The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Author; Kate Morton http://www.katemorton.com/

Publisher; Washington Square Press (Simon and Schuster) http://books.simonandschuster.com/Forgotten-Garden/Kate-Morton/9781416550549

I pack light.  When I travel I use a 19-inch roller bag and a shoulder bag, for every trip, any length over 3 days.  So, you can guess that my excess space for ‘stuff’ is small. 

I loaned my eReader to my sister.

My Niece passes this book along to me just as she’s tossing me out at the airport.  “Here, I like it and thought you would too.”  It’s 552 pages.  I have nowhere to put it.

The Ticketing Agent snuffs her nose at my shoulder bag + roller bag + BOOK.  “That fit in your bag?”

“Yup.”  I reply, direct lie.  She lets me through despite her visible concern.

I sit down at the gate and start to read.  It’s a mystery.  A little girl is abandoned on a ship bound for Australia.  She gets ‘adopted’ by a family and lives happily until her engagement, when her adoptive Father spills the beans, “we found you…”.  The knowledge tears away her foundations and exposes her life as a lie.

I board the airplane.  She lives her life without telling her family.  Her Daughter never knows.  Her Grand-Daughter learns the secret and investigates.  As she does, things begin to make sense; the troubled relationship with her adoptive family, her caustic relationship with her daughter, her loving relationship with her Grand-Daughter. 

I read at home, until the mystery resolves itself.

My Niece was right, it was a wonderful read.  Light and entwined intelligently.  The Characters followed reasonable personality traits, they were motivated by appropriate emotions, things happened that seemed realistic.  It was refreshing and fun.  There were no bizarre or out-of-the-blue clues or answers, it all made sense.

I enjoyed reading this well thought-out novel, the writing style is light and easy.  The story is engaging and quick enough that it maintains your interest.  It was a perfect selection for travel, or a summer read, or a winter snuggle by the fire.

Pick it up, it will not disappoint.

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The above is an opinion of  Hubbaloo’s.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Author; Jamie Ford – http://www.jamieford.com/

Publisher; Ballantine Books – http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345505347

There is a reason why this Novel keeps appearing in “Top 100″ charts; it is a gem.  Amazon (today) ranks it at #72, and that’s quite a feat.

It attests to the quality of the writing, the story and the voice it is written in. 

The flavor of the novel moves from romance to tragedy, from family to loneliness, childhood to adulthood and a touch of most everything else, delicately balanced.  The Author has managed to bring the confusion of Internment to focus and still honestly illustrate its different facets.  One shining sparkle is the courage that many of the American-Japanese showed during their imprisonment.  Another  brilliant sparkle is the compassion that many of the Americans showed despite the overwhelming pressure to despise them.  By casting the main character as Chinese, Jamie Ford was able to showcase this diamond in the clearest light possible.   

If none of this is of interest to you, consider the humanity and compassion of the characters, their fictional lives and the interweaving of one life with another.  Here again, the Author delicately balances imaginary people with such finesse that they never step out of the realm of reality.  There are no superheros and dastardly villans, just people making good and bad decisions, living with the consequences and doing their best.  They are real.

If you still choose to pass this one by, please reconsider; it has earned its merits, not by aggressive marketing but by striving to be the best.

I’m wrong.

We reach for it first, it’s fast and does almost everything we want.

It moves from the kitchen, for the weather and the morning news, to the living room for discussion-inducing fact checking, football stats, dog allergies, cleaning tips, and surfing.  We hardly bother to turn on the ‘old’ style computer, or laptop.

The Seniors in our life all go home asking for one.  I can’t explain just how easy it is for any of them to comprehend the iPad but once they figure out that they are allowed to touch the screen, they’re gone for hours.

My Mother-in-Law has no previous computer experience.  She’s been using our iPad for 4 days and is having trouble understanding why my Father-in-Law is so slow with his laptop.  She uses the iPad, a touch here, one there and she’s got the weather, the lottery numbers and the home newspaper.  She’s addicted to puzzles, she’s learning Sudoku and just discovered Wikipedia. 

“How come it takes you so long?”  She quizzes. 

“Because he’s using a laptop and mouse, it’s slower.”  I answer for him, “he has to get the mouse cursor to the right place, click the correct mouse button and wait.”

“He needs this.  Can we buy one?”

I’ve already tried this with the other two Seniors in my life, “Yes, but you still need a computer to connect it to, update it and other things.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

So, if Apple is wandering across this site and scrolls to reach the end of this blog, please, please, can you make the iPad a standalone product?  One that does not need to get plugged into a computer.  One that just works from the get-go? I have four people already that are anxious to purchase one.

