Bookfoolery

Monday, July 15, 2013

Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann

Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann

Touchstone - Fiction/Historical-contemporary mix

396 pp., incl. black and white photos

When Amanda Rosenbloom goes to a dying elderly lady's home to purchase the woman's vintage clothing for her store, Astor Place Vintage, she is surprised to find a journal hidden in a fur muff. Amanda sneaks the journal into her purse and as she reads, discovers the surprising life of Olive Westcott. Olive moved to Manhattan in 1907 to pursue a career as a store buyer. But, gaining experience and reaching a goal as a single woman was not so simple 100 years ago.

As she reads Olive's story, Amanda can't help but find connections between herself and Olive. Will the journal of a long-dead woman help Amanda break away from an unhealthy relationship after years of relying upon her married boyfriend's money to keep her store afloat? If so, how will she survive without his help?

I had a terrible time getting into Astor Place Vintage but sometimes when a book is not clicking for me I'll go read reviews to see if there's something I'm missing. In this case, it was Jennifer's review of Astor Place Vintage that helped me to look at the story from a different perspective. I returned to the book and enjoyed it. In fact, the end was so very satisfying I'm relieved that she stopped me from giving up. Typically, I quickly became tired of the leaps back and forth from one character to the other and found them confusing until Jennifer noted some aspects of the historical character's life that helped me to untangle them.

What I particularly loved about Astor Place Vintage was the peek into life as a single, working woman who knows what she wants but has huge challenges barring her way. And, as Jennifer noted, it was very interesting seeing what it was like just to be a woman, in general, during that time period.

Recommended - While Astor Place Vintage is not a personal favorite, partly because I'm quite weary of books that alternate between two lives every other chapter -- and I did find that I preferred the historical storyline -- Astor Place Vintage is a very good story that was extremely satisfying, in the end. There are black and white photos of Manhattan in Olive's time period interspersed throughout the book. I love old photos and they added nicely to the story as they spotlight areas of significance which are helpful for visualizing Olive's world.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing the review copy and to Jennifer for saving me from ditching a book that turned out to be a very good read.

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

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas
Copyright 2013
William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins)
Fiction/Historical-contemporary blend/WWII
358 pp.

After years of state-reinforced atheism, he'd decided to read the Bible and been so fascinated by the concepts inside, he'd availed himself of repentance and forgiveness, just to be on the safe side.

~p. 269

Simon Horowitz is the latest musician in a wealthy German Jewish family whose musical talent goes back generations. The rare 1742 Guarneri del Gesú violin is Simon's favorite from their collection of valuable instruments. But, when Nazis invade the Horowitz home, confiscate their possessions and scatter the family, sending some to Dachau, it is only through the kindness of another musician that Simon will be able to survive the war.

Daniel Horowitz is barely a teen but he already has won a prestigious award for his skill on the violin. When his mother takes away the only other joy in his life to make him focus on his music, Daniel decides he would rather give up the violin than willingly lose half of what he loves. Rafael Gomez -- a famous conductor who has worked with Daniel and befriended him -- believes he can tempt Daniel back into the music world. But, it will involve finding the missing Guarnieri del Gesú and convincing its owner, who has a touching story of his own, to let it go.

I almost passed up on reading The Keeper of Secrets and then I realized, "No, no, it's got a WWII storyline! I have to read it!" Like many stories that connect a historical character and storyline with one of modern time period, there is a bit of alternating between time periods. Julie Thomas separated and merged those storylines with far more skill than most. Rather than the usual every-other-chapter style that is so common, and which often leaves you with the sensation of being whacked back and forth like a tennis ball, she leaves you in one time period long enough that you become immersed in that thread and get to know the characters well before moving to the other time period and doing the same. The connections between the stories become clear early on, but the merging of them toward the end is handled brilliantly.

The quote I chose is a bit random in that it has to do with a minor character. I just liked the sentence; it gives you a little glimpse of the writer's style.

Highly recommended - The Keeper of Secrets is one of those books I've been struggling to review because I loved it so much: a moving story of courage, destiny, love and hope. The cover blurb ends on this note:

Skillfully composed, heartrending yet ultimately uplifting, The Keeper of Secrets reminds us of the preciousness of life and family, and the power of hope and art to conquer the darkest despair.

