boyfriend have become the care givers for her boyfriends niece as the child's mother (the librarian's friend) has run away.
The Librarian, Hester, loves the child but resents that she has become the babysitter and has to give up her job.
She is contacted by a woman whose brother has been missing for years. The woman says she wants to tell her brother that she plans to sell the family's lake cottage and wants to share the proceeds with him. The woman gives Hester postcards that she has received over the years from various cities in the U.S., they all have quotes on them which Hester figures out pertain to movies.
She learns that the woman's brother and a young foster boy he befriended ran away together.
The story then switches to the woman's brother and his friend. It turns out they are living in the city as Hester. The woman's borther keeps trying to make himself rich by hooking up with rich women but things keep going wrong. His friend, Gabe, supports them both by being a programmer. Every time they move the brother insists they change names. He adopts the identity of dead people.
Hester manages to track the men down because of a photo on the latest postcard.
At this time the brother is trying to woo a socialite. He thinks he is finally going to make it big with her and have a good life. However, one day the brother's cover is blown when a good friend of his lover recognizes him as a boy who used to clean and look after her family's lakehouse. He of course kills her and sets up an army veteran for the crime.
As the story progresses we find that the brother and Gabe originally left around the time a body was found near their house. They murdered that person and have subsequently killed other people
As the story nears its conclusion the brother has told Gabe to kill Hester but she has been kind to him and he thinks he loves her so he kidnaps her instead. While he is kidnapping her, unbeknownst to Gabe, the brother is kidanpping the niece.
The story ends at the brother's home. Gabe ends up killing the brother and is arrested for all the murders. Hester realizes that the Sister never really wanted to contact her brother she actually wanted him dead so she could inherit all the money from the Lakehouse.
The book was tense. From the very beginning we knew that the brother was evil and dangerous. Things were tied together well at the end. I just don't know why the author bothered to give Hester a career as a Librarian, while it is hyped in the writeups for the books it had no role in the book.
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan
This book just made the shortlist for the Mann Booker this year and the longlist for the Giller Prize.
I have to say I wonder why? It was okay but I didn't find it all that engaging or special.
It is the story of a slave, Washington Black, in Barbados. When the story starts he is about 6 years old and is already being worked hard on the plantation. He is being looked after by a woman called Big Kit.
One day the brother of the Plantation owner arrives and takes Wash on as his valet, cook and to assist him with his scientific enquiries including plans for building a hot air balloon. The boys life is a lot easier in this role than it was before.
The cousin of the two brothers arrives to tell them that he has come from England to tell them that their father has died in the Arctic where he was conducting scientific experiments. The youngest brother is very upset by this. One day the cousin and Wash are with the youngest brother as he is doing a test on his balloon. The cousin asks Wash to fetch some sandwich's near the balloon. There is an explosion and Wash's face is badly burned.
Shortly after this the cousin kills himself and the younger brother feels that Wash will be accused of murder (why???). He takes Wash with him and they head off in the balloon crashing on a ship in the ocean during the storm. The storm takes them to New England where the brother tells Wash that he could get to freedom via the underground railroad. Wash says he wants to stay with him. They find a poster announcing a bounty on Wash's head so they leave quicky for the arctic where they find out that the Father is not dead after all. One day the younger brother walks off in the snow and despite searches he is not found again. It is assumed that he perished.
Wash doesn't know what to do but sticks around until the father dies. He then heads to Nova Scotia where he makes a living doing odd jobs. He meets a young lady, an aspiring artist and her scientist father who sees Wash's artisitic talent and asks him to illustrate his next book. Tish then encounters a bounty hunter who had been seeking him. He is told that the older brother has died so he thinks he is free. However the bounty hunter attacks him as Wash destroyed his reputation by getting away from him. Wash stabs him in the face and escapes.
Wash suggests that the scientist collect live specimens to take back to England not just dead ones. He starts figuring out a way to preserve them.... the start of an acquariaum design?? They leave for England and Wash goes to visit the Mother of the two brothers. She tells him that her young son visited her two years ago so Wash knows he did not die. Wash learns that papers from the plantation have been brought to England. He checks the registers and learns that the black woman who looked after him as a child was his mother and she has died. He is shocked and relieved by this news. He eventually learns that the young brother has moved to Morocco. He and the young woman, who has become his lover go to Morocco where they find the brother.
Wash has always wondered about who he was, what he was, was he of any value. Learning of his mother fills in part of his identity. He finds out that the young brother did like him, wasn't just using him. He also finds out that the young brother carries a lot of guilt over the death of the cousin. He an his brother had bullied the cousin.... perhaps this was why the cousin told them the lie about their father's death.
As the book ends Wash seems to have a sense of who he is and he plans to go back to England to insist he be recognized for his work designing the acquarium tanks, etc.
It was an interesting tale, perhaps it seemed like a Forest Gump/too tall tale. But obviously others think highly of it.
Quote from The Guardian
"This is, in fact, less a book about the effects of slavery and more about the burden, responsibility and the guilt of personal freedom in a time of slavery. “What does it feel like, Kit? Free?” Washington asks Big Kit, a female fellow slave who is, for a time, his protector.
She tells him that it is a matter of being able to “go wherever it is you wanting.” He heads towards this goal for free movement, experiencing both the privilege and the guilt from the gradations of freedom afforded him."
This book just made the shortlist for the Mann Booker this year and the longlist for the Giller Prize.
I have to say I wonder why? It was okay but I didn't find it all that engaging or special.
It is the story of a slave, Washington Black, in Barbados. When the story starts he is about 6 years old and is already being worked hard on the plantation. He is being looked after by a woman called Big Kit.
One day the brother of the Plantation owner arrives and takes Wash on as his valet, cook and to assist him with his scientific enquiries including plans for building a hot air balloon. The boys life is a lot easier in this role than it was before.
The cousin of the two brothers arrives to tell them that he has come from England to tell them that their father has died in the Arctic where he was conducting scientific experiments. The youngest brother is very upset by this. One day the cousin and Wash are with the youngest brother as he is doing a test on his balloon. The cousin asks Wash to fetch some sandwich's near the balloon. There is an explosion and Wash's face is badly burned.
Shortly after this the cousin kills himself and the younger brother feels that Wash will be accused of murder (why???). He takes Wash with him and they head off in the balloon crashing on a ship in the ocean during the storm. The storm takes them to New England where the brother tells Wash that he could get to freedom via the underground railroad. Wash says he wants to stay with him. They find a poster announcing a bounty on Wash's head so they leave quicky for the arctic where they find out that the Father is not dead after all. One day the younger brother walks off in the snow and despite searches he is not found again. It is assumed that he perished.
Wash doesn't know what to do but sticks around until the father dies. He then heads to Nova Scotia where he makes a living doing odd jobs. He meets a young lady, an aspiring artist and her scientist father who sees Wash's artisitic talent and asks him to illustrate his next book. Tish then encounters a bounty hunter who had been seeking him. He is told that the older brother has died so he thinks he is free. However the bounty hunter attacks him as Wash destroyed his reputation by getting away from him. Wash stabs him in the face and escapes.
Wash suggests that the scientist collect live specimens to take back to England not just dead ones. He starts figuring out a way to preserve them.... the start of an acquariaum design?? They leave for England and Wash goes to visit the Mother of the two brothers. She tells him that her young son visited her two years ago so Wash knows he did not die. Wash learns that papers from the plantation have been brought to England. He checks the registers and learns that the black woman who looked after him as a child was his mother and she has died. He is shocked and relieved by this news. He eventually learns that the young brother has moved to Morocco. He and the young woman, who has become his lover go to Morocco where they find the brother.
Wash has always wondered about who he was, what he was, was he of any value. Learning of his mother fills in part of his identity. He finds out that the young brother did like him, wasn't just using him. He also finds out that the young brother carries a lot of guilt over the death of the cousin. He an his brother had bullied the cousin.... perhaps this was why the cousin told them the lie about their father's death.
As the book ends Wash seems to have a sense of who he is and he plans to go back to England to insist he be recognized for his work designing the acquarium tanks, etc.
It was an interesting tale, perhaps it seemed like a Forest Gump/too tall tale. But obviously others think highly of it.
Quote from The Guardian
"This is, in fact, less a book about the effects of slavery and more about the burden, responsibility and the guilt of personal freedom in a time of slavery. “What does it feel like, Kit? Free?” Washington asks Big Kit, a female fellow slave who is, for a time, his protector.
She tells him that it is a matter of being able to “go wherever it is you wanting.” He heads towards this goal for free movement, experiencing both the privilege and the guilt from the gradations of freedom afforded him."
Sunday, 16 September 2018
In Our Mad and Furious City
by Guy Gunaratne
This is the third Booker longlist nominee I have read this year. It was in two words.... brilliant and gut wrenching.
I was grabbed by the language right in the first few pages.
It is a book that in part is also set in two times (the 1970's? and the present). The book is about the racial/religious tensions in the past and in the present. It was a difficult book to read because of the things that happened it it. But at the same time the author was brilliant as he built up the tension to the "explosive" ending. The language was incredible, the interactions between the characters very powerful. While parts of the book her very negative and angry the book did seem to offer some hope for those who choose love over hate.
There are several characters in the book. Each chapter is written from the point of view of one character so that in some cases you get separate chapters covering the same incident from different character's perspectives.
The story displays increasing tension among blacks and Muslims in London and the impact it has on the young men and the reaction of the whites and others who aren't directl involved in the conflict but are impacted by it.
The stories from the past include a young black who comes to London from some tropical country so that he can save enough money so he can bring the woman he loves to England. At one point he gets tied up in partying with his buddies and later gets involved in some of the black unrest... but he decides to leave London before things get really serious. He does bring his lover to England and in the present he is ill (incapacitated) living with his wife and son. His son likes to run and box... he runs to get control of tension and this anger. He longs to be an olympic athlete.
The second story from the past is a young woman, daughter in an IRA family, who is sent to London to escape the violence in Ireland. She married but her husband left her with their child, a son. The woman's son is aware that there is tension between the white's, blacks and the Muslims but he just wants to hang out with the guys, play soccer, and write rap songs. He doesn't understand why there has to be the tension between the groups. The athlete encourages him to pursue his dreams and even gets him and intro to a record exec.
The third story is about two Muslim brothers. Their father was the Imam. When he died the new Imam adopted the family. The boys don't like the new Iman or the aggression he is breeding in young men in the Mosque. The older brother marries but his marriage doesn't last as his wife finds out he has pornographic and pedophic material on his computer. The man's family is devastated by this news but the young man is more upset when the Iman tells the older brother that he is not responsible for what is has done... he has been corrupted by the evil i London. The young brother confronts his brother and tells him he MUST accept responsibility. The older brother's response is to burn down the Mosque.
Not surprisingly, the Muslims assume the blacks set the fire and tension escalates, there are marches and demonstrations. They young brother of the Muslim man gets trampled during one of the demonstrations and dies.
The son of the woman is devastated by his friends death but his Mother, with whom he had not had a good relationship lately, tells him she is there for him and encourages him to follow his dream.
This was a powerful, brilliant book. You really got to see and feel what the various characters were feeling and experiencing. One of the most powerful parts of the books occurs when the black man who came to England to make his fortune sees some letters scrawled on a wall, KBW. It feels like a punch to the gut when he is told that stands for Keep Britain White. He cannot understand why blacks are despised by the Brits. He feels he is working hard and not causing any trouble.
I think this book would be worthy of the Booker award,
This is the third Booker longlist nominee I have read this year. It was in two words.... brilliant and gut wrenching.
I was grabbed by the language right in the first few pages.
It is a book that in part is also set in two times (the 1970's? and the present). The book is about the racial/religious tensions in the past and in the present. It was a difficult book to read because of the things that happened it it. But at the same time the author was brilliant as he built up the tension to the "explosive" ending. The language was incredible, the interactions between the characters very powerful. While parts of the book her very negative and angry the book did seem to offer some hope for those who choose love over hate.
There are several characters in the book. Each chapter is written from the point of view of one character so that in some cases you get separate chapters covering the same incident from different character's perspectives.
The story displays increasing tension among blacks and Muslims in London and the impact it has on the young men and the reaction of the whites and others who aren't directl involved in the conflict but are impacted by it.
The stories from the past include a young black who comes to London from some tropical country so that he can save enough money so he can bring the woman he loves to England. At one point he gets tied up in partying with his buddies and later gets involved in some of the black unrest... but he decides to leave London before things get really serious. He does bring his lover to England and in the present he is ill (incapacitated) living with his wife and son. His son likes to run and box... he runs to get control of tension and this anger. He longs to be an olympic athlete.
The second story from the past is a young woman, daughter in an IRA family, who is sent to London to escape the violence in Ireland. She married but her husband left her with their child, a son. The woman's son is aware that there is tension between the white's, blacks and the Muslims but he just wants to hang out with the guys, play soccer, and write rap songs. He doesn't understand why there has to be the tension between the groups. The athlete encourages him to pursue his dreams and even gets him and intro to a record exec.
The third story is about two Muslim brothers. Their father was the Imam. When he died the new Imam adopted the family. The boys don't like the new Iman or the aggression he is breeding in young men in the Mosque. The older brother marries but his marriage doesn't last as his wife finds out he has pornographic and pedophic material on his computer. The man's family is devastated by this news but the young man is more upset when the Iman tells the older brother that he is not responsible for what is has done... he has been corrupted by the evil i London. The young brother confronts his brother and tells him he MUST accept responsibility. The older brother's response is to burn down the Mosque.
Not surprisingly, the Muslims assume the blacks set the fire and tension escalates, there are marches and demonstrations. They young brother of the Muslim man gets trampled during one of the demonstrations and dies.
The son of the woman is devastated by his friends death but his Mother, with whom he had not had a good relationship lately, tells him she is there for him and encourages him to follow his dream.
This was a powerful, brilliant book. You really got to see and feel what the various characters were feeling and experiencing. One of the most powerful parts of the books occurs when the black man who came to England to make his fortune sees some letters scrawled on a wall, KBW. It feels like a punch to the gut when he is told that stands for Keep Britain White. He cannot understand why blacks are despised by the Brits. He feels he is working hard and not causing any trouble.
I think this book would be worthy of the Booker award,
From a Low and Quiet Sea
by Donal Ryan
This is the second of the 2018 Booker longlist of books that I have read. I have read Warlight by Michael Ondaatje which is also nominated.... it was okay. Not as good as some of his other books in my opinion.
The Ryan book is about three men: a Syrian doctor who is convinced to try to leave by his wife. They are tricked by the people they pay money to, they had been promised a safe boat. The actual boat is a dump, not seaworthy and when a storm occurs the Doctor's wife and daughter drown in the hold of the ship. The Doctor ends up in a refugee camp but keeps getting rejected by countries because all he can do is talk about the trip and his insistence that his wife and daughter are still alive.
The second man is a successful business man who, while he has rejected the church, seems to want to confess all the bad and unethical things he has done in his life.
The third story is about a mother, grandfather and young man. The young man and grandfather don't get along well. The young man is working at a senior's home helping to keep an eye on residents and occasionally serving as a driver taking them to appointments or to visit their family. One day the young man takes some of the residents out in a new bus the home has purchased. Along the way the bus malfunctions but he is able to get it to limp to a repair shop. He calls the home and gets someone to bring the old bus owned by the home and he delivers his people. Later he goes to pick them up and is on his way back to the home when one of the ladies comments that one of the gents is missing.
The young man realizes he must have left the man on the first bus. When he gets to the bus the man is dead.
As the story ends we find the Syrian doctor visiting the boy's mother (romantic attachment), that his grandfather had, in the past, had his reputation ruined by the dead man because he would not agree to sell his land to a developer. So, all three stories are connected.
It was an okay story, interesting the way he connected the three lives. However, I didn't find it brilliant or unique in any way. I wonder why it got nominated for the Booker.
This is the second of the 2018 Booker longlist of books that I have read. I have read Warlight by Michael Ondaatje which is also nominated.... it was okay. Not as good as some of his other books in my opinion.
The Ryan book is about three men: a Syrian doctor who is convinced to try to leave by his wife. They are tricked by the people they pay money to, they had been promised a safe boat. The actual boat is a dump, not seaworthy and when a storm occurs the Doctor's wife and daughter drown in the hold of the ship. The Doctor ends up in a refugee camp but keeps getting rejected by countries because all he can do is talk about the trip and his insistence that his wife and daughter are still alive.
The second man is a successful business man who, while he has rejected the church, seems to want to confess all the bad and unethical things he has done in his life.
