Review: Brava Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

 
Brava, Valentine: A Novel by Adriana Trigiani is the second in the Valentine  series.  I reviewed the first is the series, Very Valentine: A Novel, here.  As you can see in that review, I fell in love with the characters so I was anxious to move onto the next book in the series and see what happens to Valentine, Alfred and the entire crazy Roncalli clan.  Brava, Valentine definitely did not disappoint and now I am waiting for the final book in the series, due out in February 2011!

Valentine Roncalli works at her family's custom show company in New York's West Village (love that neighborhood!) and this novel follows her pursuit of a career in the family business and her efforts to take the helm of the business and grow it in new directions as her grandmother exits.  Her ascent to head of the company is complicated by her brother, Alfred, and his lack of faith in her business skills and inability to understand her need to keep the "family" in family business.  Beyond their divergent views on business, they also view families and relationships very differently and that makes for some interesting tension in their work life and in their family's gatherings.

Valentine really begins to grow into herself in this book and takes ownership of her role as creative head of the family business.  I liked seeing this evolution in this character - in Very Valentine, she seemed reluctant to own that role and see her talents as a shoe designer whereas in this book she is almost empowered by her talent and takes the lead more naturally.  With her growing career, come questions about work/life balance and whether she wants a family and how to have that family and dedicate the time necessary to build her business - a never-ending dilemma to which most readers can relate.  Her challenged love life from book one continues and I found myself hoping she would get out of her own way and just let love happen to her!

There is so much more to this book than the snapshot I have offered above in the plot summary - Valentine uncovers a long lost family secret and travels to Buenos Aires to learn more about it, she faces infidelity in her family and the loss of a close friend.  The book is fantastic and offers a deeper dive into the characters from book one.  In fact, in her Blog Talk Radio interview about Very Valentine, the author talks about how she enjoys writing books in series of threes so that she can really "crack" a character and develop them more fully.  I saw that in this book as she offers more insight into Valentine's brother Alfred, and what makes him tick - he moves from relatively one dimensional in book one to much more complex in book two. 

Adriana Trigiani is an artful storyteller and she creates characters that are easy to love- I discovered her The Big Stone Gap series years ago and loved it and am so happy to have found another series to fall into!  You can listen to Adriana Trigiani talk about Brava Valentine in her second Blog Talk Radio interview where she offers insight into where some of the twists in the novel came from and her book recommendations for non-fiction and fiction.  It's good to have some recommendations to tie me over until the release of the third Valentine book in February 2011!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing this book for review

Review: Somewhere Inside by Laura and Lisa Ling

Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home is a memoir of Laura Ling's time spent in captivity in North Korea and her sister, Lisa's, efforts to gain her release. This news story captured my attention as it was happening and I read this book to understand more about what had happened behind the scenes both in North Korea and here in the US.

The book alternates between Laura's story in N. Korea and Lisa's perspective from home trying to get information about her sister and working to win her release. The chapters alternate between each sister's point of view; each sister's story has it's own font so it is easy to tell whose story is being told. It is clear that the sisters are very close - they each relate the story of their childhoods living with parents who fought constantly and how that drew them closer together as siblings with older sister Lisa protecting her "Baby Girl" Laura. They don't explore the past in any great detail except to provide context for their relationship - the focus of the book is the period between March 2009 and August 2009 while Laura was imprisoned by the North Koreans.



As you would expect, Laura's part of the book recounts the time she spent in North Korea from when she and her fellow journalist, Euna Lee, were captured after stepping briefly over the border between China and North Korea, through their trial and sentence to twelve years hard labor and finally their release which was brokered with a visit by former President Bill Clinton. Lisa's chapters told the story of what was going on at home while the events unfolded in North Korea - she spoke of the impact Laura's captivity had on each of her parents, on Laura's husband Iain, and on herself. More interesting to me, however, was the detail on the media campaign and political wrangling that took place in an effort to release the two journalists. Lisa determinedly pursued every avenue politically to try to win the girls' release and it was fascinating to read about all the personalities and egos at play in the effort. It did make me wonder, however, whether if Lisa Ling had not been so well connected in the media and political worlds, if her sister and Euna Lee would ever have been released. She had a level of access to political figures not available to most.

Overall, I liked the book - I read it to learn more about what happened behind the scenes during the incident and I certainly got that from the book. The one thing that didn't sit well with me was the relative lack of emotionality present in the book. This was obviously a very trying time for both sisters but it seemed as if emotions were addressed with a level of detachment that made it difficult to really feel what they were going through - it was subtle but defintely there. That being said, however, the book still delivers the story of two amazingly determined, intelligent women caught in the middle of a geopolitical firestorm - makes for a interesting read!

Review: Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani introduces the Roncalli clan and the world of custom shoes, the West Village and the beauty of Italy. What a combination - the premise sounded irresistible to me and the book certainly delivered.





