Best & Worst of Jane Urquhart

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Alyce

Each Wednesday I am featuring a guest post by a book blogger detailing which books they think are the “best” and “worst” by the author of their choice. Visit the series page for more information about the guest bloggers, the featured authors, and the sign-up form.

Please welcome today’s guest blogger: Carolyn from Storygal, who will be discussing the best and worst of Jane Urquhart.

After reading Away, and excited about meeting the internationally acclaimed author, Jane Urquhart, at our One Book One Community event some years ago, I requested her newest book, The Stone Carvers, as a Christmas gift. I was intrigued by her weaving of plot, characters and her poetic flair.

The Stone Carvers is a moving story about early settlers in Canada and Father Gstir, a priest from Bavaria, who is sent to start a congregation in “the wilds of Canada.”  The story traces the development of a fictional but believable community, a priest’s desire for a magnificent church with a bell in its steeple, and the lives of two siblings Klara and Tilman, and the trauma their family undergoes when Tilman leaves home as a young boy.

The novel is based on historical events beginning about 1866 until after World War I and, particularly, the design and building of the Vimy Memorial in France. Taught by their grandfather, Joseph Becker, a skilled woodcarver who is persuaded to make statues for the church, Klara and Tilman’s interest in carving develops in surprising ways.

Urquhart writes with skill, artistry and poetic phrasing, revealing much internal landscape of her main characters in a novel I could scarcely put down and have read again recently.

Changing Heaven, also by Jane Urquhart, was a more difficult book to read. The main characters were an odd assortment, both living and dead, with the ghosts haunting familiar places in a windy landscape. A pale Arianna looking for the reason she died, and Emily Bronte, haunting her old home.

The story ranges from one century to another; between scenes with the ghosts, two people on earth caught in a relationship that seems never ending and yet is satisfactory to neither of them.

The first time I picked up this book, I put it down before getting very far. I found the characters hard to identify with and felt the endless internal thoughts of characters weighed the story down. On my latest reading, I pursued the story to its end and discovered a character with an intriguing sense of storytelling which I found to be the most compelling character in the entire book.

Urquhart writes like a poet, with well-crafted description of both weather and landscape, yet her character’s intense and constant introspection was challenging to get through. Who am I to judge such a well-respected author? Maybe I should just say, “Someone else may enjoy this story more than me.”

Posted in Best & Worst, Fiction, Guest Post | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Alyce

The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey
Release Date: May 15, 2012

The Cranes Dance takes you inside the high-pressure life of a New York City professional ballerina in this fictitious story of the Crane sisters. The older sister Kate arrived on the scene first, yet she is intimidated by her younger sister Gwen’s skill as a dancer. Gwen’s accomplishments are praised yet those around her look the other way as her obsessive/compulsive habits become more than quirks.

Kate tells the story of Gwen’s descent into dysfunction in flashbacks, while her own story moves forward from the point when Gwen has taken a leave of absence from the dance company because of a supposed “injury.” In addition to managing her professional life, which includes added dance roles that she takes over for her sister, Kate is also coping with: a secret injury, a recent breakup, and the fact that she’s the only one who really knows why her sister took a leave of absence.

For a non-dancer such as myself, this window into the life of a professional dancer is fascinating – from the practice time, to the rehearsals and the performances. Kate’s introspection  about her sister’s mental health problems and her failure to help her sister, give this novel a somewhat dark tone. It pushes at the edges of melancholy yet I kept reading to find out what happened to Gwen, and whether or not Kate’s injury was going to seriously hamper her career.

I have to mention that there is a lot of profanity in this novel, and even though I’m not a fan of that much swearing, it wasn’t as much of a turn-off for me as in other books, so I kept reading despite multiple uses of the “c” word. While the profanity wasn’t on every page, it was present enough for me to wish it away, like an annoying fly buzzing around my head.

