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
Monday, November 9, 2015
The One and Only
Fair warning: this novel contains A LOT about football. But it's also kind of chick-lit, um, ish. But then again, it's also about loyalty and family and friends and being one's best self. And did I mention there's a lot about football?
The story revolves around Shea, a single 30-something who lives and breathes football in the Texas college town of Walker. Her best friend Lucy's father is the Walker football coach, and he and Shea have always had a shared love for football, and for Walker football in particular. But when Lucy's mother dies after a losing battle with cancer, Shea's feelings for Coach start moving in a new, and rather, ahem, unconventional, direction.
I really enjoyed this book, Shea is a great character, smart, funny, warm and interesting. I have to confess, though, I had moments where I was a little uncomfortable with how the story was going. I mean, Shea has the hots for her best friend's father. But the way the author Emily Giffin handles a delicate situation is what makes the book so good, and I definitely recommend it.
The One and Only
The story revolves around Shea, a single 30-something who lives and breathes football in the Texas college town of Walker. Her best friend Lucy's father is the Walker football coach, and he and Shea have always had a shared love for football, and for Walker football in particular. But when Lucy's mother dies after a losing battle with cancer, Shea's feelings for Coach start moving in a new, and rather, ahem, unconventional, direction.
I really enjoyed this book, Shea is a great character, smart, funny, warm and interesting. I have to confess, though, I had moments where I was a little uncomfortable with how the story was going. I mean, Shea has the hots for her best friend's father. But the way the author Emily Giffin handles a delicate situation is what makes the book so good, and I definitely recommend it.
The One and Only
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Stella Bain
I have always been a fan of Anita Shreve, and this novel did not disappoint. It's thoughtful, heartbreaking, profound, and, in a way, uplifting. And like all of Shreve's work, it's beautifully written.
In a field hospital in Marne, France, during WWI, a young woman awakes, injured, with no idea who she is. After a time she comes to believe that her name is Stella Bain, and that she is a nurse's aid and ambulance driver. It turns out she is also an adept artist. In the back of her mind is the idea that she must get to London, to the Admiralty - though she is American, not British. But she somehow makes her way to London, where she is taken in by the Bridges - he is a cranial surgeon, and he and his wife Lily care for Stella, and he tries to help her with her amnesia and distress.
We soon learn that Stella isn't Stella, and that she has left behind a very complicated life in America. Shreve deftly uses straight narration, flashbacks, and letters to get us from France to London to New Hampshire. Through it all she paints a portrait of a woman who is strong, kind, independent, and loving. It's a truly moving story.
Stella Bain
In a field hospital in Marne, France, during WWI, a young woman awakes, injured, with no idea who she is. After a time she comes to believe that her name is Stella Bain, and that she is a nurse's aid and ambulance driver. It turns out she is also an adept artist. In the back of her mind is the idea that she must get to London, to the Admiralty - though she is American, not British. But she somehow makes her way to London, where she is taken in by the Bridges - he is a cranial surgeon, and he and his wife Lily care for Stella, and he tries to help her with her amnesia and distress.
We soon learn that Stella isn't Stella, and that she has left behind a very complicated life in America. Shreve deftly uses straight narration, flashbacks, and letters to get us from France to London to New Hampshire. Through it all she paints a portrait of a woman who is strong, kind, independent, and loving. It's a truly moving story.
Stella Bain
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Maybe in Another Life
Okay, so the first few pages of this book all I could think was "chick-lit," and only the excellent reviews it received kept me reading past the first few pages. Boy am I glad I did! The story just sucked me in and I pretty much could not put the book down.
The novel follows the main character, Hannah, a woman in her late-20's who has sort of drifted from city to city, job to job, never finding what she is looking for. In the first chapter she is moving back to her hometown of Los Angeles, where she will stay with her BFF Gabby and Gabby's husband Mark until she finds a job and gets her life together. One night right after her arrival, Gabby arranges for a bunch of old friends to get together at a local bar, including Hannah's high school boyfriend Ethan. At the end of the evening, Hannah has to decide between staying out with Ethan, or going home with Gabby and Mark. And when she decides... this is where the story gets interesting.
The author, Taylor Jenkins Reed, presents us with alternating chapters outlining what happens if Hannah makes each of these decisions - so basically, two different realities. As time progresses, we see how one little, seemingly mundane, decision can change just about everything. It's a pretty deep, philosophical, even cosmic discussion, dressed up as an entertaining novel about a young woman making her way in the world. And I loved it!
Maybe in Another Life
The novel follows the main character, Hannah, a woman in her late-20's who has sort of drifted from city to city, job to job, never finding what she is looking for. In the first chapter she is moving back to her hometown of Los Angeles, where she will stay with her BFF Gabby and Gabby's husband Mark until she finds a job and gets her life together. One night right after her arrival, Gabby arranges for a bunch of old friends to get together at a local bar, including Hannah's high school boyfriend Ethan. At the end of the evening, Hannah has to decide between staying out with Ethan, or going home with Gabby and Mark. And when she decides... this is where the story gets interesting.
The author, Taylor Jenkins Reed, presents us with alternating chapters outlining what happens if Hannah makes each of these decisions - so basically, two different realities. As time progresses, we see how one little, seemingly mundane, decision can change just about everything. It's a pretty deep, philosophical, even cosmic discussion, dressed up as an entertaining novel about a young woman making her way in the world. And I loved it!
Maybe in Another Life
Friday, October 16, 2015
A Price to Pay
I really enjoyed this novel, which uses a very interesting premise to tell the stories of three very different people. The author Alex Capus, starts at a train station in Zurich in 1924 where the paths of Emile Gillieron, Felix Bloch, and Laura d'Oriano cross - though they never meet - to take us on a journey through each of their rich and at times interwoven paths.
Emile is one of the greatest art forgers of his day, who works with a renowned archaeologist in Greece to recreate ancient artifacts. Felix is a gifted scientist who finds his way to New Mexico and works with Robert Oppenheimer. And Laura is a moderately talented singer with a gift for languages who eventually becomes a spy for the Allies. Capus chronicles their lives along the way, and in doing so paints a portrait of prewar and wartime Europe.
This isn't an epic, and it's a very nice read. I highly recommend it.
A Price to Pay
Emile is one of the greatest art forgers of his day, who works with a renowned archaeologist in Greece to recreate ancient artifacts. Felix is a gifted scientist who finds his way to New Mexico and works with Robert Oppenheimer. And Laura is a moderately talented singer with a gift for languages who eventually becomes a spy for the Allies. Capus chronicles their lives along the way, and in doing so paints a portrait of prewar and wartime Europe.
This isn't an epic, and it's a very nice read. I highly recommend it.
A Price to Pay
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