That's a surprisingly accurate description. While the music aspect may occasionally feel a bit overwhelming to some, I loved the way this book was crafted and I didn't personally become weary of the music bits but I found myself thinking some people might find them a bit tiresome. The epilogue is particularly unique as it reaches 35 years into the future. I cried joyful tears at the ending and can visualize myself rereading The Keeper of Secrets in the future. It's well worth owning.

My thanks to HarperCollins for the review copy.

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

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano

Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano
Copyright 2013
Harper - Fiction
272 pp.

Brief note before review: I've fallen so far behind on reviews that I decided it would be best to stop trying to first hit the fabulous titles that have been haunting me for a while, instead moving backward from my most recent reads. The idea is to get myself back in the swing of things. Hopefully, this will help stop fearing the blog.

What it's about:

Luz is in the custody of the state of Texas, her sister Estrella in a coma, her father has been arrested and her aunt Tencha has encouraged Luz to write her thoughts in a journal. Luz has not spoken since her father was arrested. The chapters in Lotería are very short, each a journal entry in which each memory is prompted by a card from the Lotería game. Her thoughts are directed to God. What prompted Luz to cease speaking? Why is she in a state-run facility? What happened to Estrella and what has become of their mother?

As Luz recalls her life, she slowly reveals her experiences as the child of a jealous, abusive father whose fights with her mother spilled over, endangering everyone in the family -- a dysfunctional immigrant family from Mexico fighting poverty and language barriers.

Some thoughts:

When I wrote my review at Goodreads, I explained the depth of the family's dysfunction but then I decided I may have revealed too much and I hid the review due to potential spoilers. The trouble runs deep and wide, that much I will say: Luz often behaves in strange and shocking ways. The children are not just exposed to violence; there are other factors that make their lives far from normal. You quickly realize, though, that Luz loves her family and doesn't understand that the way they behave is not typical or normal.

What I loved about Lotería:

Lotería is raw and horrifying but the story is also beautifully paced and the pages fly; it's a quick afternoon or evening's read. I loved the use of Lotería cards to prompt memories. I'd never heard of the game and it was fun learning a little about it. There is an illustration of a card at the beginning of each chapter. From these illustrations and a great deal of Spanish peppered within the narrative and dialogue -- some translated immediately, some intuitive, some completely incomprehensible if you don't know Spanish -- you may learn a tiny bit of the language.

The author also totally surprised me. I loved that.

What I disliked about Lotería:

Because I whipped through the book quickly and didn't have my iPad handy, I may have missed some subtleties to the story. I doubt I missed anything crucial, but occasionally I did feel a tad irritated by the sheer quantity of Spanish phrases. And, yet, their presence was overwhelmingly a good thing because I felt challenged to try to figure them out and often did succeed.

The only thing I really disliked about Lotería was the fact that I came out of the reading not knowing what happened to Luz and Estrella's mother. I really wanted to know. But, maybe the point was that even her family had no idea what happened. If Luz doesn't know and Luz is narrating, she can't tell you what became of her mother.

The bottom line:

Recommended with warnings that the book includes some crude language and (of course) violence - Excellent pacing and characterization, a unique device and solid storytelling make Lotería an unusual and very good read. While I felt the lack of explanation about what happened to Luz's mother left me feeling the book was incomplete, a day of thinking about the book led me to the conclusion that not knowing is an important part of the experience. Lotería is a powerful story of abuse and its aftermath. I also really enjoyed learning about the Lotería game, as well. I'd never heard of it.

Added note: There are some brief scenes with sexuality but they're very important to the plot as they help to explore the depth of Luz's dysfunctional world.

Cover thoughts: Beautiful and very eye-catching! The cover is a brightly-colored version of one of the Lotería cards.

An excellent interview of the author: Daniel Olivas interviews Mario Alberto Zambrano at Los Angeles Review of Books

Source: I received an advance reader copy of Lotería from HarperCollins.

Fiona Friday - Two weeks

Prissy has been with us for two weeks, now.

Fiona has decided her presence is a pretty much a non-issue.

However, Isabel is still behaving aggressively. Here she is sniffing around the door of Prissy's room. On the plus side, I've picked up Isabel rather than Prissy when the two ended up in the same room (not deliberately on our part), without dire consequences. I was pretty certain Isabel would pinwheel and slash me to a bloody pulp if I ever had to pick her up rather than the kitten. But, no. She just stiffened and hissed. Kiddo says, "She would have slashed anyone else." Probably true.

