BOOK REVIEW: Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

What do you get when you take a frustrated late-night DJ who's also a closet werewolf? An engaging new heroine ironically named Kitty!

Carrie Vaughn has entered an already crowded market with the first of a new fantasy series based around her character Kitty Norville, a young urbanite who is also a werewolf. Vaughn's novel competes winningly with the likes of Katie MacAllister and Kim Harrison.

Kitty and the Midnight Hour falls out on the excellent side of the "pack." The plot premise intrigues: Kitty has barely settled into her role as the host of the hottest new call-in advice show for the "supernaturally disadvantaged," when suddenly the Powers That Be (of the supernatural world) order a hit on her--while she's on the air!

While people try to figure out if she really is "supernatural," Kitty wants to figure out who wants her dead, avoid being taken out by the assassin--and get her show syndicated. Add a full exploration of the social dynamics of the werewolf pack, and you have a delightfully well-written novel.

One of the Vaughn's key strengths is how very real her novel is. Some of the better-known paranormal novels are so far divorced from reality that it definitely is a work of fantasy. Having been a midnight-shift DJ, I can certainly recognize many of the characters who call in.

Kitty could easily be your friend or the late night DJ you listen to on the radio. Her struggles ring true, as does her quest to figure out her place in the world and sort out the tangled mess of personal relationships and power dynamics around her. It all adds up to a character readers can connect to.

The added bonus is the "soundtrack" Vaughn includes in her acknowledgements. A great collection of classic Goth with a twist. A superb addition to the genre, I eagerly await Kitty's future adventures--as well as more of the eclectic soundtracks.

A delightful story of self-realization as Kitty learns to accept her inner wolf, while discovering the true strength of the inner Kitty.

See the review at Armchair Interviews - Kitty and the Midnight Hour.


tags: Carrie Vaughn werewolves vampires book review Kitty Norville

BOOK REVIEW: Teeth in a Pickle Jar by H.B. Milligan

Megan hasn't had an easy life. Her first sexual encounter leads to a delightful daughter--and a loveless marriage that comes complete with Annabelle, a mother-in-law who gives new meaning to the idea of hauteur and arrogance. After a year of getting by and enduring, Megan has had enough and she leaves Paris, and the husband, for New York City, and her own overbearing mother.

For years Megan devoted herself to providing a good home for her daughter Hayley, trying to provide a balance for the emotionally cold world of Hayley's father and the domineering presence of Mamma. Suddenly Brent, a much younger man, enters the picture, throwing Megan's world into turmoil. Will Megan throw away a chance at true happiness or will she take the leap, regardless of what her Mamma has to say?

H.B. Milligan has crafted a novel of discovery out of some fairly stereotypical plot lines: WASP-ish upper crust society mirrored against the ethnicity of recent immigrants; an overbearing mother of ethnic origin; young single mothers whose lives are relived by their daughters; and finally a middle-aged woman robbing the cradle.
Rather than a formulaic romance novel, Teeth in a Pickle Jar is about searching, discovering anew the shadow our past can cast on our present. Wrapped in a story of a May/December romance, Milligan has constructed a morality play that causes the reader to pause and reflect.

Is it truly better to cling to the hurts we know than to gamble on potential happiness? If Brent is what waits at the end of the journey, then I for one vote for happiness!

Throwing all these disparate plots together with a crazy title like Teeth in a Pickle Jar shouldn't work, but Milligan's pen delights, creating an entrancing tale of self-discovery, friendship and romance.

See the review at Armchair Interviews - Teeth in a Pickle Jar.

BOOK REVIEW: Me, Dead Dad and Alcatraz by Chris Lynch

Elvin Bishop is a creature of routines. He and his Mom have been on their own for many years, and Elvin likes his family of two, plus dog. Then one day his dead Uncle Alex appears sitting on the couch in his living room, determined to turn Elvin's life upside down. Alex wants redemption by "fixing" Elvin's life, to make up for him running off with the money left Elvin and his Mom by his Dad.

Elvin doesn't want fixing--in fact, he doesn't want anything to change. What follows is a struggle of wills between Elvin and Alex, causing Elvin to question everything and everyone around him. Me, Dead Dad and Alcatraz is truly a novel about redemption and finding yourself.

Like all great stories of finding oneself, much of what Elvin goes through is "cringe-worthy"--most readers will be able to relate to Elvin's experiences and empathize with him. Chris Lynch has created a voice for Elvin that rings with honesty, and it adds up to a great coming of age story, filled with humor and humanity. Readers may wish to read Lynch's earlier works featuring Elvin, Slot Machine and Extreme Elvin, before moving on to Me, Dead Dad and Alcatraz.

See the review at Armchair Interviews - Me, Dead Dad and Alcatraz.

My Perfect Vacation

I just discovered the perfect vacation thanks to Marilyn Stasio at the New York Times Review of Books. Here's what she had to say in a recent article on the summer's line-up of new mystery novels.

I once gave a new college graduate what I thought was a great gift: a month's stay at an inn on Cape Cod and a laundry basket stocked with beach towels, flip-flops, suntan lotion, sunglasses and mystery novels. The kid came back tanned and fit, but exhausted from cycling up and down the Cape in search of livelier scenes than the stodgy inn where I had stuck him. The books were returned unopened.

Thinking back on it, I'm still convinced that a stretch of time on a quiet beach with a stack of mysteries is the perfect gift. My only mistake was not giving it to myself. Making up for that now, I've rented a place on the Cape and am packing my own laundry basket of books.

I'm off to add a few of her recommendations to my wish list of summer reading: Shamus in the Green Room by Susan Kandel; Framed by Tonino Benacquista; and They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels by Jim Huang

BOOK REVIEW: The Monsters of Gramercy Park by Danny Leigh

The Monsters of Gramercy Park by Danny Leigh draws the reader into a haunting tale of need and a struggle for power between two determined personalities. Wilson Velez, the convicted felon and leader of the Sacred Incan Royals, needs a reason to live after years of the harshest segregation known in the American prison system. Lizbeth Greene, the celebrated novelist known for the extreme violence that has haunted her life, is looking for her next book. The coming together of these two people to create a true recounting of Wilson's life sets in motion a train of events leading to a truly horrific outcome.

While not your typical blood and gore thriller, this book is perfect for the reader who likes to be kept guessing. Throughout, manipulation and tension keep shifting the foundation upon which the novel is set. Many times I felt the rug pulled out from under my feet as what I believed to be true was ripped away.

Danny Leigh does a great job in fleshing out his characters. Just when you think you know who they are, knowledge is turned on its head and you are left scrambling for a foothold. While Wilson and Lizbeth were not characters I liked, I was compelled to keep reading their story. Several times I found myself ranting out loud at Lizbeth, something a book has not caused me to do in years.

This is a novel that will leave the reader thinking and second-guessing for days to come. Highly recommended for readers who don't want their endings tied up in a box with a pretty bow.

See the Review at Armchair Interviews - The Monsters of Gramercy Park.

BOOK REVIEW: Innocence by Kathleen Tessaro

As the title implies, Innocence is about three young women in London, learning about themselves as they leave home for the first time and attend acting school. Fourteen years later, as Evie faces a turning point in her adult life, she flashes back to the days of "innocence" that lead her to where she is today.

When she is on the mark, Kathleen Tessaro writes prose you want to roll your tongue around and savor like fine wine. It is dense, delectable and begging to be spoken aloud--"In summer, the fig tree drops its heavy fruit to form a thick, gooey compote on the pavement below...." Her gift for descriptions draws you in, setting the mood for her characters, "It's like a house in a Victorian play; overflowing with life, busy with knowledge and experience. Even the dogs lolling about on the oriental carpet are engaged in battles of good versus evil."

