This novel is a MUST READ for all Jane Austen fans! I just loved it, I had to force myself to put it down to celebrate Christmas :-).
So, this is one of those fun stories that jumps back-and-forth in time. We have the modern-day story of Sophie Collingwood, bibliophile and Janeite, as she is pursued by two suitors while searching for a mysterious second edition of an 18th century book of allegories by a Reverend Richard Mansfield. In alternating chapters we have the 18th century story of Jane Austen's friendship with the same Reverend Mansfield, with whom she discusses her novel writing and budding literary career.
The author, Charlie Lovett, does a great job of taking us back to the world of a young Jane, but he does an equally great job of making Sophie into a sort of modern-day Elizabeth Bennet. The action and the mystery had me right until the end, and as a book-lover I adored Sophie's relationship with her Uncle Bertram as well as with her books.
Even if you haven't read a word of Jane Austen, you'll still enjoy the mystery that Sophie is hoping - and dreading - she'll solve. This is just a great book!
First Impressions
Monday, December 28, 2015
Thursday, December 17, 2015
A Spool of Blue Thread
Anne Tyler may write about families better than any other author. Certainly in this novel she captures how a family can seem one way to outsiders but be completely different in reality, and how all of the members of the family can see shared experiences from completely different perspectives. And Tyler's characters are just so rich and well-written, they seem like actual people.
The Whitshanks are a regular middle class Baltimore family, who have two "family stories" that they all know: the story of how grandfather Junior built the family house and he and grandmother Linnie Mae came to live in it, and the story of how parents Abby and Red fell in love. In later sections of the book we learn that family legends are not always what they seem to be.
The Whitshank kids are all different - Stem, Denny, Jeannie, and Amanda. Denny is probably the most interesting of the kids but also the least well-developed in my opinion - I kept waiting to learn something else about him to explain why he was the way he was. But I loved how Tyler brought us the real stories of Junior and Linnie Mae and Red and Abby - those felt very real, and seemed like something that could have happened in anyone's family.
This was a really enjoyable book, and I highly recommend it.
A Spool of Blue Thread
The Whitshanks are a regular middle class Baltimore family, who have two "family stories" that they all know: the story of how grandfather Junior built the family house and he and grandmother Linnie Mae came to live in it, and the story of how parents Abby and Red fell in love. In later sections of the book we learn that family legends are not always what they seem to be.
The Whitshank kids are all different - Stem, Denny, Jeannie, and Amanda. Denny is probably the most interesting of the kids but also the least well-developed in my opinion - I kept waiting to learn something else about him to explain why he was the way he was. But I loved how Tyler brought us the real stories of Junior and Linnie Mae and Red and Abby - those felt very real, and seemed like something that could have happened in anyone's family.
This was a really enjoyable book, and I highly recommend it.
A Spool of Blue Thread
Monday, December 7, 2015
Her
I'm not generally into psychological thrillers but this book was all over everyone's reading lists, and was compared to Gone Girl, so I had to read it. I didn't love it.
It's the story of Nina and Emma, two very different women who meet "by chance" and develop a friendship. They're very different - Nina is a successful artist on her second husband, and with a teen-aged daughter; Emma has a toddler and is about to give birth to her second child. Although of a similar age they are at very different points in life, and Emma sees Nina as someone to admire and confide in - but she's not sure what Nina sees in her.
It turns out that Nina and Emma knew each other briefly one summer long ago, but Emma seems to have no recollection of Nina, while Nina remembers Emma only too well - and is still upset by something that happened that long-ago summer. So, what Emma thinks are coincidences and mix-ups are actually Nina's carefully engineered plots. The reader learns this early on, because the story is told in alternating chapters from each woman's perspective. I don't think this device worked very well, because it gave me too much information too soon. I think if I had heard all of Emma's side first, then heard all of Nina's side, I would have been more shocked - and, consequentially, more entertained.
I didn't love the book, but I kept reading it waiting to see how it ended. But then I was disappointed with the ending. So, there's my tepid non-recommendation.
Her
It's the story of Nina and Emma, two very different women who meet "by chance" and develop a friendship. They're very different - Nina is a successful artist on her second husband, and with a teen-aged daughter; Emma has a toddler and is about to give birth to her second child. Although of a similar age they are at very different points in life, and Emma sees Nina as someone to admire and confide in - but she's not sure what Nina sees in her.
It turns out that Nina and Emma knew each other briefly one summer long ago, but Emma seems to have no recollection of Nina, while Nina remembers Emma only too well - and is still upset by something that happened that long-ago summer. So, what Emma thinks are coincidences and mix-ups are actually Nina's carefully engineered plots. The reader learns this early on, because the story is told in alternating chapters from each woman's perspective. I don't think this device worked very well, because it gave me too much information too soon. I think if I had heard all of Emma's side first, then heard all of Nina's side, I would have been more shocked - and, consequentially, more entertained.
I didn't love the book, but I kept reading it waiting to see how it ended. But then I was disappointed with the ending. So, there's my tepid non-recommendation.
Her
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