The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is another book that my daughter loaned me to read.  ***An aside: It makes me so proud that she reads such good books and either loans them to me or recommends them.  What more could an obsessed reading mother want?*** Anyway, I read it and it was chosen by one of my book groups to read, which is always great fun for me, because I love discussing the books that I have read with my book group!

The Paris Wife is a historical fiction novel about Hadley Richardson, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway.  It is the story of their meeting, their courtship and their marriage.  Hadley was 29 years old when she met the charismatic, charming 21 year old Ernest Hemingway, who swept her off her feet.  Hadley was from St. Louis and met Ernest in Chicago while there visiting a friend. they married in 1921, less than a year after first meeting.  Shortly after their marriage, they decided to move to Paris where Ernest wanted to pursue his writing.  Paris was the place to be in those years for young artist and writers and they soon began socializing with the "in" crowd.

As the title implies, the story is about the couple's years in Paris.  Those years were filled with love, sadness, betrayal, hope, and adventures.  However, it all ended badly and in 1933, Hadley divorced Ernest.   This novel portrays great love, despite the hardships.  It offers a side of Hemingway that is not often shown.

Ms. McClain (the author) wrote that she began to research and wrote the novel after having read A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, which was his story of the Paris years with Hadley.  She wrote that "I felt utterly transported into the world of 1920's Paris, and into the smaller, more profound (for me) world of Hemingway's first marriage, to Hadley Richardson."  and that she wondered "Just who was Hadley Richardson?"

Ms McClain began researching Hadley and Ernest, reading biographies of both, reading his early works and visiting the Hemingway archive at the JFK Memorial Library.  There she was able to read Hadley's letter written to Ernest during their courtship.

Hadley was the first of Ernest's four wives.  In the final pages of A Moveable Feast Ernest wrote of Hadley "I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."  Beautiful sentiment and really kind of sums up the love that is written about in The Paris Wife.

One of the best things about the book for me was that it left me wanting to know more about both Hadley and Ernest and wanting to read (or re-read) Hemingway's works.  Always a good sign of a novel!

***Another aside: the cover of the book that most of us had is not a picture from the 1920's...it seems to be an apparent obvious case of trying to sell a book by its'
cover.  Shame.

Year of Wonders

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is an amazing book and one that I definitely will reread.  I think that there will be much more to gather upon a second reading.  I have been a fan of Ms. Brooks' writing over the years, and this book is my favorite.  I think she did an amazing job researching and telling this true tale of Eyam, a town outside of London, that was infected by the plague in 1666 and how the town chose to deal with it. 

The story is told by fictional Anna Frith, a widow and mother of two boys, who became a healer and housekeeper for the local vicar and his wife.  Through Anna, the story unfolded over the year as the town suffered through devastating decisions and losses. 

"Little Edward Cooper was dead before sunset.  His brother, Jonathan, lay ill a day later, and Alexander Hadfield but two days after that.  At the end of a sennight, Mary Hadfield was widow for a second time in her life, and her two sons lay in the churchyard beside their dead father.  I was not there to see them buried, for by then I had mourning of my own to do.

My Tom died as babies do, gently and without complaint.  Because they have been such a little time with us, they seem to hold to life but weakly.  I used to wonder if it was so because the memory of Heaven still lived within them, so that in leaving here they do not fear death as we do, who no longer know with certainty where it is our spirits go.  This, I thought, must be the kindness that God does for them and for us, since He gives so many infants such a little while to bide with us."

 As the plague gained momentum in the village, the young vicar presented an enormous challenge to the  people of the village....to quarantine the village so that the disease would not spread further.  Those who didn't want to agree to that were free to leave the village before the quarantine began.  The quarantine meant no outsiders could come to the village, and no one from the village could leave.  Supplies that were normally obtained from nearby villages and towns would be dropped off at a site where there would be no contact with each other. 

As one review said: "This is a tale of devastation, grief, and madness..."  It was also a tale of great love for others, sacrifice and honor.

Before the year's end, two thirds of the village had died to the plague.

Beautifully written, Year of Wonders is indeed that.

One Good Deed

One Good Deed-365 Days Of Trying To Be Just A Little Bit Better by Erin McHugh took me a full

year to complete.  Do you think that is a long time to take to read one small book?  Not if you follow it one day at a time.  I incorporated reading this book's daily entry into my morning routine...I read that day's entry right after reading my morning Bible and meditation readings.  It has been a good way to start my day.

As Ms. McHugh wrote after the first 100 days:

"In the back of my head now, when I wake up every day, there is a question.  But it's not 'How am I going to fulfill my good deed obligation?' It's more like 'How can I make this day a little better?' I guarantee this sounds cornier than it feels.  But it gives a little extra promise and purpose to life that I hadn't expected."  

The book is what it sounds like.  A daily reading of Ms. McHugh's year of trying to do something good for someone else each day.  I found it challenging and affirming.  Sometimes we are doing good deeds each day for others without even thinking about it.  Other times, I felt like I struggled to find something good to do on a certain day! I know-that is a sad statement, but I am trying to be honest.  Does fixing coffee for my husband (even though I don't drink coffee) in the morning count?  It did for me!

