Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Hosted by Ti at Book Chatter

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

707 pages, Barnes&Nobles Classic

Introduction by Carl F. Hovde

I'm about 150 pages in, 100 pages behind the group. I joined last week and got my book this week but I will be up to them soon. Bloggiesta took my full attention since Thursday night, I needed to do it, but my reading went out the window.

Ishmael and Queequeg are on the ship and sailing now at this point. It's obvious from the start that poor Ishmael has little or no idea of what whaling is really like, despite all the stories and signs. Reminds me of childbirth-no one tells what it's really going to be like. Ahab is still a mystery 100 pages further along according to our group leader Ti's post today. I really look forward to when he finally opens up then. It takes me a moment to figure out what Ishmael is talking about sometimes, "orchard thieves" for example (Adam and Eve) but that's part of the fun. He sounds quite educated, at least in the sense of well read, referring to ancient Classics, mathematicians, the Bible etc. I wonder if there's more to him than experience in the merchant marines? Descriptions of what they ate and drank at the time are always fascinating, "pea coffee" for instance. Ishmael's knowledge of geography seems prodigious but he is a sailor. I love the humour in how Ishmael speaks and reacts to things. At the pub, "In rolled a wild set of mariners, like an eruption of bears in Labrador." Queequeg hasn't spoken much, I suspect that's his true nature and not just a language problem, but he's fascinating. Scary looking to most but steadfast in principle. I look forward to seeing them both in action and learning about whaling, at least as it was then, (although it's not much different today from what I've seen) and from a sailor's perspective.

You do need to concentrate when you read this book but I'm having a ball. Lots of words to look up in the dictionary, "arrantest taper", "immortal by brevet", "anxious gapnels", and others. There is a decent glossary of Nautical Terms, and sixteen pages of Explanatory Notes in the book, so many are explained. Included are maps, and detailed diagrams of the parts of ships, whales, and the weapons used in the pursuit of them. The Introduction is not to be missed, and there's a section of Extracts from other works appropriate to the theme of Moby Dick. Anyone who completes this novel will have quite an education under their belt. Don't let these extras intimidate you. You can always just read the text of the story, which is 600 pages and a bit and you won't regret finishing this book. At the very least it will be good for your self esteem.

I'm very glad I finally got around to this classic. If I'd known it was this much fun I'd have tried it sooner. Between thinking it was more for boys (as opposed to girls, I read adult literature as a kid ) and English majors spouting on about it's symbolism in the grand manner too many of them have, I thought it was not for me, maybe I wouldn't "get it" as they say. I've known for decades now that that was rubbish but just didn't get around to the book. Reading it along with a group is very encouraging. Best yet, a brand new copy arrived in this morning's mail; I now own a copy and don't have to worry about getting the library edition read on time. And I have a new Introduction to read as the library edition was A Penguin Classic, Introduction by Andrew Delbanco.

I will be posting every Monday about my progress throughout the reading of the book.

Have you read it? Tell us your thoughts? Have you thought about reading it? There's still time to join us for Moby Dick Monday, we're not too far along. Our hosts set the pace to read only four pages a day, easy enough for anyone. Any questions or aspects of the story you want to know about? Ask away. If you've reviewed it, leave a link, I'd love to read it.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison - Review

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Fiction hardcover, 2008 Knopf

Nobel author

A seemingly short novel at 167 pages and narrated in lyrical language by several voices, A Mercy is in fact an intense and often internalized perspective on the effects of slavery on the human mind and heart. In colonial America of the late 1600s, life is harsh for most people and brutal for slaves. With disease, food shortages, and backbreaking work to contend with, the land is rugged and even the weather seems to conspire against you.

Our story centers around Florens, a young slave girl who has been accepted reluctantly by a Dutch landowner to pay off a debt owed him. He was offered her mother but the slave mother begged the man to take the daughter, thinking Florens would have a better life than with her own brutal, rapist master. Viewpoint shifts as chapters are spoken in different voices, including those of Lina, an old Indian woman whose tribe has been wiped out by smallpox. Sorrow, a lone shipwreck survivor, Rebekka, the childless landowner's wife and Florens mother will all have their say here too. Each will speak in their own voice, something Morrison accomplishes better than most, revealing more about themselves than observation or simple narration could tell us.

Belonging is a strong thread throughout the story, being motherless and yearning for family and closeness, or being childless in the case of their mistress. Lina thinks of young Florens as "love-disabled" because of the way she tries to get close to her, and then to others, including a black freeman who rebuffs her for, among other things, having a slave mentality. There is so much here that the story seemed almost condensed to me. This is not a fast read for most, the story should be read slowly, the language is rich, almost dense at times, and needs to be savoured. But what a powerful story it is. And what it leads us to is the realization that what to some may seem like an act of mercy may in fact feel like an act of abandonment.

