Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

When I was young my father had a subscription to National Geographic Magazine and kept his copies year after year.  No longer would all of them fit in the house, so older copies went into shelves in the storeroom.  I'd sit for hours looking through them, mostly interested in the articles and photos about ancient history and archaeology.  The iron age bog bodies have continued to fascinate me.  

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss opens with a scene of a young woman being prepared as a sacrifice or for an execution.  The details echo those of the 16 year old Yde girl and the Windeby girl.  

Then we are introduced to the current situation in which seventeen-year-old Silvie and her parents are participating in an iron age reenactment along with a university professor and his students.

Set in Northumberland in the 1990's, the descriptions of the small camp, forest, and countryside do create a feeling of an earlier time.  However, the group is not far from civilization, and Molly, one of the students, makes clandestine use of a near by convenience store.  

Moss creates the feeling of isolation and repression immediately in taut descriptions that involve more than the physical setting.  Professor Slade is pretty easy-going, but Silvie's father Bill is not, and  it is clear that he would like his dictatorial and controlling views to be accepted by more than his wife and daughter.

Physically and emotionally abusive, the father tries to keep a wall around his family and particularly around Silvie.  If the others are aware, only Molly seems concerned.  Retreating to the past is, for the students, an exercise for credit, but for Bill it carries much more weight.  Silvie and her mother are only there because of Bill.

Ghost Wall is actually a novella, but it didn't feel like one because of its density--packing so much in so few pages. There are numerous themes, each handled in an understated manner that seeps into your consciousness.  I was both pleased and frustrated by the conclusion which was a little rushed, and I was curious about some of the outcomes, wanting to know more.

There are walls aplenty--physical, mental, social, and metaphysical--and plenty to think about in this short book.   

NetGalley/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

General Fiction/Coming of Age.   Jan. 8, 2018.  Print length:  144 pages.

Fiction and Comfort Reading

Confirmed readers almost always have some comfort books to which they return.   Sometimes we reread them, at other times, simply remembering the book or books provides a sense of consolation or contentment.  How many bloggers have mentioned their love of Anne of Green Gables (my personal favorite was Anne of Windy Poplars) or Alcott's Little Women (my favorite was actually Little Men)?  Not great literature, but amazingly influential and unforgettable.  

Now an entire generation has been influenced by Harry Potter.  Young people who became readers because of the imaginative impact of one book; who have grown up with the adventures of Harry and friends, even as the characters grew up and the plots grew up as well.

And sometimes we have comfort genres:  mystery, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy.  We read them because they are entertaining, not because they are going to win prizes (although the best often do).  Books that allow us to have adventures and experiences we would never have otherwise, to examine human motivation, to realize that the problems of human beings are essentially the same in different cultures and different time periods--that the human condition involves the same flaws and strengths, the same desires and goals, the same problems with relationships, the same fears of power and corruption.

Fiction doesn't have to be good literature to be good entertainment, or to be educational, or to broaden horizons.   

Many studies have been done and articles written about the benefits of reading fiction--not necessarily good literature, but good stories.  The Surprising Benefits of Reading Fiction lists 9 important benefits of reading fiction with which I'm sure all of you would agree.

The one thing the above article does not mention, but which applies to many of us is that reading fiction also encourages curiosity about facts.  I frequently go off on tangents relating to something I've read-- do a little Google research, follow up on bibliographical info, read nonfiction associated with some topic mentioned in a novel, check out allusions to music, pop culture, literature, or  historical events the author might include in the story.

Several years ago, I read The Terror by Dan Simmons, a fictional account of the Franklin Expedition after reading Stefanie's review on So Many Books .  After finishing the novel, I found myself reading more about the expedition (the search for the Northwest Passage and the search for Franklin and The Terror after the ship went missing) in nonfiction and some tangential fictional accounts as well.  In September of this year, The Terror was found in about 80 feet of water--so well preserved that experts said it could probably float.  

The original theory that lead poisoning from improperly sealed canned food resulted in the death of many of the crew members has been thrown out in just the last few days.  The analysis of a fingernail sliver from John Harknell's body reveals that a prolonged zinc deficiency resulted in Hartnell's death and would almost certainly have been the case for other crew members.

So...reading a highly imaginative fictional account of the Franklin Expedition led to reading a number of nonfiction accounts and an interest in that 168-year-old mystery that continues to fascinate me as new discoveries are made.   

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I love Sandy Mastrioni's dolls, pillows, and plates.  

All of her creations are odd, whimsical, and amusing!  

