This was my first Sarah Waters book, and I must say I do enjoy her writing style.
Hundreds Hall. Haunted or not? Ghost, poltergeist, or murderer?
Minor spoilers ahead.
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Hundreds Hall, once a grand estate, has fallen into decline with the decline of its family’s fortune. The narrator, Dr. Faraday, first knew of the house as a small child when his mother was a maid there. After a 30 year absence, he is called back to the house because of a maid’s illness and is taken aback by the condition of the house and the family.
Over time he becomes sort of a family friend to Mrs. Ayres and her adult children Roderick and Caroline, though perhaps the friendship is more on his side than theirs due to class differences. All the while, strange happenings are afoot. Strange burn marks, footsteps in empty rooms and the like are witnessed by each occupant. The story is cleverly told, and the ending is left for the reader to decide. I’m one who actually likes this type of ending because I end up thinking about all the possibilities for days! The mood of the book was sufficiently creepy without being gory and was an excellent choice for the RIP Challenge, too.
The Little Stranger is shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.
2009, 480 pp.
[Disclaimer: This book was obtained from my public library.]
I finally read Twilight. I think I was (almost) the last to do so. Even my sisters both bragged that they read the whole series before I even got to the first book.
So what did I think? Well, for the first few pages,I thought, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this… Then I don’t know if the writing got better or I just got sucked (pun intended) into the story, but I did end up liking it quite a bit. I think Stephenie Meyer knows how to tap into a teenage girl’s mind and the book fits its audience quite well. As far as this 40+ woman goes, well, I did roll my eyes at some passages, but the overall plot of the book is pretty darn good.
The movie was remarkably faithful to the book for the most part, and l quite enjoyed it when I saw it last year. In fact, I’ll probably re-watch it soon and then go ahead and read New Moon so when talk comes up about the upcoming movie I won’t have anything spoiled for me. Then I’ll read Eclipseand Breaking Dawn during Carl’s R.I.P. challenge (if I can wait until September).
I read Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath at this time last year. I also read the first half of the second book at that time but have just now finished it. I only put it down because I had some challenges and arcs to finish, not because I wasn’t enjoying it. Now that I needed a ‘U’ author, a classic, and a Nobel laureate for challenges, it was time to get back to it!
In this second volume, Kristin goes to Husaby with her husband to begin their new life together. She soon finds out marriage and motherhood can be exhausting, especially with her own family so far away. She has quite a few children and all the while struggles with past mistakes and new ones. Her faith is a comfort to her but she desperately misses her own family, especially her father. Finally she gets to go home when her younger sister gets married. Although elated to see Lavrans, there is also a bit of a strain put on their relationship which pains Kristin greatly.
There is a lot more to Kristin’s story that I’m not willing to spoil for you. Let’s just say I’m excited to read Volume III and complete the saga.
Sigrid Undset won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928, primarily for this trilogy. Kristin Lavransdatter is a book I highly recommend to you if you love classics or want to know more about Norway and/or this time period (the 1300s). It is a fascinating look at a woman with a strong Christian faith but one who is far, far away from being perfect.
1921, 401 pp.
Rating: 4.5/5
The original Swedish title of this book meansMen Who Hated Women, and that title is an excellent forewarning about what the book is about. If you like gritty crime novels or shows like CSI, you’ll probably love the book. My eyes and stomach prefer much milder fare, but I’ll still probably read the second installment, The Girl Who Played with Fire, when it comes out next year.
The girl who has the dragon tattoo is Lisbeth Salander, a girl in her mid-twenties who is a PI and can find out just about everything about anyone. I liked her. A lot. Her character was fascinating and Larsson ends the book in such a way that leaves you wanting to hear more of her story and background.
Mikael Blomqvist is a journalist who has just lost a court case for libel, which then puts his reputation and his magazine Millennium at risk. He decides to temporarily leave the paper in the hands of his partner to save face. Enter Henrik Vanger. Vanger is the former CEO of his family business, the Vanger Corporation. He hires Blomqvist to write a family history of the Vangers as a pretext to dig into the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger. The case has been cold for decades and though Mikael believes he won’t be able to find any new evidence, he accepts. This is where the book really grabbed me and kept me reading until 1 am to learn the outcome.