The third story is about a mother, grandfather and young man. The young man and grandfather don't get along well. The young man is working at a senior's home helping to keep an eye on residents and occasionally serving as a driver taking them to appointments or to visit their family. One day the young man takes some of the residents out in a new bus the home has purchased. Along the way the bus malfunctions but he is able to get it to limp to a repair shop. He calls the home and gets someone to bring the old bus owned by the home and he delivers his people. Later he goes to pick them up and is on his way back to the home when one of the ladies comments that one of the gents is missing.
The young man realizes he must have left the man on the first bus. When he gets to the bus the man is dead.
As the story ends we find the Syrian doctor visiting the boy's mother (romantic attachment), that his grandfather had, in the past, had his reputation ruined by the dead man because he would not agree to sell his land to a developer. So, all three stories are connected.
It was an okay story, interesting the way he connected the three lives. However, I didn't find it brilliant or unique in any way. I wonder why it got nominated for the Booker.
The Weight of Ink
by Rachel Kadish
This is a fabulous book. One of the best I have read in a long time. It was a long book but I enjoyed it.
The story is set in the 1700's and in the present day. It is about a young jewess who has been sent from Amsterdam to London for her safety. The Inquisition was underway in Amsterdam. Her father was killed because of his faith. Ester and her brother have been sent to live with a rabbi in London. Her brother is supposed to serve as the scribe for the blind Rabbi (he was blinded by Inquisitors). However her brother doesn't want to do this and runs away to the docks where he works as a labourer and is soon killed in a fight. Ester can write so for a time the Rabbi asks her to be her scribe while he awaits another young man to be sent to assist him. The Jewish faith does not think women should be educated so Ester is unusual. She loves being his scribes and reading his books.
The story set in the present. A London Professor, an expert on Jewish history (though) not Jewish is contacted by a former pupil. He and his wife have found a collection of old writings in Hebrew stashed under the staircase of a house they are renovating. The professor is assisted by a young American Jewish scholar. They have a short time to examine the documents and quickly realize they are historically very important. The papers are put up for auction and to the Profs relief her university buys them so she can continue to work on them.
The young scholar is struggling with his current academic thesis so is glad of the opportunity to examine these old documents. He wonders why the professor is so interested in Jewish history. We later learn that she spent some time in Israel and fell in love with a soldier. She leaves him over what I think is a strange reason.... In ancient times the people of Masada killed themselves rather than be captured by the Romans. At least one woman hid away and didn't get killed. This woman is considered a traitor/coward by the Jews. The Prof is shocked to think that her lover would have killed her if they had lived at that time. From a historical perspective we have to ask who would have told the story of Masada if the one woman hadn't survived.
As the prof and her assistant work through the papers they are interested in who the identify of the scribe might be as "he" only signs things with an E. Eventually they find some things written in the spaces between the lines of a copy of a letter that seems to indicate that the scribe was actually a woman! This is a shock.
As they go through the documents they see correspondence between the rabbi and other jews including the outcast philosopher Spinoza.... these letters were actually composed in secret by Ester not the rabbi.
The rabbi wants her to marry but she resists this. However she eventually has to marry after the Rabbi dies. She marries a gay man, who respects her intelligence and allows her to continue her correspondence with philosophers under assumed names.
There was a lot more happening in the book but it was an interesting book about history, Jewish History, questions about what is really true in history, can we believe things that are written down? It also addresses the discrimination against women.
A fascinating book.
This is a fabulous book. One of the best I have read in a long time. It was a long book but I enjoyed it.
The story is set in the 1700's and in the present day. It is about a young jewess who has been sent from Amsterdam to London for her safety. The Inquisition was underway in Amsterdam. Her father was killed because of his faith. Ester and her brother have been sent to live with a rabbi in London. Her brother is supposed to serve as the scribe for the blind Rabbi (he was blinded by Inquisitors). However her brother doesn't want to do this and runs away to the docks where he works as a labourer and is soon killed in a fight. Ester can write so for a time the Rabbi asks her to be her scribe while he awaits another young man to be sent to assist him. The Jewish faith does not think women should be educated so Ester is unusual. She loves being his scribes and reading his books.
The story set in the present. A London Professor, an expert on Jewish history (though) not Jewish is contacted by a former pupil. He and his wife have found a collection of old writings in Hebrew stashed under the staircase of a house they are renovating. The professor is assisted by a young American Jewish scholar. They have a short time to examine the documents and quickly realize they are historically very important. The papers are put up for auction and to the Profs relief her university buys them so she can continue to work on them.
The young scholar is struggling with his current academic thesis so is glad of the opportunity to examine these old documents. He wonders why the professor is so interested in Jewish history. We later learn that she spent some time in Israel and fell in love with a soldier. She leaves him over what I think is a strange reason.... In ancient times the people of Masada killed themselves rather than be captured by the Romans. At least one woman hid away and didn't get killed. This woman is considered a traitor/coward by the Jews. The Prof is shocked to think that her lover would have killed her if they had lived at that time. From a historical perspective we have to ask who would have told the story of Masada if the one woman hadn't survived.
As the prof and her assistant work through the papers they are interested in who the identify of the scribe might be as "he" only signs things with an E. Eventually they find some things written in the spaces between the lines of a copy of a letter that seems to indicate that the scribe was actually a woman! This is a shock.
As they go through the documents they see correspondence between the rabbi and other jews including the outcast philosopher Spinoza.... these letters were actually composed in secret by Ester not the rabbi.
The rabbi wants her to marry but she resists this. However she eventually has to marry after the Rabbi dies. She marries a gay man, who respects her intelligence and allows her to continue her correspondence with philosophers under assumed names.
There was a lot more happening in the book but it was an interesting book about history, Jewish History, questions about what is really true in history, can we believe things that are written down? It also addresses the discrimination against women.
A fascinating book.
Hour of the Fox
by Kurt Palka
This book is by a Canadian author. It is about a Toronto lawyer who is suffering major medical/mental anguish following the death of her son, a young soldier. She keeps thinking she failed him somehow by pursuing her career as a lawyer as well as being a mother. Her relationship with her husband is strained. She is living in a cottage on their property, rather than the family home as she feels closer to her son in the cottage.
As a young woman she got pregnant and was sent away to have the baby, which was put up for adoption. After that she was sent to Paris for schooling.
The woman has a very demanding job and is travelling a lot and working long hours. This helps to keep her mind occupied. One day an old friend from the Maritimes contacts her and asks her to come visit as the woman's son may be in trouble with the law. When the woman, Margaret, arrives she learns that a couple of young people, a boy and girl, have been found murdered on an island that her friend's son is supposed to be keeping an eye on (for absentee owners). There is no evidence that the woman's son had anything to do with it.
One day two well dressed men arrive at Margaret's friends house asking for her son and a friend of his. Later there is evidence of blood from a third person at the crime scene and a dress shoe is found in the water nearby. Police suspect that someone was stabbed and it is their blood on the pier.Margaret gets her friend, who is a nurse, to call hospitals and they find out that a man, similar to one of the men who visited the friend's house, was treated for a bad wound on his arm.
While this is all going on Margaret and her friend have a good relationship with the police, the police tell them about developments and they share what they have found with the police.
As Margaret is trying to help her friend she is also trying to keep up her legal work remotely. She finds that being away from Toronto is helping her be less stressed. She feels bad that the two young people have not been identified and offers to pay for the funeral and church service for them. She gets permission to do so and has them cremated. Then suddenly she learns that the young people are a brother and sister from South America and it looks like they may have been part of a drug smuggling operation.
In the book a wrecked boat of another fisherman is found but his body is never found. It is assumed he was the one who was part of the drug smuggling but the two fancy dress men are not arrested.
By the end the lawyer does seem to be coming to terms with her son's death, partly through spending time with the parents of the two dead kids. The one thing I was puzzled about was while she was so hung up on her dead son she didn't seem to give any thought to the child she gave up for adoption. It seemed like a very loose end.
This was an easy read, I finished it in one day, that doesn't happen very often. It was an okay book but not terribly deep or complicated.
This book is by a Canadian author. It is about a Toronto lawyer who is suffering major medical/mental anguish following the death of her son, a young soldier. She keeps thinking she failed him somehow by pursuing her career as a lawyer as well as being a mother. Her relationship with her husband is strained. She is living in a cottage on their property, rather than the family home as she feels closer to her son in the cottage.
As a young woman she got pregnant and was sent away to have the baby, which was put up for adoption. After that she was sent to Paris for schooling.
The woman has a very demanding job and is travelling a lot and working long hours. This helps to keep her mind occupied. One day an old friend from the Maritimes contacts her and asks her to come visit as the woman's son may be in trouble with the law. When the woman, Margaret, arrives she learns that a couple of young people, a boy and girl, have been found murdered on an island that her friend's son is supposed to be keeping an eye on (for absentee owners). There is no evidence that the woman's son had anything to do with it.
One day two well dressed men arrive at Margaret's friends house asking for her son and a friend of his. Later there is evidence of blood from a third person at the crime scene and a dress shoe is found in the water nearby. Police suspect that someone was stabbed and it is their blood on the pier.Margaret gets her friend, who is a nurse, to call hospitals and they find out that a man, similar to one of the men who visited the friend's house, was treated for a bad wound on his arm.
While this is all going on Margaret and her friend have a good relationship with the police, the police tell them about developments and they share what they have found with the police.
As Margaret is trying to help her friend she is also trying to keep up her legal work remotely. She finds that being away from Toronto is helping her be less stressed. She feels bad that the two young people have not been identified and offers to pay for the funeral and church service for them. She gets permission to do so and has them cremated. Then suddenly she learns that the young people are a brother and sister from South America and it looks like they may have been part of a drug smuggling operation.
In the book a wrecked boat of another fisherman is found but his body is never found. It is assumed he was the one who was part of the drug smuggling but the two fancy dress men are not arrested.
By the end the lawyer does seem to be coming to terms with her son's death, partly through spending time with the parents of the two dead kids. The one thing I was puzzled about was while she was so hung up on her dead son she didn't seem to give any thought to the child she gave up for adoption. It seemed like a very loose end.
This was an easy read, I finished it in one day, that doesn't happen very often. It was an okay book but not terribly deep or complicated.
Friday, 24 August 2018
An Ocean of Minutes
by Thea Lim
This is another book that has been getting a lot of hype this year.
It is the story of a young couple Polly and Frank. In the early 1980's a flu pandemic is spreading around the world. Frank gets the flu and will die unless he gets the right medicine. Polly is told she can save his life if she agrees to take a time machine and work for a company for a number of years in the future. Frank doesn't want her to do it but Polly agrees. She and Frank agree that they will try to reconnect again in the future at a specific hotel. They will try to reconnect by being at that location every Saturday in Sept.
Polly is told that she will be sent to 1995 but she is actually sent to 1998. She finds the future very distopian, much of the infrastructure is gone. She is sent to live in a rundown building and given a job as an upholsterers assistant. Conditions are tough and food is scarce.They are refurbishing furntiure for new resorts in this dystopian world. Polly tries to get word to her aunt and Frank about the fact that she was sent to a different year. She tries to find out if her aunt or Frank are still alive but gets no news. She finds that the hotel she had planned as a rendez vous location is no longer there but is actually a port. When she goes there on a Saturday it is thought that she is trying to escape so she gets into trouble. She finds that the US has been divided south from north and that it is very difficult to get to the less devastated north.
At one point her supervisor asks her to steal a package from an office, she does this. The package contains the high school year book for the high school Elvis Presley attended. Her supervisor feels it will be valuable to the rich people who still exist in the world. For some reason, perhaps to avoid consequences for his poor productivity and lack of results, her supervisor turns Polly in for stealing the yearbook. She is demoted and sent to a job where she cuts down plates to make tiles. She lives in a crowded dorm with living conditions even worse than her previous accommodation.
Then one day, the concierge of her former building asks her to marry him as he will get economic benefits from being married and for her pretending to be pregnant. He tells her they won't have to have sex. She doesn't want to go along with it but then he tells her that he has found contact information for Frank. She does marry him but eventually abandons him when he attempts to have sex with her, his plans for a false pregnancy have collapsed and he has lost all his money.
Later Polly finds that she has been released from her contract. It turns out her"husband" felt guilty for what he did to her and has paid to get her released. He has bought her a ticket so that she can join her boyfriend. She gets to "America" and is shocked to learn that her boyfriend married and has a daughter. He married a rich woman and has become very wealthy. Her boyfriend and his wife are now separated. Her boyfriend takes her to live with her aunt but he does not come to visit her. He bought the aunt a condo out of loyalty to her aunt and Polly.
After everything she went through for him she is shocked that he abandoned her by marrying another woman and his very cool reaction to her. He finally does come to see her and tells her he stayed away because he was ashamed. He says he had tried to find her in the past. It seems like they will rekindle their relationship.
I found the book disappointing, I thought it was plodding. I think that Frank got off too easy. I am not sure I would be as forgiving as Polly is.
While the book did have an interesting premise, the dystopian world etc. was not all that interesting. Despite everything she was going through Polly seemed to maintain her commitment to her boyfriend and aunt, it is surprising that her boyfriend, with his much easier life, couldn't have lived up to his commitment to wait for her.
This is another book that has been getting a lot of hype this year.
It is the story of a young couple Polly and Frank. In the early 1980's a flu pandemic is spreading around the world. Frank gets the flu and will die unless he gets the right medicine. Polly is told she can save his life if she agrees to take a time machine and work for a company for a number of years in the future. Frank doesn't want her to do it but Polly agrees. She and Frank agree that they will try to reconnect again in the future at a specific hotel. They will try to reconnect by being at that location every Saturday in Sept.
Polly is told that she will be sent to 1995 but she is actually sent to 1998. She finds the future very distopian, much of the infrastructure is gone. She is sent to live in a rundown building and given a job as an upholsterers assistant. Conditions are tough and food is scarce.They are refurbishing furntiure for new resorts in this dystopian world. Polly tries to get word to her aunt and Frank about the fact that she was sent to a different year. She tries to find out if her aunt or Frank are still alive but gets no news. She finds that the hotel she had planned as a rendez vous location is no longer there but is actually a port. When she goes there on a Saturday it is thought that she is trying to escape so she gets into trouble. She finds that the US has been divided south from north and that it is very difficult to get to the less devastated north.
At one point her supervisor asks her to steal a package from an office, she does this. The package contains the high school year book for the high school Elvis Presley attended. Her supervisor feels it will be valuable to the rich people who still exist in the world. For some reason, perhaps to avoid consequences for his poor productivity and lack of results, her supervisor turns Polly in for stealing the yearbook. She is demoted and sent to a job where she cuts down plates to make tiles. She lives in a crowded dorm with living conditions even worse than her previous accommodation.
Then one day, the concierge of her former building asks her to marry him as he will get economic benefits from being married and for her pretending to be pregnant. He tells her they won't have to have sex. She doesn't want to go along with it but then he tells her that he has found contact information for Frank. She does marry him but eventually abandons him when he attempts to have sex with her, his plans for a false pregnancy have collapsed and he has lost all his money.
Later Polly finds that she has been released from her contract. It turns out her"husband" felt guilty for what he did to her and has paid to get her released. He has bought her a ticket so that she can join her boyfriend. She gets to "America" and is shocked to learn that her boyfriend married and has a daughter. He married a rich woman and has become very wealthy. Her boyfriend and his wife are now separated. Her boyfriend takes her to live with her aunt but he does not come to visit her. He bought the aunt a condo out of loyalty to her aunt and Polly.
After everything she went through for him she is shocked that he abandoned her by marrying another woman and his very cool reaction to her. He finally does come to see her and tells her he stayed away because he was ashamed. He says he had tried to find her in the past. It seems like they will rekindle their relationship.
I found the book disappointing, I thought it was plodding. I think that Frank got off too easy. I am not sure I would be as forgiving as Polly is.
While the book did have an interesting premise, the dystopian world etc. was not all that interesting. Despite everything she was going through Polly seemed to maintain her commitment to her boyfriend and aunt, it is surprising that her boyfriend, with his much easier life, couldn't have lived up to his commitment to wait for her.
Starlight
by Richard Wagamese
This is the final book by Richard Wagamese, published posthumously and unfinished.
Starlight picks up the story that began in Medicine Walk. At least a decade has passed since 16-year-old Frank Starlight helped his alcoholic father die and make a ragged peace with the son he abandoned. Frank has since taken over the farm in the B.C. Interior left to him by “the old man,” the kindly white farmer who took him in as a boy. I really enjoyed Medicine Walk, it was so powerful.
