Review of The Forgotten Garden

My lovely husband bought this book for me because I kept forgetting to pick up something new to read. It sounded compelling enough from the back page, and was easy to get into. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great book. The story begins with a mystery in 1913 - a little girl is found alone on a pier in Australia after a ship from England has arrived and unloaded. She doesn't know her name and no one claims her, so the harbour master and his wife take her in and they raise her as their own. They name the girl Nell, and when she is 21 her father spills the beans and tells her that she is not their biological daughter. The story jumps back and forth between 1913, 1975, and 2005 as the mystery of Nell's provenance is revealed through her own travels to England and then her granddaughters efforts after Nell's death. Although it was fun to read about England circa 1913, there was nothing especially interesting or compelling about the storyline or any of the characters other than wanting to know whose Nell's parents were and why she had been given up. If I had to find one word to describe it, I'd use 'blah'.

MY RATING: 4/10.

Review of State of Wonder

I was one of the few people I know who didn't absolutely love Bel Canto, so I was a little unsure about picking up State of Wonder. All I knew was that I'd been playing online Scrabble and Words With Friends way too much before bed, and I needed a new, good novel. And State of Wonder was fun. Marina is a medical doctor-turned-pharmacologist who is sent by her pharmaceutical company to find a rogue scientist, Dr. Annick Swenson, in the heart of the Amazon. Dr. Swenson has been working to synthesize a fertility drug from the bark of trees that results in prolonged fertility in a unique indigenous tribe deep in the Amazon. The company has not heard from Dr. Swenson in months save a recent letter informing the company that Marina's colleague, Dr. Anders Eckmann, who was sent prior to Marina to follow up on Dr. Swenson's progress, has died of fever. And you'll have to read the book to find out the rest.

Although not a feat of literary genius, State of Wonder quickly transports the reader into the hot, humid, and complex world of the city of Manaus, Brazil's gateway to the Amazon, and then the insect-ridden, snake-infested, malarial-haunted forests of the Amazon. The mystery surrounding Dr. Eckmann's death and the odd behavior of Dr. Swenson make for a good plot, and the creativity of the fertility sub-theme and everything that goes with it is what makes this book better than average. This is the perfect vacation-on-the-beach book, and one I would recommend if you're looking for a different kind of story.

MY RATING: 7/10

Review of The Tiger's Wife

I think this book was on every single "Best Book of 2011" list, so it was inevitable that I would read it (I'm a sucker for prize-winning books). And it did not disappoint. Although I found it a little hard to get into, once I was in, I was in. The story follows Natalia, a most likely Serbian medical doctor in what is most likely post-war Bosnia (all of the geographic location named have been fictionalized). She and her colleague and friend have gone to a small town to immunize orphans at a local church. Prior to their departure, Natalia learns that her grandfather has died in a small town not too far from their destination, and she goes in search of his belongings and closure. Woven throughout is the story of Natalia's grandfather, growing up in a small remote town in the mountains, and the winter when an escaped tiger from the city zoo made his home in the surrounding countryside.

Obreht weaves multiple layers into one novel in a way that is not forced or overwhelming, but just complex enough to keep the reader interested and involved. There is the relationship and complex dynamic between Natalia and her grandfather; the sad story of the tiger and the townspeople he terrified or befriended; the story of the 'deathless man'; the gypsies who search for their loved ones in long-overgrown fields; and Natalia's own story of medical school in war-torn Serbia (or thereabouts). All of these seemingly disparate narratives are woven together by good, solid writing and strong character development. I can see why the book as received as many accolades as it did.

MY RATING: 8/10

Review of How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk

Ah, my first foray into parenting books. And I'm so glad I took the plunge. Upon learning that our second baby is due in July, a friend recommended a sister-book by the same authors about sibling rivalry, and I decided to pick up both. And I'm so glad I did. How to Talk... is relevant not only to parents hoping to communicate well with their children, but people wanting to communicate well with anyone in their lives. The basic tenets of their philosophy is to learn how to express anger and frustration without being hurtful, setting realistic limits while not having your children hate you, resolving conflicts peacefully, and learning how to cope with your children's negative feelings. The fact is - these are skills everyone could use learning, whether you're dealing with children OR adults. And the amusing thing is, not only have I started using some of the skills with Tessa, but I've also found myself using them at work during difficult meetings or instances where resolution was required but some people were acting 'childlike'.

