Bel Canto and Fragile

I read Bel Canto for one of my book groups this month.  I don't think that I had read any books by Ann Patchett before. And I am not sure if I will read another one now or not, but I think that I will.

Bel Canto is a story about relationships during a hostage situation.  It takes place in an un-named country in South America where a famous opera singer, Roxanne Coss, is appearing and performing for Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese businessman, who is celebrating his birthday.  The party begins elegantly, until suddenly terrorists appear, planning to take the President of the country as a hostage.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you were, The President had not come to the party, so all the guests are taken as hostages.  The guests who are not deemed as necessary for the cause are released, leaving about 60 hostages, representing various countries.

As the months pass, relationships develop between the hostages and the terrorists, many of whom are young adults and seemingly fairly innocent. I found the development of the relationships interesting and the author did a good job developing the various character, although, honestly, I did not find myself especially caring about anyone of them in particular.

I had a difficult time getting into the book until about the middle of it.  Then I was terribly disappointed with the ending of the hostage situation, and even more disappointed with the Epilogue.

So would I recommend the book?  I'm not sure.  Half of my book group LOVED the book, the other half felt as I did.  I will admit that the book made for great discussion for the group!  Since I felt like Ms. Patchett did so well with character development, I probably will read another one of her books, which I have sitting on my To-Be-Read pile already!

Fragile by Lisa Unger came out last year, and I was happy to borrow it from my daughter to read.   The story is about Charlene, a girl gone missing in a small town, that brings up memories for the adults of another young girl, Sarah, who went missing years ago and was found dead.  The story does a good job combining the adults who were friends of Sarah's and their children who are friends of Charlene. Charlene is the girlfriend of Ricky, who is the son of Jones and Maggie Cooper.  Jones is the lead detective on the case, and Maggie is a psychotherapist who works with adolescents and families.  Both Jones and Maggie had been friends with Sarah and now, their son is involved with another girl's disappearance.

I loved how the two stories were intertwined in the book.  And I was intrigued to read Chapter One of Ms. Unger's next book, Darkness, My Old Friend that was featured at the end of Fragile.  It is about Jones Cooper, taking place a year after the story in Fragile!  Definitely on my To-Be-Read list!

Somewhat behind...

I have fallen behind in my book blogging....but have been reading more, so no complaints! Being in three book groups keeps me busy...I find that I have to carefully organize my reading in order to meet the deadlines.  And, happily, I have still found time for some of my "own" reading! So that being said...two of these three books were for book groups.

Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan is the story of four girls who meet in college and stay connected after college.  They are the usual mix that one meets in college...all different, from different families and homes and mindsets.  The women face all of the usual challenges: to marry or not, to have a child or not, to work or not, etc.  This is the author's debut novel and I wasn't terribly impressed.  I had trouble caring about any of the characters, and found the stories of each fairly predictable.  Just not my kind of book, I guess.  It was chosen for one of my book groups and was a book that none of the group had read, so we went into it blindly.  Always a risk.

One of my other book groups chose Two Rivers by t. greenwood.  I had read it this a couple of years ago and really liked it. My blog for it was on January 26, 2009 if anyone cares to go back and read it. From the Barnes and Noble site: 

"T. Greenwood's new novel is a powerful, haunting tale of enduring love, destructive secrets, and opportunities that arrive in disguise . . ."
 

 An excellent book, great story, great writing!  I recommend it!

I just finished Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich.  I almost always like her books and this one was no exception.  I found it to be an excellent portrayal of a marriage unraveling, and how it affects all in the family. 

Irene discovered that her husband, Gil, was reading her private journal, so she started writing in it for him for him to read, in an effort to manipulate him into letting her go.  Irene wanted out of the marriage, so she set about it by writing things that would upset Gil.  Of course, Gil could not confront her about what she wrote or then she would know that he had been reading her journals.  Meanwhile, Irene began keeping another journal for herself.  Shadow Tag goes back and forth between her writings in the two journals.

Irene and Gil have three children, who, of course, are witness to all of the animosity, fighting and violence that went on in the marriage.  The author does an excellent job with the children's emotions and feelings.

I have to admit that I found the end of the book to be quite surprising, although the more I have thought about their relationship, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised.  I liked the way she ended the book after the surprise. (You will just have to read it to know what I am talking about!).  Good book!

A Separate Country

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks is what I chose to take with me on a recent trip to the Missouri Ozarks.  It was a great choice!  After visiting New Orleans for the first time ever this past June, this book evoked so many thoughts about the city!  As the subtitle reads "A Story of Redemption in the Aftermath of the Civil War", this is the story of a man trying to find redemption for his decisions. This is a fictionalized account of the life of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who was the last of the leading Confederate Generals to surrender in 1865.  The War had been hard on Hood who lost the use of his left arm and later lost his right leg.  He was a controversial General, appearing willing to recklessly risk his troop's lives and he left the War with a rather mixed reputation, following the loss of thousands under his command.