Book lovers can appreciate this one.

Sandy's Etsy Shop

The Ferryman Institute by Colin Gigl

The Ferryman Institute  It took me a while to get interested in this one, but I did enjoy elements of it.  Charlie Dawson is the most important of the Ferrymen who encourage the dead to depart for their afterlife--'cause you know not everyone is ready to go.  He has done this for centuries and has become exhausted with the ramifications of the job.  The Institute finds him too valuable to let him retire, but Charlie can't continue much longer.

Suddenly, he is given the opportunity to save a life rather than simply help the individual to move on.  

Comparisons have been made to both Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde.  I'm not a fan of Fforde's style--but I did love Moore's Lamb.  

A lot of readers will probably appreciate The Ferryman Institute more than I did, but I did find it entertaining.  Moderately.  I did kind of like the allusions to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

Read in June.  Blog review scheduled for Sept. 3, 2016.

NetGalley/Gallery Books

Fiction.  Sept. 27, 2016.  Print length: 432 pages.

The Voices of Heaven by Maija Rhee Devine

The Voices of Heaven  is the first book I've finished in this new year, and although I'm about a dozen reviews behind, I can not delay this one.  It moves to the head of the line, and I must thank Johanna Ramos-Boyer for sending me such a lovely book.

This may be a long and wandering excuse for a review, so I will give a brief synopsis and mention that I found the book fascinating, touching, informative, and beautifully written.

My overview of the book:  

The story begins right before North Korea invades South Korea in 1950.  Although the threat of war hangs in the air, for the most part, life in Seoul is going on as usual.

The focus is on a couple who have been happily married for 15 years, but who have had no son.  Mi-na, their young daughter, was adopted, but this secret has been kept from her, and Mi-na feels that she has failed her parents by not having been born a boy.  When the grandmother tells Gui-Yong that he must take a "second wife," he submits knowing that his duty is to produce a son; yet he dreads hurting Eum-Chun, his beloved wife, and the entire situation.  

Everyone tries hard to make the new family work, but everyone suffers.  The fact that each member of the new family does his or her best to find a way to exist does not change the suffering of Gui-Young, Eum-Chun, or Soo-Yang (the "second wife"), all of whom feel obligated to follow tradition.  Mi-Na must also learn to share her father and to accept the fact that she is partly responsible for the situation by not having been born a boy.  The entire family keeps Mi-Na's adoption secret thinking to protect her, but unintentionally giving her a far greater burden.  Yet because all of those involved are good people, we become invested in each of them and in their efforts to cope.

The novel moves from the period right before the war, through the war itself, and for decades afterward.
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Digressions:

Voices of Heaven is a remarkable novel.  I guess I always thought of the Korean War as having taken place just outside of the tents of M*A*S*H, both the film and the television series.  How limiting.  This novel gives insight into a culture that, in spite of the long Japanese Occupation, still retained traditions from the Joseon Dynasty--profoundly different from our own culture in social norms and mores, religion, family structure, and daily life.

If you have read this blog regularly, you know that I'm a fan of Korean drama, and in watching these shows, especially contemporary drama, I've always been fascinated by social mores that still exist in South Korea--a country that is so modern, so technologically advanced, so fashionable, and in many ways, so Westernized and globally conscious.  Reading this novel has given me a much better context in which to place current events.

South Korea is both so modernized and so steeped in traditional thought.  The importance of sons, the authority of family, the role of women--still have great impact.  The continuing residue of the Korean War and the ever-present threat of the craziness of North Korea can't help but have an influence.  A tiny country surrounded by North Korea, Russia, Japan, and China that has managed great economic recovery and global significance, despite is size and devastating history.  Yet, in many ways, our (Western) awareness and knowledge of South Korea is minimal.

The popularity of South Korea's film and television industries have made many more people conscious of South Korea, but Voices of Heaven provides not only a fascinating story of family, but also a more authentic glimpse of individual struggles and of both the positives and the negatives of Korean tradition.

I loved this book and its characters.  I'm grateful to Johanna Ramos-Boyer of JRB Communications for sharing this book with me and to Maija Rhee Devine for writing such a wonderful, thoughtful, and sensitive novel.

Literature/Historic Fiction.  2013.  316 pages.

Perfect Reader

Pouncey, Maggie.  Perfect Reader.

A debut novel and an ARC.

Flora Dempsey's father has died and left her as his literary executor.  Lewis Dempsey was a retired college president and literary critic "in the league of Harold Bloom" and his best-know work, Reader as Understander is one that Flora has never even read.

