The Light-keeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol

Once Upon a Book Club Subscription - August 2017

It has been a REALLY LONG time since I've stayed up to the wee hours to finish a book, but I simply couldn't put this one down.  Even though my eyelids kept trying to close, I sat, stood, and paced around just to stay awake long enough to finish this captivating read.

Parts were reminiscent of "The Light Between Oceans", whether by coincidence or a common historical occurrences of lighthouse living, I don't know.  The main difference was the suspense and twists that came with this tale that were lacking in Stedman's novel.

Told in a much-loved format (for me anyway) of alternating voices of a elderly woman remembering her past and a troubled young girl trying to understand her present.  Pendziwol kept the reader enrapt with mysterious characters appearing, disappearing, and reappearing, an eerily marked grave and the esoteric life of lighthouse keepers and their families.

This monthly book subscription comes with gifts that relate to the story and the reader is prompted to open as they read along.  While the gifts did relate exactly to the story being told, they were rather unremarkable this time.  So, while the gifts didn't necessarily add much to the story this time, it wasn't necessary; this novel stands on its own with suspense, a little romance and beautifully flawed characters you will hold in your heart long after you turn the final page.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color.

For this challenge I was torn between reading this one or The Mothers by Brit Bennett.  The Mothers is a story with secrets, a suicide, things that "haunt us most" and billed as "an emotionally perceptive story".  I felt that while it may in fact be a great book, I personally needed something lighter.  Crazy Rich Asians was billed as "Rollicking" "Hilarious" "Crazy Fun".  Just what I needed!  I was looking forward to have some laugh-out-loud moments with this book!!

Well, I guess I don't find filthy rich people very funny.  Maybe it's society, maybe its my own growing antimaterialism, maybe it's just the emotional state I am currently in, but not only was I not laughing-out-loud, but for 3/4 of the 500+ page book I was utterly bored and annoyed.  I only committed to finishing it because of this damn challenge; it was the last of the 24 book challenge and I was going to finish it no matter what!

I will give kudos to the final 1/4 of the book.  I adored the main character, Rachel and was rooting for her throughout.  Even my cold black heart was hoping for a romantic, happy-ending (no spoilers) and for long-due karma to befall the many snooty "crazy rich Asians".

The other parts that I enjoyed of this otherwise disappointing novel were the descriptions of Singapore and its food. 

There are two other books in this series and this first one is being made into a movie.  I have no desire to read the sequels and highly doubt I'll make a point of seeing the movie.

Quote:  "Marriage was purely a matter of timing, and whenever a man was finally done sowing his wild oats and read to settle down, whichever girl happened to be there at the time would be the right one."

Deadly Cure by Lawrence Goldstone

PageHabit Subscription- November Historical Fiction

What a well-researched, well-written, suspenseful historical fiction by Goldstone.  Especially interesting to read in light of the current opioid epidemic and the corruption between pharmaceutical companies and politicians.

We find ourselves on the streets of early NYC with mystery and intrigue weaved into the early discoveries of aspirin and heroin.  The time before governmental regulations of safe food and drugs.  A time of tonics and mysterious and often deadly "cures".

A recommended read for history buffs and suspense lovers alike.  I have another of Goldstone's books on my shelf (The Anatomy of Deception) and will be adding it to the top (okay, near top) of my TBR pile!!

Quotes: "'Murdered children' and 'experimentation' were phrases doubtlessly chosen to arouse his curiosity, but curiosity should never be allowed to overcome reason."

"Whenever a group of businessmen band together to buy Congressmen, restrict competition, fix prices, prohibit regulation, ensure obscene profits, all to the detriment of the public...."

"This nation is blinded by greed..."

"Greatness lies in persuading others to work for good."

Rain Inside:  Selected Poems by Ibrahim Nasrallah

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love.

I'm not a big reader of poetry.  Not that I'm opposed to it, actually when I was younger I wrote quite a few poems.  Yet, like the poems I wrote, I prefer dare I say a simpler poem?  I loved Shel Silverstein as a child, okay I still love Shel Silverstein.  I love the spoken word poetry of Canadian, Shane Koyczan.  Yet, I hesitate to call their work "simple", especially Koyczan.  I guess, I just struggle with more abstract poetry that I found in Rain Inside.

I actually got more out of the introduction of this collection, which was written by the translator Omnia Amin and explained the background of the poet, Nasrallah.  His exile from his Palestinian homeland, the threats he has received, the prohibition of his work both in publication and in readings.  I was aware of the struggles of Palestine peripherally, but I've become more aware of the turmoil in that area of the world through this introduction as well as recent events (US embassy being moved to Jerusalem).

Following the introduction I really, really wanted to enjoy, understand and garner the emotion, heartbreak and resistance in these poems.  Yet, I found them so abstract that I couldn't relate, couldn't feel any of those things I was hoping to feel.  I read them aloud, I read them slowly, I paused between each poem, but I simply could not find the rhythm, the spirit, the soul of the poems that I'm sure Nasrallah wrote them with.

I did mark a couple passages from some of the poems that did strike me:

"A beautiful morning is one that passes and I am not killed."

"Maybe I know the whole story but hide part of it from myself to love the story more."

"The Hour of Birth - A crazy awakening has languished in my blood for a thousand years.  It disturbs the dust to become a desert or a carnation."