The book is an absolute delight to read. His language is so beautiful, lyrical. I hung on ever word. It is so sad that a man with this creativity and such beautiful spirit committed suicide.
The book is about a woman, Emmy, and her daughter, Winnie. Emmy has had a tough life bouncing from one bad man to another. Her latest lover abuses her, offers her to other men and beats her. One day she has had enough and beats her lover and his buddy, tries to set his house on fire and leaves with his truck. She drives into northern BC to get as far from him as she can, she is not sure if he is alive or dead but fears that if he is alive he will be out to get her.
She finds an abandoned cabin and she and her child settle in but they have no money. She tries unsucessfully to find work. One day she is desperate and is caught trying to steal food from a store. The store manager is going to charge her and she is threatened with losing custody of her daughter.
However, a local man, a farmer, offers to pay for the groceries she stole and to hire her as a housekeeper. The social worker and police are surprised at his offer but agree to it provided the daughter is enrolled in school.
Emmy is so happy with Frank Starlight's generosity but while she is thankful she insists he add some modern conveniences to the house, a fridge for example. Frank is very generous, he buys clothes for her and her daughter and accepts all the things she insists on. Things are going well for Emmy but the daughter is acting out at school. Frank, who is a native man, decides to introduce the mother and daughter to nature in the hope it will heal/tame them both.
While this is going on Emmy's lover has gone to Calgary to see if she went there, as he doesn't find her there he gets angrier and more violent, looking for fights as he and his buddy travel along, making their way to Vancouver.
Gradually Frank and Emmy gently fall into a relationship had never had a woman before and Emmy has never had a good man.
In addition to farming Frank takes nature photographs. His work is highly regarded and provides him with a good additioal income. His agent convinces him to attend a show of his work in Vancouver and he reluctantly agrees to go to the showing. He invites Emmy and Winnie and his farmhand to join him in Vancouver. Emmy's former lover spots them in Vancouver. "I told you we'd track her down" Cadotte said.... the last words in the book.
The Editor's go on to speculate that, based on Wagamese's other stories, they feel that there would have been a confrontation and that ultimately Emmy would have forgiven Cadotte. We will of course never know. The book was a jewel, so spiritual, ironically life affirming.
Wagamese quote:
"See, it's not in our imagined wholeness that we become art; it's in the celebration of our cracks"
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
This is the final book by Richard Wagamese, published posthumously and unfinished.
Starlight picks up the story that began in Medicine Walk. At least a decade has passed since 16-year-old Frank Starlight helped his alcoholic father die and make a ragged peace with the son he abandoned. Frank has since taken over the farm in the B.C. Interior left to him by “the old man,” the kindly white farmer who took him in as a boy. I really enjoyed Medicine Walk, it was so powerful.
The book is an absolute delight to read. His language is so beautiful, lyrical. I hung on ever word. It is so sad that a man with this creativity and such beautiful spirit committed suicide.
The book is about a woman, Emmy, and her daughter, Winnie. Emmy has had a tough life bouncing from one bad man to another. Her latest lover abuses her, offers her to other men and beats her. One day she has had enough and beats her lover and his buddy, tries to set his house on fire and leaves with his truck. She drives into northern BC to get as far from him as she can, she is not sure if he is alive or dead but fears that if he is alive he will be out to get her.
She finds an abandoned cabin and she and her child settle in but they have no money. She tries unsucessfully to find work. One day she is desperate and is caught trying to steal food from a store. The store manager is going to charge her and she is threatened with losing custody of her daughter.
However, a local man, a farmer, offers to pay for the groceries she stole and to hire her as a housekeeper. The social worker and police are surprised at his offer but agree to it provided the daughter is enrolled in school.
Emmy is so happy with Frank Starlight's generosity but while she is thankful she insists he add some modern conveniences to the house, a fridge for example. Frank is very generous, he buys clothes for her and her daughter and accepts all the things she insists on. Things are going well for Emmy but the daughter is acting out at school. Frank, who is a native man, decides to introduce the mother and daughter to nature in the hope it will heal/tame them both.
While this is going on Emmy's lover has gone to Calgary to see if she went there, as he doesn't find her there he gets angrier and more violent, looking for fights as he and his buddy travel along, making their way to Vancouver.
Gradually Frank and Emmy gently fall into a relationship had never had a woman before and Emmy has never had a good man.
In addition to farming Frank takes nature photographs. His work is highly regarded and provides him with a good additioal income. His agent convinces him to attend a show of his work in Vancouver and he reluctantly agrees to go to the showing. He invites Emmy and Winnie and his farmhand to join him in Vancouver. Emmy's former lover spots them in Vancouver. "I told you we'd track her down" Cadotte said.... the last words in the book.
The Editor's go on to speculate that, based on Wagamese's other stories, they feel that there would have been a confrontation and that ultimately Emmy would have forgiven Cadotte. We will of course never know. The book was a jewel, so spiritual, ironically life affirming.
Wagamese quote:
"See, it's not in our imagined wholeness that we become art; it's in the celebration of our cracks"
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
The Ensemble
by Aja Gabel
This is a debut novel about a classical music quartet. It is about the lives, conflicts and success of the quartet. The most powerful part of the book is that the four people, Jana, Brit, Daniel and Henry develop a powerful friendship and connection amongst themselves that it seems to take precedence over all other relationships. None of them have much of a relationship with their respective families, the quartet seems to become their created family.
The members of the quartet are very focused on career success, especially the leader Jana. They all work hard to succeed and are very competitive in the classical music scene. But not is all sweetness and light, there are internal jealousies (Daniel is resentful of the prodigy Henry, and later when Henry manages to have a life in the quartet but also a married life and family.... he resents that Henry seems to have everything come easy to him).
The strong hold that the quartet has on them is portrayed in an interesting way. Henry is wooed by an agent to become a solo artist. He turns it down feeling commitment to the quartet. Even though Henry's good fortune runs out when he develops some serious medical issues and is urged to give up performing he sticks with the group
Daniel and Brit have on again off again relationships. At one point they break up and Daniel marries a girl totally unsuited to him. The marriage doesn't last and in the end Brit and Daniel get back together. Jana also has an affair but her commitment to the quartet outways the relationship.
The author brilliantly portrayed the interactions that occur as the members of the quartet play and how they respond to each other to create incredible music.
In some ways the characters were frustrating because they were all so self-absorbed both in their music and themselves.
"We laid a perasive claim on one another. On our hearts....We weren't yet full people but we were required to pretend to be. We thought that together we could pretent to be until we were.... We found it to be, if not pleaurable, alive. We found each other to be amenable and willing and calling and then insistent and hungry and answering. We found each other." They fought, they cried together or about each other but they were there for each other always.
A very powerful, complext story.
This is a debut novel about a classical music quartet. It is about the lives, conflicts and success of the quartet. The most powerful part of the book is that the four people, Jana, Brit, Daniel and Henry develop a powerful friendship and connection amongst themselves that it seems to take precedence over all other relationships. None of them have much of a relationship with their respective families, the quartet seems to become their created family.
The members of the quartet are very focused on career success, especially the leader Jana. They all work hard to succeed and are very competitive in the classical music scene. But not is all sweetness and light, there are internal jealousies (Daniel is resentful of the prodigy Henry, and later when Henry manages to have a life in the quartet but also a married life and family.... he resents that Henry seems to have everything come easy to him).
The strong hold that the quartet has on them is portrayed in an interesting way. Henry is wooed by an agent to become a solo artist. He turns it down feeling commitment to the quartet. Even though Henry's good fortune runs out when he develops some serious medical issues and is urged to give up performing he sticks with the group
Daniel and Brit have on again off again relationships. At one point they break up and Daniel marries a girl totally unsuited to him. The marriage doesn't last and in the end Brit and Daniel get back together. Jana also has an affair but her commitment to the quartet outways the relationship.
The author brilliantly portrayed the interactions that occur as the members of the quartet play and how they respond to each other to create incredible music.
In some ways the characters were frustrating because they were all so self-absorbed both in their music and themselves.
"We laid a perasive claim on one another. On our hearts....We weren't yet full people but we were required to pretend to be. We thought that together we could pretent to be until we were.... We found it to be, if not pleaurable, alive. We found each other to be amenable and willing and calling and then insistent and hungry and answering. We found each other." They fought, they cried together or about each other but they were there for each other always.
A very powerful, complext story.
Sunday, 12 August 2018
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
by Amy Meyerson
This is a book that is getting a lot of buzsz his year. It is the story of a young history teacher, Miranda, who is teaching history in the Eastern U.S. and getting used to living with her boyfriend. She is named for a Shakespeare character (daughter of Prospero, in the Tempest). She is surprised to learn that the Uncle she hasn't seen for decades has died and left her something in his will. She had always liked her uncle. He always had puzzles for her to solve.
She decided to go to LA for his funeral and to see her parents. Her parents refuse to go to the funeral. She knows her parents and uncle had a fight on her twelfth birthday but doesn't really know why. She never saw her uncle after that.
She is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her Prospero Books, his LA bookstore, in his will. As she checks things out she finds that the bookstore is failing financially.
As she goes from one clue, left in books, to another, she talks to various people who knew their uncle. Each person has another book/clue for her. She keeps trying to get her mother to talk about the relationship with her uncle but her mother doggedly refuses so Miranda suspends contact with her mother.
The acting Manager and Miranda try different ideas to get business improving. Their relationship is a bit rocky, the Manager, Malcolm was close friends with her uncle and doesn't trust her.
After following all the clues Miranda finds out that her Uncle is really her father and her parents adopted her after her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family cabin. Her real father had difficulty coping with his wife's death and taking responsibility for the baby. He feels he is responsible for his wife's death because he had not repaired the cabin roof when she asked him to do it. He basically abandoned Miranda to her adopted parents. Miranda had always thought her uncle was a cool guy. She is angry and devastated when she learns the truth, including angry at her parent for not telling her the truth. Eventually her mother tells her what happened and why and that her Uncle/Father accused her adopted mother of tricking him to get the child from him. This was totally untrue and selfish/irresponsible of him. This is what caused the rift between them.
In the end Miranda decides to dump her boyfriend and job and stay in LA to run the bookstore. But she decides they need to let go of the past associations to her birth mother and father, and suggests a new name "Yesterdays Bookshop". Not sure I like the name. Of course Miranda evenutally falls for the Acting Manager.... after all this there seems to be the need for a happy ending. She does reconcile with her adoptive parents also.
The story was very well written. It was interesting how the author gradually told the story through the clues/people that Miranda unearthed. I just find it difficult to believe that a father would completely walk away from his child. I can believe the temporary grief but believe he would have eventually have wanted to reconnect, even if only under the guise of the uncle.
This is a book that is getting a lot of buzsz his year. It is the story of a young history teacher, Miranda, who is teaching history in the Eastern U.S. and getting used to living with her boyfriend. She is named for a Shakespeare character (daughter of Prospero, in the Tempest). She is surprised to learn that the Uncle she hasn't seen for decades has died and left her something in his will. She had always liked her uncle. He always had puzzles for her to solve.
She decided to go to LA for his funeral and to see her parents. Her parents refuse to go to the funeral. She knows her parents and uncle had a fight on her twelfth birthday but doesn't really know why. She never saw her uncle after that.
She is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her Prospero Books, his LA bookstore, in his will. As she checks things out she finds that the bookstore is failing financially.
As she goes from one clue, left in books, to another, she talks to various people who knew their uncle. Each person has another book/clue for her. She keeps trying to get her mother to talk about the relationship with her uncle but her mother doggedly refuses so Miranda suspends contact with her mother.
The acting Manager and Miranda try different ideas to get business improving. Their relationship is a bit rocky, the Manager, Malcolm was close friends with her uncle and doesn't trust her.
After following all the clues Miranda finds out that her Uncle is really her father and her parents adopted her after her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family cabin. Her real father had difficulty coping with his wife's death and taking responsibility for the baby. He feels he is responsible for his wife's death because he had not repaired the cabin roof when she asked him to do it. He basically abandoned Miranda to her adopted parents. Miranda had always thought her uncle was a cool guy. She is angry and devastated when she learns the truth, including angry at her parent for not telling her the truth. Eventually her mother tells her what happened and why and that her Uncle/Father accused her adopted mother of tricking him to get the child from him. This was totally untrue and selfish/irresponsible of him. This is what caused the rift between them.
In the end Miranda decides to dump her boyfriend and job and stay in LA to run the bookstore. But she decides they need to let go of the past associations to her birth mother and father, and suggests a new name "Yesterdays Bookshop". Not sure I like the name. Of course Miranda evenutally falls for the Acting Manager.... after all this there seems to be the need for a happy ending. She does reconcile with her adoptive parents also.
The story was very well written. It was interesting how the author gradually told the story through the clues/people that Miranda unearthed. I just find it difficult to believe that a father would completely walk away from his child. I can believe the temporary grief but believe he would have eventually have wanted to reconnect, even if only under the guise of the uncle.
Tuesday, 7 August 2018
Dear Mrs. Bird
by AJ Pearce
This is a summer best seller and I would say it is a summer read.
The story is about a young woman, Emmy, in London who is living through WWII. She is working as a typist in a legal office and as a volunteer Fire Warden (answering phone calls at a fire hall about bomb hits so that fire fighters can be sent out, She longs to be a journalist covering the war.
When she sees an ad in the paper for a junior clerk at a newspaper she applies and is hired. She wasn't aware that the ad was not for a newspaper but for a women's magazine. Her job will be to assist the grumpy woman who responds to letters in an advice column. Mrs. Bird does not want to see any letters that are unpleasant. The young girl is shocked that so many pleas for advice go unheaded. She writes back to some of the people and even sneaks in a couple replies she has penned as Mrs. Bird never reads the paper.
Emmy is engaged but one day her soldier fiancee (whom she has known since she was a child) wires her to tell her that he has fallen in love with a nurse and they are getting married. She is of course devastated.
Her best friend (Bunty) is engaged to one of the firefighter. One day Emmy goes to see bomb damage and sees her friends fiancee do something dangerous to rescue a doll for child. She chastises him and they argue. She later tries to apologize but that doesn't go well.
Bunty and her fiancee plan pre-wedding party at a fancy restaurant but Emmy is late arriving because the fire hall is shorthanded and she has to wait for other people to show up to cover for her. She is horrified when she finds that the restaurant has been bombed. With the help of her boss, whom she happens to meet on the scene, she is able to find her injured friend, but not the fiancee. They later learn that the fiancee was killed.
Emmy goes to visit Bunty in the hospital but Bunty tells her she never wants to see her again as she blames Emmy for her fiancees death. He had gone to look for Emmy when she hadn't arrived at the party. Emmy keeps writing letters to Bunty but Bunty doesn't contact her. Then one day a letter arrives at the women's magazine which sounds very much like Bunty's situation. Emmy takes another risk and submits her response into the paper.
Emmy's employers find out what she has done and are going to fire her and possibly press charges as she was signing the letters she sent as Mrs. Bird. She is called into the Managers Office and he reams her out. She is sure she is going to be fired but Bunty rushes into the room (how did she know about this meeting). She says it was she who had written the letter to the paper and she really appreciated the reply. She has forgiven Emmy. Emmy's boss mentions that sales of the magazine have risen since Emmy has been including some of her letters and the response she sent to Bunty got picked up by other newspapers. He also mentions that Emmy had been assisting him with some writitng and coming up with stories more appealing to young women. The owner says she can stay if sales increase even more in the next few months.
This was a light read, entertaining but predictable.
This is a summer best seller and I would say it is a summer read.
The story is about a young woman, Emmy, in London who is living through WWII. She is working as a typist in a legal office and as a volunteer Fire Warden (answering phone calls at a fire hall about bomb hits so that fire fighters can be sent out, She longs to be a journalist covering the war.
When she sees an ad in the paper for a junior clerk at a newspaper she applies and is hired. She wasn't aware that the ad was not for a newspaper but for a women's magazine. Her job will be to assist the grumpy woman who responds to letters in an advice column. Mrs. Bird does not want to see any letters that are unpleasant. The young girl is shocked that so many pleas for advice go unheaded. She writes back to some of the people and even sneaks in a couple replies she has penned as Mrs. Bird never reads the paper.
Emmy is engaged but one day her soldier fiancee (whom she has known since she was a child) wires her to tell her that he has fallen in love with a nurse and they are getting married. She is of course devastated.
