Five books worthy of re-reading

Wow! I can't believe it's been a year since I made the commitment to start this blog. My love for reading has thrived under the commitment of reviewing each book I read. Blogging has forced me to read genres that I wouldn't otherwise have read. It's also given me more impetus to research and read between the lines of the books I read. And, as a result I've discovered reading preferences I didn't know I had.

After reading books like The Antagonist and Larry's Party, I discovered a preference for reading from a male perspective. I think I like reading books where the narrator is male because it's easier for me to accept the voice. Whenever the narrator is female I find myself judging her voice, and asking questions like: would I say that? would I notice something like that? With a male narrator, I just accept the differences as a product of gender. 

In 2011, I tried my hand at e-reading. I'll admit there's a lot to be said for these compact devices (I bought a Kobo) but at the end of the day I still prefer paperback - nothing beats the comfort derived from flipping the pages of a good dog-eared paperback.

Oddly enough, the book that had the greatest impact on me didn't make it on to my 5ers: highly recommended book list. Chris Salewicz's Bob Marley: The Untold Story changed the way I listen to Bob Marley's music because it changed the way I view Bob Marley the man. The book is filled lots of interesting details and facts but Chris Salewicz's writing style oozes cheese, and he doesn't know the first thing about bridging different ideas. 

Without further ado, here's my list of the five books I read in 2011 that I feel are deserving of a second (or third) go around:




The Color Purple by Alice Walker

 


Half Blood Blues  by Esi Edugyan

 




Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

 


Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 



Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

 I chose the above novels because the stories are so layered and multi-dimensional, a second or third read is likely to reveal details I didn't get the first or second time around.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery

From the book cover

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose.

But the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information. Unfortunately, before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death.
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Spoiler Alert

"The letters were brought in at twenty minutes to nine. It was just on ten minutes to nine when I left him, the letter still unread. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle, looking back and wondering if there was anything I had left undone."

"I did what little had to be done."

With the above statements the reader is meant to clue in that the narrator is the murderer. I'm a trusting reader so I assume that the narrator is providing complete details about his involvement in the crime. At one point I wondered if the narrator might be the murderer because it's always the person you least suspect, but I brushed my suspicions aside because the narrator was playing Watson to Hercule Poirot's Sherlocke Holmes.

I really enjoyed this novel but couldn't help shaking my head at a couple oddities.

Some of the characters openly admit to entering and leaving the house via windows, and others are suspected of doing so. Did people  in the 1920s and 30s commonly use windows to enter homes? This is the second Agatha Christie novel in which it is mentioned casually that someone entered or left through the window. In the first novel that I noticed it, The Secret at Chimneys, everyone from suspects to detectives use window short cuts... Why wouldn't these people just use a side or back door? Both mysteries take place in large country homes, surely there is more than just the front door.

Another issue is with the relationship between Ralph Paton  and Roger Ackroyd. Early in the novel Ralph is introduced as Roger Ackroyd's stepson then all of a sudden midway through the novel he's referred to as his nephew and then at the end of the novel he's back to being Roger's stepson. What gives with the inconsistencies? Agatha Christie is the most widely published author, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, surely she had an editor.

3/5

The Secret of Chimneys

From the book cover

A light-hearted thriller set against a background of upper-crust society life in the twenties which includes British, French and American detectives, secret passages, a fabulous jewel, a mysterious rose emblem, an organisation called the Comrades of the Red Hand, and an international  jewel thief. A package of love letters is stolen with blackmail in view, but the blackmailer is murdered and the letters go missing. Then a foreign envoy is shot during a house party at Chimneys, Lord Caterham's stately English home.

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This is my fifth Agatha Christie novel (I'm reading them in order of publication).

All of Agatha Christie's trademark plot twists and devices are present in this novel: the setting is a large country estate; there's a clever, witty and beautiful woman at the centre of the mystery; a protagonist with a mysterious past; and lastly, a large serving of political intrigue.

Anthony Cade is our protagonist. When we first meet him, he's a tour guide in Africa. His friend, James McGrath, commissions him to deliver the late Count Stylpitch's memoir to a publisher in London and return some letters to a lady by the name of Virginia Revel.

Virginia Revel is the stereotypical Agatha Christie likeable female character. She seems to come from the same mold as Tuppence and Ann Beddingfield. Virginia is smart and spirited and always up for an adventure. Men and women can't help but to love and adore her.

I like reading Agatha Christie's novels because they are nice and light, but most of them don't really add up. I sometimes get the feeling that she's making up the plot, from one page to the next, and only reluctantly explains who the criminals are at the end, so that she can get on to writing her next novel. I got this feeling several times while reading The Secret of Chimneys.

The Secret of Chimneys is a breeze to read. It's a great book to bring along while traveling or to read on a beach. It's entertaining and doesn't require any thought. In fact, you want to not think while reading it, otherwise, you'll notice the implausibility of the conclusion.

3/5

The Household Guide to Dying

From the book cover

Delia is a popular household advice columnist with all the answers to life's most important problems. If you ask, she can tell you how to get the wine stain out of your linen, how to put the gleam in your bathroom, and the proper way to boil an egg. She will likely toss a few well-meant insults at you as well. You get just what you deserve for not knowing how to boil an egg.

