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!

2008, 300 pp. Booker Prize Shortlist Rating:

What can I tell you further? I once lived among humankind, and found them in their generality to be cruel and cold, and yet could mention the names of three or four that were like angels.

I’d be happy if this book won the Booker Prize.  [...]]]> The Secret Scripture
by Sebastian Barry

2008, 300 pp.
Booker Prize Shortlist
Rating:

What can I tell you further? I once lived among humankind, and found them in their generality to be cruel and cold, and yet could mention the names of three or four that were like angels.

I’d be happy if this book won the Booker Prize.  Yeah, I would, and I haven’t read any of the other contenders yet!  Sebastian Barry is a magnificent writer, and I will definitely be reading more of his work.

Roseanne McNulty is almost 100 years old, and Dr. Grene is the psychiatrist attending her at Roscommon Mental Hospital.  The story slowly unfolds by giving alternating accounts of Roseanne and Dr. Grene.  As he seeks to understand her and her tragic past, he must also deal with some tragedy of his own.  As everyone knows, ‘grief lasts two years.’

With Ireland as a backdrop and themes of religion, mental illness, and family loyalty and betrayal, The Secret Scripture is superbly crafted and is definitely worthy of the Booker Prize.

Yuko is a poet who loves snow and writes Haiku poetry only about snow. The Poet of the Imperial Court thinks Yuko has great potential but thinks his poetry needs more color. He then sends him on a journey to a blind poetry master named Soseki where Yuko will [...]]]> Yuko Akita had two passions.
Haiku.
And snow.

Yuko is a poet who loves snow and writes Haiku poetry only about snow. The Poet of the Imperial Court thinks Yuko has great potential but thinks his poetry needs more color. He then sends him on a journey to a blind poetry master named Soseki where Yuko will not only learn about poetry, but also about love.

I really loved aspects of this book and the language is lyrical, but parts of it just didn’t sit right with me. It takes only an hour or two to read, though, so I do recommend it as something different from the usual that is not too time-consuming.

1999, 100 pp., translated from the French
Rating:

I received this arc from the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club. It is so wonderful to be a part of [...]]]> Arthur: How can you tell a cannibal?
Vivi: Well, they’re the only ones left, silly.
Arthur: No, before they’ve eaten the others.
Vivi: Oh, that. They’ve just got a look about them.

I received this arc from the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club. It is so wonderful to be a part of this program because the authors are also on the message boards and will answer questions from readers. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading Poppy Adams’ responses to the questions posed. I will definitely be reading more of her work when it comes out. The Sister is her first novel.

Originally titled The Time of Emergence, and called The Behaviour of Moths in the UK, The Sister is a book where, after reaching the end, the reader may be left with more questions unanswered than answered. There are multiple interpretations that could be made about several different occurrences in the book. For me, that’s what makes this story so fascinating. I know that may be more of a frustration to some, though.

Vivien (Vivi) and Virginia (Ginny) are two sisters who grew up in a countryside mansion with lepidopterist ancestors. Their maternal grandfather and father were both lepidopterists, and Ginny becomes a lepidopterist. What is a lepidopterist? It’s a person who studies moths and butterflies. There is much discussion of the behavior of moths in this book, but it is an essential aspect of the story. While reading and after finishing the book, I realized many parallels between the behavior of moths and the behavior of the characters in the novel. This is a book I’ll probably re-read at some point to catch all the connections between the two.

Vivi and Ginny have been separated for decades, and the reasons why become apparent as the story unfolds. Very different from each other, Vivi is outgoing and leaves home for London at a young age, while Ginny is an introvert and a homebody. In fact, as the novel opens, we get the sense that Ginny hasn’t left her home for many, many years. Vivien decides to come back to the house, stating to Ginny that as sisters, they should spend their old age together. The entire novel only takes place over a few days, but as each day unfolds, we are also given glimpses from the past and why they have been separated for so long. All of this is told from Ginny’s perspective, though, and as Ginny and Vivi discuss their history together, they both realize that they saw their childhood in distinctly different ways. These differences are crucial to figuring out what is going on in the story.

What is going on in the story? I don’t want to tell you much, because it has a really good, creepy, gothic, Hitchcock feel to it that is better left to finding out by reading the story. If you don’t mind not having everything wrapped up in the end, and if you like having multiple interpretations of a storyline, you’ll love this book. I really enjoyed it, and the more I think about it, the more I love it.

2008, 275 pp.
Rating: 4.5/5

It’s very atmospheric. [...]]]> I read Strangers by Taichi Yamada for the Japanese literature challenge. This was my first book for the challenge, and I don’t recollect ever having read a book translated from the Japanese before. I first heard about it from kimbofo at Reading Matters, who gave it a perfect 5 star rating.

