All About Books

Emma Donoghue’s Room was getting a lot of blog press last year as well as it won a number of literary awards and was shortlisted for The Governor General’s award 2010 and the Man Booker prize 2010.

I bought into the hype and added it to my to be read list, talked it up to people as a book I really wanted to read, had heard was really good.  Well I finally read it over the Christmas break, and it is good.  Just not as good as I’d led myself to believe it would be.  Room just doesn’t live up to the hype.

Told from the point of view of five year old Jack, we discover he and his mother live in Room, a small shed in the backyard of the man who abducted Jack’s mother seven years earlier.  The first third of the book explores the day to day life of Jack and his mother, the weekly schedule of chores they keep, the hour of TV Jack is allowed to watch each day, the books they read over and over and over, and the various Sundaytreats they’ve received in the past and what should be asked for next Sundaytreat.  Each night at nine o’clock, Jack must be in bed, in the bottom of the wardrobe because that’s when “he” would visit and Jack would count the creaks of the bed on his fingers, waiting until it was safe to come out and join mommy in bed.

It’s a disturbing life, made more so by the fact that it’s told from such an innocent perspective.  Jack knows of no other life.  Everything outside Room is either on TV or in Outer Space.  He has no concept of the real world and so when his mother devises a plan to escape, a plan in which Jack must be the hero and bring the police to free his mom, he has to learn very quickly that more exists outside Room’s four walls than his mother ever let on.

I guess this is where the plausibility of the book broke down for me.  The time line is very brief, between the hatched plot and its execution, all hinging on Jack’s ability to escape from the man and alert the authorities, people he’d only ever known to exist in TV land.  While having the story told from Jack’s five-year-old perspective added an interesting twist, there were just some details that when revealed, were hard to take coming from that perspective.  I think the book may have worked better if both Jack and his mother’s voice could have been heard.  But that said, it’s still a book worth reading.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

Portia de Rossi candidly shares her struggle with anorexia and bulimia in this candid memoir.  As a young girl growing up in Australia, Portia knew she wanted to be a model.  Attending photo shoots and runway shows, the naturally healthy 11-year old was told to lose weight. She was given false measurements to put on her modeling card, then had to “fit” into the sample sizes provided for her fashion jobs.  Wanting to help Portia realize her dream, her mother helped out with quick diet advice, sending Portia on a decade and a half long spiral into an unhealthy eating regime that saw her restricting her calorie intake to 300 a day while exercising for hours at a time prior to a photo shoot or audition (once she began acting), to binging on thousands of calories of food at one sitting after her “work” was done.  These binges were followed by purging sessions so she wouldn’t gain any weight, and although she landed a job on the hit show Ally MacBeal at a healthy size 8, Portia was convinced no one would accept her as an actress until she could fit into the sample size clothing (usually a size 4) sent to the set.

Portia de Rossi openly describes her crazy thought processes and insane diet and eating plans that kept her losing weight until she was an incredibly unhealthy 88 lbs, but still pinching the stomach fat she saw in the mirror.  The secret of her sexuality and her family’s refusal to acknowledge that she was gay fueled a lot of Portia’s inability to love and accept herself, and see herself for the beautiful, healthy woman she was, and it wasn’t until a major health scare that threatened lupus and organ failure, did Portia enter counseling and begin getting help for her disordered eating.

A truly remarkable book, Unbearable Lightness is a must read for just about every woman I know.  So many of us struggle with weight and acceptance and trying to fit into the very unnatural and unhealthy Hollywood or fashion industry image of what a woman should look like that we fail to recognize we are already beautiful, and much healthier just as we are, regardless of the number on a scale or clothing tag.

To every woman everywhere who has been brainwashed by fashion magazines and the diet industry into thinking you have to be a size 4, 2, or 0 to be beautiful and accepted, please, please, please!! read this book!  Hopefully it will help change the way you think and feel about yourself…for the better.

Till next time, happy reading,

L :)

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

            ~ Elie Wiesel

I first read this book a few years ago, when it was making a splash on Oprah’s book club (not that I follow Oprah’s book club, but I was in Chapters with a friend at the time who mentioned this book because everyone was talking about it and well, you know me, talk up a book to me and I’m there!)