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I have an unofficial rule. Whenever I go to the book store I always buy one book I didn't plan on buying. That book usually comes from the discount racks. This month's impulse purchase is Debra Adelaide's The Household Guide to Dying. The pick isn't an eenie meanie miney mo sort of thing, I usually read the book cover and check out what the literary world is saying about the book. In this case, I made my purchase because an author that I have a deep respect for called it a "tantalizing literary souffle." So on Wally Lamb's word, I decided to purchase The Household Guide to Dying.

I don't understand how Wally Lamb can write such masterpieces as She's Come Undone and I know This Much Is True, and then call this novel "a literary souffle." I'm not saying it's a terrible novel, it's just not that great. Sure it has short chapters, a smart protagonist and an interesting premise, but all that is not enough to disguise the fact that it's dull and predictable.

The story centres around Delia's attempts to tie up all of her loose ends, make life easier for her family when she passes away, and complete one final household guide. One of her loose ends involves returning to the small town in Northern Australia where she lived with her son, who died in a horrific car accident, to find the young woman who received his heart. Her attempts to make life easier for her husband and two daughters includes making frozen dinners that they can eat when she's gone (including sausages with her own blood), having them paint their personal touches on her coffin, and making countless lists to help them plan for things that will occur in the future.

My biggest problem with this novel is it wasn't convincing. Delia's reaction to the terrible turn her life is taking doesn't seem realistic. At times the narrative seemed choppy, as the story flashes back and forth between Delia present and the defining moments of her past. The most defining moment being the death of the son she had as an unwed teenager. The final pages of the novel made me second guess my opinion of this book, because they are so real and so touching.

3.5/5

The Glass Castle

From the book cover
When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.
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Amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It boosted my momesteem a tonne by reminding me that not enrolling your child in activities for every day of the week doesn't make you a crappy mom, allowing your three-year-old to boil hot dogs unsupervised does!

Jeannette Walls's writing style is smooth, straightforward and compelling. After being disappointed by Frank McCourt's memoir about his rotten childhood, I was a bit hesitant to read The Glass Castle. I couldn't imagine what misery she could have survived to fill 288 pages. Unlike Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls does not come across as arrogant, in the can-you-beat-this-miserable-childhood way. She just tells her story and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions. It's evident that she loves her parents. She works hard to portray the positive and negative aspects of their personalities.

The neglect Walls and her siblings suffer, chapter after chapter, is shocking. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse. Within the first 50 pages, a three-year-old Walls suffers severe burns after accidentally catching fire to her clothes while trying to cook a hot dog, and is accidentally thrown from a car while her family's doing the 'skedaddle' - sneaking out of town in the middle of the night.

Her mother, a self-proclaimed 'excitement addict' is selfish, immature and lazy. On several occasions she has an opportunity to make life better for her children but refuses. The children have to beg her to get a job, and when she does, they end up doing all of her work for her.Her mother brushes off all sorts of horrific incidents with her 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger' mantra.

Her father is a violent and manipulative alcoholic who thinks nothing of physically and emotionally abusing his wife in front of his children. On one occasion he dangles his wife out of a window while on another he tries to run her over with the car while she's in the late stages of pregnancy - and the kids are in the car with him!

I respect Ms. Walls for her ability to leave her emotions out of the story, although some critics have cited it as a flaw. By leaving her emotions out of the story, Ms. Walls allows the reader to draw their own conclusion about what she thought of her parents at the end of the story. She and her siblings suffered a lot but they also came away with some important life lessons that have allowed them to build  prosperous lives and to truly appreciate the most basic things in life.

5

You may also be interested in:
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

The Sisters Brothers

Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers made the Giller Prize Short List.

From the book cover
Hermann Kermitt Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.
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Eli and Charlie Sisters are infamous professional killers. Charlie, the older brother, is the 'lead' killer. Violent from childhood, the first person he killed was his father. Eli, the narrator, is the younger brother who's always looked to his older brother for guidance. Eli doesn't thrive on violence and killing the way his brother does. In fact, he only got into the killing business in order to provide back-up for his brother.

I was not an efficient killer. I was not and had never been and would never be. Charlie had been able to make use of my temper was all; he had manipulated me, exploited my personality, just as a man prods a rooster before a cockfight. I thought, How many times have I pulled my pistol on a stranger and fired a bullet into his body, my heart a mad drum of outrage, for the lone reason that he was firing at Charlie, and my very soul demanded I protect my own flesh and blood? p. 216

Eli and Charlie's latest assignment has them travelling from Oregon to California to track down and kill an eccentric gold prospector, Hermann Kermit Warm. On their way they come across a cast of colourful characters. DeWitt subtly imparts a moral lesson on his readers. Eli and Charlie steal and murder their way to California with luck apparently on their side. The return trip after their task is complete, reaffirms that old saying 'easy come, easy go.'

The novel is structured in three parts with short chapters (usually two or three pages) breaking up the three sections. This is a great format for commuters, moms or anyone else who has a busy schedule that dictates lots of multi-tasking. This format was also helpful three quarters of the way through when the story started to drag.

At first I wasn't sure how I would fare reading about professional killers. All of the reviews (the book cover is littered with quotes from reputable publications praising Patrick DeWitt's brilliance) warn or at least hint at the level of goriness. Having read Jack Whyte's The Forest Laird, in which small children are buggered and pregnant woman are savagely abused, The Sisters Brothers is not overly gruesome, it's just indicative of the time in which it is set: 1854.