Publisher, Random House, http://www.randomhouse.com/

This is the second novel by Lisa See that I have had the pleasure to read.  I enjoy her reality, her insight into humanity, her understanding of what can and does often motivate people. 

Well crafted fiction is a blurred blend of truth and fakery, and in this novel I find that the Shanghai Girls are not far from reports that we read in Headlines today about illegal immigration.  In the Novel and in the Headlines both people experience desperate departures, both have terrifying entries and both generate paralyzing fears.  Fears that can torment a family struggling to live undetected in their chosen land.  And, both the fictionalized people and the actual Headliners do it for the same reason; hope.

It was hard to read the pain the two sisters went through as they journey to America.  It was difficult to read how their fear created their victimization; living in decrepit and crowded conditions, working for little and no pay, refusing to believe they had a voice to object.  They clung to their old ways with tenacity so strengthened by fear that it shrouded their ability to see and reach for relief; they clung because the old ways gave comfort and an illusion of control. 

This is true of illegal immigration, and infrequently of legal immigration and it happens in our present time.  A small blurb, a quick note somewhere buried in the News Services; someone so terrified of discovery that they died to keep the secret, or to protect someone else.  When we read it, we wonder why they didn’t know there was another choice, we wonder how they could not have known.  Shanghai Girls shades the two so well together that when we wonder why, we also know why.

Thank you, Lisa See.

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The above is an opinion of Hubbaloo’s

Publisher, Tyndale fiction, http://www.tyndale.com

Thank you Randy Singer for an honest legal novel.  You are right, the Law is interesting enough as it is, no need for embellishment or fakery.

I particularly appreciated that individuals are responsible for their actions, and are often unaware of the consequences to those around them.  Following the family through the novel, reading how the Husband’s ignoring of the Law caused pain to the Wife and Children is honest and true.  Sadly, as in real life, the instigator is idealistic, believing that they alone are burdened with the efforts and that those around them are ‘fine’.  Also, as illustrated so adeptly, they are often ignorant that their actions cause and force reactions from others. 

The characters and their roles in ‘The Judge Who Stole Christmas’ are crisp, smartly developed and honest.  While this is an idealistic novel it none the less blends the Law, Humanity and Christmas together as a family. 

I look forward to picking up another Randy Singer novel.

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The above review is an opinion of the Author’s.

I like movies, they’re fun especially with people who you like. 

I like Matt Damon’s acting and Steven Soderbergh’s directing, so together I though ‘The Informant’ would be outstanding. 

IMDB gives it 6.7 out of 10 again, showed promise.

It was sloooow and duuuuull. 

I just didn’t get it, I got Fargo and that was slow-moving but interesting, this wasn’t.

My Parents could watch this movie and not get lost – they are old and still believe that newspapers deliver the most current news (I know, I’m laughing too).  They could nap through 3/4 of it and still catch up on the story line. “Who’s the bad guy?”  ”The one that started out being the good guy.”  And, that would start a personal experience story that I’ve heard a dozen times already during the movie.  Sadly, that story would still be more interesting…

However, the acting was outstanding. 

If you like to watch actors act well, this is a good movie for that. 

If you like to watch good directing, this is a good movie for that as well. 

If you like a good story, then call my Dad and ask about the Stooge, he’d started out nice as well…

Publisher, Simon & Schuster, http://books.simonandschuster.com/Land-of-Women/Regina-McBride/9780743249577

Another Book Club choice, from my local area and it was quite the surprise.  Well out of the normal comfort sphere the group read, so I was delighted and then enchanted as I opened and started to read.

I wanted to quote everything I read; Regina McBride’s crafting of words and sentences, images and feelings is elegant and poetic.  Reading her work is like eating your favorite food, every snippet, every bite is savory and delicious, you don’t want it to end. 

Her Cast is small, only 6 that feature, that you will know intimately.  The supporting Cast is larger, but here too, the Author manages to breathe a vibrant life into each one; they may only appear for a few moments but they fill them fully.

Fabric webbed the story, binding itself from Mother to Daughter, spilling to life all around.  It described people, it defined both Jane and Fiona while it illustrated their lives. 

The Novel’s first sentence, “When she closes her eyes, Fiona recalls the pale smells of her mother’s skin and hair; a smell like new muslin washed in salt water and left to dry in the wind.” guides you softly through Fiona’s memories. 

Superstition and myth follow closely, entangling in Fiona’s life with men.  She cast charms and spells with her mother to bring her father back, her first boyfriend lived and recreated myth, while her last boyfriend dedicated his life to it, as had his Uncle before him. 

