Tag Archives: Penguin

#56 – Caleb’s Crossing – Geraldine Brooks

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A richly imagined new novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller, People of the Book.

Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha’s Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure.

The narrator of Caleb’s Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island’s glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia’s minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe’s shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb’s crossing of cultures.

Like Brooks’s beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha’s Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb’s Crossing further establishes Brooks’s place as one of our most acclaimed novelists. - Publishers Website

I fell in love with Geraldine’s work when I read People of The Book a while back now, and have just loved this one just as much.  From the Great Harbour back in the 17th century,  which is now known as Martha’s Vineyard; she weaves the story around a young man who just happens to be one of the first native Indians to be accepted into Harvard/ Cambridge Universities respectively.

The characters are just as inviting and diverse as the landscape and politics that surround the area.  I loved Bethia, the way she asserts herself in a world that doesn’t yet accept women’s opinions or views on how just about anything is done, except for the household.  It was based on a real person, Caleb is the one who is fictionalized in the novel, but the background story is true as you will see when you open the pages.  Emotional, Gifted, Interesting, as well as inquisitive;  this book will have you clammering for the rest of her work for sure.

I do have a Q and A I will post after my review, so just go back to the main page of the blog.  I loved the answers to her questions!

Geraldine’s Website - Facebook - Book – Author – Reading Group Guide – Excerpt

#41 – The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson

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‘He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one…’

Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they’ve never quite lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick, a Czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results.

Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor’s grand, central London apartment.

It’s a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you have less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends’ losses.

And it’s that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as Treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. And after this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change.

The Finkler Question is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best. – Publishers Website

I was looking forward to this book, when I started reading it, was a whole other story.  It does sound promising from the book jacket/description.

I stopped reading it at about 100 pages in.  I could not stand one of the characters (Treslove) whining throughout the whole entire book.  The 2 other men are talking about their recently deceased wives, while the Treslove was talking how unlucky in love he has been in…never married, etc., when all of a sudden he is  walking home and stops in front of the old music store where he is robbed by a woman.

There was an interesting thread of both of the men being jewish, what it meant to them, whether it mattered in their lives.  Treslove (the whiner) has always wanted to be Jewish.  He honestly thinks that if he was born Jewish, he would have fared better in live and love.  I did understand the plot of the book, it was Treslove’s incessant whining and complaining that turned me off the book.

From what I understand about the book and consensus is that you either loved it or hated it.  Not a clear definitive between the two.

The Finkler Question won the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

#9 – In The Company of Others – Jan Karon

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Father Tim and Cynthia arrive in the west of Ireland, intent on researching his Kavanagh ancestry from the comfort of a charming fishing lodge.

The charm, however, is broken entirely when Cynthia startles a burglar and sprains her already-injured ankle. Then a cherished and valuable painting is stolen from the lodge owners, and Cynthia’s pain pales in comparison to the wound at the center of this bitterly estranged Irish family. – Publishers Website

I started this novel when I had 2 or 3 on the go at once.  I usually read one at a time, but this time I got carried away.  Bad Mistake.  So, I put a few on the nightstand beside my bed until I finished the one I had been reading.  I don’t like reading more than one book at a time, because all of the different plots run into one another.  This is exactly what happened with this book, so I re-read this book, and found it to be a quiet sneaking up on you type of novel.  Perfect for contemplation and thinking about what is going on in your own life, with a pinch of religion.  Father Tim is on holiday attempting to find his own roots in Ireland, when his wife re-injures her ankle.  The plot which happens in Ireland is much of what Father Tom experiences in his own parish before he retires.

But, as we all know about people who work for the big guy upstairs, there really isn’t retirement..just more work outside of the church, you help everyone in need, regardless.  The plot comes upon you slowly, until (or at least it did for me) until you reach a point of recognition in your own life, can appreciate what the book is saying, understanding the life lessons that are placed ever so neatly amongst the paragraphs and chapters.

I quite enjoyed it, I think you will as well, if it is a time of reflection and or contemplation, the story itself is grand as well.

Penguin / Viking

Jan’s Website – Mitford Series

#8 – The Raven’s Gift – Don Rearden

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John Morgan and his wife can barely contain their excitement upon arriving as new teachers in a Yupik Inuit village on the windswept Alaskan tundra.

Lured north in search of adventure, the idealistic couple hope to immerse themselves in the ancient Arctic culture.

Their move proves disastrous when a deadly epidemic strikes and the isolated community descends into total chaos.