Nor has Flora bothered to read the poems that Lewis gave her, the real reason he wants her as his literary executor.  A child of divorced parents, Flora has unresolved feelings concerning their relationships and her childhood.

On discovering that the poems are rather erotic ones addressed to the new woman in his life, Flora's uncertainty increases.  She doesn't want to be in charge of her father's legacy and resents the woman who had become her father's muse.

In many ways the novel is interesting, although Flora is not a particularly sympathetic character.  She carries guilt from a childhood accident, but somehow it doesn't seem quite pertinent although it is obviously meant to be.

Another sticking point is the fact that the poems are not included or even much discussed.  Given the huge role they have in the plot, the failure to develop the concept bothers me; probably because I'm more interested in the literary aspect than the psychological one.

The writing and the pacing were uneven, but the novel held my attention. The "acknowledgements" that Flora added to the final publication of her father's poems was a high point, but I could have wished a more gradual transition to her reaching that plateau.

Fiction.  Psychological.  2010.  269 pages.

A Season of Second Chances

Meier, Diane.  The Season of Second Chances.

An ARC (thanks, Leah) by debut author Diane Meier, The Season of Second Chances is about an English professor at Columbia who, given the unexpected opportunity to leave the security and staleness of one job and accept a position with Amherst, makes the leap. The new program is a the brain child of Bernadette Lowell and requires an innovative approach to teaching, so not only is a change in location involved, but a new curriculum to be formulated and developed.

From the first unlikely decision, comes a series uncharacteristic decisions by academic Joy Harkness.  She buys an old house  in dire need of repair and renovation, and slowly, almost unconsciously (almost unwillingly) begins renovating her own attitudes, perceptions, and opinions.  Steered by a number of interesting characters, a woman stuck in a rut largely of her own making begins opening up to a new world of possibilities. 

The possibilities involved in taking chances can have repercussions, however; Joy must learn to live with a few of these as well.

I enjoyed the book.  It didn't always hold together in what one would expect in the real world, but I was happy to relax and enjoy the world created by the author.  The Three Coyotes who pursue every new woman on campus provide a little humor; a mother whose former husband refuses to let go provides drama.

What I liked best had to do with the author's style, especially in the beginning as she sets up Joy's character and circumstances.  The voice is first person, and the reader realizes that  much of what Joy has to say is bitter, much is funny, and much is slightly unreliable.

It is a coming of age story, but the coming of age has waited until the heroine is nearly 50.

fiction.  contemporary fiction.  2010.  285 pages.

The Poet of Lochness

Corrigan, Brian Jay. The Poet of Lochness.

Another debut novel, this is the story of Perdita Miggs, who is able to return to Scotland after a 17 year absence when her husband gets a grant to study Loch Ness.

The writing is lovely and the story begins in a way that makes you feel you know the destination, but want to make the journey anyway. Then there is a hiccup. Hmmmm. What is going on here? And another...

The narrative is more about what lurks in our hearts and minds than about Nessie, about relationships and insight rather than about high adventure...but there is mystery and definitely suspense.

I look forward to future works by Corrigan.

Fiction. 2005. 302 pages.

Wild Life

Gloss, Molly. Wild Life. I had never herd of Molly Gloss until I received a copy of Wild Life from a dear friend with the highest recommendation. She had read and loved Gloss' previous novels, but considers this one the best.

Within a few pages, I had fallen in love with the voice of Charlotte Bridger Drummond through her diary entries beginning in 1905 - crisp, wry, arrogant, funny. A single mother of five boys who makes her living by writing "women's adventure stories," Charlotte lets us know her commitment to writing, even as she admits to writing "lowbrow" fiction. She lives in an Oregon backwater, but has also had the benefit of having lived with her feminist aunt in New York in her teens. Charlotte is a product of a number of disparate influences.

When the daughter of her housekeeper disappears, Charlotte determines to help in the search. Here is the first of many strange twists that make this novel seem like more than one book. Both content and style begin to change as this serious note is introduced, and Charlotte resolves to head into the wilderness and toward the remote logging camps in search of the little girl.

Gloss addresses many themes in this novel, all set against the huge frontier backdrop of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900's. She covers social, cultural, anthropological, environmental, and historical topics from the microcosmic point of view; the novel twists and turns and re-makes itself throughout, as Charlotte's experiences twist and turn and she finds herself re-made, altered.