I really enjoyed this novel, although, I'm not sure it lives up to all of its hype. It is a Man Booker, Giller Prize, and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Finalist. I can totally see it on the big screen like Pulp Fiction minus the gay scenes. The western background is a novelty, the gore is mild to medium, and the fact that the protagonist is an assassin are all things that make this novel stand out, but still something was missing for me.

4/5

The Free World

David Bezmozgis's The Free World was named to the 2011 Giller Prize Short List.

From the book cover:

Summer, 1978. In the bustling streets of Rome, strange new creatures have appeared: Soviet Jews who have escaped to freedom through a crack in the Iron Curtain. Among the thousands who have landed in Italy to secure visas for new lives in the West are the members of the Krasnansky family. Together, three generations of Russians Jews - some eager to embrace the opportunities emigration affords, others reluctant to leave the country to which they dedicated themselves body and soul - will immerse themselves in the carnival of emigration, with the promise and peril of a better life.
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Told through the eyes and memory of three members of the Krasnansky family (Samuil, Alec and Polina), The Free World is a captivating story about the immigrant experience. Samuil, the family patriarch, is a staunch communist who is reluctantly accompanying his family on their quest for freedom. Alec is Samuil's youngest son. At 26, he is naive - having been protected from the world by his father's status in the Soviet Union and his older brother's bad boy persona. Polina is Alec's wife and the only non-Jewish member of the Krasnansky family. This among other things makes her an outsider within the family.

The Story takes place over a span of about six month during the family's time in Rome, where they are waiting for visas so that they can start their new lives in Canada. For Samuil's part of the narrative, we learn about his experiences in the years leading up to the forming of the Soviet Union (including the murders of the father and grandfather by White Army soldiers), his time in the Red Army and his rise to prominence in the Communist Party. Alec and Polina's narrative is less political and more personal. We learn about their courtship and their experiences coming of age in the Soviet Union.

I love reading novels that open my eyes to events and experiences that are unfamiliar to me. The mark of a good book is one that sends me to Wikipedia to learn more.

My only issue with this book is that some of the scenes seem forced, as though they exist solely to demonstrate some of the Russian stereotypes that persist around gangsterism, black market trading and brutality. One such scene that comes to mind is one that leads up to the story's climax. Alec is roughed up by some guys that are affiliated with his brother but we never get a clear explanation of why it happens. Alec and his brother don't have issues and have served as each others confidantes in the past, so it doesn't add up when Alec doesn't go to his brother.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this novel.

4/5

Up next: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje's The Cat's Table made the 2011 Giller Prize Short List.

The Cat's Table is named after the lowliest dining table on the Oronsay, a cruise ship traveling from Colombo to England in 1954. The narrator is an eleven-year-old Sri Lankan boy named Michael (nicknamed Mynah). Michael is traveling to England to be reunited with his mother who has been living in England for five or six years at the opening of the novel.

At the cat's table Michael meets two boys around his age, who become his constant companions throughout the 21-day voyage. Cassius is a notorious troublemakers. He and Michael went to the same school in Colombo so they are aware of each other but aren't friends at the beginning of the voyage. Ramadhin is quiet, smart and physically frail ( he has allergies and a bad heart). Also at the cat's table with the boys, are a host of colourful character, each with an interesting, if not mysterious reason for being on the ship. Michael's older cousin, Emily is also  on board the ship.

The Cat's Table has an Agatha Christie murder mystery quality to it. During the 21-day voyage, Michael discovers several interesting plots unfolding among his fellow passengers. One of the world's wealthiest men is on board, traveling to England to seek treatment for a curse; there's a thief stealing from first-class cabins; and a dangerous prisoner is being transported to England to stand trial for the murder of a judge.

I love a good mystery and under all of its literary greatness that's exactly what The Cat's Table is.

Ondaatje's style is subdued but compelling. The plot skips back and forth between the time on the ship and the future. In this way Ondaatje shows and tells the reader the answers to many of the plot's mysteries.

4/5

Next up: The Free World by David Bezmozgis

The Antagonist

Lynn Coady's The Antagonist is on the 2011 Giller Prize Short List.

Gordon "Rank" Rankin is the story's protagonist (and in my opinion the antagonist).

Rank decides to write a novel about his life after coming across an old friend's book that features a character that he thinks is based on his life. Using the guise of needing a professional writer to look over his work, Rank begins to bombard his old friend, Adam, with emails. The entire story is comprised of emails from Rank to Adam. We, the reader, do not get to read Adam's responses to Rank's emails. 

Rank's emails starts off very angry. He's angry at Adam for 'stealing' his life and labeling him as having an 'innate criminality;' he's angry at himself for being naive and giving Adam so much information for his book; and he's especially angry at his father Gordon Rankin, Senior. The only person he's not angry at is his dead mother, Sylvie. We don't find out how Sylvie died until the last few pages of the story. This is one of the reasons I love this novel. Lynn Coady does an amazing job of building suspense and keeping the reader wanting more up until the very last words.

Much of Rank's problems stem from the fact that he is a really big guy who doesn't have the temperament that everyone expects him to have with his hulking build. This usually results in him being pressured to play the violent thug or enforcer role, on a couple occasions to tragic results.

Another reason I love this book is Lynn Coady's casual way of throwing out game changing details.