Her best friend (Bunty) is engaged to one of the firefighter. One day Emmy goes to see bomb damage and sees her friends fiancee do something dangerous to rescue a doll for child. She chastises him and they argue. She later tries to apologize but that doesn't go well.
Bunty and her fiancee plan pre-wedding party at a fancy restaurant but Emmy is late arriving because the fire hall is shorthanded and she has to wait for other people to show up to cover for her. She is horrified when she finds that the restaurant has been bombed. With the help of her boss, whom she happens to meet on the scene, she is able to find her injured friend, but not the fiancee. They later learn that the fiancee was killed.
Emmy goes to visit Bunty in the hospital but Bunty tells her she never wants to see her again as she blames Emmy for her fiancees death. He had gone to look for Emmy when she hadn't arrived at the party. Emmy keeps writing letters to Bunty but Bunty doesn't contact her. Then one day a letter arrives at the women's magazine which sounds very much like Bunty's situation. Emmy takes another risk and submits her response into the paper.
Emmy's employers find out what she has done and are going to fire her and possibly press charges as she was signing the letters she sent as Mrs. Bird. She is called into the Managers Office and he reams her out. She is sure she is going to be fired but Bunty rushes into the room (how did she know about this meeting). She says it was she who had written the letter to the paper and she really appreciated the reply. She has forgiven Emmy. Emmy's boss mentions that sales of the magazine have risen since Emmy has been including some of her letters and the response she sent to Bunty got picked up by other newspapers. He also mentions that Emmy had been assisting him with some writitng and coming up with stories more appealing to young women. The owner says she can stay if sales increase even more in the next few months.
This was a light read, entertaining but predictable.
Sunday, 5 August 2018
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
This is the story of several generations of Koreans and the hard life and sadness that seems to follow them.
The story starts with Sunja, a young Korean girl whose father is crippled. He is respected by the people of the town because despite his disability he is hard working and honest. Sunja's mother runs a boarding house where fisherman borders sleep during the day and fish at night and factory workers/mine workers? sleep in the same beds but during the night. Sunja and her mother work very hard, her father dies and they struggle on. One day Sunja meets a handsome man working near the market where she goes to buy supplies for the household. He eventually seduces her and she becomes pregnant. She is dismayed to learn that he is married to a woman in Japan and has children. She had been expecting him to propose to her.
Her mother is shocked when she learns the news and can hardly speak to the daughter who has brought shame on the family. One day a young missionary arrives at their home, he had heard about their boarding house from his brother who had stayed their years before. The young man is very ill with a recurrence of TB. Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. When he finds out about Sunja's plight he asks her to marry him and they head off to Japan to join the man (Isek's) brother and his wife. Isek doesn't earn much money as a minister but his brother and sister in law let them live with them. When the child is born, Noa, Sunja's father accepts him as his own and loves him.
Life is difficult for the Koreans in Japan, the Japanese are very prejudiced against them saying they are poor, lazy, liars, etc. Noa is very bright and his parents encourag him to study. Sunja gives birth to a second son, Mozasu who is not as bright and who is harrassed at school.
One day Isek and other Ministers at the church are arrested and put in prison because of something one of their parishioners said (not sure about this). Isek is kept in prison for several years. The other two people he was imprisoned with die in prison but dispite his weak constituion he doesn't. However he returns home a very ill man and dies soon after he returns home. While he was away his wife and her sister-in-law have been selling Korean food and candy in the market to make money.
One day Sunja's lover arrives and tells them they need to leave and is is dangerous in the city (world war II). He gets them to a farm where they work hard but are safe. He is doing this partly because Noa is his only son but also because he cares about Sunja. He offers Sunja money but she always rejects these offers. Eventually he finds Sunja's mother in Korea and brings her to join Sunja so she will be safe
Noa studies hard and is eventually accepted into University but Sunja worries about how she wll pay the tuition. Hansu, the former lover, offers to pay his tuition and board. At first Sunja is reluctant and she eventually agrees. Noa accepts thinking that Hansa is just a generous benefactor. We learn that Hansa is a shrewd but also tough, possibly criminal, businessman.
Noa is doing well with his studies and has a girlfriend. All seems to be going well. Meantime Sunja's other son has taken a job at a Pachinko parlor and is gradually getting promoted until he becomes a manager. Before he finishes his degree Noa's girlfriend, who had crashed a lunch Noa was having with Hansa blurts out that Noa looks like Hansu so he must be his father. Noa is furious at this and when he confronts his mother he is furious at her. He drops out of school and out of her life telling her he wants no contact with her. He is disgusted that his biological father is a "gangster" businessman.
Mozasu marries and has a son Solomon. He loves his wife and child very much and is very successful. He is devastated when his son is injured and his wife killed by a car. Sunja leaves her mother and sister-in-law, who is now also a widow, to join Mozasu to help raise Solomon.
Throughout the book it is mentioned about how the Japanese dislike the Koreans but the Koreans feel they have little to return to in Korea even though they are ghettoized and looked down upon by the Japanese.
When Noa leaves school he goes to a different city and adopts a Japanese name, because he is half Japanese no one questions his identity. He gets a job working as a bookkeeper for a business man and eventually marries and has several children. Sunja always wonders where he is and eventually Hansa is able to track him down. Hansa takes Sunja to "see" him but she jumps out of the car and runs to him. After they have a brief chat he tells her she has to leave but he will call her. After she leaves she kills himself..... This was shocking development and I am not sure why he would do it, just because he was afraid his Korean lineage might be found out? He was ashamed of his parentage?
Mozasu has a Japanese girlfriend, a divorcee, who will not marry him as she thinks that in addition to her divorce the marriage would further shame and alienate her children. Her daughter Hana comes to see her. She is four months pregnant. The mother arranges an abortion for her. Hana starts having an affair with Solomon but realizes she is a bad girl from bad seed. She eventually leaves and becomes a prostitute. Solomon goes to study in the US and gets a Korean American girlfriend. She comes back to Japan with him where he has gotten a job in a bank. She can't work in Japan.
Solomon thinks things are good but when he asked Mozasu's aid in convincing an old Korean woman to sell her land to a company that wants to build a golf course things go wrong. The old woman dies, probably of natural causes, shortly after the sale goes through. But the developers get cold feet as it could be perceived as suspicious that she died so soon. Solomon is fired by the man he thought was his supporter and mentor. His girlfriend leaves him to return to the U.S. Solomon's father encourages him to find another bank job but Solomon asks if he can come in on the family business. His father reluctantly agrees.
Solomon eventually sees Hana again when she has returned to her mother very ill. She had been a prostitute, drinking and doing drugs and now probably has aids. She speculates what life could have been like if she had stayed with him. However, in living her life it was as if she thought that she was doomed because of her mother's transgressions (having had several affairs while married). She seems to have done everything she could to harm herself/self-destruct.
After all this Sunja learns that her mother is dying of stomache cancer so she rushes back to be with her and her sister-in-law who had been living with the Mother. As the mother is dying she launches a tyrade on Sunja about how her behaviour with the married man ruined the family and basically cursed the family implying that all the sadness that has happened to her family is her fault. She accuses her of being selfish when Sunja really slaved hard for all the people in her life. Yes, she made the one mistake but she was a devoted mother and daughter and loved and respected and was faithful to her husband.
I found the book well written but terribly sad. So many characters bore such anger and resentment over things that others did. There didn't seem to be any forgiveness. Both Sunja and Hansa, seemed to be decent people who made a mistake. Hans did have other lovers and he was a shady character in his business dealings but he did a lot to try to help Sunja and her family. Yet, even after his wife died Sunja would not consider marrying him and cut off ties with him.
The Pachinko theme was very prominent in the story, it is a game of chance, of gambling.... I don't know what connection the author intended but I think in this book a chance encounter/event really had impact on people's lives and in most cases made their lives more difficult. The characters seem to react to people on principles rather than be willing to look at them warts and all. There didn't seem to be any option for reconciliation for forgiveness. The only persons who seemed to accept people were Isak and Sunja's Sister-in-law.
As she visits her husband's grave one day Sunja learns that Noa had been visiting his Father's (Isek's) grave but he never came to see her or her family,.
This is the story of several generations of Koreans and the hard life and sadness that seems to follow them.
The story starts with Sunja, a young Korean girl whose father is crippled. He is respected by the people of the town because despite his disability he is hard working and honest. Sunja's mother runs a boarding house where fisherman borders sleep during the day and fish at night and factory workers/mine workers? sleep in the same beds but during the night. Sunja and her mother work very hard, her father dies and they struggle on. One day Sunja meets a handsome man working near the market where she goes to buy supplies for the household. He eventually seduces her and she becomes pregnant. She is dismayed to learn that he is married to a woman in Japan and has children. She had been expecting him to propose to her.
Her mother is shocked when she learns the news and can hardly speak to the daughter who has brought shame on the family. One day a young missionary arrives at their home, he had heard about their boarding house from his brother who had stayed their years before. The young man is very ill with a recurrence of TB. Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. When he finds out about Sunja's plight he asks her to marry him and they head off to Japan to join the man (Isek's) brother and his wife. Isek doesn't earn much money as a minister but his brother and sister in law let them live with them. When the child is born, Noa, Sunja's father accepts him as his own and loves him.
Life is difficult for the Koreans in Japan, the Japanese are very prejudiced against them saying they are poor, lazy, liars, etc. Noa is very bright and his parents encourag him to study. Sunja gives birth to a second son, Mozasu who is not as bright and who is harrassed at school.
One day Isek and other Ministers at the church are arrested and put in prison because of something one of their parishioners said (not sure about this). Isek is kept in prison for several years. The other two people he was imprisoned with die in prison but dispite his weak constituion he doesn't. However he returns home a very ill man and dies soon after he returns home. While he was away his wife and her sister-in-law have been selling Korean food and candy in the market to make money.
One day Sunja's lover arrives and tells them they need to leave and is is dangerous in the city (world war II). He gets them to a farm where they work hard but are safe. He is doing this partly because Noa is his only son but also because he cares about Sunja. He offers Sunja money but she always rejects these offers. Eventually he finds Sunja's mother in Korea and brings her to join Sunja so she will be safe
Noa studies hard and is eventually accepted into University but Sunja worries about how she wll pay the tuition. Hansu, the former lover, offers to pay his tuition and board. At first Sunja is reluctant and she eventually agrees. Noa accepts thinking that Hansa is just a generous benefactor. We learn that Hansa is a shrewd but also tough, possibly criminal, businessman.
Noa is doing well with his studies and has a girlfriend. All seems to be going well. Meantime Sunja's other son has taken a job at a Pachinko parlor and is gradually getting promoted until he becomes a manager. Before he finishes his degree Noa's girlfriend, who had crashed a lunch Noa was having with Hansa blurts out that Noa looks like Hansu so he must be his father. Noa is furious at this and when he confronts his mother he is furious at her. He drops out of school and out of her life telling her he wants no contact with her. He is disgusted that his biological father is a "gangster" businessman.
Mozasu marries and has a son Solomon. He loves his wife and child very much and is very successful. He is devastated when his son is injured and his wife killed by a car. Sunja leaves her mother and sister-in-law, who is now also a widow, to join Mozasu to help raise Solomon.
Throughout the book it is mentioned about how the Japanese dislike the Koreans but the Koreans feel they have little to return to in Korea even though they are ghettoized and looked down upon by the Japanese.
When Noa leaves school he goes to a different city and adopts a Japanese name, because he is half Japanese no one questions his identity. He gets a job working as a bookkeeper for a business man and eventually marries and has several children. Sunja always wonders where he is and eventually Hansa is able to track him down. Hansa takes Sunja to "see" him but she jumps out of the car and runs to him. After they have a brief chat he tells her she has to leave but he will call her. After she leaves she kills himself..... This was shocking development and I am not sure why he would do it, just because he was afraid his Korean lineage might be found out? He was ashamed of his parentage?
Mozasu has a Japanese girlfriend, a divorcee, who will not marry him as she thinks that in addition to her divorce the marriage would further shame and alienate her children. Her daughter Hana comes to see her. She is four months pregnant. The mother arranges an abortion for her. Hana starts having an affair with Solomon but realizes she is a bad girl from bad seed. She eventually leaves and becomes a prostitute. Solomon goes to study in the US and gets a Korean American girlfriend. She comes back to Japan with him where he has gotten a job in a bank. She can't work in Japan.
Solomon thinks things are good but when he asked Mozasu's aid in convincing an old Korean woman to sell her land to a company that wants to build a golf course things go wrong. The old woman dies, probably of natural causes, shortly after the sale goes through. But the developers get cold feet as it could be perceived as suspicious that she died so soon. Solomon is fired by the man he thought was his supporter and mentor. His girlfriend leaves him to return to the U.S. Solomon's father encourages him to find another bank job but Solomon asks if he can come in on the family business. His father reluctantly agrees.
Solomon eventually sees Hana again when she has returned to her mother very ill. She had been a prostitute, drinking and doing drugs and now probably has aids. She speculates what life could have been like if she had stayed with him. However, in living her life it was as if she thought that she was doomed because of her mother's transgressions (having had several affairs while married). She seems to have done everything she could to harm herself/self-destruct.
After all this Sunja learns that her mother is dying of stomache cancer so she rushes back to be with her and her sister-in-law who had been living with the Mother. As the mother is dying she launches a tyrade on Sunja about how her behaviour with the married man ruined the family and basically cursed the family implying that all the sadness that has happened to her family is her fault. She accuses her of being selfish when Sunja really slaved hard for all the people in her life. Yes, she made the one mistake but she was a devoted mother and daughter and loved and respected and was faithful to her husband.
I found the book well written but terribly sad. So many characters bore such anger and resentment over things that others did. There didn't seem to be any forgiveness. Both Sunja and Hansa, seemed to be decent people who made a mistake. Hans did have other lovers and he was a shady character in his business dealings but he did a lot to try to help Sunja and her family. Yet, even after his wife died Sunja would not consider marrying him and cut off ties with him.
The Pachinko theme was very prominent in the story, it is a game of chance, of gambling.... I don't know what connection the author intended but I think in this book a chance encounter/event really had impact on people's lives and in most cases made their lives more difficult. The characters seem to react to people on principles rather than be willing to look at them warts and all. There didn't seem to be any option for reconciliation for forgiveness. The only persons who seemed to accept people were Isak and Sunja's Sister-in-law.
As she visits her husband's grave one day Sunja learns that Noa had been visiting his Father's (Isek's) grave but he never came to see her or her family,.
Monday, 23 July 2018
The Shadow Land
By Elizabeth Kostova
This book is about an American girl who is still haunted by the loss of her brother who disappeared on a family hiking trip years before. She feels guilty because she and her brother had an argument just before he disappeared. Her brother had talked about wanting to visit Bulgaria (why we never know).
The young woman, Alexandra, decides to take a temporary job in Bulgaria. Soon after arriving in Bulgaria she helps an elderly couple into a taxi - and realises too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. It is a funeral urn.
She asks the driver of the taxi she is in to return quickly to the hotel but she is unable to find the people the urn belongs to. She goes to the police and until they learn the name on the urn they don't seem interested. Then they do take an interest and give her the address of one of the dead man's family in a different town in Bulgaria. Alexandra and the taxi driver set off for there.
This is the first of many trips around Bulgaria trying to find the owners of the urn. Along the way they meet other members of the man's family.
As this story is being told we also have the story of the dead man. He was an accomplished violinist, working in Vienna. He returned to Bulgaria when war started to break out in Europe. He wasn't able to get jobs in an orchestra so did other work. He was arrested several times and sent to work camps.
I read a review of the book and they talk about the tortuous journey to the resolution of the book.... I agree... I don't know why there had to be all this to and fro'ing. In the end we find out that the dead man had written a history of his imprisonment and included information that will implicate a man who is aspiring to lead the country as one of the violent leaders at one of the camps.
While Alexandra is driving around with the taxi driver we find out he was a former police officer and is an acclaimed poet. Alexandra seems to like him but he is gay. For some reason she has fallen for the young man, the father of the dead man. This part doesn't seem justified, nor does the girls sadness about her brother seem to belong to the story. I don't think that she comes to any resolution about her brother in the course of the book. In the end, she and the young man go to Vienna, to bury the dead man, as this is where he wanted to be buried. He was a fan of Vivaldi.
It was an okay read but a bit labourious.... I was skipping some near the end of the book just to finish it.
This book is about an American girl who is still haunted by the loss of her brother who disappeared on a family hiking trip years before. She feels guilty because she and her brother had an argument just before he disappeared. Her brother had talked about wanting to visit Bulgaria (why we never know).
