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Articles

• 17/06/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "In the Shadow of the Banyan"

  by Nancy Craig (Newton, KS): First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story you might read on the Khmer Rouge atrocities and events of the time. Told through the voice of seven year old Raami; we leave the splendor of a royal life in Phnom Penh to the brutal life of the camps of rural Cambodia. The systematic destruction of family units was carried out while starvation and death was a constant. In the depths of starvation, Raami lives on bugs, leaves and the meager rations in the camp. Her line, andquot;Sad was too small a wordandquot; describe so perfectly the time she lived through. How does this novelist tell a story of such horror and yet, just as the moon was there for Raami, present that sliver of hope for the reader? This is an unforgettable novel of the love of a family and the rebirth of a little girl and her mother to a new life.

  12/06/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "TransAtlantic"

  by Diane S.: Trite but true, all good things must come to an end. I so wanted to keep reading the wonderful prose, the settings that let one think they are part of the story, and the wonderful characters that this novel contains. McCann has the knack of illuminating the everyday things of a person's life, hidden pride, glowing praise, love for country family and children. Everyday items, inconsequential things assume a meaning that often in apparent only in hindsight. Taking real historical characters and mixing them with characters of his own invention, and making the story realistic takes a very great talent. Covering the pure amount of history in a little more than 250 pgs. fills one with wonder. It is very important to pay attention to the prologue, also the small events that keep reappearing in different places. The first part of the book is not linear, the second part covers some wonderfully strong woman characters, and like a master weaver he threads them throughout history and combines them to make a cohesive and finished piece. It is also a homage to Ireland, their fight and quest for freedom, intermingled with America and slavery. This is a book that contain so many wonderful quotes one could quote indefinitely, but this is one of my favorites and a good way to end this review. andquot;There isn't a story in the world that isn't in part at least, addressed to the past. And so it goes.

  09/06/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "The House at the End of Hope Street"

  by Louise J (Ontario, Canada): A magical book, an enchanted house, a cast of characters who previously lived there but remain on the walls in photographs to be talked to whenever the desire strikes you. Florence Nightingale, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath to name a few. This whimsical house lives and breathes, the walls moving in and out like a heartbeat, the lampshades bowing to get a closer look at you. The mysterious and magical 82-year-old Peggy who runs 11 Hope Street is a kind and wise woman. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen will love this novel. I put it in the same category as Allenand#039;s novel and the book Night Circus. A beautifully written, happy, magical story that is a very rare treat! A book you wonand#039;t want to see end. Alba, Carmen, Greer, Stella and Peggy are characters I wonand#039;t soon forget. They are all there for different reasons and the house knows exactly what each woman needs. I lived at 11 Hope Street from the time I read the first chapter. I couldnand#039;t have forced myself to leave even if I had wanted to. I loved the happiness, the love, the caring and the warmth the house enveloped me in. The house knows what you need. You may think you need one thing but the house wonand#039;t give it to you unless you really do need it. Itand#039;s the house that decides and does and provides you with what you truly and sincerely need in your life. I will be keeping this as part of my permanent collection and am going to read it again before I put it away on my shelf for a while, thatand#039;s how much I enjoyed this book and I know you will too. I highly, highly recommend this book for everyone. If I could rate it at a one thousand, I would! For a debut novel, this is an unbelievable story, a story youand#039;ll absolutely fall in love with.

  09/06/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "The Children's Book"

  by CloggieDownunder (Thirroul NSW Australia): The Childrenand#039;s Book is the fifth stand-alone novel by British author, Antonia S. Byatt. This novel spans about a quarter of a century, starting in 1895, and tells the story of childrenand#039;s author, Olive Wellwood, her extended family, friends and acquaintances. Against a backdrop of Victorian, then Edwardian then World War One England, Byatt creates a dynasty that is exposed to Imperialists, Socialists, Fabians, Malthusians, Theosophists, and revolutionaries. Jung, Freud, Oscar Wilde, H.G.Wells, Lalique, womenand#039;s suffrage, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Grande Exposition in Paris all play their part. This family is involved, not just in childrenand#039;s literature, but also pottery, jewellery making, puppeteering, fairy mythology, plays and Art and Craft Summer Camps. Byatt intersperses the narrative with Oliveand#039;s fiction and, later, poetry by one of the children. As the children of the various families grow and develop, they come to realise that the adults they trust and rely on are not what they seem, and secrets are revealed that change lives. Adultery is rife in this novel, as are births where parentage is suspect; suicides and war deaths take their toll too. Byattand#039;s descriptions are highly evocative: pottery, puppets and nature are almost tangible. The Lalique brooch on the cover of this edition presages the sumptuous work within. A magical read.