Without giving away too much, I'll say Rank is not the type of person he appears in the first quarter of the book. He actually turns out to be a bit of a stereotype. I won't say what type of stereotype because I don't want to ruin it for anyone thinking of reading it.
5

Next Up: The Cat's Table

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives

Better Living through Plastic Explosives is a collection of short stories by Zsusi Gartner. Better Living through Plastic Explosives is on the 2011 Giller Prize short list.

Summer of the Flesh Eater

The men in this short story remind me of the women of Wisteria Lane a la the popular television show Desperate Housewives. Told through a third-person group narrative, a group of Fraiser Crane-like men living in an upscale Vancouver cul-de-sac suffer through a summer of dealing a new neighbour they deem uncivilized. The new neighbour wears cut-off t-shirts, drinks beer from the can, and fixes cars in his drive way, standard stuff but to these 'evolved' men he's practically a neanderthal. In reality the new neighbour is really just a thinly veiled stereotype of the typical man as depicted in prime time circa 2003 (think According to Jim  and King of Queens).

Once, We Were Swedes
Alex is a retired journalist who now teaches a journalism class at a Vancouver community college. She's married to a man who's six years older than her, but as the story progresses their aging processes go into overdrive in opposite directions (sort of like the Brad Pitt movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). By the end of the story, Alex is an old woman with dentures and mobility issues and her husband is a teenager. The title comes from the IKEA language they use to speak in happier times.

Floating Like a Goat
This long, run-on letter from a mother to her daughter's grade one art teacher is sooo entertaining. I wish I had the courage to write a letter like that to my kids' teachers when they implement classroom rules that don't vibe with my way of thinking. The title comes from one of the the rules the art teacher sets for her students: when drawing animals and people, their feet must touch the ground.

Investment Results May Vary

“Is it so terrible to want what you can’t have?" Dan and Patricia O'Donnell have it all. They are a beautiful, well-off couple who insist on having the best of everything. Nina is an angry basement dweller who works as a Vancouver Olympic mascot. Honey Fortuna is a real estate agent who's worked very hard for her successful, always keeping a stiff upper lip no matter what's dealt her. Homes are being swallowed by the mountain in Vancouver's ritzy north shore (no humans or animals have been harmed). Nina kidnaps the O'Donnells' young son.

The Adopted Chinese Daughters' Rebellion
A majority of the couples on a well-to-do cul-de-sac in Vancouver adopt female babies from China and set out to raise them with Chinese cultural values. They go from the mild to the ridiculous in this satire of what many couples have done over the years. Eventually they cause the Chinese daughters so much misery, they (and the one natural daughter on the cul-de-sac) run away one night.

What are We doing Here?
Deirdre (Didi) is a young twentysomething NOW reporter on an awkward date with a much older, almost-famous photographer she interviewed for a story. The date take places at his 14th floor apartment, where he's grilling steaks and making baked potatoes. Didi is extremely bored; when the photographer invited her over, she thought she'd be attending a party with his famous friends. Her mind keeps running on to the wild party she attended the night before as she tries to muster the courage to ask the photographer "What are we doing here?"

Someone is Killing the Great Motivational Speakers of Amerika
A motivational speaker and mother takes her followers and her kids to the woods to avoid succumbing to the same fate as many of her motivational peers. During the camping trip she observes her control of her flock loosening and contemplates walking barefoot on hot coals to bring them back under her control. She also muses about the various ways the other motivational speakers disappeared or passed on.

Mister Kakami
Patrick Kakami is a filmmaker going through a midlife crisis. During a photo shoot on a remote Vancouver island, Kakami goes missing. Syd, the film's producer and Kakami's only friend, journeys through a dense Vancouver forest in search Kakami.


We Come in Peace
Five angels from biblical times take over the bodies of five Vancouver teenagers (four boys and one girl) so they can experience what it is to be human. Their actions while in the bodies change the course of the kids' lives forever.

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives
The title of the story, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, is a play on DuPont's advertising slogan "Better Living Through Chemistry." In this story a 'recovering terrorist' is now married, raising a son and attending group sessions with other recovering misfits.

3/5

Next up: The Antagonist

Half Blood Blues

Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan's second novel, won the 2011 Giller Prize.

Half Blood Blues is the story of three members of a German jazz band, the Hot Time Swingers, who flee to Paris in 1940 to escape Nazi Germany. Two of the three band members are 'half-bloods', of mixed race. Hieronymous (Hiero) Falk is the youngest and the most talented member of the band. When word of his trumpet playing reaches Louis Armstrong in Paris, the group members find themselves with tickets out of Germany - just in the knick of time.

Hiero as a black German of mixed race (his mother is German and his father is African) is in the most danger from the increasingly powerful Nazis; the other two band members are American. Sidney (Sid) Griffith, the band's bassist and narrator of the story is 'high yella' which allows him to pass as white, putting him in the least amount of danger of the three band members. Sid is so jealous of Hiero, his action wind up causing Hiero his freedom and alter the course of their lives forever. Sid's childhood friend, Chip Jones, is the group's drummer.

I love reading about historical events from the perspective of the extreme other. I've read many stories about World War II from the perspective of the Jews and white Germans. Until picking up Half Blood Blues, I hadn't given much thought to blacks in Germany. I'm glad Half Blood Blues is the book to introduces me to these forgotten victims of World War II.

Esi Edugyan smoothly weaves shocking historical details into the story of these three friends trying to survive during the Nazi occupation of Europe. SHE does a great job of developing dialogue for her three central MALE characters.

