My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Back blurb of My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier: All his life, Tim Meeker has looked up to his brother, Sam. Sam is smart and brave and always knows the right thing to do. Everyone in town admires him. Until now.

Sam has enlisted in the new American Revolutionary Army. He talks about defeating the British and becoming independent and free. But not everyone in town wants to be part of this new America. Most people are loyal supporters of the English king - including Tim and Sam's father.

War is raging and Tim knows he'll have to make a choice. But how can he choose when it means fighting his father on one side and fighting his brother on the other?

My thoughts

It's been a while since I've gotten my thoughts about some of the books I've read up on this blog. In fact, I've started a small notebook where I scribble down whatever comes to mind while reading. [That is the problem with computers, not as handy! ;)]

Although My Brother Sam Is Dead is a children's book, how it tackles the issue of war, its hardships and consequences, and inevitably, its utter senselessness is very adult-like.

This is historical fiction and while the main characters are fictional, the setting - Redding, Connecticut - and some of the people are real. The book has a section in the back which answers "How much of this book is true?" A great introduction for children who have yet to try historical fiction.

This book is also about family dynamics. How do families cope in the face of war?

The relationship of the two brothers was the focus. Do you have an older brother or sister? Then you'll easily be able to empathize with Tim who idolizes Sam. But as the war goes on, Tim comes to the realization that he cannot be Sam ... he learns to be his own person, with his own ideas, opinions, and his own stand about the war itself:

I knew he was wrong. He was staying in the army because he wanted to stay in the army, not because of duty or anything else… knowing that about Sam gave me a funny feeling. I didn't feel like his little brother so much anymore, I felt more like his equal.

The relationship of father and son(s) is also pictured - a tense generational and idealogical clash of Sam and his father. The family dynamic shifts throughout the book, with Tim taking on more and more responsibility with Sam gone. And when Tim's father is captured, Tim automatically steps in as the man of the family.

As a parent, I also realized the dilemma that Sam's parents faced. What do you do with a rebellious son? What do you do when you know that consequences of your child's beliefs could very well kill him and the family?

It's interesting that the women in the story are add-ons, save for the character of Mrs. Meeker. Make no mistake about it, the world depicted here is a man's world. (Thank goodness there are other books that tackle this period from the viewpoint of women).

This is beautifully written, empathetic. I highly recommend it to both children and adults.

[This is a Newbery Honor Book.]

Night by Elie Wiesel

Back blurb of Night by Elie Wiesel: A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family … the death of his innocence … and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

My reflections

First line: They called him Moshe the Beadle, as though he had never had a surname in his life.

Night by Elie Wiesel (Wiesel is 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Winner) is one of the most powerful pieces I have ever read. I finished with a heavy feeling in my chest, of tears unshed, of anger and hatred for what inhumanity man can stoop to.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never."

This is a surprisingly thin volume but you will feel drawn into the story. You can’t stop. Beautifully unverbose, it is an unromanticized historical account. It is exhausting to read as you feel the utter exhaustion that Elie went through – horror after horror, pushing one’s body and spirit to the limit. You need to find out what happens to Elie, his family, his father, to the other Jews. I couldn’t put it down. I finished this in a day.

While I cannot begin to imagine what horrors they faced. There is so much to be learned that you can only look at yourself and wonder what you would do in their shoes … and know in your heart of hearts that you too would question yourself, fellow human beings, and your God.

What is terrifying is that this is not merely a novel. Everything in it happened. Elie Wiesel held his silence for 10 years before he decided to to tell the world his story and that of many other Holocaust survivors.

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.

That is Wiesel’s message, and it is my sincere hope that I never become indifferent. Please read this book. It has moved me and my husband to tears.

Read more on about this amazing man at:

• nobelprize.org
• Wikipedia

{Originally here.}

Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Synopsis of Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Drenched by rain, the town has been decaying ever since the banana company left. Its people are sullen and bitter, so when the doctor – a foreigner who ended up the most hated man in town – dies, there is no one to mourn him. But also living in the town is the Colonel, who is bound to honor a promise made many years ago. The Colonel and his family must bury the doctor, despite the inclination of their fellow inhabitants that his corpse be forgotten and left to rot.

My take

First line: I’ve seen a corpse for the first time.

I was an instant fan of Gabo since I read 100 Years of Solitude some years ago. So it is indeed a treat to go back to his earlier writings and “reminisce,” tracing how his stories and characters have grown over time. The setting, the town of Macondo, is one and the same; and the doctor was in fact introduced to the colonel by no less than Aureliano Buendia.

This is actually much more straightforward in terms of story. Leaf Storm does not rely too heavily on magical realism as compared to 100 Years, but you feel traces of it.

The book opens with the perspective of a young boy, uncomfortable in his clothes, no, his own skin … as he views a dead body for the first time in his life. Along with his mother and his grandfather (the colonel), they are the only people in the village that came to keep watch over the corpse of the doctor.

Through an often-times confusing yet mesmerizing mishmash, the story of why the Colonel was bound to honor the dead doctor slowly unravels. Three perspectives … their thoughts, their observations, their recollections … these overlap each other. This was quite bewildering – on the one hand trying to figure out whose thoughts I was getting a glimpse of, and on the other hand, learning the bizarre story of this man who had pushed the hospitality of the Colonel to the limit and sparked the ire of the entire town.