Another plus -- no effect whatsoever to Izzy and Fi's relationship. They still cuddle and play-fight the same as always.

It will be fun to see what happens within the next week or two.

This week

Still can't seem to get myself to write reviews, so I've been mostly avoiding the computer, falling farther and farther behind. I may have to go with mini reviews, soon. We shall see. In the meantime, I'll just chatter a bit about life.

Gardening:

We thought we were going to have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year because our 5 tomato plants grew like weeds and bore a rather stunning number of buds. Then, we harvested a few and the crop seemed to slowly disappear. What on earth was happening to our little green tomatoes? I found out, yesterday, when I opened the windows and saw a squirrel running from our deck. He had a little round green thing in his mouth. It looked like a tiny apple. I followed his path up the tree for a bit and then I figured it out, of course. It was one of our tomatoes, just a little over an inch in diameter. I walked out to the patio and saw that our one decent green pepper was still fine. There were a couple smaller peppers, still a handful of tomatoes.

Today, the green peppers were gone . . . and there are probably a whopping three tomatoes remaining. Apparently, we're not going to have a bumper harvest, after all. But we did enjoy the few tomatoes that we managed to pick before the squirrels got to them and our single harvested green pepper tasted great.

Books:

One of the books that disappeared during our parcel-theft crisis (which I hope has ended, but I can't say for sure) was The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway. It was sent by a friend in a bubble-wrap envelope with two other books. One arrived -- the only older title of the three. I've been particularly mourning the loss of The River of No Return because it's been on my wish list since long before publication. I couldn't even recall why, but I've read some fabulous reviews and was excited when my friend Paula offered me her copy. Last week, I tweeted about the fact that it was the most longed-for of the stolen books, completely forgetting that I'm Twitter friends with Bee Ridgway (which is why I originally placed her book on my wishlist -- I looked it up when she posted her image of the upcoming cover).

Bee saw my mournful post and generously offered to replace the missing book. It arrived safely, yesterday (via UPS). I can hardly bear to keep my hands off it. There are two or three books I absolutely must read before I get to it. But, when they're done, I'm going to bury myself in The River of No Return.

That sounds scary, doesn't it? Maybe "dive into" The River of No Return would be a better way to put it.

Reviews:

Gah. You can see how far I'm falling behind by looking at my sidebar. The trouble is . . . I've read so many fabulous books that I'm afraid I can't possibly describe adequately. They are that good. The best books are always the most difficult to write about. That hasn't stopped me from barreling ahead with my reading, though. Wish me luck catching up.

Cats:

Fi and Prissy are still getting along (except when Prissy plays with the laser, which is Fiona's greatest joy in life). Still no progress with Isabel. She is clearly not going to accept the kitten anytime soon, if ever. Yesterday, Isabel managed to sneak into Prissy's room and munched on some of her kitten chow. Somehow, it escaped her notice that Prissy was present. I stood between them, watching Isabel occasionally turn her head, thinking that if Izzy made threatening moves I would sweep Prissy off the floor, as always. Ohmygosh. Cats sure can move like lightning. Fortunately, Prissy is just as fast as Isabel and much smaller. She dashed under the West Elm sofa when Isabel finally spotted her and chased in Full Fury mode. I clapped my hands, told Izzy to leave and the crisis ended.

Friends:

I went to lunch with my new friend, Mary Alice, today. We met at 11:30 and finally left the restaurant at 3:30. She is an avid reader. No wonder we get along so well.

Maybe boring:

We have two Bradford pear trees in front of our house. I thought they were beautiful when we moved in, but recently 1/4 of one of the trees split off and we realized they're both either diseased or infested. Kiddo chopped up the fallen portion with the help of our neighbor and I've been hacking away at the limbs I can reach to try to prevent further splitting of the damaged tree. But last week another chunk fell and crushed our yard lamp (which didn't work, but it was pretty). The guys hacked away at that mess and cut a few more limbs down over the weekend but the tree is 14 years old -- large enough to take time to remove and the guys aren't always around. I went out to pick up some small fallen limbs, yesterday, and one of my neighbors came over to ask me how the removal was going. I told him slowly but surely then he generously offered to bring over his chainsaw when I mentioned my concern about the limbs still hanging over the driveway.

I fetched my clippers and between the two of us, we got another 1/4 of the tree down, chopped and placed at the curb for pick-up. 1/4 to go. Boy, do I appreciate my new neighbor!