I need a prequel! I want to learn more about the Hiero's childhood and his life after the war.

5

A storybook Halloween

I'm a proud mama everyday, but tomorrow I'm gonna be especially proud. Both my girls are going out for Halloween in costumes inspired by books! And they are both so cute!!

First up is Jaya. She's going as a paper bag princess a la Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

Princess Elizabeth is engaged to marry Prince Ronald when a dragon smashes her castle, burns all of her clothes and carries Prince Ronald away. Elizabeth dons a paper bag and goes off to rescue her prince. Using her smarts, Elizabeth tires the dragon and rescue her prince only to have him tell her to come back when she looks like a real princess! My favorite lines of the story:

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is really neat. You look like a prince, but you are a bum."

The Paper Bag Princess is my favorite Robert Munsch story because of the valuable lesson it teaches little girls - and boys.



5

On to Julianna's choice....

I'm not going to lie, Julianna chose to be a tooth fairy before we read the book. I went in search of a tooth fairy book to get some inspiration for her costume. I was hoping for a short but sweet book and came across R.G. Cordiner's Candy Wars.

Candy Wars: The Tooth Fairies vs. The Candy King by R.G. Cordiner

It all starts when James' tooth is stolen by a green jelly monster. James follows the jelly monster into the magical world of candy land, where he becomes a general in the Candy King's army and helps to launch a war against the tooth fairies. Emily arrives on the tooth fairies side of the magical world just in time to fight on the side of the tooth fairies. With the help of a toothless dragon and a phoenix with hay fever, Emily is able to help save her brother and the tooth fairies from the wicked Candy King.

Candy Wars is a great book for pre-teens. There are valuable lessons about friendship, family loyalty and the importance of standing up to bullies.

3/5

Jaya's take on Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess.



Miss. Julianna Ivy as the Queen of the Tooth Fairies.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel published by Mark Twain in 1884. It's the story of Huckleberry Finn, a pre-teen with a drunk for a father and a dead mother. When the novel opens, Huck is living with the Widow Douglas and receiving interest on money he came into before the start of the novel. Huck's adventures begin when his father reappears and kidnaps him from the Widow Douglas and locks him in a cabin, in an attempt gain access to Huck's money. Huck fakes his own death and embarks on an adventure with his friend the escaped slave, Jim. Huck and Jim make their way down the Mississippi River dodging close calls and getting to know each other.

It's easy to get the wrong idea about this novel. Mark Twain employs a first-person narrative, southern vernacular and a lot of language considered racist by today's standards, to tell the story in a believable way from the perspective of Huck Finn. When reading this novel it's important to consider the time in which it was written.

I've read a lot of books about the U.S. in the 'olden days' but most of them have been from the perspective of slaves or the descendants of slaves. So this novel gave me a completely different perspective on an old topic.

I really enjoy the way Mark Twain navigates Huck's emotional maturity. He goes from viewing Jim as a possession to a person capable of the same feeling and emotions as white people. Towards the end of the novel, the question on my mind is what becomes of Huck Finn? Do his views towards Jim affect the man he grows up to become? Or, does he continue to believe and obey the immoral rules of a society that dictates that blacks are not human and thus subject to slavery as possessions to he owned?

*SPOILER ALERT*

I was a bit disappointed by the end of the novel and the appearance of Tom Sawyer. Tom's character irritated me, I feel like he took away from all of the lessons Huck seemed to be learning about morality and Jim as a person rather than as a possession. On the other hand, Tom's character made me realize just how smart and compassionate Huck Finn is, especially at the very end when we realize that Tom risked his own life, Jim's life and Huck's life all so that he could have an 'adventure.' It reminded me of kids from the suburbs going to the inner city and getting mixed up in crime just to prove that they are tough.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a must-read for history and classic buffs.

5

The Man in the Brown Suit

From the book cover:

The newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfield came to London expecting excitement. She didn't expect to find it on the platform of Hyde Park Corner tube station. When a fellow passenger pitches onto the rails and is electrocuted, the 'doctor' on the scene seems intent on searching the victim rather than examining him...

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The Man in the Brown Suit is my fourth Agatha Christie novel. If you're a regular to this blog, you probably already know that I've pledged to read all of Agatha Christie's novels in order of their publication.

The Man in the Brown Suit is the first of four novels in Agatha Christie's Colonel Race chronology . Colonel Race is an ex-army colonel and former leader of the British spy agency MI5. (Look out for my reviews for the remaining Colonel Race novels - Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile, and Sparkling Cyanide.)


Back to The Man in the Brown Suit. I really enjoyed this Agatha Christie murder mystery; it isn't as formula driven as the other Christie books I've read to date. I'm actually starting to wonder if there's an Agatha Christie novel out there that I won't enjoy. I guess this is why her books are out sold only by the Bible and William Shakespeare!

The plot takes a lot of shocking turns, some of them don't make much sense, but at the end of the day the protagonist, Anne Beddingfield, is such a likable character, one can't help but look past some of the plot failures.

*SPOILER ALERT*

One of the aforementioned shocking turns, comes at the end when the protagonist discovers that one of the people she depended for protection is actually the villain. This point doesn't make sense because he has so many opportunities to do away with her but doesn't. It's almost as if Mrs. Christie was fighting the necessity of him being a villain. In fact by the end of the story, one of the protagonists displays a reluctance to fully accept that the villain is an evil person.

