Audrey Niffenegger did it. She wrote my newest favorite novel, a novel I long to read again and again to discover more treasures and greater understanding with each review.
The Time Traveler's Wife was a book club selection for my reading pals and I and I was so thankful to have a group to discuss it with as it brought forth questions, concerns, tears and interest into realms I'd never even considered. I'm not one to ponder time travel on a regular basis, but Niffenegger managed to build a book based on a long sought after scientific thought that beautifully molded together love, distance, longing, family and even ethics into a portrait that crossed all boundaries of time and space.
The author's eloquent chapters sweep the reader along on visits to the future and the past. The reader rises and falls with the hopes of creating a family and learning to love through time and knowing although we seem to think we have complete control of our futures, we can't change the past where our futures were written.
I recommend this book to anyone, but especially to someone looking for a little romance, someone looking to get a little lost in time, and someone not afraid to cry openly while turning the pages of what will be a book passed along to friends in the years to come.
Friday, July 20, 2007
The Love Season leaves a chill in the air
This book had me from hello. Elin Hilderbrand's story stretches over the course of three decades but is slammed into a little more than 24 hours on Nantucket Island in the summer time.
This is the first work of Hilderbrand's that I've read and I admit, I didn't want to put it down. Her descriptions of Marguerite's work as a chef nearly conjures the meals she created before your very eyes and for your taste buds to enjoy. Her deft handiwork at engaging women - one in her very late teens and the other over 60 - is stellar. The average reader identifies with both - not feeling one is too young or too old, but that the story each has to tell is one that will touch the reader's heart.
Hilderbrand does an excellent job of constructing her main characters and building her plot, but don't get too comfortable with those peripheral characters who make BIG appearances only to fade out and be forgotten in the rush for the author to finish the day and thus the book.
Although the book is hard to put down, I found I wanted to throw it when it all ended. The conclusion was anti climatic, disappointing and weak from an author who demonstrated such literary prowess through the previous 290 pages. Nothing is solved, only an age-old story of love and forgiveness is revealed and the reader is left to wonder if that is even enough to right the wrongs made over the course of a day and several decades. I am not a reader who likes to be left to wonder and Hilderbrand left me to do just that as she shut off the final light in her main character's home. What a pity she couldn't have kept a night-light on somewhere, or even lit a candle to illuminate a more encompassing set of circumstances at the books close.
It must have been a gusty Nantucket wind that blew the candle's flame out and shut this interesting novel too early.
This is the first work of Hilderbrand's that I've read and I admit, I didn't want to put it down. Her descriptions of Marguerite's work as a chef nearly conjures the meals she created before your very eyes and for your taste buds to enjoy. Her deft handiwork at engaging women - one in her very late teens and the other over 60 - is stellar. The average reader identifies with both - not feeling one is too young or too old, but that the story each has to tell is one that will touch the reader's heart.
Hilderbrand does an excellent job of constructing her main characters and building her plot, but don't get too comfortable with those peripheral characters who make BIG appearances only to fade out and be forgotten in the rush for the author to finish the day and thus the book.
Although the book is hard to put down, I found I wanted to throw it when it all ended. The conclusion was anti climatic, disappointing and weak from an author who demonstrated such literary prowess through the previous 290 pages. Nothing is solved, only an age-old story of love and forgiveness is revealed and the reader is left to wonder if that is even enough to right the wrongs made over the course of a day and several decades. I am not a reader who likes to be left to wonder and Hilderbrand left me to do just that as she shut off the final light in her main character's home. What a pity she couldn't have kept a night-light on somewhere, or even lit a candle to illuminate a more encompassing set of circumstances at the books close.
It must have been a gusty Nantucket wind that blew the candle's flame out and shut this interesting novel too early.
On Chesil Beach - not a place I want to be
Ian McEwan does it again with his enchanting story telling. His words read like a lyric to a song you don't want to end. On Chesil Beach is a quick read, engaging and true but at the end of the story, the beach is not a place you want to be.
Don't look for a happy ending or even a level of understanding to how this short novel of McEwan's ends. Enjoy the ride, stop and re-read the passages, savor the moments he paints on the paper. It's much like an amusement ride. The end is back to the beginning of understanding just what defines love and a working relationship and it may be something you have to replay, repeat, or reread to understand.
Give McEwan's book a chance. His artistry is worth the time, just don't expect a superhero ending or anything with warm fuzzies. McEwan is much to real and true to human spirit to spoil his prose with fantasy.
Don't look for a happy ending or even a level of understanding to how this short novel of McEwan's ends. Enjoy the ride, stop and re-read the passages, savor the moments he paints on the paper. It's much like an amusement ride. The end is back to the beginning of understanding just what defines love and a working relationship and it may be something you have to replay, repeat, or reread to understand.