That's all:

Well, it's not all, but bills, cooking and cleaning are boring and there are only so many cat stories to be shared. Hope you're having a fabulous week!

Monday, July 08, 2013

Monday Malarkey - Books, reading and a stalker kitten

I figured someone out there is hankering for a kitten photo, so here you go. Prissy was stalking the laser.

I've gotten quite a few books, recently. Some are not very photogenic (one in terrible shape, two others ARCs with ugly covers) so I'll just list them:

From Paperback Swap:

The Confessions of Catherine De Medici by C. W. Gortner
Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie
Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life by Lyndall Gordon

From AbeBooks:

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (this is the book that came in terrible shape; I ordered a "like new" copy but got a beat-up, dirty thing) for F2F discussion

ARCs:

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
Lighthouse Island by Paulette Jiles
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
Paris Was the Place by Susan Conley
Goat Mountain by David Vann
Winning from Within by Erica Ariel Fox
The United States of Paranoia by Jesse Walker

I haven't requested a book for about 2 weeks and last book I requested has not yet arrived, but there should be a gap in arrivals after that shows up. I'm hoping I can stay on an "ARC diet" long enough to finish everything I've received. That could take a while.

Reading/review-wise:

I seem to be in a bit of a writing slump. I've begun several reviews and am not satisfied with any of them, possibly because I've had a marvelous run of 6 wonderful books in a row. I don't think that's happened to me in a very, very long time, so I'll just list my recent favorites and you can ponder them (or run as fast as you can to buy them) while I'm working on my reviews.

Books that have recently blown my mind, they were so awesome:

The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy - Love his writing so much.
The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas - An emotional read; couldn't see for the tears, at one point.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - He's an iffy author for me but I loved this book so much I plan to reread it before I review. I usually only do that with Simon's books.
Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt (my #1 - and that's really saying something, given the quality of this list)

And, two that were excellent:

To Be a Cat by Matt Haig (a middle reader)
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

One more cat photo:

Not very good, but here's one of my first pics of Fiona with the kitten. Izzy has not calmed down one bit. Still hoping, though. It's nice that at least one of my girls doesn't mind Prissy.

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Fiona Friday - A peaceful moment

I have had such a fabulous reading and family week that I completely forgot to even post a Fiona Friday photo! Not a bad thing, if you ask me. It's nice to be busy with family and great books.

The photo above was a nice, peaceful moment for Isabel. She has had a difficult time adjusting to the kitten's presence. We still have a long way to go but I'm more hopeful, today. Poor Prissy was chased under the couch at least three times, this week. Fiona is fine with Prissy, now. She'll watch her but she no longer hisses at the kitten. We bought a pheromone diffuser and put it outside the door of the kitten's room to try to help soothe Isabel but she was still attacking the door, as of yesterday.

Today, she's been sweet and sleepy. I let Prissy play in the house (usually, she's closed into her own room for her protection -- can't remember if I've mentioned that) while Isabel slept on the kitty tree, twice. Once, Isabel woke up while Prissy was playing nearby. Izzy climbed down partway and I swept the kitten into my arms. For once, Isabel's tail didn't fluff and there was no hissing. That's a huge improvement over attacking the door. :)

I hope everyone in the U.S. had a fabulous 4th of July and Happy Weekend to all!

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

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Second quarter round-up, a winner and the tiny fluffball in our house

April to June were all average reading months for me, quantity-wise, but I read some fantastic books.

April

41. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald - Therese Anne Fowler

42. The Clover House - Henriette Lazaridis

43. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

44. Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline

45. Things We Couldn't Say - Diet Eman with James Schaap

46. Itch - Simon Mayo

47. Pain, Parties, Work - Elizabeth Winder

48. Thinking of You - Jill Mansell

49. What a Mother Knows - Leslie Lehr

50. Reboot by Amy Tintera

51. The Illusion of Separateness - Simon Van Booy

May

52. If He Had Been With Me - Laura Nowlin

53. Baker Towers - Jennifer Haigh

54. Henri, Le Chat Noir - William Braden

55. Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence - David Samuel Levinson

