Paperback Archives - Page 22 of 27

Bound South by Susan Rebecca White: Book Review

I would say that Bound South is a group of connected short stories. There's not really one plot that connects the chapters. Instead, I would say that the author uses these stories, told from the points of view of three different Southern ladies, to explore issues they each face and how hard it can be to move past them, even when they try. I thought the author did a fantastic job giving each character her own voice. With each story being written in first person, it was very important that she get this right and she did. Louise, the upper-class society matron who holds some surprising views; Caroline, her teenage daughter who is constantly seeking; and Missy, their housekeeper's daughter who tries to hold tight to religion in an increasingly sinful world. Each told her own story in her own way and had something to contribute to the story. At times funny, sometimes sad, and always thought-provoking, some of the issues the women face are the obvious, such as race, sexual orientation/identity, poverty, religion, and a middle-aged woman's constantly shifting role in her children's lives. Some of the others are not so obvious, such as the surprising directions exploitation can come from, stupid choices that can affect your whole life, how sometimes you're not the only one who carries the weight of your sins, and how hard it is to watch your children make mistakes. But these women face each challenge as it comes, do the best they can, and try to learn from it. I loved this passage, as Louise is thinking about her daughter: "How do I tell her that what I want is to know her, to know the woman who made these birds, to see what she might become if she is allowed to spread out,…

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones: Book Review

Abdullah is the son of a carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib. His inheritance wasn't much, but he's getting by pretty well. The rest of his extended family picks on him, but it's only once a month and he can take that. One day, a mysterious stranger shows up and sells him a magic carpet. That night, Abdullah falls asleep on the carpet and wakes up in a beautiful garden with a beautiful princess named Flower-in-the-Night. As you would expect, Abdullah and Flower-in-the-Night fall in love over several nighttime visits and plan to run away together. Then an evil djinn kidnaps her. Abdullah swears to rescue her at all costs. So it's not quite Howl's Moving Castle. It was still a very engaging story with characters that I liked. Abdullah is the plucky protagonist who can only be likened to Aladdin. He's by far the poorest suitor a princess could have, but he's also the most faithful. He's the only man to go in pursuit of the evil djinn. He hits some big snags and faces down danger to save his lady-love. Flower-in-the-Night was great! She's an intriguing mixture of innocence and wisdom. She's so protected that she's never seen a man except for her father. She's spent a lot of time reading books though, and learning about the world around her. When everything starts to reach its resolution, she's the one with the ideas. The soldier was completely unexpected. He was a bit of a trickster figure and I could never put my finger on whether he was good, bad, or indifferent. He's a good guy to have on your side in a scrape, but he has a great big soft spot for the kitties. The book itself was one great big magic carpet ride of a story.…

By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan: Book Review

It's the early 1490s in Spain and world-changing events are happening. The New Inquisition is getting established; Spain is trying to take Granada back from the Moors; and, well, we all know about Christopher Columbus in 1492. Huge stuff. By Fire, By Water focuses on one man's role through all this. Luis de Santángel is an important man in Ferdinand and Isabella's court. He's basically the money man. He's also a converso, a Christian whose ancestors were Jewish but converted, usually under intense pressure. He's curious about his heritage, so he starts asking questions. Spain under the New Inquisition, led by Torquemada, is no place to ask questions about anything. Santángel soon finds himself and his family under suspicion. Concurrently, Judith Migdal, a Jew living in Granada, is fighting for her survival. She finds herself trying to provide for some extended family alone. Life with the Muslims in Granada might not be perfect, but at least she's free to worship as she pleases. I don't know exactly how to say that I liked reading about this period in history. It infuriated me sometimes, but it felt important to know. I'd heard about the Spanish Inquisition, of course, but I hadn't really thought about who might have been targeted. I was appalled at the ultimate action the authorities took against the Jewish people. I read Poison: A Novel of the Renaissance at the same time that I read this book, completely unintentionally, and the two books fit well together. By Fire, By Water gave me the background and Poison showed me how the Jews fared afterward. Needless to say, it wasn't that well. I never quite connected to Santángel. I think it would be safe to say that I'm a coward. I would have kept my mouth shut and been at…

