Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

She could hear the jangle of the fair in the distance; the music was still playing, dangerously sentimental, and she took a deep breath and began to sing 'The Marseillaise', matching her footsteps to the rhythm of the lines. A spooning couple turned to stare; she nodded at them, pleasantly. People always stared. If one didn't creep around, if one said what one thought, if one shouted for joy or roared with anger, if one tried to get things done, then seemingly there was no choice but to be noticeable. She couldn't remember a time when her path hadn't been lined with startled faces; they were her reassurance that progress was being made. 

~p. 21

Old Baggage by Lissa Evans, the prequel to Crooked Heart (now one of my all-time favorite WWII novels) tells the story of Mattie. When Mattie meets up with one of her suffragette friends in 1928 and finds out she's running a camp for young fascists, Mattie decides to start a group for teenage girls to educate them and teach them important life skills. But, one of the girls is unreachable and Mattie's determination to light a spark in her life may end up burning the whole project down.

I loved Mattie in Crooked Heart and was sad when it turned out she was only shown briefly. She is a marvelous, witty, smart, headstrong character. So, I was naturally excited when I heard that she was getting a book of her own. Then, I bought the book and didn't get to it in 2018. Silly me.

Old Baggage was every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped. I'd anticipated meeting Mattie during her suffragette years but she is obviously well past that in 1928. In addition to her new cause to educate and enlighten young ladies, Mattie does slide shows and lectures. At least once, that makes for a very entertaining scene. Mattie is single and shares a house with a friend who came temporarily and then stayed on when they realized how comfortably they lived together as housemates. Her housemate is called "The Flea" (a shortening of her name, which I think is Florie Lee, but don't quote me on that) and her house is "The Mousehole", which also has significance.

The ending of Old Baggage goes right up to Mattie's introduction to Noel of Crooked Heart, which is a very satisfying way for Evans to have ended the book. Read one, move on to the other. Ahhh. Remind me never to put off reading another Lissa Evans book, please.

Highly recommended - Brilliant writing and an utterly perfect prequel. Lissa Evans blows me away. Mattie is a wonderful character. I'd still like to read a story set during her days in the Women's Suffrage Movement, but there's certainly plenty of storytelling about that time through her lectures and dialogue. My book group loved Crooked Heart so I'll drag my copy of Old Baggage along to book group to suggest it for future discussion.


©2019 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.

No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien

The Jack Johnson shells tore towards them with a roar like an express train, throwing up clouds of heavy black smoke as they exploded. Most of them fell short, crashing into no man's land, but the concussion from one that burst inside the wire threw Adam back against the rear wall of the trench and half buried him under a cascade of exploding sand bags. 

Spitting out the earth and sand, he got to his feet and saw that everyone in the section had curled themselves up into foetal balls except for Rawdon, who as always seemed impervious to shelling. The belief in fate that Rawdon had subscribed to [...] had become even stronger since they arrived in France. "If it's got my name and address on it, it's goin' to find me anyway, so there's no point in cowerin' in the corner, screamin' for Mama," he had told Adam on more than one occasion, referring to the reactions of some of the other soldiers in the section. 

~p. 297 of No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien (minor spoiler removed)

No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien is a book I accepted for review because of its description, but I confess the author's name added to the appeal. Yes, he is related to J.R.R. Tolkien. More on that in a minute. I did have to adjust my expectations about No Man's Land a bit because I thought it was strictly a WWI book and the protagonist doesn't go off to war until you're at least 40% into the book, but that was not a bad thing. Adam is the protagonist. Born in London, Adam lives a life of poverty that becomes increasingly desperate when the laborers at his father's workplace go on strike.

After tragedy strikes, his father moves the family to Yorkshire to work at a coal mine. Adam is an excellent student and is bullied, first for his father getting a job that the other miners believe should have been given to a local, and then for continuing to go to school rather than working in the mine. He also falls for the parson's beautiful daughter Miriam, but he has competition and the other fellow has money. When war breaks out, Adam ends up fighting on the front lines of the Somme with friends from Yorkshire. While the bonds of friendship tighten between Adam and his buddies he finds it increasingly difficult to connect with the girl he loves. Will Adam end up with the love of his life or will Miriam's mother convince her to marry for money rather than love? Who will live and who will die in France?