And, for me, that was the real joy of the book...the awareness of both the big things and the little ones that we do for others each day.

I loved this book and I am sad to have completed the year.  Ms. McHugh's writing is lots of fun to read.  She is honest, funny and insightful.  And best of all, inspired me to be a little bit better person each day.

The Husband's Secret

I don't believe that I have read any other books by Liane Moriarty, other than this one being reviewed-The Husband's Secret.  Based on The Husband's Secret, I look forward to reading some of her other works.  My daughter lent me this book and I was happy to read it since I had noticed it was one of the finalists for the 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards.

The book centers around three different women and their individual stories, which I had a hard time with through the first part of the book, trying to keep them straight and trying to figure out how they tied together. That is probably my only criticism of the book, but it worked itself out for me by about the middle of the book.

Cecilia, who I consider the main character of the book, was a 40 year old, married, mother of three daughters, who worked part-time selling Tupperware and volunteered wherever needed in Sidney, Australia.  She was married to John Paul, one of the handsome Fitzpatrick boys.  Cecilia was beginning to notice some changes in John Paul and was a bit concerned about the relationship.  When John Paul was gone on a business trip, Cecilia was cleaning out the attic and came across an old sealed letter inside a book that was addressed 

"For my wife, Cecilia Fitzpatrick
      To be opened only in the event of my death"

Meanwhile, Tess' husband, Will, revealed that he had fallen in love with Tess' cousin/best friend.  So Tess decided to take her young son and go visit her mother in Sidney for an undetermined length of time.  When Tess arrived in Sidney, she decided to enroll her son in school-the same school where Cecilia's daughters attended.  It turned out that Connor, the adored PE teacher at the school, was an old boyfriend of Tess' and they immediately became involved upon coming across each other when Tess moved back.

The secretary of the school was Rachel, a widowed older woman whose 17 year old daughter had been murdered back in 1984 and the crime had never been solved.  Connor had been Rachel's daughter's boyfriend at the time of her death.  Rachel had always believed that Connor was her daughter's murderer, and that she would someday be able to prove her theory.


Yes, I know that this is all rather confusing...that is how I felt for awhile reading the book.

But...the author does an excellent job getting into the characters of the book and their lives.  Each of the

three main characters were well-developed and it was interesting to see how the book wove together the struggles that each of the women were dealing with.  Lots of old secrets revealed, which I always find entertaining to read.  The author also weaved in the history of the Berlin Wall (which her daughter was studying) and the subtle comparisons of that history to what was going on in the book was interesting.

Yes, if you are wondering, Cecilia opened the letter up and read it, not waiting for John Paul's death.  The contents changed everything for their relationship, and for many other people.  And I have to admit, I had not guessed the content.

Good, good book.  It will be one that I will recommend to my book groups!

Favorite Books of 2013 and a few stats

My end of the year report: by my count I read 46 books this year.  I find that to be a low number, and I am sure that my husband and family would also dispute it, but that is what I have! And of that 46, only 4 are non-fiction.  Again, hard to believe.  I am going to be more diligent about recording my reading this year of 2014 and see if my numbers improve.  Perhaps, my count is correct.  After all, I did take up knitting in January of 2013 and that did cut down on my reading time!

Anyway, as I did last year, I will narrow down my favorite reads for you.  Here are my top 15 books from my reading in 2013:

Touch-Alexi Zentner

Home-Toni Morrison                                                 

The Light Between the Oceans: ML Stedman            

The Grave Diggers Daughter: Joyce Carol Oates

Ordinary Grace-William Kent Krueger

Wilderness-Lance Weller

The Human Stain-Phillip Roth                

A Town Like Alice: Nevil Shute

A Far Cry From Kensington: Muriel Sparks

The Good Lord Bird-James McBride

The Burgess Boys-Elizabeth Strout

The Storyteller-Jodi Picult

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry-Rachel Joyce

House Girl-Tara Conklin                                            

The Book Thief-Markus Zusak

And now narrowing the list down further, here are my top 8 favorite books:

Ordinary Grace-William Kent Krueger

Wilderness-Lance Weller

The Human Stain-Phillip Roth                

The Burgess Boys-Elizabeth Strout

The Storyteller-Jodi Picult

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry-Rachel Joyce

House Girl-Tara Conklin                                            

The Book Thief-Markus Zusak

This is where it really starts getting difficult….it is interesting to me that two of these books were written several years ago (The Human Stain in 2000, and The Book Thief in 2006). I can get the list down to 5:

Wilderness-Lance Weller

The Human Stain-Phillip Roth                

The Storyteller-Jodi Picult

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry-Rachel Joyce

The Book Thief-Markus Zusak

Okay, okay….I can’t choose between my last 2 favorite reads of 2013.  They are:

Wilderness by Lance Weller and The Human Stain by Phillip Roth.

