Books – Page 36 – …on the B.L.

Dreams of Joy

December 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 354
Quick Review At 19, Joy finds out her family’s biggest secret. She runs away to find her father in her ancestral homeland of newly communist China.

I have had the accident of unknowingly buying sequels without reading the first. Fortunately, they have not been dependent upon the first book, so I am not totally lost while reading.

I did this again with Dreams of Joy by Lisa See, which is a sequel to her book Shanghai Girls. Joy and May were young sisters in the first novel; now, they are middle aged women with a dark secret embodied in their daughter Joy.

Joy is an idealist nineteen year old born in Los Angeles to Chinese parents. She yearns to go to China to build a Republic based on equality. When she learns her mothers’ secret, she runs away to China to find her father, who happens to be a famous artist. Spending time in communes and in the upper echelons of society with her father, it takes time for her to fully see the true meaning of Red China. Pearl embarks on her own mission to bring her daughter home to America. She returns to China and Shanghai after more than two decades away. Bittersweet. Many things have changed, but many have stayed the same.

Dreams of Joy is told from two perspectives: Joy, the daughter, and Pearl, the mother. They have their own unique viewpoints and voices. Their voices and views fit their age and experience. Pearl’s voice comes across more naturally. Joy’s voice is more forced with a tendency toward explanation and immature phrasing. It feels like the author isn’t fully invested or understanding of the characters perspective or psyche.

See discusses many horrible aspects of Chinese culture during the early years of communist China. Foot binding had been outlawed for many years in China, but there were still women alive who had endured the experience during the early years of the government shift. Infanticide and more atrocities were common practices during the famine. The desire to have male children was a violent and sincere part of culture even when men and women were considered “equal” by the government. See has no qualms about jumping head first into the ugly sides of history in her novel.

I really enjoyed Dreams of Joy and suggest it to anyone looking to learn a little more about Eastern culture. It’s a story of motherly love, idealism, and harsh reality.

Memorable Quotes
“She’s so sure of herself, but anyone can be sure at nineteen.”
“Those who have little to lose don’t want to lose what little they have.”
“To lose a daughter is sad, they tell me. To lose a son is tragic.”
“Mao my day women hold up half the sky, but it is the lesser half.”
“That means all food must go to males first.”
“Fu Hsüan’s famous poem that begins, “How sad it is to be a woman! Nothing on Earth is held so cheap.””

Title: Dreams of Joy
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9780812980547

Books, Fiction

How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas

December 28, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 297
Quick Review Layla Claus, Santa’s wife, saved Christmas in the 17th century from Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan English Parliament.

Jeff Guinn wrote How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas in 2005 as a stand alone sequel to his 1994 best-seller The Autobiography of Santa Claus. I have not read the autobiography, but it did not hinder my enjoyment.

Layla of Niobrara was born in Lycia – modern day Turkey – in the year 377. She was not like other girls wanting a husband; instead, she wanted to travel the world. After visiting the tomb of Bishop Nicholas, she had the idea to travel giving gifts to the poor. Taking off she eventually ran into the assumed dead Nicholas and his companion Felix. Being blessed with extraordinary travel rates and never aging, they gathered trusted friends throughout the years, who enjoyed the same blessings. Layla ended up in England during the Puritan rule in the late 17th century as Oliver Cromwell gained power. Layla was a key player in saving Christmas from harsh Puritan law.

The book begins with a foreword by Santa Claus himself. Consisting of twenty-four chapters, each chapter begins with a sketch of a scene from the following chapter. Throughout the book, the significant characters are depicted through a small sketch portrait. At the end of the book, there is a recipe for the Peppermint Pie the Clauses and their companions love so much.

How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas is an engaging sweet story about an often overlooked yet beloved character in the American social psyche. Guinn discusses a history very accurately. Overall, the book is really just a fun way of educating people on an interesting aspect of British and American history. Guinn goes to a little too effort making the bad guy be the bad guy. I didn’t need that much convincing he was devil incarnate.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book, and I will be reading The Autobiography of Santa Claus as well.

Memorable Quotes
“Each of us should have the right to decide who and what we want to be.”
“Alan was insisting I stay as long as I like, “up to and including forever.””
“In life, no great achievement is possible without equally great risk.”