The young woman, Alexandra, decides to take a temporary job in Bulgaria. Soon after arriving in Bulgaria she helps an elderly couple into a taxi - and realises too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. It is a funeral urn.
She asks the driver of the taxi she is in to return quickly to the hotel but she is unable to find the people the urn belongs to. She goes to the police and until they learn the name on the urn they don't seem interested. Then they do take an interest and give her the address of one of the dead man's family in a different town in Bulgaria. Alexandra and the taxi driver set off for there.
This is the first of many trips around Bulgaria trying to find the owners of the urn. Along the way they meet other members of the man's family.
As this story is being told we also have the story of the dead man. He was an accomplished violinist, working in Vienna. He returned to Bulgaria when war started to break out in Europe. He wasn't able to get jobs in an orchestra so did other work. He was arrested several times and sent to work camps.
I read a review of the book and they talk about the tortuous journey to the resolution of the book.... I agree... I don't know why there had to be all this to and fro'ing. In the end we find out that the dead man had written a history of his imprisonment and included information that will implicate a man who is aspiring to lead the country as one of the violent leaders at one of the camps.
While Alexandra is driving around with the taxi driver we find out he was a former police officer and is an acclaimed poet. Alexandra seems to like him but he is gay. For some reason she has fallen for the young man, the father of the dead man. This part doesn't seem justified, nor does the girls sadness about her brother seem to belong to the story. I don't think that she comes to any resolution about her brother in the course of the book. In the end, she and the young man go to Vienna, to bury the dead man, as this is where he wanted to be buried. He was a fan of Vivaldi.
It was an okay read but a bit labourious.... I was skipping some near the end of the book just to finish it.
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
The Gate Keeper
by Charles Todd
This is the latest book by the mother and son team. In this book Rutledge's sister has just gotten married. He wishes her the very best but is sad at "losing" the person he is closest to. After the wedding celebration he packs a small suitcase and decides to go for a drive.... if he just wanted a drive, why did he pack a bag?
As he is driving well into the night he comes upon a stopped car with a man lying shot dead on the road. A distraught woman is standing by the man. Rutledge tells the woman to take his car and go get the local police. All the woman can tell him is the murdered man was driving her home after a dinner engagement. He stopped when someone was standing on the road and exchanged a few words with the person on the road (which the woma did not hear). Then the person on the road shot him.
Rutledge offers to take over the investigation and is given permission to do so but a local police official is angered by this. Rutledge intereviews everyone he can think of and finds out that the young man was wealthy but was running a local bookstore. He seemed to be a pleasant and well liked person, so why was he killed. He did escape to Peru at one point shortly after his engagement was broken off. Could it have something to do with that?
When he meets the dead man's parents he find they, especially the Mother, have little affection or regard for him. The mother believes he killed his twin brother when a small child.
Then another man is killed, a local farmer. He is found shot on the road in front of his home. Rutledge learns that the man was lured out by a letter asking him to come and judge the quality of a cow that was for sale. The person who recommended the letter writer to the second dead man denies any knowledge of the letter writer.
Rutledge finds out that a book the bookseller, Wentworth, ordered for the Farmer was stolen from his shop. As several figures in the story serves in the war Rutledge wonders if there is an old grudge behind all this. Eventually he manages to track down who owned the book originally and is shocked to learn that the agent who handled the book sale for the woman has also been murdered.
Eventually Rutledge finds out that the woman had secretly married a wealthy man but he was killed in the war, she had left his family, where she had been working as a servant. The man's brother had sent her a copy of an old book about ancient apples that she had admired when she works with the family. What she doesn't know is that the marriage certificate that would prove her marriage has been bound intothe book (a bad "joke") by the man's brother who is now living in the family estate.
It turns out that this man's wife has been the one doing the murders as she fears someone will undo the binding and learn the truth. This will ruin her husband and her life and also ruin the financial future of their son.
These books are always entertaining, the author team do a great job of presenting England just after the second world war, sharing the lives and trials of those who survived the war, and keeping us guessing until the end.
This is the latest book by the mother and son team. In this book Rutledge's sister has just gotten married. He wishes her the very best but is sad at "losing" the person he is closest to. After the wedding celebration he packs a small suitcase and decides to go for a drive.... if he just wanted a drive, why did he pack a bag?
As he is driving well into the night he comes upon a stopped car with a man lying shot dead on the road. A distraught woman is standing by the man. Rutledge tells the woman to take his car and go get the local police. All the woman can tell him is the murdered man was driving her home after a dinner engagement. He stopped when someone was standing on the road and exchanged a few words with the person on the road (which the woma did not hear). Then the person on the road shot him.
Rutledge offers to take over the investigation and is given permission to do so but a local police official is angered by this. Rutledge intereviews everyone he can think of and finds out that the young man was wealthy but was running a local bookstore. He seemed to be a pleasant and well liked person, so why was he killed. He did escape to Peru at one point shortly after his engagement was broken off. Could it have something to do with that?
When he meets the dead man's parents he find they, especially the Mother, have little affection or regard for him. The mother believes he killed his twin brother when a small child.
Then another man is killed, a local farmer. He is found shot on the road in front of his home. Rutledge learns that the man was lured out by a letter asking him to come and judge the quality of a cow that was for sale. The person who recommended the letter writer to the second dead man denies any knowledge of the letter writer.
Rutledge finds out that a book the bookseller, Wentworth, ordered for the Farmer was stolen from his shop. As several figures in the story serves in the war Rutledge wonders if there is an old grudge behind all this. Eventually he manages to track down who owned the book originally and is shocked to learn that the agent who handled the book sale for the woman has also been murdered.
Eventually Rutledge finds out that the woman had secretly married a wealthy man but he was killed in the war, she had left his family, where she had been working as a servant. The man's brother had sent her a copy of an old book about ancient apples that she had admired when she works with the family. What she doesn't know is that the marriage certificate that would prove her marriage has been bound intothe book (a bad "joke") by the man's brother who is now living in the family estate.
It turns out that this man's wife has been the one doing the murders as she fears someone will undo the binding and learn the truth. This will ruin her husband and her life and also ruin the financial future of their son.
These books are always entertaining, the author team do a great job of presenting England just after the second world war, sharing the lives and trials of those who survived the war, and keeping us guessing until the end.
The Vineyard
by Maria Duenas
This book starts with the story of a Spaniard, Mauro, living in Mexico, who through hard work and taking some financial risks which paid off, has gone from being mine worker to a wealthy man. He has married daughter who is about to give birth and a son who he has sent away to France, to learn the mining business, because he was getting into financial trouble and romantic entrigues. His son is engaged to the daughter of another wealthy Mexican family. He hopes the stint in France will help his son mature.
As the story opens we find out that the man is on the brink of bankruptcy because he used most of his wealth to procure some mining equipment from the U.S. and with the U.S. Civil War underway his money is gone and he will not get the equipment.
He goes to a lone shark he had dealt with in his youth and strikes a devil's bargain, borrowing money to try to re-establish himself in Cuba, with the equity being his only remaining property, his fabulous house in Mexico City. If he does not make the first payment on the loan in four months he will forfeit his house.
Before he leaves for Cuba two people insist on entrusting money with him, his daughter's mother-in-law gives him money to invest. Another man approaches him asking him to take the man's sister's inheritance money to her in Cuba. He reluctantly agrees to do take the money from both people.
When he arrives in Cuba he is surprised to learn that the woman who has inherited the money does not want people to know that she knows him and does not want her husband to learn of the money.
They end up having apparently secret meetings. However her husband finds out about these meetings (perhaps the woman even dropped the news trying to get him to be jealous) and challenges the man to a billiards game. If the man wins he can have the mans wife, if he loses he must leave the woman alone. Mauro doesn't the woman but is intrigued by the challenge. He is advised by a man he has made friends with to lose the game as he thinks the husband wishes to lose his wife. So Mauro does lose the game. The husband then ups the stakes, offering property and a vineyard that he recently inherited in Spain. Mauro wins the game this time and heads to Spain to see the property and sell it so that he can make his firs debt repayment.
He finds the property and vineyards are in terrible condition. He also meets a woman who has fond memory of the property and of the family that owned the estate. It seems that the last owner didn't care about it and let things fall into disrepair as he fell further into debt. The woman confides in Mauro that she is having trouble with her step-son who is tyring to take over the family business. Her husband is still alive but seems to be suffering from a mental condition and she has been running it. She asks Mauro to pretend to be the dead owner of the property to help her cover some illegal things she has done to protect her business.
As the story goes on the man's son winds up in Spain with him, the woman whose husband lost the property in the billiards game arrives and insists Mauro give back the property. Mauro and the other woman end up locking her up, she escapes and tells people she was held against her will but Mauro and his lady friend are able to convince people that the other woman is making things up.
The book was very tense at times as you saw how desparate the man was to financially recover. Some people in Cuba had wanted him to invest in a slave trade venture but he refused to do this on moral grounds so he has some principles. As the story goes along we find out that a family story about one of the family members being shot in a hunting accident actually had the wrong person being blamed for the killing. The woman in Cuba had wooed the relative from Spain who owned the property and Vineyard in Spain to Cuba and convinced him to change his will to have her husband be the beneficiary.
In the end the man decides to stay in Spain and resurrect the vineyard. He does not make his debt repayments so loses his property in Mexico city but he does not regret it and eventually he and the woman (whose husband had committed suicide) realize they love each other.
It was very well written story but there were so many story lines, some I have not even mentioned, going on and so many intrigues it was hard to keep it all straight at times.
This book starts with the story of a Spaniard, Mauro, living in Mexico, who through hard work and taking some financial risks which paid off, has gone from being mine worker to a wealthy man. He has married daughter who is about to give birth and a son who he has sent away to France, to learn the mining business, because he was getting into financial trouble and romantic entrigues. His son is engaged to the daughter of another wealthy Mexican family. He hopes the stint in France will help his son mature.
As the story opens we find out that the man is on the brink of bankruptcy because he used most of his wealth to procure some mining equipment from the U.S. and with the U.S. Civil War underway his money is gone and he will not get the equipment.
He goes to a lone shark he had dealt with in his youth and strikes a devil's bargain, borrowing money to try to re-establish himself in Cuba, with the equity being his only remaining property, his fabulous house in Mexico City. If he does not make the first payment on the loan in four months he will forfeit his house.
Before he leaves for Cuba two people insist on entrusting money with him, his daughter's mother-in-law gives him money to invest. Another man approaches him asking him to take the man's sister's inheritance money to her in Cuba. He reluctantly agrees to do take the money from both people.
When he arrives in Cuba he is surprised to learn that the woman who has inherited the money does not want people to know that she knows him and does not want her husband to learn of the money.
They end up having apparently secret meetings. However her husband finds out about these meetings (perhaps the woman even dropped the news trying to get him to be jealous) and challenges the man to a billiards game. If the man wins he can have the mans wife, if he loses he must leave the woman alone. Mauro doesn't the woman but is intrigued by the challenge. He is advised by a man he has made friends with to lose the game as he thinks the husband wishes to lose his wife. So Mauro does lose the game. The husband then ups the stakes, offering property and a vineyard that he recently inherited in Spain. Mauro wins the game this time and heads to Spain to see the property and sell it so that he can make his firs debt repayment.
He finds the property and vineyards are in terrible condition. He also meets a woman who has fond memory of the property and of the family that owned the estate. It seems that the last owner didn't care about it and let things fall into disrepair as he fell further into debt. The woman confides in Mauro that she is having trouble with her step-son who is tyring to take over the family business. Her husband is still alive but seems to be suffering from a mental condition and she has been running it. She asks Mauro to pretend to be the dead owner of the property to help her cover some illegal things she has done to protect her business.
As the story goes on the man's son winds up in Spain with him, the woman whose husband lost the property in the billiards game arrives and insists Mauro give back the property. Mauro and the other woman end up locking her up, she escapes and tells people she was held against her will but Mauro and his lady friend are able to convince people that the other woman is making things up.
The book was very tense at times as you saw how desparate the man was to financially recover. Some people in Cuba had wanted him to invest in a slave trade venture but he refused to do this on moral grounds so he has some principles. As the story goes along we find out that a family story about one of the family members being shot in a hunting accident actually had the wrong person being blamed for the killing. The woman in Cuba had wooed the relative from Spain who owned the property and Vineyard in Spain to Cuba and convinced him to change his will to have her husband be the beneficiary.
In the end the man decides to stay in Spain and resurrect the vineyard. He does not make his debt repayments so loses his property in Mexico city but he does not regret it and eventually he and the woman (whose husband had committed suicide) realize they love each other.
It was very well written story but there were so many story lines, some I have not even mentioned, going on and so many intrigues it was hard to keep it all straight at times.
Sunday, 8 July 2018
The Lost Castle
by Kristy Cambron
I bought this book on impulse. I have been reading a lot of books about World War II lately, I am getting a bit tired of that theme and will have to try to get into some more modern or different stuff for a break...
In this book the main character Ellie, was orphaned at 11 when her parents were killed. She was raised by her Grandmother Vi, and loves her very much. Ellie is summoned to the care home where here Grandmother is suffering from dementia and failing health. Her grandmother is very restless and seems to be wating for something/someone. Ellie's grandmother starts to mumble about a brooch. Then she show Ellie a book in French and points to a story about a sleeping beauty. A picture falls out of a book with a picture of her grandmother in front of some ruins with a man.
Ellie decides to leave her grandmother and head to France. She is in a rented car and is trying to find the estate she is booked to stay at. A man drives by and is frustrated to find out that his grandfather has booked her to stay at their vineyard estate. The young man is actually Irish. Ellie insists that she has paid for accommodation and a tour guide. The man begrudingly takes her to the family home where she meets the Grandfather, a vitner.
The book also includes events at an estate in the Loire Valley during the French revolution. A young woman, Aveline is scheduled to meet her fiance, whom she has not met up that point, at a party at his estate. However the engagement party is disrupted when the building is attacked and set on fire by revolutionaries. Aveline suffers some burns and is rescued by her brother's fiance. She assumes the role of a worker on the estate to avoid being found and attacked by revolutionaries. Aveline is quite opinionated, keeps up on politics, against her fathers wishes, and actually has sympathized with the poor people of France. Her Fiancee had escaped to Paris.
Aveline is a bit scarred by the fire, including her face. She is afraid her Fiancee will not want her. Eventually he does come for her and takes her back to Paris. Unfortunately she has fallen in love with his brother. Eventually she returns to the ruined castle to tell her fiancee's brother that her sister is marrying her fiancee and she wants to spend her life with him rebuilding the castle. Word of her generosity to the poor assures that she is accepted by the locals.
Ellie wants to see the castle that people refer to as the Sleeping Beauty castle but the young man, Quinn, says the owner discourages vistors and that it is patrolled to keep people out.
As these stories are being told we learn about a young British woman, fluent in several languages, who is running for her life in the French countryside. She is found and sheltered by a French resistance fighter and they fall in love. Once they learn of her skill they have her hidden away in a basement listening to German radio traffic. She also had some incriminating information about the Germans hidden in the sole of her shoe. The shoes where entrusted to her by someone who was being taken to be executed by the Germans. She eventually reveals this information.
Quinn thinks that Ellie is just another romantic tourist. She eventually shows him the picture of her Grandmother at the castle. They later see more pictures of her Grandmother and other resistance fighters at a church in a nearby town. When Quinn and his Grandfather realize who her Grandmother is they tell her that her Grandmother was in love with the Grandfather's brother Julien, but Julien got killed in the war. The Grandmother had left behind a diary outlining everything she could find about the local resistance fighters. They tell Ellie that Julian left the castle land to her Grandmother and assume the land will now be hers. Ellie returns to the U.S. with the book her grandmother wrote, tells her grandmother she has discovered her history. Quinn, who has by now fallen for Ellie, comes to the U.S. to find her to bring her back to France.
It was a bit of a Chic Lit book but the stories were certainly well developed and suspenseful. Some of the people got to live with the men they had fallen in love with.
I bought this book on impulse. I have been reading a lot of books about World War II lately, I am getting a bit tired of that theme and will have to try to get into some more modern or different stuff for a break...
In this book the main character Ellie, was orphaned at 11 when her parents were killed. She was raised by her Grandmother Vi, and loves her very much. Ellie is summoned to the care home where here Grandmother is suffering from dementia and failing health. Her grandmother is very restless and seems to be wating for something/someone. Ellie's grandmother starts to mumble about a brooch. Then she show Ellie a book in French and points to a story about a sleeping beauty. A picture falls out of a book with a picture of her grandmother in front of some ruins with a man.