When outside help fails to arrive, John’s only hope lies in escaping the snowcovered tundra and the hunger of the other survivors.

His thousand-mile trek across the Alaskan wilderness grows more improbable when he encounters a blind Inuit girl and an elderly woman. The two need his protection from those who would harm them, and he needs their knowledge of the terrain and their companionship to survive.

The harsh journey and constant danger push him beyond his limits as he discovers a new sense of hope and the possibility of loving again. - Publishers Website

I absolutely loved this book.  Written with both zeal and determination, the author sets you right next to the people who are attempting to be rescued from the most horrific scene imaginable.  From being hunted by someone who wants to find the children that did escape to be able to carry on the traditions and cultural mores that have been passed down generation to generation.  Heartfelt, heartbroken, being hunted in the vastness of Alaska’s tundra, is the one thing that you will experience as if you are there yourself.

Penguin

Don’s Website

#6 – The Poison Tree – Erin Kelly

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This taut psychological thriller begins when Karen and her nine-year old daughter, Alice, pick up Rex from a ten-year stint in prison for murder. Flash back to the sultry summer in 1990s London when Karen, a straight-A student on the verge of college graduation, first meets the exotic, flamboyant Biba and joins her louche life in a crumbling mansion in Highgate. She begins a relationship with Biba’s enigmatic and protective older brother, Rex, and falls into a blissful rhythm of sex, alcohol, and endless summer nights. Naïvely, Karen assumes her newfound happiness will last forever. But Biba and Rex have a complicated family history-one of abandonment, suicide, and crippling guilt-and Karen’s summer of freedom is about to end in blood.

When old ghosts come back to destroy the life it has taken Karen a decade to build, she has everything to lose. She will do whatever it takes to protect her family and keep her secret… – Publisher’s Website

I really liked this dark noir style psychological thriller.  From a seemingly normal start to summer holidays, Karen becomes intertwined into a game of alcohol. drugs, sex, and the people in that world, to have it all come to a head at the end of the summer. With deathly results.  One thing that I wasn’t a fan of was the style of jumping from the past to present in such fast fashion that it made me have to take a step back to realize what was what while reading.  Still a powerful novel from a new face to this genre of fiction.

Penguin / Viking

Erin’s Website

#4 – The Lake of Dreams – Kim Edwards

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With revelations that prove as captivating as the deceptions at the heart of her bestselling phenomenon The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards now gives us the story of a woman’s homecoming, a family secret, and the old house that holds the key to the true legacy of a family.

At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home from Japan, only to find herself haunted by her father’s unresolved death a decade ago. Old longings stirred up by Keegan Fall, a local glass artist who was once her passionate first love, lead her into the unexpected. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family’s rambling lakeside house, she discovers, locked in a window seat, a collection of objects that first appear to be useless curiosities, but soon reveal a deeper and more complex family past. As Lucy discovers and explores the traces of her lineage—from an heirloom tapestry and dusty political tracts to a web of allusions depicted in stained-glass windows throughout upstate New York—the family story she has always known is shattered, Lucy’s quest for the truth reconfigures her family’s history, links her to a unique slice of the suffragette movement, and yields dramatic insights that embolden her to live freely.  – Publisher’s Website

Another Winner ! Between her life in Japan, and her life in the US, Lucy the main character feels that there is something missing from her life.  Unanswered questions that have left her feeling incomplete.  It would make each of us think (or at least I would hope so) what is missing in our lives that is keeping us from finally being happy and feeling free.  This is the first I have read of Kim’s work and it certainly won’t be the last, fantastic book for one of those lazy days sitting inside relaxing with your favorite hot beverage watching the snow fall outside.

Penguin / Viking

Kim’s Website

# 1 – The Jewel of St. Petersburg – Kate Furnivall

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Russia, 1910. Valentina Ivanova is the darling of St. Petersburg’s elite aristocracy-until her romance with a Danish engineer creates a terrible scandal and her parents push her into a loveless engagement with a Russian count.

Meanwhile, Russia itself is bound for rebellion. With the Tsar and the Duma at each other’s throats, and the Bolsheviks drawing their battle lines, the elegance and opulence of Tsarist rule are in their last days. And Valentina will be forced to make a choice that will change not only her own life, but the lives of those around her forever…(Publisher’s Website)

I really enjoyed this book.  From the opulence of pre-war Russia, to the circumstances the family and many more others went through, it was a nice balance of what the family and more notably Valentina was going through.  I was just a bit confused in the beginning when the book started, but as you get more into it, you will see what I mean.  I am looking forward to her other books that were written before this one – The Russian Concubine, The Red Scarf, and The Girl from Junchow to see how the story ends so to speak, because the novels were written in a different sequence.

