My review

Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I just love this series. Set in the country of Botswana, it tells the mundane stories of its citizens from the point of view of the lady owner of a detective agency – not an ordinary detective agency, but the country’s Number One Ladie’s Detective Agency (also the only ladie’s detective agency!). Mma. Ramotswe, is a woman of traditional build (what’s not to love?), she is strong, smart, soft, feminine, proud, caring and sensitive. She solves mysteries in her own way with the help of her assistant, Mma. Makutsi, also a witty and smart female character, and her fiancee Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.

In this book, the detectives are asked to look at morality, as a beauty pageant organizer looks to find a Miss Gaberone who is not only beautiful on the outside, but who has strong integrity on the inside.

A delight to read!

View all my reviews.

My review

Cafe Europa: Life After Communism by Slavenka Drakulić

Cafe Europa is the non fiction account of what life is life in the old communist countries of Yugoslavia, The Czech Republic and others in the Balkin states. It’s told as sheer commentary from the point of view of one lady, born in 1949 in Croatia, right after the war, married to an Swede, and living in Austria. Her point of view is naturally very subjective to her experience – and – this book was written in 1996 – which makes it very dated in the year 2009, as the explosion of internet technology has changed even the most remote parts of the world.

Having said that, and having lived through 3 years of communist government in South America – so much of what she wrote about rang true, poor dental health, the desire to be European or American, yet taking immense pride in one’s own flawed country, trying to smuggle things like blue jeans and nail polish into the country, buying cheap things on sale even when you can afford better quality – so many of these idiosyncracies are shared with her experience, that the book was worth it for that reason.

On the negative side, I wish there had been a map included, I wish that there had been a brief refresher course on the recent history of that area, because as she dropped political names and countries and cities, they all rang familiar, but I couldn’t quite place each one in context. I also felt that there was very little positive to be said of her part of the world – the fleecing of tourists, the unsmiling shopkeepers, the harsh customs agents, the unhappy people – the whole thing was a bit hopeless and seemed to be written in anger, as though after a particularly bad day she had come home to write an essay in her diary and therefore felt better about things. The coffee was bad, the pastries nothing like what was served in Austria, the items for sale were cheaply constructed and overpriced and on and on and on. Not even her father had redeeming features. In that sense her writing somewhat reflects the countries she is trying to describe.

View all my reviews.

My review

March by Geraldine Brooks

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I very much enjoyed this book. It’s the story of Mr. March, the father of the girls in Little Women. While the classic book tells the story of a year in the life of the 4 girls and wife of a man who leaves them to become a chaplain in the Civil War, Brooks picks up the story of Mr. March, the chaplain and tells the tale of a year in his life during the war.

The Marches were a Massachusetts family, very forward thinking and eager to help the cause of slavery. Mr. March enlists as a 40 year old man, very aged for those days, with the knowledge that he will be doing his part as a preacher to help the union troops. His values and expectations are hit full force as he experiences the realities of war, the nastiness, the harshness, the ability to inflict pain, the hatred – that the war brings out in the best of people. His courage is put to the test on more than one occasion and as he writes to his family, he spares them of the miseries of war and of his own spirit.

One of the things that intrigued me was the fact that Mr. March was a vegetarian, indeed a vegan. Throughout the book I figured it was the author who was imposing some sort of hidden agenda into this character. Not until I read the afterword did I figure out that she had based his character on actual journals of Mr Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s father. And Mr. Alcott, did actually experiment with veganism. I wish I had read this beforehand, because rather than be a spoiler, it would have allowed me to marvel at the fact that such thought existed 150 years ago.

One other thing that brought this narrative close to home. My great great grandfather enlisted in Massachusetts army, as did his 2 sons. My GGF lied about his age to enlist. He enlisted at age 54 by giving the false age of 44 and lasted a year before being wounded in combat.

View all my reviews.

My review

A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This one was not at all what I thought it would be. Pulitzer prize winner, Peter Taylor tells the story (I thought at one point it might be autobiographical, and it might, but the author married and lived in several places, unlike the main character) of Phillip Carver, a book collector who lives in Manhattan, who is summoned to his father’s home in Memphis, when his 2 spinster sisters realize the old man is going to remarry and they, in turn, could lose the family fortune to some fluzey. As he deals with his sisters and his father, he relates the story of his life, and his 3 siblings, very much manipulated and twisted at the hands of their father. It seems that in the prime of their adolescence, father had to move the family from Nashville to Memphis, and this move – even though their economic and social status remained the same – was traumatic enough to last into adulthood. While the adult interactions hit close to home and made me continue to read, as I found similarities with my own upbringing and family – I wanted to shout “GROW UP ALREADY!!!” The narrative was lengthy, drawn out and repetitive, paragraphs ran on for 2 or more pages – but, this character-driven book was a remarkable analysis of family dynamics and of just how much influence a parent can have on a child. This book wrapped up almost identically to how my family dynamic wrapped up. Wish it had been written with more fluidity, but worth my while to read it.

View all my reviews.

“For God, religions are nothing, signify nothing…Let us do good. Let us love. This is the only religion.”

The Hummingbird’s DaughteViva La Santa de Caborar by Luis Alberto Urrea

Viva La Santa de Cabora

 

I just finished this gem of a book and I can’t thank Wingedman (from Bookcrossing) enough for sending it to me, because I had not heard of it and now it is sure to be one of my favorites of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the background information, the history and the story itself and read and reread many of the passages just for the beauty of the language. I wish I had had a Huila in my life and would have loved to have met Teresita and the rest of the group. Loreto reminded me of a close relative.