To put some learning into real terms, here's an example of how the book helped: Tessa and I were in her room. She wanted a puzzle that was underneath a book, so she took the book and flung it onto the floor, thereby giving her access to the puzzle. "Tessa, please pick the book up," I asked after ducking out of the way of the oncoming book. "No," she said looking straight at me. Hmmmm...how to handle this? So I reached into my new bag of tricks - instead of asking her again and pushing the point, I switched tactics to describe the situation and how it could be resolved. "Tessa, books don't belong on the floor, they belong on your shelf," I said. And without fanfare or complaint, she simply reached down, picked up the book, and put it on her shelf. Voila! Conflict averted; lesson learned. I've used this approach countless times since: "Tessa, the water has completely drained in your tub and you're still sitting in it," and out she gets. "Tessa, you have a toothbrush in your hand and not in your mouth," and into the mouth it goes.

This is not to say that putting all of the tips into practice is easy. It's not. And I find myself having to peek at the book often. But I'll take that any day over tantrums and pulling my hair out (which will, of course, still happen).

MY RATING: 9/10 (only because some of the drawings are a little gay)

Review of Suite Francaise

Thanks Jason. Suite Francaise was a Christmas present and it was just what I needed after the last book of 2011. What a beautiful book. Nemirovsky wrote it frantically from the unoccupied zone of France in 1941. In 1942 the Nazis invaded, and she was deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed. Although she was a well-known and celebrated author of her time, this book was lost until 64 years later, when it was discovered and published. When you know this before even turning a page, it influences your perspective. What kind of conditions was she writing under, having been forced to flee her home, friends and family in Paris? She must have been acutely aware of the impending danger and overwhelmed by the events in her life. Whatever she was feeling was channeled into an incredible novel that follows several families as they flee the Nazi invasion of Paris into the French countryside in June 1940, and the year that follows in a small Nazi-occupied town.

Nemirovsky was a beautiful writer, capturing emotions and human interactions (both tender and cruel) in a realistic and unpretentious way. But what struck me most about the book was her focus on the environment. The countryside of France is really the antagonist of this book, beautiful, fresh, fragrant and lush in spring; hot, sticky and oppressing in summer; and volatile, unrelenting, and overwhelming in fall and winter. Nemirovsky's love for her country and its beauty is obvious with every description of a storm, flower, wind or garden, and this love for life and the world around was often heartbreaking to read, knowing that for her it ended all to short. Suite Francaise must have been Nemirovsky's escape from what was going on around her; I only wish she had truly escaped...and survived.

MY RATING: 9/10.

2012 Books

1. Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky
2. How To Talk So Your Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk - Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish
3. The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
4. State of Wonder - Ann Patchett 
5. The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
6. The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown
7. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin - Erik Larson
8. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand

Multiple Reviews

Well, it's happened again. Months have gone by and I've been terrible at updating my book blog. I'm home sick in bed, so what better to do than take some time to make things current. Even though we're well into 2012, I'm dating this December 31, 2011, because these are all books I finished last year. My next post will catch things up from January through April 2012.

I wasn't super excited about this pick for my last book club meeting. I've read only one Christopher Moore book before (Fluke), and while it had started out strong, it quickly deteriorated into a ridiculous and annoying mess. I also didn't appreciate having to put down the incredible book about WWI that I was reading so that I could finish Lamb in time for our next meeting. But I sucked it up, and, in the end, it wasn't so bad. It was written in the same zany style Moore seems to use for all of his books, and was certainly an interesting interpretation of Jesus's life and early years (as told from the perspective of his best friend Biff). But there were definitely some laugh-out-loud moments, and I appreciated the knowledge and understanding of the Bible that Moore clearly needed to have in order to write such a book. That said, I don't think I'll be recommending it over other books I've read, unless someone is looking for something Biblical that will also make you laugh. MY RATING: 5/10