Penguin / Berkley

Kate’s Website

Reading Group Guide

 

Vanishing and Other Stories – Deborah Willis

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Deborah Willis is a new and favorite author!

Vanishing and Other Stories is a set of short stories where some vanishing does occur, and in others her pure depth and feeling of the characters whether they are missing lovers, never met before, parents or children.

I look at this book and think about all of the characters as if they are someone I know I have met once or twice.

In the 14 stories presented in this book, there isn’t just one particular story that is a favorite, they are all favorites.

The complexity of characters, their dilemmas, joys and failures are all relevant.  They are the stories that anyone can relate to, or may not have experienced, but gain some sort of lesson or information about it.

It is as if you are in the same room with them as the story progresses.

Sure, short stories are not as long as a regular novel, if Deborah can write short stories like this, I will be looking forward to seeing some longer pieces of work in the future, such as a full length novel.

Vanishing and Other Stories is published in the US by Harper Perennial, In Canada it is published by Penguin Canada.

Deborah’s Website

Reading Group Guide

The Globe and Mail’s Review


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Coppermine – Keith Ross Leckie

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In the middle of WWI, a Northwest Mounted Police Officer Jack Creed and his Inuit interpreter are sent out on a journey to go as far up north, near the shores of the Arctic Ocean to search for 2 Catholic Priests that have disappeared in the remote Arctic region known as Coppermine.

As they get closer to Coppermine, they start to hear stories & rumours about the priests – One who believes very much in his mission, and the second one who has an angry temper that may have gotten them both into trouble.

Possibly even more than they bargained for…

As they travel, it isn’t only the Priests who have secrets.  Why is it Jack has taken this particular assignment immediately after finishing one?  The Inuit interpreter also has a few secrets as well.

On top of it all this, is the brutal, dangerous, frigid expanse of the Arctic to tend with.

The fight for survival has never been so desperate to overcome.

I loved this novel, it is written as if you are standing right next to the characters in the book whether they are in the courtroom, on the frigid expanse of the Arctic, or snuggling together in a makeshift igloo to keep the cold at bay, trying to survive.

Will all of the characters get what they are looking for or are attempting to avoid?

This book will be great for men and women, there is a little bit of everything.  It is also based on real events.

Penguin – Viking

Keith’s Website – you can read an excerpt, as well as take a peek into what he is doing now

 

A Room Swept White – Sophie Hannah

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When I first received the pitch to review this book, I was really looking forward to reading it.  Once I got it and began to read it, I was not feeling the book at first, but as I gave it a bit more time and effort on my part, I found it to be a great read.

I sis at first feel a bit daunted by all of the tendrils that the author suspended in my mind as the story played out, but, as it all came together it really all made sense.  Plus, the fact that there is a first book before this one had me at a part of a disadvantage not really knowing all of the other characters a bit more intimately.

Fliss is working at a production company when her boss who she is madly in love with suddenly resigns and she is left in charge of putting a documentary about parental infanticide ( where one of the parents commits murder to one of their children).  The mothers in the book were found guilty of committing murder of their child and in jail, who were then exonerated, released from prison and left to live their lives amidst the aftermath of what they went through.

You may have heard of recent real life events that have been publicized here in the last year in Canada of the same events happening to many parents at the hand of a pathologist who admitted he falsified documents based on his own opinions and not science.

If you have read the previous novel before this one, there are recurring characters that are back in this one, that you may know if you have read previous books of Sophie’s, I haven’t as this is the first of her work that I have read, but I will no doubly be reading more of her work.

Fliss doesn’t want to be working on this project at all.  A few of the wrongfully accused are found murdered with a quirky addition – a small card with a code of somewhat near or on the body.  Thing is Fliss has received one of two of these cards as well.  She may be next on the killers list, possibly because she is just associated with the case, or even her old boss who is being quite deceptive about his whereabouts when Fliss needs him most.

With the backgrounds of all of the characters explicitly intertwined with one another in flawless detail, this is one that will have you intrigued from page one.