My Summary: Valentine Roncalli lives with her grandmother in an apartment above the West Village shop that houses the Angelini custom shoe business in which Valentine works with her grandmother. The business has been in the family for generations and Valentine has a passion for her family, their history and for the artistry of making one of a kind shoes using luxurious materials. Amid the stresses of keeping a small niche business afloat, Valentine attempts a romance with a handsome restauranteur and tries to fit their lovelife into their crazy schedules. When Valentine accompanies her grandmother to Italy on her annual buying trip, she steps back into time and her passion for the art of shoemaking deepens. While there, she also begins to question work/life balance and the importance of trying to achieve it all.

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved this book! Valentine is a dynamic protagonist - she is pushed to taking her family business into the current century by financial pressures but then learns she has a real head for business and a true passion for the artistry of the craft of custom shoe design. I found myself rooting for her from the start whether in her struggles with the business or her relationship with the complicated and ambitious Roman Falconi. When she traveled to Italy (a dream of mine!) and observed how much Italians value work/life balance, I found I really related to her desire for a slower pace. This quote, spoken by Valentine, certainly gives me pause,

"You [her Italian friend] live a balanced life. You work, you eat, you rest. We don't. We can't. We live as though we have something to prove. There's never enough time, we eat on the run, and we sleep as little as possible. We believe the one who works the hardest wins."

What I really love about this book, however, is the boisterous Roncalli clan and the vivid descriptions of both New York City and Italy (especially the scenes in Isle of Capri). In addition to their matriarch, Gram, the Roncalli clan includes Valentine's two sisters, Tess and Jaclyn, her brother Alfred, her funny, larger than life mother and her drily humorous Dad. Despite their bickering and the fact that are all involved in each other's lives, their love for each other and the value they place on family is clear. Although not nearly as boisterous (or boisterous at all for that matter!), my family also places a lot of importance on pulling together and being there for each other above all so I could relate to Valentine's involvement with and true affection for her family.

The Roncalli's are from Queens, which is where I grew up, and I enjoyed all the references to local spots in the neighborhood including Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills and Leonard's of Great Neck (I attended a prom there!) If I didn't know that author grew up in SW Virginia, I would think she hailed from Queens - her references were spot on! The level of detail she provides about locales - Queens, Italy, The West Village - really add to the novel and serve to draw the reader even further into her story.

This was one of those books where I was dreading the end because I didn't want to leave the characters or the life the author had created. Fortunately, this is the first in a 3 book series and I was able to quickly move on to the 2nd book Brava, Valentine (review will be posted soon) but it will be a long wait for the 3rd book due to come out in February 2010. If you want a little more from the author in the meantime, check out her website, or listen to her interview with Book Club Girl on Blog Talk Radio where she talks about Very Valentine.

I received this book for review from TLC Book Tours; although the author is orignally from SW VA, she currently lives in NYC and her book is decidedly set in NYC so this review meets the criteria for the Literary Road Trip

Review: Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin

From Simon and Schuster.com:

Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at seventeen, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now seventeen himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister’s art career, and looking after their volatile mother—all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has given her.

Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra’s husband, who has some shocking news. Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago, and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator’s other passengers—Jane’s brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle, and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who’s ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realizes, Tom isn’t the only one among them who’s looking for something . . . or traveling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense.

In this insightful and irresistible novel, by turns profound, poignant, and laugh- out-loud funny, acclaimed Irish writer Anna McPartlin tells a story of friendship and love, of the families we are born into and the ones we create for ourselves, and of the hope and strength that remain when we fi nd the courage to leave the past behind at last.

My Review:
Alexandra, Goneby Anna McPartlin opens with the disappearance of Alexandra one afternoon in Dublin. The reader knows little about her but witnesses her disappearance and the subsequent devastation of her husband, Tom, and her family as they desperately hold out hope that she will be found healthy and safe. While looking for Alexandra, Tom has a chance meeting in a broken elevator with Leslie, Elle and Elle's sister, Jane. The four soon band together in the search for Alexandra and through that process come to know each other and to share their personal tragedies.

Each of the four main characters has their own storyline:

Jane is raising her teenage son alone but still loves her son's father, her teenage sweetheart. She is the matriarch of her family and takes responsibility for not only her sister Elle's career but the rest of life too - she manages her money, provides her with a home and is the rock upon which Elle relies. In addition to Elle, Jane is responsible for their alcoholic mother who lives with her and is prone to rude outbursts.

Elle is the boisterous and unpredictable artist who makes unwise decisions in love and tends to live life in extremes - she is very much the opposite of Jane but their love and affection for each other is clear.

Leslie is the solitary remaining living member of her family - cancer has ravaged the family's gene pool and she has lost both parents and two sisters to the disease. She knows she has the faulty gene that led to the early demise of her sisters due to ovarian or breast cancer and she essentially shuts down, closes herself off from people and relationships while she waits for her inevitable diagnosis and early death.

Tom is devastated by his young wife's disappearance and his life slowly unravels after she goes missing. His relationship with his in-laws is strained as many of them blame him for her disappearance; as a result, he finds himself increasingly alone in his search for his wife and his desperation until he is trapped in the elevator with the three women who sign on for his search and rally around him.