Give McEwan's book a chance. His artistry is worth the time, just don't expect a superhero ending or anything with warm fuzzies. McEwan is much to real and true to human spirit to spoil his prose with fantasy.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Last Summer (of You & Me) calls for tissues
Ann Brashares' latest novel isn't for her blue-jean wearing fans of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The novel that crosses the lines of love, loss, grief and healing calls upon the writer's skills to play the heartstrings of a more mature audience thirsty for a love more lasting that high school crushes allow.
While I've been a fan of all of the Traveling Pants books by Brashares, I was worried about how her first published turn at an adult audience would pan out.
I was pleasantly surprised. The book reads well, with emotion and reality and calls for a box of tissues and a comforting cup of tea at the end. At times, in efforts to sound like she is writing for an older audience it seems, Brashares trips over her own prose and layers on more description when less would probably conjure the right element from the reader's past instead of making the reader question if they've ever felt that way or seen that sadness or can identify with that love or loss.
I recommend Brashares book, but suggest waiting for the paperback edition or for it to hit your local library. Don't dish out the coin for the hardcover. It's a good story, but it doesn't have the staying power for a long-term bookshelf.
While I've been a fan of all of the Traveling Pants books by Brashares, I was worried about how her first published turn at an adult audience would pan out.
I was pleasantly surprised. The book reads well, with emotion and reality and calls for a box of tissues and a comforting cup of tea at the end. At times, in efforts to sound like she is writing for an older audience it seems, Brashares trips over her own prose and layers on more description when less would probably conjure the right element from the reader's past instead of making the reader question if they've ever felt that way or seen that sadness or can identify with that love or loss.
I recommend Brashares book, but suggest waiting for the paperback edition or for it to hit your local library. Don't dish out the coin for the hardcover. It's a good story, but it doesn't have the staying power for a long-term bookshelf.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
"The Girls" an unimaginable story
Lori Lansens' "The Girls" is a story no one every thought to tell of characters no one would want to imagine.
She introduces her readers to Rose and Ruby Darlen, sisters closer than nature should allow. The conjoined twins tell us the story of their life in overlapping layers of a journal-like voice as they come to grips with the fact that at 30, their life is about to end.
Living their lives without ever looking each other in the eyes, the conjoined twins are joined at the head, sharing major arteries and veins that make separation impossible. They live in a house filled with mirrors, for looking at their misshapen heads is the only way they can see one another to read each other's expressions and body language. Joined in this highly unusual way, Rose is fully developed, but Ruby is like her child, born with club feet and an underdeveloped internal system. Rose must carry Ruby, all her life, with there arms wrapped around each other in support as Ruby sits on Rose's hip.
The girls are night-and-day different. One bookish, the other outgoing. One quiet, the other a chatterbox. But together they must learn to not only share their body, but their life. Their road isn't an easy one. Definitely not one that someone would choose to live, yet Lansens doesn't allow you to feel pity for the girls.
She introduces you to them without the pitying stares of handicapped labels. The reader knows the stares occur, and feels almost indignant when they do. The reader feels protective of The Girls, but wants to see them live, survive, thrive in their unusual way.
As the end of their time draws near, the reader hopes for the best for the girls, prays for love to find them, even in their last days, cries for the lost daughter, the lost mother, the chances that could have been if things had been different. If they weren't thought of as witches on their visit to Slovakia. If they hadn't been born on the day a tornado tore through town and robbed their neighbor of her only son. If they had only had more time with their aunt and uncle. If their mother hadn't looked at them in horror and run away.
But The Girls capture it all in their own words, put down on paper through Lansens' eloquent prose that bring The Girls to life. The fictional work is so real in its emotion and power that the book ends long before you want it to, but well before you have to believe The Girls are gone.
The 300-plus-page book is well worth the trip to a place most readers could never imagine into a life most readers would never dare to dream of for fear it would be a nightmare. Lansens' work is truly unforgettable. Never will you think of sisters again without thinking of the two that shared everything, their life, their loves, and all their blood.
She introduces her readers to Rose and Ruby Darlen, sisters closer than nature should allow. The conjoined twins tell us the story of their life in overlapping layers of a journal-like voice as they come to grips with the fact that at 30, their life is about to end.
Living their lives without ever looking each other in the eyes, the conjoined twins are joined at the head, sharing major arteries and veins that make separation impossible. They live in a house filled with mirrors, for looking at their misshapen heads is the only way they can see one another to read each other's expressions and body language. Joined in this highly unusual way, Rose is fully developed, but Ruby is like her child, born with club feet and an underdeveloped internal system. Rose must carry Ruby, all her life, with there arms wrapped around each other in support as Ruby sits on Rose's hip.
The girls are night-and-day different. One bookish, the other outgoing. One quiet, the other a chatterbox. But together they must learn to not only share their body, but their life. Their road isn't an easy one. Definitely not one that someone would choose to live, yet Lansens doesn't allow you to feel pity for the girls.