**Just a note A Room Swept White will be published in the US as The Cradle in The Grave**

Penguin Canada

Listen to a podcast

Sophie’s Website

 

EON Dragoneye Reborn – Alison Goodman

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Look at this utterly fantastic cover !   It absolutely drips of what kind of action is inside the pages, I was mesmerized from page 1 !

Eon has been a slave most of his life.  Between the salt mines, and now being focused on sword work and magical study,  he is attempting to become chosen as what is called a Dragon eye in his customs and life, where he will train alongside other Dragon eye’s  for twelve years, when a new one is chosen.

There is a slight problem..Eon is actually Eona.  Males are only permitted to work with the dragons, learn their energies, and secrets.  If Eona is found out to be female instead of male, the penalty is death.

As she is in the performance platform, something happens in the middle of her presentation.  One of the dragons that has been missing for the last 500 years returns.  Of course everyone is excited, but, this poses a problem – Another candidate has been chosen as well, one of her good friends.

As their paths take on this new life, Eona (Eon) and her friends and close acquaintances find out secrets that haven’t been heard of for many, many years.  Old enemies come to light, new alliances are discovered, war starts with the Emperor being killed by one of his own men.  Eon and a few adversaries have come to save the country, the palace, and of course the world of Dragon Eyes.  Will they have enough time and courage to do it all when it is needed ?

Non stop action, excitement, fear of the unknown, as well as courage to do something they haven’t ever done before.  This book blew me away.  Intended for juvenile fiction fans, which from what I have heard was a runaway hit when it was first published last year, is bound to have your child or even yourself glued to the pages until the last one is read wanting more.

You may have to wait a bit for the sequel.  Eona is coming sometime in the beginning of 2011.  I know I want to be first in line for the book when it is released ! If you are a fan of exotic fictional places, that take place a long time ago or even in a place you have never heard about before (fantasy) then this is the book for you.  It has been a long time since when I was swept up into a book packed from the first page the last with absolute non stop action and adventure.

Trust me – go and get the book !

Penguin – Puffin (Juvenile Fiction)

Read an excerpt

My Name is Memory – Ann Brashares

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When nature offers you one of her true gifts, there’s a special punishment for those who throw it away.

Daniel has been  in love with Sophia for centuries.

Their lives have been connected from the first time they met back in North Africa in 541.  Daniel has this special gift, although, it could also be seen as a curse of being able to remember each and every time he has lived – as a different person, in a different country, a different century, throughout history.

Sophia has some familiar images that she dreams about, small tidbits and dreams of places she feels comfortable in, full of feeling, although she has never been in these places..ever.

Sophia is like Daniel, she has been reborn through the centuries with only one difference.  She has no memory of her past lives.

As Sophia, in present day whose name is Lucy, is slowly believing and dreaming her past.  There is someone who wants to destroy them both, Daniels brother who has learned the ability to overtake someone’s body, for revenge.

There has always been something on the way of them fully being able to become the infinite love story of all time.

What would you remember if you could remember your past lives?  Would it give you perspective about the one you are presently living, giving you a chance to do things differently better or worse based on what the past has dealt to you?

Can love be remembered for centuries?  Are you able to discern it from other types?

The video below is just breathtaking !

Penguin / Riverhead

Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer – John Grisham

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You most likely know John Grisham for his adult titles, but, you haven’t seen anything yet.  Get ready for his debut as a young adult author!

Theodore Boone is 13.  His parents are both prominent lawyers where they live.  His dad is a real estate lawyer, his mom is a divorce lawyer.

Theo think he is a lawyer as well…

As he attends school, his classmates frequently come to him for legal advice.  From bankruptcy, to animal control issues, he’s usually spot on and no one has been disappointed.  He even goes to court for his friends as well.

This time he sure has a dilemma on his hands…

There has been a murder in their small town, where usually nothing happens.  A prominent businessman’s wife was murdered in their home and the husband has been charged with her murder.

Everyone is talking about the trial…until…

Theo come across someone who knows who committed the crime.  He is too afraid to come forward.

The defendant knows that someone knows something, by way of one of the defendant’s associates.  But will Theo find a way to tell not only his parents and the authorities the truth without betraying confidences? Or will his secret be kept in the dark?

This is and would be a great summer read doe those young readers who like or rather love mystery / detective series.

You remember the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew that we all once love and adored?

This does remind me of those older books the author has written, but is tailored perfectly to the young adult genre, but with a new twist.

Penguin / Dutton Children’s

Read an Excerpt

Fun Stuff that accompanies the book

My Name is Mary Sutter – Robin Oliveira

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How I loved this book, let me count the ways..