4/5

The Murder on the Links

From the book cover:

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course.

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The Murder on the Links is my third Agatha Christie novel and my second Hercule Poirot mystery. If you're a regular on this blog, you probably already know that I've pledged to read all of Agatha Christie's novels in order of their publication.

I really enjoyed this novel, I think I prefer it to the first Hercule Poirot mystery The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot is even more eccentric. The addition of the younger Detective Giraud, and their constant banter and one-upmanship behaviour adds a a bit of fun and comedy to the plot.

In this novel, Captain Hastings' character becomes even more naive and clueless. He's the perfect side kick to Poirot's brilliant mind. The reader is most likely not at Poirot's level but is most definitely further along than Hastings.

Another plus, for me personally, are the few brief mentions of Canada.

3.5/5

Sounding Line

From the book cover

Pocket Snow has a lot on his mind even before the unidentifiable flying object crashes into the water at Perry's Harbour, sending local fishermen scrambling to find survivors of an assumed plane crash. The excitement seems far away from the Snow household, as Pocket's mother approaches death, and his father tries to cope.

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I came across Anne DeGrace's Sounding Line at Coles Bookstore. I was there to buy a book light using my a birthday GC I got from my mom. After buying the book light, and three other books, I still had some room on my GC. Sounding Line was by the cash and had a 'Heather's Pick' sticker on it, so I figured I'd give it a try.

It's a decent read. While reading it, I kept thinking about Marilynne Robinson's Home. I don't know if it's because both novels take place in a small town and are based loosely on real-life events, or it could be that I found DeGrace's writing style very similar to Robinson's.

Sounding Line is a nice light read, but there's really nothing new or exciting about it. I really enjoyed DeGrace's depiction of life in a small fishing village. The characters are entertaining, although some of them seem to be based on small town stereotypes. The only think I really dislike about this novel is the short,  second-person chapter intros. I was never able to say for certain which character they were referring.

While I don't regret using my birthday GC to buy this novel, I can't recommend it but I won't try to dissuade anyone from reading it either.

3/5

The Life of Elizabeth I

From the book cover

Perhaps the most influential sovereign England has ever known, Queen Elizabeth I reigned prosperously for more than forty years, from 1558 until her death in 1603. During her rule, however, she remained an extremely private person, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one - not even her closest, most trusted advisors.

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I selected this novel as part of my biographies and memories reading list because of my fascination with the monarchy.

This book is way too long. Alison Weir does a wonderful job capturing Queen Elizabeth I's personality, the mood of her court and the high and low points of her reign, but I really feel like it could have been done in under 300 pages. At 488 pages, not including the epilogue, this is a hefty brick of a novel.

It's obvious that Ms. Weir is a meticulous researcher and a born storyteller. This novel reads like a historical fiction. She did a great job of drawing out suspenseful moments and interjecting humour. It's even more amazing because she's writing about someone who's been dead for more than 400 years as though she was right there witnessing everything. I especially enjoyed the chapters that describe the everyday realities of life in the 1500s.

At times I found it hard to keep up with the name changes. Once a character received a new office or title, Ms. Weir started referring to the character by a new name. An example of this is William Cecil, Elizabeth's most loyal councillor. He goes from being referred to as Cecil to Burghley about midway through the novel, when he gets promoted by the Queen. Then three quarters of the way through, his son arrives at the court and so we start reading about 'Cecil' again, but now Weir is referring to Thomas Cecil, William Cecil/Lord Burghley's son.

Elizabeth was a great queen but I don't like Elizabeth the women. She was vain, superficial, manipulative, mean, selfish and sometimes just plain unrealistic in her expectations of her subjects. The amount of people that she placed in the tower for daring to marry without her consent is shameful. And then there's the way she treated the wives of her 'favourites', refusing to acknowledge their existence, humiliating them at court and purposely keeping their husbands away from home. For the record, I think it's cool that she refused to marry and stuck to her convictions.


Eventually I would like to read Ms. Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

3.5/5

Trailer from The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I.

Bob Marley: The Untold Story

From the book cover

What was is about Bob Marley that made him so popular in a world dominated by rock ‘n’ roll? How is it that he not only has remained the single most successful reggae artist ever, but also has become a shining beacon of radicalism and peace to generation after generation of fans?

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Bob Marley is the most well-known of my countrymen, so when I saw this biography in Coles I didn't think twice about picking it up. Usually, I read books recommended by friends, family members or acquaintances. This book was chosen solely because I've always enjoyed Bob Marley's music and wanted to find out who he really was.

Chris Salewicz's writing style is dreadful (no pun intended). His bridging techniques are awkward at best and he litters the story with too much insignificant information. An example of this is the background information he provides for virtually all of the major and minor characters in Bob's life. Every time he introduces a character he tells the reader where and when the person was born and who their parents were, how they grew up and all sorts of other useless information.

When Salewicz isn't bombarding the reader with useless information, he's repeating facts and quotes every few chapters. There's almost a feeling that this book might have be written over several years.

Despite my issues with Salewicz's writing style, I have to admit that this biography does provide some really great information about Jamaica, the history of reggae, and of course Bob Marley. If nothing else, Chris Salewicz is a great researcher.

Thanks to the information about the history of reggae, there's handful of albums that I will be seeking to add to my collection.