The story is essentially told around the absence of Alexandra - we learn very little about her throughout the novel and the real revelations are in the lives of the four main characters who are tied together in their search for Alexandra. At some point, I found myself almost forgetting about Alexandra as I became more and more drawn into the stories of the four main characters. Because the story is told from the points of view of these four main characters (with a few other minor ones thrown in for good measure), the novel seemed a little choppy to me in the beginning - I felt as if I barely knew any character well enough to care about them and kept wondering when I would learn more about Alexandra. But once I realized that the book was really not about Alexandra and the stories behind each of the four main characters began to unfold, I found I could not put the book down! In the last third of the novel, the revelations come fast and furious for each of the four main characters. Their stories were often very emotional as they dealt with histories of mental illness, sacrificed dreams and the loss of loved ones. I definitely shed a tear or two in the last part of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel - even though some of the themes are quite heavy (death, loss, mental illness), the author infuses the dialogue with humor and quips which helps to lighten the mood of the novel. I am now eager to move onto the other novels by the author currently on my shelf - Pack Up the Moon,Apart from the Crowd, and As Sure As the Sun.

Thanks to Sarah Reidy from Simon and Schuster for sending me the review copy of this novel. The review meets the criteria for the Ireland Challenge 2010

Author Marian Keyes - Skillful Chick Lit

Author Marian Keyes was raised and currently lives in Dublin, Ireland. She has written nine novels, generally in the chick lit genre, and a number of short stories. I really enjoy her novels; although they are chick lit, they often have some deeper themes and are not just fluff. I like my fluff, believe me, but if a book is all fluff it won't hold my interest for long. I enjoy following the outrageous predicaments often faced by her female protagonists while their heart endears them to me. When asked in a Book Reporter.com interview about the Chick Lit genre, Keyes had this to say:

The title [chick lit] is meant to be demeaning, but it's a very important genre. It articulates (or it did in beginning) our post-feminist world, which is all contradiction and the choices inherent in that. Today women are independent --- they have money and jobs, and all are equal in the workplace, except that it's the guys who get promoted. It also articulates our obsession with body image and food, and our anxieties --- career vs. motherhood, career vs. relationships. My generation is the first generation to benefit from what the feminists had done in the '60s and '70s. We believed everything was perfect and that everything was done with feminism. And it articulates our addictions --- exercise, spending too much, etc. Chick Lit uses humor to reflect life back to us. It's a very comforting genre, and it's the first time our generation has had a voice. It's a very important genre for all of those reasons. Yes, my books do fall into this category. Of course, the genre (like any genre) has writers of varying qualities. But the way it sells shows how important it is, how comforting women find it.

Four of Keyes's novels feature the Walsh sisters (Watermelon, Angels, Rachel's Holiday and Anybody Out There)- these novels stand alone but the Walsh sisters do appear in each of the four novels. I have read all four but thought I would feature brief reviews of Watermelon and Anybody Out There since these are her first and last (thus far) novels with the Walsh sisters.

In Watermelon, Keyes introduces us to Claire, the oldest of the five Walsh sisters. Claire thinks she is married to the perfect man until, just hours after the birth of their first child, he announces he is leaving her. Discharged from the maternity ward and carrying all her pregnancy weight (hence the name, Watermelon), Claire seeks refuge with her family in her Dublin childhood home. We are introduced to the Walsh cast of characters including Claire's parents and two of her four sisters and you get a nice taste of what the other books featuring this family will be like but the story is really Claire's. Although Claire's self-deprecating humor makes for a light read, more serious themes are also addressed as Claire faces her decimated self-esteem and discovers the value of being loved for who she really is and not for some ideal she tried to project. This, my first of the Walsh sister books by Marian Keyes, definitely whetted my appetite and I promptly sought out the rest of the Walsh sister novels.

Anybody Out There?, focuses on Claire's sister, Anna. The book opens with Anna at home in the family's Dublin home recuperating from an unspecified injury. The novel then flashes back to Anna's life as a make-up PR exec in NYC and we learn more and more about her life living single in the city. As the flashbacks progress, we also learn of her courtship and ultimately married life in NYC with her husband, Aidan (he noticeably absent from her bedside in Dublin). It clear something catastrophic has happened but the nature of the incident that caused Anna's injuries and the location of her husband, Aidan are not disclosed to the reader and I was truly surprised when everything began to unfold in the last third of the book. This novel elevates chick lit by focusing on the heavy themes of grief and loss while still maintaining her signature humor and light tone. The juxtaposition of grief and humor could fail terribly but this author works with both themes well and the result is an enjoyable but emotional read.

Check out the author's website for more info on her life and a quick look at each of her nine novels. I have her 8th novel, This Charming Man on my shelf and am looking forward to diving into it!
What are your opinions of Chick Lit? Do you deliberately avoid it or are you drawn to it?