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In June one of our Weekly Geeks assignments was about catching up on reviews. Readers were invited to ask questions about any books we have read but not yet reviewed. Several people asked about A Mercy by Toni Morrison. This post is my reply to them.

1.gnoegnoe at Graasland said...

Did you read any other books by Toni Morrison before the recent A Mercy and which did you like best? I heard a rave review of A Mercy on Simon Mayo's Book Panel and am curious to know if this is one of those books everyone will have read in a year or so...What do you think?

Sandra: I actually read each of her books as they came out, beginning with The Bluest Eye in 1970. That was followed by Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, and Beloved. I also read Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, which is non fiction. I loved them all but was put off by the supernatural aspects of Beloved. So A Mercy is the first book I've read since Beloved. Which means that I missed out on Paradise, Jazz, and Love, her three novels preceding A Mercy. The Bluest Eye remains my favourite perhaps because it reflected racial attitudes of the time more honestly that most novels had before. It had quite an impact. But all of Morrison's novels are well worth reading. I think anyone who doesn't read this novel will miss out on an enlightening and powerful story.

2.Becky at Becky's Book Reviews said...

I'm also curious about Toni Morrison's A Mercy. Is it good? Did you enjoy it? What is it about? Is it one you'd recommend to others? Who do you think will enjoy it most?

3. Sharon at A Bookworm's Reviews said...

I wanted to know about Toni Morrison's book A Mercy. I see that it has already been asked about so I'll just let their questions stand for me. Thanks!

4.Louise at Lous_Pages said...

By coincidence I read about A Mercy in my paper only yesterday, and it sounds like an amazing book. Is it a difficult read? (Not in terms of the theme, but more the style? I've struggled with Toni Morrison before).

Sandra: Some have found it a difficult read but this book is more of a smorgasbord than a meal. I think it may take more than one trip to the table to discover everything that's there. I think as people get older they enjoy a richer reading experience and many will discovery what a treasure A Mercy really is. My suggestion would be to read it a little more slowly than you normally read a novel.

5.Eva at A Stripped Armchair said...

Did you like the disjointed narrative in A Mercy?

Sandra: The perspective changed often, sometimes from one chapter to the next and the switch between past and present gave some people pause. I did not think of it as disjointed but it took careful reading to be sure you knew who was talking. I just went with the flow and enjoyed the language and feelings described and let that clue me in so I didn't feel lost for very long.

I hope I've answered your questions. Feel free to ask anything or leave your own opinions on the book or links to reviews, even dissenting opinions. I'd love to read them.

Themed Reading Challenge Completed

February 1 to July 31, 2009

A six month challenge to help readers clear books from their to-be-read stacks which center around a common theme or themes.

Read 4 to 6 books linked by theme.

Hosted by Wendy at Caribousmom.

My theme is Music, in the title or as part of the story. My list of potential reads with completed books highlighted or linked to reviews:

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
The Piano Lesson by Katharine Weber
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee (recommended by Kaye at Pudgy Penguin Perusals)

Books completed:

The Cellist of Sarajevo***** by Steven Galloway
The Spanish Bow***** by Andromeda Romano-Lax
The Music Teacher**** by Barbara Hall
The Accordionist's Son**** by Bernardo Atxaga

I'm going to wrap it up with four read as I have so many other reading challenges to give attention to. I clearly have enough books to do the same theme again. Thank you Wendy, I didn't get any reviews written because of illness but it was fun reading them.

Completed June 5, 2009.

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

Literary fiction, Hardcover, 464 pages

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2006)

Lots of suspense with well-developed characters. A man suffers Capgras syndrome after an accident. His brain cannot match his visual and intellectual identifications with his emotional ones. He insists that the woman who claims to be his sister is an impostor. She consults a national expert on neurology to solve this dilemma, while the accident victim continues to reject her and waits for his "real sister" to show up. His sister is the only family he has. The clinical details are fascinating and Powers makes them as easy to understand as Oliver Sacks would. Local bird sanctuaries also figure prominently in the story and have much to tell us. Powers writes beautifully. I defy anyone to read the first few paragraphs here and not want to read this book. An excellent story. This novel is a National Book Award winner and a Pultzer Prize finalist. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

What We All Long For by Dionne Brand

Review and Giveaway

What We All Long For by Dionne Brand

St. Martin’s Griffin (November 25, 2008)

Fiction, Paperback 336 pgs.



This is a guest review written by Dawn of She is Too Fond of Books.

"They all…felt as if they inhabited two countries - their parents’ and their own - when they sat dutifully at their kitchen tables being regaled with how life used to be “back home,”…They thought that their parents had scales on their eyes. Sometimes they wanted to shout at them, “Well, you’re not there!”…Each left home in the morning as if making a long journey, untangling themselves from the seaweed of other shores wrapped around their parents. Breaking their doorways, they left the sleepwalk of their mothers and fathers and ran across the unobserved borders of the city…to arrive at their own birthplace…They were born in the city from people born elsewhere."

Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For is described as “a raw novel of bittersweet youthfulness.” Set in the spring of 2002, this is an amazing story of four second-generation Torontonians in their mid-twenties. They share a strong desire to break free from the past - from their parents’ view of the past which anchors them, and from their personal family stories which shape them.

The four main characters:

* - Tuyen - an installation artist who lives in a walk-up apartment she has converted to a work studio, returning to her parents’ home only when she is in desperate need of cash. Tuyen was born in Toronto after her family escaped Vietnam in 1980. In the chaos of the evacuation, Tuyen’s brother Quy (a young boy about 4 years old) went missing. Her life has been shaped by her parents’ fruitless long-distance search for him.

* - Carla - lives across the hall from Tuyen, and is the subject of her unrequited love. For reasons that are revealed as the story progresses, Carla feels responsible for her younger brother, who is often in trouble with the law. She has a strained relationship with her father, and an ambivalent attitude toward her step-mother.


* - Oku - a would-be poet and musician. At age 25, Oku mimes attending college, although he has recently dropped out of a Master’s program for English Literature. He is in love with Jackie, who teases him and flaunts her relationship with another man.


* - Jackie - she is probably the least-developed of the main characters, perhaps more of a place-holder for Oku’s love interest. Fifteen years earlier she took a train from Halifax to Toronto, where her parents promptly found low-income housing and started a routine of leaving her with neighbors to hit the clubs and dance and party the night away.

Brand doesn’t visit the Toronto of white-collar business and tourism; she explores the daily grind and the dark alleys of the city. These four and their companions spend nights drinking, smoking and hooking up. Slowly and carefully she reveals more and more of their personal histories as she follows them making their way in the present day. As the novel progresses, the four do indeed discover and confront what they each long for; we are left not with a neat and tidy ending, but with a faint hope for better times.

Interestingly, although the majority of the novel is told in third-person narration, there are several chapters narrated in the first-person by Quy, Tuyen’s missing brother. These chapters are left-justified only, leaving raw ragged edges on the right-hand side, which mirror the turbulent tale he tells.I found What We All Long For to be an engaging and unique work of fiction.

Author Dionne Brand was born and raised in Trinidad, moving to Canada at age 18 to attend Toronto University. She has won several awards for her poetry collection, Land to Light On; her novel In Another Place, Not Here was on the short-list for two awards. She has published one other novel, At the Full and Change of the Moon, and two works of non-fiction. What We All Long For was originally published in hardcover in 2005 and will be released in paperback by St. Martin’s Griffin imprint on November 25, 2008.

Thank you Dawn. She is Too Fond Of Books is Dawn's bookblog where she writes about both fiction and non fiction.

If you would like to do a guest blog, past reviews and article are accepted, please email me at sfuhringer (AT) sympatico (DOT)ca.

I read What We All Long For too and highly recommend it. I don't usually relate well to the very young in fiction, in this case early twenties, but this story had me from the beginning. Very well written, Brand made me feel the loneliness, frustration, joy, satisfaction, or worries of these characters. And she had inner city Toronto and immigrant life, as well as first generation young people down pat. Quite an accomplishment.

I'm offering an ARC copy of What We All Long For by Dionne Brand to one of my readers. I did not receive it as a book to review but through Bookmooch as something I wanted to read. So, it's been read twice but it's a clean copy.

To enter:

1) Tell us the best book of Canadian literary fiction you've read. Either written by a Canadian or set in Canada is acceptable.

2)Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you a second entry. If you don't have a blog, email 3 friends telling them about this giveaway and copying me at sfuhringer (at) sympatico (dot) ca.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight Sunday January 25, 2009.Be sure to leave an email address if you don't have a blog where I can contact you.Winner will be announced on Monday January 26, 2009.

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

Review and Giveaway

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

Fiction, paperback, 165 pgs. 2008

Plain View Press


This is a story told through letters between two women. From 1963 to 1989 they are friends, keeping diaries and writing letters, sharing everything through three decades of growth and change. The book begins with the loss of one of them, Katherine, tragically. Her friend Laura comes into possession of all their correspondence in a box that Katherine had kept, along with her diaries. Katherine had problems her friends and family could not seem to share or understand and the details of her death are baffling to everyone.

Laura, depite problems in her own marriage and a mother suffering from dementia who calls her constantly in a state of confusion, is determined to take a few days away. She's compelled to sort and read all the letters between them to find out what she may have overlooked. Did she miss Katherine's pain and turmoil or was it there between the lines? Might Laura have foreseen some things and helped her friend more? Or was she too busy living the high life to pay attention to what her friend was saying. It's natural to wonder. So through Laura we read the letters together, in the order that they were written, starting in grade school through high school and the college years. They wrote to each other even when together in school or the same town. Then on to new adventures in living, loving, and loss.