In the end, no remembers nor really cares about the dead doctor. The story is not merely about a doctor but of an entire village. And more importantly, through the recollections, you go along on the same internal journey of the three characters from three generations.

When I read Gabo, I sometimes feel like I am suspended in between reality and a dream, as he brings a strangely eerie atmosphere with his descriptions. You can almost feel the sweat trickling down your own brow, breathe the thick heavy air, and know the stench of a dead body.

The term “leaf storm” was used as a metaphor for the arrival and departure of a banana company; with its entrance in Macondo came prosperity and abundance and with its departure, it again it again disappeared into oblivion. Just like the doctor.

Skellig by David Almond

About Skellig by David Almond (from Commonsensemedia): Michael's family has just moved to an old fixer-upper. But his baby sister is in the hospital with a heart problem, and Michael feels devastated and helpless.

When he sneaks into the crumbling garage, Michael finds a stranger named Skellig living (or apparently dying) there, a man immobilized by arthritis, subsisting on insects and spiders, and surrounded by owl pellets. While helping him, Michael discovers that the man is oddly light and has strange growths on his back that maybe wings.

As Skellig begins to inhabit Michael's dreams, he and his new friend, Mina, help Skellig into an abandoned house. There Skellig seems to have an odd relationship with the owls, who bring him food. And as Michael's mother keeps vigil by the baby's hospital bed, Michael begins to feel his sister's heart beating within his own, and Skellig appears in his mother's dreams as well.

My thoughts

I really love this book. Any initial disgust one has about Skellig's outer ugliness is erased as his true character slowly reveals itself. It reminds me of the movie City of Angels because it seemed to me that Skellig was an angel ... but definitely not fitting into the image of stereotypical cherubs, but with a darker (though not necessarily sinister, maybe realistic?) side to it. But then the book never claims that Skellig, the creature languishing in Michael's garage, is an angel.

The writing is beautiful, interwoven with snatches of Blake's poetry. The imagery is also beautiful, as if one were half-awake, with a dreamlike quality. One scene I remember vividly is the description of how, in a moonlit room, Michael, Mina and Skellig join hands, slowly twirling ... and in a haze they realize they are slowly floating - no, flying - in the air on their newfound wings. It sounds corny when I write it like this, but Almond's imagery has a sense of grandeur and mystery.

The book takes us alternately through Michael's worry for his sick baby sister, his relationship to the smart-alecky home schooled Mina, and their deepening friendship with Skellig.

It is a simple yet profound story of the importance of friendship and family, and of the unknown ... and accepting that life will always have its unknowns. As Mina says: "Sometimes we just have to accept there are things we can't know."

There is a lot to talk about with kids ... drawing, birds (owls in particular), evolution, arthritis, poetry (William Blake), art. There is also the occasional funny line, such as references to Chinese food as food of the gods.

I urge you to read this strange book. It is good for kids and adults alike. Did I say ... I love this book?

(This book won the Carnegie Medal in 1998 and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award. In 2007 it was selected by judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature as one of the ten most important children's novels of the past 70 years.)

The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve

Synopsis of The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve (from Publishers Weekly): In 1873, two women living on the Isles of Shoals, a lonely, windswept group of islands off the coast of New Hampshire, were brutally murdered. A third woman survived, cowering in a sea cave until dawn. More than a century later, Jean, a magazine photographer working on a photoessay about the murders, returns to the Isles with her husband, Thomas, and their five-year-old daughter, Billie, aboard a boat skippered by her brother-in-law, Rich, who has brought along his girlfriend, Adaline. As Jean becomes immersed in the details of the 19th-century murders, Thomas and Adaline find themselves drawn together-with potentially ruinous consequences.

Shreve (Where or When; Resistance) perfectly captures the ubiquitous dampness of life on a sailboat, deftly evoking the way in which the weather comes to dictate all actions for those at sea. With the skill of a master shipbuilder, Shreve carefully fits her two stories together, tacking back and forth between the increasingly twisted murder mystery and the escalating tensions unleashed by the threat of a dangerous shipboard romance. Written with assurance and grace, plangent with foreboding and a taut sense of inexorability, The Weight of Water is a powerfully compelling tale of passion, a provocative and disturbing meditation on the nature of love.

My take

I love, love, LOVE this book! I even read it twice because I felt like I didn't give it the attention it deserved when I read it the first time around.

Shreve's style feels like you are flipping through the pages of two books in your lap. Although at times it is jarring, the sudden shifts will definitely keep you on your toes ... and wanting to keep reading.

One story is told by Maren, the survivor of the 1873 axe murders (true events, by the way). The first story's facts are so well-researched; you'll be surprised at the amount of material available online, and how Shreve brings these century's old characters to life. What struck me most was how Shreve so skillfully described Maren's life back then, first in Norway, then later on her hardships and loneliness on the barren and godforsaken island of Smuttynose, America. I got drawn into the depictions of Maren's childhood, her relationship with her siblings, and her relationship with the man she married but obviously did not love.

Jean, a photojournalist in the presentday, is on assignment. While researching Maren's story, she too recalls her own life ... her love story with husband Thomas, a poet and their lovely daughter Billy. Stuck on a cramped boat with Thomas' brother and girlfriend Adaline, Jean can't help but notice the charged exchanges between Adaline and Thomas. Jean starts to question her own marriage. She finds refuge in her lovely daughter Billie, and somehow but wrongly in someone else ...

