The Messy Lives of Book People

by Phaedra Patrick

This book is about a woman, Liv Green, who is working several demanding jobs as a cleaner while her husband struggles to keep their publishing company afloat. She is frustrated and exhausted worrying about how the family will be able to afford university costs for their two boys. One of her jobs is as a cleaner for a famous author, Essie Starling, an author she adores.

Essie is working on her 20th book and has a tight deadline.  She has been a recluse for many years, much to the dismay of her fans and her publisher.  Essie doesn't speak to Liv much, she ignores her pretty much the same way all her employers and the people she encounters in her cleaning jobs do.  At times Essie disappears from her apartment giving no explanation.

Liv's father was a literature prof, he has died in a car accident.

One day Essie starts to talk to Liv about writing and gives the indication she would like to speak to her more about that.  Liv is excited about this opportunity but before things can go any further she is contacted by a lawyer.  The lawyer tells her that Essie died during/following? a surgery.  In her will she has specified that Liv should complete her final book but that her death should be kept secret until the book is submitted to the publisher on Nov. 1st.

Liv and the lawyer are flabbergasted by the will.  Liv quits her other cleaning jobs and tells her husband that she is now helping Essie as an assitant and will get some more money.  She then takes on th task of reading the draft, incomplete manuscript and realizes that Essie had lost her spark for writing.  So Liv starts making some minor changes to the book plus has the huge task of finishing the last eight chapters since all Essie's books have the same number of chapters.

While Liv is working on the book a reporter starts sneaking around trying to get an interview with Essie.  Liv thinks she has managed to keep her away but the reporter keeps digging and trying to contact people who know Essie for background info.  At the same time Liv starts to do some research about Essie to try to find out what inspired her and why Nov 1st is such an important date for her, other than that she won a prestigious award on that day but immediately after became a recluse.

Liv dresses in Essie's clothes and even goes to a book fair in Croatia pretendting that Essie is there with her.  This is a ridiculous part of the book.... what would make her think to do this.  There is a lot of suspicion that Essie is never seen and the hotel room points out that Essie's room is slept in but not hers.  The reporter also tracks down this info.

Once she is close to finishing the book the lawyer tells Liv what Essie has left her, a small student flat where Essie presumably lived as a university student.  Liv assumes this is where Essie fled when she wanted to get away to write.  As she goes through the things in the apartment she discovers that Essie was a student of her father and was in love with him.

Then she is able to put 2 and 2 together.  Her father died on Nov 1st, after he rejected Essie's desire to have a relationship.  Essie won the literary award on Nov 1st but on that day she found out her current husband was having an affair with another woman and is leaving her.  Now she knows why Essie hired her (she had mentioned her father in her resume letter).  She is the daughter of the man Essie loved and could never have.

Liv decides to end the final book, not with the heroine riding off with a lover, but deciding to make her own life.  A much more satisfying ending.

This was an interesting story, at first you wonder what would have possessed Essie to choose Liv as her ghostwriter. The other question is how did Essie know she was going to die and make the stipulation for Liv to finish her book? Did she have a premonition, given her failing health?

 

Kaikeyi

 by Vaishnavi Patel

This is a book which is based on some ancient Indian texts about a woman, Kaikeyi who banished her own son.  The book has some magical realism including some monsters, monsters that can take on human form and some visits from "the gods" etc. in it.

Kaikeyi is the daughter of a Raja.  She has three brothers.  When she is a young girl her mother leaves without any notice.  The children find out that their father has banished their mother because of a suspected indiscretion.  The girl and one of her brothers are especially close.  They are devastated by the loss of their mother.  The brother teaches her some fighting skills as well as how to drive a chariot in warfare.  Women would not learn these skills normally.