I thoroughly enjoyed her debut novel, Elegance, but in my mind her sophomore effort, Innocence, is the more fulfilling read. This is most likely due to Evie who, from her impassioned defense of love at age eighteen--to her contemplation of her co-worker: "Each week, I marvel in fascination at the fragments of R. Fitzroy's life as they unfold before me." Evie reminds me of myself.

Evie's confusion as she stands at the crossroads, unable to make a choice in any direction, can find resonance for all of us.

See the review at Armchair Interviews - Innocence.

BOOK REVIEW: Three Views of Crystal Water by Katherine Govier

Three Views of Crystal Water by Katherine Govier tells the story of Vera, a young Japanese-Canadian at a crucial crossroads in her life. The story is told against the backdrop of the days leading up to World War II.

Vera's young life has been full of familial loss--first her father left their family to follow his pearl lust to Japan and the pearl trade, then her mother commits suicide and finally her grandfather dies. Left alone, Vera travels with her grandfather's widow to Japan to live among the ama divers, women who live with unprecedented freedom. Used to loss, Vera exhibits a skittishness in joining the life of her new village, and she is slow to trust. Vera slowly begins to develop her own luster as she takes control of her destiny. She learns the skills of the ama divers while gaining a sense of her own identity, defined by who she is rather than by those who have left her.

Alternating between Vera's story and that of her family, we slowly gain an understanding of what has driven them in their passion for pearls. The shadowy world of Japan fighting a battle for Asian domination is the perfect foil for Vera's tale.

This is a quiet, intimate novel with a shifting surface, as changeable as the pearl at the heart of the tale. The language is enthralling and Katherine Govier evokes a time and location that to many is shrouded with mystery.

Three Views of Crystal Water is a window into a story overlooked by many when studying World War II.

See the review at Armchair Interviews - Three Views of Crystal Water.

BOOK REVIEW: House of Many Gods by Kiana Davenport

Ana grows up in a small house on the western coast of Oahu, Hawaii, living with three generations of her rambunctious extended family. Like her mother before her, Ana has been abandoned, raised by this group of illegitimates, notorious within their community of poor, native-Hawaiians. The first of her family to attend college and become a physician, Ana moves to Honolulu and eventually meets Nikolai while participating in rescue efforts after a hurricane devastates the neighbouring island of Kaua'i.

House of Many Gods is told from the perspectives of three narrators; Ana, Anahola (her mother, sometimes also referred to as Ana), and Nikolai. Initially each character's path is told independent of the others and as the novel develops, the paths move inevitably toward each other. While in the beginning the narration of both Ana and Anahola adds a great deal of confusion for the reader, further into the novel the multiple perspectives add significant depth to the story.

Ana spends much of the novel isolated, using everything as a shield to protect her heart and keep the world at arms length. When Rosie finally tells Ana the truth, that she rejects everything messy and human and is just like her mother, I wanted to curl up and escape Ana's feelings of mortification. Kiana Davenport writes Ana with such reality that I experienced the loneliness, terror and confusion along with her.

At the same time, since Davenport has so cleverly told the story from multiple perspectives, I also want to reach out and shake Ana out of her self-indulgence and guardedness. House of Many Gods captures the imagination, drawing the reader into the search for self experienced by each character.

House of Many Gods is a character driven novel but it is also a work specific to its time in history and the peoples under siege. Oahu and Russia are characters that are shaped by their time and events. History shapes both people and countries and perhaps this is the most important message Davenport shares with us, drawing the parallels of history between native-Hawaiian and Russians peoples.

While Davenport skillfully plays with techniques, using three narrators and three languages throughout the book, her techniques never interfere with the narrative. This is a mature work that will stand up well to repeated readings and study.

Read my review at Armchair Interviews - House of Many Gods.

BOOK REVIEW: Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin

Emma Gant, fresh out of college, has set her feet firmly on her own path. Leaving behind an impossible family situation, she charts her course for Miami to take her place on the staff of the Miami Star and by the side of her married lover.

It is the summer of 1959, Cuba has been betrayed by Castro and floods of Cuban refugees are arriving in Miami. Emma is quickly enmeshed in the lives of those sharing her hotel. Her predetermined plans for her life quickly falter as different views on life make inroads into her consciousness. With her lively intelligence and curiosity, Emma is determined to keep control of her own situation.

In Queen of the Underworld, Gail Godwin helps the reader experience Emma's search for her essential "Emma-ness", set against a background of chaos, both historical and physical. The concept of "usurpation" is one on which Emma spends a great deal of time. All around her is a physical reminder of this, displaced Cubans now calling the hotel home. However, Godwin draws out this theme in Emma's work, relationships and in the relationship with her married lover.

The use of language in this work also operates on several levels. Emma's neophyte status in the world means that, despite her desire to be seen as a woman of the world, she is continually faced with concepts, history and words she does not know. Daily she is reminded that she can't understand the spoken word around her in her new home and wonders how she would react if she not only had to face a new life but also one where she could not speak the language. Godwin has plotted her story in a way to show the similarities between Emma's life and those of the Cubans around her, using this mirror to reflect to Emma how she is both the usurper and the usurped.

Emma is an engaging heroine drawn vividly to life by an author of great talent. The passion and questioning exhibited by Emma mesmerizes the reader, drawing you into a life beginning surrounded by utter change.

Read my review at Armchair Interviews - Queen of the Underworld.

BOOK REVIEW: The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster

Good opening lines and paragraphs are tough to find but Paul Auster came up with a doozy for The Brooklyn Follies: "I was looking for a quiet place to die. Someone recommended Brooklyn, and so the next morning I traveled down there…" The I is Nathan Glass; divorced, retired insurance salesman, estranged from his daughter, lung cancer patient (in remission) who's looking for a place to die. To wile away the moments until then, Nathan begins by consigning to paper the human blunders, foibles, inane act and embarrassments committed by himself and others. He calls these his "Brooklyn Follies."

Soon after his arrival in Brooklyn, Nathan runs across his nephew Tom, working at a local bookstore. A scholar destined for greatness, Tom has derailed and after years of penance driving a taxi cab, has chosen to sell rare books. What follows is a story of redemption, lost souls and the lives that intersect with Nathan and Tom's saga.

Nathan is a lovable rogue. He exists in the calm eye of a storm while all around him chaos rules. His reentry into Tom's life helps Tom regain his will to live and slowly reengage life. The novel thrusts the reader into this storm, disorienting the smooth flow of plot by adding new characters and continually altering the pace. The chaos is thrilling and serves to absorb the reader more fully into the search of the main characters.

Near the end of Brooklyn Follies, Auster shares a thought that permeates the novel: "Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear." Nathan goes on to wonder who publishes books about the forgotten one. Auster has answered that question with The Brooklyn Follies, a novel chockfull of forgotten ones and little lives. Redemption for Nathan and another enthralling read from a master novelist for those of us fortunate enough to enter his Brooklyn.

As Auster reminds us, "Never underestimate the power of books."

Read my review at Armchair Interviews - The Brooklyn Follies.

Movie Recommendation

I went to see Night Watch (NOCHNOI DOZOR), a new film that's playing at the local rep cinema. As the film's website says:

NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) is the first installment of a trilogy based on the best-selling Russian sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko (which also includes Day Watch and Dusk Watch). This visionary horror fantasy film features a dazzling mix of mind-blowing effects, adrenaline-fuelled action and suspenseful terror.

NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) was an instant smash hit in its native Russia when it was released in July 2004 shattering all previous box office records. Made for a mere $4 million, the film surpassed both LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING and SPIDER-MAN 2 at the Russian box office. Internationally acclaimed, it was also Russia's contender for the 2004 foreign language Oscar® award.

The film is dark, visionary and incredibly cool. I would highly recommend it and I will be ordering my copies of Sergei Lukyanenko's books today.

Night Watch is being released by William Heinemann (in English) at the end of July and the sequel Day Watch is scheduled for release in January 2007. No word yet on a release date for Dusk Watch, the final volume in the trilogy.

Weekend Reading

It's been a crazy week and I am very tired. I slept in way too late today and I think I might have thrown off my sleep schedule just a bit.

So, the mandated cleaning is taking second place to reading. I'm pleading tiredness but really I've been sucked in by When the Rivers Run Dry: Journeys into the heart of the world’s water crisis by Fred Pearce. Completely enthralling is all I will say at this point and utterly terrifying at the same time. Along the lines of an accident waiting to happen. I'll post my review once I'm done.

BOOK REVIEW: Confessions of a Teen Nanny by Victoria Ashton

In an effort to get all my past reviews posted here to create "archives", over the next few weeks I'll be adding some reviews published in 2005. They're all great books so check them out!

Anyone who loved Bergdorf Blondes or Mean Girls is going to love Confessions of a Teen Nanny.

Liz and Adrienne have been best friends since they were little. When friends of her boss need a new nanny, Liz convinces Adrienne to sign on for a two-week stint with precocious eight-year-old Emma Warner. Adrienne and Liz quickly get sucked into the lifestyle of the rich and famous lived by Emma's older sister Cameron--and very quickly their lives spin out of control. How they find their footing in this glamorous world is a delightfully, fast-paced romp.

Told in short, snappy chapters, Ashton has evoked a world where one keeps expecting Paris Hilton to step out of the elevator. Heavy on style and ferociously paced, occasionally the reader is left wishing for a bit more character development.

Sure to appeal to all young fashionistas-- and a few Moms and older sisters may try to sneak off with it, too!

Originally posted on Armchair Interviews.

BOOK REVIEW: The Priest's Madonna by Amy Hassinger

In 1896 Bérenger Saunière, the priest of Rennes-le-Château, suddenly became very wealthy. Has he uncovered clues leading to the hidden treasure of the Knights Templar or information that he is using to blackmail the Catholic Church?

The Priest’s Madonna by Amy Hassinger is based on historical facts: there really was a priest named Bérenger Saunière who came into a great deal of money and whose housekeeper Marie was rumoured to also be his lover. The villagers of Rennes-le-Château dubbed her “the Priest’s Madonna” and Marie carried Bérenger’s secrets to her grave, even though many suspected she knew the truth behind his wealth. Hassinger has taken historical fact, woven in possibility and created a riveting novel that gives Marie a voice to tell her story of faith and doubt, desire and chasteness.

Comparisons will inevitably be made to The Da Vinci Code; however The Priest’s Madonna is more than a clone. While the mystery of what Bérenger may have found is tantalizing, Hassinger’s novel is about relationships and faith, about love, obsession and the consequences of our choices.

Marie and her family moved to Rennes-le-Château in the Languedoc region of France in 1884. Initially receiving a chilly welcome from the villagers, they are integrated into the village life more fully once the new priest begins to board with them. Marie is drawn to the handsome young priest and eventually becomes his housekeeper, eschewing opportunities for marriage and a family of her own.

Marie’s story is told in counterpoint to that of Miryam (Mary Magdalen), the woman many suspect was the lover of Yeshua (Jesus). In the question and answer section of her website, Hassinger addresses why she chose to interweave the Marie/Bérenger story with that of Mary Magdalen/Jesus.

“The parallels with the Marie narrative are clear: forbidden love between a woman and a holy man, the themes of spiritual sickness and health, of faith and doubt, the search for what is meaningful and holy in the physical world.”

Both Marie and Miryam are educated beyond the norm for the villages where they are raised. These strong women are plagued by doubts, demons and seek truth no matter what the cost. Marie chooses to continue to learn, to investigate the Cathars who had settled her area of France and in so doing, learns that the Church is fallible. She chooses to imitate Bérenger, to “imitate his daring, to honor my own thirst for truth over doctrine.” Learning helped both women on their journey to become the consorts of spiritual leaders.

By juxtaposing Marie and Miryam’s stories, Hassinger has crafted a novel that illustrates the timelessness of her themes. Interweaving the history of France at the turn of the twentieth century, scenes of ancient Judea, and the romantic and religious journey of a spirited and intense heroine, The Priest’s Madonna transcends its historical setting, becoming a novel for the seeker within all of us.

The Priest’s Madonna is Amy Hassinger’s second novel, the follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut novel Nina: Adolescence. Hassinger also wrote Finding Katahdin: An Exploration of Maine's Past published in 2001. A graduate of Barnard College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received her MFA in fiction writing, she and her family make their home in Urbana, Illinois.

See the review posted at The Book Depository - The Priest's Madonna.

Black Books, a favourite TV show

I don't know about you but there is so much for me to love about British TV shows. My hands-down favourite? Black Books...it's just so...black!

Thanks to Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind for bring this fabulous link to my attention. This is Bernard in all his glory, enjoy.

My Hor-O-Scopes, Courtesy of Crazy Aunt Purl

It's that time of the month again chez Crazy Aunt Purl - Hor-O-Scopes. Given the fracas from last month, and the general bleck of May, I have high hopes for June. What gives that hope you ask? Why the bold section below! Bring on the joy June...

SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 21)
I heard it through the Pissed-Off-At-Astrology Grapevine that Scorpios were really unhappy with the way most of last month went. How do I know this? Did you not hear all the Cancers also complaining that Astrology had FAILED us, and we were giving up stars altogether, and also, hand me that bottle of Cabernet right now before I smack you upside the head with this here mean and ugly stick? So, June is here, and I know you're still kind of mad about May, but you simply cannot get revenge on a whole month, so you must let it go. The problem is of course Saturn (Damn you, fat planet of hardship!) and take it from someone who just spent seven long years wandering in the desert of Saturn, it does get better. The best thing about you and June is your real willingness to try new things to revitalize your life. It's rare that ya'll don't dissect through the consequences or results of all your actions, and this month you will feel liberated and (mostly) care-free, willing to travel to a new place, meet new people, all of it with a who-knows-what-could-happen attitude. This, Scorpio, is a very positive development. Walk lightly, and leave the mean and ugly stick for someone else. Maybe the Virgos could use it.

Paul Auster wins Spain's 2006 Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature

I saw this today on Rake's Progress:

Paul Auster, author of novels including "Mr. Vertigo" and "The New York Trilogy," has won Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature for 2006, the prize giving foundation said on its Web site.

Auster, 59, also writes poetry and has written screenplays for movies including "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face." He is considered one of the "most relevant" U.S. authors of his generation, the Prince of Asturias Foundation said.

His work "creates a literary universe around chance and the search for identity, where reality and fantasy invade people's every day space," according to the foundation.

Congratulations to Paul Auster. I really enjoy his work and I was lucky enough to read and review The Brooklyn Follies last fall.

BOOK REVIEW: Even Vampires Get the Blues by Katie MacAlister

The fourth entry in Katie MacAlister’s paranormal romance series featuring the Dark Ones is sure to satisfy her many fans and earn her some new ones. Full of her trademark sense of humour and kooky characters, Even Vampires Get the Blues is the story of Paen, a Moravian Dark One doomed to spend his life in search of the woman who can redeem his soul. There’s just one problem – Paen doesn’t believe in love.