John Bell Hood (pictured at the right) was originally from Kentucky, but once the Civil War ended, he decided to settle in New Orleans, where he met and married Anna Marie Hedden.  He and Anna Marie had eleven children in ten years. A good part of the book is about their love story through-out their marriage.  John was not a business man, but he attempted to brokerage cotton and insurance; however, in 1878 yellow fever came to the city and as people either died or left the city, businesses failed and John lost everything. Over the next couple of years, yellow fever continued to devastate the city.  General Hood began helping with the sick, leaving his family for long periods of time.  It appeared to me that he was attempting to make amends for his War record.

There are many strong characters in the book, especially the close childhood friends of Anna Marie's who play central roles in the story, as General Hood's past catches up to him.

The story is a very sad and tragic one, but Robert Hicks tells it in a fascinating way.  I loved all the different descriptions of New Orleans and could picture right where he was talking about.   As others have remarked, this book is one about New Orleans, almost as much as it is about General John Bell Hood!

and the reading continues...

 I wish that I would read more, but I keep getting caught up in my genealogy, my grandchildren, my gardens, etc.  There is never enough time in my day!  Being retired is hard work sometimes!  Anyway, I got through two more books recently.

The first book is My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams (published 2004).  I got this at a book sale last year and finally got around to reading it and I really liked it!  It is another book that is based on the oral history of the author's family, which I always find interesting.

The story begins in 1854 in the Appalachian mountains when Arty Norton is nine years old and her widowed aunt dies giving birth to a baby boy.  The baby is named Larkin and Arty's family take him to raise.  Arty thinks of him as her very own baby and he calls her "Amma" for "mama".  Arty's brother, Hackley, and Larkin grow up together as best friends.  Predictably, both Larkin and Hackley grow up to fall in love with Mary.  Mary only has eyes for Hackley despite his womanizing, which continues after their marriage.  As the Civil War approaches, Hackley signs on and Larkin is left to take care of the women in the family, including Mary, who he is still in love with.  Hackley dies, and Larkin and Mary marry.

The story is told through Arty who is a very bright and insightful female, who spares no words or opinions. Arty continues to worry over Larkin through-out his life and sees what is going on with everyone.  She tells the story of mountain living, including the hunger, hardships, struggles and love.

The funny thing is that after I finished this book, I was aware of thinking (but not actually saying out loud) in the manner of speaking that the mountain people used in the book.  A sign that I really took the book in!

Unfortunately, the next book I read I didn't care too much for, although I did finish it, but I'm not sure why.  I think that I kept thinking that this couldn't really be going on.  The book I read was The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold.  The first sentence of the book:

"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily."

Well, that was an interesting beginning...but I never really got the point of the whole story.  The whole book takes place in twenty-four hours.  Helen Knightly got a call from her mother's neighbor concerned about her mother's behavior, Helen rushed over to her mother's home.  Her mother, as we learn through-out the story, was a beautiful but mentally ill woman with whom Helen had never had a good relationship with.  But as the only child, after Helen's father died, Helen was left with the care of her mother.  Her mother lived in her own home, but Helen watched over her., and dementia had started to be taking over her mother.  I guess this particular day, Helen had had enough and she killed her mother.  The story does not improve after this...

 

Remarkable Creatures

I just finished Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. It also is a story loosely based on real characters. Born in 1799 young Mary Anning survived being struck by lightning as a baby, and appeared to be an unusual young girl.  She had a knack for finding fossils along the cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis.  One day she met a young spinster, Elizabeth Philpot, who had moved to Lyme with her sisters.  Mary and Elizabeth shared an interest in searching the beaches and cliffs for fossils.  Elizabeth was more interested in fish fossils, while Mary searched more for other fossils.  They learned from each other and spent hours each searching in silence, but with each other, developing a lifelong friendship. They were from two very different worlds, yet their common interest forged genuine caring for each other.  Mary discovered dinosaur fossils and set the geological world upside down with her finds, although most of the men of that time were very reluctant to acknowledge that a woman had accomplished what she had.

The book is a great example of friendship between women and what great things were accomplished by women in a field that women had dared not enter!  I quite enjoyed this book!

 From an interview of the author about Remarkable Creatures (taken from the Barnes and Noble website):

"In one corner of the museum there was a small display about a woman named Mary Anning. In 1811 she and her brother found a complete specimen of an ichthyosaur, an ancient marine reptile which no one knew had even existed. (They thought it was a crocodile.) The discovery of such a creature challenged commonly held beliefs about the creation of the world. At that time there was no concept of extinction -- it would have been considered blasphemous to suggest that God might have created animals that He then allowed to die out as if they were mistakes.

Mary had no idea of the controversy her "crocodile" would set off. She was simply finding and selling fossils to make a living. That was what drew me to her story: she was a working-class woman holding her own among middle-class male scientists. There was something special about her -- underlined by the fact that she survived being struck by lightning as a baby. Indeed, some suggested that made her more intelligent."

Grieving and 2 mysteries

Yes, I am in mourning.  Borders is officially closing.  What am I to do?  I am afraid that the future will soon be a Kindle, or some such device.  I plan to hold out as long as I can, however.  I want to hold the book I am reading! I will be returning to Barnes and Noble, my old stand-by.  And, luckily for me, I have discovered a wonderful used bookstore, The Book Nook, that I have begun frequenting.  And, of course, there are libraries.  I need to put the closing of Borders in perspective, but oh, how I will miss it!  I really love Borders!  So sad.