Katherine was the straighter arrow of the two. It was Lauren who took risks with drugs, sex, drinking and partying. She thought she might be the one to run into trouble but never Katharine, who wouldn't even try drugs. And while she knew K. had lived with abusive and alcoholic parents, she never saw the depth of her friends sadness. She discovers through the letters that things were happening to Katherine that she never fully realized. If Katharine ended up depressed and under treatment toward the end it seems she had reason. Passionate or tender, poignant or sometimes dark, the story of their lives unfolds for us, letter by letter. The novel is rich with details and Overman's writing sets the mood perfectly. Highly recommended.

Linda Rader Overman's web page: Letters Between Us.

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I will be giving my gently read copy of Letters Between Us to one of my readers.

To enter do as many of the following as you like. Three chances to win.

1) Tell us the best book of epistolary fiction, a story told entirely or for the most part through personal letters, that you've ever read, for one entry.

2) Sign up to subscribe or follow my blog, Fresh Ink Books, and I'll give you an entry.

3) Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you an entry. If you don't have an blog, email 3 friends telling them about this giveaway and copying me at sfuhringer (at) sympatico (dot) ca.

Entry is open to everyone until midnight Sunday, January 25, 2009.

Be sure to leave an email address if you don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Winner will be announced on Monday, January 26 , 2009.

TSS Books Read This Week

Today's Sunday Salon includes books read in the first 10 days of 2009, I have given them what I call tag reviews.

1.The Madonnas of Leningrad***** by Debra Dean

I loved it. Russia, 1941, siege of Leningrad, WW II, Hermitage Museum (Catherine the Great's Palace), I've been there; museum workers, evacution of artworks, lots of description of real art pieces, many paintings, conditions of cold, starvation, Germans bombing; Marina (main character), fiance is a soldier at the front; she tries to memorize details of missing paintings; parallel story of them in old age, grown children don't know details of the war, their mother Marina slowly succumbing to Alzheimers and says confusing things that make sense to reader because we know her past, but not to family. Great story, highly recommended.

2.What We All Long**** For by Dionne Brand (full review and giveaway upcoming)

3.The Gravedigger's Daughter**** by Joyce Carol Oates 592 pgs.

A Jewish family escapes Germany to America, 1930's, father beomes town's gravedigger, poverty, anti-Semitism, war, immigrants, Germans, murder leaves youngest child orphaned, town unforgiving, she marries and has a child who is musically talented, dicovers unsavory things about husband and makes her escape, new identity, constant fear and mistrust, until she meets some decent people. She tries to re-establish contacts with Jewish relatives who may have survived the war. A very good story.

4.The Museum Guard**** by Howard Norman

Canada, Nova Scotia, Halifax, 1939, nephew and his colourful uncle are both museum guards, art, paintings, radio broadcasts re Europe gearing up for war, anti-Semitism, nephew's girlfriend beomes obsessed by a Dutch painter and takes on personna of the painter's Jewish wife, insisting on going to Europe. Unusual but very interesting story, recommended.

5.Letters Between Us**** by Linda Rader Overman (full review and giveaway upcoming)

Some weeks won't be this good but it was a nice start to the new year. Any opinions or comments are welcomed. What are you reading today?

Lost in Translation Reading Challenge

Read 6 books in translation in 2009.

Details from Frances at nonsuchbooks.

My list with completed books highlighted.

The Angel of History**** by Bruno Arpaia (Italian)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog**** by Muriel Barbery (French)
The Rabbi's Cat 2***+ by Joann Sfar (French)
Kitchen**** by Banana Yoshimoto (Japanese)
A Father's Affair**** by Karel Van Loon (Dutch)
To Siberia**** by Per Petterson (Norwegian)

Bonus Reads:

The Interrogation***+ by J.M.G. Le Clezio

Completed Feb.20, 2009.

List of possibles:

The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende (Spanish)
The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras (French)
The Taker by Rubem Fonseca (Portuguese)
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (Turkish)
2666 by Roberto Bolano (Spanish)

18th and 19th Century Women Writers' Reading Challenge

Jan 1, 2009- December 31, 2009

Details from Becky at Becky's Book Reviews.

Read no fewer than 4 books, no more than 12.

My list with those completed highlighted.

Awakening and Other Stories**** by Kate Chopin

The Mysteries of Udolpho***+ by Ann Radcliffe (1764-18320)

Silas Marner by George Eliot

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek

Review

Tomato Girl by Jayne Pupek

Fiction, Hardcover, 298 pgs.