  08/06/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "Gulp"

  by Becky H (Chicago, IL): I always learn something when I read one of Roachand#039;s books. And I usually am laughing when I learn it! Roach has a great (some would say twisted) sense of humor (donand#039;t overlook the footnotes!) that enlivens a book that could be deadly dull. Never fear, Roach will entertain you even while discussing feces and other products of the human body. Gulp takes the subject of food and its ability to pass through the body while giving nourishment and pleasure to the human (and seventh grade boys a scintillating topic of conversation) and delves into the most intimate phases of digestion and excretion. She finds unique and interesting studies (both legitimately scientific and the just bizarre) and explains what was learned in a way understandable to laymen. One thing I learned is that 90 percent of taste is actually smell, so the alimentary canal begins with the nose and ends with the anus (another smell!) Sorry, I couldnand#039;t help it and#150; that is what reading a Mary Roach book will do to you. Enjoy!

  31/05/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "In the Shadow of the Banyan"

  by Toby S. (Seattle): Vaddey Rattner has written in lovely, poetic prose and poetry an autobiographical novel of her brutally painful childhood during the Khmer Rouge Cambodian Holocaust. I admired this book. It must not have been easy to write about such suffering in forced labor camps and the loss of her family members and millions of other human lives. The story begins with a lyrical portrait of her life before the Khmer Rouge started its insane path of attempting to andquot;socializeandquot; Cambodia and its horrendous purge of both suspected intellectuals and formerly well-off citizens. Starvation, Murder, Suffering are the themes throughout the second half of the book and I found myself horrified by the tragedy.

  30/05/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena"

  by Diane S. (Batavia): When I looked at the author's photo at the back of the book he looked to me to be about sixteen yrs. old, although a goodreads friend of mine assured me he was twenty-eight or twenty-nine. Even so I am jealous that someone this young could write such a fantastic first novel. In the decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been many changes. One of the hardest hit areas has been Chechnya and it is here that this story takes place, midst the bombed out streets, the rubble and empty buildings, the black markets, the gun runners and the informers. Everyone is just trying to stay alive while others are trying to get out. It is a country that is up for grabs and it is not safe for anyone. It is about two sisters, one who goes to school in London and the other who stays and when she does get out it is not the way she planned. There are horrors, limbs being cut off, finger legs, many things difficult to read and yet there is humor to and hope. That the one sister will find the other, that the little girl, and you will fall in love with her, will live and prosper. The one thing Marra does, is take places or peripheral characters and tell you how it will look or where they will be years from now. It is about the connectedness between people, about the vagaries of fate and about survival whatever it takes. It is about the way he treats all his characters with compassion. Quite simply I love the way he writes. I bet you he still gets carded though.

  25/05/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "If You Find Me"

  by Diane S. (Batavia): This debut novel, written for the young adult genre, is a very compelling and poignant novel. The heroine is a very strong but bruised, physically and mentally, character who is not a vampire or shape-shifter, or a fallen angel. In fact, that it is not, is another reason I found this novel refreshing. That is not to say that horrible things do not happen, although they are told in flashbacks and memories, but it also shows that things can work out. That a path can be changed, and for the good. That a family can be made up of many different parts and still work. Look forward to seeing where Murdoch goes next with her fiction as this was a very good first outing.

  23/05/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "Bring Up the Bodies"

  by jww (Davis, CA): A very large book - in number of pages and in content - and every page worth reading. Thoroughly enjoyed this one and her first book on the subjects, Wolf Hall. This one was more tightly edited and a bit easier to read because of that, but would recommend both to anyone interested in any part of English history. So much has been written about this time period and these characters but Ms. Mantel has made Thomas Cromwell a sympathetic and extremely interesting character. So much so that I am now reading a non-fiction book about him. Again, very interesting but not as much fun as Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

  22/05/2013 11:00 AM

  Reader Review: "Two Lives"

  by Cloggie Downunder (Thirroul NSW Australia): Two Lives is a memoir written by international best-selling author, Vikram Seth. In this interesting and engaging book, Seth writes about his great uncle Shanti Behari Seth (Shanti Uncle), born in Biswan, and his German Jewish great aunt, Hennerle Caro (Aunty Henny), born in Berlin, describing them as two exiles who found their home in each other. Using interviews with his uncle as well as letters, photographs and official documents, Seth builds up a comprehensive image of the lives of two people he held dear. But as with his travelogue, From Heaven Lake, this also contains commentary on world affairs and much of the authorand#039;s own life: Seth states "I felt that a picture of these individual lives would be complemented by glimpses of their century, even if these glimpses were mediated by the opinion, perhaps opinionatedness, of the author. Indeed, the lens has also turned around upon its wielder, for this book is memoir as well as biography." As such, while a fascinating examination of two very interesting lives, it also gives much insight into the inspiration for and circumstances surrounding the writing of his various works. It is certainly intriguing to see how his interests and life events are linked to his novels. The depiction of World War Two, the Holocaust and other events of the Twentieth Century from two unique perspectives is also quite interesting. And of course, Seth once again exercises his poetic brain cells for the charming dedication. This book has aptly been described as an engaging and moving narrative. Well worth reading.

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