The girl's father doesn't pay any attention to her.  One day he tells her she is to become the third wife of another Raja.  She only agrees to the marriage if the Raja will make her son, if she has one, his successor.  When she moves to her new home she keeps to herself but eventually she comes to realize it is better and expected that she will mingle with the other wives and the court and she finds that they welcome her.  There is no jealousy even when she asks to sit in on meetings of the Raja and his counsellors.  The women eventually set up a women's court to help women.  None of the wives get pregnant so a ceremony is held after which all three women have sons.  Kaikeyi son is born second.  She assumes her husband will honour his promise to her especially since she saved his life in a battle.

Kaikeyi has a special power, she can sense how strong the connections are between herself and others, eventually she can see these connections between other people.

It is interesting that all three women consider all the boys as their sons.  Kaikeyi is disturbed to find that the boys are getting tutored by a man who think women have too much power and that things should return to the ways of old.  She gets this tutor dismissed.  However, later the oldest son and one of the other brothers are sent away for education and she is dismayed to learn their tutor is the one she had fired.

When the oldest son returns he convinces his father, who is still young and healthy, that he should retire and make him Raj.  Kaikeyi challenges this when her husband agrees and calls in two "boons" her husband had offered her when she saved his life.  She uses the two boons to have the oldest boy banned for 10 years.  There is some evidence that this oldest son is a god.  However, she and others think he is too immature to rule.  And she wants her son to rule instead.  Her son doesn't want the responsibility.

Things eventually develop that her brother plans to attack the state because his nephew has not taken power.  There is a battle and one of Kaikeyi's sons kills her brother.  She is so upset she retires to her quarters.  The question arises, did all the manipulations she tried prove for good or ill?

It was an interesting, if someone puzzling story at times.

 

Book Lovers

 by Emily Henry

I am always drawn to books about libraries and bookstores.  When I picked this up I didn't realize it would be a rom-com and a very poor one at that.  This book was SO PREDICTABL!!

It is the story of an uptight book agent in New York who feels responsible for her younger sister and her family.  She is a workaholic, known as "the shark" in the office.  Many of oher love interests have left her and the big city for life in the country in one place or another.

She meets a book editor for lunch one day and the two immediately dislike each other.

Her sister, who is 5 months pregnant with her third child, decides that she needs a holiday so they should go to a town that is featured in a best seller romance novel. The sister also has a to do list for them (her sister) while they are there, including wear flannel, kiss a stranger, save a local business..... see what I mean about predictable.

The main character reluctantly agrees thinking it will be good for her sister.  She finds the town doesn't live up to the rustic charm of the book.  She is shocked to find that the book editor is in the town, trying to help his parents who are running a failing bookstore in town.  Sparks fly of course between them as they agree to work together on editing a book by one of the author's the woman represents.

In the end the woman's sister and her husband decide to move to the small town as it is more affordable for them.  The love interest says he has to stay to help his parents.  But in the end of course he does leave his family in good hands and return to New York to be with her.

Not a very interesting, engaging read as far as I was concerned.  I ended up skipping pages (including the mild juicy bits) just to get to the end.

 

 

The Murdr of Mr Wickham

 by Claudia Gray

This book is a takeoff on Jane Austen, obviously.  The author has done a great job of writing in a similar style to Austen.  Apparently she is a Jane Austen fan and is shows.  The thinking and behaviour of the characters is very much in the style of Austen herself, with the class awareness, consciousness of social norms and not embarrassing oneself or ruining one's reputation.  Wickham, as portrayed in the book is very self-serving, deceitful and mean.

The story centres around a gathering at the home of the Knigtley's where characters from several of Austen's books have come to spend what they hope will be a pleasant month.  However, soon after the holiday starts Wickham shows up univited, as if gloating at the hatred the gathered people have for him, including the Darcys.  He takes special glee in having ruined or potentially financially ruined several of the families present who invested in a money making scheme of his which has been a disaster.  It seems Wickham has received money and many people still owe him money.

