Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Teaser Tuesday: The Book Thief

teaser tuesday
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My mom loaned me this book ages ago and I finally got around to starting it last week. Now I can't put it down (it's probably a good thing I'm almost done it!) More about it later this week, but for now I will say that it is beautifully and poignantly written.

The examination was completed and he managed to perform his first nude Heil Hitler. In a perverse kind of way, he conceded that it didn't feel half-bad.

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, page 440

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT
at Should Be Reading with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Goodbye Maeve Binchy

After work, as I was shutting down my computer today to go home, I saw a news alert that Maeve Binchy had died at age 72. I don't remember when I read my first Maeve Binchy novel, mostly because I can't remember what it was. I think it might have been Circle of Friends which I still reread occasionally. It never fails that I get angry with Nan for her manipulative behaviour and Jack for being a coward, but I come back to it over and over. There is something very powerful about Benny and Eve's friendship. [I get annoyed with the movie because all the loose ends get tied up, even though they're not in the book. Also, only recently did I realize that slimy Simon Westward was played by Colin Firth and that makes me a little sad. And because she played Nan, I have a predisposed dislike of any Saffron Burrows character now]

I just took a look at a list of Maeve Binchy's novels and I think I've read almost all of them. I've definitely read the four books of short stories. And looking at the titles, it's interesting to remember where I was, in life and in the world, when I read them. Her books will always hold something special for me.

Rest in Peace Ms. Binchy.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

BIG SPOILER ALERT

the enchantress

So the series is done. The secrets have all been exposed. Or have they?

As with the other books, The Enchantress one picked up immediately where the previous book (The Warlock) left off. I wasn't as excited about this book as the others: all the way through I wished the other five were nearby so that I could thumb through them for some little kernel Scott mentioned previously that would help make the current book make sense.

The only character that really developed and grew in this book was Virgina Dare...learning a little more of her back story made her motivations much more clear. I never really got the feeling she was a "bad guy" except that her association with John Dee (who also turned out not to be a through and through "bad guy" in the end. He didn't really redeem himself, but he did show that he was a human capable of human emotions) pointed that way. I'm not sure if I needed the end of the Warlock to help me along, but I had trouble with the whole thing with Josh becoming Marethyu and living a bunch of parallel existences (in Isis and Osiris' Shadowrealm, on Earth etc) I have heard rumours that Scott is writing a series about the Earthlords and the first installment is going to be released sometime in 2013, so I'm wondering if some of the loose ends will be tied up there.

Scott's own website suggests that not everything will be revealed in the last book.

secrets revealed

screen shot from Scott's website

I'm hoping that's the case, because ugh. My reading of the end is that the prophecy [The two that are one must become the one that is all. One to save the world, one to destroy it] came true because Sophie saved our world and Josh destroyed Danu Talis. But I still have lots of questions. Did Isis and Osiris really die? What happened to Will and Billy the Kid and Machiavelli and Black Hawk? Where the three simluatneous battles necessary [I felt like they were big screen fodder]? If Marethyu was taking Nicholas and Perenelle back to Paris to die, how did the three of them manage to make it to Niten and Aoife's wedding? How did they get Aoife back from the Shadowrealm she went to to imprison Coatlicue? What adventures did Sophie have the 700 (I think) years from the destruction of Danu Talis until she returned to earth? What was Virginia Dare queen of? What happened to Bastet?

More! I want more!

I think I will probably reread this series, but I need to do it when I have all six books together...so I will either be buying them at some point in the future or I'll move back to Kelowna for the sole purpose of borrowing them from Michelle. Okay, maybe not about the Kelowna part, but I might see if she'd trust me with them in Vancouver for a while.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots

unorthodox

I heard about Unorthodox on CBC one day and then I read a review of it The Globe and Mail and decided I needed to read it. I put a hold on it in the library and waited (I think I was number 100 and something on however many copies [I just checked - there are 23 now, but I think there were fewer back in April, but I could be wrong]) and promptly forgot about it until I got the email telling me to go get it or they'd charge me a dollar.

The book the following disclaimer right at the beginning:

The names and identifying characteristics of everyone in this book have been changed. While all the incidents described in this book are true, certain events have been compressed, consolidated, or reordered to protect the identities of the people involved and ensure continuity of the narrative. All dialogue is as close an approximation as possible to actual conversations that took place, to the best of my recollection.

I don't have a problem with the first statement about names and identifying characteristics: that often happens in memoirs, especially ones where the people are still alive and the story is scandalous or sensitive or could be hurtful. I don't have a problem with the statement about the dialogue either. It makes sense to me that the conversations would have to be reconstructed from memory since most people don't walk around recording all of their conversations.

