Everything is Illuminated

Ha, I actually finished one! :-)

I'd been looking forward to Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated for literally years. Joe raved about it but lent the book to someone so I couldn't read it at the time... In the meantime I read the author's other book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and was very impressed. Now I finally got to the original recommendation.

And I was slightly disappointed. I liked it, but I didn't love it. And I wanted to (and expected to) love it.

I absolutely loved the language used by Alex, the Ukrainian translator. The way he expresses himself, using English words that don't quite belong together, is wonderful. Unique and clever, this way of using language is certainly impressive.

I also liked the various techniques the author used to talk about the various characters who lived during the war, and even way before. In these parts too, his use of language is beautiful and amazing. The phrasing sometimes made me wonder how long it took him to write this book - do such imaginative ways of portraying things really come naturally to some people? Or do they have to work at it?

I did not like the parts about the distant history of the main village and quickly became frustrated with how frequent/long they were at the beginning of the book. I really think that the second half was better for me because the timelines merged more and there was no more of this strange history.

If it wasn't for these parts I would have loved this sad book. It certainly is a different way of talking about the horrible nature of war and what it does to regular human nature. I'd recommend it to everyone out there, it's one of these books that I think you should try for yourself.

Challenges: 1% Well-Read, 2010 Countdown Challenge, 2nds Challenge, 999 Challenge, A-Z Challenge, War through the Generations

Odd Thomas

I'm back! :-) Well, I'm not that happy about my vacation being over, but I have another mini one coming up in a week and a half so it's not too bad. I hope that I can get my blogging motivation back up again too. I'll have more time come September, as I'll be working part-time due to some pregancy related stuff - nothing serious, just annoying.

So, Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas... this was a July read for me, I've just been away from a computer since then. I can't say that I loved it, although I wanted to. I liked Odd, but I wasn't completely engrossed by the story, which is what I expected. Odd can see dead people and this ability helps him solve certain crimes. It also obviously seriously influences the kind of life he leads, not always for the better. But he accepts his destiny and tries to make the best of it. In this particular book, he uses his gift to stop an evil man from committing his planned crimes. It works of course, but not without consequences.

I found the idea for the story better than the story itself, for some reason. The only time that I was remotely excited about the book is at the end, after a twist in the story line that I totally wasn't expecting. That part is still on my mind.

I'm kind of curious about the next book in the series, but I'm not sure it's worth it. What do you think?

Challenges: 1st in a series, Celebrate the Author, Suspense and Thriller Challenge

We thought you would be prettier

I wanted to read this book by Laurie Notaro mainly because of the title. Shame, shame on me. :-) The subtitle is 'True tales of the dorkiest girl alive' which I thought was also fantastic. How can a girl like me (read: dorky :-)) not read this?

It's a collection of essays, true stories from Laurie Notaro's life. I must say that she has a great writing style - very entertaining. And the stuff that tends to happen to her! Wacky and quirky, for sure.

I'm too tired to write (think) more, but I hope you get the idea. I'll explain why I'm so tired in tomorrow's post.

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Non-Fiction Five Challenge Dewey Decimal Challenge,

Ombria in Shadow

Ombria in Shadow was my second book by fantasy author Patricia McKillip and I liked it much more than the first one I read, Winter Rose.

The story takes place in the city of Ombria - a city that is changing into a dark, terrible place after the death of the Prince. The new Prince is only a little boy, after all, and there is a powerful witch who controls him. And she doesn't want what's best for the city at all... Thankfully, in the shadows there exists a whole community of beings who can help return Ombria to what it's supposed to be.

I liked the magical feel to this book, it really was like reading a fairy tale. I also liked the characterisation - I had no trouble believing in their existence and motivations. If you like fantasy, you might want to try this one.

Challenges: 2nds Challenge, 999 Challenge, Once Upon a Time III, Support Your Local Library

Suite Francaise

Suite Francaise is an account of France during the Second World War, written by Irene Nemirovsky. It is truly incredible that we even have the opportunity to read this book. Irene Nemirovsky was of Jewish descent and was deported to Auschwitz in 1942. She died there a couple of months after her arrival. Her husband spent several months trying to locate her and get her back, not understanding what deportation meant in the Nazi-occupied world. He drew too much attention to himself and was also deported to and died in Auschwitz, not long after his wife. Their two daughters were hidden by friends of the family for the remainder of the war - they were often moved from place to place and it is very fortunate for use that they took their mother's manuscripts with them every time, as something to remember their mother by.

We should be thankful, as Suite Francaise is a beautiful book. Nemirovsky completed two parts of the book, the rest only exists as notes and outlines. The first part is about Parisians fleeing the city before the Nazi invasion. The second is about a small French village under German occupation.

In both, the characters are vivid and real. They are central, as the book is definitely about the human side of war. About the rich trying to save their porcelain rather than helping other people, about trying to survive any way you can, about normal human feelings of loss and anger and love.

In the second part especially, this human aspect shines through as the French people in a small village try to live side-by-side with the Germans who are occupying the area. The German soldiers live in their houses and are part of their everyday life. They are not mean or horrible, they are just soldiers following orders. Some of them are liekable. Some of them are possible to fall in love with. I thought these issues were very interestingly portrayed, very thought-provoking.

