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Readwine

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    Looking for books about death?

    in Book Search and Reading Recommendations

    Posted

    The one that comes to mind is Being Dead by Jim Crace. It is a rather interesting book as it describes in detail the characters who are dead as they are not found for sometime.

     

    Here is a brief summary from Amazon:

     

    It begins with a murder. Celice and Joseph, in their mid-50s and married for more than 30 years, are returning to the seacoast where they met as students. They are reliving their first amorous encounter in the sand dunes when they are set upon by the murderer who beats them to death with a rock and steals their watches, their jewelry, and even their meager lunch. From that moment forward, this remarkably written book by Jim Crace becomes less about murder and more about death.

     

    Alternating chapters move back in time from the murder in hourly and two-hourly increments. As the narrative moves backward, we see Celice and Joseph make the small decisions about their day that will lead them inexorably towards their own deaths. Eventually we learn about their first meeting, and that this is not the first time tragedy has struck them in this idyllic setting.

     

     

    In other chapters the narrative moves forward. Celice and Joseph are on vacation and nobody misses them until they do not return. Thus, it is six days before their bodies are found. Crace describes in minute detail their gradual return to the land with the help of crabs, birds, and the numerous insects that attack the body and gently and not so gently prepare it for the dust-to-dust phase of death. Celice and Joseph would have been delighted with the description: she was a zoologist and he was an oceanographer, and they spent their lives with their eyes to the microscope, observing the phenomena of life and death. Some readers might find this gruesome, but the facts of death are told in such glorious prose that these descriptions in no way detract from the enjoyment of the book.

    After her parents do not return home, their daughter, Syl, must search the morgues and follow up John and Jane Doe reports until she is finally asked to make an identification of the remains in the dunes. We then discover that the reader has had a more intimate relationship with them in death than Syl ever had with them in life. This small gem of a book, not really a mystery in the usual sense, will stay with you long after you finish.

    Favourite Story vs Favourite Book

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    Vinay, I guess I am not really understanding your question. Maybe it is two questions: What is your favourite book as it pertains to character development and/or language? and What is your favourite plot line?

     

    Or is it Who is your favourite author?

     

    For example, my favourite writer is Ian McEwan. To me, his prose is pristine and fabulous - stylistically, he is superb. His storylines, however, are so dark and edgy I find some of them difficult to read. Is this what you mean? As to plot line, I am going to have to think about this one - very difficult to decide.

    Readwine's Reads 2010

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

     

    Blurb from Publisher’s Weekly:

     

    Chevalier's newest is a flat historical whose familiar themes of gender inequality, class warfare and social power often overwhelm the story. Tart-tongued spinster Elizabeth Philpot meets young Mary Anning after moving from London to the coastal town of Lyme Regis. The two quickly form an unlikely friendship based on their mutual interest in finding fossils, which provides the central narrative as working-class Mary emerges from childhood to become a famous fossil hunter, with her friend and protector Elizabeth to defend her against the men who try to take credit for Mary's finds. Their friendship, however, is tested when Colonel Birch comes to Lyme to ask for Mary's help in hunting fossils and the two spinsters compete for his attention. While Chevalier's exploration of the plight of Victorian-era women is admirable, Elizabeth's fixation on her status as an unmarried woman living in a gossipy small town becomes monotonous, and Chevalier slows the story by dryly explaining the relative importance of different fossils. Chevalier's attempt to imagine the lives of these real historical figures makes them seem less remarkable than they are.

    I think Publisher’s Weekly is a bit harsh in the assessment of this novel, but it does summarize the plot quite well. I think Chevalier presents the themes of gender inequality and class distinction very well through its two main characters, and she develops the friendship between the two women with warts and all. Even though Elizabeth is a bit bitter at being an old spinster, I still liked her as she struggled to find her individuality in a time when women were discounted and dismissed.

     

    The real problem I had with this novel was Chevalier’s ignoring (or at least not expanding) the amazing religious and scientific controversy that must have been swirling and discussed at the finding of ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus bones in the shores of England. Mary’s finds took place before Darwin proffered his evolutionary theories, but the bones became key pieces of evidence of extinction. Apparently in the 1820s (dates the novel takes place), it was believed by the clergy and the intelligentsia that animals did not become extinct — in part because they felt that extinction would imply that God's creation had been imperfect; any oddities found were explained away as still living somewhere in an unexplored region of the earth. I was really hoping that the novel would delve a little deeper into this argument. Alas, no.

     

    I give it an 8.5 out of 10

    Sashenka by Simon Montefiore

    in Historical Fiction

    Posted

    Sue, thanks for the great references. Much appreciated.