Samantha Cosse, a half-elf recently kicked out of the Order of Diviners, has just opened her own private investigation agency with her cousin Clare, a lingerie model in denial about her status as a flower-eating faery. Sam and Paen’s paths cross when he hires her to track down the Jilin God, a lost statue that he needs in five days' time or else his mother's soul is forfeit to a demon.

Featuring many of the denizens of the Otherworld met in previous novels – Guardians, Diviners and Mages to name a few – MacAlister continues to flesh-out the fascinating world inhabited by her supernatural heros and heroines. In Even Vampires Get the Blues MacAlister provides more of the history and creation of Moravians through Paen’s hunt for the Simia Gestor Coda. The Coda is rumoured to contain the details about the origins of Dark Ones, including a way to unmake the curse binding them to their soulless state, without involving a Beloved.

The secondary romance of Clare and Finn, Paen’s brother, helps to offset the tension caused by the time-limited quest for the Jilin God. Their playful interaction helps lighten the tone to one in keeping with reader’s expectations of MacAlister’s works.

New York Times bestselling author Katie MacAlister writes historical, contemporary, paranormal, and young adult romances (as Katie Maxwell), paranormal thrillers, and historical mysteries. Fans unable to wait until May 2007 for the next Dark Ones romance will be able to get their fix in September 2006 in the paranormal anthology Just One Sip, featuring the short story "Bring Out Your Dead.”

See the review posted at Curled Up with a Good Book - Even Vampires Get the Blues.

BOOK REVIEW: Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage

Firmin begins life at a disadvantage. Born the runt of the litter to an alcholic mother sheltering in the basement of an independent bookstore, Firmin begins to eat pages of books in order to survive. When Firmin realizes the books he’s digested have given him the ability to read, his love affair with literature is born. Existing through a daily diet of nourishing classics, Firmin quickly becomes an outsider existing in a no-mans land between what he is (a rat) and what he wishes to be (human). Sam Savage’s Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife can be read as a quirky little tale about the book-loving rat in all of us, or as a philosophical look at life. It is a witty novella and a powerful homage to a life lived through and around books and the enduring influence of great writers.

Firmin’s initial consumption is rather indiscriminate, one book tasting much like any other. Soon however, Firmin notices subtle flavour differences between works and as his understanding of literature develops, his need for literal consumption diminishes. Firmin reads and “lets the books center my dreams, and sometimes I dreamed myself back into the books.” Any true booklover has often wished to disappear into a book; the weak becomes strong, the housebound travels and the voiceless thunders speeches to the masses. Firmin finds relief from his outsider status by becoming the characters, “I must constantly remind myself, sometimes by means of a rap on the head, that Eisenhower is real while Oliver Twist is not.”

The name Firmin comes from the Latin Firminus meaning “firm” and is the name of several early saints, but Firmin the rat is anything but firm or saintly. He worships at and is torn between two temples; Pembroke Books and the Rialto movie theatre; knowledge and lust; sages and his “lovelies” (the ethereal actresses that parade nude through the late night movies at the Rialto).

Savage positions before the reader these two elemental aspects of humanity; the earthy nature of the body and the spiritual realm of the mind. By casting this dichotomy into the body of a conscious rat, he is able to mock our delusions and perceptions. Holding a mirror up to our souls in the character of Firmin, we question our essential selves and our understanding of reality. Should our perceptions be taken as true or, like Firmin, do we delude ourselves into believing we are other than what we are?

Both of Firmin’s temples offer an escape from reality and the pull from both is strong. By casting the theatre into the role of seducer, Savage resurrects the worry that movies will destroy books. While today it is clear that books have survived the assault of movies and television, the concern for the relevance of the great works of literature in modern society continues.

Savage holds a doctoral degree in Philosophy from Yale University so it should come as no surprise that this slim volume is full of more questions than answers. Whether Firmin, capable of consciousness and immersion into the great works of fiction, is a better mirror for humanity’s frailities because he is a rat is difficult to state. What is apparent is that Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife merits repeated readings for Savage has filled its pages with much food for thought. This gem of a book should be a treasured addition to any bibliophile’s bookshelf.

See the review posted at ReadySteadyBooks - Firmin.

BOOK REVIEW: One Mississippi by Mark Childress

Daniel Musgrove’s family has moved six times in 10 years. That’s what happens when your Dad is a saleman for TriDex, a company that moves its sales force around every year or two to keep them on their toes. Daniel’s mother is thrilled to be moving home to the south, closer to family and a place where her toes will finally be warm, but the Musgrove children are decidedly unhappy.

Things quickly go from bad to crazy in characteristic Mark Childress style. On the drive to Mississippi the van carrying all the Musgroves’ belongings is destroyed in an accident. Daniel and his siblings start at their new school on the first day of court-ordered integration. A few months later their Granny dies and crazy Uncle Jacko comes to live with them. All of these are minor happenings compared to Arnita Beecham, a beautiful black girl, winning Prom Queen and, later the same night, being run down by another student as she bicycles home. Suddenly the hidden tensions rise to the surface, spiraling ever further out of control. The match that finally sets it all alight - Arnita comes out of her coma believing she is white.

One Mississippi carries on in the trademark narrative style of Crazy in Alabama and Tender, a form descended from generations of front porch storytelling sessions - luminously descriptive, yet full of caustic wit. Childress peoples his novels with exaggerated characters, misguided do-gooders and desperate loners, all in their own way demanding the reader’s empathy and understanding. The South is a strong character by itself in Childress’ novels, for it is only in these expertly crafted settings that his novels can exist. Time and place demand as much attention as the people strolling casually across the page.

Childress writes coming of age stories particularly well, effortlessly transporting the reader to the awkward days of adolescence.

“In high school it’s all about how you walk down the hall – whether you stroll through the flow or dart along the edges, whether you hold the stack of books on your hip with one hand (guys) or press them two-handed to your chest (sissies and girls.) Notes are scribbled and passed, rumors fanned and blown down the hall.”

One Mississippi feels like you’ve stepped into a world where the air is thick enough to chew, the lemonade is tart enough to kill a three-day thirst and the neighbours are friendly enough to invite y’all over for some southern fried chicken. This is the perfect read for the long, hot days of summer.

See the review at Armchair Interviews: One Mississippi.

BOOK REVIEW: The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić

“…stimulating the memory was as much a manipulation of the past as banning it.”

The Ministry of Pain (Ministarstvo boli) explores what it means to be a refuge, to live in exile from your country. Told through the eyes of Tanja Lucic, a temporary teacher in the Department of Slavonic Languages at the University of Amsterdam, Dubravka Ugrešić’s novel follows Tanja’s journey as she and her students explore their memories of a lost country, language and the meaning of language.

Throughout The Ministry of Pain, Ugrešić invokes the idea that the life of an exile is like living in a fairy tale or a parallel world. Early in the novel Tanja states:

“I had the feeling I might well – if like Alice I should lose my footing and fall into a hole – end up in a third or fourth parallel world, because Amsterdam itself was my own parallel world. I experienced it as a dream, which meant it resonated with my reality. I tried to puzzle it out just as I tried to interpret my dreams.”

Fairy tales provide resolution, heros winning and justice prevailing. In a world of chaos, Ugrešić expresses that the simple plots and “literary heroes who are brave when ordinary people are cowardly, strong when ordinary people are weak, noble and good when people are mean and ignominious,” are what appeal in a country where “languages were used to curse, humiliate, kill, rape, and expel.”