Algonquin Books (August 2008)


I expected to relate to this story but was unsure about how much I'd enjoy the telling of it. Like Ellie I was once an eleven year old girl with overwhelming responsibilities and an unpredictable parent who needed more help than I could offer. But I really loved this book. The voice of this girl rang true for me, with all her hopes and fears. Children as protagonists or narrators in adult novels don't always impress me as real. Ellie was exactly right.
This book will sit proudly on my shelf with Ellen Foster and Me & Emma, the two other books whose little girls have stuck me as totally believable. While Ellen Foster is older and more precocious, and Carrie is younger and more confused, eleven year old Ellie in Tomato Girl is a very normal girl. But she is helpless from a combination of neglect and more responsibility than most adults can cope with. In fact it is her own father who saddles her with taking care of an unstable mother, something he himself cannot always handle appropriately. Ellie just wants to be part of a normal family and is never quite sure of herself.
Tomato girl is a touching story, about adults distracted by their own problems and desires while a young girl grows up trying to navigate the convoluted and unpredictable ways of adult behaviour. Sad in places, but uplifting too, it is a delightful story and one that I will read again. One of my favourite novels of the past year. Five stars. I recommend it highly.

Jayne Pupek's website

Algonquin Books

Thank you to Jayne for the lovely review copy she sent me.

Tomato Girl will be counted toward my LibraryThing Author Challenge 2009.

The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson

Review and Giveaway

The Mighty Queens of Freeville
by Amy Dickinson

Memoir, Paperback, 224 pg.

Hyperion Books (February 3, 2009)


This is a guest review, written by Colleen of Foreign Circus Library.

I received my copy of The Mighty Queens of Freeville in the mail and finished it the same day! Though I only intended to read a few pages to get a feel for the writing, I simply couldn't put it down. This book is a memoir, the story of "a mother, a daughter, and the people who raised them"; the Mighty Queens of Freeville are the women of Dickinson's extended family who live and thrive in tiny Freeville NY.
Author Amy Dickinson writes "Ask Amy", the syndicated advice column that replaced that of the late Ann Landers. This book though is not about Dickinson's career; it is about the women who ultimately gave her the skills she needed to make a success of her job.
This memoir follows Dickinson from her divorce in England (when daughter Emily is a toddler) to Emily's freshman year of college. Dickinson's writing is no-nonsense and engaging. The women in her life are simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary- her mother rises above her father's abandonment and the loss of the family farm to eventually find her niche as a college professor. Dickinson is by turns funny and touching, and the book is a wonderful tribute to her family and its resilience.
I highly recommend this wonderful book. Definitely five stars, and would make a great gift for the important women in your life. I gave this book to my mom and sister, both of whom loved it.

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Thank you Colleen.

Foreign Circus Library is Colleen's lovely book blog. Do visit, she reviews a much wider selection of fiction genres than Fresh Ink Books, as well as non-fiction.

And thanks to Hyperion Books a new ARC copy of The Mighty Queens of Freeville is available to one of my readers.

1) To enter tell me which book from this list Read in 2008 you'd be interested in reading or hearing my comments on.

2) If you blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it, I'll give you a second entry. If you don't have a blog, email 3 friends telling them about this giveaway and copying me at sfuhringer (at) sympatico (dot) ca.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight Sunday January 18, 2009.
Be sure to leave an email address if you don't have a blog where I can contact you.
Winner will be announced on Monday January 19, 2009.

Who By Fire by Diana Spechler

Who By Fire by Diana Spechler

Harper Perennial 2008

An excellent story about a family who suffered an unresolved loss of a child some years before and how each copes with it over time. The son has joined a strict Orthodox group in Israel and his sister is sent to try and bring him home for a family funeral. Their mother is considering an intervention for him as she views his actions as the equivalent of belonging to a cult. It's well-written, with empathy and humour. Four and a half stars. Highly recommended.

I received my copy from Jennifer at Book Club Girl and participated in her interview with Diana on Blog Talk Radio on November 20. Jennifer is a good interviewer. I recommend listening to the broadcast after reading the novel as there is an inadvertent spoiler in it.

Diana herself is a gracious and easy going author. She recently wote a guest post here at Melody's Reading Corner that's quite humourous. She also thanked me just for mentioning her book as one I intended to read for Jewish Book Month. I wish every book I read was as good as Who By Fire. I can't recommend it enough.

Boston Bibliophile has also posted a very nice and more comprehensive review of the book here that may interest you.

Feel free to leave comments or links to comments or reviews about Who By Fire and I will add them to the body of this post.

What have you read that's really good in literary fiction?

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Review and Giveaway

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Fiction, Paperback, 291 pgs. (2008)

Publisher: Pantheon Books

Author's site:

http://www.joshuahenkin.com/author/

From the cover:

" Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new Millenium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone-to do it when you're young-and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age."

Matrimony's strengths are twofold. Exceptionally smooth prose makes it an effortless and enjoyable reading experience. And emotional honesty offers us a wholly believable and satifying story. We follow a young Julian and Mia through their college years and an early marriage, to career choices and changes, the loss of a parent, and lingering doubts about Julian's ability to become the writer he wants to be. Their closest friends, Carter and Pilar, share those times with them and life moves forward as they spend some years both studying and teaching in different college towns. We watch them mature, gaining new insights about each other as parents age, friends split up, illness threatens, and an old secret causes a deep wound.