It is a strange, highly original novel. An odd, difficult to categorize novel - historical fiction? speculative fiction? psychological? Charlotte's favorite authors included Jules Verne, Poe, and Mary Shelley...

Molly Gloss takes the reader on an adventure and presents a number of ideas to consider, but leaves the explanations open.

Fiction. 2000. 255 pages.

Calling Home

McMahan, Janna. Calling Home. This was an ARC, and I hope to hear more from this author as she has the rare ability to bring a setting to life.

Set in rural Kentucky during the late 1970's, the novel examines the lives of the various members of the Lemmon family after the father abandons them and moves in with another woman. Virginia, the mother, and Shannon, the daughter, dominate the book, but the other characters are deftly drawn.

Decisions are made and secrets revealed, and for everything there is a consequence. Virginia is trapped by circumstances and culture, but Shannon hopes to move beyond those proscriptions and into a world with fewer restrictions on women.

For the most part, this book felt real. Difficult situations dealt with by imperfect people to the best of their ability. Are the decisions right or wrong? For whom? And isn't that always the case?

Fiction. 2008. 307 pages.

Pharmakon

Wittenborn, Dirk. Pharmakon. This ARC examines drug research and drug use, the American Dream transformed, ego and arrogance, and family dysfunction.

It is one of those novels with a particularly impressive first line: "I was born because a man came to kill my father."

The first paragraph draws you in and the first half of the book is quite interesting. Research psychologist William Friedrich has many good qualities, but is, overall, a damaged individual who perpetuates some of his own childhood misery. His ambition leads him on a destructive path that he never intended when he develops a new drug that attempts to relieve suffering, to increase happiness. Good characterization and tension in this portion of the novel.

The last half of the book, however, deals with the children and is less interesting. Much less so. While it is sad to see the effect of events and parental personalities on the children, they were strangely unappealing and unsympathetic.

The Greek word pharmakon means both poison and cure. An apt description of the pharmaceutical industry.

Fiction. 2008. 403 pages.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret (with post script)

Sleznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Hugo Cabret is an orphan living in a train station in Paris. That information alone has its own fascination. Written for children, the book includes page after page of beautiful drawings -- an interesting combination of narrative and picture book.

My favorite parts have to do with Selznick's symbolic emphasis on eyes and the way he connects those elements in his drawings to plot elements in a subtle manner. The story is a mixture of fact and fiction, and I liked that as well. I liked the play on words in the title. Automatons , early movies, and clocks all fascinate me....

I was not, however, as captivated as many readers have been and thought the narrative much less artistic than the drawings. All the elements of mystery are here, but the textual characterization and the plot never have the effect of other great children's novels. The writing and dialogue seem stilted.

This does not mean that I didn't enjoy this book. I did. Actually, quite a lot. There were many elements that I appreciated, but for several reasons, it did not quite live up to what I hoped for when I first heard about it on NPR a year or so ago.

Last summer, I read The Chess Machine which I reviewed here, another mixture of fact and fiction that dealt with magicians and automata. A nice companion book, but written for adults.

A peek at an automaton:

-----------Post Script----------
Other reviews: Becky's review ; Maggie's review; Carl's review;

Fiction. Juvenile/Children's Lit. 2007. 533 pages.

The Stone Gods

Winterson, Jeannette. The Stone Gods.

Six word synopsis: Future. Past. Same thing. Same thing.

Jeanette Winterson is fascinated by repetition and myths. Mankind repeats: makes mistakes, attempts to recover, makes the same mistakes. Over and over.

This a dystopian future myth that incorporates the past. It is a warning, a reminder, a lament. A tiny novel that explores man's arrogance, his tendency toward self-destruction; it raises questions about robo-sapiens and examines the power of love.

Divided into three separate satiric versions of Billie Crusoe's life (& Winterson's?), there is even a reference to the fact that the manuscript was left at an underground station, found, and returned.

This was an ARC, an uncorrected manuscript, that I only recently got around to reading. It reminded me of Winterson's Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles which I reviewed here. In both, Winterson matches style to content and provides a poetic example of the power of myth in our lives.

In The Stone Gods, she concludes with: "Everything is imprinted for ever with what it once was. (At least in the uncorrected manuscript I received.)

In Weight, Winterson says, "What can I tell you about the choices we make?" and "I want to tell the story again."

And, I suppose, she has. The choices, the mistakes, the telling, and re-telling.

Fiction. Science fiction/Myth. 2008. 207 pages.

A Pigeon and a Boy

Shalev, Meir. A Pigeon And A Boy.