3.5/5

*UPDATE*
It's been about a month since I read this novel and only now is the affect of everything I learned about Bob Marley becoming apparent. Prior to reading this book, I could listen to all of Bob Marley's songs all the time and anytime. Now I'm having a hard time listening to some of them because I know the story behind them. I'm repulsed by the ones written about his mistresses, especially Waiting in Vain, because they remind me of how poorly he treated his wife (He flaunted his relationship with other women in front of her and at one point denied their marriage). It's hard to separate the man from the musician. 

Angela's Ashes

From the book cover

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy – exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling – does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

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I'm starting to wonder if there is something wrong with me. I didn't shed a single tear while reading Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. I didn't laugh either. I was impressed by his bravery in leaving nothing unsaid. The details of his impoverished childhood are painful and it's easy to see how embarrassing his situation would have been at the time, but what gets me is his honesty when describing the joy he got from masturbating. I could have done with less info about him "interfering" with himself.

I found myself annoyed with Frank's mother, Angela. She came across as a lazy whiner. I know times were tough, I get that. But she just seemed to spend too much time complaining about things. It took her forever to cross her legs and say no more kids. She was always threatening to go to work but didn't until the end of the novel. She often sent her kids to the pubs to do what she should have been doing - confronting her husband about drinking the money that was meant to feed the kids. The last straw for me was when she moved in with Frank and The Abbott and started taking the money Frank was earning from his messenger job.

There's much hype about Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. I chose to read it because it is suppose to be one of the best memoirs ever published. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1997 Boeke Prize. I don't know if it lives up to all that hype.

McCourt’s childhood is definitely miserable, but doesn’t it take more than misery to make a book awesome? There's no denying that Angela’s Ashes is solid work in its genre, but it just left me feeling blah.  It didn’t elicit any strong emotion. It's just like every other book about people living unfortunate lives.

Some criticism of the book is that the poverty McCourt describes in Limerick is “overdone.” For his part, McCourt has said that the book is not meant to be an exact history.

 3.5/5

Movie Trailer for the film adaptation of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir written by United States President Barack Obama.

In 453 pages, Mr. Obama brings us through his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, his work as a community organizer in Chicago’s south side and a trip to Kenya. He very briefly describes his time at Harvard Law School, his courtship and marriage to Michelle and a second trip to Kenya.

I really, really enjoyed this novel. Mr. Obama’s struggle to find answers in a racially polarized America is probably familiar to many black youth growing up in North America. As I read through several passages, I found myself shaking my head in agreement or recognition of a situation that is reminiscent of an experience I have lived through.

This memoir really humanized Mr. Obama for me. I’ve been a fan every since he hit the international stage, during his campaign for the democratic leadership. (I really struggled with who to root for. I’m a Hillary Clinton fan, but at last I had to support my black brother.) Anyways, back to the memoir.

Mr. Obama’s characteristic eloquence made this novel an enjoyable read. He recreates scenes, analyzes situations and shares his feeling without pretension. I felt like he was sitting across the table sharing his story with me. I didn’t have to reach for the dictionary too often. His story is so absorbing, it almost doesn’t seem real. Two or three times, I found myself wishing for a sequel from the perspective of one of the secondary characters. I would love to learn more about Ruth (Obama’s father’s third wife), and Obama's paternal grandmother.

In this novel, Mr. Obama demonstrate his ability to analyze both sides of issues without letting emotions cloud his judgment. It could have been very easy to have several ‘bad’ guys in this true story, yet there are very few.

Mr. Obama is very brave to write so honestly about his family’s history. It’s not all roses. Once the facts are laid bare, Mr. Obama’s father is revealed to be a near-do-good, adulterous, alcoholic with high ideals and no staying power (he goes through many families before his premature death as a result of a car accident).

This book was written and published after Obama graduated from Harvard Law School, where he made history as the first black editor of The Harvard Review. That’s about 10 years before he entered politics. I wonder if the story would have changed any, had he realized that one day he would be the President of the United States.

5

The Secret Adversary

From the book cover
Hiring themselves out as "young adventurers willing to do anything" proves to be a smart move for Tommy and Tuppence. The first job sounds likes a dream. All Tuppence has to do is take an all-expense-paid trip to Paris and pose as an American name Jane Finn. But with the assignment comes a bribe to keep quiet, a threat to her life, and the disappearance of her new employer. Now Tuppence's newest job is playing detective - because if there's a "Jane Finn" that really exists, she's got a secret that's putting both their lives in danger.
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The Secret Adversary is Agatha Christie's second novel and my second Agatha Christie novel. I'm trying to read all of her novels in order of publication. So far, I think it's going to be a pleasurable challenge.

Young Adventurers Tommy and Tuppence are super cute and lots of fun. I really hope Dame Christie has a few more novels about this young couple.

The Secret Adversary is completely different from Dame Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Set in London, England shortly after the first world war, money is in short supply for many young people, including Tommy and Tuppence. To earn some cash, T&T decide to form Young Adventurers, an adventure/spy agency.

Coincidences abound as T&T find themselves working for the government to try to track down Jane Finn and some important documents that were in-trusted to her five years earlier on board the sinking Lusitania. While trying to track Jane Finn the young adventurers must also work against the mysterious Mr. Brown, who appears to be one of the main characters. Rather than the typical whodunit, the reader must figure out where is Jane Finn and who is Mr. Brown.