The book jacket says No Man's Land is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's experience and I took that to mean it was a tribute to Tolkien rather than a biographical novel. I presume I was probably correct because of the way the book ends, but it's worth mentioning because I noticed that at least one reviewer at Goodreads, whose review I read because I was baffled by the single-star rating, was hoping for a glimpse into the Lord of the Rings novelist's choice to write fantasy and there is nothing at all that even hints at inspiration for a fantasy novelist. Because I was not expecting a biographical novel, I was not disappointed.

Sometimes, I found the book a little predictable and for that reason I took off a half point (I gave it a 4.5/5 at Goodreads). The predictability was only a factor of certain situations, though, as opposed to the plot being wholly predictable. And, a lot happens in No Man's Land so there were plenty of surprises. In general, the book is plotty enough for fans of plot-driven books but also descriptive enough and with enough depth of characterization to satisfy those who prefer character-driven novels.

Adam is a nice, strong character but he has a bit less personality than some of the other characters, so he was actually not my favorite. I adored Seaton, the eldest of the coal mine owner's sons, and came to love several of the friends who ended up together on the front lines. I've noticed sometimes an author will do a slightly better job of giving personality to the secondary characters, to the detriment of the hero or heroine, and I did think Adam suffered by comparison with some of the more vibrant personalities. But he's a good egg, he grows and changes throughout the novel, and he's very courageous. I liked him and desperately wanted him to survive the war.

Highly recommended - At close to 600 pages, No Man's Land is an immersive read, great for those who like a book you can sink your teeth into and with an ending I found satisfying. I liked the scope of the book - beyond the war itself and back to the protagonist's youth as an impoverished child of a laborer, then as a youngster living in a coal-mining town. One of the reasons it took me a long time to read the book (at least 2 weeks) was all the things I opted to look up. I looked up how coal miners looked in early 20th-Century UK, the German attack on Yorkshire during WWI (I'd never heard about that, before!), fashion in the 1920s, and Eaton Square in London's Belgravia, among other things. I like a book that makes me go running to the internet to look up additional information.


©2017 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.

Twofers: The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer and In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda

Twofers = Two for the price of one, aka two mini reviews. 

The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer
Copyright 2014
Harper (short stories)
Source: HarperCollins 

I'm jumping the gun a bit, here, as The Scatter Here is Too Great doesn't release till mid-August. But, I want to write about it while it's still fresh in my mind.  I took The Scatter Here, etc. with me to New Jersey because it's a book of short stories and I've found that when traveling short stories can be excellent for those stop-and-go moments when you can't sit still long enough to read an entire novel. As it turned out, I had tons of reading time on vacation. My granddog and I had a terrific time reading together.

The stories in The Scatter Here is Too Great are all set in Karachi, Pakistan and they're centered around a deadly bomb blast.  The author tells the same story from a number of completely different perspectives. And, in some ways they are interconnected -- the father of a character whose story you've read early in the book may appear later, telling his own version of the events, for example.

Unfortunately, I found that the biggest problem I had with The Scatter Here is Too Great was in trying to figure out how the characters were connected. I enjoyed the stories, found the setting fascinating, liked the way Karachi was -- yes, I've read the claim that saying so has become a cliché -- a character in and of itself. I did think the setting had a life of its own, so I don't mind sounding a bit cliché. Once I realized that I was trying too hard to figure out those connections, I enjoyed the reading a lot more. In the end, though, because I wasted so much time trying to figure things out instead of just immersing myself in the stories, the book ended up being an average read. 

Recommended but not a favorite - Solid writing, vivid setting but I think the book would have had more impact without any character crossover, which I found bogged down the reading for me. 