Title : How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas
As Told To: Jeff Guinn
Publisher: Jeremy T. Tarcher/Penguin Group
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9781585424375

Books

Red Famine

December 26, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 384
Quick Review A heartbreaking and in depth look into the Holodomor: pervasive famine during 1932-1934 in Ukraine killing over 13% of the population. Applebaum argues it wasn’t mother nature but Stalin.

I have a Bachelor’s in Russian, among other things. When I heard news of Red Famine being published, I knew it was something I wanted to read as soon as possible. Anne Applebaum is a renowned journalist having written incredible books on Eastern and Central Europe with an emphasis on communist eras. She has garnered popular and critical acclaim even winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2003 book, Gulag.

In Ukraine there was a famine killing over 13% of the population between 1932-1934. Famines are viewed as the result of mother nature. Applebaum argues there was more at play than a cold winter and lack of food. She argues the famine was a strategic weeding of Ukrainian citizens by the Russian government: Stalin. The famine may have started in 1932, but the events leading to the deadly epidemic started well over a decade before.

I could include a whole bunch of “fun” facts, but you should go read the book for yourself. I will include an important factoid about the famine. It is known as Holodomor. This term comes from морити голодом, which is translated as “to kill by starvation.” As a Russian speaker, I think this title is incredibly powerful; much of the power being lost in translation, of course.

This is an era of history often looked over pertaining to a country often lumped in as a side note to Russia, Poland, and other dominating countries. It would be easy to lose people’s attentions or bog them down in the history necessary to explaining the famine; however, Applebaum does neither. She captivates the reader with anecdotes, dates, and arguments far from the voice of a stodgy history professor one would expect to tell the tale of communist Ukraine. I’m not just saying this because I love Eastern European history; I get bored with the droning too.

Applebaum successfully brings the oft forgotten yet not that long ago Holodomor into the modern consciousness.

Memorable Quotes
“The absence of natural borders helps explain why Ukrainians failed, until the late twentieth century, to establish a sovereign Ukrainian state.”
“Ukraine – the word means “borderland” in both Russian and Polish”
“Many refuses to recognize the name “Ukraine” at all.”
“The authorities … later altered death registries scrum across Ukraine to hide the numbers of deaths from starvation, and in 1937 scrapped an entire census because of what it revealed.”
“In the years that followed the famine, Ukrainians were forbidden to speak about what had happened.”
“The archival record backs up the testimony of the survivors. Neither crop failure nor bad weather causes the famine in Ukraine.”

Title: Red Famine; Stalin’s War on Ukraine
Author: Anne Applebaum
Publisher: Doubleday Books (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780385538855

Books

A Week in Winter

December 18, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 464
Quick Review How one woman’s dream brought a group of strangers together while they struggle through their own difficult situations.

A Week in Winter was her last novel and published posthumously in 2012 after her death in the same year. Binchy has written a multitude of novels, but this is the first I have read. In my opinion, it’s a wonderful novel to end an already amazing literary career.

Binchy was Irish and wrote about her country in A Week in Winter. Chicky Starr is from a remote town, Stoneybridge, in west Ireland. After moving to New York City in her youth, she returns to Stoneybridge, where she turns an old house into a beautiful hotel, Stone House. The town believes her crazy, but a few devote their time and futures into the dream. The dream comes to fruition when a hodge-podge group of people stay during the opening week.

The book is divided into chapters focusing on individuals lives and the events which bring them to the house. The characters are flawed and looking for respite or wholeness or the hotel has simply happened upon them. The hotel becomes a beautifully silent and simultaneously powerful character supporting each character through their personal journeys. The characters come from all walks of life and several countries in Europe. Some lives intertwine with others in close or remote ways. Binchy does not strive to have her characters adored. Like people, she writes them with various characteristics, flaws, and, at times, no redeeming qualities.

This novel isn’t a Christmas story, but it is a winter story. The perfect companion for a chilly evening, a fire, and a mug of something warm, or if you live somewhere warm, it will make you crave a chilly winter.

