Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier My rating: 5 of 5 stars *** Warning: Plot spoilers running amok *** Ce n’est pas une histoire d’amour. (This is not a love story.) Lately, I have been re-reading some of my favourite great books (Rebecca, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights) and noticing how differently they read to me, as a middle-aged woman, from when I was an adolescent and young adult. One thing that stands out in glaring neon is that the heroes in these Gothic romances are not simply dark bad boys whom love will turn golden. Honestly, younger me did not recognise how very disturbing Maxim, Rochester, and Heathcliff’s behaviours were. It was all in the name of love, after all? Right? Sigh.…
Posts from the “Book Reviews and Essays” Category
A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk My rating: 5 of 5 stars “I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind works only with my legs.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau “I will sell boza until the day the world ends.” Mevlut Karatas (p. 584) This book is long and meandering, its power like that of a fire built slowly from a bit of kindling and a single spark. From the beginning, it is carefully tended and coaxed along in a quiet but steady fashion until Whoosh!, it ignites in full glory. A Strangeness in My Mind did not particularly grab me, in a dramatic sense, with its opening but it did interest…
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, is presented here as a vibrant, fascinating, unique, and lovable woman, which I’ve no doubt she was. She was also (perhaps unintentionally) hilarious and egocentric to an astounding degree, but no more so than many men of that or any age. Egocentricity always stands out in a woman of past centuries because it’s so unexpected. One suspects it would not have been tolerated had she not been of noble birth and marriage. Happily, for us, Margaret was protected by the good fortune of both. She is most certainly a shining example of a woman who indefatigably pursued her life’s work and her social, intellectual, and artistic…
I began reading the Harry Potter series soon after the first book was published, way back in 1997. Initially, this was because I was working as a therapist at a social work agency which specialized in helping children and adolescents. Every child who wandered into my office was talking about Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Hogwarts. They all wanted owls. So, as I always do when working with kids, I studied what they loved so that I could enter into their world with them. Unlike Yugio or the Avengers or Spider Man, though, I found myself as enthralled with J.K. Rowling’s books as any of the children. Also, I will be forever grateful to Rowling for getting a whole lot of kids reading who were uninterested…
From the Wreck by Jane Rawson My rating: 5 of 5 stars *** Plot spoilers alert *** I am starting a new bookshelf for Jane Rawson. I had never read her until now, and I just love this book to bits. From the Wreck weaves a tale based in a completely believable “real-world” Port Adelaide of the 1850s, but the net is shot through with luminous (or, rather, bioluminescent) threads of magic. The book keeps us floating in a sense of timeless wonder, drifting back and forth between the hard reality of life on land with the “boot stompers” and the beautiful world that simmers and shimmers beneath the ocean’s waves. Rawson’s characters are immediately engaging and memorable. I especially appreciate that…
Book Review: The Girl of Ink and Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
td Whittle
Posted on June 24, 2017
The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have three young nieces who love reading and being read to, so they get quite a lot of books from my husband and me. But I like to read them first and, if they are suitable, buy fresh copies for the children. The nieces enjoy stories about spunky and capable girls with bright minds and big dreams, and this one seemed to tick all the boxes. So I began this book a few weeks ago but then got distracted with other things I was reading. I picked it up again two days ago and found that I could not reconnect with the story. I started…
What Is Past Is Dead by Mohammed Massoud Morsi My rating: 4 of 5 stars The title What Is Past Is Dead (“El Faat, Maat” or “illei faat maat”) seems to mean that one should bury one’s dead, or one’s past, and get on with living. This is an apparently common Egyptian saying, which was chosen for its irony, I believe. For the main character in this first-person narrative, the past is the only thing still alive, and it is palpable. This book is about hard choices and hopeless lives — lives ground down by poverty, violence, war, and desperate measures taken which end badly. Mostly, though, it is a reflection on trauma and the eviscerating grief incurred when one remains alive in…
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have to admit to being very surprised at how much I enjoyed Big Magic, as it was given to me as a gift and I did not expect much. (Then again, it was given to me by my best friend, who knows me.) Until now, I have not followed Elizabeth Gilbert’s career or been a fan of her work. That’s all changed now. I love this book! (Insert hearts, rainbows, unicorns, Hello Kitty and Pusheen emojis, etc.) I received the audio version, read by the author, and was pleased to find that she is an excellent reader of her own work. What I like best about…
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a quote from Shirley Jackson’s NYT obituary: “Because Miss Jackson wrote so frequently about ghosts and witches and magic, it was said that she used a broomstick for a pen. But the fact was that she used a typewriter–and then only after she had completed her household chores.” Jackson had an abiding interest in magic, myth, and ritual. She collected grimoires and cats, and allegedly enjoyed gossip about her being a witch.* Whatever spells she used, the typewriter under the influence of Jackson’s magic fingers produced spooky masterpieces, of which Hangsaman is a shining example. I feel that way about The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived…
Book Review: Three Hundred Words, VI January, by Christopher Yurkanin
td Whittle
Posted on May 18, 2016
Three Hundred Words, Volume I, January by Christopher Yurkanin My rating: 5 of 5 stars This collection of historical-fiction essays by Christopher Yurkanin is a real pleasure to read. I liked that each piece is limited to three hundred words, as this constraint provided a solid frame for the writer to build his tales, with no extraneous pieces. (So, quite unlike Ikea DIY purchases, where extra bits are found under your bookshelf while you pray the thing will hold together with a few bolts missing.) I liked, too, that I learnt a lot, and that the teaching was done with a light and deft touch. The best part, though, is that there is a little surprise at the end of each story, where…