Author Colm Toibin: Two Reviews

Author Colm Toibin is an Irish writer and the author of many novels and short stories including Brooklyn, The Master, and The Blackwater Lightship: A Novel. Bookslut (gotta love that name!) has an interview with the author and in it he shares some interesting perspectives on writing and his works. You can also check out the review of one of Toibin's short stories by Joann from Lakeside Musing. I am anxiously awaiting my turn at Brooklyn (my Mom has it right now) but I have read a few of Toibin's works and thought I would do a double review . . .


I first discovered the author a number of years ago when I read Blackwater Lightship - I was gripped by the beauty of Toibin's prose. Although melancholy pervades this novel about a young man, Declan, who returns to his grandmother's home on the coast of Ireland as he is dying of AIDS, the writing is so beautiful that I didn't want to put the book down. The characters drawn by the author are complex which makes this novel so compelling. Declan's family, unaware of the disease he has been fighting, bring all their unresolved issues to the house; the interplay of those issues and the realization by Declan's sister, mother and grandmother that he is dying make for powerful scenes. The scenes, however, are quietly powerful which somehow seems very Irish - there are no impassioned outbursts of emotion. Another draw to the novel for me was it's setting - Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. I have family from this part of Ireland and spent some time visiting the beaches here when I was a child. Toibin described the seaside so beautifully in the novel and I felt as if I had returned.


The Master is Toibin's fictionalized portrait of the author Henry James. Before reading this novel, I had not read anything by James. I wonder if my experience with The Master would have been different if I had read some of Henry James's works or was at least acquainted with his life. Despite this ignorance, I still really enjoyed Toibin's master. Again, as with Blackwater Lightship, the beautiful writing impressed me and I felt carried through the novel by it. This is not a book, however, that you read quickly. The pace is slow and the subject, Henry James, is difficult to get to know. Although you don't need to have read James before reading this novel, I imagine the book would seem even richer with the knowledge of James and his works.

Review: I'll Know It When I See It

I'll Know It When I See It: A Daughter's Search for Home in Ireland by Alice Carey tells the story of Alice and her husband's search for a home in Ireland and the reconciliation of Alice's past. Alice Carey, the daughter of two Irish immigrants from Co. Kerry, was raised in an immigrant neighborhood in Astoria Queens. Her mother was a house cleaner for Jean Dalrymple , a famous theater producer of the time, and Alice spent most afternoons in Dalrymple's luxurious Manhattan townhouse while her Mother cooked and cleaned. This early exposure to the world of theater seems to have heavily influenced her life - Alice became a musical theater performer as an adult.

Another strong influence in Alice's life is that of her mother's Irish heritage and her longing for "Home" in Ireland. Alice's mother saved diligently for years so that she and Alice could travel back to Ireland by boat. Although this trip home was not as idyllic as either Mother or Daughter imagined, it had a strong influence on Alice's life in both positive and negative ways. It certainly is a major driver for her return to Ireland with her husband and her search for a home to buy in Ireland.

There were many points in this memoir where I could identify with Alice despite the fact that our paths in adult life are very different - she an artist, me a scientist. For example, Alice observes as the boat she and and her mother take to Ireland pulls into the dock at Co.Kerry, Ireland:

She's [Alice's mother] completely Irish now. And me? I'm . . . Irish American. No, I'm not at all like those Americans eager to wear green, kiss the Blarney Stone, and soak up the culture. I'm a New Yorker. And I am Irish. Just like Mammie

.

I think Alice does an excellent job in the above quote of characterizing the immigrant experience - the experience of living between two worlds. Both her Mother and Alice are caught between being New Yorkers and being Irish. Of course, you can be both and that is the beauty of the melting pot which is celebrated in this country but the reality of feeling like you only partly belong to two worlds but don't completely fit into either is also part of the immigrant experience.

Alice also struggles with this as an adult - she imagines her what her (now dead) mother might think of her and her husband's return to Ireland to buy a home:

Alice Marie, ye've dyed yer hair, and ye're not a teacher. Ye lived with a man for how many years, before marrying him? Ye ran from home, moved to Greenwich Village and ye now live in a ruin in Ireland. A ruin! What can I tell them at home? I ran from Ireland to better myself in New York. And now you wind up back in County Cork, no less! Not even Kerry. Living in a ruin

.

I know my mother would feel the same way - she was so intent on building a better life for herself and ultimately for her family in NY that she would struggle to understand my desire to go back to live in Ireland. She wants me to love it there and to respect where she cam from but living there is an entirely different story.

I really enjoyed this memoir and not just because I feel I share some of Alice's experience. I did expect the book to focus more on Alice and her husband's adjustment to life back in Ireland but the exploration on her childhood and her family's history was equally satisfying!

This book meets the criteria for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge and the Ireland Reading Challenge

Review: Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney

Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show: A Novel by Frank Delaney

Summary (from Frank Delaney.com): January 1932: While Ireland roils in the run-up to the most important national election in the Republics short history, Ben MacCarthy and his father watch a vagabond variety revue making a stop in the Irish countryside. After a two-hour kaleidoscope of low comedy, Shakespearean recitations, juggling, tumbling, and other entertainments, Bens father, mesmerized by Venetia Kelly, the troupe's magnetic headliner, makes a fateful decision: to abandon his family and set off on the road with Miss Kelly and her caravan. Ben's mother, shattered by the desertion, exhorts, Find him and bring him back, thereby sending the boy on a Homeric voyage into manhood, a quest that traverses the churning currents of Ireland's fractious society and splinters the MacCarthy family.

