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Delicious! by Ruth Reichl

For me, this is the perfect summer book.  It is light without being vapid, it has a happy ending and it devotes a significant number of pages to talking about food.  What’s not to love?

This book follows the story of Billie Breslin after she’s moved from California to New York City to work at the city’s most iconic food magazine, Delicious!  Billie is initially hesitant about life in the big city; it is her first time away from her family, she has no friends in New York and she’s never worked at a magazine before, much less a highly regarded publication like this one.  Worried that she’ll blow what she knows is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Billie anxiously attends her first day of work.  She quickly finds that her fears are misplaced as she is welcomed into the eclectic Delicious! family and the New York food scene.  

Everything is going great, until the day Billie’s boss tells her that the magazine is being shut down.  With no other way to pay for her bills, Billie agrees to stay in the office and maintain the reader complaint hotline.  In between answering reader’s complaints, Billie begins exploring Delicious’s offices.  She breaks into the library that was sealed up long ago and discovers a series of letters that date back to World War II between the legendary chef James Beard and precious young girl doing her best to ration not only home front foods, but also hope.  The letters lead Billie on a food inspired scavenger hunt through the library, while also forcing her to examine her own life begin going through her own baggage.

It is easy to tell that Reichl is a professional writer and that she loves her job writing about food and reviewing restaurants.  Her characters are sweet and relatable and she gives them room to grow and develop organically.  Her descriptions of food and the food industry in general were both impressive and hunger inducing.  I found it hard to read this book without having a snack at hand to ward off the food cravings her writing brought about.  Reichl also managed to make the New York food scene fun and approachable.  Too often food critics and members of this industry attempt to make the world of food, especially in New York, appear unattainable and unwelcoming to the common man’s palate.  Through Billie and her other characters Reichl debunks this way of thinking and successfully sends the message that food is for everyone (whether it is served at home or in a Michelin starred restaurant).

I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone who loved Kitchens of the Great Midwest or just loves food in general.  

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The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

I’m going to put this out there right away: this book is really really dark and sad.  This is coming from someone who has admitted to reading (and enjoying) really sad books in the past.  But this book…whoo boy, this book broke my heart and then continued to kick the stuffing out of me where I fell.

The story follows the life of Dorrigo Evans as he transitions from being a young army recruit, to a doctor in a Japanese POW camp, to a man broken and haunted by the war.  The story is told through a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, but always revolving around the horrendous daily life of the POW camp tasked with building the Thai-Burma death railroad.  As the story progresses we are introduced to people from Dorrigo’s past and present that have shaped the course of his life.

Dorrigo is a study in contradictions: when we first meet him he is an aging surgeon who can’t stop cheating on his wife with his lover; in the POW camp he was known as “Big Fella”, the surgeon who did everything he could to protect his men from the punishing conditions and building schedule set by their Japanese captors.  As we learn more about Dorrigo’s life before the war we come to understand how he morphed into the person he became after the war.  It would be easy, and also very reductionist, for the author to blame Dorrigo’s complete change in values and morals on the war and the daily injustices the POW camp inflicted upon his heart.  But Flanagan gives his main character more credit and depth than this and both artfully and cruelly demonstrates how matters of the heart can sometimes leave deeper scars than war.

Flanagan does not pull any punches in his descriptions of the dehumanizing conditions of daily life working on the railroad and living in the camp.  If you’ve read Unbroken then the scenes painted by Flanagan will be painfully and excruciatingly familiar.  Despite having read Unbroken I was still completely unprepared for how much this book would shatter me.  Flanagan seems to specialize in creating intense, and typically not healthy, relationships between his characters.  He is also able to write about emotionally charged topics (love, war, infidelity, passion, despair, hope) with a detached clarity that is at the same time heartbreaking and surgical in its nature.  If you’ve never been touched by a book before I recommend that you try this one, because if this one can’t stir some emotion within you than no others will.

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Run by Ann Patchett

There is something about Ann Patchett’s writing that I really enjoy.  Over the years I’ve read (and re-read) several books from her collective works and I’ve found that her writing style is enough to keep me around until the end of the book, even if I realize part way through that I’m not in love with the storyline. Patchett has a certain knack for bringing disparate characters together in unique and organic ways, and she always sets her books against an interesting backdrop.

Run is about many things, but at its core it focuses on trials, tribulations, success, joys, and complications surrounding families.  The entire novel takes place in a 24-hour period following a car accident in a Boston snowstorm.  True to Patchett’s style, the book reads as a love letter to the city in which it is set.

We first meet the Doyle family on their way to a political event.  Bernard Doyle, the former mayor of Boston, loves politics and has always dreamed of his children following in his footsteps.  His eldest son has always been too interested in drugs and having a good time to take anything in life seriously, much less the thought of a political career.  Doyle had great hope for his adoptive twin sons, Tip and Teddy, but neither seems to share their father’s dream based on the majors they’ve chosen to pursue in college.  Despite this, he still expects their presence at every local and national political event that occurs in their fair city.

As Bernard and his twin sons are leaving the event a car comes out of nowhere and fails to see one of the boys standing just off the curb.  But instead of being hit, he is shoved out of the way by a woman who places herself between the car and the young man.  In an instant the Doyle’s lives change.  They are left asking themselves who this woman is and why she would do such a heroic and selfless thing.  They also wonder why her young daughter, Kenya, seems to know so much about Tip and Teddy…..and why she bears such a striking familial resemblance to them.

