The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

This book is excellent! 

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town—and the family—Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. --Simon and Schuster, Canada

The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw (2010)

"I’m a Southerner born and bred, and I grew up going to the beach for a couple of weeks every year in South Carolina, where the water is as warm as your bath, the pace is slow, and the fake-bamboo furniture is comfortable. Then, after a move to Boston that still baffles even me, I met my husband, who summered. (In all fairness, his family would be loath to use that word; nevertheless, when you decamp to the coast for the entire summer, every summer, that’s summering.) Moreover, they summered on Cape Cod, in a very old house built to withstand howling winter winds (small windows, fireplaces, and low ceilings), and where the decor was not, um, tropical. The water was often freezing. The air was often freezing. In August.

As I’ve begun talking to people about my debut novel, The Swimming Pool, I’ve noticed that one of the most popular questions people ask is “Where did you get the idea for your book?” and that, often, what they are really asking is, “Is it autobiographical?” It’s hard to believe that writers make up stories out of thin air, and for good reason: they don’t. Somewhere, in every book, there are elements hidden of the writer, of the writer’s family, the writer’s history and experience. The best description I have heard is “refracted autobiography”--emphasis on refracted. For instance, The Swimming Pool is the story of a young man, Jed McClatchey, who is mired in grief for his parents, who died seven years previously--his mother in a still-unsolved break-in/murder. Jed falls in love and begins an affair with an older woman, Marcella Atkinson, who he then learns was his late father’s mistress; as one might imagine, complications and revelations ensue.


Now. I am happily married. My parents are both alive. I don’t know anyone who was murdered. I am not Italian (Marcella is). I don’t know any cougars personally. It is all made up.


Except for the fact that this book is set on Cape Cod, and Marcella, an expatriate from a warm and sunny clime, is mystified by it. And except that Jed, who just happens to be a Southerner, has grown up summering there. Which is not usual for a boy from Atlanta. One might say that I have split myself between my two protagonists: I have the woman who feels like a constant outsider; I have the man who loves being somewhere different, who knows how different it is from his birthplace and yet who gets it. Because I think I finally get the Cape, after twenty-something years. Or maybe I just get it enough to fake it. I can still stand a bit outside. I can see it clearly, in a way that it is sometimes hard for me to see the places where I grew up.


It is the quintessential stance of the writer: you’ve got to blend in. You’ve got to pass. You’ve got to get people to forget that you’re watching, hard. And, really, they shouldn’t be nervous; the things writers notice, or that I notice, anyway, are not the things one might expect. In this case, there was a story I heard long ago about a family I barely knew, where the middle--aged husband left his high-school-sweetheart wife--a sad, but garden-variety, occurrence. For some reason, it stuck in my head. And then it combined with the feel of the sun beating down on a clay tennis court in the woods (a court I decidedly watched from the outside; I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a tennis ball), with the cast-in-amber interior of a beloved old Yankee house, and with the sort of crime one might read about in the newspaper and then promptly forget. My own experience with postpartum depression was given to a secondary character, and intensified. My one trip ever to the Connecticut coast yielded a place for Marcella’s escape. And on and on.


Where did I get the idea for the book? I have no idea. Is it autobiographical? Of course not. Of course.


As it happens, I still get to go to South Carolina occasionally, often in August, when I can sweat to my heart’s content. As it also happens, I wrote much of the book on the Cape. I belong to both places, and to neither. As a writer, it’s better that way." --Holly LeCraw--

Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende

The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman

 Alice Thrift, M.D. has a great I.Q. and good itentions, however, her social life is non-existent and her ability to read social skills is highly impaired.  When 'Don Juan' enters her life, intent on winning her affections, one wonders if he is sincere or simply a gigilo.  This novel is filled with humour and restrained sympathy for Alice. I lookmforwrd to reading other books by this author.

Read but Not Reviewed

Upcoming Reviews

 Silent Mercy by Linda Fairstein  (Women's bodies left dismembered on the steps of a cathedral and old synagogue lead Alexandra Cooper to a circus train and remote vacation island.)

Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers (mother with cancer and her teenage daughter communicate often with notes on the rrefrigerator)

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bay by Alan Bradley  (The third book of this delightful trilogy which features the youngest of three sisters and their eccentric household. 11 year old, playing the naive child, is always one step ahead of the local constabulary. A modern day Harriet the Spy.
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

The Deadhouse by Linda Farstein

Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese


The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Red Herring and Mustard by Alan Bradley


Beach Reads: Sullivan's Island by Dorthea Benton Frank


The Beach House by Jane Green


The Deep Blue Sea For Beginners by Luanne Rice


Mystery/Detective: Edge of Midnight, Murder Take Two, Up in Smoke  by Charlene Weir


Night Tales : Nightshade and Night Smoke by Norah Roberts


The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards


Sullivan's Evidence by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg


Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz


Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchaud (3 women + 1 daughter on a sailboat)


The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow


The School of Night by Louis Bayard


Eats, Shoots & and; Leaves:  The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss


Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah


Mr and Mrs Anonymous by Fern Michaels (thumbs down)


The Cure by Athold Dickson (interesting look at the homeless)


Now You See Her by Joy Fielding (mother in search of her dead daughter)                                                                                                                                                     


Charley's Web by Joy Fielding (journalist interviewing female 'baby' killer on Death Row)


The Wild Zone by Joy Fielding (surprising twist to a story of brothers and domestic
 violence)


Still Life (in a coma, but able to hear, a woman learns her husband tried to kill her)


The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith (delightful!)


The Arraignment by Steve Martini (a Paul Madriani novel)


The Jury by Steve Martini


The Reversal by Steve Martini


A Change in Altitude by Anita Shrieve (a serious look at the first year of marriage, set in Kenya)


Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope (a collection of misplaced people become a community)


Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Wiener (two women rekindle a childhood friendship, comedic)


Cold Moon Home:  An Abby Silvernale Mystery by Julia Pomeroy (aging scuptor's daughters
childhood secrets revealed 


Portuguese Irregular Verbs  by Alexander McCall Smith (bizarre and funny)


The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs  by above


At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances by above





Just purchased: The Postmistress

On Chesil Beach

Lost moments, lost opportunities. Tender and sad.

The Birth House

Posted by Jules in 2011 Challenges, 2011 Reviews, canadian authors & can lit, Fiction, Women Write

 The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babinau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and in a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies. During the turbulent first years of World War I, Dora becomes the midwife's apprentice. Together they help the women of the Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, and even unfulfilling sex lives.
When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor, comes to Scots Bay, with promises of fast, painless childbirth, many in the community begin to question Miss Babineau's methods. After Miss Babineau disappears, Dora is left to carry on alone. In the face of fierce strength and fight to protect the birthing traditions and women's wisdom that have been passed down to her.
Filled with details that are as compelling as they are surprising - childbirth in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, the prescribing of vibratory treatments to cure hysteria and mysterious exlir called the Beaver Brew - The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have to face to maintain control over their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.







Remember When



An interesting strategy is used by the author in writing this book in that Nora Roberts uses her pseudonym J.D. Robb to write the second half of the novel a novel.  The story is of a diamond heist committed by Laine Tavish's father, Jack O'hara, and his two partners in crime.  Laine has left the life of her childhood and settled in Maryland where she runs an antique store. Proper, but sexy, she is determined to shed the life of her childhood.One of her father's partner dies outside her shoo[p as he tries to tell her about the diamonds.  Another ruthless partner attempts to find the diamonds and frightens Laine, as well as the insurance investigator, Max Gannon, who is looking for the diamonds. Max and Laine become romantically involved, so there is good that comes out of their strange tale. Samantha Gannon is the granddaughter of Laine and Max.  A successful and independent reader, she is reminiscent of her grandmother.  However murder is committed and Eve (heroine of J.D. Robb's futuristic novels) must solve the crime which is connected to the diamond theft of 50 years prior.

Margaret Trudeau: Changing My Mind

The title of this novel suggests a double entrendre, Margaret Trudeau attempts to understand the changes in her life and the role of mental illness in those changes.  She never blames anyone for her decisions, but always takes responsibility for them.  There are events in her life which are shared with the former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and then further events with her second husband, Fred Kempler. Her biography begins with her first marriage and the political stir that caused and the expectations levied on Margaret. Feeling a failure, Margaret left Pierre.  She did not have full custody of the three children, Justin, Michael and Sasha, but did continue to have a positive relationship with them.  Two more children followed in her second marriage.