Toward the second half of the book Kate lives so much in her head that the reader is immersed in her introspection. I would have liked less of that, however it built into a very effective and serious climax. While the decision that Kate faced came as quite a surprise to me, in the context her introspection it made a lot of sense and I finally realized how essential the knowledge of her inner struggles was to the story.

I recommend The Cranes Dance to those who are interested in what it would be like to be a professional dancer, with the understanding that it is an introspective story with some serious themes.

Rating: 3.5/5

I received a free copy of this book for review.

Posted in 3.5 Stars, Advance Review Copy, Book Reviews, Fiction | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Mailbox Monday – May 14

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Alyce

Mailbox Monday is on tour at Martha’s Bookshelf for the month of May. I received three books last week:

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon – for review. Releases May 29, 2012.

Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.

But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).

And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.

7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.
67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What you shouldn’t have.
32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.

Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.

But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions.

As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty – from the publisher for review. Releases June 5, 2012.

Only a few years before becoming a famous actress and an icon for her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita to make it big in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle is a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip. She has no idea what she’s in for: Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous blunt bangs and black bob, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will change their lives forever.

For Cora, New York holds the promise of discovery that might prove an answer to the question at the center of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in a strange and bustling city, she embarks on her own mission. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, it liberates her in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of the summer, Cora’s eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Next to Love by Ellen Feldman – from the publisher. Trade paperback releases May 15, 2012.

It’s 1941. Babe throws like a boy, thinks for herself, and never expects to escape the poor section of her quiet Massachusetts town. Then World War II breaks out, and everything changes. Her friend Grace, married to a reporter on the local paper, fears being left alone with her infant daughter when her husband ships out; Millie, the third member of their childhood trio, now weds the boy who always refused to settle down; and Babe wonders if she should marry Claude, who even as a child could never harm a living thing. As the war rages abroad, life on the home front undergoes its own battles and victories; and when the men return, and civilian life resumes, nothing can go back to quite the way it was.

Posted in Mailbox Monday, New Books | Tagged , | 20 Comments

The Sunday Salon – May 13

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Alyce

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms out there! (And a belated happy Mother’s Day to those from other countries who celebrate on different days.)

My kids and husband always keep their Mother’s Day plans under wraps, so I don’t know what I’ll be doing today, but I’m sure it will be fun. They already gave me an early present by going in for family portraits on Friday, and I can’t wait until the photos arrive.

In addition to my regular volunteer time at the library last week I spent a couple of days unpacking and sorting more boxes of books that were donated to the Friends of the Library. Someday when I go back to work I sincerely hope that it involves books, because hours fly away without notice when I’m sorting books.

Yesterday my oldest auditioned for the local children’s theater. The theater recently won a grant, and as a result they have some really cool costumes and props this year. They chose a play that has many parts and options for non-speaking roles too, so they are guaranteeing a role for everyone who auditions, which is nice. We’ll find out in a week which role he gets.

Last week in books I finished reading Subliminal by Leonard Mlodinow, which was a completely fascinating look at the way our subconscious affects many aspects of our behavior. I also finished Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert, in which she dishes about her life and relationships. It was so much better than I thought it would be.

On the blog:

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys – Review
The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt – Review
Book Discoveries – New books discovered online.
Best & Worst of Mary Sharratt – Guest Post by Nicole from Linus’s Blanket

Today if I have some time to kick back and read I will probably continue with Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I will admit that when I read the first chapter I couldn’t remember who half the characters were and had to review the plot of the first book before I continued on. Usually I don’t have that problem, but I think in this case it had a lot to do with how many dystopian novels I have read in the past year.

Do you have any special plans for the day?

Posted in The Sunday Salon | Tagged | 19 Comments

Saturday Snapshot – May 12

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Alyce

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

A couple of weeks ago my youngest son went to the birthday party of one of his friends and it had an Angry Birds theme. The mom painted pig faces on green balls and then had the kids launch red “bird” balls to knock over the pigs. She made a homemade angry bird cake, and she knitted (or crocheted, I’m not sure) various angry bird hats for the kids. My son chose the yellow bird.