The juxtaposition of these two stories highlights how our lives are basically the same despite time or place. Getting to the endings, they are severely tragic. But I didn't feel shortchanged because of the unusual way to which I reached them. Granted that many people find the story (stories) depressing doesn't lessen that fact that these characters  became real and I felt for them, both sets of characters. I highly recommend this read.

No More Magic by Avi

Back blurb of No More Magic by Avi*: There's no such thing as magic ... is there? When Chris's bike mysteriously disappears on Halloween night, he's sure that magic is to blame. But his science-whiz bother insists that there's a rational explanation for everything. And his dad is always saying "Get the questions right before you get the answers wrong." There's just one problem: The facts don't make sense. All the evidence points to a shadowy figure who Chris is convinced is a warlock. Only his new friend, Muffin, agrees. Everyone else says there's no such thing as magic. Maybe not. But maybe ...

My take 

... but maybe you should go read this book and maybe, just maybe, you will drop the adult tendency to dismiss magic ... and just believe. I love this book because it is so unpredictable! And I actually feel like I am 11 years old again - probably Chris's age - reliving and experiencing the worries and insecurities of a child. It incorporates kid's interest in comic book heroes, good looking bikes, of children's rationality and logic, and the importance of fitting in.

But there is never a time that the author has treated these worries condescendingly, giving Chris a voice that is clear and true.

I truly enjoyed this book! After having read this, I looked up Avi, and realized the following:

1. This is a debut novel.
2. From this novel, Avi (yes, that's his name) later went on to write other great books and became a Newbery Honor Author.
3. Avi suffered from dysgraphia, a learning disability that makes writing difficult because it causes letter reversals and misspelled words.

“In a school environment,” Avi recalls, “I was perceived as being sloppy and erratic, and not paying attention.” Still, in the face of unending criticism, Avi persevered. “I became immune to it,” Avi says. “I liked what I wrote.

This is a very special book, highly enjoyable, great for reading together with your child.

Book Depository*

Echoes by Danielle Steel

Back blurb of Echoes by Danielle Steel: Against a vivid backdrop of history, Danielle Steel tells a compelling story of love and war, acts of faith and acts of betrayal...and of three generations of women as they journey though years of loss and survival, linked by an indomitable devotion that echoes across time.

For the Wittgenstein family, the summer of 1915 was a time of both prosperity and unease, as the guns of war sound in the distance. But for eldest daughter Beata, it was also a summer of awakening. By the glimmering waters of Lake Geneva, the quiet Jewish beauty met a young French officer and fell in love. Knowing that her parents would never accept her marriage to a Catholic, Beata followed her heart anyway. And as the two built a new life together, Beata's past would stay with her in ways she could never have predicted. For as the years pass, and Europe is once again engulfed in war, Beata must watch in horror as Hitler's terror threatens her life and family--even her eighteen-year-old daughter Amadea, who has taken on the vows of a Carmelite nun.

{yes, isn't this long ...?}

For Amadea, the convent is no refuge. As family and friends are swept away without a trace, Amadea is forced into hiding. Thus begins a harrowing journey of survival, as she escapes into the heart of the French Resistance. Here Amadea will find a renewed sense of purpose, taking on the most daring missions behind enemy lines. And it is here, in the darkest moments of fear, that Amadea will feel her mother's loving strength--and that of her mother's mother before her-as the voices of lost loved ones echo powerfully in her heart. And here, amid the fires of war, Amadea will meet an extraordinary man, British secret agent Rupert Montgomery. In Colonel Montgomery, Amadea finds a man who will help her discover her place in an unbreakable chain between generations...and between her lost family and her dreams for the future--a future she is only just beginning to imagine: a future of hope rooted in the rich soil of the past.

With the grace of a master storyteller, Danielle Steel breathes life into history, creating a bold, sweeping tale filled with unforgettable characters and breathtaking images--from the elegant rituals of Europe's prewar aristocracy to the brutal desperation of Germany's death camps. Drawing us into a vanished world, Echoes weaves an intricate tapestry of a mother's love, a daughter's courage...and the unwavering faith that sustained them--even in history's darkest hour.

My take

I have never read Danielle Steel and most probably will never again. I chanced upon this book and figured that she must be doing something right if she sells so many books. I spent this Saturday with this book in hand. And I can't get the time back. Why I'm writing about this ... to warn you not to cave when you see "America's #1 Bestseller" splashed on a cover. Bestsellers do not equal good books.

Besides, you've read the synopsis. That's it. Nothing else. I felt like I had stumbled upon one old issue of Mills and Boone's or maybe one of those silly Harlequin romances. Less trashier maybe, but trying extremely hard to weave romance and history into what could be a highly emotional read. Unfortunately it fails miserably. Sorry Ms. Steel, I'm not buying into your empire.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Back blurb of The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: “Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.” They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister’s death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura’s story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel.

Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist. Brilliantly weaving together such seemingly disparate elements, Atwood creates a world of astonishing vision and unforgettable impact.

My take

I started out pretty well, then slowly got more and more disoriented. With more characters introduced, I felt things getting murkier. After recovering several chapters in, and sorting out who was who, backtracking to understand the importance of newspaper stories interspersed … I started picking up pace and started enjoying myself. I was hooked.