     

    I think you are right, S was caught in a fervent emotional tide, but a tide that demanded to extend outwards (towards the "people" against the "bourgeoisie") without individual conditions. But as the tide goes out, it must also come in. And this where I think S was in self-denial. She refuses to let any emotional tide affect her individually. For example, when she truly finds out what her husband is up to, there is absolutely no reaction. Like you said, she just living a lie and a life of denial.

    The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

    in Crime / Mystery / Thriller

    Posted

    I guess I am in the minority.:D Every so often, I love to get lost in a good story - no thinking, no analysing, taking every word as it comes and granting it to the author without argument. Dan Brown's books fit this bill for me.

     

    I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Symbol and basically read it through in one sitting. I think it has some interesting concepts. That is all. Wanna bet someone in Washington DC is making a mint by having LS tours :roll:

    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    Frankly, it's all a bit underwhelming, actually.

     

    I feel the same way. I read this last year and was expecting a good, good read from all the reviews. I found it disjointed and unrealistic in the sense that Oscar's character was a little plastic (shall we say virtual) and, for me, not believable.

     

    From a creative writing professor at MIT, this was very disapponting.

     

    The insight into how life in the Dominican Republic was under Trujillo regime was interesting.

     

    You are right, this was very interesting. A redeemeing factor.

    Readwine's Reads 2010

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

     

    Blurb from Amazon:

     

    It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions

    Readwine's Reads 2010

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    I especially loved The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith - terrific read. :(

     

    Kell, this book has been on my list for a couple of years. New books keep being piled on top of it. I am determined to read it this year as it has been highly recommended by several people. Thanks for pushing it up the list. ;)

     

    I have the Mozart Conspiracy on my TBR pile. Looks good. Look forward to hearing what you think.

     

    I've been waiting for a long, wet and cold weekend as I love curling up with this kind of book :welcome:

     

    Ooh! Christopher Fowler's on your list! He's awesome! And I truly loved Stieg Larsson's trilogy. :D

     

    The Victoria Vanishes was actually one of my Secret Santa's choices, but I bought it for myself instead :). It sounds intriguing. I am really looking forward to reading it. I've finished two of the Larsson books - I am impatiently waiting for the paperback version of the Hornet's Nest to come out. April cannot get soon enough

     

    Watership Down is such a beautiful book, still makes me cry now twenty years after first reading it

     

    Joe, this one will be a reread. I read it in my much younger days and absolutely fell in love with it. It has been about 30 years for me :)

    Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley

    in Crime / Mystery / Thriller

    Posted

    The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

     

    Blurb from Amazon:

     

    It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions�stamp collecting, adventure novels, and boys respectively�Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer. In Alan Bradley's critically acclaimed debut mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, adult readers will be totally charmed by this fearless, funny, and unflappable kid sleuth. But don't be fooled: this carefully plotted detective novel (the first in a new series) features plenty of unexpected twists and turns and loads of tasty period detail. As the pages fly by, you'll be rooting for this curious combination of Harriet the Spy and Sherlock Holmes. Go ahead, take a bite.

     

    This novel was a great surprise and a lovely delight. It is a straight forward mystery devoid of any graphic scenes or sexual situations (a nice change now and then). It is funny, fast-paced and lighthearted; it is also, to my delight, very British.

     

    I loved the writing style: smooth, swift and quite amusing. It is definitely written in the vocabulary of an older teenager or adult. I don�t think an eleven year old could actually get through it without a struggle (at least not a US pre-teen- US reading skills generally are appalling). Even though the mystery unfolds through the eyes and ears of a little girl, I think the novel is really written for an adult. It is almost nostalgic, taking you back to when you were 11.

     

    The main character, Flavia, is simply fabulous: smart, resourceful and very brave, with a fragile but firm philosophy of �Me against the World.� She adores chemistry, particularly poisons, which makes for an intriguing little girl. It is amazing how a male author really delved into the character of Flavia and really captured her views of an adult world (absent minded father and deceased mother), her constant rivalry against her older sisters and her friendship (cemented through the instruction of lock picking) with an old shell-shocked gardener.

     

    The plot of the mystery is really plain vanilla, but the delight of this novel is not in the mystery but in the characters of the mystery, particularly Flavia. This is apparently the first book in a series. So I shall be looking forward with great anticipation for the next installments.

     

    I give it a 10/10

    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

    in Crime / Mystery / Thriller

    Posted

    From the little I've read, it appears that the Swedish version of the film (Girl with Dragon Tattoo) will have a limited release in the US on March 19, 2010 (distributed by Music Box). Please, please let there be a showing near me :lol:

     

    I've finished the first two books of the Millenium Trilogy and I am mad as @#$%^& :) that the third installment will not be release in the US until March. And that is the Hardback version. Lord knows when the paperback version will be release.