Ellie decides to leave her grandmother and head to France. She is in a rented car and is trying to find the estate she is booked to stay at. A man drives by and is frustrated to find out that his grandfather has booked her to stay at their vineyard estate. The young man is actually Irish. Ellie insists that she has paid for accommodation and a tour guide. The man begrudingly takes her to the family home where she meets the Grandfather, a vitner.
The book also includes events at an estate in the Loire Valley during the French revolution. A young woman, Aveline is scheduled to meet her fiance, whom she has not met up that point, at a party at his estate. However the engagement party is disrupted when the building is attacked and set on fire by revolutionaries. Aveline suffers some burns and is rescued by her brother's fiance. She assumes the role of a worker on the estate to avoid being found and attacked by revolutionaries. Aveline is quite opinionated, keeps up on politics, against her fathers wishes, and actually has sympathized with the poor people of France. Her Fiancee had escaped to Paris.
Aveline is a bit scarred by the fire, including her face. She is afraid her Fiancee will not want her. Eventually he does come for her and takes her back to Paris. Unfortunately she has fallen in love with his brother. Eventually she returns to the ruined castle to tell her fiancee's brother that her sister is marrying her fiancee and she wants to spend her life with him rebuilding the castle. Word of her generosity to the poor assures that she is accepted by the locals.
Ellie wants to see the castle that people refer to as the Sleeping Beauty castle but the young man, Quinn, says the owner discourages vistors and that it is patrolled to keep people out.
As these stories are being told we learn about a young British woman, fluent in several languages, who is running for her life in the French countryside. She is found and sheltered by a French resistance fighter and they fall in love. Once they learn of her skill they have her hidden away in a basement listening to German radio traffic. She also had some incriminating information about the Germans hidden in the sole of her shoe. The shoes where entrusted to her by someone who was being taken to be executed by the Germans. She eventually reveals this information.
Quinn thinks that Ellie is just another romantic tourist. She eventually shows him the picture of her Grandmother at the castle. They later see more pictures of her Grandmother and other resistance fighters at a church in a nearby town. When Quinn and his Grandfather realize who her Grandmother is they tell her that her Grandmother was in love with the Grandfather's brother Julien, but Julien got killed in the war. The Grandmother had left behind a diary outlining everything she could find about the local resistance fighters. They tell Ellie that Julian left the castle land to her Grandmother and assume the land will now be hers. Ellie returns to the U.S. with the book her grandmother wrote, tells her grandmother she has discovered her history. Quinn, who has by now fallen for Ellie, comes to the U.S. to find her to bring her back to France.
It was a bit of a Chic Lit book but the stories were certainly well developed and suspenseful. Some of the people got to live with the men they had fallen in love with.
Last Watchma of Cairo
by Michael David Lukas
The story is about a young American man, born of a Jewish Egyptian mother and Muslim Egyptian father. His parents never married. His mother took him to America to raise him, his father remained in Egypt but they had occasional contact.
The man is notified that his father has died. Shortly after he receives a package in the mail from a friend of his father's. It is a ancient piece of paper with what looks like Arabic writing on one side and possibly Hebrew on the other. The man is puzzled as to why this is all he gets sent from his father and takes a leave of absence from his academic career to go to Cairo to try to find out more about his father and the document.
In another tale we learn hundreds of years ago a Jewish Synagogue hired a young Muslim Man to be a night Watchman. This job was then handed down to his son and other sons over the centuries.
We also learn about some British people, two sisters and a man who convince that Synagogue to let them take he contents of a storage area in the Synagogue to Cambridge for safekeeping. The women are convinced that someone is stealing from the stash of papers and selling them off in bits on the black market. They fear this will threaten the opportunities for biblical scholarship and historical analysis that the documents offer. The synagogue agrees and the papers are sent to Cambridge.
When the young man arrives in Cairo he visit his uncle and the uncle's family and tries to find the man who sent him the package from his father. After many attempts to find the man's address, there are several similar addresses throughout Cairo, he contacts the synagogue and meets the man.
We learn that the man's family were the one's who were the synagogue watchmen up until the man's father. Then a scandal occurred which caused the man's father to lose his job as Watchman. During the Yom Kippur war Egyptian soldiers come to the synagogue and insist on going through it to look for weapons. The boy's father insists there are no weapons but is forced to let them in. The soldiers don't find any weapons but they do take a way a Torah of historical sigificance. The watchman is ashamed at what he let happen.
The man is given a box of his father's possessions, it contains a number of letters between the man's mother and father so the man is able to piece together some of what happened between his parents.
The man's father had made friends with a young Jewish girl in his youth. She and her family moved to Paris but she kept corresponding with the Watchman. After the man's father resigns/is fired, the young lady invites him to Paris. They have an affair and she gets pregnant. When his mother discovers she is pregnant she leaves her academic studies in Paris and takes the boy to California. He sees his father occasionally and his mother marries another man.
The man learns about the documents in Cambridge and decides to give up his academic pursuits to become a clerk preparing documents from this collection for analysis, documentation by scholars.
This book was partly about the young man coming to understand his family's past. If his father had't resigned because of the scandal, he woud not have been born. Like the book Less, it seems this character was trying to find something meaningful for his life.... preserving documents his ancestors had guarded for centuries.
The book had interesting descriptions of Cairo, including of the City of the Dead and successfully portrayed the frenetic energy and confusion in that city.
The story is about a young American man, born of a Jewish Egyptian mother and Muslim Egyptian father. His parents never married. His mother took him to America to raise him, his father remained in Egypt but they had occasional contact.
The man is notified that his father has died. Shortly after he receives a package in the mail from a friend of his father's. It is a ancient piece of paper with what looks like Arabic writing on one side and possibly Hebrew on the other. The man is puzzled as to why this is all he gets sent from his father and takes a leave of absence from his academic career to go to Cairo to try to find out more about his father and the document.
In another tale we learn hundreds of years ago a Jewish Synagogue hired a young Muslim Man to be a night Watchman. This job was then handed down to his son and other sons over the centuries.
We also learn about some British people, two sisters and a man who convince that Synagogue to let them take he contents of a storage area in the Synagogue to Cambridge for safekeeping. The women are convinced that someone is stealing from the stash of papers and selling them off in bits on the black market. They fear this will threaten the opportunities for biblical scholarship and historical analysis that the documents offer. The synagogue agrees and the papers are sent to Cambridge.
When the young man arrives in Cairo he visit his uncle and the uncle's family and tries to find the man who sent him the package from his father. After many attempts to find the man's address, there are several similar addresses throughout Cairo, he contacts the synagogue and meets the man.
We learn that the man's family were the one's who were the synagogue watchmen up until the man's father. Then a scandal occurred which caused the man's father to lose his job as Watchman. During the Yom Kippur war Egyptian soldiers come to the synagogue and insist on going through it to look for weapons. The boy's father insists there are no weapons but is forced to let them in. The soldiers don't find any weapons but they do take a way a Torah of historical sigificance. The watchman is ashamed at what he let happen.
The man is given a box of his father's possessions, it contains a number of letters between the man's mother and father so the man is able to piece together some of what happened between his parents.
The man's father had made friends with a young Jewish girl in his youth. She and her family moved to Paris but she kept corresponding with the Watchman. After the man's father resigns/is fired, the young lady invites him to Paris. They have an affair and she gets pregnant. When his mother discovers she is pregnant she leaves her academic studies in Paris and takes the boy to California. He sees his father occasionally and his mother marries another man.
The man learns about the documents in Cambridge and decides to give up his academic pursuits to become a clerk preparing documents from this collection for analysis, documentation by scholars.
This book was partly about the young man coming to understand his family's past. If his father had't resigned because of the scandal, he woud not have been born. Like the book Less, it seems this character was trying to find something meaningful for his life.... preserving documents his ancestors had guarded for centuries.
The book had interesting descriptions of Cairo, including of the City of the Dead and successfully portrayed the frenetic energy and confusion in that city.
Less
by Andrew Sean Greer
This book won the Pulitzer Prize, interesting as initial reviews were apparently not very good.
It is the story of a lonely gay author. He receives an invitation to the wedding of a former lover, a young man. He knows that he cannot possibly attend the wedding and to avoid doing so books several engagements around the world so that he can say he is not available.
One of the events has him interviewing another famous author, one has him in South America speaking about his life/rememberances of a famous poet he was in a relationship with years before. Like him and the former lover he is currently trying to avoid, there was a large age gap between the main character and his poet lover.
He goes to an event in Germany where he is one of the authors nominated for a prize.
As he travels he bumbles along through various events and adventures, feeling very sorry for himself. All the while he is remembering his time with his young lover and marking the days as the wedding date approaches.
He is trying to reconcile himself to being alone for the rest of his life, and has almost convinced himself he can do it. He hears something went amiss at the weddingbut it is only when he returns home that he finds out the young lover has left his newly married husband and has decided he loves the main character and wants to live with him.
Throughout the book there is reference to the author's first book, a modern take on the Odyssey and also references to a second book on a Robinson Crusoe kind of theme which he hopes will be a success but keeps getting rejected. He realizes rather than having a serious, admirable hero he needs to explore one who is less than perfect.
It was an okay read but I am surprised it was considered worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. Maybe it just struck a nerve with people today... the idea of what is love, what is it worth, what does it take to be worthy, can one live without love in your life.
This book won the Pulitzer Prize, interesting as initial reviews were apparently not very good.
It is the story of a lonely gay author. He receives an invitation to the wedding of a former lover, a young man. He knows that he cannot possibly attend the wedding and to avoid doing so books several engagements around the world so that he can say he is not available.
One of the events has him interviewing another famous author, one has him in South America speaking about his life/rememberances of a famous poet he was in a relationship with years before. Like him and the former lover he is currently trying to avoid, there was a large age gap between the main character and his poet lover.
He goes to an event in Germany where he is one of the authors nominated for a prize.
As he travels he bumbles along through various events and adventures, feeling very sorry for himself. All the while he is remembering his time with his young lover and marking the days as the wedding date approaches.
He is trying to reconcile himself to being alone for the rest of his life, and has almost convinced himself he can do it. He hears something went amiss at the weddingbut it is only when he returns home that he finds out the young lover has left his newly married husband and has decided he loves the main character and wants to live with him.
Throughout the book there is reference to the author's first book, a modern take on the Odyssey and also references to a second book on a Robinson Crusoe kind of theme which he hopes will be a success but keeps getting rejected. He realizes rather than having a serious, admirable hero he needs to explore one who is less than perfect.
It was an okay read but I am surprised it was considered worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. Maybe it just struck a nerve with people today... the idea of what is love, what is it worth, what does it take to be worthy, can one live without love in your life.
Monday, 2 July 2018
The Death of Mrs Westaway
by Ruth Ware
This is another mystery book that has been getting a lot of acclaim and I have to say it is well deserved. Unlike McLaughlin's book which was plodding and uninteresting this one is an interesting, well written story with a well developed character we care about.
The story is about a young woman, around 18, whose mother was killed by a hit and run driver, leaving her destitute. She is deeply in debt, eaking out a living as a tarot card reader at an English seafront. She is threatened by a thug from a loan shark and is terrified about what will happen to her.
She receives a letter from a lawyer telling her that her grandmother has died and named her in her will. The girl only really knew her mother, nothing of any other family, so she is shocked to hear this news. When she looks at the details of the name of the beneficiary she thinks the lawyer has found the wrong person but she decides to go to the funeral and pretend to be the granddaughter to get some money, hopefully enough to get her out of debt.
She is totally shocked to find that she is the major beneficiary of the estate including the family home. The woman's son's are shocked at this news but as they had not had a good relationship with their mother they seem quite accepting of the will. The girl learns that there were two women with the same name living at the house in the past, the woman's daughter and a niece.
The girl evenutally confesses that she is not the woman's granddaughter, but it later turns out that her mother was not who she said she was. As the story develops the girls life is threatened and she finds out that it was one of her family (her own father) who killed her mother to hide the truth.
This was a well written story, it kept my interest throughout. This was a refreshing read after the McLaughlin book. This author knows how to write good description, dialogue and build suspense.
This is another mystery book that has been getting a lot of acclaim and I have to say it is well deserved. Unlike McLaughlin's book which was plodding and uninteresting this one is an interesting, well written story with a well developed character we care about.
The story is about a young woman, around 18, whose mother was killed by a hit and run driver, leaving her destitute. She is deeply in debt, eaking out a living as a tarot card reader at an English seafront. She is threatened by a thug from a loan shark and is terrified about what will happen to her.
She receives a letter from a lawyer telling her that her grandmother has died and named her in her will. The girl only really knew her mother, nothing of any other family, so she is shocked to hear this news. When she looks at the details of the name of the beneficiary she thinks the lawyer has found the wrong person but she decides to go to the funeral and pretend to be the granddaughter to get some money, hopefully enough to get her out of debt.
She is totally shocked to find that she is the major beneficiary of the estate including the family home. The woman's son's are shocked at this news but as they had not had a good relationship with their mother they seem quite accepting of the will. The girl learns that there were two women with the same name living at the house in the past, the woman's daughter and a niece.
The girl evenutally confesses that she is not the woman's granddaughter, but it later turns out that her mother was not who she said she was. As the story develops the girls life is threatened and she finds out that it was one of her family (her own father) who killed her mother to hide the truth.
This was a well written story, it kept my interest throughout. This was a refreshing read after the McLaughlin book. This author knows how to write good description, dialogue and build suspense.
Full Disclosure
by Beverly McLaughlin
This is a crime/mystery book by the former Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court. It has received much praise.
I read the book but have to say I wasn't much taken by it. It was written in first person narrative which I find too one-sided and uncreative. It is about a defense lawyer from a small law firm who takes on a case people warn her against. A rich man is accused of murdering his wife in their home with what appears to be his own gun.
The book was very he said this they did that, etc. etc. It does have a surprise ending when despite the odds the lawyer is able to clear the client (who ends up being her father).
That is about all I will say about it. It was an okay read, a quick read, but not memorable.
This is a crime/mystery book by the former Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court. It has received much praise.
I read the book but have to say I wasn't much taken by it. It was written in first person narrative which I find too one-sided and uncreative. It is about a defense lawyer from a small law firm who takes on a case people warn her against. A rich man is accused of murdering his wife in their home with what appears to be his own gun.
The book was very he said this they did that, etc. etc. It does have a surprise ending when despite the odds the lawyer is able to clear the client (who ends up being her father).
That is about all I will say about it. It was an okay read, a quick read, but not memorable.
Love and Ruin
by Paula McLain
This book is by the author of The Paris Wife (which I think I liked) and Circling the Sun (which I hated).
It is the story of the life of Martha Gellhorn, an American woman who became a celebrated war correspodent and author. It takes place over the years that Gellhorn met Ernest Hemmingway, travelled in Spain with him during the Civil War, became his mistress and eventually his wife for five years.
It was a beautifully written, powerful story. She did a great job of depicting Gellhorn's experiences in wartime, how Hemmingway woed her, their few years of happiness together, before his ego and neediness seemed to doom the marriage.
It very skillfully portrayed the good times and the bad times, and did a superb job of showing how Hemmingway admired and then resented her independence. He liked here when she was succeeding but needed to be the centre of attention and the centre of her world. She also demonstrated the struggle Gellhorn had trying to live under the shadow of Hemmingway as an author. Hemmingway did help her and support her at times but he also seemed to drain her of her strength to write. The author does a wonderful job of portraying the wonderful life they built for themselves in Cuba and the affection Gellhorn felt for Hemmingway's sons.
The book portrays Hemmingway as very controlling, vindictive and moody.
I enjoyed this book very much and was sorry when it came to an end.
This book is by the author of The Paris Wife (which I think I liked) and Circling the Sun (which I hated).
It is the story of the life of Martha Gellhorn, an American woman who became a celebrated war correspodent and author. It takes place over the years that Gellhorn met Ernest Hemmingway, travelled in Spain with him during the Civil War, became his mistress and eventually his wife for five years.
It was a beautifully written, powerful story. She did a great job of depicting Gellhorn's experiences in wartime, how Hemmingway woed her, their few years of happiness together, before his ego and neediness seemed to doom the marriage.
It very skillfully portrayed the good times and the bad times, and did a superb job of showing how Hemmingway admired and then resented her independence. He liked here when she was succeeding but needed to be the centre of attention and the centre of her world. She also demonstrated the struggle Gellhorn had trying to live under the shadow of Hemmingway as an author. Hemmingway did help her and support her at times but he also seemed to drain her of her strength to write. The author does a wonderful job of portraying the wonderful life they built for themselves in Cuba and the affection Gellhorn felt for Hemmingway's sons.