At the beginning of the Civil War, Mary Sutter is attempting to gain entrance into Medical School – Overcoming prejudices is one thing, getting admitted another.  Mary being the stubborn one in her family, she wont take no for an answer.  She is a midwife like her mother delivering babies, her mother taught her young, while garnering the reputation as the best and the one to go to another.

Heartbreak enters Mary’s family.  So, she travels down to Washington D.C. to become a doctor – Come hell or high water.

She comes across prominent people – The President, the Head of Nursing and Health, but one or two people will change her life forever.

Two doctors – one that teaches her, and the other from her past who will help train her and on her quest.

Pleas from Mary’s mother persist until Mary does go home for a visit.  The night she arrives, her twin sister is in labour about to give birth to her niece or nephew, but she has come too late.  After this happens, she has lost her confidence, will it ever come back to her to be able to do what she has always wanted?  Will she be able to realize her dreams of being a Doctor?

Loved this book, maybe because Mary reminds me so much of myself in the stubbornness category, and the drive to become a person who matters. and certainly doesn’t take no for an answer.

Her fortitude to become a doctor through dire circumstances, whose legend is known for miles and miles around.  During grim circumstances she does the impossible, war and death surrounds her as she is on the fields that men are fighting for.

This will be a favorite of mine for many, many years.

Penguin – Viking

Robin’s Website

Reading Group Guide Questions

Behind the Story of My Name is Mary Sutter

How Did You Get This Number? – Sloane Crosley

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In Sloane’s 2nd foray into the publishing world, she not only gives us food for thought, amongst a few laugh out loud moments in between the chaos that is her life.

From the klepto/anorexic roommate, to the stock guy at the furnishing store that she can’t definitely afford, to her adventures around the world Paris, Portugal (in the off-season) and what does she encounter but a bear – UM HELLO?!? not to mention Alaska for a wedding ( might I add, where she is SO out of the elements!)

Her optimism, boundless charm, yes, personal triumphs and failures, wait? did I forget the boyfriend that’s already had a girlfriend for like NINE YRS ?!?

I mean how can someone, anyone, be so funny, smart, intellectual and still sane after all of that – maybe crazy is in these days.

I loved her sense of fun in the midst of the situations she has encountered, being the person screaming or loudly thinking “Tell him what you REALLY think, but, as a grown up person would – walked away (secretly I wished she would have gone ape on him…)

I could wholeheartedly agree with a lot she had written, thought about, about certain situations that she was dealing with, nodding my head up and down or just plain laughing out loud ( which you absolutely must do in certain situations)

Penguin

The Help – Kathryn Sockett

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I am probably the last person in the universe to have read this book.  Even though it is still on the best sellers list.

When Skeeter returns home from graduating College, from her mother’s perspective she is missing something – A wedding ring.  Not only that, but, her long time nanny / housekeeper isn’t there as well – Constantine who is gone, not even a word is said about her, or the circumstances why she left.

Skeeter is left with a huge gaping hole in her heart.  What makes the pain so virulent? No one will even tell her what happened or even where she is.

Abilene is a maid and is in the process of raising her 17th white  child.  Since her son was killed, something hasn’t been the same with her.  The woman she works for is one of those southern socialites, who, knows everything and anything about the people where she lives.  Abilene is so dedicated to her latest charge, she realizes that both of their hearts may be broken.

Minny is Abilene’s best friend.  Known not to keep her mouth and her nose out of people’s business, she’s lost yet another job.  When she does find a position, it is to a new family, that wants to be a part of society, but doesn’t know why she is being left out.  The secrets are just the tip of the iceberg.

Skeeter manages to bring all of these women together in a seemingly at first secret book she is writing.  She wants to become a writer, an author of books.  This book will not only break open the maids employers lives, but bring together some women who you wouldn’t imagine to come together.  Lines are crossed, secrets are revealed, people who were once friends won’t be friends any longer, others will come together.

I loved the interaction with the main characters.  From the beginning of Black’s gaining more rights, from the old ways breaking free to new rights, the truth setting you free, and the love that these maids show towards the children that they raise although they aren’t their own, I was intrigued and sympathetic to how and what they felt.

It is about how we view one another, how the town is changed, the way women which ever you call yourself – mothers, daughters, friends, caregivers view one another with the pain, the anguish, humour, hope and rebellion.

Every woman should read this book.