Once in that quagmire of several stories happening all at once, I actually resisted leaving. I felt like I was racing to the finish line. Seemingly discrete characters and mini-stories magically melded and converged at the end. I was ecstatic yet reluctant at having finished the last page. It was like I had became privy to a huge secret. Atwood is truly a master at pacing her readers!

This is my first Atwood book and I am blown away by how unpredictably she has treated the oft-times predictable themes of familial love and dynamics. Isn’t the title brilliant? You read so much into the title alone … who is the blind assassin? Who killed whom? Was the character truly blind or merely casting a blind eye?

Spoilers here: On the other hand, I can’t say that this book isn’t without its flaws. For one, I disliked the two main characters. Our protagonist Iris is a boring old lady and somehow I was nagged that I couldn’t plausibly reconcile the risk-taking lover with the old lady she had become. While I enjoyed the character of Laura, she too became quite a tired, predictable character, at least she was consistently inconsistent throughout. Most of the characters were quite flat and stereotyped, particularly Iris’s husband Richard and her sister-in-law Winifred.

Are Atwood’s storytelling devices maybe, maybe overshadowing the story itself? The pulp science-fiction story narrated by Red, the lover, was interesting but did I miss the metaphors? I felt a little lost here. Sometimes the loveliest of tales don’t need any bells and whistles, a good yarn is a good yarn. Reduce the story to its bare bones and somehow the book loses its appeal and sad to say, is actually lackluster.

Shopaholic and Sister by Sophie Kinsella

Back blurb of Shopaholic and Sister by Sophie Kinsella: Everyone's favorite shopaholic is back! Becky Bloomwood is about to get some incredible news—she has a long lost sister. But can her very own sister really... hate shopping?!

My take

Sophie Kinsella fans are wont to kill me if I say anything terrible about this book, as the Shopaholic series is so popular.

But, as luck would have it, I didn't exactly hate this book. Not at all. In fact I found myself laughing crazily at Becky Bloomwood and her antics. Like who could pass off being "enlightened" and actually run across hot coals barefoot, when all that's on her mind was some half-priced jewelry? Or who would think to entertain a bunch of kids by taking off her bra one-handed without removing her top?

I think that every girly-girl can somehow relate about the penchant for impulse buys. But Becky is larger-than-life but oh-so-relatable. She is superficial, self-obsessed, and definitely has no control over how she spends. What she wants, she buy, at all costs, even lying to a man she supposedly loves. The depiction of Luke, Becky's husband, as a total pushover, disgusts me. Maybe the larger-than-life-ness of Becky is what makes laughing at her so much easier. Maybe we just won't admit that given the chance, we all secretly hope to indulge that shopping devil in us all.

I'd liken reading anything Sophie Kinsella to choosing a fastfood hamburger meal over a gourmet meal. Which isn't that bad once in a while but a regular diet of Kinsella would definitely leave me hankering for something better.

Find out, heaven forbid, if you're a Becky Bloomwood.

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

Summary of The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve (from Oprah.com): Being married to a pilot has taught Kathryn Lyons to be ready for an emergency, but nothing has prepared her for the late-night knock on her door and the news of her husband's fatal crash. As Kathryn struggles through her grief, a bizarre mystery swims into focus, and she is forced to confront disturbing rumors about the man she loved and the life that she took for granted.

My take

This is my first Anita Shreve book and it's incredibly engrossing that I finished in about a day of relaxed reading (on the plane, and some bedtime reading). Kathryn's emotional agony and the painful journey of grieving ... up to her discovery of her husband's "other life" were so poignantly captured. Shreve's easy language only lends to the experience.

The basic question the author asks is can anyone really know another? Can spouses truly know one other? Good question, but the treatment of this profound question is hackneyed and cliched. I really hated the latter part of the book. While Kathryn's anguish in the earlier parts was so nicely built up (maybe a little bit too much for comfort), her indifference to the other wife and children towards the end was disjointed. The unravelling of her husband's secret life didn't exactly mesh with the entire conspiracy plot.

Overall, I found the story half satisfying ... like starting an incredible meal and ending with spoiled dessert. I may try another Shreve book just to give her a chance. Any help would be great ...

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Back blurb of Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, at the precise moment of India's independence, the infant Saleem Sinai is celebrated in the press and welcomed by Prime Minister Nehru himself. But this coincidence of birth has consequences Saleem is not prepared for: telepathic powers that connect him with 1,000 other 'midnight's children' - all born in the initial hour of India's independence - and an uncanny sense of smell that allows him to sniff out dangers others cannot perceive. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem's biography is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

My take

29 May 2007: Making headway! Already into Book 2 and Saleem Sinai is alive ... and his nose is growing. I've gotten through all the geneaological and historical information of Book 1, which was a little tiresome but very necessary to the story (as far as I can see). Wish me luck!

13 May 2007: I must admit that I thought I would breeze through this book, but I keep forgetting the characters' names (all these Indian names are confusing!), and I feel that the author deviates from a main storyline. But I am swimming through these and making headway, and have gotten to a point that I cannot not continue reading. The main character has been born!

Half fiction and non-fiction (or some would believe otherwise), a prophecy of the life of our lead character, Saleem Sinai, sums up how his life is inevitably entwined with the turbulent history of India.

