Mini reviews - Titanic Remembered by Alan Ruffman, Wall and Piece by Banksy and An Unexpected Angel by Janet K. Halling

Time for a few more quickie reviews.  All of the following were recently added to my home library.

Titanic Remembered:  The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax by Alan Ruffman is the official guide and souvenir book from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.  I haven't been there; it's just one of those books that popped up in the recommendations at Paperback Swap when I was looking up other Titanic titles, last year.  Because it's a guide book, Titanic Remembered is quite thin at 70 pages but I must say I was totally impressed.  Titanic Remembered is loaded with photographs and tells the story of the Titanic from the Halifax, Nova Scotia end of the story.  

Since Halifax is the place from which recovery ships were sent and where the bodies were buried (those that weren't buried at sea, that is), a good portion is about the process of recovery, identification and burial of bodies.  It was a lot more complex than I'd ever considered.  There are some interesting stories about individuals, both among the perished and survivors (not necessarily the most commonly described victims and survivors) and a few unique tidbits about the collection of souvenirs by those involved in the recovery efforts, as well as a few illicit photos.  Photos of bodies and/or the unloading of them was strictly forbidden but people are sneaky devils.

I found Titanic Remembered surprisingly gripping and the book definitely piqued my interest in the maritime museum.  Highly recommended to those who are not squeamish.  There are a couple photos of dead bodies . . . only a couple.  

Wall and Piece by Banksy was a gift to myself -- you know, one of those cases of, "Three gifts ordered and one tossed in the cart for myself."  For those who are unfamiliar with Banksy, he's a "street artist" from England who uses pre-made templates to quickly paint his works of art on various walls, bridges, billboards and other surfaces.  Since graffiti is considered an eyesore and is often illegal, most of his artwork has been quickly washed away.  I thought it would be fun to get a book of photographs of Banksy's art -- and it is definitely art, not just a bunch of messy fat lettering, like you often see under bridges and on the sides of trains.

Since this is a book written by Banksy, there is also some text.  Unfortunately, the text doesn't lend a lot of insight into the artist and/or reveal context for the vast majority of the paintings.  However, there was enough to satisfy me.  I don't necessarily agree with Banksy's philosophy that if someone advertises it's a one-way street and people have the right to respond (by painting a response directly on the billboard), but I learned a little about why he paints certain images like rats and some of the meaning behind the themes in his artwork.  As the title indicates with a cute bit of word play, he heavily emphasizes war and peace.   Occasionally, I didn't get what he was trying to say and those were the times I yearned for a bit more text to explain what Banksy was attempting to portray.  But, in general, I loved Wall and Piece.  If you're a Banksy fan, Wall and Piece is worth owning.  Highly recommended with a warning that those who are picky about grammar may occasionally cringe.

Quote on the back of the book:  "There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover."  -- Metropolitan Police spokesperson

An Unexpected Angel by Janet K. Halling is a drawing win from Holly at 2 Kids and Tired Books.  It's a Christmas book that plays on the Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol" and the movie It's a Wonderful Life.  

Ellie hates everything about Christmas.  After working late on Christmas Eve, she stops to pick up some groceries and snaps at the clerk who attempts to engage her in conversation.  She's not interested in talking.  She just wants to be alone.  

But, the clerk turns out to be an angel with an unexpected surprise in store for Ellie.  Instead of the quiet Christmas Eve she's become accustomed to, she is tossed into the past.  Ellie doesn't stay in one time period.  Just as events begin to resolve and her purpose clarifies, she's yanked from one time period and flung into another.  You never know where Ellie will end up next and the reasons she's tossed about don't fully come together until the end, although it's made clear, early on, that Ellie's hatred of Christmas and drive are related to a tragedy in her past.  

I absolutely loved An Unexpected Angel.  When I first began the reading, I thought it was going to be a typical, sappy Christmas story, but that thought only lasted a handful of pages.  While the theme was common, I absolutely loved the sensation that one was traveling through time in An Unexpected Angel and I found the resolution deeply meaningful.  One for the keeper shelves, a lovely little Christmas story with heart.  Keep tissues handy when you read this one.  Highly recommended. 

I gave all three of these books 5 stars at Goodreads. 

On an unrelated note:  I have no idea how to resolve the problem with those huge gaps between paragraphs of text, one of the new problems with the updated Blogger interface.  There are simply times I cannot remove air space, even by going into HTML mode, where it ought to be apparent that there's a large gap.  If you're aware of a solution, please let me know!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

By the Light of the Silvery Moon by Tricia Goyer

Title: By the Light of the Silvery Moon by Tricia Goyer

Copyright: 2012

Published By: Barbour Publishing - Inspirational/Historical Fiction

Length: 319 pp.

Reason for Reading: I enjoy reading about the Titanic; this is my first fictional Titanic tale.

Brief summary: It is 1912 and the Titanic is about to leave for America. Amelia Gladstone and her Aunt Neda have been given tickets by a man with whom Amelia has been corresponding. When Amelia sees two stewards remove Quentin Walpole from their ship as it's being boarded, she takes pity on him and gives him her absentee cousin Henry's ticket. Quentin is a prodigal son who took his inheritance and lost it all. What he doesn't know is that his father and brother are also on the Titanic and his older brother Damien is still angry with Quentin.