The book really has three storylines to it, the Harriet Vanger story is in the middle, with Lisbeth Salander’s story on the outside of that, and with Mikael Blomqvist’s story on the very outer edges. Consequently, the climax occurs with quite a few pages still left in the book. So at first it felt like the book should be over, but then after awhile I was able to get into the secondary and tertiary stories as well.
As I stated in the beginning, it really is about men who hate women, so if you read it be prepared for what that involves. I didn’t care for the more graphic scenes in the book, but I do know that not everyone is as sensitive to that as I am. And I do want to find out more about the girl with the dragon tattoo when The Girl Who Played with Fire comes out next year.
There is a lot going on in Craig Thompson’s autobiographical graphic novel Blankets. With a deeply personal touch, Thompson draws and writes about his childhood and teenage years and their hardships, joys, and discoveries. Writing about his brother, family, church camps, and first love, Thompson lays it all bare. He truly had some difficult things to deal with in his childhood that no child should have to face, and we see him struggle with his faith and family relationships as a result.
While I admire the book’s artwork, story, and the author himself, it is difficult for me to write this review as I disagree with (but am mostly sad about) the book’s conclusion. As I was reading the book, I was hoping for it to end a certain way when in fact it went the 180 degree opposite direction. Of course, this is the author’s life so he has every right to write about and illustrate how he really feels, but… I was still very sad at the end. There’s no denying he has a gift for writing and illustration, though, and I would definitely pick up another one of Thompson’s graphic novels in the future.
The picture below is one of the illustrations dealing with the first night that he and his brother finally get their own rooms. After waiting so long for them after sharing a room for many years, it’s not hard to imagine what happens that first night. I’ll save that for you to read on your own, though! (This book has mature themes and I wouldn’t recommend it for those under 16 or 17.)
Absolutely wonderful. I cannot recommend this highly enough. I also couldn’t tell you what it’s about better than the official website:
ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together…in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you.
This is being made into a movie by Johnny Depp’s production company. I can’t wait to see it.
I loved this book, perhaps even more than The Handmaid’s Tale, which I also rated 4.5. Whereas The Handmaid’s Tale was mostly a cautionary tale about men’s subjugation of women, Cat’s Eye is about girls subjugating and intimidating other girls. Elaine Risley as an adult is a successful artist, but as a little girl she was bullied by her friends and their ringleader, Cordelia. What makes little girls (and big ones!) do this, and why do the ones being tormented let them do it?
In an interview in the back of the book, Atwood states this is her most autobiographical novel, and she states the theme of the book as follows:
Cat’s Eye is about how girlhood traumas continue into adult life. Girls have a culture marked by secrets and shifting alliances, and these can cause a lot of distress. The girl who was your friend yesterday is not your friend today, but you don’t know why. These childhood power struggles color friendships between women. I’ve asked women if they fear criticism more from men or from other women. The overwhelming answer was: “From women.”
In typical Atwood fashion, there were also themes concerning male-female relationships. In one painting of Elaine’s, called Falling Women, she describes what was meant in the artwork:
There were no men in this painting, but it was about men, the kind who caused women to fall. I did not ascribe any intentions to these men. They were like the weather, they didn’t have a mind. They merely drenched you or struck you like lightning and moved on, mindless as blizzards. Or they were like rocks, a line of sharp slippery rocks with jagged edges. You could walk with care along between the rocks, picking your steps and if you slipped you’d fall and cut yourself, but it was no use blaming the rocks.
That must be what was meant by fallen women. Fallen women were women who had fallen onto men and hurt themselves. There was some suggestion of downward motion, against one’s will and not with the will of anyone else. Fallen women were not pulled-down women or pushed women, merely fallen.
Definitely one to read if you’ve enjoyed other Atwood novels.
Bjartur of Summerhouses has one goal: total independence. After being a servant for 18 years, he finally obtains his own land, and while ever seeking the land’s improvements, Bjartur and his extreme self-reliance costs his family dearly. He mistreats his own wife and children, not overtly, but through his unwillingness to accept help of any kind from neighbors. His independence, his dog, and his sheep are of primary and utmost importance. But is it possible to be too independent? What happens to Bjartur when his own children demand independence from him?