56. The Cat That God Sent - Jim Kraus

57. The English: A Field Guide - Matt Rudd

58. A Certain Summer - Patricia Beard

59. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

60. The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

June

61. Ten Little Aliens - Stephen Cole

62. The Kings and Queens of Roam - Daniel Wallace

63. The Registry - Shannon Stoker

64. The Firebird - Susanna Kearsley

65. Festival of Death - Jonathan Morris

66. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

67. We Need New Names - NoViolet Bulawayo

68. Astor Place Vintage - Stephanie Lehmann

69. To Be a Cat - Matt Haig

70. She Rises - Kate Worsley

71. The Keeper of Secrets - Julie Thomas

Links lead to my reviews, except for The Illusion of Separateness by the ever-awesome Simon Van Booy, which I haven't yet given a full review (the link leads to my initial thoughts). I have just finished rereading The Illusion of Separateness. This time I took notes and drew arrows to show how the characters were connected -- not that I needed to, for the sake of reviewing, but I thought it would be fun to see the connections drawn out. A full review should appear, soon.

A winner:

Random.org chose Chris as the winner of the Dr. Who book Festival of Death. Congratulations, Chris! I've sent your address to Lisa at TLC Tours to forward to the publisher.

And, about that kitten:

I think everybody I know is going to be steamed if we're not able to keep this little gal, if only because they're enjoying the cute kitty photos. She is awfully cute and photogenic; I can't deny it.

However, so far introducing her to the other kitties is not going well at all. I'm keeping her in her own room, hoping that backing away from exposing cats to kitten for a bit will help. Prissy has a lot of room to play, plenty of toys, a West Elm sofa to sleep on and a window, along with her litterbox, water and food. But, she gets lonely, poor thing, and when I go to play with her or read near her to keep her company, the other cats wail outside the door. I'm going to buy some of the calming spray that I used when we introduced Isabel to Fiona to see if that will help with the spitting, hissing freakouts we're having when they're exposed. Wish me luck!

Monday, July 01, 2013

She Rises by Kate Worsley

She Rises by Kate Worsley

Bloomsbury - Historical Fictionl/LGBT

421 pp.

Publisher's description:

A panoramic historical novel of love, adventure and identity--with an astonishing twist.

It is 1740 and Louise Fletcher, a young [dairy] maid, has been warned of the lure of the sea for as long as she can remember--after all, it stole away her father and brother. But when she is offered work in the bustling naval port of Harwich serving a wealthy captain's daughter, she leaps at the chance to see more of the world. There she meets Rebecca, her haughty and fascinating mistress.

Intertwined with Louise's story is that of fifteen-year-old Luke, who is beaten and press ganged, sent to sea against his will on board the warship Essex in the service of His Majesty's Navy. He must learn fast and choose his friends well if he is to survive the brutal hardships of a sailor's life and its many dangers, both up high in the rigging and in the dark decks down below.

She Rises brings to vivid life both land and sea in Georgian England but explores a thoroughly modern and complex love story. Bold, brilliant and utterly original, She Rises is an accomplished and gripping search for identity and survival.

What that description doesn't tell you:

There should be some kind of warning about graphic sexuality, crude language and violence for people like me (softies, that is). You know, maybe just little icons of a boob, a mouth and a knife. The thing about She Rises is that it's about people who lived the harshest type of lives in the 18th century and it's told so well that you are there. Just to say the characters are men pressed into service for the British Navy and a young dairy maid who falls in love with her mistress doesn't cover it. You climb under the sheets (so to speak), listen to the swearing, see the cruelty and murder, hear the women scream as they're raped, walk through . . . gross stuff. Whether or not you can cope with that depends on the reader, of course, but I dislike graphic sexuality and the language in this book was about as vulgar as it gets, not to mention the bullying and violence. I could have used a little warning. I did finish the book, though, because . . .

Things I liked about She Rises:

There are two parallel stories about Louise and her brother Luke, as in the above description. Louise was happy as a dairy maid but couldn't turn down the offer to advance to a position as a ladies maid. The descriptions are always graphic and heavily descriptive. By the time Louise left her place in the kitchen, I was firmly convinced I knew how to make butter and wishing my mother had not sold her antique butter churn in a garage sale (something she always regretted, as well). She Rises has a seriously amazing sense of place, in other words.

Luke's story was one I tolerated well for a while because it's not so very different from some of the more frightening scenes in Hornblower or Master and Commander. If you've seen the movies (I've read one of the Horatio Hornblower books but none of the Aubrey/Maturin series), you know that living in close quarters in a boat is a lot like being trapped in a junior high locker room. There are bullies and fights, filthy language and crude jokes. You have to expect some of that. I was impressed with the depth of historical detail and I applaud the author's research and skill. However . . .