For émigrés, exile means defeat and dysfunction. On her return from a trip to Zagreb, Tanja meets another émigré who councils her to forget anything as a way to create a new life for herself. Through his voice, Ugrešić suggests that for émigrés time moves slower than reality. Those left behind have moved on and adapted to the new reality while émigrés are still stuck in their own time. The return home means a return of the memories, and a search for a fairy tale land that no longer exists. To achieve peace and a release from the past, émigrés must forget using the “miraculous little erasers we all have in our brains.”

Ugrešić’s fundamental questions appear to be these: For those lost in time and place, does forced remembrance equal torture? Can pain lead to reconciliation, a penance that allows émigrés to live outside their former country without guilt? Ugrešić has created a novel that leaves the questions without answer, compelling each reader to search inside for an answer.

In The Ministry of Pain, there is much discussion among Tanja’s students on the value of Yugonostalgia: the yearning for a country and culture that have vanished into the maw of history. Ugrešić’s gift is in creating a novel that functions both as Yugonostalgia and a paean to the resilience of the human spirit.

Dubravka Ugrešić was born in the former Yugoslavia (Croatia), left her homeland in the 1993 and currently resides in The Netherlands. A novelist, essayist, and literary scholar, The Ministry of Pain is her seventh work to be published. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Ugrešić has received several international awards, including the Italian Premio Feronia 2004 (previously awarded to José Saramago, J.M. Coetzee, Günter Grass, Ismail Kadare, and Nadine Gordimer).

Michael Henry Heim, a professor of Slavic languages and literature at UCLA, translates works written in Russian, Czech, German, Serbo-Croatian. The Ministry of Pain is the fourth work by Ugrešić in whose translation he has been involved.

See the review posted at Curled Up with a Good Book - The Ministry of Pain.

Thoughts on a Saturday

There is something about being wide awake at 3 am that makes getting up at 5:30 am rather difficult - so my day started without much sleep. It was already a busy morning at the Mennonite Relief Sale when I arrived shortly before 7 am. The plant tent had done some pretty brisk business on Friday night, selling over $2,000 of plants in a few short hours. The tables were looking rather picked over but more plant donations kept arriving throughout the morning so we were busy pricing and selling house plants, perennials and vegetables/herbs.

I picked up several new house plants: a really healthy coffee plant, a philodendron, Dracaena and a tiny baby palm. Hopefully I be able to find them all the proper light and humidity to keep them healthy.

I've spent most of the rest of my time reading and will have some new reviews to post as soon as they are posted on the review websites. David Long's new novel The Inhabited World causes a lot of reflection and Mark Childress returns to small-town life in the south of the 1970's in One Mississippi. Both will be out in early July.

For pure kooky fun, grab Shanna Swendson's Once Upon Stilettos, as ArmchairInterviews.com says, it's chick lit for the Buffy and Bewitched crowd.

Next on the reading pile? The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, Ticknor by Sheila Heti and The Dodecahedron by Paul Glennon.

Type Books: Toronto's Newest Independent Bookstore

I'm posting this for my friends who don't read BookLust's great blog. Toronto has a new independent bookstore so you must all go forth and shop! You can find this gem at 883 Queen Street West and business hours are as follows: Mondays – Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10:00am to 6:00pm, Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00am to 8:00pm, and Sundays from noon to 5:00pm. Type's website is still under construction but given how cool their logo is, I can't wait to see the website in all its glory.

I know where I'll be going on my next trip into Toronto.

BOOK REVIEW: It's the Crude, Dude: war, big oil, and the fight for the planet

This review has been submitted to Alternatives Journal but I do not know when/if it will be included in their publication.

The Iraq Invasion as Smokescreen: Fight for Democracy or Oil?
It’s the Crude, Dude: war, big oil, and the fight for the planet, Linda McQuaig, Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2004, revised and updated 2005.


“…the Middle East, with 2/3 of the world’s oil and lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies.” Dick Cheney, November 1999

Linda McQuaig, a journalist well-known for taking pokes at the big myths, now focuses on the largest. In It’s the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil, and the Fight for the Planet, McQuaig aims squarely at the debate no one is having - Why was information on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction falsified and why did the United States want to invade Iraq? During the 18 months since the falsification came to light, no commission or committee has been convened to investigate. It’s the Crude, Dude is an attempt to bring into perspective the US’s actions in Iraq by positioning them within the historical perspective of their behaviour in the Middle East, and their quest to control the world’s oil resources.

McQuaig posits that the Iraq invasion was already planned to serve the interests of Big Oil when Cheney was still CEO of Haliburton. Once George W. Bush took office, two key policies to benefit the oil industry were immediately implemented: withdrawal from the Kyoto Accord and the beginning of the invasion of Iraq. Bush and Cheney have continually put the interests of Big Oil before those of democracy, global law and the American citizen. The “war on terror” has provided the smokescreen of “national security”, creating the illusion that there are no competing interests at work within Bush’s administration.

The oil shortage has already begun, mostly unacknowledged by officials, and, thanks to NAFTA, Canada gave up its right to reduce oil exports to the US, unless we reduce our own consumption by the same amount. McQuaig believes this wake-up call needs to be heeded and the reliance on oil reduced if Canada hopes to weather the coming war between China (second in oil consumption) and the US over oil.

At a time when the world’s focus should be finding renewable energy sources and environmental conservation, the current US administration is rolling back environmental protections and promoting reliance on oil.

McQuaig doesn’t put forward anything Canadians don’t already know or suspect. It’s the Crude, Dude provides a starting point for the discussions that must happen, framing the research and statistics in a clear, concise manner understandable by the average concerned citizen.

2006 Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg, Ontario

I'm putting in a plug for the annual Mennonite Relief Sale being held this Saturday (May 27)in New Hamburg, Ontario. This event involves 2,000+ volunteers each year and since 1967 has raised more than $12 million for the relief efforts of Mennonite Central Committee.

What will you find at the sale? The famous quilt auction, lots of great food, homemade pies, indoor and outdoor plants, and a tent featuring items from Ten Thousand Villages.

Events start at 7:00 am at the Fairgrounds in New Hamburg and the Quilt Auction usually begins at 8:30 am. For a partial preview of this year's quilts, visit the online gallery. Maps to New Hamburg can be found here.

If you're in the area, this is an event you shouldn't miss. As an added bonus, many people in New Hamburg hold their annual garage sales on Saturday.

Initial musings on finishing "The Ministry of Pain"

First I have to say wow...totally not what I expected from the blurb on the jacket. Incredible writing and I have to admit that I wish I could read Croatian to have the experience of reading this in the original.

I wanted to read this prior to reading the postings in the Book Group at Words without Borders or any of the interviews with Dubravka Ugresic. I didn't want others' comments to affect how I read the book, which is my general practice when reviewing a book.

There is so much going on in this book that I need to digest. I hope to have a review up here shortly - in the meantime I can suggest is that you go and grab a copy of this book and read it as soon as possible. It's well worth your time.

Long Weekend

After so much posting on Tuesday, I went into a dry spell. I've been writing so many reviews lately that I had lost any words to put here.

Today's a new day and the start of the weekend that I always think of as the beginning of summer. I'm not sure why other than warmer weather beginning and this being the first long "party" weekend...which so does not go with it being the celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday. Yet this is traditionally a party weekend. The name most people call it by is the "May 2 - 4" weekend (a two - four is what we call a case of beer in Canada) since May 24 is the office Victoria Day.

All this rambling leading to one point. It's a long weekend, Monday is a holiday, summer is officially starting here at the Eclectic Closet - party on!