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: Book Review

Elizabeth Gilbert is an emotional train wreck. She's going through a tortuous divorce and her on-again-off-again relationship with her new boyfriend is just killing her. She realizes that she needs a change in her life if she is going to save it. So she sets off on a year-long journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia to learn how to live "the good life" in different ways. Italy is about pleasure, India is about prayer, and Indonesia (Bali) is about finding balance between the two. This could have turned into a great big pity-fest but it didn't. Gilbert realizes exactly how blessed she is to have the time and money to undertake this physical and spiritual journey. She gives us the down-and-dirty on exactly how low she had sunk and exactly how bad she felt sometimes, but I didn't feel like she was ever asking for pity. Photo of Naples taken by Mattia Luigi Nappi and shared on Wikimedia Commons Oh, these settings and the people she meets! By the time she got through eating her way through Italy, I felt like I needed to go shopping for a larger pants size with her! Just read this description of Lucca. "Sausages of every imaginable size, color and derivation are stuffed like ladies' legs into provocative stockings, swinging from the ceilings of the butcher shops. Lusty buttocks of hams hang in the windows, beckoning like Amsterdam's high-end hookers. The chickens look so plump and contented even in death that you imagine they offered themselves up for sacrifice proudly, after competing among themselves in life to see who could become the moistest and the fattest. But it's not just the meat that's wonderful in Lucca; it's the chestnuts, the peaches, the tumbling displays of figs, dear God, the figs..." Hungry yet? I love what she has…

The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall: Book Review

Taking place before The Russian Concubine, The Jewel of St. Petersburg tells the story of Valentina Ivanova and Jens Friis as they meet during the fall of the Russian monarchy. Valentina is the privileged daughter of a wealthy Russian minister and Jens is a Danish engineer, working to improve the overall water quality in St. Petersburg. The two are immediately drawn to each other, even as their world is falling into chaos around them. Well, first things first. At least I know where this title came from--The Russian Concubine still doesn't make sense to me! I found this to be a page-turner. It took me a couple of days, but really I read it in just a couple of sittings. Even though I knew how this was going to end up--an irritation of prequels--I still wanted to know how they got where they did. Jens was wonderful. The big, gentle, Viking-looking type is right up my alley. You know he could get all bad-ass if he wanted to, but it doesn't cross his mind until someone he loves is threatened. He loves Russia but still sees that there are great flaws in the system and in the tsar. He understands where the revolutionaries are coming from but he believes their methods are completely wrong. He believes in working within the system rather than causing a national bloodbath. In his own small way, he's trying to improve the lives of the Russian poor. They keep getting sick because they don't have clean water to drink, and those forced to live in basements frequently get flooded out. By improving the water delivery system and the sewage system, he's making everyone's lives better. When injuries happen on his job sites, and they often do due to lack of funding for proper safety procedures,…

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey: Book Review

Elena Klovis is badly mistreated by her stepmother. She is forced to clean the house, cook the food, and dress her stepmother and her two stepsisters, while she herself dresses in rags and goes hungry. Sound familiar? That's because Elena is supposed to be her kingdom's Cinderella. But her "Prince Charming" is completely wrong for her. So magic just keeps building and building around her. Finally, Elena's Fairy Godmother steps in with a most unusual offer. Elena's life is changed in a way that she could never have foretold. But will there eventually be a happily-ever-after for her? I loved the whole concept of this story. I love fairy tales and I love to see twists on fairy tales. This one was a lot of fun and it really wasn't very predictable. It was a fun, light read, and I would recommend it to other fans of fairy tales. Two things though: First, I was sort of thinking that my little cousin, a fan of all things princess and fairy, might enjoy having this book read aloud to her. Then I got to the sex scenes. There were probably only two, and they were pretty lightweight, but they were still there, so keep that in mind if you're thinking of the little princess in your life. Second, I've read several of Mercedes Lackey's books, and I would love to be her copyeditor. She absolutely kills me. She generally tells interesting, original stories, but the copyeditor whose red ink swirls through my veins cringes through her books. I would disable her italics key right off the bat. I don't mind the convention she uses of having a character's thoughts in italics. That actually makes things a little clearer. But I'm glancing through the book right now and it's almost impossible to…