Reading it a second time for January’s meeting of the Windsor Book Club didn’t lesson the horror of the novel any.  Night is Wiesel’s true story account of his life in the concentration camps during the Holocaust.  Although he and his family came late to the camps (in 1944, when German soldiers finally made their way to his family’s small village of Sighet in Transylvania), the story is no less harrowing or heartbreaking, and the atrocities experienced by himself, his father and others in the camp no less significant than stories of those who spent the entire war in the camps and survived to tell their tale in order that history would never repeat itself.

From the descriptions of the train journey from Sighet to Auschwitz, cramped together in cattle cars with little food and less water, where many Jews perished, to the daily life in the camps, Wiesel spares few details.  What stands out for me, as a modern day reader with no firsthand experience of this time in history, is that Wiesel’s words ring with compassion.  It is evident he writes his story because such horror to a people must be recorded and learned from, yet there is no anger in Wiesel for the people who perpetrated this crime.  Instead what Wiesel struggles with is faith.  He questions a God who would choose to allow this to happen to the “chosen” people.  His very faith is shaken to the core, yet when he is finally liberated from the camps, he says:

“Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions.  That’s all we thought about.  No thought of revenge, or of parents.  Only of bread.

And when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge.”

I am not a religious person.  A spiritual person, yes, but I follow no organized religion, but to me, these few sentences from Wiesel are what religion and faith should be about and what Wiesel never fully puts into words, but rings clearly for me:  forgiveness.  It is this message, I think, that makes the book resonate with so many readers.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

It was a very small, intimate group at last night’s meeting, which made for some great discussion.  We all to a one enjoyed reading Night, and for some, learned more about this period in history.  When asked what the defining moment in the novel was for us, many talked about the relationship between father and son, and how basic survival outweighed family loyalty and what that must have been like for these sons, who chose life over saving their fathers.  There is one rather harrowing scene in the book where

Elie’s sickly father is beaten to death in front of him, calling out to his son the entire time.  Unable to go to his father, paralyzed with fear that he may be killed too, Elie remains still and silent, and afterwards feels relief over the death of his father, for the sickly man is no longer a burden to Elie.  From our modern day, comfortable viewpoint, it is difficult to imagine being in Elie’s position and making that difficult choice.  That utter destruction of man, turning him into a mere beast intent on nothing more than pure animalistic survival, is one of the things that truly make the Holocaust so incredibly horrific.

Till next time, happy reading.

L J

Okay, so I needed to join another book club like I need another hole in my head, but I just couldn’t help myself when I saw the list of titles this book club, which meets out at Indigo Books in Lakeshore, have been reading.  So here I am, reviewing their January selection, The Paris Wife.  And a fine read it was too!

Paula McLain’s debut novel is a fictionalized tale of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage told from the point of view of wife Hadley Richardson, and let me tell you, McLain has done her research!  Hemingway was a larger than life literary figure in the early half of the 20^th century, and he simply jumps off the pages of McLain’s book, but Hadley is no less an intriguing character, and together, their love story simply unfolds from page one, right through to the end.

Hadley and Ernest meet in Chicago in 1921.  Hadley is eight years Ernest’s senior, but has lived a rather sheltered life, looking after an ailing mother.  Ernest, a young, exuberant writer falls for Hadley and convinces her to marry him.  Unwilling to spend a lonely spinsterish life living in apartments above her sister’s family, Hadley agrees and together they sail for Paris, where the next few years Ernest hones his writing skills amongst literary greats as Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The two travel to various locales in Europe (Pamplona to the bullfights, which inspires his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, and skiing vacations in the Swiss Alps).  It is a carefree time when expatriates can live relatively cheaply abroad, and where artists flock together to feed off each other’s collective genius. 

Unfortunately, Ernest is not as carefree as his surroundings.  Troubled by his experiences in the Great War, and cursed with literary genius, he relies heavily on Hadley to calm his soul.  Unlike the progressive women around her, who wholeheartedly embrace the ideas of first wave feminism, Hadley is content to be a supportive wife to Ernest, keeping his house and propping him up whenever needed.  Theirs is a marriage harking back to earlier values, and at odds with the rampant infidelity in their circle of friends.  It is not long, however, before the cracks begin to show as Ernest falls under the influence of the company he keeps and Hadley must evaluate what’s most important in life.

McLain writes beautifully of the early stages of Hemingway’s career, and showcases not only a remarkable love affair, but the dissolution of a marriage that under other circumstances could have lasted forever.  Hadley may have been Ernest’s rock in a creative tempest, but it is her own journey to find herself that fascinates and makes this more than just another tragic love story.

