Margaret, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! as the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By & by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you will weep & know why. Now no matter, child, the [...]]]>
“to a young child”

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

–Gerard Manley Hopkins

Grief is such an individual, totally consuming, and heart-wrenching experience — especially when the death is by a young person or is totally unexpected.  This book explores the grief process very well.  Margaret and Nico are teenage sisters.  While Nico generally seeks out her parent’s approval, Margaret is a little on the wild side.  However, that is not what gets her killed.  Margaret has a heart problem and ends up drowning in the lake near their home.

The story is told from Nico’s point of view, and about her struggle to get through each day, each month, each year.  She worries about her own health and about how her parents are coping with her sister’s death.  She’s concerned for her sister’s boyfriend and how he’s dealing with it.  She even endures those around her who try to make her into parts of Margaret instead of herself.

Finally, the story ends with an adult Nico writing about how she and her family have recovered from their grief over the years.  Although — as anyone knows who has been through it — you never really get over the death of someone close to you.

2008, 288 pp.

I’m so glad I’m finally getting around to reading this series. I enjoyed the first two Anne books, and this one was no exception.  [...]]]> There was nobody else — there never could be anybody else for me but you. I’ve loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.

I’m so glad I’m finally getting around to reading this series. I enjoyed the first two Anne books, and this one was no exception.  This one is about Anne’s college years, her relationship with her friends Priscilla and Philippa, and also about her beaux Gilbert and Royal.

Spoilers ahead, but it probably doesn’t matter as most of you have already read the book anyway…

Of course, how could she choose anyone BUT Gilbert?  I do wonder why it took her so long to realize that.  Besides their relationship, I enjoyed reading about Patty’s Place, Davy’s further development, and all the other girls’ drama.  I do think I enjoyed Anne of Avonlea just a bit more than this one, but I still fell in love with Anne of the Island as well.  I probably won’t get to the others in the series until next year, but I’ve enjoyed these first three books tremendously.

1915, 239 pp.

1909, 276 pp.

What a wonderful book!  I enjoyed Anne of Green Gables, but I absolutely adored Anne of Avonlea.  Now a schoolteacher, Anne is much admired by her students.  I loved the sweet descriptions of Anne’s pupils.  I enjoyed meeting the new cast of characters as well: Mr. Harrison and his [...]]]>
Anne of Avonlea
by L.M. Montgomery

1909, 276 pp.

What a wonderful book!  I enjoyed Anne of Green Gables, but I absolutely adored Anne of Avonlea.  Now a schoolteacher, Anne is much admired by her students.  I loved the sweet descriptions of Anne’s pupils.  I enjoyed meeting the new cast of characters as well: Mr. Harrison and his parrot, Miss Lavender and her lovely stone house, the twins Davy and Dora, and the motherless Paul Irving. I anxiously await Anne of the Island.

I listened to the CD read by Barbara Caruso.  What an excellent narrator.  I wouldn’t hesitate at all to listen to one of her audiobooks again.

Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps. . . perhaps. . .love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.

Then the veil dropped again; but the Anne who walked up the dark lane was not quite the same Anne who had driven gaily down it the evening before. The page of girlhood had been turned, as by an unseen finger, and the page of womanhood was before her with all its charm and mystery, its pain and gladness.

2008 Booker Prize winner 2008, 276 pp.

Hmmm, well, I happened to get this book from the library on the Saturday before the Booker Prize was announced “just in case.”  When The White Tiger was revealed as the winner, I was really surprised. Not only did it have the longest odds [...]]]>
The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga

2008 Booker Prize winner
2008, 276 pp.

Hmmm, well, I happened to get this book from the library on the Saturday before the Booker Prize was announced “just in case.”  When The White Tiger was revealed as the winner, I was really surprised. Not only did it have the longest odds to win, but I had recently read The Secret Scripture and not-so-secretly hoped it would win.  In fact, the committee admitted these two were the main contenders and that the decision was not unanimous.

To be honest, I kind of groaned when I heard Adiga’s book was the winner.  I don’t have a love affair at all with the Booker prize winners that I’ve read, so I was a little skeptical that I would enjoy this one.  But, being the trooper that I am, I thought I’d give it at least 40 or so pages to see if it could capture my interest.

Surprise, surprise; it did.  Not only is it a scathing indictment against India’s treatment of its poorest citizens, it also manages to be a clever black comedy.  This is exactly what the prize committee chairman revealed as the reason behind its decision.  So which book did I like better, The White Tiger or The Secret Scripture?  It’s really comparing apples to oranges.  They’re just not the same type of book at all.  They both are worthy social commentaries on the authors’ home countries, but just written in a totally different style.  While Sebastian Barry’s prose is lyrical, Adiga’s is biting (and comical).  They both work spectacularly, just in different ways.  I can definitely see why the committee had a difficult decision on its hands, and either one would have been a winner in my book.