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland: Book Review

Girl in Hyacinth Blue follows the path of a painting, possibly by Vermeer, from an aloof math professor backwards to the painter and the subject. Each owner has a different story to tell, and even a little bit of a different relationship to the painting, but they all love it and find echoes of something they feel inside themselves inside the painting. And isn't that sort of the point of truly great art? The novel itself has the feel of a short story collection. Each chapter is about a different owner and is a complete story unto itself. The novel never feels choppy though. But--the writing. Beautiful. It lived up to the painting that I painted inside my head. I truly saw the landscapes Susan Vreeland paints with her words and I truly felt involved with each character's story. If you love beautiful language, or you love beautiful art, read this book. It's just gorgeous. Reviewed December 19, 2007

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Book Review

Daniel Sempere's father takes him to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books when he's ten years old. One of the cemetery rules is that on your first visit, you choose a book, take it with you, and protect it forever. Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. Daniel falls in love with this exquisitely written book and is puzzled when he find out that very few copies of the book ever sold and that his copy is one of the few still in existence. He sets out to find out more about the author of the book that he loves so much, never dreaming of the secrets he will uncover over the next ten years. I don't think I've ever read many, if any, books by Spanish authors. So I'm reading along, starting to fall under this book's spell, and I all of a sudden started thinking about the movie "Pan's Labyrinth." Then I started worrying that maybe that brutal kind of sucker punch that happened at the end of the movie was a trademark of Spanish writers in general. And I think that affected the way I read the rest of the book. I think that if I ever go back and re-read it, I will enjoy it more. But this time around, I was afraid to let myself get too attached to anyone. Weird, I know. I wish that hadn't happened. All in all, this was a really good book. It had that melodramatic feel that I've loved in Jane Eyre and The Thirteenth Tale. There were several twists and turns that grabbed me and almost shouted, "This isn't going where you think it is! Pay attention!" When I could let go of my weird "Pan's Labyrinth" thing, I caught myself wandering through the house, holding…

The Clearing by Heather Davis: Book Review

Amy doesn't have a whole lot going for her in Seattle. She's just come out of a disastrous relationship and her friends don't believe her when she tells them how bad it was for her. She decides to try to get a fresh start by moving in with her great-aunt Mae in a little town called Rockville. Amy's been hurt so badly that it's hard for her to open up enough to even make friends. When she's out throwing sticks for the dog one day, Amy notices a band of fog at the back of the property that never goes away. She goes through the fog and meets Henry, a strangely-dressed boy who she immediately feels comfortable with. He becomes her only good friend in this little town, but no one seems to have ever even heard of him. I just loved this, and in a way I'm surprised. There are some fantasy elements here, but this is more of a love story and that is usually not my thing at all. No, now that I think about it, the romance wasn't even entirely the point. It's more about Amy getting past this huge hurt in her past and learning to take care of herself first. That is the kind of thing I like, and that's what the appeal was. Whew! I was afraid I was getting soft there for a minute! I obviously read my share of YA books, but I tend to stick to fantasy. In that genre, there are tons of "bad boys" that the heroines fall all over. Now, I like me a bad boy or two, but they can't be all bad, and some of these guys I've come across are all bad. You won't really find me bashing Edward, but I found Patch from…

Duchess of Aquitaine by Margaret Ball: Book Review

This review is full of spoilers if you don't know anything about Eleanor of Aquitaine. This is (obviously) the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, from the time of her father's death to her divorce from whichever King Louis of France (that was never made clear). She plots to become Queen, goes on Crusade, and then divorces her weak, religious husband. This book was okay. I've heard of Eleanor, of course, but I didn't know much about her. I did learn some things, but the pacing of the book was all wrong for me. The part where she's trying to choose a husband who will help her hold her father's lands was pretty quick. All of a sudden, she was a queen. Then she was an unhappy, bored, unappreciated queen. That part dragged on and on. Then she went on Crusade with her husband, on his orders. This was actually pretty interesting. She meets the Emperor of Constantinople, she sees fighting, she discusses strategy with the local leaders, and then her husband grows a backbone, tells her he's doing everything his way, and she'll be quiet and like it. Flash forward about three years. We've read what feels like her every waking thought for the previous ten or so years, but just when it gets interesting and she starts to show what she's capable of, we just flash forward. I was disappointed. Then she gets divorced from the mostly spineless King Louis and outwits him to marry Henry Plantagenet. And they lived happily ever after? Who knows? This is where the author just decided to stop. For me, there was way too much of the parts I didn't care about and very little of the parts that were interesting. The character of Eleanor was very well-developed. I was interested in her…