Masterpiece
Very good
Good
Just okay
Not for me
Definitely not for me'e' authors
Sunday, June 29th, 2008Review: Bear by Marian Engel
Ummm…..no. No, no, no, no, no. I don’t think I can recommend this title. That this book won the Governor General’s Award flabbergasts me. A librarian and a bear get kinky on a small Canadian island. That’s all you really need to know to realize why I didn’t like this book.
1976 Governor General’s Award
1976, 141 pp.
Rating: 
Popularity: 22% [?]
Thursday, May 15th, 2008Review: The Gathering
The Gathering by Anne Enright won the Booker Prize in 2007. The novel is about family relationships, grief, and memory. Veronica comes from a large family of 12 siblings (plus several stillbirths). Her closest brother Liam has just committed suicide, and as she deals with her grief about losing her brother, the event dredges up some fairly shocking childhood memories. Soon she doesn’t know how she feels about either of her families — either her childhood family or even her husband and children.
The language and scenes are shocking and graphic. The subject matter is dark and depressing. Normally, I would have predicted that I would have hated this book, and I can see why many don’t like it. But, Enright’s writing drew me in. Veronica’s voice is so brutally honest it cut through me. Definitely not for everyone, but it’s a book you think about long after you’ve finished it, and in my mind, that’s the mark of a good one.
2007, 261 pp.
Rating: 4/5
2007 Booker Prize winner
Popularity: 65% [?]
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008Silence by Shusaku Endo
Based on a true story about the persecution and torture of Japanese Christians and foreign missionaries in 1600s Japan, Silence is a powerful book about faith (and doubt), truth, and the human spirit. What will make one person stay true to his faith, even under unspeakable torture, while another one does not? Why is God silent during suffering? These are the questions the book raises, and some would say it gives no clear answers. It is easy to say from our comfortable Western homes that we would never deny God under duress. But the Bible states that even Peter, a much loved disciple, denied Christ. What does it truly mean to stay faithful to God?
Repeating the prayer again and again he tried wildly to distract his attention; but the prayer could not tranquilize his agonized heart. ‘Lord, why are you silent? Why are you always silent…?’
This book powerfully affected me, and I’ve already sought out more books by this Japanese Christian author.
It has been announced that Martin Scorsese will be making this into a movie slated for 2010.
1966, 201 pages
Rating: 
Popularity: 42% [?]
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides
2002, 529 pp.
Rating: 3.5
Popularity: 12% [?]
Thursday, April 26th, 2007The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
by
Kim Edwards
2005, 401 pp.
Rating: 4.5
I was impressed by this book, and especially so as it was the author’s debut.
The following paragraph isn’t really a “spoiler” as it happens in the first few pages of the book.
Dr. David Henry and his wife Norah can’t get to the hospital in time to have their baby, so they go to his own doctor’s office. The birth goes fine and a healthy baby boy named Paul is born. However, they unexpectedly have twins (it’s 1964), and there is a “problem” with their daughter–she has Down’s Syndrome. Due to his own family background of having a chronically ill sister, David tells the nurse Caroline to take it to a “home”. Meanwhile, he tells his wife that their daughter Pheobe has died. The rest of the book goes into their marriage and family relationships in the aftermath of this “secret”.
I loved the story for several reasons. First, it was very well written and was a very easy read. I read the book in a 24 hour period. Also, it is mostly set in Lexington, Ky, and I live only an hour from there. Many of the descriptions of the bluegrass area were things I recognized and appreciated. I related to almost all the main characters for personal reasons. In fact, this book was one I chose to offer about myself for the Something About Me Challenge. David feels like an “imposter” in his professional life, Norah has postpartem depression, and Paul is kept from the knowledge that his sister is alive. These were all issues that I have experienced as well.
The book is a little sad and explores the consequences of family secrets, but it is also hopeful. I look forward to Kim Edwards’ next novel.
Also reviewed by:
Popularity: 10% [?]
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007Walking Across Egypt
by Clyde Edgerton
1987, 227 pp.
Rating: 4
Popularity: 9% [?]
Friday, February 9th, 2007Silas Marner - George Eliot
Silas Marner is a weaver who has cut himself off from the world because of a severe wrong done to him. He becomes a hermit and a miser who only cares about his gold. When his gold is stolen from him, he is devastated. However, losing the money actually wakes him up a bit because he has to converse with his neighbors about his loss, whereas before he would only talk “business”.
Soon a little girl comes into his life that opens up his heart and soul. Their love for each other as two “castaways” is truly heartwarming. Highly recommended classic.
Favorite passages:
Minds that have been unhinged from their old faith and love, have perhaps sought this Lethean influence of exile, in which the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories.
The yoke a man creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest nature; and the good-humoured, affectionate-hearted Godfrey Cass was fast becoming a bitter man, visited by cruel wishes, that seemed to enter, and depart, and enter again, like demons who had found in him a ready-garnished home.
Favourable Chance, I fancy, is the god of all men who follow their own devices instead of obeying a law they believe in…Let him forsake a decent craft that he may pursue the gentilities of a profession to which nature never called him, and his religion will infallibly be the worship of blessed Chance, which he will believe in as the mighty creator of success. The evil principle deprecated in that religion is the orderly sequence by which the seed brings forth a crop after its kind.
Formerly, his heart had been as a locked casket with its treasure inside; but now the casket was empty, and the lock was broken.
The fountains of human love and of faith in a divine love had not yet been unlocked, and his soul was still the shrunken rivulet, with only this difference, that its little groove of sand was blocked up, and it wandered confusedly against dark obstruction.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness.
In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child’s.
1861, 151 pp.
Rating: 4.5/5
Popularity: 15% [?]
Thursday, February 1st, 2007Peace Like a River - Leif Enger
This is a wonderful story about faith and family. The characters are likable and strong, and their faith is even stronger. This family perseveres through tragedy and danger–all the while leaning on God for guidance and direction and each other for hope and comfort. Swede is a hoot! Very well written. Excellent story. Read it!
2001, 311 pp.
Rating: 4.5/5
Also reviewed by Book Club Classics
Popularity: 9% [?]