Kathryn’s Website

Penguin

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The Book Of Human Skin – Michelle Lovric

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If I told you that this book is about unmitigated villany, love beset by obstacles, quack medicine, christian fundamentalism with a side of Napoleon Bonaparte all while taking place in the early 18th century would that spark your attention?  Quite possibly yes, and this is what the book is about.

From Venice to colonial Peru in the midst of the small pox epidemic these 5 characters tell their stories about the same one in their unique voices, one by one.

From being beautiful, cripple, madwoman, nun, and then what she’s always wanted to be – A wife to a poor Doctor and mother to her children that once took care of her.

The Problem?!?

Her older brother whose  villany has caused one sister already to die, a mother holed up in her room, a father to abandon his “original” family to leave for business in Peru to have a 2nd family and die all for the family fortune.

Told between these 5 different people, Marcella, her brother, an artist friend, her poor doctor, and a servant who can see everything in clear view, but cannot tell anyone as fast as it is happening.  They tell the story in their own words, which not only brings hilarity, but the whole picture together – of how these people who helped Marcella manoeuver her way out of her brother’s grip, for her to fully live her life to the fullest and how she wants to.

Oh, and there are a few books mentioned…made of human skin too

Interesting, Hilarious, Scary, Engrossing

Penguin

Promises To Keep – Jane Green

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Steffi and Callie are sisters. One older than the other, they have taken different paths is life.  Callie is happily married and has 2 adorable children while Steffi ( the younger one) hasn’t really settled down and figured what she wants to do with her life.  Always going from one thing to another, that also is true for her taste in boyfriends as well.  She’s the happy-go-lucky sister.

Exact opposites right?

Their parents are divorced, both totally different from one another – Their father has been remarried more than once, and his last wife was so much more than what she seemed at first.  Their mother re-married as well, her husband passing away about a year or more ago.  Their parents are so un-amicable toward each other ( their dad more so) cannot even stand to be in the same room with one another and just act to get along with one another.

Promises to Keep is one of those novels that will keep you reading, commiserating, laughing, and absolutely crying that you have shrugged off that you have been meaning to have.

It is about the decisions we make, willingly or not against our better judgement, learning from our mistakes and moving on, being a child long after you have grown up, and most importantly how families and friends love one another during those devastating times and what it means to everyone personally.

I was surprised with Jane’s most recent work.  I had previously read Dune Road and it wasn’t one that converted me to be a new fan.  This one however, has made me that fan.

Penguin / Viking

Jane’s Website

Girl In Translation – Jean Kwok

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Girl in Translation follows Kimberly and her Mother following their immigration from Hong Kong to New York City.

Not knowing english, Kimberly goes to an exclusive school.  Once the number 1 student in her class, she has to study much harder than she is sued to, but also works alongside her mother in her Aunt and Uncles textile factory.  They always work long hours, exhausted, but she studies once at home and slowly but surely, becomes the best student in class once again.

With the family expectations always high, Kimberly is scared to make any mistakes.  If she does she risks being ridiculed by not only her mother, but her Aunt and Uncles family as well.  They sponsored her to come to America.

A very intelligent girl, overworked at her job, and excelling just as hard at school since she was quite young, her desire to overcome at all odds is a story of inspiration for all of us.

Through tough sacrifices ( more than we can possibly imagine) there is the light that she can see finally at the end of the tunnel, until one she find out something that she hadn’t bargained for.

This was a great, easy read.  It only took me a few hours to read.

There are many issues that can be discussed at length.  The Struggle to succeed in America, the stigma of being an immigrant, their duty to their family, and finally their own personal desires that may or may not be in tune to what everyone else thinks or feels.

Penguin / Riverhead

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Reading Group Guide

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest – Stieg Larrsson

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In this thrilling conclusion to what is dubbed the “Millennium Trilogy”, Stieg Larrson doesn’t miss a beat.

Since being released at the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire, it is already topping the bestselling lists alongside the previous 2 novels that have already been there for some time, and I don’t doubt for a second this will be there for a long time as well.

Lisbeth is in the hospital fighting for her life, after her father had shot her.

This book undoubtedly just as jam-packed with action, this one is just a bit different.  It focuses more on the political, police, and what their involvement is and how the case is all coming together.  There are those famous action scenes as the police with their ever so secret departments who are investigating other departments, there is also secrets that haven’t been revealed in the previous two novels.  There are a few more new characters that are introduced, as well as a conclusion that will (at least in my mind it had) think that there is another installment underway or has been written.