"There will be two heads but you will see only one - there will be knees andnose - a nose and knees. ... Newspaper praises him, two mothers raise him! Bicyclists love him - but crowds will shove him! Sisters will weep, cobra will creep ...

Spittoons will brain him - doctors will drain him - jungle will claim him - wizards reclaim him! Soldiers will try him - tyrants will fry him ...

He will have sons without having sons. He will be old before he is old! And he will die ... before he is dead!"

***

Saleem narrates the events of his own life to his lover Padma, a first person account of his own life. While the title would lead us to believe that it is about the super powers of this elite group of midnight's children, the book bespeaks of a generation struggling to shape the world into a better place and at the same time, they becoming a product of the very environment they aim to change.

I'd been complaining about how it took me a while to get into it. In fact it took me two months to finish it (I carried it everywhere to force me to read in short bursts). For someone who can finish reading a novel in 3 days, this is excuciatingly long.In hindsight, I better appreciate the book knowing it is divided into three parts.

The first part is entirely dedicated to tracing the geneology of Saleem Sinai's family set in India's colonial past. The second part delves into the birth, childhood and early adulthood. The third paints Saleem as old (at 30+ years), after having lived a full yet difficult life.

The first part is very detailed and at times I lost interest, but it lays the groundwork for the entire book, hence a boring-ish necessity. At one point I was wondering when Saleem would be born ... I was a third into the book!

But throughout, you can't help but enjoy the vibrancy and trivialities of Indian life (magicians and seers and Indian customs) and the soap-opera-ish lives of the people (lovers allowed only to see each other through a sheet with a hole in the middle, or a husband being hidden in the cellar, infidelities, and their sex lives).

I also kept wondering about the midnight's children. There are fascinating depictions of their powers and how they might make a difference in a difficult world. But Saleem and his kind, particularly his "twin" midnight brother and nemesis play a prominent role in India's history and the plot, from start to finish.

I started the book skeptical that I would enjoy it. But after the initial difficulty, I enjoyed the writing style - engaging, witty and at times irreverent. Be forewarned that there are many Indian names and unfamiliar (to me) Indian terms, that I had a dictionary close by. This is also the first time I've encountered someone who just revels in compound-compound words like fasterfaster, compound-compound-compound sentences - in fact, one sentence that went on and on for a page and a half. But it works.

The arch of the story is flawless. Don't try to skip sections to get to the ending, it is the process of reading this (rather lengthy) biography that is the source of the enjoyment journey. It is a book with both the mundane and the profound, I came away not regretting reading it.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight's_Children

http://www.thecore.nus.edu.sg/post/pakistan/literature/rushdie/mcov.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_rushdie

The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie

Back blurb of The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie: At her Victorian mansion in St. Mary Mead, Marina Gregg received her visitors like a queen holding court. Moments later, one of her guests was dead - poisoned. Was it murder by mistake? The fading film star's tumultuous past featured an abundant cast of suspects and Scotland Yard was stymied.

Miss Jane Marple, the elderly spinster with an unerrring eye for evil, begins to see the shocking truth ... as a daring killer strikes again.

My take

Whodunit? A major clue was a "look" on Marina Gregg's face as she met with the murdered woman. A look that evoked Alfred Tennyson's Lady Shalott:

Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott

You can easily finish this book at a leisurely rate in a half day. The story is fast-paced, has twists-and-turns, relationships (husbands, lovers, children), revelations and red herrings to keep you riveted and reading. As this is a mystery, it would be totally crazy for me to go into the details of the story!

For those who have yet to read Agatha Christie, this mystery features Miss Jane Marple. I've always loved the character of the "harmless" old (and unaging) lady, Miss Marple, who has such a wonderful grasp of human psychology that she solves murders and crimes by remembering things from her endless store of people she's known in her life.

Here Miss Marple does it again, and the tragic ending bespeaks of many a star's search for elusive happiness.

P.S. This is among my older books and it's been years since I've read it. So a re-read was in order! Agatha Christie was my first major obsession (ok, after Nancy Drew) and I made my acquaintance with Hercule Poirot through one of my grandmother's books. Then on, I was hooked on all things Agatha Christie. I started collecting them, scouring used bookstores, and borrowing from friends.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

About Matilda by Roald Dahl: Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she's knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she's a super-nerd and the teacher's pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda's world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there's the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Mrs. ("The") Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.

She warms up with some practical jokes aimed at her hapless parents, but the true test comes when she rallies in defense of her teacher, the sweet Miss Honey, against the diabolical Trunchbull. There is never any doubt that Matilda will carry the day. Even so, this wonderful story is far from predictable. Roald Dahl, while keeping the plot moving imaginatively, also has an unerring ear for emotional truth. The reader cares about Matilda because in addition to all her other gifts, she has real feelings.

My two cents 

D (who's eight) read this in little over a week. I read this in a few hours (so D and I could "compare notes") and found myself strangely engrossed! Roald Dahl is a genius!

I thought that I had read this as a child (being such an avid fan of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) but no, Matilda is one of Dahl's latter books (published 1988). An endearing tale of Matilda, a child prodigy whose parents don't give a damn, and how she finds an ally and friend in her teacher Miss Honey.

With no thanks to her parents, Matilda resorts to playing pranks to feel better. The imaginative and funny descriptions sent D into gales of laughter. She especially likes the pranks on her father - going to bed with a hat glued on his head, and how his dark hair was "mistakenly" dyed a platinum blonde. The parrot prank is really funny too.