The book portrays Hemmingway as very controlling, vindictive and moody.
I enjoyed this book very much and was sorry when it came to an end.
Sunday, 3 June 2018
Music Shop
by Rachel Joyce,
This is the story of a man who in 1980's England sets up a record shop and refuses to sell cassettes or CD's. He does seem to have the nack of finding the right music for people, even giving them stuff they might not normally like. He files his music by themes rather than genre, mixing classical with opera with Jazz at times.
A variety of people visit his shop but most visit and don't buy. He has a young man who becomes his helper. This young man seems to break things more than he helps. One day a German lady faints outside the store. The owner is intrigued by her and although he had abandoned romance in his life he is attracted to her. She disappears but shows up again later. She tells him she has a fiancee. He thinks he can still be friends with her and agrees to meet her once a week to discuss music.
While all this is going on the neighbourhood the store is in is in decline, many shops are closing and a developer is trying to buy people out. Eventually the man admits his love for the woman and she for him but they have a fight and she disappears. His store burns down and he too seems to disappear.
Twenty years later the woman is living in Germany teaching violin (it turns out she was a classical violinist who was force to retire because of arthritis in her hands). She realizes her life is empty and goes back to find the record store owner.
Eventually they are brought together at a mall in a crowd Mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus. They marry and rebuild a record store.
It was a "cute" story with lots of quirky characters but I really doubt the realism of the ending. Would anyone try to locate a former love after 20 years??
This is the story of a man who in 1980's England sets up a record shop and refuses to sell cassettes or CD's. He does seem to have the nack of finding the right music for people, even giving them stuff they might not normally like. He files his music by themes rather than genre, mixing classical with opera with Jazz at times.
A variety of people visit his shop but most visit and don't buy. He has a young man who becomes his helper. This young man seems to break things more than he helps. One day a German lady faints outside the store. The owner is intrigued by her and although he had abandoned romance in his life he is attracted to her. She disappears but shows up again later. She tells him she has a fiancee. He thinks he can still be friends with her and agrees to meet her once a week to discuss music.
While all this is going on the neighbourhood the store is in is in decline, many shops are closing and a developer is trying to buy people out. Eventually the man admits his love for the woman and she for him but they have a fight and she disappears. His store burns down and he too seems to disappear.
Twenty years later the woman is living in Germany teaching violin (it turns out she was a classical violinist who was force to retire because of arthritis in her hands). She realizes her life is empty and goes back to find the record store owner.
Eventually they are brought together at a mall in a crowd Mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus. They marry and rebuild a record store.
It was a "cute" story with lots of quirky characters but I really doubt the realism of the ending. Would anyone try to locate a former love after 20 years??
Wednesday, 9 May 2018
Ecstacy
by Mary Sharratt
This is the fictionalized story of the wife of Gustav Mahler. Alma who becomes his wife was an aspiring composer however her family scoffed at her desires and insisted she should marry. She falls in love with her piano tutor but her family sends him packing. When Mahler shows up and falls for her they urge her to marry him. She is in love with him or at least his presence and brilliance. They marry and she is very upset that he is so demanding including telling her she should not compose or even play the piano, that her job is to support him. She gets pregnat and eventually has two children but she remains unfulfilled and unhappy. Several times she is sent to spas or instituions to recover her health, mental state. Sometimes it is after miscarriages.
She struggles with her unhappiness. One of their children dies of diptheria, both she and Mahler are devastated and their relationship deteriorates, he seems to blame her when she has another miscarriage accusing her of wanting it to happen.
Mahler's popularity in Vienna wanes and he takes a job in New York as a conductor. She tries to give him advice about how to be more approachable re: the requests of his patrons but he is so self obsessed he chastises her for trying to tell him what to do.
They return to Europe for the summers and one year Alma is again at sanitorium. She meets Walter Gropius, the architect, and they fall in love and have an affair. Gropius wants her to run away with him but Alma Mahler needs her and she should stay with him. Alma's mother, who had a child out of an affair does what she can to allow Alma and Gropious to spend some time together. Gropius is furious that Alma will not leave Mahler for him and sends a letter by which Mahler discovers the truth. In a strange twist it seems that this knowledge brings Mahler and Alma closer together. He starts to realize how he may have harmed her and encourages her to compose again, even getting some of her pieces published. She stays with him until his death but finally feels really free once he has died.
The author did a great job of presenting the atmosphere at the time, the powerful emotions of Alma and Mahler. It was an interesting read focussing on how women's dreams are surrendered to the needs of the men in their lives. But not all women are subservient, Alma knows some women who are successful professional artists. She is surprised about the power and influence women of rich men have in America.
This is the fictionalized story of the wife of Gustav Mahler. Alma who becomes his wife was an aspiring composer however her family scoffed at her desires and insisted she should marry. She falls in love with her piano tutor but her family sends him packing. When Mahler shows up and falls for her they urge her to marry him. She is in love with him or at least his presence and brilliance. They marry and she is very upset that he is so demanding including telling her she should not compose or even play the piano, that her job is to support him. She gets pregnat and eventually has two children but she remains unfulfilled and unhappy. Several times she is sent to spas or instituions to recover her health, mental state. Sometimes it is after miscarriages.
She struggles with her unhappiness. One of their children dies of diptheria, both she and Mahler are devastated and their relationship deteriorates, he seems to blame her when she has another miscarriage accusing her of wanting it to happen.
Mahler's popularity in Vienna wanes and he takes a job in New York as a conductor. She tries to give him advice about how to be more approachable re: the requests of his patrons but he is so self obsessed he chastises her for trying to tell him what to do.
They return to Europe for the summers and one year Alma is again at sanitorium. She meets Walter Gropius, the architect, and they fall in love and have an affair. Gropius wants her to run away with him but Alma Mahler needs her and she should stay with him. Alma's mother, who had a child out of an affair does what she can to allow Alma and Gropious to spend some time together. Gropius is furious that Alma will not leave Mahler for him and sends a letter by which Mahler discovers the truth. In a strange twist it seems that this knowledge brings Mahler and Alma closer together. He starts to realize how he may have harmed her and encourages her to compose again, even getting some of her pieces published. She stays with him until his death but finally feels really free once he has died.
The author did a great job of presenting the atmosphere at the time, the powerful emotions of Alma and Mahler. It was an interesting read focussing on how women's dreams are surrendered to the needs of the men in their lives. But not all women are subservient, Alma knows some women who are successful professional artists. She is surprised about the power and influence women of rich men have in America.
Summer Hours at the Robbers LIbrary
by Sue Halpern
The story is about a woman who so wants to leave her past life that she changes her name. She takes a job as a Reference Librarian in Riverton, NJ because she thinks no one will know her there. She buys an old house and pays to get it fixed up but she does little to furnish it.
A teenage girl is sent to court because she tried to steal a dictionary from a bookstore. As her punishment she is sentenced to do volunteer work at the library for the entire summer. The Reference Librarian is not happy to have the delinquent assigned to her. The punishment isn't all that bad for the young girl as she loves book and she is so useful she soon starts to run the kids program at the library. The Librarian is reluctant to share information about herself despite the prying of the young girl. She finds out that the young girl has been home schooled and her parents are living a somewhat hippie lifestyle.
The library has many strange characters who visit, there is a group of four old men who hang out in the library every morning. The Librarian becomes quite fond of them. There is a well dressed young man who comes in and uses the computer every day. They eventually find out he was a stock broker or investment banker in New York and lost his job and all his wordly possessions except his wardrobe and his car in the market crash. He is trying to track down an old bank account of his mother as this will give him some cash.
The old guys eventually welcome the young man into their gang, the Librarian becomes friendly to the young thief even having her stay over at her place. She feels really sorry for the girl when the young girl suspects the man she thinks is her fathe is a fugitive from the law-- having attacked a lab.
The librarian and the young man become friends. We eventually learn that the Librarian sacrificed her life for her husband who became a doctor. They did not have a happy marriage and eventually the husband has an affair with an unattractive teenage nanny who later turns up dead. At her husband's trial the woman's seems to be on trial as the cause for her husband's behaviour. That is why she wants to get away and start a new life.
It was an entertaining story, the librarian's life story at the end was an interesting bit of added drama in the story.
The story is about a woman who so wants to leave her past life that she changes her name. She takes a job as a Reference Librarian in Riverton, NJ because she thinks no one will know her there. She buys an old house and pays to get it fixed up but she does little to furnish it.
A teenage girl is sent to court because she tried to steal a dictionary from a bookstore. As her punishment she is sentenced to do volunteer work at the library for the entire summer. The Reference Librarian is not happy to have the delinquent assigned to her. The punishment isn't all that bad for the young girl as she loves book and she is so useful she soon starts to run the kids program at the library. The Librarian is reluctant to share information about herself despite the prying of the young girl. She finds out that the young girl has been home schooled and her parents are living a somewhat hippie lifestyle.
The library has many strange characters who visit, there is a group of four old men who hang out in the library every morning. The Librarian becomes quite fond of them. There is a well dressed young man who comes in and uses the computer every day. They eventually find out he was a stock broker or investment banker in New York and lost his job and all his wordly possessions except his wardrobe and his car in the market crash. He is trying to track down an old bank account of his mother as this will give him some cash.
The old guys eventually welcome the young man into their gang, the Librarian becomes friendly to the young thief even having her stay over at her place. She feels really sorry for the girl when the young girl suspects the man she thinks is her fathe is a fugitive from the law-- having attacked a lab.
The librarian and the young man become friends. We eventually learn that the Librarian sacrificed her life for her husband who became a doctor. They did not have a happy marriage and eventually the husband has an affair with an unattractive teenage nanny who later turns up dead. At her husband's trial the woman's seems to be on trial as the cause for her husband's behaviour. That is why she wants to get away and start a new life.
It was an entertaining story, the librarian's life story at the end was an interesting bit of added drama in the story.
Transit
by Rachel Cusk
This is the second of three books. In this book we learn more about the protaganist from the first book. She has moved to London with her two children to try to get away from the memories of her bad marriage. She buys a rundown house in a nice neighbourhood and starts fixing it up. The neighbours who live below her constantly complaining about them walking on the floor and other noise. The construction noise makes them even angrier. The neighbour even complains to the other neighbours about the woman.
The chaos in the house seems to reflect the woman's mental state. She tries to write part of the day and teaches writing the other part of the day. She seems to be fighting to not feel or care about things so she won't get hurt again.
"For a long time I said that I believed that it was only through absolute passivity that you could learn to see what was really there. But my decision to make a disturbance by renovating my house had woken a different reality, as though I had disturbed a sleeping beast in its lair. I had started in effect to become angry. I had decided to desire power becuase what I realized was that other people had it all along. that what I called fate was merely a reverbation of their will...by people who would elude justice for as long as their actions were met with resignation rather than outrage". Is she saying that people will do whatever they can get away with as others will be resigned to it rather than challenge them?
Again a lot of the book involves the protaganist listen to other people as they tell her about their lives and disappointments. I found the book hard to read, everyone she encounters seems to be unhappy in their marriages, don't care about their children. Does what she sees switch her from ennui to outrage?
This is the second of three books. In this book we learn more about the protaganist from the first book. She has moved to London with her two children to try to get away from the memories of her bad marriage. She buys a rundown house in a nice neighbourhood and starts fixing it up. The neighbours who live below her constantly complaining about them walking on the floor and other noise. The construction noise makes them even angrier. The neighbour even complains to the other neighbours about the woman.
The chaos in the house seems to reflect the woman's mental state. She tries to write part of the day and teaches writing the other part of the day. She seems to be fighting to not feel or care about things so she won't get hurt again.
"For a long time I said that I believed that it was only through absolute passivity that you could learn to see what was really there. But my decision to make a disturbance by renovating my house had woken a different reality, as though I had disturbed a sleeping beast in its lair. I had started in effect to become angry. I had decided to desire power becuase what I realized was that other people had it all along. that what I called fate was merely a reverbation of their will...by people who would elude justice for as long as their actions were met with resignation rather than outrage". Is she saying that people will do whatever they can get away with as others will be resigned to it rather than challenge them?
Again a lot of the book involves the protaganist listen to other people as they tell her about their lives and disappointments. I found the book hard to read, everyone she encounters seems to be unhappy in their marriages, don't care about their children. Does what she sees switch her from ennui to outrage?
Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Outline
by Rachel Cusk
This book is nominated for the Giller and the GG award this year.
The Narrator is travelling to Greece to teach a writing course for a few days. She is staying at the apartment of another academic.
She has a long discussion on the plane with thrice divorced man who tells her about his life, his failed marriages and his mistake. He loved his first wife the best but she has made a life with a ski instructor, abandoning him and their son (schizophrenic).She meets another teacher who tells her about his life, his temptations, etc. She also meets other people, an old friend from Athens, an acquaintance of his has thrust herself upon him. She asks her students to talk about themselves and to tell a story about animals. One of the students walks out saying the course is crap. Very few ever ask her about herself. We learn very little about her other than that she is divorced and has left her children behind in England.
Notes from the book:
The narrator comments to a man she met on the plane "I said that on the contrary I had come to believe more and more in the virtues of passivity, and of living a life as unmarked by self-will as possible.... There was a great difference, I said between the things I wanted and the things that I could apparently have, and until I had finally made forever made my piece with the fact, I had decided to want nothing at all".
The end of the book, a playwright arrives as the narrator is preparing to return home. The playwright has been traumatized by a brutal assault and finds she cannot take any idea seriously enough to write about. She has weight but eats compulsively and ravenously. She mentions meeting a diplomat on the plane...
"It had made something clear to her by a reverse kind of exposition; while he talked she began to see herself as a shape, an outline, with all detail filled in around it while the shape itself remained blank. Yet this shape, even while its content remained unknown, gave her for the first time since the incident a sense of who she now was".
The main character seems to be a person people want to download their life and experiences on. In her writing class she encourages her students to be observant but she herself doesn't seem to be doing that. All the people in he books seem to have had bad relationships.
The language in the books is lovely. The author has a very eloquent way of describing and commenting on things. She has a gentle way of portraying people.
This book is nominated for the Giller and the GG award this year.
The Narrator is travelling to Greece to teach a writing course for a few days. She is staying at the apartment of another academic.
She has a long discussion on the plane with thrice divorced man who tells her about his life, his failed marriages and his mistake. He loved his first wife the best but she has made a life with a ski instructor, abandoning him and their son (schizophrenic).She meets another teacher who tells her about his life, his temptations, etc. She also meets other people, an old friend from Athens, an acquaintance of his has thrust herself upon him. She asks her students to talk about themselves and to tell a story about animals. One of the students walks out saying the course is crap. Very few ever ask her about herself. We learn very little about her other than that she is divorced and has left her children behind in England.
Notes from the book:
The narrator comments to a man she met on the plane "I said that on the contrary I had come to believe more and more in the virtues of passivity, and of living a life as unmarked by self-will as possible.... There was a great difference, I said between the things I wanted and the things that I could apparently have, and until I had finally made forever made my piece with the fact, I had decided to want nothing at all".
The end of the book, a playwright arrives as the narrator is preparing to return home. The playwright has been traumatized by a brutal assault and finds she cannot take any idea seriously enough to write about. She has weight but eats compulsively and ravenously. She mentions meeting a diplomat on the plane...
"It had made something clear to her by a reverse kind of exposition; while he talked she began to see herself as a shape, an outline, with all detail filled in around it while the shape itself remained blank. Yet this shape, even while its content remained unknown, gave her for the first time since the incident a sense of who she now was".
The main character seems to be a person people want to download their life and experiences on. In her writing class she encourages her students to be observant but she herself doesn't seem to be doing that. All the people in he books seem to have had bad relationships.
The language in the books is lovely. The author has a very eloquent way of describing and commenting on things. She has a gentle way of portraying people.
Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Every Note Played
by Lisa Genova
This book is about a self-absorbed concert pianist who gets ALS. It documents his denial and then decline. It is a very difficult book to read as you learn of how is body stops working. He is divorced. His wife left him after he had numerous affairs and because she basically sacrificed her career as a jazz pianist to support him and look after their daughter. Their daughter does not have a good relationship with the father, she sympathizes with the Mother.
His ex-wife agrees to let him come live with her so she can look after him. It is exhausting and she resents him because he still can be thoughtless and demanding. The husband realizes he was not a good husband and father but cannot bring himself to apologize to his wife and daughter. Eventually he loses his voice and cannot say he is sorry.