There has been speculation and hints that there is another manuscript floating around somewhere, but I digress, as far as I know, nothing else will be published.  There has been rumours scouring the globe about certain aspects of Stieg’s life before and after he had died of a massive heart attack.  I for one think it is just speculation and wouldn’t want to assume anything is for real until an announcement is made.

So, will Mikhail finally close the all of the gaps in how he found the information, getting justice for Lisbeth?? Well, you will just have to go out and buy the book to find out.  Remember, I don’t post spoilers !   So, if you were absolutely absorbed in the 2 previous books and could not wait until this one was released, then take a breath, go to your favorite bookstore and pick up a copy.  You will be glad you did.

Penguin / Viking

We Are All Made of Glue – Marina Lewycka

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What does this cover say to you? Fun, an Interesting, witty read? Well, you cannot always judge a book by its cover, and this is such an example.  True, there is a comical vibe to the book, but also a seriousness to it as well that is balanced perfectly in my opinion.

Georgie has just separated from her Lawyer husband.  One day while tossing out her ex’s taste in music in the form of vinyl, she comes across one of her more quirkier, eccentric neighbours Mrs. Shapiro.  Did I mention she was eccentric?

She is what you would call a bargain hunter of sorts.  Always following the person in the grocery store who places the half price stickers on about to expire meat and ready-made food products, to combing the neighbourhood looking for what one person would think is trash, while she thinks it is just another hidden treasure that she has saved from the trash collector before collection day.

After their encounter at the street, and then again at the grocery store ( you guessed it, following the lady around for the “real deals”) Georgie receives a phone call from the hospital saying that Mrs. Shapiro has been admitted and she was listed as her next of kin. She has asked Georgie to pick up some of her clothes at her house, and to sneak one of her cats in for a visit.  ( Did I happen to mention that Mrs. Shapiro had cats…must have slipped my mind completely)

Anyways, as she is doing her good deed and helping Mrs. Shapiro out, a social worker unbeknownst to her is also scoping out the house for a possible quick sale when she deems Mrs. Shapiro unable to return to her home and must live in a retirement residence.

Georgie quickly finds out that this is common for Real Estate agents.  Being inventive is their middle name.  They do just about anything to make the owner sell the house quickly, they fix it up, and flip it as fast as they can for the largest profit.  Talk about being taken to the cleaners !

Georgie is facing other issues as well at home.  Her son is acting differently.  Searching the internet at all times of the night on certain “religious” sites is a red flag for sure.  Once she finds out the whole truth in the middle of having a torrid afternoon love affair with one of the estate sellers whose sexual preferences are getting a tad experimental, she takes stock of what needs to be done right away, kicks him to the curb, and not only makes a wide range of new friends, other than her online work buddies, she learns more about herself, her family, and the true story behind Mrs. Shapiro.  It truly is something more than just an overcrowded, musty smelling house.  There is a love story behind every item.

Laugh out loud funny with good lessons in it for all of us about love, life, friendships, people you definitely shouldn’t trust, along with an actual mystery of the huge gorgeous home, a love story that travels from the Middle East to England, and beyond.

Penguin / Viking

Lover Mine – J.R. Ward

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**Warning** – Book contains sexually explicit content

This is one of those books that if you are craving a bit or a lot of “Brain Candy”, going to the beach for the day and want to relax this is the book for you.

Full of action and adventure, this is book 8 in the Dagger Brotherhood.  It can be read as a standalone or as part of the series.  I personally read it as a standalone.

In Caldwell, NY among the darkest alleys and corners – A conflict of epic proportions takes place.  The Vampires and their enemies are about to fight like never before.

John is one of the Warriors.  When he finds out that one of his enemies has abducted a female he wants to bond with, he is out for vengeance, revenge, and only to smell the death os Darius.

The brotherhood’s answer to the call with not only brute force, but with a passion to save one of their own.

Xhex is the one that John loves, but since she is a sympath, her feelings are pushed away from the surface, so she can fight, she isn’t acknowledging her feelings for John, she knows they are there, she is afraid if she does she will turn into one of those touchy, sensitive people; she is definitely NOT one of those.

Does John get what he wants the most out of life, or does Darius take it all away from him,read the book and you will find out.

Penguin / New American Library

J.R. Ward’s Website – pretty neat if you ask me!

Heresy – S. J. Parris

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Giordano Bruno,  is a monk.  After being caught reading forbidden books, he is  chased by the inquisitor, so he flees Italy.