How does it fare against the other Booker Prize winners?  Well, I definitely enjoyed it more than some of the other winners I’ve read, including:

2007 – The Gathering by Anne Enright
2006 – The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
2005 – The Sea by John Banville
2000 – The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
1997 – The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
1985 – The Bone People by Keri Hulme
1983 – Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee

And believe me, no one was more surprised than I was.

Starred Reviews: Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus

2008, 240 pp.

It’s rare that a book gets starred reviews from all four major review publications.  Was this book that good; does it really deserve that much attention?  Yes, absolutely.  I really, really loved it; so much, in fact, that I held off [...]]]> Atmospheric Disturbances
by Rivka Galchen

Starred Reviews: Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus

2008, 240 pp.

It’s rare that a book gets starred reviews from all four major review publications.  Was this book that good; does it really deserve that much attention?  Yes, absolutely.  I really, really loved it; so much, in fact, that I held off reading the last 20 pages or so for two days because I didn’t want it to be over.

Psychoanalyst Leo Liebenstein thinks his wife Rema has disappeared.  Not only that, but he believes she has been replaced by a simulcrum, someone who looks and acts (almost) exactly like her.  Meanwhile, Harvey, one of Leo’s mental patients (who believes he has the ability to control the weather) is also missing.  Not buying in to the simulcrum’s Rema-like performance,  Leo goes to the ends of the earth to Buenos Aires and Patagonia to try to uncover the truth of what has happened to his wife.

I’ll be the first to admit that although I enjoyed this book tremendously, it won’t be to everyone’s tastes. It’s very quirky, very eccentric, but also intelligent and extremely funny.  Much of what I found humorous in the novel was due to the fact that I went to Argentina in April, so I was able to get many of the inside jokes about dog poop in the streets, maté tea, Alpha Wh*re Rays, and many other references to Argentinian life. The author had been in South America for a year working on public health issues, so her writing comes from first hand experience in the region. There were, of course, also references to the (not so funny) “Disappeared.”

This is Rivka Galchen’s first novel, and I definitely will be anxiously awaiting whatever she comes up with next.  Oh, and if her literary career doesn’t work out (I have no doubt that it will), she can always fall back on her MD that she received from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

An interview with Rivka Galchen

Ugh.  I thought this was about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  I wanted it to be about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  And it was, for about 150 pages, then it goes off into a weird and extreme area that I will not mention here.  I feel ripped [...]]]> Breath by Tim Winton
2008, 218 pp.

Ugh.  I thought this was about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  I wanted it to be about a teen boy surfing in Australia.  And it was, for about 150 pages, then it goes off into a weird and extreme area that I will not mention here.  I feel ripped off because I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book, but then to have to be subjected to…blech.

Pikelet and Loonie are two teenage boys obsessed with surfing.  They meet up with Sando, a guy in his mid 30′s who coaches them in the sport and sometimes encourages them to go a little too far with it.  Sando’s wife, Eva, was an extreme skier but now has a blown knee.  Consequently, she’s bitter because her husband still gets to do what he loves and because he’s not spending any time with her.  Breath is about pushing everything in life to the extreme to see how far one can go.

I’m giving it 2 stars because Tim Winton is a good writer and I enjoyed all but the last fourth (which totally ruined the whole thing for me.) 

Here’s an example of a passage I did enjoy:

I will always remember my first wave that morning. The smells of paraffin wax and brine and peppy scrub.  The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air.  How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momentum in my ears.  I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind.  The blur of spray.  The billion shards of light.  I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie’s smile as I flew by; I was intoxicated.  And though I’ve lived to be an old man with my own share of happiness for all the mess I made, I still judge every joyous moment, every victory and revelation against those few seconds of living.

2008, 195 pp.

It seems this story has polarized readers. Some love it, while others intensely dislike the book. I fall into the latter camp. I thought I was really going to like it initially, but then the story went way over the top into unbelievability [...]]]> The Story of a Marriage
by Andrew Sean Greer

2008, 195 pp.

It seems this story has polarized readers. Some love it, while others intensely dislike the book. I fall into the latter camp. I thought I was really going to like it initially, but then the story went way over the top into unbelievability for me. I found myself disliking it more and more as the pages progressed. It’s really almost impossible to speak about the issues I had with the book without giving away some huge spoilers, but I will give you a taste of what it’s about.

Holland and Pearlie Cook are childhood sweethearts with a son and a dog that doesn’t bark. Everything is going along fine until one day Buzz, a man from Holland’s past, shows up at the door and changes everything.  Set in the 50′s and San Francisco.

Those who loved it:

• dovegreyreader
• Lizzy Siddal
• Kirsty

Those who didn’t:

• John Self
• Mark Thwaite
• Eve’s Alexandria

Those who were mixed:

• Shelf Love

If you’d like me to add your review, just let me know in the comments!