Reading a book set in Iceland in January really set the mood for this story. The cold, the coffee, the sheep, and the stubbornness of one man against the world are what I will remember about this book. With themes of materialism, socialism, war, and politics, Independent People by Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness is more than relevant for today.
1934-35 , 482 pp.
Nobel prize-winning author
Rating: 4
The House at Riverton is a strong debut novel by Kate Morton. Already a bestseller in the U.K., it is slated for release in the U.S. in April of 2008.
Grace Bradley, a 98 year old former servant of the Hartford family, recounts in a series of flashbacks the events surrounding the house and the family during World War I. Grace is ever the loyal servant (perhaps too loyal) to the family and especially to one of the mistresses of the house, Hannah, who is very close in age to Grace. In the flashbacks, Grace recounts how family secrets and the devastating effects of World War I led to the Hartford family’s demise.
In the author’s acknowledgments, she cites The Chatham School Affair, Remains of the Day, Gosford Park, and Upstairs Downstairs as having influenced her and her novel. I was familiar with all of those sources, so I did feel a bit like the book borrowed too much from these works to be truly spectacular. Still, I did enjoy it, and I would definitely read a second book by this author.
Why did it take me so long to read this? Since it’s such a well-known classic, I won’t summarize the plot except to say it’s about a girl from Irish-Catholic descent facing poverty and family struggles in Brooklyn.
(Spoilers ahead!)
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I loved Francie. I loved how she fought to go to a good school and how she loved her father. And of course, how she loved books-in spite of the not-really-there librarian. How awful was she?! The grandmother’s advice about reading the Bible and Shakespeare was excellent. Carrying it out for all those years was even more admirable. I loved seeing her grow and develop into a young woman. The responsibility of a 14 year-old to support the whole family! Amazing.
Some favorite quotes:
That is what is called learning the truth. It is a good thing to learn the truth one’s self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character. (Mary Rommely’s advice)
From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.
(Katie, Francie’s mom:) You wait until us women vote. . . You don’t believe we will? That day will come. Mark my words. We’ll put all those crooked politicians where they belong-behind iron bars.
(Francie’s dad:) If that day ever comes when women vote, you’ll go along to the polls with me-arm in arm-and vote the way I do. He put his arm around her and gave her a quick hug.
Katie smiled up at him. Francie couldn’t help noticing that mama was smiling sidewise, the way the lady did in the picture in the school auditorium, the one they called Mona Lisa.
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”
This was my first Sarah Waters book, and I must say I do enjoy her writing style.
I finally read Twilight. I think I was (almost) the last to do so. Even my sisters both bragged that they read the whole series before I even got to the first book.
I read 
The original Swedish title of this book means Men Who Hated Women, and that title is an excellent forewarning about what the book is about. If you like gritty crime novels or shows like CSI, you’ll probably love the book. My eyes and stomach prefer much milder fare, but I’ll still probably read the second installment, The Girl Who Played with Fire, when it comes out next year.
There is a lot going on in Craig Thompson’s autobiographical graphic novel Blankets. With a deeply personal touch, Thompson draws and writes about his childhood and teenage years and their hardships, joys, and discoveries. Writing about his brother, family, church camps, and first love, Thompson lays it all bare. He truly had some difficult things to deal with in his childhood that no child should have to face, and we see him struggle with his faith and family relationships as a result.
I loved this book, perhaps even more than 
Bjartur of Summerhouses has one goal: total independence. After being a servant for 18 years, he finally obtains his own land, and while ever seeking the land’s improvements, Bjartur and his extreme self-reliance costs his family dearly. He mistreats his own wife and children, not overtly, but through his unwillingness to accept help of any kind from neighbors. His independence, his dog, and his sheep are of primary and utmost importance. But is it possible to be too independent? What happens to Bjartur when his own children demand independence from him?
The House at Riverton is a strong debut novel by Kate Morton. Already a bestseller in the U.K., it is slated for release in the U.S. in April of 2008.
Why did it take me so long to read this? Since it’s such a well-known classic, I won’t summarize the plot except to say it’s about a girl from Irish-Catholic descent facing poverty and family struggles in Brooklyn.