It’s very atmospheric. I found myself thinking about it long after reading the novel, and the story somewhat reminded me of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Harada lives in a building on a very busy street in Tokyo. However, most of the units in the building have been converted to office space and, consequently, there are only two tenants there after hours. He’s a little spooked by the quietness in the building at night but chalks it up to being recently divorced and unused to being alone.

One night he decides to go to his hometown where he meets a couple who are the spitting image of his long-dead parents. He keeps going back to see them to try to determine who they really are. There are other strange happenings in his life that I won’t spoil for you here.

It’s a short book that can be read in a few hours, and I encourage anyone interested in world literature to read it. The ‘quiet suspense’ of the novel impressed me and made me want to read more by this author.

(1987 [2003 in U.S.], 203 pp.)
Rating:

She dreamed of a book of a thousand pages, constructed like a symphony, but in five sections, according [...]]]> Suite Française is the incredible incomplete set of novels by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian Jew who had been living in Paris for 10 years before ultimately dying in Auschwitz. The preface to the French edition states that:

She dreamed of a book of a thousand pages, constructed like a symphony, but in five sections, according to rhythm and tone. She took Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as a model.

Sadly, only two of the planned five were completed. In these stories, she creates such vivid characters and situations that it is a shame we never get to find out what happened to them. She was a fine writer. Her characters were so well-defined; I cared about the worthy ones and loathed the loathsome ones. Even in her description of the latter, there was humor to be found. Both good and bad die, and of course the question is always, “Why?” The accounts of the flight from Paris as the Germans descended on them during 1940 were chilling and frighteningly relevant to what could happen today. Then, during the section depicting the occupation of France, I was most surprised at her portrayal of the German soldiers, in which some could be seen as sympathetic.

Her two daughters had kept these stories in a suitcase for years, not even looking at them as it was too painful. When one of her daughters did finally take out the papers to type them, she found this wonderful, incomplete novel and it was published in France in 2004, sixty-two years after her death in 1942.

Highly recommended.

2006 for the English translation, 367 pp.
Rating: 4.5

2002, 186 pp.

Rating: 4

Stargirl is a high school girl who, refreshingly, does NOT try to be like everyone else. She marches to her own drummer. She is kind to everyone, almost to a fault. But does everyone love her for it or think she’s too much of an oddity?

I [...]]]>
Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli

2002, 186 pp.

Rating: 4

Stargirl is a high school girl who, refreshingly, does NOT try to be like everyone else. She marches to her own drummer. She is kind to everyone, almost to a fault. But does everyone love her for it or think she’s too much of an oddity?

I enjoyed this book, though I winced a bit at the too familiar (though long ago) high school culture. A very good story for teens.

2003, 302 pp.

Rating: 4.5

I’m so glad I hadn’t read this book before so that I could read it for the Southern Reading Challenge (and the Something about Me Challenge). I loved everything about this book. The setting, the characters, the story. I didn’t [...]]]>
The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

2003, 302 pp.

Rating: 4.5

I’m so glad I hadn’t read this book before so that I could read it for the Southern Reading Challenge (and the Something about Me Challenge). I loved everything about this book. The setting, the characters, the story. I didn’t know anything about it before I started reading, and I think it’s best that way. All I’ll say is that it is about a girl named Lily and that bees play an important part of the story. If you’re one of the few who haven’t read it yet, you’ll be in for a treat when you do.

1999, 248 pp.

Rating: 4/5

I was excited to read this after absolutely loving Coraline earlier this year. I also wanted to read it before the movie comes out in August. I did like the book quite a bit, but I didn’t love it, and I wanted to love it. I’m [...]]]> Stardust
by Neil Gaiman

1999, 248 pp.

Rating: 4/5

I was excited to read this after absolutely loving Coraline earlier this year. I also wanted to read it before the movie comes out in August. I did like the book quite a bit, but I didn’t love it, and I wanted to love it. I’m not sure what happened–maybe I just expected too much.

Tristan lives in a village where there is a hole in the wall. It’s guarded by the villagers because it leads into a fairy land. No one is allowed through. Once every 9 years, however, there is a festival where the fairy people and villagers do mingle.

Tristan is in love with the prettiest girl in the village, and wants to prove his love for her by getting her a star that they both see fall in the night sky. However, it has fallen in fairy land. His adventures in trying to obtain the star are magical, to say the least. We meet some very interesting characters from fairy land as well. Does he get the star and/or the girl? Read the book or see the movie to find out. Caution: Parents should read the book first as it’s not for children. I wouldn’t recommend it for under 16. These sections were few and far between, though.

Claire Danes plays one of the leads in the movie, and I knew this going into the book. She was TOTALLY right for this part. I could just imagine her saying her lines from the book.

I’ll probably see the movie in the first night or two. Can’t wait!