The things I didn't like outweighed the mind-boggling research and writing:

Unfortunately, a dairy maid's sweet affection eventually became a graphically-described lesbian affair. I'm okay with love stories but I don't like graphic sex scenes. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you're already aware of that. It didn't matter that the affair was between two females. The problem was that it was not only graphically described (I'm not interested in reading about what people do in bed, period -- brief scenes, fine, but just don't give me detail) but it was an extremely obsessive relationship between the two young women, not a healthy one, in my humble opinion.

And, on the ship . . . oh, Lord, the language, the conditions, the smells so well-described you wanted to hold your breath, the violence, the creeping terror that someone will kill you and toss you overboard in the night. Too much, too much for this gal.

However, and this is a big however:

If you can tolerate or don't mind the graphic sex, the crudity and the violence, She Rises does indeed have one of the most truly astonishing and unexpected surprise twists I've ever encountered. When I was struggling to decide whether or not I should go on, I skimmed a couple reviews and people mentioned "the twist" in a way that made me think it must be a rare surprise and they were certainly right about that. One of the reviewers said she skipped Luke's scenes because of all the blood and vomit, etc.. To do so would cause one to miss the point completely. You have to read the entire book and the shocking twist followed by the ending . . . they're exceptional.

The bottom line:

Iffy about recommendation - She Rises is a harsh read that is not for the faint of heart, but it is also a truly stunning and unique piece of writing with one of the most amazing twists I've ever read. It's raunchy, crude, violent, graphic and cruel and the "romance" so sadly unhealthy that the bad overshadowed the good for this reader, but I'm a softie so I know that won't be the case for everyone. I simply don't know who I'd recommend this book to, so I have to go with the "iffy" designation. It's a shame that something so stunningly researched and vivid is also in many ways repulsive.

Cover thoughts:

That is the coolest cover, ever, definitely one of my favorites of the year. If this book sells like hotcakes, I'll credit the cover for a good portion of its success.

My thanks to TLC Tours and Bloomsbury for the chance to read and review this title.

In other news:

As of Saturday, we are fostering a kitten currently named "Prissy" (if we get to the point of adoption, that name will change). She is a little ball of fire, energetic and spirited, personable but feisty. She's a people-cat who was bottle fed. I'm surprised Prissy wasn't immediately snapped up for adoption after her first owner returned her. Since we were the first people to pass muster and there's a special place in my heart for kitties that are adopted and then given back, I asked if we could give her a trial run.

First attempts to expose Miss Priss to Isabel and Fiona had a 50/50 success rate. Fiona hissed a little to make her place clear but was otherwise unruffled. Isabel pretty much went off her rocker. Prissy currently has a room of her own with toys, her bowls & litter box, a window and a nice little West Elm couch thingie (with that blanket she's lying on in the photo). We take turns going into the room to spend time with her so she won't get lonely and we'll try to let her out again, little by little, but she'll stay in her own room for a few days. Hopefully, the other kitties will get used to the new scent and not freak out. Well, the other kitty . . . Isabel. Fiona the Zen Kitty would let her hang out, no problem. Isn't Prissy a beauty?

Friday, June 28, 2013

Fiona Friday - Uh, slight problem there

Thursday, June 27, 2013

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo and an F2F Report

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Reagan Arthur Books (an imprint of Little, Brown and Co.) - Fiction

290 pp.

Source: Advance Reader Copies were provided by Little, Brown and Co. for group discussion

What We Need New Names is about:

Darling is a 10-year-old child living in poverty in Zimbabwe. She used to live in a nice home rather than a tin shack and had 2 parents rather than one struggling mother and an AWOL father. She used to go to school before things went horribly wrong in her country.

Now, Darling and her friends spend their days roaming around, searching for food to steal and playing games. Darling's aunt in America says she'll come for Darling, one day, and eventually she does. But, when Darling arrives in America, she finds that life is different -- better in some ways, yes, but she misses her home and her friends. And life in America is far from perfect.

In general:

We Need New Names is a very difficult read because of the horrors Darling and her friends observe and experience. Through her eyes, you see rape, starvation, murder, political upheaval, an angry mob, the horror of AIDS and other injustices so common the children are inured to them to the point of turning the evils they witness into games. There are humorous moments, but they're rare. The following quotation describes Darling's thoughts as she and her friends are getting ready to play "the country game":

If I'm lucky, like today, I get to be the U.S.A, which is a country-country; who doesn't know that the U.S.A. is the big baboon of the world? I feel like it's my country now because my aunt Fostalina lives there, in Destroyedmichygen. Once her things are in order she'll come and get me and I will go and live there also.