Interweaving historical figures including W.B. Yeats and a host of unforgettable creationsKing Kelly, Venetia's violent, Mephistophelean grandfather; Sarah Kelly, Venetia's mysterious, amoral mother; and even a truth-telling ventriloquist's dummy named Blarney. Frank Delaney unfurls a splendid narrative that spans half the world and a tumultuous, eventful decade.

My Review

The book opens with the announcement of the birth of the title character Venetia Kelly, as told by the narrator, Ben McCarthy. It is clear from the first paragraph, if not from the novel's title, that Venetia Kelly will play a pivotal role in this story. It is almost as if she is ordained with mythical power even from birth. But rather than immediately dive into Venetia's story, Delaney carefully weaves a tapestry of characters which surround or are connected to Venetia in some way. At first, it was difficult to see how all the threads were going to come together - the story moved from NYC to Ireland and between members of the Kelly and McCarthy families in the first 100 pages. But those 100 pages served their purpose - I found myself completely drawn into the story at that point. I knew the characters well and was driven to read on and see how the story would unfold and how they would influence each other's stories.

The use of Ben McCarthy as the narrator is an interesting device. Ben is telling this story as a man in his 50's reflecting on events that took place when he was an 18 year old on the verge of manhood. He acknowledges that here:

As you read, please know that I am a man of mature years telling the story of himself when young, so forgive me if at times I make the young me seem and sound older than eighteen.

By having the narrator speak so directly to the reader, Delaney makes the reader feel almost as if they are listening to a story being told by a friend as he reminisces about his childhood. The many "digressions" taken by narrator enhances the sense of the story being told to you - Ben speaks to the reader in the way you would imagine any good Irish storyteller would - by taking a circuitous route with lots of color thrown in for good measure. Interestingly enough, there is a link on Frank Delaney's website to lectures he has given on the tradition of Irish oral storytelling. That tradition is perpetuated in his narrator Ben McCarthy.

I truly enjoyed this expansive novel - it is rich and multi-layered and one of the few books I would choose to reread. There is so much woven into the novel - Irish political history, mythology and complex characters- that I feel it is a book that can be read on many levels and you may see different things upon reread. It has been a long time since I have been so absorbed in a novel; this is my first Delaney but most certainly will not be my last - I will definitely be going back to read his earlier novels!

I received this book from the author's publicist for review. This book meets the criteria for the Ireland Reading Challenge and the New in 2010 category of the Twenty 10 challenge

Review: Yesterday's Weather by Anne Enright

Yesterday's Weather: Storiesis Anne Enright's collection of short stories which were written over the course of 19 years. Enright, winner of the 2007 Man Book Prize for The Gathering (Man Booker Prize), is an Irish author and she writes melancholic stories very typical of many Irish writers. This collection includes 29 stories which are set in modern Ireland and tell mostly mundane tales of daily life. Enright skillfully creates stories with impact which is even more impressive considering the backdrop of everyday life against which the stories are set. The characters grapple with marital strife, infidelity, and the strain of motherhood and Enright's description of the small injuries suffered while shouldering these burdens is precise. The descriptions allow the reader to relate to the characters in an intimate way.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories due in large part to the author's writing style - her prose is beautiful and seems almost poetic. The stories were not, however, all consistently good. Some really stood out while others fell flat for me. The cumulative effect of the melancholy that pervade these stories also started to weigh on me as I moved through the collection. I found myself yearning for something hopeful or uplifting in the next story. Although I appreciate dark stories, I think I need them in smaller doses!

Anne Enright's beautiful writing style and her ability to convey so much with few words far outweigh the sometimes gloomy tone of these stories.

Review: Agnes Browne Trilogy

Brendan O' Carroll's Agnes Browne Trilogy is comprised of: The Mammy, The Chisellers, and The Granny. Each book is short (under 200 pages) and tells the story of Agnes Browne and her seven children's lives in a working class Dublin neighborhood. On the whole, Agnes and her brood eke out an existence in tough economic times by depending on each other and using humor to lighten otherwise dark moments.

We are introduced to Agnes Browne in The Mammy, the first book in the trilogy. This book was also made into the movie "Agnes Browne" starring Anjelica Huston. As the book opens, Agnes Browne has recently lost her husband (Red) and her feelings about his death are mixed. We soon deduce that Red was not the best of husbands and liked to drink too much; at the same time, Agnes recognizes that this is a traumatic moment for her seven young children and she does grieve for the man she married and the father that her children have lost. This scene humanized Agnes for me; despite her foul language and apparent callousness, she is a mother at heart and all her efforts to hide her feelings cannot disguise the fierce love she has for her family.