2006, 240 pp.

Rating:

Hurray for Dewey’s graphic novel challenge as I probably never would have read this book or Maus without it.  Maus has been my best read all year, and this one was very good as well.

Told in three separate stories that come together nicely in the end, Yang [...]]]> American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang

2006, 240 pp.

Rating:

Hurray for Dewey’s graphic novel challenge as I probably never would have read this book or Maus without it.  Maus has been my best read all year, and this one was very good as well.

Told in three separate stories that come together nicely in the end, Yang takes us through the challenges of growing up with a Chinese heritage.  This book won the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, and it was very well deserved.  I’d love to have my sons read it, and I would definitely read another one by Yang.

Didn’t care for it. I liked Atonement only marginally better. [...]]]> “And what stood in their way? Their personalities and pasts, their ignorance and fear, timidity, squeamishness, lack of entitlement or experience or easy manners, then the tail end of a religious prohibition, their Englishness and class, and history itself. Nothing much at all.”

Didn’t care for it. I liked Atonement only marginally better. I read On Chesil Beach because it was short and I could use it for the Novella and Notable Books challenges. I also wanted to give Ian McEwan another chance.

Edward and Florence are both novices to s*x on their wedding night, and the experience doesn’t turn out too well for them. The consequences of this event have serious repercussions for the couple, even life-changing ones. I enjoyed the back-stories of the couple, but the wedding night scene was too graphic for my taste. Really, can’t the same thing be said in a more understated, tasteful way? I realize I’m in the minority on things like this, but certain language and descriptions just really don’t do it for me. Your mileage probably varies.

2007, 203 pp.
Rating:

Have you reviewed this book? If you’d like, enter your link in Mr. Linky below.

In the [...]]]> The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway is a moving story based on fact. It chronicles the few days in Sarajevo during 1992 when the real “Cellist of Sarajevo,” Vedran Smailovic, played his cello for 22 days in the exact spot where 22 people had been killed while waiting in line for bread.

In the novel, a counter-sniper, Arrow, is assigned to keep the cellist from getting shot and killed. Arrow is the best at what she does but still wrestles with the moral dilemma of having to take another’s life. She wonders if she is any better than the men in the hills trying to destroy her city.

We also meet Kenan, a man on his way to fetch water for his family, and we follow his life-threatening journey as well as his thoughts, fears, and hopes for the future. Another character, Dragan, misses his family, whom he helped to get out of the country. All of them are waiting. Waiting for help that never comes.

Told in a simple but unforgettable style, Galloway captures this unfortunate moment in history in a way that will break your heart for all victims of war.

This book will be released on May 15 from Riverhead Books.

2008, 231 pp.
Rating:

Okonkwo commands respect from his community, his three wives, and his children through both hard work and intimidation. He rises to prominence despite and perhaps due to his father’s laziness in [...]]]> “Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

Okonkwo commands respect from his community, his three wives, and his children through both hard work and intimidation. He rises to prominence despite and perhaps due to his father’s laziness in community and family matters. He stands firm to his culture and traditions. So he is outraged when some of his people start converting to Christianity. A power struggle ensues and ‘things fall apart.’

I’m intrigued by Achebe’s history and background.  I’d like to read the sequel to this book, No Longer at Ease, at some point.

1959, 209 pp
Rating: 4/5

Very uncomfortable reading for me. Disturbing and (literally) haunting. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and written by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Beloved tells the story of a family’s life before and after their escape from slavery. [...]]]> “I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.”

Very uncomfortable reading for me. Disturbing and (literally) haunting. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and written by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Beloved tells the story of a family’s life before and after their escape from slavery. Sethe and her daughter Denver live in isolation at 124 in the countryside near Cincinnati. Also ‘present’ in the house is the ghost of Sethe’s other daughter, nicknamed Beloved, who died when she was two. Sethe fled to Ohio from Kentucky many years before after escaping from her owners at ‘Sweet Home.’ Also at Sweet Home was Paul D., who has now come to Ohio to look for Sethe. Soon after Paul D.’s arrival at 124, he drives the baby ghost out; however it’s not long before a strange young woman is found near the house and who calls herself Beloved.

I had a very difficult time following the story at first, and I’d probably understand it much better if I re-read it at some point. The storyline unravels as it goes along, and we see bit by bit the horrors that Sethe escaped from. Her actions are also called into question. Her mental state is dubious. But whose wouldn’t be after undergoing the ordeals she has gone through?

“Other people went crazy, why couldn’t she?”

I didn’t enjoy this book, but I don’t think readers are supposed to. The subject matter is difficult, and I don’t like hearing the horror stories of Beloved or Maus. At the same time, I realize they are necessary and I’ll continue to force myself to read them.

1987, 275 pp.
Rating: 4/5