~ p. 49 of Advance Reader Copy, We Need New Names (some changes may have been made to the final published edition)

What I liked about We Need New Names:

I felt transported to a different world while I was reading from Darling's perspective. It's hard for some of us to imagine what it's like to be so hungry that you'll gorge on stolen fruit with the knowledge that you'll pay for the theft with equally painful constipation, but during the months that guavas are growing the children in We Need New Names spend a lot of their time climbing trees in the nicer part of town, stealing the guavas and suffering the consequences. Otherwise they'll starve until the humanitarian aid trucks arrive (and what little food those trucks carry doesn't last long).

While my Face to Face book group members and I agreed that We Need New Names had its flaws, it was certainly a learning experience reading about life in Zimbabwe. And, it's always interesting to read about what it's like for a person entering the U.S. from elsewhere -- the culture shock and the disappointments of moving to a land that one has visualized as practically utopian.

What I disliked about We Need New Names:

This seemed to be a group consensus, although we didn't have a show of hands: Sometimes it seemed more like an adult was writing through a child's viewpoint than a true child's perspective because Darling knew too much. Granted, a 10-year-old can be brilliant and very wise, but if you take the country game as an example, it shows a striking knowledge of geography and politics. And, sometimes Darling seems a bit too wise for her age:

Gradually, the children gave up and ceased asking questions and just appeared empty, almost, like their childhood had fled and left only the bones of its shadow behind.

~ p. 76, ARC

The occasional simile or metaphor that sounded rather adult threw me out of the novel, but only briefly. My biggest complaint would have to be the fact that I had difficulty getting into the book in the first place. It did not grab me and suck me in until around page 75. Because the description of the book reveals that Darling ends up going to America, I was also a little dismayed that her move didn't occur till the middle of the book. I expected the story to be more about the culture shock and adjustment than her life in Zimbabwe.

I wouldn't call Darling's delayed arrival in America a bad thing, though; it was just unexpected. I actually thought the 150 pages of life in Zimbabwe were the best. Once Darling arrives in Michigan, she is surprised to find herself longing for her home and even having a bit of difficulty appreciating her comparative prosperity.

Here is where we dive into the group's thoughts:

Although We Need New Names generated such a noisy discussion that our group leader finally gave up and passed out a feather (only the person holding the feather is supposed to speak) to get things under control, it was a rather ragged and unfocused discussion, which is probably my fault. I didn't think to seek out discussion questions and since I was the person who provided the books, I was expected to have done so. My mistake. On the plus side, everyone had something to say and, in fact, there were a couple topics I thought about in advance but didn't get around to mentioning.

One thing about We Need New Names that really frustrated the members of my group was the fact that Darling was never really happy in America. Once she arrived, she discovered America has its own problems with racism. She wasn't poor but she wasn't wealthy, either, and sometimes she could hear gunfire in the streets. The reality of America didn't match up with the America of her imagination, in other words. But, was she merely disappointed with a less-than-perfect new home and frustrated with being an outcast or did she manage to blend in just enough to become a sulky teenager who was more American than she realized? In the latter part of the book it became apparent that, at least for Darling, immigration meant a life between two worlds, neither of which were comfortable.

Other things we discussed:

Two particularly harrowing scenes involving one of Darling's friends, who was pregnant at the age of 10.
How the children reacted after seeing a young man murdered in the street.
Whether or not children in general have a lesser sense of right and wrong than adults, based on a particular scene in which some wealthy white people become victims of a mob home invasion while the children observe (and what takes place after the destruction has ended).
What probably happened to Darling's father when he went to South Africa to work in the diamond mines.
The differing roles of men and women in a war-torn country.
Why Darling was unable to return to Zimbabwe from the United States and how envy and her unwillingness to tell her friends back home the real reason she couldn't return caused them to slowly stop communicating.
The names in the book. We agreed that we all enjoyed the unusual character names like Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro (the local minister), Godknows (a friend of Darling's), Mother of Bones (her grandmother).
The absence of Darling's mother during most of the book.
The difficulties of immigration . . . which led to mention of A Good American by Alex George. We'll be reading and discussing A Good American in September.