The Darcy's son Jonathan is one of the guests.  He seems to be a bit of a social misfit, perhaps a bit autistic.  She doesn't like social situatioins because he never knows what is expected of him.  There is a young lady in attendance also.  The two strike up a friendship.  The girl doesn't seem to mind all his quirks.

The weather is terrible, rain and storms so everyone is stuck inside for days.  Wickham's presence casts a pall over everyone.  One night he is found murdered.  As the book proceeds we find that most of the people in the house have reason to want him dead.  As the local offical tries to determine who killed Wickham, the two young people do their own investigating by listening and watching people.  They have to be careful to not be caught alone together as that would be scandalous.  Eventually they point out the actual murder weapon to the official and one of the guests admits that she killed Wickham because he made unwelcome advances to her. 

The magistrate decides that her actions were justified and it appears there will be no legal consequences for her.

It was an entertaining book and I was very impressed with how the author "channeled" Austin. 

Mansions of the Moon

 by Shyam Selvadurai

"the best people's souls- those Brhamins practising austerities and sacrifices in the forests - pass from the fires of cremation  into the air, rising to the moon where they dwell for six months in its mansions.  Then their Atmans continue upwards into the world of the gods and from theire into the Land of the Fathers.  Yet their journey does not end there dhara.  Soon a person who consites entirely of mind comes to lead them to the world of Braham, where they live in eternal bliss" pg 116.

This book is the fictional story of the life of Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, as told through his wife, Yasodhara.  I didn't really know anything about him other than that he was wealthy and left all this behind.

The story tells how Siddhartha, who is a disappointment to his father (uncle?), a raj, because he is not a good fighter and athlete.  Siddhartha goes away and gets acclaim as an administrator but when he comes back his father still doesn't like him and embarrasses him alot.  There are a couple other relatives who work with his father and seem to run things.  Siddhartha decides to marry a young girl he knew from childhood.  She is happy to marry him but shocked when instead of him getting a good job from his father he is sent to a distant outpost where they have no servants and must clean their own house and clothes, cook their own meals and even grow their own food.  His wife is at first distressed but finds she likes the manual labour and the joy that comes with growing things.  The people like Siddhartha because he is fair.  However Siddhartha does not like having to make judgements on people and he is attracted to teaching of ascetic monks.  He is visited by a former Raj, who gave everything up to become a monk, wandering the country.  Siddhartha is impressed by the man and his ideas and the fact he left everything behind.

A drought affects the countryside where Siddhartha and his wife live.  When the tax collectors come to collect taxes Siddhartha says they will give nothing because if they do the people will starve.  Shortly after his wife's brother comes and tells Siddhartha that because of his behaviour  he is being replaced.  The woman's brother is quite violent and has created alliances with some other local "tribes" because of the woman he has "married".

Siddhartha and his wife return to the family home in shame.  Siddhartha is appointed as a judge and seems to be doing a good job but he starts to go to visit some monks camped out outside the city.  His  wife announces she is pregnant thinking this will cause him to realize his responsibilities but shortly after the child is born he leaves his wife telling his wife that he has to follow his calling.  She is devastated.

Ten years after Siddhartha left rumours come that he is in the neighbourhood.  He has bome very famous for his teachings. His wife tells her son not to expect a visit from his father because his father has abandoned them.  Siddhartha does come to visit when he finds out his father is dying.  He meets his son and sees his wife again. When the Raj dies all the people in his household will have to leave their house.  The woman are worried about what will happen to them.  Siddhartha's wife asks him to intercede with the new Raj on behalf of his family of women.  He says he cannot do this as he would have.  She is further devastated when she finds her son has run off to join Siddhartha as have two cousins she was close to.

His wife decides that women do have the stamina to become wandering monks begging for a living.  She convinces many of the women to shave their heads, dress in white gowns and start to walk for 15 days to catch up with Siddhartha.  It is physically difficult but they are helped along the way.  When they catch up with Siddhartha the monks vote against women joining the order.  But the women persist and finally they are allowed to become monks with several restrictions on their behaviour basically making them subservient to the male monks.  The woman accept these rules knowing they will have little contact with the men.