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda
Copyright 2010
Doubleday (retelling of a true story)
Source: Sent by friend

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles is the retelling of a child's escape (at the age of 10) from his dangerous home country. Even though the story doesn't take place anywhere near the North American continent, given the current immigration crisis along our American/Mexican border, I consider it relevant because of the similarities. A child in danger is taken from Afghanistan to Iran by his mother with the help of a a friend involved in human trafficking. At a mere 10 years of age, he must figure out how to survive and then keep moving from one country to another, seeking a better life until finally he reaches asylum in Italy.

The story of Enaiatollah Akbari is told by an Italian novelist who tried to write the book as it was told to him. Although he admits that the details cannot possibly be perfect because Enaiatollah was young and reconstructing memories will always contain imperfect elements, it doesn't matter. The story has a tremendous impact because it allows the reader to view the unforgiving life of a refugee child as he is abandoned by a mother who loves him too much to even say "goodbye" then moves from job to job and country to country, from Iran to Turkey to Greece then finally Italy. Occasionally beaten, stolen from and "repatriated" to a homeland where he faces almost certain death, In the Sea There Are Crocodiles gives you an idea what it's like to be a child refugee dealing with human traffickers and people who aren't interested in giving a child asylum. 

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles has been translated from Italian to English (translator: Howard Curtis) and I think the translation is done well. There was never a point that I felt like I didn't understand what a particular sentence meant. It's told simplistically but it's a harsh story and not all books are told with lyrical beauty. I disagree with a reviewer who believes the book should be labeled YA merely because of its simple language. One must remember that it was told by a man whose first language is not Italian, written down as close as possible to the way it was related and then translated. Simplistic or not, it's a story whose horrors make it a very adult read. There are humorous and touching moments in addition to hardship, which helps keep the book from being an exhausting downer.

Highly recommended - Especially relevant to Americans as our leaders are in the process of deporting refugees from South and Central America. An eye-opening story of what it's like to escape a life of terror, only to face hardship and deportation. I actually cried with relief when Enaia finally found sanctuary in Italy.

©2014 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 Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian and a Fiona Friday pic

The Sandcastle Girls is a dual tale of romance, betrayal and genocide in 1915, paired with the story of a modern woman uncovering her grandparents' past. It's told partly from the viewpoint of an American/Armenian couple and partly by their granddaughter, who serves as the fictional narrator describing her own story about her childhood and research to uncover her grandparents' experience in Aleppo, Syria in 1915.

I knew absolutely nothing about the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and that genocide is so deeply described that it's almost a character in and of itself. The truth about the genocide is not widely known (although I hope The Sandcastle Girls will help change that) and at least one country doesn't even acknowledge that it occurred; this I learned from the book and the extra materials I read near the beginning, when I was confused about who was killing whom, where and why. A little online research helped me to get into the story. The main characters are an American woman who has gone to Aleppo with some minor training in nursing and an Armenian engineer who managed to escape slaughter but lost his wife and daughter. What did they experience and why did they remain tight-lipped about those years?

Because their granddaughter is the narrator but the story switches from her viewpoint in 1st person to a 3rd person omniscient account, it is actually a little jumpy and can be confusing. The jumps in viewpoint and time period, although not the smoothest, didn't completely ruin the story for me, though. The addition of the granddaughter's emotions definitely added some impact. When she cried, I cried.

Recommended with a graphic violence and disturbing-situations warning. An emotional read, at once gripping, horrifying and romantic with three-dimensional characters, believable dialogue, and a unique setting. Be advised that even with the underlying romantic theme, The Sandcastle Girls is a tale of graphic violence and intensity. The images will stick with you.

I got my copy of The Sandcastle Girls from Goodreads for review (my first "win" from Goodreads!), so I promptly posted my review and then altered it a bit for the blog. After writing my own review, I read a few reviews at Goodreads because I was curious what others thought.