This is a complicated story, based on the lives of ancestors of the author, researched and written over a span of twenty years, yet novelized. It reminded me very much of the works of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and if you have enjoyed their books, this one will also become a favorite, for sure.   It’s the story of Teresita, a young girl, given up by her 15 year old mother and handed eventually to a “curandera” Huile, the midwife, the medicine woman, of Don Tomas Urrea.  Teresita shows the signs of divine power and is groomed towards serving others.  As an half indian, she is very much in tune with the plight of the Mexican Indian, but she also realizes that she is of much lighter skin than they are and, therefore, probably half white. Through her dreams, her spirituality, her connection to her body Teresita heals – and she doesn’t seek this out, it just is.   Her powers, in turn, turn the surrounding villages upside down as so many of the poor, the sick and miserable seek her curative powers.  This in turn ruffles the feathers of organized religious as well as the state, who views  her as a threat.  

The lyrical prose allows you to travel back in time to 19th Century Mexico, to gently and subtly participate in the lives of these characters and become involved both with the revolt and with the daily affairs that take place under the silent watch of the plum tree in the courtyard. Religion and religiousness are treated in a very special way, not often seen in works of historical fiction which take place in a Catholic country.  Her message, one of love, will resonate with believers and non-believers for many years to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

One question I have. I am totally bilingual English-Spanish, the languages are equal to me. As I read, there were many bits in Spanish with no translation and I wonder how those of you who don’t read Spanish got through this? Did you ignore it or try to translate it, or could you get the gist of it from the context? While it was no problem for me and I noticed that in the other JEs no one mentioned it, I do wonder if it bothered anyone.

Wingedman, again many thanks for the RABCK. I will look for someone else who might really enjoy this type of book and send it along shortly.

View all my reviews.

My review

Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This short novella was an interesting read, especially so because I had already read Suite Francaise and enjoyed it so much. However, I don’t think it was nearly as good or compelling, and I think that it was only half formulated in the author’s head. It seemed that, in places, she formulated scattered thoughts, meant to be expanded upon, perhaps researched and tweaked – but never finished, of course, as she was hauled off to Auschwitz to her death

View all my reviews.

My review

The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

Had this not been a book club choice, I probably would not have read it. Page turner, entertaining, interesting – but unsatisfying in the end.

CeeCee Wilkes never knew her father, but she was very close to her mother. So close that she watched her die after a long bout of cancer and became an orphan at the age of 12. After a series of foster homes, she graduated highschool at age 16 and became in the eyes of the system, an independent adult. Enter a suave, 22 year old named Tim…instant love. CeeCee makes a series of mistakes which can’t be undone, can’t be repaired and her life changes completely. How she reacts, how it affects her world almost 30 years later is what the book is about.

I wasn’t too happy with the ending, I felt it the last few chapters were too abrupt and changes of heart were written in too quickly.

All in all a fast interesting read, which I think will make for a decent club discussion

View all my reviews.

My review

The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m not going to write a synopsis of this novel because others have done it well at amazon.com, but I will put down my opinion.

I love Nelson DeMille, and while I haven’t read all his books, I’ve read many of them, and recommended them. This one? Not so much. This book was in need of a serious editor, someone not full of himself or afraid to tell DeMille that his main character was way too full of himself. The book could have been written in half the pages while maintaining the integrity of the plot and nuances of the characters, but somewhere along the road it just got out of hand. It reminded me of the stories my mother used to tell, where we would say, “Mom, we’ve heard all that before, just PLEASE get to the point.”

It was funny and witty and sarcastic once, and I’ll even concede twice – but the third time around it was just redundant.

The main character, John Whitmore reminded me a bit of the main character in Boston Legal (one of my all time favorite shows) Alan Shore, a wisecracking, smart ass kind of guy. But there’s a difference: Alan Shore had an agenda and fought for the little guy and for some sort of justice, there was a political agenda there. John Whitmore has the same smart mouth, but he was only fighting his inlaws and the mob. His ex-wife Susan, needed an urgent trip to the real world where normal people order pizzas in a box and don’t buy $2000 suits on a whim. They were tedious and not terribly likable.

Having said that I read all 688 pages worth of this book and woke up early this morning to finish it. The social norms and mores of the upper crust long island crowd were spot on and at times, once again, I could see my mother in Harriet or Susan’s mother. I wish my mother had been worth $100 million, but that’s another story.

The mob element of the story was interesting to the story, together with the psychological profiling of the task force members trying to outsmart them at their own game.

All in all, even though it was not his best, it was certainly entertaining.

View all my reviews.

My review

Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I just finished the book this morning and was very saddened by the lives of Chang and Eng. I went online and looked at a couple of websites with more factual information and found that the book followed their lives closely, although adding bits of what could have or might have happened to the storyline. In the end, Eng and Chang had a complicated relationship and wanted to be separated on the one hand, and on the other, they didn’t. They needed to tour the world as a freak show in order to make money, and they hated the humiliation that came with posing in front of a crowd of people who stood gawking in the best of cases, and throwing things at them in the worst. They wanted to love women, have a home, bring up children, but the very idea of how to go about having any intimacy – both physical and emotional – with a woman was nearly impossible. They both knew that when one of the twins died, the other would follow within hours, and this is exactly how the book begins – with the death of Chang, and Eng going over the details of their lives while he waits for certain death. The author did a wonderful job of bringing life into these two distinct men, joined for life.

There are still many conjoined twins out there and my heart goes out to them and the parents who have to make the awful decision of whether to separate them or not.

View all my reviews.

OK. I tried. I really tried to like this book, and I just didn’t. The author got me right at the beginning when she said something about if “it’s own” or “apple’s: $1.00″ doesn’t bother you, quit reading. I thought it would be right up my alley. Instead I found it to be way too broad to be useful as a reference book; it would not be handy to keep around the computer to look up concepts as it’s interspersed with anecdotal information. On the other hand, it’s not funny enough to be a pure book of humor and I found the author to be just a bit arrogant.