Matilda is is reading classics at age 5. Preferring reading over watching TV (great thing to point out to kids like D), when she does get into school she is eons ahead of her classmates. There is a quick runthough of all the classics that Matilda had read (she especially likes Charles Dickens). Naturally this interested D and she has been looking for these titles in our recent bookstore visits and asking if she can read them too!

Anyway, our lovely Miss Honey tries to get Matilda accelerated so she give her hyperactive mind the exercise it needed, among kids who were the same mental age as she. But, no, the evil headmistress The Trunchbull, wouldn't hear of it. The Trunchbull hates children, even for no apparent reason, and stops nothing short of child abuse (like putting them in the device call the Chokey, hurling kids by their hair, force feeding them too much chocolate cake). You will learn, very quickly, to hate The Trunchbull and empathize with Matilda and Miss Honey.

In a strange turn of events, we learn that Miss Honey and The Trunchbull are related. Through Matilda's newly discovered mental powers, she saves the day for Miss Honey, and The Trunchbull disappears from the book and gladly the face of the earth (insert cheer here).

Who's good and who's evil are clear as day, and it's a no brainer whose side you should be on. Matilda can be a little smart alecky though, and you may get some smart alecky questions/responses from your own little one. The violence of The Trunchbull can be a little offputting, and you may have to reiterate to your child: it's just a story and no one can really hurl a child 10 feet away by swinging her by the hair. Really.

I heard that the movie is pretty good too despite the (expected) deviations from the original. But I always seem to prefer a good read before a movie version.

Highly recommended and definitely a keeper.

Links:

• Wikipedia
• LibraryThing reviews

A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain

About A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain: The only thing "gonzo gastronome" and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?," Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of "perfection" inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks' Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef.

My two cents

Despite the strict weight restrictions on Air Canada, this didn’t stop me from scouring bookstores while in Winnipeg. I would haunt for hours on end the sale sections at each bookstore run in. So imagine my surprise (shock?) when I stumbled upon a C$6.99 hardbound copy of Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal. I snapped it up and went home, sneaking peeks into it during the bus ride with, what I am sure was a silly smirk on my face.

(For those who cannot imagine why I would go gaga over a silly outdated book, here’s the context. I wanted to give the same book as a gift to Y one Christmas and flitted from bookstore to bookstore in the Philippines to get a copy. To no avail. Eventually my request to order in the book came in. Way past Christmas. And way past my limits of my patience. And Y and I had moved on to Jamie Oliver. Oh, at the time, I was willing to buy the book at a crazy close to 2000+ peso tag price.)

Have been reading it (Y has again moved on to another author) and marvel at how much better Tony Bourdain writes so much better than he speaks on TV. He’s not much a looker (he IS middle-aged and is a 28-year-old veteran of New York kitchens) but his book transforms him in my eyes. He is alternately hilarious, irreverent, insightful, silly … but compelling, strikingly honest, and in-your-face in his quest around the globe for a “perfect” meal.

I especially enjoy “Reasons why you don’t want to be on television” where he lambasts his network on his dilemma of how to make good TV and talking in sound bites and forced conversations at the loss of spontaneity. There is no worse thing than saying something scripted for the sake of TV while digging into a piously painstakingly prepared meal (thank goodness his network didn’t sue him for breach of contract, though I guess they realized this makes for even better TV).

You know the “joys” of eating – like indigestion and sometimes inevitable vomiting, and worries about food poisoning and hygiene issues? Tony tells it like it is, and his graphic descriptions are surely not for snotty gourmet eaters.

I’ve also seen his softer side to his oft-times irreverent humor. He become sentimental about his father, his brother, and his childhood in France.

Then in another section he comments about Jamie Oliver ("a boy"), Nigella Lawson’s breasts, and his utter respect for Gordon Ramsey.

Excerpted from the book jacket:

… the adventurous chef crisscrosses the world sampling local delicacies from the sublime to the bizarre.

Throughout his travels, Bourdain discovers again and again the importance of community, of kinship, and the power of food to bring people together.

So did he find what he set out to look for – over Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Morocco, UK, France? His conclusion is surprisingly simple. And so much closer to home.

(I also lugged home Michel Roux’s Le Gavroche Cookbook and Antonio Carluccio’s Italia. I couldn’t very well leave them to languish in an about-to-close bookstore, could I?)

{Originally posted 16 September 2006 on my foodie blog.}

Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell

About Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell: Powell needs something to break the monotony of her life. So, she invents a deranged assignment: She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and cook all 524 recipes in the span of just one year.

My two cents

“How one girl risked her marriage, her job, and her sanity to master the art of living.”

With a teaser like that, who could resist? Have been wanting to read this ever since I ran across the Julie/Julia Project blog during one of my foodie blog trottings. Even just a few entries (recent to old) made me laugh out loud, so when I read that Julie snagged a publisher to transform her blog into a book, I knew it had to be good. As fate would have it, and being the cheapo that I am - I was able to get this as a gift!

I could immediately relate to Julie. Who hasn’t felt like life was passing you by? I have these strange urges to launch into projects to give myself a sense a fulfillment. But probably not as insane as Julie’s assignment of cooking every recipe in the Julia Child classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. No skipping recipes, no substitutions. Every egg, every aspic (gelled calves feet), every brain, liver, offal had to prepared as Julia said so. And to heck with the number of sticks of butter to be used.