There was a 2-star review that I thought was particularly interesting and well-written. Even though I rated it 4/5, I agree with the reviewer that the alternating viewpoints were jarring. She also brought up the lack of maps. Since I looked up maps and information early in my reading of the book, I'd actually completely forgotten about how desperately I needed them. I had no understanding of the Ottoman Empire and where the events occurred. Going into the book, I really was completely confused. Maps and a bit more background info up front would definitely have helped. I set the book aside until I could make sense of the setting. But, it's not unusual for me to stop reading to look up additional information to round out the reading of a novel in a new-to-me historical setting.

Fiona Friday pic - Fiona thanks us for providing an additional place to scratch; Isabel finds the dolly simply smells interesting.

They are still totally into everything, here. The packing has slowed due to illness and I think the cats appreciate it. They don't like a lot of frantic activity. They like a little playtime, a little nap time, a little food. Anything else is just annoying.

Happy Weekend!

Bookfool

©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.

Monday Malarkey - Our lives in boxes and a mini-review of Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

This is a terrible photo but I thought it was just so darned cute. Fiona is in a box full of flattened boxes, in the photo above. She thinks it's her throne-slash-scratching-pad-deluxe.

I'm spending most of my days packing, now, but the usual things are still happening. I'm reading, of course, just sloooowly. After last week's Children's Day fun (reading four books in a single day with breaks to write about them is like permission to regress: awesome), I finished one book over the weekend. We'll get to that in a minute because, speaking of Children's Day, look at this very cool photo of a soldier reading I Need My Monster to his child via Skype! I Need My Monster was my favorite of the books I reviewed, last week.

Back to the book I finished over the weekend:

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson is so action-packed that it's clear why the movie rights were sold before the book had even been released (to be directed by Steven Spielberg). The story of a worldwide robot war told in retrospect and how the humans overcame the odds, Robopocalypse is narrated by one of the people who went on a mission to save the world from the evil computer Archos. By narrated, I mean the same person introduces each chapter and occasionally a chapter is written from his perspective, but it's also told using the voices of several characters who survived the robot wars as well as presumed viewpoints of some of the dead whose accounts can be described using CCTV footage and overheard witness accounts. The viewpoints alternate.

While flawed in the sense that most of the chapters begin as a past-tense personal account and then shift to first-person present narrative (which means many of the chapters sound like they've been written by the same person, with only vague differences in style), I was in need of a fast-paced read and Robopocalypse perfectly fit the bill. My only big complaint was the strong rural accents of many of the Oklahomans.

I mentioned that I was perplexed by the hick accents in Robopocalypse on Twitter and the author responded that perhaps I wouldn't be baffled if I'd grown up where he did. I told him where I'm from (just outside the Osage Nation, where the Oklahoma scenes take place) and I think he was a little stunned. My hometown was, however, heavily populated by people who were transferred in from the Midwest, at least during my youth, and strong rural accents were rare. Even amongst those I'd encountered, I don't think I came across anything quite so dramatic. The author told me he's from Tulsa "with a heavy dollop of Wagoner and Sallisaw," and, "I was channeling my own grandfather's voice through Lonnie Wayne." So, basically, I had called his grandfather a hick. Not that we don't have a few hicks in our extended family, but I need to learn to screen my tweets better.

At any rate, I still wish the author hadn't chosen to give a major character and quite a few others that heavy rural accent. I'm often frustrated by the way Oklahomans are portrayed (generally with a strong redneck bent, particularly in cinema) when most of the people I've encountered in Oklahoma have a soft Southern accent, at best, (think James Garner) and often a non-accent akin to that in the Midwest -- close to dictionary pronunciation. But, the book is great entertainment. I just tried to barrel through the heavily-accented scenes.

What I found most impressive was the technical aspect of the book. The author has degrees from the University of Tulsa and Carnegie Mellon in robotics (which I assume means he's a mechanical engineer; my sis-in-law, a mechanical engineer, did some robotics work in school). I always love reading a book written by an engineer because I'm comfortable with the way engineers speak. Also, Mathilda is an awesome character.

The movie is, unfortunately, going to be entirely filmed in Montreal, Canada. I was really hoping at least the Utica Square Mall scene would be filmed in Tulsa. It's scheduled for release in 2014. The book is pretty violent but it's about war so you have to expect that. I'd anticipate a lot of blood and screaming in the movie.