Having read  up on the wife, Yasodhara, I learned that she lived to 78 years of age and Buddha died two years later.  Very long lives for those times.

Obviously very little is known about the real lives and interactions of Buddha and his wife, etc.  The author is a man.  He did a great job of presenting a story about what it might have been like, how difficult life was for women, so dependent on their males for their care and support.

Ayesha At Last

 by Uzma Jalaluddin

This is the second book I have read by this author.  I enjoyed it more than the first one.  It had more "meat".  The book is a bit of a homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

The story is about Muslim families living in the Toronto area.  The main character Ayesha is a modest devote Muslim who is struggling to get established as a teacher.  She has a cousin who is the popular one and a party animal, Hafsa.

Hafsa's goal in life is to get married.  Ayesha is in her late 20's but isn't too anxious to get married and her mother and grandparents, who live with her, are okay with her not wanting an arranged marriage.

The second story is about a very conservative, devote Muslim, Khalid.  Khalid has very set ideas about how a Muslim should behave and what a wife should be like.  He is getting grief from his new supervisor who has a hate on for Muslims based on her experience working in Saudi Arabia.  She doesn't like that Khalid won't shake hands and wears traditional Muslim attire and has a big bushy beard.  The supervisor is out to get him fired and finally decides to give him the job of setting up a website for an oversize women's lingerie business.  She figures this project will sink him.  She thinks this job will be for a tiny startup so it won't matter if the company loses the account.  She doesn't find out til later that the company makes multi-million dollars in sales per year.  Khalid is upset at this perceived demotion as he is an e-commerce consultant but he does what he is told.  The women from the lingerie company are supportive of Khalid because they see what his boss is doint to him.He is willing to have is Mother arrange a marriage for him.

The local Mosque is organizing an event for young Muslims.  Khalid, Ayesha and her cousin are recruited to help plan the event.  Hafsa wants to start an event planning business but also wants to meet a boy so she convinces Ayesha to say she is Hafsa.  Why Ayesha agrees to this I don't know.  Khalid and Ayesha spar alot because of their different views of Muslim acceptable behaviour but they are also attracted to each other.  Khalid's mother finds out about the attraction and hastily arranges an engagement between Khalid and Ayesha's cousin.  When Khalid hear's his future wife's name he is happy because he thinks it is Ayesha bu of course it is his cousin.

The mistaken identities is a plot taken from Shakespeare.  The angry mother who warns off a woman and the scene where Khalid tells Ayesha how much he loves her despite all her faults is straight out of Pride and Prejudice.

In the end Khalid says no to his mother and wants to marry Ayesha.  He is fired from his job, but a co-worker has evidence that will sink the boss.  He is okay with being fired because he has been hired by the women's lingerie company.

It was a light romance but I enjoyed how she developed the plot with references to Shakespeare and Jane Austen.

All the Queen's Men

 by SJ Bennett

I read the previous book by this author, The Windsor Knot, and found it quite entertaining.  Like the Windsor Knot this book involves Queen Elizabeth II discreetly employing some sleuthing techniques to find out if the death of a staff member was murder or an accident, how a painting she was fond of ended up in a Maritime Museum and who is sending poison pen notes to various employees of the Queen.

The book features the Queen and her Personal Assistant Rozie plus a number of additional characters.  As the book moves on we find that the woman who was murdered was a cleaner who was disliked by almost everyone.  On further investigation it is determined that she was acutally hired as an art restorer, curator, but got demoted.  The dead woman had unearthed some valuable works by a woman artist.  Later the paintings were determined to be copies.  It appears the originals were stolen and replaced with copies.  The investigation also turns up additional corruption with items owned or given to the Queen being sold off.

The book was a bit plodding, I didn't find it as engaging as the first one.