The author is clearly perceptive about the intricacies of relationships and of matrimony. We may see this as the story of a young couple's marital course but it is more. For there are in fact several marriages here when we take into account both Julian and Mia's friends as well as their respective parents. While our main interest follows them, each couple's relationship is unique and working itself out in its own ways too and we are privy to all of it. This is a quiet but solid story, driven by well-developed, complex characters whose lives we are seriously interested in. It's about life, long love, and friendship, and it's one story you don't want to miss out on. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

Joshua Henkin has generously offered a signed copy of Matrimony to be given to one of my readers. It will come directly from the author.

1)To enter, comment on some aspect of the story that interests you. Tell us why you want to read it. Or, tell us how long you've been married or give us some advice on what you think contributes to a good marriage.
2)For a second entry, blog about this giveaway and leave a link to it in your comment. If you don't have a blog, email 4 friends telling them about this giveaway copying me at sfuhringer(at) sympatico(dot) ca.

You must leave an email address if you're entering the giveaway and don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight, Wednesday October 29, 2008.

Winner to be announced on Thursday October 30, 2008.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Review and Giveaway

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Fiction, Paperback 401 pgs. (2005)

Penguin Books

A well-meaning physician decides to spare his wife from a life of raising a child with the disabilities and short life expectancy of Down's Syndrome. The child is one of twins she has just given birth to. The other child, a boy, is perfectly healthy. He orders his nurse to take the newborn girl away to an institution and make sure no one ever knows about her. The nurse is torn by his request and does something no one would ever expect. It starts in the late 1950's and follows the couple's life with their son and the doctor's guilt over what he still believes, for heart-breaking reasons of this own, was the right thing to do. We are told in a parallel account what happens in the life of the other child too as she grows up.
I was a child during this same time period and the attitudes and actions toward disabled children rang true for me. Many people did put their children "away" in institutions. And often never spoke of them again. This story, about the difficult decisions we take upon ourselves and the consequences to everyone around us is universal, and emotionally engaging. A good story, that I would read again. It's an impressive first novel and I look forward to Kim Edward's next book. Four stars out of five.

I'm giving a brand new copy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards to one of my readers. It's a paperback Penguin with a reader's guide. If you haven't read this one or want a copy to give to someone you know would enjoy it, this is your chance. Entry is open worldwide until midnight Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

1) To enter tell me which book of literary fiction (no genres) is at the top of your wishlist right now and why you want to read it.
2) Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you a second entry. If you don't have a blog, email 4 friends telling them about this giveaway copying me at sfuhringer(at) sympatico(dot) ca.
3) Click on all three of the charity buttons in my sidebar, then click the button to contribute at each site; OR go to the sites and put the buttons on one of your own blogs, and I'll give you another entry. Be sure the links works and leave a note or a link telling me you did.

Please leave a contact address if you're entering the giveaway and don't have a blog where I can contact you. It's surprising how often people forget to.

Winner will be announced on Thursday October 16, 2008.

In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld

In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld


Fiction, hardcover 260 pgs.(September 2008)


Unbridled Books, Denver Colorado

This is a love story with a great deal more. It's a look at the complexities of parental love and expectations, it's an environmental statement, it's an ode to nature. Addie Sturmer is a university student when she meets Tom Kavanaugh in his "Biology of the Birds" class. They both love birds, Addie as an artist and Tom as an ornithologist and birder. It's inevitable that they will love each other as well. The story follows them from the 1960's to the present through marriage and having a daughter, living in Pennsylvania and frequenting the New Jersey shore. Addie becomes an activist, a leader in the environmental community, her prime concern being bird habitat. Tom supports her in this, while continuing to teach and take students on field trips.

Young Scarlet is used to being being driven to protests with her parents. She spends her early years with her mother in the bird blind Tom built in the woods as a wedding gift, drawing and painting the birds alongside Addie. Scarlet is 34 and on her way home to her dying mother when the story begins. She still wonders if her mother loved her as much as she did her work and art. Love can seem so fragile to a child and she needs to understand a mother's love now more than ever for reasons of her own. It's also a story about lifelong friendships, last wishes, and loyalty.

The writing is exceptional. Lyrical, rich in natural details, and with complex characters, In Hovering Flight is as beautiful and as life-affirming as a long sunet.


Highly recommended. Five stars.
Joyce Hinnefeld's homepage: http://www.inhoveringflight.com/

The Publisher: http://www.unbridledbooks.com/

Thank you to Caitlin at Unbridled Books for the lovely reviewer's copy.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Fiction, hardcover 562 pgs.

Bond Street Books

This is in many ways a "boy and his dog story" but I don't think anyone has plumbed these emotional depths of dogs in their relationship to humans in a novel. In doing so of course, he has also shown us aspects of human nature we don't see articulated every day either. Wroblewski writing is very good.