 I loved both of them.  And, as different as they seem from each other, they both tell the stories of men struggling with their pasts.  I kind of think that most of my favorite books are around that theme…interesting.

So that is it for 2013.  Happy Reading to all in 2014.  I have a huge number of books sitting on various book shelves to be read this year, so I need to get to it!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce is one of those books that I have read about

or heard about for the last two years, but just never picked it up to read.  Huge mistake.  I guess that I never knew anyone who had read it.  Well, I am here to recommend that you pick it up and read it.  I found it to be an amazing book.

This debut novel is the story of Harold Fry, a meek, mild-mannered retired Englishman who received a letter one day from a woman, Queenie, who had been a co-worker twenty years ago.  Queenie wrote that she was in hospice and wanted to write and say goodbye.  Harold wrote a note back to her and set off to post it.  However, Harold wasn't quite able to post it and began walking to the next mailbox, then the next, and the next, until he decided that he would walk the six hundred miles to see Queenie, rather than send her a note. His walking became rather superstitious in that he felt that Queenie wouldn't die as long as he was walking to her.

Meanwhile, Harold needed to let his wife, Maureen, know that he had taken on this long journey.  Harold and Maureen's marriage had become desolate years ago and much of the book is about their journey through the past and to each other.

While on his journey, Harold met or came across an odd assortment of people.  As word spread of his journey, people began to join Harold on the pilgrimage.  Being a quiet loner of a man, that was difficult for Harold at times.  And also rewarding.

"Harold walked with these strangers and listened.  He judged no one, although as the days wore on, and time and places began to melt, he couldn't remember if the tax inspector wore no shoes or had a parrot on his shoulder.  It no longer mattered.  He had learned that it was the smallness of people that filled him with wonder and tenderness, and the loneliness of that too.  The world was made up on people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time.  Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and that this was the dilemma of being human.  
He walked so surely it was as if all his life he had been waiting to get up from his chair."

I loved the writing and the kind of human spirituality of the book. It's a beautiful book, with many characters who come and go and some wonderfully written family dynamics as both Harold and Maureen struggle with their memories and thoughts.

As I previously wrote, this book was Ms. Joyce's debut novel.  It was longlisted for the2012 Man Booker Prize...what an honor that would be! She does have a new book out now called Perfect.  I can't wait to read it and see if it lives up to her first.


 



 

Missing Mom

I am a big fan of Joyce Carol Oates books.  Once in awhile, however, her books miss with me...just not Missing Mom is a hard book to put in a like/didn't like category.  There were a few parts that I found to be outstanding writing, yet most of the book was laborious, just-shoot-me reading.  The very beginning of the book put me in tears:

good.

"Last time you see someone and you don't know it will be the last time.  And all that you know now, if only you'd known then.  But you didn't know, and now it's too late.  And you tell yourself How could I have known, I could not have known.
You tell yourself.

This is my story of missing my mother.  One day, in a way unique to you, it will be your story, too."

Anyone who has lost their mother would have to feel this.

This is a novel about Nikki Eaton, a thirty-one year old adolescent, who was still rebelling against all the her parents had stood for in their stereotypical middle class lives. 

The novel is about the year following Gwen Eaton's murder and how Nikki dealt with missing her mother.  Nikki had been working as a small town reported for a local newspaper.  She was involved with an older, married man and worked at staying removed from her mother and sister, Clare.  One day, Clare called Nikki reporting that her mother was not answering her phone and her car was not at her home.  Nikki wasn't especially concerned about her mother not being where she was supposed to be and went on with her day.

"Since speaking with Clare I'd been waiting for the phone to ring but it had not rung.  I'd been waiting for Mom to call but Mom had not called.  And I was made to realize that, if Clare hadn't called to upset me, if Mom had called in her place, I would have peered at the caller I.D. screen, seen EATON, JON and probably would not have picked up because I was working; because I didn't want to be interrupted in my work.
And it came to me Here is what you deserve: never to hear your mother's living voice again."

Nikki left work and arrived at her mother's home and found her mother murdered in her garage.  And life changed for Nikki in that moment. Gwen's murder started Nikki on a path of examining her own life.

"Something ruptured and began bleeding in my chest when I bent over my mother, when I saw my mother in that way.  It will happen to you, in a way special to you.  You will not anticipate it, you cannot prepare for it and you cannot escape it.  The bleeding will not cease for a long time."

Unfortunately, this was from page 58...it was not until page 397 that I was struck by her writing again.  The pages in-between are full of Nikki's story of living her mother's life.  She moved into her mother's home, began doing the things that her mother did, etc.  Near the end of the book, it did become interesting again, as Nikki began learning about her mother's life before she was a wife and mother.  Nikki began clearing out the attic at her mother's home and began to discover who her mother really was.  And she found things that her mother had saved.

"It was the fate of mothers, to remember.  What nobody else would know or care about.  That, when they are gone, goes with them."

 Would I recommend the book to others? Nope.  Will I read the book again? Nope.  I have already given you the best parts!