So, it's official: I have become a WWI buff. I'm not quite sure how it happened, and I'm by no means a true historical devotee, but now that I've finished off a 500 page work of non-fiction, in addition to the several other novels (see 1, 2, 3, and 4) I've read on the subject, I'm putting myself into the 'buff' category. This was an incredible piece of work. Hochschild manages to give us a history of the Great War from a unique perspective while keeping the reader riveted and disgusted at the same time. The war is framed in the context of conflict between a huge anti-war contingency and fight for women's suffrage that was occurring in England at the time the war broke out, and throughout its duration. Activists who had worked together for years to get women the right to vote were divided, and this division had significant implications for the twists and turns throughout the war, particularly as it related to the top British generals' strategic (or not so strategic decisions). The ineptitude of those in charge, and the devastating results and completely unnecessary loss of lives, was maddening to read about (one general judged the success of battles based on the number of fatalities - anything under 10,000 was a battle lost). Hochschild packed an incredible amount of information into a relatively short work of non-fiction, and I always wanted to turn the page. MY RATING: 9/10

A colleague at work recommended this book, and it was a perfect autumn read. The plot centers around a murder mystery - a Hudson Bay Company man is murdered in his cabin in a frontier town in northern Ontario. His neighbour, a shy teenage boy is also missing, and is therefore a prime suspect. It is 1867, and the small town is shaken to its core by the turn of events, especially because it is reminded of the unsolved disappearance of two teenage sisters several years before. As both mysteries are unraveled, the reader is taken on an adventure through the wintery boreal forest to Scandinavian utopian communities, derelict Company outposts, and remote hunting cabins. The complexity of First Nations exploitation by the Hudson Bay Company, resulting poverty and, and loss of culture and identity is explored, all without being in-your-face or taking over the plot. Stef Penney had an uncanny ability of bringing the reader into the surroundings completely, to the point where I often needed a blanket around my shoulders when I was reading. My only criticism is that certain plot points fell into place a bit conveniently at the end, so everything seemed too neat and tidy. But it is a forgivable flaw given the caliber of the storytelling and imagery. MY RATING: 7/10.

Another fun read by Tahir Shah. The Caliph's House is actually the book Shah wrote prior to In Arabian Nights, and I wish I had read it first because it provides a lot of context and back-story that would have been useful to know before picking up the next one. Oh well, not to worry. Both do well as stand-alone books, and his unassuming style and ability to talk about his life, family, and the trials and tribulations of buying an renovating a crumbling mansion are endearing. If you're entertaining any romantic notions about buying a house in a third world country steeped in tradition, I recommend reading this book first. MY RATING: 7/10.

I'm updating this blog post a couple weeks after I first posted it because I completely forgot that I read this book last year. This is not because it was a terrible book - it wasn't. But it wasn't an amazing book, and it was quite upsetting. Mira Bartok and her sister grew up with a mother who was truly psychotic (multiple voices, multiple personalities, dangerous, violent, you name it), and suffered throughout her life because of it. Reading about all of the terrible things she lived through and had to cope with as a child was truly heartbreaking, but I found myself constantly wanting to put down the book, not continue reading to find out how she emerged. MY RATING: 6/10.

My friends at book club picked this book during a meeting I couldn't attend. Who knows if I would have gone for it at the time, but it was not the kind of book I wanted to end the year on. I hate to say it, because one wants to be congratulatory and charitable of someone who overcame the atrocities of war-torn Liberia, spousal abuse, and rapid procreation (4 kids in almost as many years) to rise to a position of influence within the post-war government. And I am impressed by Gbowee's strength and determination. But the book sucked. I wonder seriously who the editor was, or if there even was an editor, because it was practically unreadable. I could only read the first third, and then I put it down, so perhaps it improved (although my book club friends told me it did not), so I won't give a rating. If you're looking for an inspirational story about overcoming the hardships of war, there are better ones out there.