A young couple carries on the family business of dog breeding and training in the Wisconsin countryside. Afters years of difficulty Gar and Judy Sawtelle have a beloved baby boy who's perfect but mute. With no medical explanation they resign themselves to teaching him sign language. Edgar is as serious about the dog business as father and grandfather before him. He enjoys perusing old breeding records and his grandfather's letters about the business. At fourteen he is finally allowed to train the puppies, which he does with hand signals, and he's thrilled. But his father's brother arrives suddenly after years away from the family business and there is an ongoing tension between his father Gar and his uncle Claude that Edgar doesn't like or understand. Tragedy follows and Edgar is the only one who figures out who was responsible. In his frustration of trying to make his mother understand him, Edgar accidently causes a death and decides to run away until things blow over. He spends some weeks wandering with three of his favourite dogs while avoiding people, though he does take up for a while with a man willing to ask no questions of a mute runaway. His loneliness eventually drives him to return home where conflict is inevitable. A killer has to be faced down.

The tension is palpable at this point in the story and the writer knows how to ratchet it up a few notches. Confrontation ensues, first with an old family friend who has suspicions about what's going on. Then with his uncle Claude who has figured out that Edgar knows he's responsible for his father's death and is desperate to hide the evidence. Edgar's emotional state is well laid out for us from the beginning, through his actions and his often furious signing. The author is good at making us feel the boy's frustration when he is not understood or taken serious by adults. But the resolution will still take you by surprise. This is not simply a 'coming of age' story or a suspense either. This is adult fiction with a powerful emotional impact. As novels go today, it's one of a kind and you won't want to miss it. Four and a half stars out of five.

* If you're like me and don't like to know too much about a story before you read it, avoid reading detailed reviews and don't even read the blurbs on the cover. I call them "blabs" and have trained myself not to read them. Some of them give away too much for my liking.

Okay readers, have you read it? Are you going to? Is it on your wishlist? What are you currently reading? What are you going to read next?

What would you like to see reviewed? If it's on my Coming Reviews list in the sidebar or in my library I would be happy to oblige.

Don't forget to enter my giveaways for The Kings of Innocence by Michael Burns or Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins below if you'd like to read them.

Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks

Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks

Fiction short stories, paperback 170 pgs.

White Whisker Books, Los Angeles

This is Christopher Meeks second book of short stories and I'm sorry now that I haven't read his first, which was an award winning collection. I read these eleven stories through the first time for pleasure and it was that. I like them a lot.

The characters here, whether humourous, tragic, or mildly absurd are likeable, believable, and not always predictable. Like ordinary people, but with quirks that make them memorable. I haven't had a collection of short stories stay with me as vividly for quite some time. Even better, when I looked back through them I realized that there's not a weak one in the bunch. The author clearly edited himself, choosing and arranging this group of stories carefully. I've always preferred longer short stories so I wasn't surprised that "The Sun is a Billard Ball" at 32 pages in length would appeal to me. Or the 25 page "Breaking Water". But even "Catalina" at only 3 pages is a solid and emotionally powerful account of a man's unexpressed grief . I read it several times because what the author doesn't say is as telling as what he does. This is the sign of a good writer. In the first of these three stories, the uncertainties and fears of impending illness and diagnosis are palpable, the tension is familiar and real. In the third a Greek American man, advised by an acquaintance to spend the day on Catalina Island, is angry and judgmental until " He is surprised to see that the dry hills leaping from the water were like the Chora Sfakion in Crete. His friend must have known."

There's a wide range in age and emotional experience of his characters. Whether it's a seven-year-old girl who's afraid of water in the more lyrical "The Wind Just Right ", or a seventy-eight year old playwright losing his home and life's work to wildfires in" The Old Topanga Incident", Meeks is capable of seeing and writing from very different perspectives. He shows great versitility too by writing in the voice that most suits each story. His use of the first person singular for the main character of "The Holes In My Door" lets us into the depression and obsessive fears of this recently seperated man who's slipping into paranoid behaviour. Any other perspective would not have had the same power. The use of the second person in the Topango story work well too. "You open the door" to shouting firemen,"you run down two flights of stairs", "you grab the play, the only copy", "you wonder whether you can make it through this". Urgency and loss are keenly felt by the reader, it's perfect.

I especially enjoyed the title story "Months and Seasons". The main character is determined that the love of his life will have the name of one of the months or seasons of the year. He won't even date someone who doesn't fit the bill. This tale about putting limits on our own fate is touching and funny. When a woman at a party introduces herself as "August" I laughed out loud. Meeks creates believable female characters too as in the final story "Breaking Water", where a model must reshape her entire life after heart surgery. Her inability to get pregnant causes her husband to abandon her, but not until after she has recovered from surgery. He doesn't want to look bad after all. We are rooting for her at every new turn in her life. This is a great collection of stories that I look forward to reading again. Four and a half stars out of five.