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

I have to say I very pleasantly enjoyed myself with the ladies of Lakeshore last night.  They are a very friendly and welcoming bunch and we had a good chat about the book.  The book club moderator went above and beyond with setting up a Parisian bistro scene (red-check cloth draped our table, and candles in wine bottles were nicely accented centerpieces) around which we could discuss the art scene in that great city in the 1920s.  The only thing missing, upon general consensus, was the absinthe.  Ah well, perhaps another time we will raise a tipple to Hemingway and friends.  Our discussion was also greatly enhanced by pictures of the people we read about in the book.  It was really nice to put a face to such familiar names and enriched our reading experience and discussion.

The group overall liked the book, but didn’t consider it a must read.  We all liked the fact that neither of us knew much about Hemingway, and certainly his early life as depicted here, despite having read him in school, so for that alone, the book was worth our time and would be recommended.  We felt that none of the people portrayed in the book turned out to be favourite characters, perhaps with the exception of Kitty who plays a small role as Hadley’s friend but who came off as the most genuine, and nicest person in the book.

With our more modern, 21^st century sensibilities and stereotypes of the early part of the last century, we were all to a one shocked at the openness of Gertrude Stein’s homosexual relationship, and the rampant affairs and infidelity practiced by this group of artists in 1920s Paris.  We concluded that though societal mores and norms were much more open and different in Europe at that time from North America, the Great War likely played a large part in the behaviour of those who had faced death and survived.  The war certainly played a huge role in Hemingway’s own character development and his choices in life.

Of the relationship between Hadley and Ernest it was felt that it was one of convenience on each of their parts with Hadley narrowly avoiding a life of lonely spinsterhood and Ernest getting to live off her inheritance while pursuing his writing.  It was suggested that Ernest never loved Hadley, and could never love any woman, being far too concerned with his own interests and desires.  Re-reading my review above, which I wrote shortly after reading the book last month, I’m not sure I completely agree that there was no love present in their marriage.  Should you, dear reader, read this book, please do let me know what you think.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s beautiful novel The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is simply a delight to read.  Findng herself stricken by an unidentifiable virus which leaves her bedridden for months at a time, Elisabeth’s entire world changes.  During one episode of lengthy recuperation, she relocates from her beloved farmhouse to a city apartment.  Confined to the living room sofa, her day is brightened by the few visits she receives from friends and a caregiver.  Unable to sit, stand or walk and with limited abilities to adjust her position on the sofa, Elisabeth’s days are spent staring at the wall in front of her until one friend brings her a transplanted wild violet and a snail randomly picked up from the forest floor.  Unable to read or watch TV due to the debilitating nature of the disease, which cuts her concentration in half and impairs her cognition, Elisabeth finds herself fascinated by the snail and its movements.  Before long, her world is condensed to the size of that belonging to the snail as she becomes mesmerized by its activity and life.  In the encompassing years between her illness and writing this book, Bailey researches snails and other mollusks, peppering her book with interesting facts about the gastropoda that never fail to impress or enlighten the reader.   

This book is fascinating in so many ways.  It’s a great resource for snails, yet it also tells the story of Bailey’s life at a time when her quality of life was very poor, but she infuses the book with such an upbeat personality and enthusiasm, you stop thinking about her illness and its restrictions and become immersed in the daily life of a common forest snail, much like Elizabeth did herself.  A truly captivating read, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating will have you looking with renewed interest at those amazing little mollusks we share this planet with.

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

One of the better In Death books to come along in awhile, J.D. Robb is back in full force with New York to Dallas.

Ten years ago, when Dallas was a rookie cop fresh out of the academy, she took down a serial rapist, pedophile Isaac McQueen.  Investigating a robbery that went south outside McQueen’s apartment building, Dallas notices what few others who encountered McQueen would likely miss – that there was just something off about this charmer.  Having been raped repeatedly by her father as a child, Dallas recognized the monster McQueen truly was.

Now, years later, McQueen has escaped from prison and has one agenda – to take down the cop who took him down. 