In The Chisellers, we again meet the Browne brood a number of years on from the scene of their father's funeral which opened the first book. The children have grown into teenagers and young adults and are trying to forge lives for themselves - although they do struggle to separate from their mother. She is a powerful force in all their lives and change is difficult for her so she tenaciously holds on to her children and their lives under one roof. But other changes are afoot - due to a revitalization effort in their Dublin neighborhood, the family is being moved to housing in the suburbs of Dublin. Other challenges face the family (I don't want to reveal any spoilers) but they meet those challenges with their unyielding loyalty to each other and signature, although at times slapstick, humor. Overall, this was my least favorite of the three books - I didn't feel there was a lot of action and some of the humor fell flat for me in this one.

In the final book of the trilogy, The Granny, the Mammy becomes a Granny as her children begin to have their own children. Although Agnes has now grown used to the independence of her children and her relationship with Pierre, a Frenchman living in Dublin, is flourishing (and exploring some interesting ways to spice up their sex life!), she struggles with getting older and the moniker "Granny" only serves to remind her of her advancing age! Despite the different directions taken by all the children - only a few are in Dublin now while the rest are in England and other parts of Ireland. I am not usually a fan of books which end with everything all tied up nicely and, although that does happen to a degree in this book, I found the end so heartwarming that I was able to overlook its "perfection"!

This trilogy of novels is not perfect - the books are brief and they do not explore many issues with any depth. The humor can seem slapstick at times and the use of foul language runs rampant throughout. Despite these flaws, however, I enjoyed the three books; the Browne family with their indomitable matriarch, Agnes, grew on me!

These books qualify for the Ireland Reading Challenge

Review: Waking Up In the Land of Glitter by Kathy Cano-Murillo

Waking Up in the Land of Glitter: A Crafty Chica Novel by Kathy Cano-Murillo tells the story of Estrella (Star) Esteban's antics as she tries to redeem herself in the eyes of her parents, her boyfriend and her friends. Star, the daughter of new age parents Dori and Al, moves relatively aimlessly through life starting projects she never finishes and shirking her responsibilities as she lives rent-free at age 28 in her parents' home. Her father finally gives her an ultimatum requiring Star to plan and execute an event to benefit the family business - this ultimatum sets Star on a path to discover what she really wants from life.

Star and her crafting friends - Ofie, Crafty Chloe and Benecio - are very likeable characters. Star is the "Lucy"of the group and she is caught in crazy scenarios that she brings on herself but you root for her anyway. Ofie is desperate for others approval and the mother figure for the group while Crafty Chloe is an ambitious career woman who looks around and realizes her career is all she has in her life. Benecio, the talented teenager who hides his artistic interests from his absent parents, is actually wise beyond his years and provides steady support for the women in the group. The four embark on a crafting project extraordinaire in order to meet Star's father's ultimatum. Along the way they develop a friendship - this friendship and how it supports them through a variety of challenges is endearing.

With these characters and snappy dialogue with frequent pop culture references, the book has a lot going for it. However, when I reflect on the novel in its entirety, it seems to just miss the mark. Some of the scenes are difficult to believe and not just difficult to imagine happening in real life but difficult to imagine with what we are given with these characters. For example, Star and Crafty Chloe move from being arch enemies to the closest of friends with little to explain the transition. I had difficulty believing how easily everything started to fit together within the storyline. There were many storylines going on at once in the novel - perhaps with a few less characters and by cutting a story line or two, the book would have rung more true for me and seemed less trite.

Bottom line - the is a fun, frothy novel but it is terribly predictable. The book does a good job of honoring friendships and the power that an artistic release can have in a person's life.

Review: Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai is a complex novel which weaves themes of class, family and the experience of living as an outsider into a beautiful narrative. The novel is primarily set in Kalimpong at the foothills of the Himalayas in the mid 1980's during the agitation in Nepal for the establishment of a Gorkha state. However, like many of it's characters, the novel straddles two lands - one of the main storylines is that of Biju who has emigrated from Kalimpong and is living in NYC. The counter to Biju's story of struggle as an immigrant in NYC is that of the Judge, the Judge's grand-daughter Sai and Biju's father, "Cook" all living in an isolated house in Kalimpong.

As unrest breaks out in Kalimpong over the establishment of a Gorkha state, Sai, Judge and Cook are all forced to face the upending of a hierarchy that has defined their lives, for better or worse. Desai expertly tells each of their stories, albeit in snippets throughout the novel, and connects them to each other bit by bit. Meanwhile, far away from the foothills of the Himalayas, Biju is living in a different kind of chaos waiting tables and eking out an existence as an illegal alien in NY. There are many themes in this novel but that of the immigrant's sense of dislocation is one that is dealt with especially well and one that really resonated for me. Desai addresses the loss felt by many immigrants in this scene in which Biju finishes a hurried phone call from a dirty street phone booth to his father :

He could not talk to his father; there was nothing left between them but emergency sentences, clipped telegram lines shouted out as if in the midst of war. They were no longer relevant to each other's lives except for the the hope that they would be relevant . . . After the initial excitement [of returning home] was over, it often became obvious that the love was gone; for affection was only a habit after all and people, they forgot, or they became accustomed to its absence.