6 word synopsis: Beautifully written story of two generations.

Present and past interwoven. From the kibbutz to the Israeli 1948 War of Independence to contemporary Israel ... back and forth. The characters are beautifully and sensitively drawn, and the plot, as it moves from the past to the present revealing increasing information and insight, is compelling. This is a powerful story and an introduction to an author that I'll be seeking out.

I must also add that the translation from the Hebrew by Evan Fallenberg is beautifully done and flows with rhythm and skill. Author and translator have provided an experience to savor. Highly recommended.

Fiction. 2006. 311 pages.

Belong to Me

de los Santos, Marisa. Belong to Me.

6 word synopsis: Suburban lives: Love, loss, and learning.

I had actually read the previous book about these characters, but didn't realize it when the ARC arrived. I really enjoyed this one, and didn't go back and re-read my review of the previous novel Love Walked In until I had finished Belong to Me.

Probably a good thing, because although I had liked parts of the first one, my overall impression of Love Walked In was "simply Chiclit."

De los Santos' latest effort, however, is much more. Certainly, it will appeal more to women than to men, but the narrative and the characters have grown and developed; they have blossomed into something much more complex than the original.

Here is a link to my 2006 review of Love Walked In. I still love the poem I found by de los Santos (Milagros Mourns the Queen of Scat) and included in the review.

Thanks to Christine at Harper Collins for this one.

Another review can be found at Lesley's Book Nook. Interestingly, Les read Belong to Me first, and Love Walked In second and liked Love Walked In better. I had completely forgotten about Cornelia and Clare when I read Belong to Me but definitely preferred the Belong to Me.


Fiction. 2008. 388 pages.

Assassins at Osprey

Raichev, R.T. Assassins at Osprey.

6 word synopsis: Two by two; pairings and murder.

This is the third "country house" mystery by Raichev. I enjoyed the fast reading, complicated plot and will look for the previous mysteries involving mystery writer Antonia Darcy and her husband Major Hugh Payne. There is a murder, but "assassins" is a bit of a misnomer. Light, but fun.


Fiction. Mystery. 2008. 222 pages.

The Devil's Bones

Bass, Jefferson. The Devil's Bones. Jefferson Bass is actually the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass (the forensic anthropologist who founded the Body Farm, the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility) and Jon Jefferson, a journalist and documentary filmmaker who has, among other things, written and produced two National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm.

More about the Body Farm and its purpose here and here.

The plot line was not the most interesting aspect of this book by any means, and I don't know how it compares to the two previous novels by "Jefferson Bass." On the other hand, the book's information about the Body Farm and forensic science kept me fascinated--especially since I recognized one plot-line from the news a few years back. If you read the novel, you will probably recognize it as well because of its shock value.

For any CSI fans or those interested in forensic science, this novel will give further insight -- and most likely send you, like me, researching more information about the Body Farm. While the plot is weak, the scientific information is engrossing.

Here is the opening line from the novel, which I liked because it reminds me so much of our own Louisiana summer sunsets: "The last drop of daylight was fading from the western sky--a draining that seemed more a suffocation than a sunset, a final faint gasp as the day died of heatstroke."

This was an ARC from Harper Collins. Thanks, Christine!

Fiction. Mystery. 2008. 309 pages.

Immortal

Slatton, Traci L. Immortal. Uh oh. The buzz around this one is good. I did not feel the same way. At all. The fact that Luca Bastardo is immortal (or pretty close to it) has little impact except that he was able to live through an interesting period of history involving his beloved Florence.

First, I frequently have a problem with first person narration. It must be extremely difficult to do. First person narrators are (for me) the most unreliable of unreliable narrators. I'm always second-guessing them. Is he saying that to convince the reader or to convince himself? Such ego in first person.

Second, the book moves very quickly into violence and degradation. When it is over, however, no matter how often Luca refers to his terrible experiences, I have the feeling that he is actually untouched by them. Impossible, but still...

Third, nothing much really happens, although the artistic and political aspects of Florence are fascinating.

Fourth, what's up with all of that spiritual mumbo jumbo? I got the Wandering Jew right away, but the Cathars, the alchemy, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition...

I wanted to like this one, and didn't, but I evidently stand alone in my opinion.

Fiction. Fantasy/historical? 2008. 513 pages.