T&T's youthfulness, combined with the colourful colloquial language Dame Christie employs in the characters' direct speech make this novel a hoot. It's not at all realistic, but who needs realism when you've got a cast of international characters fighting over England's political future.

3/5

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

From the book cover

Set in Essex in the English countryside, The Mysterious Affair at Styles is one of the great classic murder mysteries. The victim, Mrs. Emily Inglethorp, is the wealthy mistress of Styles Court. After an evening of entertaining family and guests, she is found poisoned in her locked bedroom. The long list of suspects include her gold-digging new husband, her stepsons, her best female friend, and a visiting doctor. As luck would have it, a brilliant, if rather eccentric, detective is among the company at Styles. Here, in her first published mystery, Agatha Christie introduces us to her beloved Belgian protagonist, inspector Hercule Poirot, who methodically pieces together the intricate evidence of this bewildering crime. From his very first appearance, Poirot amuses us with his oddly fastidious habits - then astonishes us with the power of his razor-sharp mind. Christie keeps us guessing as to the murderer's identity until Poirot finally present his ingenious solution to this landmark mystery. And, voila, one of the genre's most famous sleuths is born.
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The Mysterious Affair at Styles is my first Agatha Christie novel and the first novel she published. I'm hoping to read all of her novels in order of their publication dates.

This classic whodunit reminds me of a Murder, She Wrote and Columbus mysteries. It's a nice easy read with lots of little twists and turns so the reader thinks they have solved the mystery at several points.

I enjoyed reading this novel, despite my lukewarm feeling towards the narrator, Mr.Hastings. He claims to have an interest in one day becoming a detective yet he has absolutely no instinct. He is just slightly more clued in than Inspector Gadget. He came across as being a bit too naive. And, Hercule Poirot came across as the typical detective.

I feel like I've read this book before... will this feeling continue as I make my way through Agatha Christie's collection?

I recommend this novel to anyone looking for a light read.

3/5

The Midwife of Venice

From the book cover
Hannah Levi is known throughout sixteenth-century Venice for her skill in midwifery. But when a Christian nobleman appears at her door in the Jewish ghetto, imploring her to help his wife who is dying in childbirth, Hannah's compassion is tested. Not only is it illegal for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians, it's punishable by torture or death.
Yet Hannah finds she cannot refuse the chance to make more money than she's ever seen in her whole life. With such a handsome sum, she could save her husband, Isaac, who months earlier was captured at sea and forced into slavery in Malta by the Knights of St. John. Aided by her forbidden "birthing spoons" - rudimentary forceps she invented to coax reluctant babies out of their mothers' wombs - Hannah agrees to assist the nobleman and attend to his ailing wife and child. Will she be able to save the mother and the baby? And if she does, will she also be able to save herself?
Woven through Hannah's travails in Venice is the story of Isaac and his life as a slave in Malta. Fearing that Hannah has perished in the plague, he pins whatever hopes he has of returning home to her on his talent for writing love letters that melt even the hardest of hearts.
The Midwife of Venice is an enthralling historical adventure and a gloriously satisfying tale about midwifery, motherhood, and the lengths to which one good woman will go for love.
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Novels like The Midwife of Venice reaffirm my view that historical fiction is the most compelling genre.

This action-packed tale of love, religion and compassion is a quick read at 329 pages. What I like most about this novel is Roberta Rich's treatment of the opposing societies of 1575 Venice. Rich exposes the hypocrisy of both the Christian and Jewish communities and the bravery of three very different types of women: Hannah the Jewish midwife, Lucia the Christian noblewoman and Jessica, Hannah's sister who is now a courtesan and converted Christian.

Although the Jews are at a disadvantage in 16th century Venice, Rich does not portray them as being all innocence. In fact, Hannah and Isaac's Rabbi is depicted as a mean-spirited and duplicitous man in an unhappy marriage, who is most concerned with making his flock follow his orders rather than helping them to live honest and fulfilling lives. He refuses to pay Isaac's ransom unless he divorces Hannah despite previously telling Hannah that Isaac's ransom would be paid.

The Catholics don't fare much better. Asunta, the Catholic nun who purchases Isaac at the slave auction in Malta quickly sells him to Joseph, a cruel slave owner whom she admits will most likely work Isaac to death, after Isaac refuses to convert to Catholicism. She is cruel and hypocritical. After Isaac refuses to convert, she makes him pull her in a cart, like a horse to town so that she can sell him to Joseph. Before leaving the convent Isaac asks her to hold on to silkworm eggs for him. Once she realizes how valuable the eggs could be for the convent she refuses to return them to Isaac.

Despite the easy-read and the vivid descriptions, there are some holes in the plot. The Conte is suppose to be a wise man yet he can't see what's under his nose. His brothers don't want him to have a heir. They want the estate to fall into their hands so they can cover the debts they've incurred from reckless living. There's even some hinting that his brother's might be responsible for the death of other kids the countess has borne who died mysteriously in early infancy. Plus, it doesn't add up that the count and countess would labour so long for a child and then leave him unguarded to go off to see her ill father. They have more than enough money to secure a wet nurse and the most comfortable accommodations during their travels.

In regards to Isaac's storyline, why would the Knights of St. John sell him to someone that might work him to death if they plan on ransoming him?

At the end of the day, despite the plot gaps, The Midwife of Venice is one of the best historical fictions I've read in a while.

4/5