But right off, you know it’s not as much about the food than it is about the cook/chef, Julie.

Take for example, the simple (and pretty typical for Filipinos) on extracting, cooking and eating bone marrow. Who would’ve gotten thought you could get these (tongue-in-cheek) nuggets of wisdom?

I clawed the stuff out bit by painful pink bit, until my knife was sunk into the leg bone past the hilt. It made dreadful scraping noises – I felt like I could feel it in the center of my bones. A passing metaphor to explorers of the deep wilds of Africa does not seem out of place here – there was definite Heart of Darkness quality to this. How much more interior can you get than the interior of bones? …

I am a fanatical eater of flesh. But bone marrow, it struck me, was something I had no right to see, not like this, quivering on my cutting board. Unbidden, the word violate popped into my head. “It’s like bone rape. Oh God, did I say just say that out loud?” …

The taste of marrow is rich, meaty, intense in a nearly too-much way. In my increasingly depraved state, I could think of nothing at first but that it tasted like really good sex. But there was something more than that even. (Though who could ask for more than that? I could make my first million selling dirty-sex steak.) What it really tastes like is life, well-lived.

Don’t want to spoil it for you. Go read Julie, she’s got a knack for words. Cooking should never be a serious affair. This book really made me laugh! It also made me realize that French cooking seems to be pretty dangerous! I am officially albeit late Julie/Julia “bleader” (blog reader)!

More about Julie here:

• Interviewed by the Gothamist
• Gothamist: The Julie/Julia Project draws near the end
• Julie’s new blog

{Originally posted on my foodie blog, 26 November 2006.}

Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

About Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani: Lucia Sartori is the beautiful daughter of a fine Italian immigrant family living in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1950. Fuelled by the post-war boom, in which ambitious girls are encouraged to follow their dreams, Lucia becomes an apprentice for a clothing designer at a chic department store on Fifth Avenue. Though she is sought after as a potential wife by the best Italian families, Lucia is determined to have a career. She juggles the roles of dutiful daughter and ambitious working girl perfectly.

When a handsome stranger comes into the story … it is love at first sight. In order to win Lucia’s hand, he must first win over her traditional family and make the proper offer of marriage. Their love affair takes an unexpected turn as secrets are revealed, Lucia’s family honor is tested, and her own reputation becomes the center of a sizzling scandal.

My two cents

I’m ashamed to say I bought this book for its cover … a hard cover with beautiful artwork and a floral flyleaf. It sure looked like a book worth keeping.

The back cover also said “As well as being one of Whoopi Goldberg’s favourite novels, Sarah Jessica Parker ‘couldn’t put it down’. Which is our recommendation exactly – Glamor.” Then there was sticker that said “Shortlisted by Richard and Judy’s Book Club British Book Awards.”

Well, Glamor isn’t exactly known for its book reviews is it? I give more weight to Whoopi’s and SJP’s taste though. I wonder who Richard and Judy are?

***

I enjoy languid descriptions, like whole chapters in Anna Karenina, for example, describing the minutest details that put you right in the story … and Lucia, Lucia has that same quality. You can get lost in all those lovely descriptions about how her fiance looked like an actor she adored, Lucia’s gold lame dress, and of New York life in the 50s.

I’m a little ambivalent about this book. While it’s a quick and enjoyable read (finished it one lazy weekend at home), the storyline and characters are somewhat trite and predictable. Lucia’s character seemed artificial and, well, lacked “character.” Sure, she was beautiful, smart and ambitious … but horribly stupid in love. It’s the same all story retold. Even her redemption at the end didn’t really move me.

I wanted to kick Lucia in the butt many many times. But maybe I should be the one to be kicked … because I suddenly re-read the cover and it actually says: “Praise for Big Stone Gap.” Aha. So it was Trigiani’s other book that Whoopi and SJP liked so much. I think I’ll pass on that though.

I wonder who’d like to have this book? I don’t think I’m cut out for this type of chick lit. Ho-hum.

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Synopsis of After the Quake by Haruki Murakami: The economy was booming. People had more money than they knew what to do with. And then, the earthquake struck. Komura's wife follows the TV reports from morning to night, without eating or sleeping. The same images appear again and again: flames, smoke, buildings turned to rubble, their inhabitants dead, cracks in the streets, derailments, crashes, collapsed expressways, crushed subways, fires everywhere. Pure hell. Suddenly, a city seems a fragile thing. And life too. Tomorrow anything could happen.

For the characters in Murakami's latest short story collection, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent 30 years hating one man: a lover who destroyed her chances of having children, and who now lives in Kobe. Did her desire for revenge cause the earthquake? Junpei's estranged parents also live in Kobe. Should he contact them? Miyake left his family in Kobe to make midnight bonfires on a beach hundreds of miles away. Four-year-old Sala has nightmares that the Eathquake man is trying to stuff her inside a little box. Katagiri returns home to find a giant frog in his apartment on a mission to save Tokyo from a massive worm burrowing under the Tokyo Security Trust Bank. "When he gets angry, he causes earthquakes" says Frog. "And right now he is very, very angry."