1. kookiejar – July 20, 2007[Edit]

I’ll see it in the first couple of days of its release as well. I must read it first though.
2. Stephanie – July 21, 2007[Edit]

I’m sorry you didn’t love it! I really did. I thought it was just a magical, beautiful little story!

I’ll definitely see the movie!!
3. Debi – July 21, 2007[Edit]

I, too, loved Coraline. The only Gaiman I’ve read to this point. I can’t count how many times I’ve picked up Stardust at the bookstore, only to set it back down. I have bought M is for Magic and American Gods, neither of which I’ve had a chance to read yet. I know sooner or later I won’t be able to resist Stardust any longer.
4. Nabeel – July 22, 2007[Edit]

hmm, I hope it’s good. Lately, Robert Deniro has been doing movies that have failed.

2005, 195 pp.

2005 Booker Prize

Rating: 2

This was not my cup of tea. I don’t need an exciting plot to enjoy a book. I don’t mind older men looking back on their lives. In a similar vein, I loved Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, although I hated Roth’s Everyman. This [...]]]> The Sea
by John Banville

2005, 195 pp.

2005 Booker Prize

Rating: 2

This was not my cup of tea. I don’t need an exciting plot to enjoy a book. I don’t mind older men looking back on their lives. In a similar vein, I loved Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, although I hated Roth’s Everyman. This was closer to Everyman.

Max is a widower that is overly sensitive to smells who is grieving (I guess?) over his wife. He calls her the “c” word and admits he really didn’t know her because he preferred not to know her.

Not one character in the book was likable. I guess I was lucky this was short.

1. Joy – July 6, 2007

Ahhh, I just added this onto my iPod! I didn’t like EVERYMAN either, so you not liking this one is not a good sign for me.

2. Petunia – July 11, 2007

I had the same reaction as you did. Didn’t care for it.

1977, 238 pp.

Rating: 4

National Book Award Winner

This memoir is a book about life, marriage, friendship, and faith. Vanauken tells the story of how he and his wife’s relationship changed from an intense, romantic love to one controlled by their Christian beliefs. That is not to say that their love wasn’t [...]]]> A Severe Mercy
by Sheldon Vanauken

1977, 238 pp.

Rating: 4

National Book Award Winner

This memoir is a book about life, marriage, friendship, and faith. Vanauken tells the story of how he and his wife’s relationship changed from an intense, romantic love to one controlled by their Christian beliefs. That is not to say that their love wasn’t intense or romantic after their conversion, but it did change significantly. He also details his wife’s illness, death, and his own grief process afterwards.

Most interesting to me were the letters exchanged between the Vanaukens (mostly Sheldon) and C.S. Lewis. The couple met Lewis while at Oxford and kept up a healthy correspondence with him after they moved back to the States. Lewis is my favorite author, so it was interesting to hear his viewpoints on a much more personal level. These exchanges were my favorite parts of the book.

Amy – June 18, 2007

I read this book and really enjoyed it too and agree that the exchanges with Lewis were my favorite part of the book.

I have so many Lewis books that I want to read(and in fact, own) but I never get them read. I need to link them to a challenge and then I will complete them.

Maybe in 2008.

1993, 361 pp.

1995 Pulitzer/1994 NBCC Award

Rating: 4.5

I loved this book. I loved the writing. It isn’t a heartwarming book, but it is a thoughtful one. These “diaries” chronicle Daisy Goodwill’s life from her birth in 1905 to her death in 199? (we aren’t told the exact year). Each chapter [...]]]> The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

1993, 361 pp.

1995 Pulitzer/1994 NBCC Award

Rating: 4.5

I loved this book. I loved the writing. It isn’t a heartwarming book, but it is a thoughtful one. These “diaries” chronicle Daisy Goodwill’s life from her birth in 1905 to her death in 199? (we aren’t told the exact year). Each chapter of her life is told from her point of view, although in the book (and sometimes even in a single sentence) she switches back and forth between 1st and 3rd person. We learn of her childhood, her marriages and children, loves and losses, work and leisure, and finally her old age and death. The “chapters” made me think of my own life stages so far and the ones that are to come. All of us have a similar beginning and ending, but it’s the middle that makes life interesting.

There were many, many beautiful passages in this book. I’ll leave you with one as an example of the excellence of Shields’ writing:

Something has occurred to her–something transparently simple, something she’s always known, it seems, but never articulated. Which is that the moment of death occurs while we’re still alive. Life marches right up to the wall of that final darkness, one extreme state of being butting against the other. Not even a breath separates them. Not even a blink of the eye. A person can go on and on tuned in to the daily music of food and work and weather and speech right up to the last minute, so that not a single thing gets lost.

Carol Shields died of cancer in 2003. She was a gifted writer, and I definitely plan on reading more of her works.