Bruno resurfaces in England many years later.  He is on the hunt for a book that was thought destroyed, but, information that Bruno has come across is said to be the opposite and possibly hiding in a college library at Oxford.

As a close personal friend of the French Ambassador, he is welcomed to Oxford for debating at the behest of the head of the college.  As soon as he arrives, the faculty as well as the students are weary.  Just about as soon as he is retired to his room, the unthinkable happens, one of the professors has been murdered.

Between the  murder, the students and faculty, Bruno is thrust into the middle of a historical thriller that will have you turning the pages as fast as you can read them sousing out who could have done this, as well of course the reasons why. – The people of the small town outside the college, to the very inside of the college itself, to people who live around the edges, to another religious sect in another country.  The twists and turns of who is accused, who isn’t, but who are  in the background along with their own secrets will have you engrossed in this engaging thriller from long ago.

It was a rather interesting time to read about a thriller/murder/ mystery.  The way they used to find the suspects are nothing like they are today with everything high-tech and gadgetry like it is now.  Not only was the time period for me intriguing, it was the way the author stepped out with all of the double and triple crossing that was happening along with the main plot, waiting to be all tied together when at last the finale is revealed.  Interesting time period as I had mentioned before for people believing in what they wanted to believe in and not what they were told to believe in, what was forbidden and if you were caught you were either burned at the stake or killed.

Penguin

Stolen – Lesley Pearse

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Lotte, a 20 something year old is found half-drowned on a Sussex beach by a gentleman who was walking along the shore.  Once at the hospital and stabilized, she is found to have amnesia.  Absolutely no memory of who she is or how she become to be on the beach.

When her picture is published in the local newspapers, one of the people she had befriended in the past recognizes her – they had worked together on a cruise ship and were bunk mates for a year.  As they travelled the seas of South America, they become close friends and vowed to keep their friendship alive.

This not only marks a reunion of sorts, her friend had wondered why Lotte had literally disappeared and not kept contact like they both said they would.  She did try to text, but, no response.

There is a deep, dark story behind Lotte’s disappearance.  Just before the girls went their separate ways, Lotte was viciously raped at one of the ships ports in South America.  The questions are many, but the most important ones were – Where has she been? What happened to her that she was found on the beach? Why can’t she remember what happened? When will her memory return?

I really enjoyed this novel.  The bond that friendship endures, what lengths people will go to when getting what they want, as Lotte’s past friends rally around her as she comes to terms what did happen, the revelations or nothing short of shocking once the whole story is told is nothing short of a miracle that she has survived.  It is relevant to today’s news as well.  The stories that are in newspapers, on the radio, and so forth make this novel genuine, and like I had said relevent.

Penguin – Michael Joseph

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The Surrendered – Chang-rae Lee

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What a very deep and thought-provoking novel.

Alternating in time from present day, June is selling off everything to go on a journey to find her son.  Time is of the essence.

She inherits the help of a private investigator who is tracking down some people who she used to have in her life that she hasn’t forgotten per sey, but has definitely let go of since she has arrived in America.  Hector – a down on his luck man of all trades sort of person, whom June has a bit of a storied past with.  They met on a dirt road in a deserted country after the Korean War.  They were going to the same orphanage – June as one of the orphans, Hector as a handyman.

The newly arrived Reverend Tanner and his wife turn the orphanage back around on the right track.  They are from the Pacific Northwest, giving of their lives to the less fortunate around the world.  The reverend’s wife has transformed the orphanage as well as herself.

When the past comes back to haunt the Reverend’s wife…

June and Hector finally meet after being apart for the last 40 years.  June has been a successful business woman, whereas, Hector has been going from job to job, bar to bar barely existing, getting by on what he can.  When they meet up, Hector doesn’t want to talk to her, but after he sees June and how fragile she is, he cannot deny to help her in her quest.  She doesn’t tell him right away what exactly that is, eventually it is all told and revealed. Even the dark harrowing stories they both have from the Korean War that have made them stronger, belittled them, changed them.

This deep, dark novel give you the sense they all of the characters have surrendered themselves in what lives they lived whether it was in Korea, or America.  Was it a justified surrendering, or was it just taken from them to be able to survive, to move onto the next day, week, month.  What has it cost them? Has it made them a better person, a worse person? Has it changed their lives for the better or worse?

The deep thought-provoking feelings in the instances give me shivers up my back and neck.

Penguin / Riverhead Books

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