Books that walked in, this past week:

• The Stars Shine Bright by Sibella Giorello - I keep swearing I'm not going to do any more tours but I love Sibella Giorello's mystery series so I signed up for a tour. The book just arrived from Thomas Nelson.
• This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley - purchased at Off Square Books in Oxford, MS on Saturday (where we dashed up to look at an apartment for Kiddo).
• Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles - freebie from Off Square Books, where they let you pick one of their old ARCs to take home with a $10 purchase.
• Kaytek the Wizard by Janusz Korczak - Unsolicited book from Penlight Publications, for review.

And, that leads to what I'm currently reading:

I have some other in-progress books set aside but right now my focus is on two of the new arrivals. This Year You Write Your Novel is just 103 pages and I'm on about page 50-something. It's a very succinct book about what's important to know if you want to write a novel in a year, starting right now. It's extremely informative and nicely boils down the bare bones necessary to writing. Also, Mosley is superb at giving you a verbal kick in the pants. I'm enjoying This Year You Write Your Novel. I've completed several novels but haven't written fiction regularly in years so it's providing an excellent refresher course.

Kaytek the Wizard has a Harry-Potterish cover but it was written in 1933 and is quite different from today's fantasy novels. Kaytek is a young boy who wants to become a wizard and by concentrating on what he wants to happen, eventually succeeds. But, he's young and impulsive and most of his spell-casting causes chaos. Will Kaytek learn to control his powers and use them only for good?

I'm close to halfway into Kaytek the Wizard. I was intrigued when I read about the author, who ran an orphanage and chose to accompany his orphans to Treblinka concentration camp, where he died with them during WWII. Also, it was kind of cool to get a parcel with stickers saying it had originated in Jerusalem. Kaytek doesn't have the advantage of a handy school for wizards, but occasionally he'll get a helping hand (or a swift kick) from some invisible source.

Last but not least is an Izzy photo. Imagine wider eyes and the ears completely flat against her head (sheer terror, in other words) and you'll know what I see when I plop her post-medicine kitty treats into a bowl. Isabel is so smart that I have to change where I dose her and how, constantly. Otherwise, I'd never be able to catch her. She pretty much spit her entire morning dose onto my hand, today, so she'll be wrapped in a towel for tonight's medicine. Wrapping her up gives me just a tad more control.

Okay, back to packing. My life is just a series of bags and boxes, right now. What kind of malarkey is going on in your world?

©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.

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

I read several of the books in my sidebar before leaving for the UK. They're among the hardest to remember because it's been at least 3-4 weeks since I read them, so I'm going to try to bang out as many as possible and keep my reviews short and sweet. Writing mini reviews will also hopefully help me to catch up a little so that I can get back to visiting other bloggers, at least occasionally.

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady By Elizabeth Stuckey-French is one quirky book. Elderly Marylou Ahearn has moved to Florida to seek revenge on the doctor she blames for her daughter's death. Back in the 1950s, she was given a radioactive cocktail without her knowledge as part of an experiment. She was pregnant at the time.

Now calling herself Nancy Archer, she eventually worms her way into the home of Dr. Wilson Spriggs' family and occasionally manages to make attempts on his life, even though the doctor has Alzheimer's and can't keep a thought in his head. When she peppers him with questions about why he did such an evil thing, he is unable to answer.

Will this potential elderly murderess have a change of heart and stop trying to destroy the doctor and his family? Or, will she succeed? What really happened when she drank the radioactive cocktail and what was the doctor's part in the experiment? Did he have regrets?

All those questions are answered. I found The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady a bit slow and the ending a little strange but I enjoyed it, for the most part. I just felt like the pacing made it a little tiresome. While it's not a favorite, I did like the writer's unique style and the quirkiness of her characters. It was entertaining in spite of the pace and even a bit heartwarming, in the end. Recommended, but not a favorite.

My thanks to Random House for the Advance Review Copy.

©2011 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.