I thought that the mom was incredibly creative, and I know that all of the kids had a fabulous time.

Posted in Photography, Saturday Snapshot | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Alyce

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray is the fictitious story of a fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl named Lina. Inspired by the author’s family history, Lina’s story is one of deportation and enslavement after the end of World War II. Her charming spirit shines brightly through the grimness though, providing the story with a needed counterbalance to the suffering.

The story begins with Lina living a life of relative normality with her family in a city in Lithuania. Her father is a professor who isn’t happy with the Soviet occupation, and she tends to echo his opinions, especially in her expressive and unique drawings.

One day her family is taken by the Soviets, divided and put onto trains; not knowing where they are going or what fate awaits them. Lina and her family suffer much hardship during their time in exile, and Lina’s way to cope with it is by documenting her experiences and the sufferings around her through her drawings. She hopes that someday her art will be found by her father (who will of course recognize her unique style) and that they will then be reunited.

The story of the Soviet occupation and deportation of citizens to work camps in Siberia is surprisingly similar to stories of  German concentration camps during World War II. Although there are no gas chambers or crematoriums, there is no lack of brutality. Hardships abound between the lack of food, clothing, and eventually the lack of adequate shelter.

So much has been written about the horrors of World War II that it is easy to remain blissfully ignorant of other evils perpetrated by governments in that era. In some ways the horrors of Nazi Germany cast a shadow under which other evils of the time seem to pass with scant notice, but they are no less important, and no less horrific.

If you have any interest in World War II stories then I would recommend reading Between Shades of Gray. Even though it is not directly about World War II, the story explores similar situations in a setting that is not as well known.

While reading this book I was touched by the characters who seemed so real to me that by the end of the story I was fully immersed in their world. The author provides a satisfying epilogue, yet after turning that last page I wanted to know more about the characters’ lives – in the way that you do at the end of an emotionally deep story.

Rating: 5/5

Posted in 5 Stars, Book Reviews, Fiction, From My Shelf, Historical Fiction, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Book Discoveries – May 10

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Alyce

These are some of the books that I discovered recently which I am considering adding to my wish list. Do any of these appeal to you?

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde – releases October 2, 2012 (It looks like this is a re-release that was first published in the Fall of 2011.)

In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.

Along the Way by Martin Sheen & Emilio Estevez – released May 8, 2012.

In this remarkable dual memoir, film legend Martin Sheen and accomplished actor/filmmaker Emilio Estevez recount their lives as father and son. In alternating chapters—and in voices that are as eloquent as they are different—they tell stories spanning more than fifty years of family history, and reflect on their journeys into two different kinds of faith.

At twenty-one, still a struggling actor living hand to mouth, Martin and his wife, Janet, welcomed their firstborn, Emilio, an experience of profound joy for the young couple, who soon had three more children: Ramon, Charlie, and Renée. As Martin’s career moved from stage to screen, the family moved from New York City to Malibu, while traveling together to film locations around the world, from Mexico for Catch-22 to Colorado for Badlands to the Philippines for the legendary Apocalypse Now shoot. As the firstborn, Emilio had a special relationship with Martin: They often mirrored each other’s passions and sometimes clashed in their differences. After Martin and Emilio traveled together to India for the movie Gandhi, each felt the beginnings of a spiritual awakening that soon led Martin back to his Catholic roots, and eventually led both men to Spain, from where Martin’s father had emigrated to the United States. Along the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage path, Emilio directed Martin in their acclaimed film, The Way, bringing three generations of Estevez men together in the region of Spain where Martin’s father was born, and near where Emilio’s own son had moved to marry and live.

Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds – Releases June 5, 2012.

One hundred and fifty years from now, Africa has become the world’s dominant technological and economic power. Crime, war, disease and poverty have been eliminated. The Moon and Mars are settled, and colonies stretch all the way out to the edge of the solar system. And Ocular, the largest scientific instrument in history, is about to make an epochal discovery…

Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his long-running studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey’s family, who control the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans for him. After the death of his grandmother Eunice—the erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur—something awkward has come to light on the Moon, so Geoffrey is dispatched there to ensure the family name remains untarnished. But the secrets Eunice died with are about to be revealed—secrets that could change everything…or tear this near utopia apart.