The second part about changing the events made me raise my eyebrows. I thought it was a bit strange, but I started reading and thought little more of it.

But then at the beginning of July, I took a creative non-fiction course. We focused primarily on memoir, the personal essay, and literary journalism and spent some time talking about the characteristics of each and where the lines between them blurred. And during this discussion, I asked about the line between fiction and non-fiction. Our instructor told us that basically if it's true to the best of your ability, then it's non-fiction. She readily acknowledged that when you write memoir, you won't remember all the details or the exact words used in a conversation and that it's your memories that you're drawing on, so you might describe an event, situation, or conversation in a different way than someone else who was standing beside you, but she said she wasn't sure she'd ever seen a statement like that before.

We had a long discussion after that about James Frey and A Million Little Pieces and whether this book fell into that same category. We didn't come to a conclusion - maybe it did, maybe it didn't, it sort of depended. Our instructor did tell us about a book one of her instructors wrote that was essentially a memoir except that he changed two details: he only wrote about one brother when in reality he had two and he had an illness but for the purposes of the book he changed the illness. These two things prompted him to call his book a novel, even though the bulk of the book was the truth.

I pretty much forgot about the conversation and kept reading. I liked the voice, although sometimes I had trouble wrapping my brain around the present tense being used pretty much throughout. I have to admit I'm glad she changed the names and identifying details because I felt bad for some of the people she talked about having their lives splashed around the world for all to read. She talks more than once about how strongly reading in English was discouraged, so maybe few of her family and (former?) friends will actually read the book, although in the interview with the Current they discussed how the book is reportedly being read in secret and passed through the community, so maybe not.

I found the story gripping - of course I knew the ending, but I wasn't sure how we were going to get there. I didn't know much about Hasidic Jews at all before I read the book except that they seemed to dress modestly in dark clothing and the men wore curls over their ears. I have read a bunch about Hasidism in the last few days thought because I wanted to know more.

At the very end of the book, when Deborah is starting to extract herself from her family and religion, she mentions she had a blog called "Hasidic Feminist," which of course I had to Google. Remember that conversation I had with my class about memoir and James Frey? Well, the internets were comparing Deborah Feldman to James Frey (if you click on the link, you'll get to the Wikipedia page which describes the Frey controversy in detail). It turns out that she has a younger sister, but portrayed herself as an only child in the book. Her mother didn't just vanish when she was very young, her parents actually didn't divorce until she was a teenager. There's a number of other things that her detractors call attention to. Which raises the question: is this a work of fiction or of non-fiction. In The Globe and Mail article she openly states that she made some of the changes for the sake of the narrative - if you're going to mess with the timeline, then maybe you're better off to call it a novel, inspired by real events? A non-fiction novel? I'm curious to see where this goes.

I enjoyed the book - it gave me an interesting glimpse into a private culture's way of life. Of course it's only one person's perspective and with anything like this, that is worth taking into consideration. Would I recommend this book? Sure - with a grain or two of salt. And maybe the Google machine open beside you. There is so much of interest in the book - I had vaguely heard of Williamsburg and knew next to nothing about Hasidism, so it was nice to be able to find more information and some background while I was reading.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Unorthodox Teaser Tuesday

teaser tuesday
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
I am reading a few books are once at the moment and I wasn't sure which one to go with. This is from a memoir:

I am not aware at this moment that I have lost my innocence. I will realize it many years later.

Unorthodox, Deborah Feldman, page 29

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT
at Should Be Reading with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Stone Cutter

the stone cutter

More Camilla Läckberg! And then I have to take a bit of a break while I wait for my parents to finish the next books and pass them along!

I liked how the story of Erica and Patrik continues. I complained that I missed Erica's detective work in The Preacher and while this book picks up not long after the other ended (it ended with Erica about to have the baby, now the baby, Maja, is a couple of months old), I actually enjoyed the way it followed Erica as she dealt with the challenges of a new baby.

I was a bit confused in a few places as there were a few blips in the translation, but overall I liked this one too! There were a lot of twists again, but this time I thought I might know who did it almost immediately - and I was right!

I am enjoying the way Läckberg carries some of the more personal story lines through the books. I am particularly enjoying the Erica and Patrick story and am certainly gripped by (and anxious to know more about) the Anna and Lucas storyline (I've seen him referred to as Maxwell in some reviews. I don't have the copy I read anymore - does anyone know if that's just some weird translation thing or if it's his last name or if it's just a mistake?)

I waited far too long to write this because I had much more to say about it when I first finished it...