She introduces you to them without the pitying stares of handicapped labels. The reader knows the stares occur, and feels almost indignant when they do. The reader feels protective of The Girls, but wants to see them live, survive, thrive in their unusual way.
As the end of their time draws near, the reader hopes for the best for the girls, prays for love to find them, even in their last days, cries for the lost daughter, the lost mother, the chances that could have been if things had been different. If they weren't thought of as witches on their visit to Slovakia. If they hadn't been born on the day a tornado tore through town and robbed their neighbor of her only son. If they had only had more time with their aunt and uncle. If their mother hadn't looked at them in horror and run away.
But The Girls capture it all in their own words, put down on paper through Lansens' eloquent prose that bring The Girls to life. The fictional work is so real in its emotion and power that the book ends long before you want it to, but well before you have to believe The Girls are gone.
The 300-plus-page book is well worth the trip to a place most readers could never imagine into a life most readers would never dare to dream of for fear it would be a nightmare. Lansens' work is truly unforgettable. Never will you think of sisters again without thinking of the two that shared everything, their life, their loves, and all their blood.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Charmed Thirds proves writer can have charms three times
Megan McCafferty writes a hit again with her spunky lead character Jessica Darling charging through her college years in yet another angst filled books "Charmed Thirds." the third in a series, McCafferty's journal-style novels capture the pure emotion, semi-drama and debacle of being in college. She rocked with Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings and did nothing to disappoint readers with her third endeavor "Charmed Thirds."
Nothing brings back college years and college mistakes better than the vivid writing and sarcasm laced voice of Jessica as you follow her through breakups, hookups, being broke and most of all being lost in the unfathomable complexity of being 20 something and not knowing what to do with one's life. For anyone who ever went to college and wondered if they made the right decisions, learned from their mistakes or wondered if anyone else felt as misunderstood as they did - "Charmed Thirds" is a book to read and enjoy.
Nothing brings back college years and college mistakes better than the vivid writing and sarcasm laced voice of Jessica as you follow her through breakups, hookups, being broke and most of all being lost in the unfathomable complexity of being 20 something and not knowing what to do with one's life. For anyone who ever went to college and wondered if they made the right decisions, learned from their mistakes or wondered if anyone else felt as misunderstood as they did - "Charmed Thirds" is a book to read and enjoy.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Halberstam's Teammates a must
David Halberstam knew how to write. His voluminous works that he left behind after his recent death is a tribute to his diversity as a writer and his belief in telling the WHOLE story.
In a shorter book than say "The Powers that Be," "Teammates" captures the essence of a rarely touched upon issue - the male friendship and the bond of being a teammate.
The story of friends last trip to see Ted Williams alive illustrates the camaraderie of men who played ball, made history, were icons, but still remained at their heart - simple men who enjoyed the basics of life, good food, good fishing, a nice roof over their head and the box scores for the Red Sox during the season.
These men weren't the superstars of today. They didn't hold out for millions upon millions of dollars. Baseball players today - like Roger Clemens - will make more in one game than these men made playing their entire lives - except for time off for wars they participated.
These men played for the love of the game, for the definition it gave them - not superstars, but teammates, not by the drugs they took to hit home runs, but for a batting record come by cleanly at .400.
Halberstam's book is a treasure. It's a glimpse into the pure age of baseball history from the view of some of the best known Red Sox players ever. It's a view into a friendship between men built over batting practice and decades of ups and downs, wins and loses, loves and heartbreaks.
It's a short read - don't let Halberstam's byline discourage you. Let the book take you back in time and then back to the present to a world where Ted Williams no longer lives, but his memory will hold on forever ... as long as there is baseball and as long as there are little boys learning to swing a bat and catch a fly ball.
In a shorter book than say "The Powers that Be," "Teammates" captures the essence of a rarely touched upon issue - the male friendship and the bond of being a teammate.
The story of friends last trip to see Ted Williams alive illustrates the camaraderie of men who played ball, made history, were icons, but still remained at their heart - simple men who enjoyed the basics of life, good food, good fishing, a nice roof over their head and the box scores for the Red Sox during the season.
These men weren't the superstars of today. They didn't hold out for millions upon millions of dollars. Baseball players today - like Roger Clemens - will make more in one game than these men made playing their entire lives - except for time off for wars they participated.
These men played for the love of the game, for the definition it gave them - not superstars, but teammates, not by the drugs they took to hit home runs, but for a batting record come by cleanly at .400.
Halberstam's book is a treasure. It's a glimpse into the pure age of baseball history from the view of some of the best known Red Sox players ever. It's a view into a friendship between men built over batting practice and decades of ups and downs, wins and loses, loves and heartbreaks.
It's a short read - don't let Halberstam's byline discourage you. Let the book take you back in time and then back to the present to a world where Ted Williams no longer lives, but his memory will hold on forever ... as long as there is baseball and as long as there are little boys learning to swing a bat and catch a fly ball.
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