My thoughts

My second Murakami book after The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. His short stories prove that he doesn't have the same storylines and same themes. It was eerie reading Wind-up Bird then Kafka on the Shore one after the other ... there were so many parallels that I didn't enjoy Kafka on the Shore as much as I would have liked.

After the Quake made me feel empty, alone, isolated. It's a very lonely book. I don't recommend reading this if you are depressed; it'll only worsen your depression.

Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Back blurb of Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: In Barcelona, an aging Brazilian prostitute trains her dog to weep at the grave she has chosen for herself. In Vienna, a woman parlays her gift for seeing the future into a fortune-telling position with a wealthy family. In Geneva, an ambulance driver and his wife take in the lonely, apparently dying ex-president of a Caribbean country, only to discover that his political ambition is very much intact.

In these twelve masterful stories about the lives of Latin Americans in Europe, Garcia Marquez conveys the particular amalgam of melancholy, tenacity, sorrow and aspiration that is the emigre experience.

My two cents

This is a fantastic book! If you aren't quite ready to plunge into Garcia Marquez's full length books, this one will give you a feel for how he writes. Despite some of these stories being only a few pages long, the stories will stay with you. They are beautifully un-verbose and showcase his gift for storytelling in magical, mystical prose. That is Garcia Marquez's magic.

If you've ever been in a foreign land, you can easily empathize with these characters' feelings of alienation and dislocation; of existing yet being unrooted from your realities and somehow making ones' self fit. The fit may not be quite right, but one manages.

Being of some Spanish influence, I believe that Filipinos (especially immigrants, overseas workers, and simply those visiting Europe and Americas) will see themselves in these characters and how they will tend to cling to familiar and often comforting traditions. You can change the exterior, but deep down you know who you are.

One of the most disturbing stories for me was the one where a woman simply wanted to use the phone ... but nonetheless ended up in an asylum. Over time she did become half insane. It is the tragedy of communicating, yet not being believed.

I have many favorite short stories here. Each story can be read leisurely in a few minutes. I suggest you not to rush through the entire thing in one sitting but savor each story, let it stay with you, and maybe even re-read it.

I've marked my favorite stories, through I loved each story in its own way.

• Bon Voyage, Mr President
• The Saint
• * Sleeping Beauty and the Airplane
• * I Sell My Dreams
• "I Only Came to Use the Phone"
• The Ghosts of August
• María dos Prazeres
• Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen
• Tramontana
• Miss Forbes's Summer of Happiness
• *Light is Like Water
• *The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow

The stories in this collection were originally written in a span of some 20 years, during the 70s and 80s. It wasn't published until 1992. Garcia Marquez draws from his own experiences as he spent some years as an exile from his native Colombia.

The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk

Back Blurb of The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk: Galip is a lawyer living in Istanbul. His wife, the detective novel-loving Ruya, has disappeared. Could she have left him for her ex-husband, Celâl, a popular newspaper columnist? But Celâl, too, seems to have vanished. As Galip investigates, he finds himself assuming the enviable Celâl 's identity, wearing his clothes, answering his phone calls, even writing his columns. Galip pursues every conceivable clue, but the nature of the mystery keeps changing, and when he receives a death threat, he begins to fear the worst.

With its cascade of beguiling stories about Istanbul, The Black Book is a brilliantly unconventional mystery, and a provocative meditation on identity. For Turkish literary readers it is the cherished cult novel in which Orhan Pamuk found his original voice, but it has largely been neglected by English-language readers. Now, in Maureen Freely’s beautiful new translation, they, too, may encounter all its riches.

My take 

Whoa, what an incredible book! This is about self-awareness and self-identity. Who are we? Are we simply the product of our environment, of what we read, of what we absorb? Is there a "you" who exists apart from these influences? Is it even possible to exist without these influences?

Self identity is also tied up to nationality, as Pamuk is a Turkish writer, he has numerous references to the history and the Turkish identity; and the day-to-dayness of Turkish life.

I read this book in under a week. The storyline was gripping. There were parts that I wanted to skip whole sections because I found it dragging. But I didn't give into the temptation, and this has lent to the multi-dimensional-ness of the characters and the world in which they move in.

I loved the ending of the story of the prince. It is this book wherein it wasn't the ending per se that mattered, but how the ending reflected how the character found himself.

Great books make you think, and they make you think hard and deep about yourself, even if it hurts.

More on Orhan Pamuk:

• Orhan Pamuk, the official site
• Wikipedia
• Nobel Prize for Literature 2006

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

From the back blurb of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search from his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.

As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world's great storytellers at the peak of their powers.

My take

Spoilers! It was unfortunate that I read this after Wind-up Bird Chronicle. But I found the storyline much much faster and much tighter, and enjoyed it. Although the many parallels to Wind-up Bird (in symbolisms and characters) can be a bit much. (I suggest you space reading Murakami, or you will get sick of hearing about cats and wells and mother-son tandems).

Anyway, I particularly liked how the story was set up - two seemingly separate characters who by some strange coincidences and events are connected. (And I was shocked to realize that it was someone close to Kafka who was killing all those cats that Nakata was talking to! Que horror!)

The talking cats, the falling fish, a man-woman ... all these are taken in stride and I tried not to be too surprised at how the strange are considered "normal." That is what is normal in Murakami's world, an ability to go beyond the expected and tie these into a coherent storyline.

Links:

• Wikipedia
• Bookbrowse review