When she meets the elder Walpoles, soft-hearted Amelia becomes determined to reunite Quentin with his family but both brothers are trying to woo her at the same time and neither desires to see the other. Will Amelia fall in love with one of the Walpole brothers before she's even met the man who paid for her passage? Can the brothers make their peace so Quentin will be reunited with his heartbroken father? Who will live and who will die when the Titanic goes down?

What I liked about By the Light of the Silvery Moon:

I loved the pairing of the Biblical tale of the Prodigal Son with a light romance and the question of who will survive the capsizing of the Titanic. Since the Titanic is a known equation, the question of whether or not the characters will survive was compelling enough to keep the pages turning. And, I did like the way the author chose to end the story. I think some people might scoff at the convenience of various plot points, but I personally found the conclusion satisfying.

What I disliked about By the Light of the Silvery Moon:

There is a significant weakness to the research in that all of the characters sound fairly modern and American, although many of them are British and the book takes place, of course, in 1912. In addition to the language, hairstyles of adult women are occasionally described as "flowing" rather than pinned up or covered with hats. There are also numerous typos, grammatical errors (particularly mixed tenses within the same sentence), at least one spelling error that jumped out at me enough to mark it, as well as typesetting errors -- for example, in dialogue, when one character speaks and another responds but the response is not placed on a separate line to distinguish between speakers. I got the feeling this book was rushed to press without proper preparation.

Notes on the category:

By the Light of the Silvery Moon is "Inspirational/Christian". I didn't find it particularly preachy, but there were some moments that I think Amelia's internal monologue might qualify as annoyingly self-critical because of her Christianity.

Generalities:

Most of the plot is forwarded by internal motivation; By the Light of the Silvery Moon is character-driven. In general, I tend to dislike character-driven novels but the knowledge that the ship was going to sink really added some momentum to this particular storyline, in my humble opinion. Anyone who knows much about the Titanic will probably be tempted to nit-pick some of the details. I did have to work at shutting off my internal critic. The title does not refer to the phase of the moon at the time of the sinking of the ship but the title of Amelia's favorite song.

Recommendation:

3.5/5 - Entertaining but flawed. The pages flew enough that I don't feel comfortable giving By the Light of the Silvery Moon a lower rating although I would call it an average book. I liked the book or I would not have finished reading it. I did, however, find the sheer quantity of errors terribly distracting. The bottom line: Recommended to readers who enjoy a light, romantic tale with a Christian bent. People who are extremely knowledgeable about the language of the time period and details of the Titanic may find the inaccuracies frustrating.

Cover thoughts:

Even though there's an obvious problem with the full moon on the cover (there was no moon visible on the night the Titanic sank), I like the design of the cover a lot. I think it's pretty and appealing.

What's with the new review layout?

Eh, felt like doing something different. What do you think of it? Too stiff? Easier to read what you're interested in and skip the rest?

Where I got this book and why I'm baffled:

I received this book for review but I didn't know it was coming, although I did sign up to try to get in on a tour. I haven't received any messages at all from the network through which I signed up (and it's a lottery, so you don't automatically join in on a tour -- usually, they contact you to let you know if you've been selected). So, I'm going to just post the review and if anyone ever contacts me I'll send them a link! Weird. I think I fell through the cracks.

What else is new?

My blogging breaks are not necessarily exciting. :) In 2011, I got rid of something on the order of 600 books -- I can't remember the number, now, but quite a few. I stalled for a while; it's such an exhausting job and kind of emotional because I'm pretty attached to my books, but it's got to be done. So, this break has been partly a bit of time off to get back into the swing of purging. Since my mother died and we brought home some of her furniture, we have so little living space that something has got to give!

The cats love my computer breaks:

Honestly, they don't like it at all when I sit at the computer typing. Isabel will often curl up behind the monitor and Fiona comes to say hello or lie at my feet during their nap times, but they like my full and undivided attention when they're up and at 'em. So, they've really enjoyed the fact that I'm buzzing around and frequently stopping to play drag-the-string-through-the-house or to roll jingle balls, etc.

Fiona is hilariously personable. If she's sitting somewhere and I walk into the room, she'll often make a little noise of delight and come running to greet me. Isabel is afraid of moving feet but she is making incredible progress at conquering some of her fears and growing more affectionate all the time. She's gone from once-a-day head to tail pettings to dropping by to ask for an ear rub several times a day. She is even rubbing my leg like a normal cat, now!

Why don't you ever mention the kids, anymore?

I miss my kids like crazy, although we do at least get to see the college Kiddo as he dashes in and out between dates on the weekend. I was a stay-at-home mom for many reasons -- not entirely by choice, partly due to circumstance -- and I thought I would be thrilled to finally have the ability to choose how to use my time. But, the empty nest thing has been so much harder than I expected!!! Travel helps. Exercising and being around humans helps. I haven't yet learned how to share newer bits of my life the way I used to talk about my kids, so I'm going through a bit of an awkward phase as a blogger and I really appreciate those of you who have stuck with me as I'm adjusting.

Blogging will continue to be sporadic because this is my busy season -- when the windows can occasionally be thrown open, the gardens need tending (haven't started on that, eeks) and the yard cleared before summer hits. And, wouldn't you know, Huzzybuns and I both have colds. So, we're not too active at the moment. It's really gorgeous outside, when the sun is shining.

I'm also reading quite slowly because I'm keeping myself so busy with chores, but I just finished Before the Poison by Peter Robinson. I hope to review that in the next day or two. We shall see. Happy Reading!

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.