KarynHallMi Vida Loca: Books and More

Only on Chapter 1 but so far her ideas are based on solid research. Well-written, interesting.

Wolf Hall

I read the description of this book so many times. Reviewers summarized it very positively, for example:

No character in the canon has been writ larger than Henry VIII, but that didn’t stop Hilary Mantel. She strides through centuries, past acres of novels, histories, biographies, and plays–even past Henry himself–confident in the knowledge that to recast history’s most mercurial sovereign, it’s not the King she needs to see, but one of the King’s most mysterious agents.

Enter Thomas Cromwell, a self-made man and remarkable polymath who ascends to the King’s right hand. Rigorously pragmatic and forward-thinking, Cromwell has little interest in what motivates his Majesty, and although he makes way for Henry’s marriage to the infamous Anne Boleyn, it’s the future of a free England that he honors above all else and hopes to secure. Mantel plots with a sleight of hand, making full use of her masterful grasp on the facts without weighing down her prose.

The opening cast of characters and family trees may give initial pause to some readers, but persevere: the witty, whip-smart lines volleying the action forward may convince you a short stay in the Tower of London might not be so bad… provided you could bring a copy of Wolf Hall along.

–Anne Bartholomew

Despite wonderful reviews from the New York Times and the Washington Post plus many others and winning the Man Booker Award, the book did not sound interesting to me. And it wasn’t available on Kindle, which means lugging a large book around, one I couldn’t read while doing cardio.

I was wrong. Great writing is interesting, no matter what the topic or genre. I haven’t finished it yet and will post my comments when I do. So many interesting books to read, so little time!

The Lacuna

Author of Poisonwood BibleBarbara Kingsolver hasn’t written a book in nine years. The Lacunais facinating. I’ve just started it and I’m hooked. Here’s the description written by Harper Collins.

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America’s hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.

With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

I’ll let you know what I think when I finish it.

Paul Gilbert writes about having a “kind mind,” and tells us how to develop it. I’ll let you know what I think, but so far he’s got some great ideas.

The Bee Keepers Apprentice

Sherlock Holmes married? I avoided this series of books because the premise did not sound appealing. After reading many reviews praising the books, I decided to try this one. So glad I did.

August 2, 2009
Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Tiffany Baker

Truly Plaice descended from Judith Dyerson who was burned at the stake for being a witch and Tabitha Dyerson was the town’s healer for many years before the first Morgan doctor arrived. Robert Morgan, MD couldn’t get any business in the town until he married Tabitha and persuaded her to stop her practice. Truly entered this world with a record-breaking weight, and her mother died giving birth to her. She would have died from cancer soon anyway, but that made little difference to her father or to the townspeople. Truly is different from everyone, bigger than life, literally. She’s a giant with a petite doll-like sister, who discovers the long secret of Tabitha’s healing potions.

Truly struggles to accept herself, understand love, and to find peace with difficult moral issues. The advantages of beauty and the pain of being different are expressed with a soft, authentic touch. Baker writes of Truly’s everyday struggles with perfect prose, communicating nuance and feeling with a rhythmic flow.

August 1, 2009

Friday Finds

See upcoming reviews at Internet Review of Books–fabulous place to find great reviews.

An Almost Perfect Murder
by Gary C. King

The July 2006 murder of wealthy Kathy Augustine made headlines. She was a high profile, dominating political figure in Reno, Nevada, who made history by being the first woman elected state controller. She had her photo taken with both President George Bush and his son President George W. Bush, survived an impeachment process, and in 2004 was a finalist for the office of Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. She had a history of using less than above board political tactics. A Republican Party colleague stated publicly he considered her an embarrassment to the party. Nevertheless, she could win elections and had an impressive resume.

Her husband, whom she was divorcing, died in 2003, and three weeks later Kathy married a former bodybuilder, Chaz Higgs. After being married for three years, they discussed divorce, and Chaz flirted with another woman. Then Kathy died of an apparent heart attack. Based on a tip from the woman Chaz had been flirting with, the police looked for poisoning by succinylcholine. Based mainly on the FBI finding traces of that chemical in her urine, Chaz Higgs was charged with the murder of Kathy Augustine.

King’s account of the investigation and the trial of Chaz Higgs for Augustine’s murder is detailed and interesting, though the facts related in the beginning of the book flow less smoothly than his writing about the trial. He repeats facts, particularly in describing succinylcholine effects, which interferes with the pacing of the story at times. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating read.

Bufflehead Sisters

Janet lives an ordinary life with an ordinary family, growing up against a backdrop of the Vietnam War and the growth of the drug culture. Her parents struggle for a balance between compassion and control and Janet yearns for a sister, a Thelma for her Louise. Then Sophie enters her life. Delois has Janet describe Sophie as follows: “Her hair was a nest of blond curls that made me think of Goldilocks, and there was a smug look about her mouth that suggested she might have already helped herself to someone’s porridge and found it just right.”

DeLois writes with a magic wand. “One day in late winter, Sophie suggested we dig our way to another country. Not China, she said–they would look for us there. We would dig a hole halfway to China, and then we would veer off toward Amsterdam.”

DeLois enters the world of two children and shows the reader both how Sophie viewed her dysfunctional family and how Janet viewed her own parents as well as her relationship with the Sophie. The author is as adept at showing the child’s view as she is the adolescent view. The imagery she creates is so realistic you’ll think you’re back in your high school lunchroom, hoping against hope a certain boy will sit with you.

A coming of age story, a book about heartbreak and the ways women and men struggle with their wounds, and a tale of everyday lives, Bufflehead Sisters is all that. You may see yourself in the pages.

There’s something special about Sophie. Every one who meets her thinks so. This reader agrees.

The Help
by Kathryn Stockett is an amazing book. The characters live, breathe and tuck themselves in your heart as you join them in a time gone by and feel shame at the way many caucasians treated their black employees. She gives you a glimpse into life in Mississippi in the 1960’s that will make you believe you know how it felt by putting you smack in the middle of the zeitgeist of the times. She doesn’t tell you about that world, she transplants you into it. She wrote the book using dialect which made it difficult for me in the beginning. In fact, I put the book down and picked it up again only when desperate for something to read. After a few chapters, her story grabbed me so tight I couldn’t get away. Not that I wanted to go.

Have any recommendations for a fabulous book? Email me your recommendations or a review at karynhall@karynhall.com