But back to book blogging...one of my book groups chose The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch for  this month's read.  Apparently it is a popular book club choice, but I had not heard of it.  It is a rather long book (435 pages) and is a historical novel, based loosely on the author's family, which I found quite interesting.

The story takes place in 1659 in Germany.  A young boy is pulled from the river with a crudely made tattoo on his shoulder.  The local hangman, Jacob Kuisl is called in to investigate if the tattoo is related to witchcraft.  The town is frightened even more than usual because the town had gone through witch hunts and d trials seventy years earlier and the town people did not want a repeat of that.  Soon, however, more children are found with the same tattoo, most of them orphans. And some of the children are murdered.

As the local hangman, part of Jacob's job is to torture and execute people.  He is asked to torture the local midwife, who delivered his children, in order to make her confess to being a witch. Once he makes her confess, he will have to execute her and the towns people will then be able to rest easy.  But Jacob does not believe that she is guilty of being a witch or a murderer, and sets out to try to find who is behind the mystery.  His daughter, Magdalena and her friend, Simon, help Jacob determine what has been happening in the town.

This is a good mystery, and as I said, is loosely based on the author's ancestry.  I think what I found most interesting is that it never occurred to me that some one's occupation would be "hangman".  It was not a coveted position!  People feared the hangman.

I chose to read a mystery again and found Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane.  He had authored Shutter Island, which I read earlier this year and enjoyed, so I thought that I would try another of his books. And I had noticed that they had made a movie of this book, so I decided to read it first!

It is a story about a child gone missing, with the twist that perhaps the child was kidnapped/taken to protect it from it's mother.  I enjoyed the story and have noticed that there is a sequel coming out.

A good, easy read. 

More Great Summer Reading

I have really been enjoying my reading lately.  I highly recommend both of these books being reviewed in this blog!

The Devil's Dream by Lee Smith is right up there among her best.  I have always liked books by Ms. Lee, and this one was not a disappointment!

Around 1833, Moses Bailey, son of a preacher, brought his wife, Laura, up to a lonely cabin in the hills.  Moses wanted to find the voice of God for himself. Laura came from a musical family and she loved playing the fiddle.  Moses forbade music, especially the fiddle, because he believed it to be the music of the devil. Moses would take off for long periods of time, searching for God, and leaving Laura and the children to fend for themselves.  Eventually, Laura took up her fiddling whenever Moses was gone and soon her children began enjoying the music also.

So began the family legacy of country music.  The book takes the reader through generations of the Bailey family and their music as they begin performing publicly through-out the years.  It is the story of several generations covering 150 years.  I do have to admit that several times I became confused on what characters were who.  Fortunately, Ms. Lee provided a family tree at the beginning of the book, and I often had to refer to it.  Each chapter is told by a different member of the family as the years progress.  Despite that confusion, I really enjoyed the book.  The author, as always, does an excellent job developing the characters.

Next I read Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.  I had read about this book earlier and had put it on my TBR list.  Luckily for me, I found it at the used book store!  And I was glad that I had written it down earlier as a book I wanted to read.  Again, a really good book.  And even better, it was Ms. Jordan's debut novel!  And the novel won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction.  It deserved the honor!

In 1946, Henry McAllen moves his wife and children from the city living in Memphis to a run-down farm in the Mississippi Delta.  Henry had failed to mention to Laura that being a farmer was his life-long dream and when he went down to Mississippi to help out his sister for a couple of weeks, he returned to Memphis and told Laura that he had bought a farm and that they were moving there in a couple of weeks....to a farm that had no running water or electricity, and had been abandoned for a long time.  And on top of all that, Henry's racist, nasty father, Pappy, was going to be living with them.

After they arrive at the farm, they convince the local midwife, who is the wife of Hap one of Henry's tenant farmers, to work for them as a housekeeper.  Florence is a strong-willed black woman who becomes Laura's salvation. Soon, men return from the war, and among them are Florence's son, Ronsel, and Henry's brother, Jamie.  Jamie and Ronsel become friends, and begin to be seen around town together, which in 1946 Mississippi is a dangerous thing and both are warned to stop seeing each other before something bad happens.  Jamie is a charming, good-looking man, haunted by what he saw in combat.  Ronsel comes home as a decorated hero, which means pretty much nothing in the Mississippi Delta since he is a black man.  Jamie and Ronsel's friendship ends up creating great sorrow in the story.

Each chapter of this book is told by one of the main characters, Laura, Florence, Henry, Jamie, Ronsel, and Hap.  It is interesting that Pappy does not narrate any chapters, since his presence is so prominent in the story.  Yet, I am glad that he was not a narrator because he was so unlikable.

This is a very interesting book.  There is a great deal of tragedy in the story, yet it is very full of different ways love prevails and is experienced. And in the end, I felt great hope for the characters.  Very good book!!!