The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty – Releases June 14, 2012.

Ellen O’Farrell is a bit unusual. She’s a hypnotherapist. She’s never met her father. And she can’t seem to keep a relationship going (okay, that’s more normal that we want to admit). When Ellen meets Patrick, she’s hopeful nevertheless. But when he says he needs to tell her something, she fears the worst. However, when Patrick reveals that his ex-girlfriend is stalking him, Ellen thinks, Is that all? Actually, that’s kind of neat. She’s more intrigued than frightened. What makes a supposedly smart, professional woman behave this way? She’d love to meet her. What she doesn’t know is that she already has.

Posted in Biography, Book Discoveries, Fiction, Memoirs, New Books, Nonfiction | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Best & Worst of Mary Sharratt

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Alyce

Each Wednesday I am featuring a guest post by a book blogger detailing which books they think are the “best” and “worst” by the author of their choice. Visit the series page for more information about the guest bloggers, the featured authors, and the sign-up form.

Please welcome today’s guest blogger: Nicole from Linus’s Blanket, who will be discussing the best and worst of Mary Sharratt.

My discovery of Mary Sharratt came with the publication of her most recent novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill. Shortly after I finished reading that novel, I was hooked on Sharratt’s fabulously descriptive and well-researched writing. With the publication of Daughters, Mary Sharratt has written four novels that largely center on women of the last few centuries and how they have attempted to live meaningfully, and fully in the face of circumstances and culture which have been hostile to their ability to thrive. Like Daughters of the Witching Hill, each of Sharatt’s other novels (The Vanishing Point, The Real Minerva, and Summit Avenue) all feature strong female protagonists living at a fascinating crossroad of history and struggling to define herself within the constraints and social laws of the world she inhabits.

One of Sharratt’s main talents as a writer is to render a plethora of historical research into finely detailed stories that allow a reader a glimpse into the workings of another time period and into the minds and hearts of characters who are wonderfully multi-faceted and full of human emotion and complexity. One of the great things about her writing is how it has matured with each novel she has written. Still making a decision on her best and “worst” novel is far from straightforward, but for me it finally came down to the order in which they were written and Sharratt’s own growth as a writer and storyteller.

Daughters of the Witching Hill  is thus far Sharratt’s masterpiece. Stunning in its finely woven balance between people, emotion and historical detail, this latest novel is thoroughly engrossing as Sharratt tells of the downfall of the Pendle Witches, a family of women in 1600′s England caught between family and religious loyalty in the precarious time that England was making its switch from Catholicism to Protestantism. The reader not only comes to care deeply about the characters, their lives and decisions, but also the outcome which are sure to be painful and biased. One of the things I particularly loved about this novel was the strong sense of place I got from the way Sharratt described the small rituals of the households, poverty in the English countryside and just how grueling an existence the women had to eke out. This book frequently comes to mind when I think of the best books I’ve read in recent years.

At her “worst” Sharratt still isn’t anything to sneeze at. The worst that can be said about Summit Avenue is that it suffers in comparison to Sharratt’s other works by being their predecessor. Sharratt explores themes in Summit Avenue (such as the immigrant experience, the lives of women amidst upheaval and change, and cultural domination of their spiritual and sexual lives), which she will revisit in her later works. As Sharratt’s work has evolved so have her character’s insights and observations, and the core of their dialogue and interactions is much more fluid and true to life and the reader’s ear. While Summit Avenue is less polished than Sharratt’s later offerings, it is still a worthwhile read, especially if the lives of women and how they changed during World War War I are of interest.