The poignancy of Biju's sense of being alone in NY but realizing that he also does not really fit in at home is powerful. He desperately misses his father but also recognizes that his emigration, this fulfillment of his father's dream for him, has created a distance between them emotionally that will likely never be bridged. That loss is palpable.

Writing an adequate review of this novel is challenging - the story is ambitious in the many themes it takes on throughout the multi-layered narrative and doesn't lend itself easily to summary. There are many characters in the novel and the author hopscotches among them throughout the book; at times, the story meandered and I wondered where it was all headed. But Desai skillfully knits it all together as the novel approaches its climactic end. The characters, settings and most importantly, the story, has remained with me long after I finished the book - well worth wading through characters and meandering narrative!

BBC World Book Club did an excellent interview with Kiran Desai about Inheritance of Loss - the author even addresses how she struggled to hold all the characters together as she wrote the novel. You can listen to the interview by clicking below:

Review: Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven

One of my regrets is that I did not take the summer (or year) after college off to travel the globe beginning life in the corporate world. Worried about future job prospects, I dutifully took a job which started only 2 weeks after graduation and pledged to take as many trips as possible during vacations. Although I have made good on my pledge to travel and have had the opportunity to go to many far-flung destinations for work, it is not the same as a post college backpacking adventure. So I was immediately drawn to this book when I heard about it - even though the tale it tells certainly blurs the idealistic picture I may have had of backpacking.

Susan Jane Gilman's Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven is a memoir which tells the story of the author and her college friend's post-graduation backpacking trip around the world which begins in China. This is China before it was fully opened to tourists and given an overhaul for the Beijing Olympics so travel there (especially on a budget) was difficult - Gilman and her travel compadre, Claire, faced more than just pollution, putrid smells, bizarre noises - the general assault on the senses - encountered by most travelers to the third world. They also had to contend with the military police tracking their movements and restrictions that the Communist regime had placed on foreigners requiring them to use designated traveler's currency and account for every item they brought into the country upon their exit. Throw in a health crisis or two and Claire's gradual loss of her grip on reality and you can see how this backpacking adventure starts to unravel.

The story is told with the witty, at times snarky, voice of the author and I found myself laughing out loud as I read. From their nightmarish trip to the hospital accompanied by a schoolteacher who spoke little English to their attempts to find an insect-free hotel room, Gilman tells her and Claire's story with smart, funny anecdotes. She expertly describes the emotional rollercoaster she rides as she faces her fears of being away from home, alone in a foreign country and riddled with self doubt:

In China, I was having trouble knowing who I was anymore. There was nothing familiar to reinforce my sense of self: no loved ones, teachers, report cards. While I'd once imagined I was savvy, here in Asia it had become abundantly clear that I was not. . . . Certainly, the primary tool I'd always relied upon for the bulk of my personality - the English language - was no longer at my disposal much. What was really left of me?

It is not all grimy hotel rooms, squat toilets and loneliness; Gilman also describes all the glories of travel - even in the third world. Her description of her trip to the Great Wall and the majesty of the scenery surrounding it perfectly captures one of the true joys of travel - a views ability to make you forget just about everything (even your travel mate's rapid decline into psychosis!)

If you love to travel (or just read about it!) and enjoy funny, smart writing, you will enjoy this one. Makes me want to rush out and plan my next trip . . . and still a little wistful for that backpacking trip I never took!

Thank you to Miriam at Hachette for providing this review copy. This book meets the criteria for the Memorable Memoirs Challenge

Review: Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson

As an unabashed Anglophile, I am a big fan of Bill Bryson. Even though Bryson was born and raised in Iowa, he lived for much of his professional life in North Yorkshire, England after meeting and marrying his wife while working in the UK following college. In 1995, however, he and his family decided to return to the United States - his observations upon return to the country of his birth are chronicled in I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away, another great Bryson book. I love how he recounts his reasons for returning to the US:

"I had recently read, that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another,so it was clear that my people needed me."

That quote is typical of Bryson's dry wit. His books are found in the travel section of a bookstore but could as esily be shelved in the humor section. Before leaving the UK, he decides to travel the country one final time. Notes from a Small Island is the book that came of that final trip.

Bryson travels through England and stays in charming British towns - each in which he inevitably heads out for a walk and finds a pub for a meal and a good pint. As he completes this ritual in every town, he shares the locale's history, comments on its architecture and topography. That may sound dull but as Bryson conveys it all with his sarcastic wit, it is anything but dull. Furthermore, he peppers these descriptions of the towns with his real specialty - observations of Brits and their customs. From Dover to Bath and to Devon, Bryson offers up his witty commentary on the British. This type of commentary could easily drift into criticism told with a foreigner's superior tone (read my review of Lysall's Anglofiles) but Bryson's affection for the country and its people shines through and makes this humorous travelogue a real winner!