     

    For those in the UK: is there a paperback version available across the pond? Amazon UK says it is coming in April but then it says some are available form other sellers. I Am I missing something? Is it trade versus mass? Thanks in advance.

     

    So far fabulous series :friends0:

    Readwine's Reads 2010

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    Sashenka by Simon Montefiore

     

    Blurb from Amazon:

     

    Starred Review. Lauded historian Montefiore (Young Stalin) ventures successfully into fiction with the epic story of Sashenka Zeitlin, a privileged Russian Jew caught up in the romance of the Russian revolution and then destroyed by the Stalinist secret police. The novel's first section, set in 1916, describes how, under the tutelage of her Bolshevik uncle, Sashenka becomes a naive, idealistic revolutionary charmed by her role as a courier for the underground and rejecting her own bourgeois background. Skip forward to 1939, when Sashenka and her party apparatchik husband are at the zenith of success until Sashenka's [personal decision regarding] a disgraced writer leads to arrests and accusations; in vivid scenes of psychological and physical torture, Sashenka is forced to choose between her family, her lover and her cause. But as this section ends, many questions remain, and it is up to historian Katinka Vinsky in 1994 to find the answers to what really happened to Sashenka and her family. Montefiore's prose is unexciting, but the tale is thick and complex, and the characters' lives take on a palpable urgency against a wonderfully realized backdrop.

     

    I finally came to this book as my TBR pile dwindled slowly. I was really looking forward to indulging in a large tome of historical fiction, but unfortunately I came away a little disappointed.

     

    Montefiore undertook a massive span of history. From 1916 to 1994, Russia saw tremendous changes. To be able to encapsulate all of it in a novel is very hard. I think he tried to do it through his main character, Sashenka, by focusing on her development as a pristine Bolshevik and Comrade, and her experiences as she fell in the clutches of the secret police. Factually, I think he succeeded. Emotionally, however, he paints Sashenka (and most of the other characters) as totally self-centered and uncaring. This really disturbed me. There seemed to be no empathy in that world at all, and I just could not believe it.

     

    I felt that the terror and despair of the Stalin era was treated in the novel as a newspaper clipping, to be read and forgotten. It seemed that none of Montefiore

    Sashenka by Simon Montefiore

    in Historical Fiction

    Posted

    Sashenka by Simon Montefiore

     

    Blurb from Amazon:

     

    Starred Review. Lauded historian Montefiore (Young Stalin) ventures successfully into fiction with the epic story of Sashenka Zeitlin, a privileged Russian Jew caught up in the romance of the Russian revolution and then destroyed by the Stalinist secret police. The novel's first section, set in 1916, describes how, under the tutelage of her Bolshevik uncle, Sashenka becomes a naive, idealistic revolutionary charmed by her role as a courier for the underground and rejecting her own bourgeois background. Skip forward to 1939, when Sashenka and her party apparatchik husband are at the zenith of success until Sashenka's [personal decision regarding] a disgraced writer leads to arrests and accusations; in vivid scenes of psychological and physical torture, Sashenka is forced to choose between her family, her lover and her cause. But as this section ends, many questions remain, and it is up to historian Katinka Vinsky in 1994 to find the answers to what really happened to Sashenka and her family. Montefiore's prose is unexciting, but the tale is thick and complex, and the characters' lives take on a palpable urgency against a wonderfully realized backdrop.

     

    I finally came to this book as my TBR pile dwindled slowly. I was really looking forward to indulging in a large tome of historical fiction, but unfortunately I came away a little disappointed.

     

    Montefiore undertook a massive span of history. From 1916 to 1994, Russia saw tremendous changes. To be able to encapsulate all of it in a novel is very hard. I think he tried to do it through his main character, Sashenka, by focusing on her development as a pristine Bolshevik and Comrade, and her experiences as she fell in the clutches of the secret police. Factually, I think he succeeded. Emotionally, however, he paints Sashenka (and most of the other characters) as totally self-centered and uncaring. This really disturbed me. There seemed to be no empathy in that world at all, and I just could not believe it.

     

    I felt that the terror and despair of the Stalin era was treated in the novel as a newspaper clipping, to be read and forgotten. It seemed that none of Montefiore’s characters acted or reacted with outrage, despair, unbelief, terror. They just kept going on in their little lives. It is not until we meet, Katinka, the modern historian, that I felt the author gave the Stalin horror’s a voice – at least someone commenting on the injustices, the sadness. She demanded answers.

     

    I give it a 6/10

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