As luck would have it, or not, McQueen decides to take his brand of crime to Dallas, Texas, kidnapping his last victim from ten years prior, Melinda Jones, and keeping her hostage, taunting Eve Dallas to stop him a second time.  Eve must travel to Dallas a city rife with personal history, the city where she finally escaped her father and which still haunts her.  Added to this is McQueen’s junkie partner, one Sylvia Prentiss who turns out to have a far too personal connection to Eve and her past.

New York to Dallas is, quite simply, a page-turner, and delightfully returns to the series’ roots, that of discovering more about Eve’s mysterious past.  It’s J. D. Robb at her best!

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

This book has been creating a lot of buzz among readers and bloggers, and for good reason.  It’s quite simply one of the better books I’ve read in awhile.  Maybe not the best, but definitely up among the top ten. 

Set in the early 1960s in Jackson Mississippi, the novel follows the daily lives of three women, two of them black servants.

There is Aibileen, who works for Miss Leefolt, a twenty-three year old budding society girl with a young toddler.  Aibileen has spent her domestic career raising white children, and it’s no different in Miss Leefolt’s house as she is more of a mother to Mae Mobbley than Miss Leefolt is.

Then there is Minnie, a smart-mouthed mother of five with an abusive, drunken husband.  Minnie has lost more jobs thanks to her sass than she cares to count.

Tying the story neatly together is budding journalist Skeeter who sees the civil rights injustices occurring around her and has the courage to fight back with the help of Aibileen, Minny and many of the other African American servants.  Over a period of months, Skeeter chronicles these women’s stories, writing a book that is sure to offend most of Jackson’s upper crust society mavens, but it is a story that must be told.

Stockett herself grew up in Jackson Mississippi, raised by her family’s black maid, and so much of her novel rings true.  But Stockett doesn’t just chronicle a dark time in America’s history and its treatment of the African American.  No, Stockett’s true gift is in her ability to breathe life into her characters making them as real as you and I.  The women’s stories are heartfelt, poignant, filled with terrible injustices as well as uplifting triumphs.  These women’s lives are irrevocably intertwined, and much needed lessons are learned on both sides of the racial coin.  A truly remarkable book.

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

The ninth installment in the Alex Cross books, The Big Bad Wolf, reminds me why it is I still read James Patterson.

Alex Cross is now working for the FBI.  Facing two years of probation and a whole lot of orientation classes, Alex thinks he’ll finally get to spend some quality time with the kids.  But Alex is special, so special that he’s immediately pulled into a serial kidnapping case.  Well-to-do white women are disappearing at an alarming rate, and white slavery is on the rise.  The latest victim, Katherine Connelly, the wife of a judge, pushes this case straight to the top of the pile for the FBI.

Alex is on the hunt for the leader of the kidnapping ring, one nasty Russian, former KGB and now head of the Red Mafyia that goes by the code name: Wolf.  This is one seriously bad dude, and is one of Patterson’s better villains.  The novel is replete with twists and turns and creditable red herrings, all of which make for a fun rollercoaster of a read.

Not that there isn’t room for improvement, I mean, it is James Patterson.  The book started off a little clunky for me, as Katherine Connelly is ingeniously kidnapped by the poorly named villains, The Couple.  (eyeroll)  Patterson clearly doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking up clever names for his characters.  I liken it to the initial start of the rollercoaster ride, you know, that trek up that first incline.  About the time we reach the top, the Wolf in all his evil glory has been introduced and oh boy hold on cause here’s where Patterson shines, at least when all the stars align to give us a decent villain and a decent plot. 

The kidnapping ring gives Alex something to sink his teeth into, but as he’s jumped from the Washington PD to the FBI, he’s also hogtied by bureaucracy, and not all of the Feebees play nice with our Alex.  He is a bit of an upstart, after all, waltzing in and landing a big case without first paying his dues like the other agents had to.

And then there is the obligatory personal crises (or what I like to call filler) for our intrepid cop/psychiatrist/FBI agent.  In books past it was little Jannie with a brain tumour, the death of just about every woman Alex hooked up with, the kidnapping of fiancée Christine, even Nana Mama was playing the sick card for a book there.  In The Big Bad Wolf, we find Alex entangled in a custody battle with former fiancée over Little Alex, Cross’ toddler son.  Whatever helps Patterson reach his required word length, I guess.

But don’t let my cynicism steer you away, this truly is one of the better Cross books I’ve read in quite some time.  Here’s hoping I won’t have to wait so long for another as I reach for #10 in the series….

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)