As time goes by his wife realizes that she is partly responsible for her own fate. At the end the husband decides to let himself slowly die as his systems are shutting down. It would be incredibly expensive to try to keep him alive, about $400, 000/year which he cannot afford.
After he dies his wife receives a tape from a Doctor who was recording his voice. It is what he calls a legacy message. In it the husband apologizes to his wife. Too bad he didn't do it when he was alive.
I am afraid I did not have much sympathy for the husband. The book was a powerful story but I think it would have been more satisfying if he had apologized to his wife and daughter before he died. The man kept hoping he would reconcile with his father, the father thought his athletic sons were valuable and disparaged him. However, the man's father dies so they are never able to settle with each other. You would think he would have learned something from that considering his own death was imminent.
This book is about a self-absorbed concert pianist who gets ALS. It documents his denial and then decline. It is a very difficult book to read as you learn of how is body stops working. He is divorced. His wife left him after he had numerous affairs and because she basically sacrificed her career as a jazz pianist to support him and look after their daughter. Their daughter does not have a good relationship with the father, she sympathizes with the Mother.
His ex-wife agrees to let him come live with her so she can look after him. It is exhausting and she resents him because he still can be thoughtless and demanding. The husband realizes he was not a good husband and father but cannot bring himself to apologize to his wife and daughter. Eventually he loses his voice and cannot say he is sorry.
As time goes by his wife realizes that she is partly responsible for her own fate. At the end the husband decides to let himself slowly die as his systems are shutting down. It would be incredibly expensive to try to keep him alive, about $400, 000/year which he cannot afford.
After he dies his wife receives a tape from a Doctor who was recording his voice. It is what he calls a legacy message. In it the husband apologizes to his wife. Too bad he didn't do it when he was alive.
I am afraid I did not have much sympathy for the husband. The book was a powerful story but I think it would have been more satisfying if he had apologized to his wife and daughter before he died. The man kept hoping he would reconcile with his father, the father thought his athletic sons were valuable and disparaged him. However, the man's father dies so they are never able to settle with each other. You would think he would have learned something from that considering his own death was imminent.
Saturday, 14 April 2018
The Woman on the Orient Express
by Lindsay Jayne Ashford
I read a previous book by this author, about the death of Jane Austen. As I read my review of this book it seems I thought it was okay but wasn't really gushy about it.
This book is about Agatha Christie. The book starts with a young man arriving at an aged Christie's home with a couple photos. He wants to know who the people in the photo are. He knows one of the women is Christie.
Then the book moves to the past. Agatha wants to get away from England as her ex-husband is to be remarried. After the scandal after she disappeared for a period at a hotel in England she decides to travel under a false name.
On the train she meets two women Nancy and Katherine, both of whom also have secrets. Nancy is a married woman, from a wealthy family. She was devastated to find her husband in bed with another woman, on their honeymoon. In her despair about this she is comforted by a married man and gets into a relationshipo with him. She is now pregnant with his child. She hopes he will leave his family and join her in Baghdad. Katherine is working on an archeological dig, partly as an artist. Her first husband committed suicide in Egypt and she has been told she cannot continue to work on the dig as a single woman so she is returning to get married to the leader of the dig. She has told her second husband that she will marry him on the condition that they not have sex. He agreed. She does not want to tell him the reason why... while she looks like a woman she actually has male sex organs rather than female organs. This was discovered after she got married. She found sex very painful and upon medical investigation the problem was unearthed.
Agatha stops Katherine from committing suicide, then Katherine falls ill and Nancy and Agatha nurse her. Katherine invites them to come visit the dig. Kather has figured out who Jane really is (she was reading one of Christie's books and noticed the resemblance to the photo on the book. She doesn't confront her for quite a while.
Nancy had planned to live with a relative, who was working for the British Embassy, in Baghdad. She is distraught when she receives a telegram saying her relative has died. Nancy doesn't have much money so Christie offers to hire her to type up her notes as long as she is in Baghdad.
When Agatha and Nancy go to visit the dig Nancy gives birth to a baby boy. An official at the British Embassy told her husband where she was and he shows up to claim the child. He is murdered by a Bedoin when he attacks Katherine who is trying to take the child to the Bedouins to ask them to hide the child. When is body is discovered in the desert it is assumed he got lost and succumbed in a storm. Decomposition of his body is so severe there is no evidence he was shot. The one weak point in this story is that Nancy's husband arrived so quickly. He seems to show up only a few days after the Official visited the dig. I know there were telegrams at that time but it would still take some time for the husband to travel from England. It took the women several days and a five day drive to get to Baghdad.
Katherine, upon urging from Agatha eventually tells her second husband why she can't have sex. She fears what is reaction will be but his response is that he just wants to be loved. When Nancy dies of a childbirth fever Katherine and her husband adopt the boy. As all this is happening, Agatha is developing a relationship with one of the other dig staff, a man who eventually will be come her second husband.
At the end of the book Agatha agrees to tell her young visitor, Nancy's son, the truth. He wants to know who is father is.... it is implied that the young man's father is likely Agatha's first husband. It seems that he was having an affair with Nancy, while he was wooing and preparing to marry another woman.
I found the book very engaging. I enjoyed it much more than the first book I read by this author.
I read a previous book by this author, about the death of Jane Austen. As I read my review of this book it seems I thought it was okay but wasn't really gushy about it.
This book is about Agatha Christie. The book starts with a young man arriving at an aged Christie's home with a couple photos. He wants to know who the people in the photo are. He knows one of the women is Christie.
Then the book moves to the past. Agatha wants to get away from England as her ex-husband is to be remarried. After the scandal after she disappeared for a period at a hotel in England she decides to travel under a false name.
On the train she meets two women Nancy and Katherine, both of whom also have secrets. Nancy is a married woman, from a wealthy family. She was devastated to find her husband in bed with another woman, on their honeymoon. In her despair about this she is comforted by a married man and gets into a relationshipo with him. She is now pregnant with his child. She hopes he will leave his family and join her in Baghdad. Katherine is working on an archeological dig, partly as an artist. Her first husband committed suicide in Egypt and she has been told she cannot continue to work on the dig as a single woman so she is returning to get married to the leader of the dig. She has told her second husband that she will marry him on the condition that they not have sex. He agreed. She does not want to tell him the reason why... while she looks like a woman she actually has male sex organs rather than female organs. This was discovered after she got married. She found sex very painful and upon medical investigation the problem was unearthed.
Agatha stops Katherine from committing suicide, then Katherine falls ill and Nancy and Agatha nurse her. Katherine invites them to come visit the dig. Kather has figured out who Jane really is (she was reading one of Christie's books and noticed the resemblance to the photo on the book. She doesn't confront her for quite a while.
Nancy had planned to live with a relative, who was working for the British Embassy, in Baghdad. She is distraught when she receives a telegram saying her relative has died. Nancy doesn't have much money so Christie offers to hire her to type up her notes as long as she is in Baghdad.
When Agatha and Nancy go to visit the dig Nancy gives birth to a baby boy. An official at the British Embassy told her husband where she was and he shows up to claim the child. He is murdered by a Bedoin when he attacks Katherine who is trying to take the child to the Bedouins to ask them to hide the child. When is body is discovered in the desert it is assumed he got lost and succumbed in a storm. Decomposition of his body is so severe there is no evidence he was shot. The one weak point in this story is that Nancy's husband arrived so quickly. He seems to show up only a few days after the Official visited the dig. I know there were telegrams at that time but it would still take some time for the husband to travel from England. It took the women several days and a five day drive to get to Baghdad.
Katherine, upon urging from Agatha eventually tells her second husband why she can't have sex. She fears what is reaction will be but his response is that he just wants to be loved. When Nancy dies of a childbirth fever Katherine and her husband adopt the boy. As all this is happening, Agatha is developing a relationship with one of the other dig staff, a man who eventually will be come her second husband.
At the end of the book Agatha agrees to tell her young visitor, Nancy's son, the truth. He wants to know who is father is.... it is implied that the young man's father is likely Agatha's first husband. It seems that he was having an affair with Nancy, while he was wooing and preparing to marry another woman.
I found the book very engaging. I enjoyed it much more than the first book I read by this author.
Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Erotic Stories for Punjab Widows
by Balli Kaur Jaswal
This story takes place in London. A young Sikh woman who dropped out of law school, to her parent's great disappointment is approached by her sister for help finding a man for an arranged marriage. The main character, Nikki, objects to her sister's decision as she considers herself an independent woman. She is supporting herself by working at a bar, living above the bar.
One day when she reluctantly goes to post an advert about her sister on a bulletin board at the Sikh temple she sees an ad looking for someone to teach some sikh widows how to write. She goes to the person on the ad and is offered the job. However, she doesn't realize that the person who prepared the ad didn't word it correctly--- she actually wanted someone to teach the women to read and write in English.
However the women seem to have more interest in socializing and get into telling somewhat saucy stories/fantasies. One woman is intent on learning to write and eventually leaves in disgust. Nikki tries to befriend the woman but the story about herself that the woman tells Nikki is contradicted by another woman in the group. Nikki doesn't seem to mind the direction the class is going in but she doesn't want the woman who hired her to find out. They then move on to recording the women's stories and transcribing them into Punjabi. The transcriber shares a few of the stories with a relative and soon copies are spreading throughout the neighbourhood.
Nikki meets a Sikh man and then enter a relationship. She is troubled that he often gets calls and has to leave. He tells her it is work issues but she eventually learns he is married. She is furious when she finds this out. The truth about what is really going on in the classes is discovered and the class gets cancelled. Nikki decides to invite the women to her workplace to hold their class.
Nikki learns that there are some secrets in this community, a young woman died in the past and no one wants to talk about it. She eventually finds out what really happened and actually finds proof that the woman did not kill herself but was murdered by her husband. Bringing this information into the open endangers Nikki and she is assaulted in her apartment and it is set on fire. She survives and the guilty man is arrested. Her lover informs her that he has divorced his wife.
The book was okay, I found it a bit ponderous even with the lightly pornographic stories included in the book.
This story takes place in London. A young Sikh woman who dropped out of law school, to her parent's great disappointment is approached by her sister for help finding a man for an arranged marriage. The main character, Nikki, objects to her sister's decision as she considers herself an independent woman. She is supporting herself by working at a bar, living above the bar.
One day when she reluctantly goes to post an advert about her sister on a bulletin board at the Sikh temple she sees an ad looking for someone to teach some sikh widows how to write. She goes to the person on the ad and is offered the job. However, she doesn't realize that the person who prepared the ad didn't word it correctly--- she actually wanted someone to teach the women to read and write in English.
However the women seem to have more interest in socializing and get into telling somewhat saucy stories/fantasies. One woman is intent on learning to write and eventually leaves in disgust. Nikki tries to befriend the woman but the story about herself that the woman tells Nikki is contradicted by another woman in the group. Nikki doesn't seem to mind the direction the class is going in but she doesn't want the woman who hired her to find out. They then move on to recording the women's stories and transcribing them into Punjabi. The transcriber shares a few of the stories with a relative and soon copies are spreading throughout the neighbourhood.
Nikki meets a Sikh man and then enter a relationship. She is troubled that he often gets calls and has to leave. He tells her it is work issues but she eventually learns he is married. She is furious when she finds this out. The truth about what is really going on in the classes is discovered and the class gets cancelled. Nikki decides to invite the women to her workplace to hold their class.
Nikki learns that there are some secrets in this community, a young woman died in the past and no one wants to talk about it. She eventually finds out what really happened and actually finds proof that the woman did not kill herself but was murdered by her husband. Bringing this information into the open endangers Nikki and she is assaulted in her apartment and it is set on fire. She survives and the guilty man is arrested. Her lover informs her that he has divorced his wife.
The book was okay, I found it a bit ponderous even with the lightly pornographic stories included in the book.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
by Mark Sullivan
This fiction book is based on a real person.
It is the story of a young Italian man, Pino Lella during WWII. He is only 17. As Germany and Italy are at war with the rest of Europe Pino's parents send first his brother away and then Pino reluctantly goes too. Their parents want them to be safe and not recruited to fight. Prior to going Pino meets a girl on the street and falls for her. He invites her to join him at a movie but she stands him up. While Pino and his brother are at the movie a bomb drops on the building. Pino sustains a facial cut, his brother is okay but many people in the theatre and surrounding streets are killed or injured.
The boys go to a church school high in the mountains. When Pino arrives the head Priest gets Pino climbing the surrounding mountains to get in shape and to learn different routes. The Priest doesn't explain his reason at first but eventually tells Pino that he will be leading Jews out of Italy to safety in Switzerland. Pino is very happy to be contributing to the war in this way.
While Pino is up in the mountains he meet a local boy who aspires to a racing car driver. He agrees to teach Pino to drive fast if Pino will teach him how to ski.
Then one day Pino is summoned back to Milan and his parents tell him they want him to enlist in the Nazi Army, in a Technical Group. They think that in this way he won't go to the front and be killed. They also encourage him to be a spy back to the allies. He is given a general admin role but one day he finds a nazi soldier struggling with a car. Pino is able to fix the problem and the German Official, one of the senior Nazis in Italy, decides to take him on as his driver. This is a great opportunity for Pino as he is able to report on a lot, but he also observes firsthand the cruelty of his boss and the German army. He is shocked to find that the maid for the mistress of his boss is the girl he was smitten with. They eventually develop a relationship.
As the story goes on Pino saves the life of his boss by dodging a strafing plane. His boss is very impressed and grateful. Pino is torn, he doesn't know why he saved the man when he really hates him for all the atrocities he is committing on Jews and on Italians (stealing all the food from farms to feed German troops).
As the Germans are losing the war Pino eventually is ordered to arrest his boss. He is delighted to do so. But he later learns that by arresting the man his girlfriend and the German's mistress were captured and hung. He is distraught by this. Ironically he later has to deliver his former boss to safety in Switzerland. The boss had made some friends by doing favours and is "pardoned" by the Allies. This really upsets him also. Later Pino is able to move to America and has a successful life.
I really enjoyed the book. It gave a very detailed description of what life was like in Italy at that time and what people experienced and also what they did to fight the Nazis and the fascists.
This fiction book is based on a real person.
It is the story of a young Italian man, Pino Lella during WWII. He is only 17. As Germany and Italy are at war with the rest of Europe Pino's parents send first his brother away and then Pino reluctantly goes too. Their parents want them to be safe and not recruited to fight. Prior to going Pino meets a girl on the street and falls for her. He invites her to join him at a movie but she stands him up. While Pino and his brother are at the movie a bomb drops on the building. Pino sustains a facial cut, his brother is okay but many people in the theatre and surrounding streets are killed or injured.
The boys go to a church school high in the mountains. When Pino arrives the head Priest gets Pino climbing the surrounding mountains to get in shape and to learn different routes. The Priest doesn't explain his reason at first but eventually tells Pino that he will be leading Jews out of Italy to safety in Switzerland. Pino is very happy to be contributing to the war in this way.
While Pino is up in the mountains he meet a local boy who aspires to a racing car driver. He agrees to teach Pino to drive fast if Pino will teach him how to ski.
Then one day Pino is summoned back to Milan and his parents tell him they want him to enlist in the Nazi Army, in a Technical Group. They think that in this way he won't go to the front and be killed. They also encourage him to be a spy back to the allies. He is given a general admin role but one day he finds a nazi soldier struggling with a car. Pino is able to fix the problem and the German Official, one of the senior Nazis in Italy, decides to take him on as his driver. This is a great opportunity for Pino as he is able to report on a lot, but he also observes firsthand the cruelty of his boss and the German army. He is shocked to find that the maid for the mistress of his boss is the girl he was smitten with. They eventually develop a relationship.
As the story goes on Pino saves the life of his boss by dodging a strafing plane. His boss is very impressed and grateful. Pino is torn, he doesn't know why he saved the man when he really hates him for all the atrocities he is committing on Jews and on Italians (stealing all the food from farms to feed German troops).
As the Germans are losing the war Pino eventually is ordered to arrest his boss. He is delighted to do so. But he later learns that by arresting the man his girlfriend and the German's mistress were captured and hung. He is distraught by this. Ironically he later has to deliver his former boss to safety in Switzerland. The boss had made some friends by doing favours and is "pardoned" by the Allies. This really upsets him also. Later Pino is able to move to America and has a successful life.
I really enjoyed the book. It gave a very detailed description of what life was like in Italy at that time and what people experienced and also what they did to fight the Nazis and the fascists.
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