Forgive Me

Ward, Amanda Eyre. Forgive Me. An ARC. I'm going to quote from the Publishers Weekly review of the audiobook, rather than write my own:

From Publishers Weekly

Before Nadine has fully recovered from an assault that left her hospitalized, she is already on a plane to South Africa. As luck would have it, she flies the same flight as two parents who are to appear in front of a tribunal created in the postapartheid era to reconsider the crimes of political criminals. Their testimony will decide the fate of a young woman who was involved in the murder of their son, Jason. A hard news journalist, Nadine wants the scoop, but returning to South Africa will bring up some dark memories from her past. Lee's narration proves to be the best part of this audiobook. Her soft and smooth voice captures and improves the emotion and energy of the book. Her accents and different vocal characterizations are also impressive and consistent. While she will seduce listeners, her skill won't necessarily improve the story, which feels hackneyed and forced. Though Ward provides an intriguing look at the issue of recovery in postapartheid South Africa, her protagonist's personal journey proves clichéd and counterintuitive to the politics of the story. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 30).

The above review pretty much sums up the novel for me, with two exceptions: the boy's diary and the feeling of manipulation at the end of the novel.

Fiction. 2007. 234 pages.

Consequences

Lively, Penelope. Consequences. I really liked this novel, a bit surprising as I was not much taken with Lively's The Photograph several years ago. Consequences is about the distaff side of a family and covers over 70 years, from the 1930's to the present.

The story begins with Lorna in the years before WWII. Born into an upper middle-class family, Lorna finds herself out of sync with many of the goals and values of her parents, and when she finds Matt Farraday, an aspiring artist and engraver, the two marry and set out to live their lives in an old farmhouse with few conveniences.

The story eventually moves to their daughter Molly, who has a streak of her mother's independence, and when she finds herself pregnant, refuses to marry the father of her child, deciding to raise her daughter Ruth alone.

And finally, Ruth and her life and situations unfold. Eventually, Ruth feels a need to find a connection with her grandparents, especially with Matt, whose engravings are still valued and admired, and the sense of coming full circle is achieved.

Lorna, Molly, and Ruth are all independent women in their own particular ways, and while other characters are important (lovable or shallow or interesting or not), they are never the center, although they have impact.

Covering such a large expanse of time in a rather short novel means that much is eliminated in order to move from mother to daughter to granddaughter. There is also a sense of removal from the characters, as if you are viewing them from a distance, and they are not always visible, but in and out of shadow so that what you have are only glimpses. Sometimes I felt a little excluded. Sometimes I wanted a more complete rendition of their lives. Yet those feelings were because I liked these women and wanted to know more. Their difficulties are the difficulties of humankind; the lives the author presents are somewhat constrained -- minor disappointments and joys are swept away, but the key events are there: love and grief and those feelings of things not being quite right, as if one is waiting for something - to make a move, to be discovered, to find a direction, to take a risk - that we all have at one time or another.

I would have preferred a longer book, one that filled in more details and further enlarged on not only the women, but also the secondary characters like Lucas, Simon, and Sam; I am greedy when I like characters.

Nevertheless, despite wanting more, it was a book that I found strangely satisfying; partly because even as I was reading, there were certain events in Ruth's life that were coinciding with things that were on my mind. Thoughts on love, relationships, the end of relationships, the joy of a mother in her child, loss, memories, and wanting to know more about those ancestors whose faces look out at you from pictures....

I notice that Lively has written two autobiographies whose titles sound intriguing: A House Unlocked and Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived. I'm adding them to my TBR list because I'm planning on continuing my reading of biographies, memoirs, autobiographies.

Fiction. 2007. General fiction. 258 pages.

The Warrior

MacGregor, Kinley. The Warrior. Another review book. Classified as historical romance. Not my thing. I'm not having much luck lately. No wonder I'm reading less.

Book Description from Amazon

Lochlan MacAllister was born to lead. Ruthlessly groomed to take control of his clan, he has given his life to his people. But when he learns that the brother he thought was dead might still be alive, he embarks on a quest to find the truth.

Catarina wants a life of freedom. But now Catarina's royal father wants to use her as a pawn to ensure a treaty between conflicting lands. So much so that he's willing to kidnap his daughter to force the issue. But when she escapes, fate throws her into the path of a man she loathes.

Lochlan is stunned to find the shrewish Cat being hauled away by unknown men. Unwilling to see even her suffer, he frees her only to learn that she has her own demons to fight. When their fates intertwine, two people who know nothing of trust must rely on each other, and two enemies who have vowed their eternal hatred must find common ground, or see their very lives shattered.

Historical Romance. ? 2007. 344 pages.