Posted in Authors, Best & Worst, Fiction, Guest Post | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Alyce

The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

My favorite things about the book The Engines of God are: the cover and the last line of the book. I absolutely love the covers of Jack McDevitt’s books, especially the mass market paperbacks, and the last line of the book was one of those perfect endings.  If only the preceding 300+ pages had been so enchanting!

The Engines of God is a science fiction story with a mystery at its core. Monuments have been left behind by aliens at various far-flung locations in space, and no one can figure out why they put them there or what happened to the aliens. Meanwhile, a group of scientists race to research and decode artifacts on a planet that is scheduled to be terraformed – a process that will destroy all evidence of a previous culture on the planet. As they begin to decode the artifacts and learn more about the monuments they make discoveries that might have serious implications for the future of Earth, but they are in a race to find the key to that mystery before the terraforming begins.

I really, really wanted to love this book, in part because I own another book in the series, but also because the plot sounded very promising and the cover is so nice. However, the story was filled with so much scientific and anthropological information and speculation about the alien culture that I was bored to tears for more than a hundred pages. The plot could have been fantastic, but was bogged down by the many detailed explanations and descriptions of artifacts. The best parts of the story were those in which the author focused on the characters, their relationships, and the action surrounding them. However, those good sections were buried within much of the cultural information on the aliens.

I was disappointed with The Engines of God, especially because I have read a couple of the author’s other books (Seeker and Time Travelers Never Die) and they were far more accessible and enjoyable. I am willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt with this book since it is the first in a series, and as such it involves much more world-building. If the next book in the series is equally boring, however, I will be abandoning it and the remaining books in the series.

As for the last line in the book, it really was fabulous and left me with a warm-fuzzy feeling, which is unusual in the case of a story that was south of mediocre for me. It was like a very bland meal that was partially redeemed by a fabulous dessert.

Rating: 2.5/5

Posted in 2.5 Stars, Book Reviews, Fiction, From My Shelf, Sci-fi, Science Fiction | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Mailbox Monday – May 7

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Alyce

Mailbox Monday is on tour at Martha’s Bookshelf for the month of May. I received two books last week:

A House in Fez by Suzanna Clarke – from paperbackswap.com.

The Medina — the Old City — of Fez is the best-preserved, medieval walled city in the world. Inside this vibrant Moroccan community, internet cafes and mobile phones coexist with a maze of donkey-trod alleyways, thousand-year-old sewer systems, and Arab-style houses, gorgeous with intricate, if often shabby, mosaic work. While vacationing in Morocco, Suzanna Clarke and her husband, Sandy, are inspired to buy a dilapidated, centuries-old riad in Fez with the aim of restoring it to its original splendor, using only traditional craftsmen and handmade materials.

China Airborne by James Fallows – from the publisher. Releases May 15, 2012.

More than two-thirds of the new airports under construction today are being built in China. Chinese airlines expect to triple their fleet size over the next decade and will account for the fastest-growing market for Boeing and Airbus. But the Chinese are determined to be more than customers. In 2011, China announced its Twelfth Five-Year Plan, which included the commitment to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars to jump-start its aerospace industry. Its goal is to produce the Boeings and Airbuses of the future. Toward that end, it acquired two American companies: Cirrus Aviation, maker of the world’s most popular small propeller plane, and Teledyne Continental, which produces the engines for Cirrus and other small aircraft.

In China Airborne, James Fallows documents, for the first time, the extraordinary scale of this project and explains why it is a crucial test case for China’s hopes for modernization and innovation in other industries. He makes clear how it stands to catalyze the nation’s hyper-growth and hyper- urbanization, revolutionizing China in ways analogous to the building of America’s transcontinental railroad in the nineteenth century. Fallows chronicles life in the city of Xi’an, home to more than 250,000 aerospace engineers and assembly workers, and introduces us to some of the hucksters, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and dreamers who seek to benefit from China’s pursuit of aerospace supremacy. He concludes by examining what this latest demonstration of Chinese ambition means for the United States and the rest of the world—and the right ways to understand it.

Posted in Mailbox Monday | Tagged , | 14 Comments