Review: Eternal on Water by Joseph Monninger

Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger

Publisher Summary (from Simon and Schuster):

From the day Cobb and Mary meet kayaking on Maine's Allagash River and fall deeply in love, the two approach life with the same sense of adventure they use to conquer the river's treacherous rapids. But rivers do not let go so easily...and neither does their love. So when Mary's life takes the cruelest turn, she vows to face those rough waters on her own terms and asks Cobb to promise, when the time comes, to help her return to their beloved river for one final journey.

Set against the rugged wilderness of Maine, the exotic islands of Indonesia, the sweeping panoramas of Yellowstone National Park, and the tranquil villages of rural New England, Eternal on the Water is at once heartbreaking and uplifting -- a timeless, beautifully rendered story of true love's power.

My Review

This book is beautifully written - the prose is simple but artful in its simplicity. There is a lyricism in the writing that is difficult to articulate in a review - as a reader, I felt that I was gently carried through the novel. Below is an example of the simplicity of the writing:

"The boy's breathing had been unsteady for the past two hours. Air had become more difficult for the boy to find."

By saying air was "difficult to find", the author allowed me to visualize the boy struggling to breathe without saying it so plainly. There are many other such examples throughout the novel.

The storyline is poignant but relatively simple and there are no sudden turns in the plot - in fact, the book opens with Mary's death so you really already know how it ends before you begin. Yet, despite that, I was completely drawn in and enjoyed every moment of Mary and Cobb's story. I was honestly surprised by how much their story captivated me - there is no background provided about either Mary or Cobb before they meet so you are not invested in them as individuals at all before they meet and fall in love. They fall in love immediately and are discussing futures including the possibility of children within two days of their initial meeting. I am not a romantic by any definition of the word - I can be logical to a fault at times and I struggle to understand love at first sight. I cannot imagine falling so quickly and completely for another person and yet I loved Mary and Cobb's story - I credit the author's skill in subtly telling their story with my ability to set aside logic and just fall along with Mary and Cobb.

Mary and Cobb's relationship faces a challenge - Mary knows she will likely develop Huntington's disease which is progressively debilitating and ultimately fatal. Having watched her father die a horrible death at the hand of this disease, Mary has strong feelings about living life fully and exerting some control over her own death. The specter of her death and the hand she expects Cobb to play at the end of her life challenges the reader to consider important questions - would I choose to live my life differently knowing for certain that I would not live a long life? How does one summon the strength to make difficult end of life decisions?

This book has it all - a beautifully told love story, scenery spanning from Maine to Indonesia and it challenges you to consider life's big questions. I absolutely loved this novel and the emotional ride I took with Mary and Cobb.

Thank you to the publisher for providing this review copy.

This book qualifies for the "body of water" category of the What's In a Name Challenge and the "New in 2010" category of the TwentyTen Challenge

Review: The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble

The Reading Group: A Novel (P.S.) by Elizabeth Noble tells the story of a book club which consists of a collection of middle-aged women facing a variety of challenges in their lives and how the friendships they develop support them through these crises. Although it deals with heavier topics, such as infidelity, abortion and the death of one's parents, it is a decidedly light-hearted novel which celebrates female friendship.

The book is told from the perspectives of each of the book club members (and sometimes others in each of their lives) - at first, it was difficult to follow each story but I quickly became familiar with the characters and looked forward to the next chapter which would focus on their story. I do think, however, the story could have done without the perspectives of those outside the book club (such as the significant others of each of the reading group members). The story would have been tighter without the distractions of these other character perspectives - since these characters were not well developed, their points of view didn't seem as relevant to the reader. Other than this criticism, I have positive things to say about the book - I really enjoyed it and it felt like a familiar, comfortable read to me. Was it predictable at times? Yes - but that was Ok as I was quite caught up in the characters and their friendships and that was more important to me than a riveting plot with unexpected turns. I have read other Elizabeth Noble novels (Alphabet Weekend) and will certainly read more.

The reading group in this novel is really just a device to bring together these women, have them tell their stories and develop relationships with each other. The book opens with a quote by Margaret Atwood which I think is pretty apt for the book clubs I have been fortunate to be part of: "The real, hidden subject of a book group discussion is the book members themselves". Like the women in the novel's reading group, the lives of my fellow book club members have unfolded during many a book club meeting and we have looked to the group, at times, to provide emotional sustenance in difficult times. The women in this novel do the same and, as the novel progresses, they look forward more and more to their monthly meetings. My book clubs have mostly talked about the books (I have left book clubs in which the book never came up at a meeting) but the discussion would weave through the book but also the lives of each member or our opinions on issues in the book. The books in the novel are given are very light touch by the reading group - there is no real literary criticism going on at these meetings - but I like how the books are always a backdrop to scenes in the novel and to each of their lives.

There is some interesting content at the back of the book - in addition to a brief bio and interview with the author, there is a list of tips for setting up a book club and a piece written by a member of the author's book club which describes each member and how they approach their book club meetings. For a book club lover like me, this content was a great added bonus!

So, tell me about your book clubs - do you strictly talk about the books at your meetings? Do you clubs consist of friends, acquaintances or both? How do you choose your books?

This book qualifies for the Typically British Reading Challenge and the "TBR" category of the Twenty Ten Challenge