Memorable Quotes
“And anyway, there’s more to life than just sex and kittens.”

Title: A Week in Winter
Author: Maeve Binchy
Publisher: Anchor Books (Random House)
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9780307475503

Books

Winter Storms

December 7, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 246
Quick Review The last in a trilogy by Hilderbrand about the lovably dysfunctional Quinn family set in Nantucket.

The Quinn family is back with a whole new set of problems so I assume because I haven’t read the first two books. Winter Storms, however, I didn’t find that fact to hinder the understanding of the plot or characters in the novel. Hilderbrand does a good job of reminding readers who the characters and their pasts without sounding kitschy or dumbing it down for the reader.

Each chapter is devoted to a member in the Quinn family weaving their stories with those of the others. The Quinn family is incredibly dysfunctional in an endearing way. They have made mistakes and paid for them, but below the surface they are all good people.

The Quinn family is large and diverse. The characters range from blue collar to incredibly successful broadcast news anchor. You’d be hard pressed to find a subplot Hilderbrand hasn’t explored in some way: drug addiction, military hero, white collar crime, divorce, wedding, cancer, love triangle, dreams, and more. Through all the hardships, the Quinns are a family anyone would want to be a part of full of love and support through the good times and the bad.

It’s a sweet novel perfect for the Christmas season. It’s short with fairly large print. I would have loved to read it in front of a fire with snow outside, but alas, I read it in Houston. I sat down and read it in a few hours. It’s easy to see how Hilderbrand has a number of successful novels. She writes about love and struggle in a beautiful setting. She made me want to visit Nantucket for a summer or even a winter.

Memorable Quotes
“He will simply enjoy this Christmas as though it were his last.”

Title: Winter Storms
Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Publisher: Little Brown
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780316261173

Books

Eligible

November 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 488
Quick Review A hilariously modern reworking of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Sittenfeld turns something old new, while maintaining the integrity of the original.

I bought the book solely on my admiration for Sittenfeld’s short stories. Her ability to write is captivating. I picked up Eligible apprehensively because I abhor retellings or fanfiction. They are never done well. I can no longer say “never.” I have been proven wrong.

Pride and Prejudice is a universally beloved novel with themes still present in today’s society. That being said, it does not lend itself to modern reinterpretation. The status of women has changed a touch in the past 150 years. No longer are we dependent on men and marriage. How do you take a novel about five unmarried women and their ludicrous behavior and adventures which are incredibly relevant to their time and make it relevant in our time? Age them and a whole load of other things.

Set in Cincinnati, of all places, the Bennet sisters are unmarried and majorly dependent upon their ailing father and ridiculous mother. After a heart attack on Mr. Bennet’s part, Jane and Liz return home from New York to help care for him, when they meet surgeons Chip Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy along with the abhorrent Caroline Bingley. Chip comes from a famous family and was on a reality TV show Eligible (the equivalent of “The Bachelor”).

The characters personalities are all intact and even more vibrant than their original namesakes. Collins being the exception, I found him less dreadful than in Pride and Prejudice, maybe it’s because I know a good few of the modern Collins’ that I can tolerate him. Caroline, however, is truly oddious in a way Austen always implied. Sittenfeld split Wickham into two characters. Throughout the entire novel I was expecting one thing to happen, and was surprised when a vastly different something happened. In the original, it is understandable why all the sisters are at home doing a whole lot of not much because that’s what they did then, and they were young. I found it grating that four sisters in their twenties and thirties could be so lazy; Liz, of course, being the exception. Mrs. Bennet, in true form, was a neurotic basket case. I truly wanted to like Mr. Bennet more, but alas, he too had his faults. Enough said.

I finished the 500 plus pages in a day. It is a fabulous novel with real depth and wit. Sittenfeld took an untouchable classic and made it relevant.

Memorable Quotes
““That’d be like watching a burlesque show with one’s eyes closed.””
“Caroline was on Darcy’s other side and had spent midst of the meal curled toward him in conversation like a poisonous weed.”
““You have no idea how lucky you are that someone like him would settle for you.””
“If you really want to do something unselfish, adopt a seven-year-old black boy from foster care.”

Title: Eligible; A Novel
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780812980349