BOOK REVIEW: Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary by Alice Sparberg Alexiou

"Designing a dream city is easy, rebuilding a living one takes imagination." Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs coined the phrase “sidewalk ballet” to describe the chaos she believed created livable cities. An advocate for increased density and diversity in urban settings, she believed that nothing is safer than a city street that everybody uses, one that is not too long, with a mixture of workplaces and residences where “the eyes on the street” provide a secure environment. In Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary, Alice Sparberg Alexiou has created a lively portrait of one of the leading thinkers on cities and urban renewal.


Self-taught, Jacobs gained her ideas by questioning everything she observed and read. She spent long periods walking the streets of New York City, noting the bustle and rhythms of neighbourhoods and natural gathering points. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs’ seminal work, gathered these observations and shared her groundbreaking opinions on rebuilding cities. Fiercely opposed to the human toll caused by the bulldozing of America’s slums, Jacobs’ work challenged the establishment, as did many groundbreaking works of the Sixties.

Refusing to cooperate with Alexiou’s biography and asking her publisher not to facilitate the book, Jacobs claimed the biography distract from her writing. Alexiou displays obvious admiration for her subject; however, she is not blind to Jacobs’ shortcomings. One of the strongest criticisms of Death and Life was its failure to address the race question by analyzing communities where access to capital was impossible. Alexiou makes the case that Jacobs never did addressed race.

Jacob’s words and passion were the weapons that she marshaled in her battle, her razor-sharp language so at odds with her down-to-earth appearance. Opponents like Roger Starr, a former New York City housing administrator, found that her appearance was misleading; "What a dear, sweet character she isn't."

Right up until her death on April 25, 2006, at the age of 89, Jane Jacobs continued to work. Perhaps this tribute by New York Times best sums up her life and career: "Jacobs’s legacy can be seen in the New Urbanism, in the landmark-preservation movement and in the brain cells of architecture and city-planning students everywhere."

Alexiou’s work is timely. The battles Jacobs fought are still with us; the exodus to the suburbs continues while New Urbanists argue the benefits of intensification and SUVs replace pedestrians in ever increasing numbers. Alexiou’s writing style helps the reader feel comfortable with Jacobs’ message, one needed now more than ever, before the “sidewalk ballet” is lost forever.

See the review posted at Armchair Interviews: Jane Jacobs

The Ten Books One Would Save in a Fire

Found this interesting exercise on A Work in Progress and just had to fill it out myself. Taken from A Passion for Books: The Ten Books One Would Save in a Fire (If One Could Only Save Ten)

So this raised an interesting question for me - do I save the books it would be difficult to replace (i.e. those that are out of print or terribly expensive to replace in hardcover) or those I truly love.

I decided to do two lists and see how they compare.

The Ten Books One Would Save in a Fire (If One Could Only Save Ten)- based on books I love:
1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes
3. Make Way for Lucia by E.F. Benson
4. The Jeeves Omnibus: No.2 by P.G. Wodehouse
5. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
6. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
7. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
9. Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
10. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

The Ten Books One Would Save in a Fire (If One Could Only Save Ten)- based on the difficulty to replace the books in hardcover or at all:
1. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
2. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
3. Bloodsmoor Romance by Joyce Carol Oates
4. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
5. Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
6. Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber
7. The Comedians by Graham Greene
8. English Eccentrics by Edith Sitwell
9. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Great Grandma received this as 3rd prize in one of her classes in 1931.)
10. Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

Not sure what to think after completing the two lists. Any thoughts?

BOOK REVIEW: After Helen by Paul Cavanagh

In 2004 the London International Book Fair held its inaugural “Lit Idol” contest modeled on the popular “Pop Idol” television show. Submitted as a 10,000-word manuscript, with accompanying two-page story outline, Paul Cavanagh’s After Helen was selected as winner out of a field of 1,500 competitors. Cavanagh’s completed novel (substantially more than 10,000-words) was picked up by HarperCollins Canada and released with a relative lack of fanfare when compared to the publicity surrounding his “Lit Idol” win.

After Helen is the story of the relationship between Irving Cruickshank and his daughter Severn, as they deal with the death of Helen. Irving, still reeling from the loss of his wife, has no idea how to deal with a teenage daughter. Severn, walled up inside herself with grief and anger, is quickly spinning out of control.

The match thrown into this powder keg is the reappearance of famous author Jack Livingston, Helen’s old lover. He is in town to promote his new novel - a tale of a young girl’s search for the truth about her bloodline, and a mother who has left her, set against the backdrop of Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition. After meeting Jack at a book signing, Severn disappears and Irving’s memories of Helen come brilliantly to life as he chases the daughter he fears lost to him forever.

The question critics and readers will ask is this – does this “Lit Idol” winning, debut novel measure up to the bar set by its early promise?

Cavanagh chose to structure his novel in a discordant manner, alternating chapters told in the past and present. The reader is on a journey of discovery with Irving; however, we have only the briefest hint of current knowledge against which to position the flashes of his developing relationship with Helen. This disjointed narrative is unsettling for the reader, pushing one into feelings of anxiety and unease that invoke an immediate empathy for Severn and Irving.

Despite the deep connection the reader feels with Irving, the roller coaster of emotion brought on by the flashes between the birth of his relationship with Helen, and life after her death, quickly becomes overwhelming. Empathy turns to frustration as Irving’s tendency to function as an emotional doormat becomes more apparent. Just as the reader wants to leave the ride behind, Cavanagh pulls the book back onto the rails by having the storylines of the past and present converge.

Like the fictional author Jack Livingston, Cavanagh has taken a true-life plot and used it to cast light on modern day relationships. Whereas Livingston used Helen’s story to cast light on Franklin’s doomed expedition, Cavanagh has used the obsession of the explorer with the frozen north to look at the emotional wastelands that exist after a family member dies.

“Severn and I are no different. We’ve both become lost searching for Helen in a landscape of bitter emotions that we can barely begin to understand. It’s about our own survival now.”

Emlyn Rees, one of the “Lit Idol” judges, commented on Cavanagh’s eye for the little details that bring characters to life. It is his skill in evoking the sense of a character that distinguishes After Helen.

“I claw my way to the edge of the bed. I can’t summon the energy to sit up, so I lie on my belly and let my legs slide off the bed until I’m kneeling on the floor, my face still planted on the mattress…I feel like a little kid saying his bedtime prayers.”

Cavanagh has shaped engaging, realistic characters and, despite some irritation with Irving and Helen, After Helen is a promising debut. The little details show his developing ease with his craft, and vindicate Cavanagh’s win of the inaugural “Lit Idol”.

See the review posted at ReadySteadyBook: After Helen

BOOK REVIEW: The White Rose by Jean Hanff Korelitz

In a complete departure from her previous novels, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s third novel is a modern retelling of Richard Strauss’s comic opera Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose). Set in Manhattan and the Hamptons, The White Rose is the story of Marian Kahn, a professor and discoverer of the eighteenth-century adventuress, Lady Charlotte Wilcox, and Marian’s much younger lover Oliver, son of her oldest friend. Married for many years, and comfortably settled in her relationship, Marian is stunned to discover the passion that explodes when she meets a grown-up Oliver. Their relationship is a source of joy and misery for Marian, one that is made more difficult by the arrival of Marian’s cousin Barton, in town to announce his engagement to Sophie, a young graduate student in Marion’s department. As the lives of the four become increasingly entwined, Korelitz has many opportunities to meditate on love and its relationship to time.