Highly recommended.

There's icing on the cake here too with "The Hand", an excerpt from "The Brightest Moon of the Century" at the end of the book. This novel in the form of related short stories will cover 30 years in the life of a young Minnesotan named Edward. The first of these stories made me want to know more about what happens to Edward. Given this writer's gifted sense of storytelling, I expect this new book will be a winner too.

Christopher Meeks first book was the award winning "The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea and Other Stories"

The author's homepage:
http://www.redroom.com/author/christopher-meeks

Thank you to the author for the lovely signed copy he sent me.

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This book is part of the LibraryThing Author Challenge

Ex-Cottagers in Love by J. M. Kearns

Ex-Cottagers In Love by J.M. Kearns

Fiction 380 pgs. Paperback

Key Porter Press (2008)

This is a first novel by an already best-selling author of non-fiction and it is an enjoyable one. Dave Moore, 40, is frustrated by the limits of his job as a paralegal at an L.A. firm and wonders whether his beautiful and insightful new girlfriend will be the end of his dream to write and record music or his best hope for the future. He takes her home to Canada to meet his family who've rented a cottage in the Muskoka region of Ontario. In fact, they spent all their summers in the family cottage that is now sold and everyone regrets the loss, no one more than his 13 year old nephew George and Dave himself who calls the island setting "the place he loved most in the world". Maggie's not an outdoors sort of woman, she doesn't understand their deep attachment to the memories of the old place and things do not go perfectly for the new couple, though Maggie does her best to make friends with everyone.

Back in L.A. he has major decisions to make about his job and his future with Maggie when his father in Canada has a stroke and adds to his worries. Darkly humorous, the story follows both the lighter moments and the sadder ones for Dave, and in a somewhat parallel story, young George and his grandfather back home. The story is more serious than the title first suggested to me and I'm glad of it. I liked these characters and hope that Kearns writes more fiction because he does it well. Four stars out of five. I recommend it.

J. M. Kearns has also written:

Why Mr. Right Can't Find You: The Surprising Answers that Will Change Your Life (January 2008)
Better Love Next Time: How the Relationship that Didn't Last Can Guide You to the One that Will (January 2009)

Key Porter Press
http://www.keyporter.com/BookDetail.aspx?ISBN=1554700000

J.M Kearns Home Page: http://www.jmkearns.com/

Thank you to Key Porter Books and Mini Book Expo for providing me with a review copy.

Next Review: Schooled by Anisha Lakhani

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - Review

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Fiction, Paperback, 274 pgs.

Dial Press (July 2008)

I really enjoyed this story about England's Guernsey Island in the years following its occupation by the Germans during World War Two. The personal experiences and memories of several islanders in letters to a English writer tell the story and it's a very interesting one. Rationing and food shortages, getting along with the Germans-or not, subversive acts, serious and not so serious, the entire absence of children for two years; they had been shipped to the mainland for safety before the invasion. These are some of the details that make this a fascinating and sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes humourous story.

The title refers to a book group, started inadvertently under clandestine circumstances that lasted throughout the war and beyond. This is one book group I'd like to have belonged to. Interesting literary references, lots of history, a warm and poignant story of hope and heartbreak, I liked it all. A lovely cover too. A nice gift book, especially for those with memories of the time period. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

Also reviewed by wordlily and Embejo.

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Mary Ann Shaffer worked as an editor, a librarian and in bookshops. This was her first book , written with the help of her niece Annie Barrows who is is a well-known author of childrens books in California.

Thank you to Dial Press and LibraryThing for providing me with a review copy.

If you've read or reviewed this book please leave comments or links. I'd love to read them.

Next review: A Jerusalem Tale by Haim Sabato.
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The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

"You're going to need a bigger boat".

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall ****

Fiction suspense, Hardcover 428 pgs.

review published on Amazon in 2007

This is a quirky but fascinating suspense. Eric Sanderson suffers trauma and experiences amnesia afterward. And something keeps wiping his memory of even what he's relearning. While seeing a doctor for it he starts getting letters and packages signed by "the first Eric Sanderson". This former self is giving him clues and directions to his personal past. He is compelled to pursue this but tells no because of how it would be perceived. A wild ride of text/hypertext and a shark with a personal grudge against him ensues. He gets help from some fascinating characters, computers, and a cat with personality along the way. The story is original, if leaning on other writers' works and movie references (guess which one) a little too much. It's headed for cult status according to a number of reviewers and I believe it. The story is by turns frightening, tender and fantasy-driven. It is outside the realm of what I usually read but I'm very glad I did. It's his first novel, though he has published other things. Only 30, he is someone to watch as he grows as a writer.The Canadian edition has a shark cut-out on the sea blue cover with text showing through. Don't miss this one if only for the suspense. Four stars out of five.