A few topics that didn't come up but which are worth discussing:

Darling's comments about how much easier it is to believe in God when you live in a place where it's possible for prayers to be answered vs. how easily she dismissed faith while living in extreme poverty and with very little hope.
AIDS was mentioned but only briefly as it related to a particular character. We didn't really talk much about the prevalence of AIDS in Africa.
I suspected Darling's mother may have fallen to sleeping with men for pay but neglected to bring that up to see if anyone else thought the author dropped hints to that effect. We did talk about how difficult it must have been for the adults to survive and keep their heads up when they couldn't even feed their own children.

The bottom line:

Recommended - An excellent group read but very gritty with harsh language, violence and frightening situations. Nobody at all said, "I didn't like this book" or "I just didn't get the point," and the group discussion was enthusiastic to the point that it degenerated and became kind of a chaotic noisy mess. Even the feather didn't entirely do the trick when it came to calming the group down. I think we all agreed that it was clear the author is a fairly new writer and the book could have been a bit more polished but everyone got something out of it and when our group becomes that noisy, it means there is more than enough to talk about.

I liked the author's use of similes:

Dumi's deep voice is a little rugged, like it walked all the way to America and is now worn out from the effort. [. . . ]

She smiles, and I stare at her because of the way she smiles. Like she is hearing music and she is dancing to it on the inside.

~both: p. 179, ARC

On a personal note:

The day I finished reading We Need New Names, I was in our former town running errands so I met my husband for lunch in a nice restaurant. As we were sitting there with our bread and fancy butter in a puddle of sugary goo that neither of us ate much of because we were in the mood for a light meal, I found myself wishing there was some way to gather all that excess fresh food that we waste. I imagined a giant air tube sucking food from our Land of Plenty to wherever it's needed. We Need New Names is definitely the kind of book that makes you look around and reassess the quantity of possessions you have and the food you don't eat -- things that could be useful to someone else.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

Sourcebooks Landmark - Fiction/Historical-Contemporary blend w/a touch of paranormal

543 pp.

Source: From Sourcebooks for review

What The Firebird is about:

Nicola Marter has a special talent. When she touches an object, she sees scenes from its history. Her father has the same ability but revealing his gift caused such anguish he will not speak of it; he has coached Nicola to keep her gift buried deeply.

When a woman arrives at the art gallery at which Nicola works, hoping to sell a Russian carving, Nicola knows she's telling the truth about its origin. But the vision of Empress Catherine handing it to the woman's ancestor is not enough to authenticate its history so the woman goes home disappointed. Then, Nicola finds the woman's scarf and learns something more. Determined to help, she sets off for Scotland to find the one person she knows to be even more gifted than herself.

Together, Nicola and her handsome friend Rob will travel in pursuit of evidence from the past. When the two psychics are thrown together with a common goal, will the romance of their past start anew? Or will Nicola keep running from her ability and the love she gave away?

What I loved about The Firebird:

That was probably a crap description, sorry. I just hate using the publisher's description unless I'm at a total loss for words. I am at a loss about how to describe what I loved about the book because The Firebird is another one of those books that so thoroughly swept me away that I'm tempted to say I loved absolutely everything about it. I adored the characters (especially the hero), the slowly-building romance, the historical context and the story itself. But, there was one thing I didn't love. Just one. Well, no, two.

What I disliked about The Firebird:

It was a little hard to wrap my mind around the concept of two people being so connected that they can actually hear each other's thoughts. In The Firebird, the two characters occasionally speak telepathically. Sometimes they don't even realize they're doing so. Kind of a stretch, I thought. I love the way Susanna Kearsley blends a bit of time travel with a contemporary story, though, and I was not going to let a concept that I found a little unbelievable keep me from enjoying an excellent read. The only other problem I had with The Firebird was the occasional tedious passage. I loved the book but sometimes it was just a tiny bit too detailed and I found myself close to slipping into zone-out mode. That never lasted very long, though.

The bottom line:

Highly recommended - Excellent storytelling, wonderful characterization and stunning historical research make for a terrific, escapist read. The Firebird continues the story of historical characters first introduced in The Winter Sea, a book I absolutely loved. In fact, now I wish I hadn't passed on my copy of The Winter Sea because I'd really like to go back and read it, again. Oh, well. Read them together, if you can, but The Firebird stands alone fine and both are excellent books, perfect for vacation reading.