Compared by many reviewers to Edith Wharton, Korelitz has a keen eye for the vagaries of the privileged classes. Reexamining New York Society’s views on adultery, social climbing, wealth and status, Korelitz presents the old money position through the characters of Marian and Caroline, Oliver’s mother, and the cutting views of gossip columnist Valerie Annis. The satire on this position is represented by Marian’s cousin Barton and contrary views are portrayed through Oliver, with much of the commentary coming in the voice of the adventuress Lady Charlotte.

One of the central points explored in The White Rose is whether happiness can come from wealth or status. Marian suggests that if people followed the example set by Lady Charlotte, they’d be happier.

“If she [Lady Charlotte] had gotten too attached to the idea of happiness coming from wealth or status, she would have spent most of her life feeling that she’s lost her chance to be happy, but she never linked those ideas together.”

Marian seems to be questioning herself in this passage, raising the question of why she can’t be free like Lady Charlotte and be happy with Oliver, overturning the status quo and walking away from society’s expectations of her. The characters in The White Rose fall out on two sides of this entrenched debate, lined up in the camps that fit with their place in New York Society’s hierarchy. Caught up in Society’s expectations, Marian seems unable to stir from the torpor induced by her wealth and position. Her minor rebellions from this set role – her affair with Oliver, publishing her work on Lady Charlotte and her relationship with Soriah, a fan of her book - still are not enough to enable her to follow the lead set by the adventuress.

Despite Marian’s mundane existence, she seems to exist in a world apart, her own “Aubergine Time”:

“There is a time in each day that is neither afternoon nor evening but something breathless in suspension between them when every particle of air is briefly infused with fierce, fierce color, one instant so utterly there, than gone.”

The White Rose provides a window into this time in Marian’s life, that moment when she is poised to choose between what is comfortable and a chance at happiness. Marian’s story causes us all to question what we would do when faced with our own “Aubergine Time.”

Jean Hanff Korelitz is the author of a book of poems, The Properties of Breath, and two previous legal thrillers, A Jury Of Her Peers and The Sabbathday River. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon, and their children.

See the review as it is posted at Curled Up with a Good Book: The White Rose.

Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic

Today's reading item is Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic. It got bumped up the queue since the discussion groups started today at the Words without Borders Book Club.

For an interesting interview with Ugresic, visit the House of Mirth (thanks to the Literary Saloon for the link).

And check back, my review will be posted soon.

When worlds collide

Lately my reading appears connected. This week I was reading an advance copy of the new biography of Jane Jacobs (Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary) and learning a great deal about the bulldozing "urban renewal" schemes of the 60s in major US cities. Then today I picked up Firmin by Sam Savage and it is sent in 1960s Boston, in a part of town (Scollay Square) designated for demolition and "renewal".

Makes me wonder what is going to connect next...

BOOK REVIEW: Every Mother is a Daughter by Perri Klass & Sheila Solomon Klass

What is it that makes the bond between mother and daughter so different from any other relationship? Is it the shared experiences? Or is it as Perri Klass and Sheila Solomon Klass contend in their book Every Mother is a Daughter: the neverending quest for success, inner peace, and a really clean kitchen (recipes and knitting patterns included) that every mother is also a daughter?

Klass and Solomon Klass have collaborated to write this engaging exploration of their relationship and the extent to which each has mirrored the life of their own mother. Both are published authors with distinct voices that fit well in a collaborative effort. Klass, a pediatrician, has a column in Knitter’s Magazine as well as writing non-fiction and fiction books. Solomon Klass is a retired English professor who writes fiction for adults and children.

Every Mother is a Daughter explores the stereotypes of gender and roles, especially as they pertain to the all-important role of feeding a family. Solomon Klass, raised in New York during the depression by Orthodox Jewish parents whose marriage was full of bitterness and conflict, internalized many of her mother’s fanatical beliefs about women’s roles. Escaping the bleakness of her silent childhood home right after high school, Solomon Klass carried many of her mother’s admonishments into her own marriage: men were not allowed in the kitchen; dinner must contain a starch, a green vegetable, a protein, and a fruit; and women should get dressed immediately upon rising.

Klass, born in Trinidad but raised in New Jersey, gently teases her mother for her quirks while marveling at her bravery and independence. While Klass deviates from her mother’s frugality and insistance on home cooked meals (dinners are often eaten out), she has carried on her mother’s legacy in raising strong and independent children, while working full-time herself.

Reflecting on all stages of their lives, Klass and Solomon Klass create a memoir written in two voices, the most compelling being the section on “Becoming a Mother, Becoming a Grandmother.” Solomon Klass writes so meaningfully on sharing the birth experience with her daughter that the experience stays with the reader for days.

As Solomon Klass states “this whole book is really about lives so blended as to be inseparable.” Perhaps that is all anyone wants, a relationship with their Mother that is so positive that all their lives are blended, not just childhood. Every Mother is a Daughter is a loving testament to the powerful bond between mother and daughter.

See the review as it is posted at Armchair Interviews: Every Mother is a Daughter.

Reading the World 2006

Would someone please help me understand how I missed this? And not just this year but last year also! The mind boggles...

From their website -> Reading the World 2006 is an exciting collaboration between booksellers and publishers to help bring international voices from around the world.

So even though it's already part way through this year's event, I'm going to try and do my part. Interestingly enough, I'm already reading The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic (Translation by Michael Henry Heim), published by Ecco for review at Curled Up with a Good Book. I'll have to see what other international authors I can read yet this month.

Thanks to Chekhov's Mistress for promoting this important concept.

Sock Woes

I knew I should try the sock on before now...but in a classic case of avoidance I was ignoring the potential problem. It's my first sock and I didn't want to jinx it prior to the gusset reduction. The thing is, it looked too big for my foot, but I was chalking that up to not having a clue about what the sock should look like.

Last night, halfway down the foot of sock one, I slipped it on and - you guessed it - it's too loose. So I face a dilemma, continue on, make sock two and just wear them around the house or rip back to the end of the slouch ribbing and start over on smaller needles.

I'm inclined to rip back so that I actually wear my first socks out of the house. Any recommendations?

They grow so fast

I love being an aunt, honourary or not. So when I get photos of the wee ones, I have to proudly share! Is the blog the equivalent of pulling photos out of one's wallet?

This is Isobel Mae - 4 months old and absolutely gorgeous. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly their personalities begin to show.

The Amazing Lace KAL

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2006 Knitting Olympics so when I found out Chris had joined The Amazing Lace KAL I thought why not? The Knitting Olympics taught me just how much I enjoy lace knitting so here is a chance to expand my scope as a lace knitter.

I will have to ponder what lace project I'll pick for my teammate on this adventure. Will it be Convertible from the new issue of Knitty.com, Ella from Knitty's Fall 2005 issue, the Yarn Harlot's Snowdrop Shawl or something else that will highlight the beautiful, deep red alpaca lace-weight yarn I picked up recently.

BOOK REVIEW: Morehouse Farm Merino Knits by Margrit Lohrer

In the sea of recently published knitting books, Morehouse Farm Merino Knits: more than 40 farm-fresh designs quickly separates itself from the flock with its opening line: “Morehouse Farm began with a voodoo chicken.” An opening like that is difficult to live up to but while the patterns that Margrit Lohrer offers are simple, the book itself and its reasons for such simple patterns hold up admirably to that first sentence.

Morehouse Farm is well known for the sumptuous merino yarn they produce. This collection was designed by Lohrer to highlight the inherent beauty of merino yarn by designing to play to its strengths. Merino is one of the oldest breeds of sheep and has the finest wool, due to its tightly crimped and springy nature, making for finer, softer, and itch-free garmets. As Lohrer states about these patterns: “None of the patterns are particularly challenging, but all will yield attractive and functional knitted items…The patterns in this book are a starting point. Be creative…Knit what you want, the way you want it to look, feel, and wear.”