Her emotional state became more and more fragile, to the point where she was hospitalized more than once.

The death of her son Michael caused her depression to lessen.  She was diagnosed as manic-depressive, which explained her many impulses and emotional lows. The book is illustrated with many pictures from her life, which are stories in themselves.  Most Canadians will not learn much about the political affairs of the nation, but may come to better understand a beautiful woman whose life has been filled with both joy and sorrow. It is my observation that considerable bravery is involved in showing the world your mistakes and your complete helplessness.  Margaret Trudeau in a strait-jacket is not a pretty picture.



The Help

 

Excellent read about race relations in American South in the 60's.

Ice Cold

What a suspenseful mystery novel!  It could be a great screen play as there was so much action throughout. The heroine, Dr. Isles, had to cross country ski to find help, and then had to climb mountainous terrain to escape death.  However, the book had a disconnect. Once Maura had left the compound on her skis, there was no reporting on the three characters left behind.  They disappeared from the novel, and the reader was introduced to new characters, some good and some evil.  Yet Father Daniel, who should be the one representing morality, forces Maura to make a life-altering decision. A fast read.

Buried Evidence

I'm reading murder mysteries again - gotta stop and go for more cerebral writings. Oh well, a little murder never hurt anyone! This book reads like a carriature of the genre.

The talented DA and her university aged daughter were brutally raped years ago, and now the perp is back on the streets looking to kill the woman responsible for his incarceration, afore mentioned lawyer.

Throw in an alcoholic, no-good, unemployed husband and a dashing prosecution lawyer, and it's no contest for the missus.

In the end, well, why don't I just let you read it for yourself?

The Other Family

Chrissie loved her husband for 23 years.  They had three daughters and a good life. But Ritchie would never marry her, in spite of her buying a wedding ring.  When Ritchie dies expectantly his will provides for a son and wife whom he walked away from years earlier.  He was terrible father to his son Scott and in death wanted him remembered.  Chrissie and her two older girls wanted nothing to do with Scott and his mother, yet the youngest daughter wants a relationship with her half-brother.  She defies her mother and goes to spend time with Scott, being very well treated by Margaret, Ritchie's abandoned wife.  Amy paves the way for a connection that her father had been too weak or negligent to create.


This novel is a good read, leaving many questions unanswered.  How could a father and husband be so cold as to ignore his first family?  How could this same father be so loving to the children of his second family? How could Chrissie be so spiteful when she is the one who invaded Ritchie's first life, and how could Margaret be so understanding?

Dead Like You

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has a serial raptist stealing shoes as a trophy of his conquests.  The case is very similar to a cold case file from the 1990's, so investigation becomes murky. Meandering throughout the sleuthing are flashbacks to the 10 year disappearance of Grace's wife, Sandy.  Grace is now in love and about to become a father with a woman who has made him whole again. (What a cliche I just wrote!) As the fifth victim is saved is appears that the Shoe Man has been caught. But is this the perp of both cases? Maybe not.

Peter James writes with intelligence, giving you just enough info about his characters to not let them overtake the plot of the crime.

Secret Daughter

In India, Kavita gives birth to her second daughter, the first having been taken from her, never to be seen again. Killed?  Her husband, insists that the second daughter also be removed from their lives.  Kavita and her sister walk a great distance to bring the baby girl to an orphanage.  An orphanage from which she is adopted by a couple of married doctors. He is native to India and she is a white American. Asha has a good life but is missing her Indian connection, which she experiences on a visit to her Indian grandmother.


The third child Kavita has is the beloved son, Vijay, who does not prove to be the son that offers them their earthly and spiritual salvation.  Asha searches out the identity of her birth parents and learns to let go and love the family she has. Her birth parents also learn of her identity through a magazine article.  They never meet this daughter, after years of quilt has burdened them.  But learning of her good fate gives them some relief.


Though a bestseller, I found the characters to be superficial and cold - and the story read like a melodrama. I found the son, Vijay, believable and also like the Indian grandmother.