“In either place, it was the other he longed for …”  This is how Carlos describes his Uncle to Fiona, but also describes her Mother’s life and possibly hers as well.  For me, it defines the novel.

I want to go on, to tell everything, but this story won’t speak to all people and it’s best that you read it yourself. 

So read it, collect a few friends, open a crisp white wine, serve those delicious treats and indulge in your discussions.

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The above is an opinion of the Authors.

HSN is currently featuring the enTourage eDGe Pocket  for $399.90 + $9.95 shipping and handling, HSN #091-091. 

This is a limited time offer, as HSN’s retail price is $499.99.

enTourage retail price is $549.00 plus taxes, shipping, and accessories.

Link to enTourage: http://www.entourageedge.com/devices/entourage-edge.html

Link to HSN: http://www.HSN.com

Publisher; Bantam Books, Random House, http://www.randomhouse.com/, http://www.randomhouse.com/gm/results.pperl?title_subtitle_auth_isbn=dream+of+the+blue+room&x=16&y=12

Our Book Club voted – Yuk.

I smiled.  We discussed this book for the entire hour.

How could it have been a yuk?  We normally discuss the book for 5 minutes and spend the next 55 chatting about family, vacation plans and the like.

I smiled because I knew the back story was uncomfortable, homosexual love, and a topic that we passively avoided. 

I smiled because the novel also touched on what I consider to be bi-polar religion,  ‘Everyone is welcome, as long as they’re exactly like us.’

We crossed the globe with discussions on grief, love, religion, yellow, hands, euthanasia, imperialism and abuse.  

Euthanasia was a heated discussion, when was it ok?  And, was Graham a predator, waiting for just the right victim?  He did after all take 2 trips before targeting Jenny.

We stumbled on the moral differences of saving a drowning person and how that reflected a fundamental difference in the reverence of life from one culture to another.

Discussion on the quote ‘China was Amanda Ruth’s romance, not her father’s.’ was never really resolved to anyones liking.  While we speedily dealt with ‘New York City welcomed me in a way my hometown never would…”  We got stuck on the symbolism of Jenny seducing the Mormon.  And, we all sighed sadly with ‘I felt that the one defining moment of my life had already happened,…’  Jenny was too young for that moment to happen. 

At the end of the hour we were no closer to a consensus, but our new Leader had managed to encourage a different viewpoint and we closed by agreeing the book was a good choice – for discussion.  It was a large qualifier with a timid admission that perhaps everyone should be welcome, even if they are not exactly like us.

 I smiled because I thought that was a big win.

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The above is an opinion of the author’s.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Publisher, Gutenberg Free eBooks, http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page  

It’s interesting reading novels from different periods of our literary history, each is a ‘snap shot’ of the perspective of the Author at that time.  That perspective changes with each generation of people that read afterwards.   

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a Horror, I read it and came away not feeling horrified by the unnatural monster, but horrified at the Hero, Victor Frankenstein.  True, I am applying my personal morals and conduct to Victor from 2010, not from 1818 (published date) and I find him very, very lacking.  He is no hero in my modern eyes, he is the villan.  

Victor takes no responsibility for his actions.  He creates the Beast, then abandons it a few moments after its creation.  He spends two years in self-pity, wallowing in how bad he feels and makes no effort to find, help or determine the nature of what he created.  

The Beast had to figure it all out on his own, he does, then gets angry…  

Innocent people die while Victor continues to avoid his responsibility, too horrified to act.  He could have easily intervened and prevented each death but he couldn’t, he took the easy out and blamed the Monster.  

Victor cared about those who died, but never enough to actually do something about it.  Even his own Bride, the epitome of innocence; he confesses to have a terrible secret but won’t tell her what it is  until she is irrevocably bound in marriage.   He abuses her situation for his gain.     

Perhaps Victor refused to deal with the Beast because doing so ment that he had to deal with the darkness within is own character.  His inaction forcing those around him to deal with it instead.  His only driving force was to survive, as it turned out, at other people’s expense.  

I am confident that Mary Shelley wrote Victor to be the Hero and in 1818 he was probably viewed as one.  The original title was “The Modern Prometheus”:   

He was a champion of human-kind known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals.  Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day.  Wikipedia, Prometheus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus  

Was Victor, Prometheus creating a living, sentient Beast?  Was Victor’s punishment the death of all that he loved and cherished?  Or, was Victor’s torture the realization that he was a Coward and not the Hero he had assumed himself to be?  

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The above is the opinion of the Authors.