The patterns are divided into five sections: home, lace, children, accessories and sweaters. While Lohrer does specify which of her yarns to use for each pattern, weight and gauge information is provided so that knitters can substitute other yarn as desired. The patterns, while basic, are great foundation pieces that will provide years of knitting and leave room for individual creativity.

Lohrer’s introduction, scrumptious photos and in-depth details about Morehouse Farm make Morehouse Farm Merino Knits a worthwhile addition to any knitter’s library.

See the review as it is posted at Armchair Interviews - Morehouse Farm Merino Knits.

Further fuel for the Kaavya Viswanathan discussion?

Just in case you don't read Bookslut every day, check out this article from The Morning News. We need more words like schadenfreude in our daily lexicon.

BOOK REVIEW: The Seas by Samantha Hunt

The Seas, Samantha Hunt’s debut novel, relates the coming of age story of a nameless 19-year-old young woman as she struggles to free herself from small town life and a terrifying destiny. Branded by her father’s suicidal walk into the ocean eleven years earlier, and by his insistence that she is a mermaid, the narrator is consumed by her love for the Gulf War Veteran Jude – to the point that it begins to affect her vision. Terrified that her mermaid self will destroy the object of her love, and isolated from a mother who “collects silence inside her”, the narrator spends her time waiting:

“Waiting to grow up. Waiting for my father to return. Waiting for Jude. Waiting for something big to happen.”

Caught in a place between reality and myth, her delusions lead to actions that ensure she will never escape the ocean’s pull and her increasing separation from reality.

Hunt has created a poignant yet creepy novel, filled with images of water that seem to overwhelm the narrator. Desperate to fulfill her destiny, yet caught by her obsessive love for Jude, this young woman is caught by the dilemma faced by Undine, the Elemental of Water and goddess portrayed by Homer. Her love for Jude threatens her true destiny as a water spirit, only through loving him and giving herself to him can she truly become a woman and gain a soul. Isolated from her mother, the young woman has only her father’s mythology and her own desires to guide her into womanhood.

Capturing the essence of mermaid, or water spirit, legends in The Seas helps Hunt create a truly unique tale that illuminates her personal views on being a young woman in modern times. Hunt describes her choice of topic thus:

“Mermaids, as of late, have been co-opted by Hallmark, Disney, and the like. But mermaids are terrifying…They are gruesome distortions of the female form that speak to the human fear of females, particularly females as sexual beings. I thought using a mermaid as narrator would be helpful in explaining how truly awkward it feels to grow from adolescence into a woman in America.”

Hunt creates a mythology that suggests by remaining cold, a true mermaid, the narrator can gain freedom. She must put her father and Jude behind her, and adopt the attitude of the ocean, which “is full of everything except mercy.” If she doesn’t she is destined to suffer a fate similar to Undine, drowning her love with her kisses.

Words have power in The Seas - literal power. The narrator, falling on type, finds the letters have formed words in her bruises. Words also are the narrator’s only connection to her perceived reality, represented by her grandfather and his fascination with dictionaries. Her mother, used to silence, finds words too precise. The narrator finds water full of words with many possible meanings. It is here that Hunt leaves the reader – a novel that is open to whatever ending each finds within the words.

Samantha Hunt, an artist, writer and teacher at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, spent four years writing The Seas. As she explains in an interview with Powell Books:

“First I wrote this book as a collection of two-hundred-fifty-word stories. Two hundred of them. Then I put it aside and I had the bad idea to write it as a book of poems, which is around somewhere still. But I put it aside again, and when I went back to it I made it into The Seas. That's why the novel took four years.”

Her next novel - The Invention of Everything Else - on the life of Nikola Tesla and early electrical experiments in America, is to be published by Houghton Mifflin in Spring 2007.

See the review as it is posted at Curled Up with a Good Book - The Seas.

18th Annual Elora Festival Book Sale

What a morning! Despite the cold wind and periodic drizzle, the crowd queued to get into the sale was quite long. We arrived about an hour and a quarter before the doors opened and were still about 50th in line. By the time the doors opened, the line snaked around the parking lot and had about 150 people in it.

The Elora Festival Book Sale raises money for the Elora Music Festival and, I think, is the best book sale in this area. So it goes into my calendar as soon as I get a new one each year.

So what did I buy? Well I should start by saying that I was on a much tighter budget this year so I was only able to spend half of what I did last year.

The Haul
8 books from my wish list
- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
- Merde Actually by Stephen Clarke
- Publish and Perish by James Hynes
- The Sex Life of my Aunt by Mavis Cheek
- Lucifer's Shadow by David Hewson
- The American Boy by Andrew Taylor
- River of the Brokenhearted by David Adams Richards
- Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

3 Hardcovers to replace my paperback copies
- A Whistling Woman by A.S. Byatt
- Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
- The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard

11 other books

Total? 22 books for $54.75!

Next year my plan is to be there when it opens for the initial pickings, have lunch and then go back in the afternoon for a more leisurely perusal.

So reserve May 5 & 6, 2007 for next year's sale!

A Cry for Help

The emergency call went out from Audrey - hundreds of books at the Caroline Street Recycling depot that need saving. There were a couple of workers trying to sort them out and make sure readable books were in appropriate bins, but they said there were too many and they would have to haul some away. In her words - "Get down there and rescue some of those books!"

As a member of the local BookCrossing group, it is my duty to rescue readable books and make sure they reach new, appreciative readers. So I did my part and went over, sorted through some of the bins and rescued about 50. I've been busy registering all of them to my shelf at BookCrossing and even found two wish list books, always a treat!

Overall, not a bad visit to the recycling depot. You never quite know what you'll find.

The real book event this week? That would be the 18th Annual Elora Festival Book Sale on Saturday. I'll be in line an hour before the doors open. This is my yearly book sale pilgrimage and I can't wait to see what treasures I find this year.

A Few Technical Changes

You might have noticed a few minor changes at the bottom of the navigation bar. I added a SmartFeed courtesy of FeedBurner and have claimed my blog at Technorati.

Why? Well for two reasons...

1) This post by Bill Sweetman at One Degree.
2) I'm trying to learn as much as possible about Blog Optimization and decided to test it out here.

Stay tuned!

Le Sock

I turned my first heel! You'll have to imagine the happy dance going I'm afraid. The sock (Slouch socks from Not Just More Socks) traveled with me to Toronto for a day of fun at the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival, although no knitting actually happened there.

I have to admit that a fair bit of frogging did occur as I was working on the heel. I managed to misread the pattern while doing the heel flap and then a second time while actually turning the heel. Despite all the frogging, I am really enjoying the process. Now for some gusset work!

Oh, and the CSNF was fun and I took a short class on crocheting rag rugs. While it was interesting and I ended up with a great hot pad, my wrist ached for two days afterward so I suspect this is not the craft for me.

TGIF - or what to do when you have a d'oh day

I don't know if anyone else has these days when you wake up 20% less smart than the day before? Recently I've had a few days like this and today is one of them. You wake up and it takes forever to figure out what you're supposed to be doing. Thinking seems slower - thank goodness you haven't forgotten how to get yourself dressed.

You feel like you are thinking through a head of mattress stuffing. You are no longer your normal verbally acute self. Words escape you at an alarming rate. You suddenly understand the term "slow" because it feels like someone has hit the mute button on the smart part of your brain.

Thank god it is Friday so that I'm not going to be a danger to the population for the next two days by trying to negotiate my way through work. Eek!