This wasn't a page-turner and I found some sections difficult to get through. But it's a book worth reading because it shows part of history and it does so in a beautiful and human way.

Challenges: 1% Well-Read Challenge, 999 Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Banned Book Challenge, Countdown Challenge, Jewish Literature, Orbis Terrarum, War through the Generations

The Family Way

I've read Tony Parsons' earlier books, or most of them anyway, and liked them. I picked this one up because the subject interests me at this point in life... the books deals with having kids, becoming a family, whether you can be a family without kids, what happens if your only choice is adoption, how kids change your relationship with your partner etc.

There are many books about these things out there, but I thought that this one was particularly sensitive to all the problems and resulting emotions. I've been reading it on the metro to and from work and I had to hold back tears many times...

I liked all the main characters - three sisters with very different attitudes towards life, love, careers and kids. I thought that each of the characters brought something to the story and they were all realistic. I din't like how some of th plot lines were so neatly worked out, but hey, it's fiction.

If the subject interests you, I recommend this one!

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Chick Lit Challenge

The Bad Beginning

The Bad Beginning is the first book in the series called A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It's about kids and for kids and reads so quickly that I had it finished during my bedtime reading the other night.

This first book introduces the Baudelaire siblings, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, and starts off their story. Unfortunately, their story starts off sadly with their parents dying in a fire and with them being carted off to a distant relative no one has ever heard of. Needless to say that they are mistreated there. Why? Well, their parents had been very wealthy so maybe someone is out for their money!

I borrowed this from a friend's son, as I was intrigued. I was told that if I liked the Harry Potter series then I'd like this too. We'll see, I'm planning on getting the next one on audio.

One thing I did like about the book is the way it how it includes more difficult vocabulary and explains the words as part of the narrative. I didn't find it obtrusive, in fact I liked the way some of the definitions were phrased. It seems a good way to get some vocab development in!

Lemony Snicket is a pseudonym of author Daniel Handler - he's also one of the characters in the books. I haven't seen him there yet, but he's the narrator too so his voice is there!

I'm curious to read about these children's next adventures. And I really hope they manage to escape from this relative they are living with!

Challenges: 1st in a series, A-Z Challenge, 999 Challenge, Young Adult Challenge

On Beauty

I received On Beauty by Zadie Smith from a friend and since I heard lots of people say they loved it, I was really excited to read it. Plus I've been on a quest to find quality books which aren't miserable and I was told that this was such a book - a happy book. For these reasons and some others, I thought I would love it. I wanted to love it. But as sometimes happens when you hear too much hype, I didn't love it. That makes me very sad but there it is.

On Beauty is basically about the Belsey family and a litttle bit about the Kipps family. The two have a feud going, but some members are drawn to each other despite this. First and foremost there's Howard, head of the Belseys. Intellectual, professor at a liberal arts college, going through a midlife crisis, he loves his family but is dissatisfied with his life in general. I suppose he gets to thinking that there must be more. There's his wife Kiki who has to deal with Howard's crisis, as well as the varied crises of their children and her own disappointments. There are the Belsey children who are trying to find their place in the world. The opposing Kipps family is similar, except that their beliefs are right-wing, so very much unwanted in Howard's liberal arts world.

This book is about so many things that it's hard to know where to start. It's about people - regular people who want to achieve something in life, who want to be happy who want others to think of them in a certain way. It's about belonging, that incredible need to feel part of something, but it's also about the need to be an individual and to follow one's own course.

It's about the differences between men and women, in their actions and their reactions. I love this following thought of a male character: "He had not seen her since that afternoon. And with the miracke that is male compartmentalization he had barely thought of her either."

It's about love and how it survives and changes and breaks. Not only about romantic and sexual love, but also about sibling love. Here is a passage that really touched me, the thoughts of Jerome about his sister Zora and his brother Levi:

"Before the world existed, before it was populated, and before there were wars and jobs and colleges and movies and clothes and opinions and foreign travel - before all of these things there had been only one person, Zora, and only one place: a tent in the living room made from chairs and bed-sheets. After a few years, Levi arrived; space was made for him; it was as if he had always been."

On Beauty also has a political edge, a racial aspect. The Belseys are an inter-racial family and one of the Belsey children wants to be only Black. He wants to belong with his 'brothers'. But Howard is white and a professor and he and Kiki (who once said that she gave up everything Black for her husband) built a regular, white middle-class life for their family. Whether this is actually possible or not is also a theme that runs through this book, as is whether we should help 'our' people. This passage really struck me:

"...but this self-hatred. When I look at Condoleeza, and Co-lin - God! I want to be sick - I see this rabid need to separate themselves away from the rest of us - it's like "We got the opportunity and now the quota's full and thank you very much, adios."

I've gone on long enough, but there is more to say! The book is about so much more but I guess you'll have to read it yourself. And I think you should read it - Zadie Smith's amazingly original use of language warrants it. I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to for many reasons - the main one is probably that I really wanted a happy book and this was recommended to me as such. It's Certainly not a happy book - all the characters are dissatisfied with their lives and are struggling to find/accept their place in the world.

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, 999 Challenge, Countdown Challenge, New Authors