"Shadows - Our souls have become shadows in the dust, so who will circle around us after they leave?  Who will visit us on a pilgrimage so we can renew time in all place?  Shadows might have shadows:  Them...us...you...and you...and me.

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.

The Only Suspect by Jonnie Jacobs

"J" Author

I didn't have a whole lot of "J" author's on my shelf and I have no idea when or where I picked up this book, but the book jacket's suspenseful summary was certainly the why.  And this was just what I needed after reading some pretty intense books in the past few months.

A book I read in a day in part to having a rainy Saturday to do so, but also due to the unraveling mystery that I wanted to get to the bottom of and the short chapters which kept me reading "just one more".

Overall the book was good, the suspense, the red herrings, BUT the ending, the who-dun-it was.....a little bit of a let down.  I certainly didn't see it coming, but mainly because it wasn't realistic in what had been a fairly realistic story line.

Yet, the author does write well for a quick mystery/suspense, so I may be willing to give her another chance.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a Book in Which a Character of Color goes on a Spiritual Journey.

Well, this was a "spiritual journey" alright and a good read in October with Halloween looming.  A glance into the "journey" (the word almost sounds too joyous) of a the slaves of "Sweet Home" Plantation.  The novel was based in part on a true story of a slave named Margaret Garner and no doubt some of the punishments, escapes, etc. depicted were also based on true stories of what so many suffered.

No matter how often I read books about slavery I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that these people were treated like property, like chattel, that their souls and their humanness were ignored, disregarded and more often than not beaten out of them.

Beloved focused on the story of Sethe who obtained freedom from slavery in Ohio, but was never free.  "Haunted" by a spirit that becomes more than an upset soul.  Beloved was written a bit like a mystery novel that kept you guessing, even till the end leaving some of it up to the reader's interpretation.  With volleying back and forth between the past and present, you learned more about each of the characters and their struggles as you tried to understand the choices primarily that Sethe made and how it affected her and those around her.

Quotes:  "In Ohio seasons are theatrical"  Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it....summer had been hooted offstage and autumn with its bottles of blood and gold had everybody's attention."

"It was lovely.  Not to be stared at, not seen, but being pulled into view by the interested, uncritical eyes of another."

The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb

Page Habit Subscription - September Historical Fiction

I had noted this author's name many years ago and her Ballad series, specifically The Ballad of Tom Dooley (#9), but like the numerous authors and books I want to pick up, I hadn't yet.  So, I was particularly pleased that this month's selection was by Ms. McCrumb!!

And I was not disappointed!  What a unique story to research and expound on - a West Virginia murder in the late 1800's prosecuted on the "testimony" of a ghost.  There were a couple times that I felt the story was a little more drawn out than necessary and a couple repetitions, but not so much that it took away from the enjoyment of the story itself.

Living near WV and being in the legal field I may have felt a bit more connected than most, but I think anyone who likes a bit of a legal thriller and well-researched and fascinating historical fiction will thoroughly enjoy this.

Quotes:  " His own particular form of insanity was to see the world exactly as it was, and to despair in silence."

"It was generally the lower-class whites you had to watch out for - those who were afraid of you because the accident of their white skin was the only thing that allowed them to think they outranked anybody."

"Ordinary white people suddenly developed their own form of madness, although it was so universal that it passed for normality:  they became unaccountably afraid of their dark-skinned neighbors."

"Maybe its easier for a father to turn away from a child than it is for the mother who gave birth to it."

"In the law, it isn't so much the truth that matters; it's the consensus."

"What professions doesn't make mistakes?  Cooks cover their errors with sauces; architects with ivy; and doctors cover theirs with sod."

"Life is mostly contrary to expectations.."

"People never seemed to realize that the more they praised Dr. Rucker's supposed generosity, the less they seemed to value James Gardner's ability and worth."

"At times a trial came very close to being a game of chance...hoped he would never have to bet his life on the whims of a dozen random citizens."

Watch Me Disappear - Janelle Brown

Page Habit Subscription - July - Mystery

Billed as a book that "You won't be able to put down".  I didn't find this to be the case.  It was an okay book.  Certainly kept you guessing about what actually happened with red herrings and twists, until the very-last-page.  Yet, it felt at times to be more drawn out than necessary.

I felt the daughter, Olive was well-developed and I suppose mother, Billie was as well because I found myself really not liking Billie at all.  Time and time again she proved to be a coward.

I doubt I'll read another by this author as I have read much more captivating mystery novels by other authors.

Quotes:  "You don't realize how much you'll miss the asphyxiating intimacy of early parenthood until you can finally breath again."

"'Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature.  And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.'"

"...how the collective pain of the world sometimes made it hard to breathe."

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a Classic by an Author of Color

I've come across this title now and again and was thankful for this month's challenge to give me a reason to read it.

A fairly short read (219 pages), but a slower read due to the southern African-American vernacular that Hurston writes the dialogue in.  And while not an epic novel, it has considerable depth.  A romance, a coming of age, statements on race and feminism in a post-slavery era.  The assertion of feminist independence at a time of oppression.  Not only does this describe the lead female character, but exemplifies the struggle of a black female author in 1937.  I'm glad Ms. Hurston persevered - her writing is lyrical and significant.

Mini-Spoiler:  Interesting to read this book in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma just this past month.

Quotes:  "He wanted to be friendly with her again....He was longing for peace but on his own terms."

"In the cool of the afternoon the fiend from hell specifically sent to lovers arrived at Janie's ear.  Doubt."