The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor

Once Upon a Book Club - September 2017

What a neat story, well-written and mystical.  Based on the real story of the Cottingley Fairies, Gaynor's fictional version weaves the story of present day Olivia as she discovers the history of Frances and Elsie and the fairies.

OUBC did a great job with the gifts in this subscription box - one being very authentic and interactive!

The author feels this was the book she was meant to write and I wholeheartedly agree.  Settle in with a cup of tea and enjoy!!

Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by A.S. Byatt

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a collection of stories by a woman.

Due to this challenge, I made yet another attempt at reading a collection of short stories.  Not since Kipling's "Just So Stories" which is akin to Aesop's Fables, have I enjoyed a short story collection.  Maybe I need to stick to children's short stories rather than adult ones!

I made an attempt a number of years ago with Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" as I heard great things about it, but I was sadly disappointed with the collection (see review June 16, 2012).

Again with "Elementals", I found that frequently the stories were obscure or felt unfinished.  There was quite a variety: from a story of life and death, a princess fairy tale, a Faustian tale, a weird story that was more like a dream/nightmare inside a shopping mall and Biblical tales of morality.

The author's descriptive writing is amazing in "Cold" in describing the ice world of the princess and the glass-blowing of the prince and in "A Lamia in the Cevennes" the artist and his obsession with colors (i.e. the various shades of blue).

Even with the beauty of Byatt's writing, I can appreciate the short story writing, yet I'm not compelled to want to read more.

Quotes:  "There was excess of pleasure in the simplicity: stars, flames, water, the scent of cedars and burned fennel, the salt of olives, the juicy flakes of the fish, the gold wine, the sweet berries, the sharp chocolate, the warm air"

"I think perhaps you did the best you could -
I did not tell you this sorry story in order to hear you say that...I told it to hear it told aloud"

"...your past life is mapped two ways, with significant things that of course you remember, births, marriages, deaths, journeys, successes and failures, and then the other sort, the curiously bright-coloured, detailed pointless moments that won't go away."

"You must learn now, that the important lesson...is that the divide is not between the servants and the served, between the leisured and the workers, but between those who are interested in the world and its multiplicity of forms and forces, and those who merely subsist, worrying or yawning."

A Last Resort by Mark Okrant

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a Book Published by a Micropress.

My family has a friend who had his own publishing company out of Manchester, NH and fortunately I had one of his published books on my bookshelf!

I was rather disappointed by the lack of editing in this book:  Character names changed (Jay to Javy back to Jay), some lines were duplicated, others were missing and some errors were just minor punctuation, but it all distracted me from my reading.

The story itself was ok.  A typical mystery and the author did a good job of introducing characters, creating multiple suspects and keeping the past and present timelines parallel.  I had pretty much figured out the ending, so there was no shocking twist.  At times, I felt Okrant was trying too hard to write:  "Their total lack of amusement at the spectacle I was making of myself made the laughter pour forth in an even more voluminous manner."

While this wasn't Okrant's first book, it's the first in his series with the character Kary Turnell.  There are now a total of 5 in the series.  While I don't think I will read the rest in the series, I do hope the writing and editing has improved!

2018 Reading Challenge

Join Bookworm and I as we take on a Reading Challenge for 2018!  We will be joining Ginger Mom in the A to Z Reading Challenge!!!  Woo Hoo!!

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash

PageHabit Subscription - October Historical Fiction

I was looking forward to this book, as I had picked up Wiley Cash's A Land More Kind Than Home a while back, but hadn't read it yet, so I was really excited to read him for the first time with his latest novel.

The story intrigued me as well, a fictional account of the real life struggles of civil rights and union rights.

The story moved rather slowly, but it felt right.  There were a lot of characters introduced and the whole situation was a simmering time; in actuality, simmering over years.  Cash did a great job of giving names and faces to those involved in the early and violent labor movement.  Even with the many characters, Cash kept everything connected for the reader.  Showing the necessity of unions, or at the very least, workers' rights and the risk that so many took to stand up for those rights.  The continued struggle of African Americans who lived, worked and struggled just as their white co-workers but still were not included in rights of any kind.

Looking forward to putting A Land More Kind Than Home on the top of my TBR and to Mr. Cash's next endeavor.

Quote:  "'It ain't right for a woman to have to give herself away just so she can get a job that don't hardly pay enough to live on.'"

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Debut Novel

My mother picked up this book when she was invited to a guest lecture of the author at a local library.  Intrigued after the lecture to read the book set in small town, Ohio.  It's such a treasure when you stumble upon books and they turn out to be fabulous!

A well-written book that dives into the issues of loss, grief, regret, blame and the secrets that develop in relationships (in this case family) when you fail to communicate - both talking and listening.

The struggle parent(s) have in balancing the wants/desires for their children to have a good, happy, successful life with the unknown wishes of that child(ren).  To step back and let a child discover for him/herself their passion, when a parent may have more foresight to see the pitfalls ahead.  To be a parent that knows a child may have to trip and stumble on their own to find their own way, as painful as it may be and to only be there to comfort them, not to prevent it from happening.

Written with emotional detail that draws you to each character and revealing each one a bit more so that the reader maintains rapt attention to try to understand how they lost Lydia and lost themselves.