I loved this book! For all you fans of mystical realism, this is a must read. It’s the story of Connie Goodwin, a Harvard graduate student whose hippy mother asks her to clean up her grandmother’s long-empty house near Salem. When Connie goes to the house – the hidden-by-the-garden, no electricity, no phone, hundreds-year-old-house – she discovers an old key with a scrap of paper referring to Deliverance Dane. The discovery leads her on a quest to find the physick, or shadow book that was handed down from mother to daughter for several generations.
During her research, Connie meets the handsome church restorer, Sam, and develops a sweet romance. When harm befalls Sam, Connie has to find Deliverance’s book in order to save his life. That makes the last quarter of the book just fly. And we have a villain (though I figured him out long before Connie did), and an adorable (and very special) dog named Arlo.
I really like the style of Howe’s writing. She switches between Connie’s life in 1991, and the 1692-1700-something lives of Deliverance, Mercy, and Prudence (gotta love those names). Deliverance is part of the 1692 Salem witch trials (and is probably the only one of the convicted women who is an actual witch). Howe provides a great deal of well-researched history and theories about the place of women and “women’s things” in American history. At first I was confused as to why she set the story in 1991, but then it dawned on me: in 1991 the Internet didn’t exist for the masses, and almost no one had cell phones or lap tops. To find information you had to go someplace and look for information. The story wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting if Connie could have Googled Deliverance Dane on her MacBook.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Twenties Girl
This was a fun book – a quick read, amusing story, and likeable main characters. Lara and Sadie are an odd pairing – Lara’s a 27-year-old living woman, and Sadie is the 23-year-old ghost of Lara’s just deceased great aunt. But they have great chemistry and lots of fun.
This book is no great work of literature; it’s chick lit. But that’s the fun of it. Sophie Kinsella is also the author of the Shopaholic books, so she knows how to do chick lit and does it well. The addition of the ghost Sadie just makes it that much more interesting. And I like the details about ghosthood that Kinsella creates. For instance, Sadie died at the age of 105, but her ghost is 23 because, aren’t we all 23 on the inside no matter how old we grow to be? And she doesn’t wear the outfit she died in; she wears whatever she imagines. And although Lara is the only person who can see and hold a conversation with Sadie, other people can sort of hear Sadie if she screams in their ears – they think they are hearing a voice inside their heads. It’s quite amusing the way she toys with some of the people in Lara’s life (particularly the man Lara thinks she loves).
Twenties Girl was a very quick read – about two days. I’ve never read any of the Shopaholic books, but now I may have to check one or two out.
This book is no great work of literature; it’s chick lit. But that’s the fun of it. Sophie Kinsella is also the author of the Shopaholic books, so she knows how to do chick lit and does it well. The addition of the ghost Sadie just makes it that much more interesting. And I like the details about ghosthood that Kinsella creates. For instance, Sadie died at the age of 105, but her ghost is 23 because, aren’t we all 23 on the inside no matter how old we grow to be? And she doesn’t wear the outfit she died in; she wears whatever she imagines. And although Lara is the only person who can see and hold a conversation with Sadie, other people can sort of hear Sadie if she screams in their ears – they think they are hearing a voice inside their heads. It’s quite amusing the way she toys with some of the people in Lara’s life (particularly the man Lara thinks she loves).
Twenties Girl was a very quick read – about two days. I’ve never read any of the Shopaholic books, but now I may have to check one or two out.
Friday, October 9, 2009
The Time Traveler's Wife
I just read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. WOW! What a fabulous book. Now I can’t wait to see how they messed up the movie. Because you know they did – there is no way to capture the way Henry travels, or the uncertainty that Clare feels, or the way their love story ends (I bet they change at least one aspect of that, if you’ve read the book you can guess what I mean). And I’m sorry, but for me Rachel McAdams will always be Regina George from Mean Girls.
Anyway, on the surface this book totally satisfies all of those romantic fantasies that women have about having a soul mate, but deeper down it’s kind of disturbing to me because it’s almost like Henry made himself Clare’s soul mate. And there are all sorts of issues about love and time and acceptance and fidelity that are floating throughout the story. It’s one of those books that can be read on a number of levels, and different readers will see different themes in it, and be affected by different aspects of it. It’s just a really rich story.
Anyway, on the surface this book totally satisfies all of those romantic fantasies that women have about having a soul mate, but deeper down it’s kind of disturbing to me because it’s almost like Henry made himself Clare’s soul mate. And there are all sorts of issues about love and time and acceptance and fidelity that are floating throughout the story. It’s one of those books that can be read on a number of levels, and different readers will see different themes in it, and be affected by different aspects of it. It’s just a really rich story.
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