In the 24 hours following the accident the Doyle family is forced into a state of emotional flux that they’ve all been avoiding since the death of their wife and mother, Bernadette, many years earlier.  As they each confront their inner demons they collectively begin working their way towards finding a family peace and balance that left with Bernadette’s death and, inexplicably, seems be to brought on by Kenya’s presence.  Each of their struggles are real and thoroughly underscores the idea that clarity, understanding and joy can come out of tragedy.  

It took me a bit to settle into Run, which I believe was Patchett’s intention.  By having all of the book’s events occur over just one 24-hour period she effectively illustrated just how much, and what can seem like so little, can happen in that first day following a traumatic event.  I found myself attempting to disconnect from the busyness of the book, mirroring on a much smaller scale how people will tend to self insulate following a trauma.  I believe this was the affect Patchett was attempting to achieve, which she did with great success.

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The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra

Marra’s first book astounded me.  I still have yet to read something that was as beautifully written as A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (and I stopped holding my breath waiting for it a while ago).  But I knew that I would be willing to wait, and then quickly devour, anything else that Marra published.  True to my promise, I had this book downloaded and cracked open in record time.

Unlike his first novel, this book was a collection of stories set over a series of decades in the former USSR.  As I have said before I am not a great lover of short stories, but I was willing to give Marra a chance and crossed my fingers that the stories would eventually become intertwined.  Much to my delight, they did.

The characters are a diverse and unexpected cast of individuals: an art censor working for Stalin in 1937; the granddaughter of a famous ballerina living in Siberia in 2013; two Russian prisoners of war.  Despite the year and the narrator changing, each of the stories depicts the hard, difficult realities of living in Russia and Chechnya both before and after the Iron Curtain falls.  But even the bleakest story somehow has a glimmer of hope woven into its telling.

I think it is this impossible hope, along with the beautiful writing, that draws me to Marra’s stories.  Identifying hope when there is none has become an overused theme in books, but Marra manages to accomplish this without being trite.  Perhaps it is his beautiful prose or his realistic characters that keep his stories fresh.  Or perhaps it is because he writes of eras and issues that most authors think best left to the sands of time.  Whatever the reason, it is a genius combination.

If you enjoyed A Constellation of Vital Phenomena I highly recommend this book.  The short format doesn’t allow for the same connection to the characters, but Marra does an excellent job of fully fleshing them out in the few pages he gives each of them.  You’ll also see them again in later stories, a feat that Marra accomplishes with a deft and skillful hand, seamlessly blending what initially appeared as two completely unrelated characters separated by decades into the same cohesive story.

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We’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman

After my last few reads I was in need of something with a bit more levity.  Some may argue that a book about a guy who has lost his job, ruined his best friend’s wedding, broken up with his wife and now must come back and face all those demons while saying goodbye to his dying grandfather isn’t very lighthearted.  Before reading this book I would have agreed, but somehow Matthew Norman found a way to bring out the moments of light and humor that inexplicably manage to accompany all of these terrible events.

The book’s title gives away the major theme that is explored in this book.  Some people show their faults and carry their baggage out in the open, for all to see.  Other people are better at spreading concealer over their imperfections and hiding their heavy bags from sight, but that doesn’t mean both aren’t still there.  Via his colorful and damaged characters, the author explores each of these approaches and how they affect not only or lives, but those around us.

The story focuses on Andy Carter and his not so triumphant return to his Midwest hometown.  The last time he was here Andy had a good job, a wife and a best friend.  Since then his job has ended, his wife left him for the paramedic living down the street and he lost his best friend after he took his best man duties too far and ruined the wedding.  Now he is living in a tiny apartment in New York City where he works as a bartender and spends all his spare time trying to forget about his ex-wife and ex-best friend.

But when his mother calls to say that his beloved grandfather is in his last few days, Andy has no choice but to return to the birthplace of his emotional baggage.  As he slowly begins to unpack his bags, both literal and figurative, Andy finds himself at the crossroads of moving on and continuing to be a martyr for his past.  With the help of a mysterious and spontaneous woman named Daisy, Andy begins letting go of his hurt and damaged ego.  As he does so, Andy begins realizing that he isn’t the only person struggling with their issues; everyone around him is also somewhere in the process of dealing with their own baggage.  This may not be a profound point, but it is an important one.

Norman does an excellent job of capturing the misery in the mundane rituals of life and the unexpected hilarity that accompanies some of life’s most trying moments.  His characters are flawed, some much more than others, but they are all flawed in believable and genuine ways.  I appreciated that Norman didn’t over extend his characters or plot line to make big sweeping revelations or to teach his readers deep lessons.  Instead he let his book be about the realities of life and all of the wonderful and ridiculous absurdities we encounter along the journey.

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At Play In The Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen

I found this book in my same post-Euphoria  search when I purchased The People In the Trees.  This book caught my eye for two reasons: 1) it was originally published in 1965 and 2) it is considered one of the books that provided inspiration for similar themed books that came after it, including Euphoria and The Poisonwood Bible.

The story is set in the South American jungle and follows a rag-tag ensemble cast.  There are the Catholic missionaries who have dedicated their lives to converting native Indian people to the word of their God and saving their eternal souls.  Then there are the mercenaries who have been contracted by the local government to exterminate the native Indians.  Caught between these two groups are the Niaruna Indians, a tribe living deep within the Amazonian jungle outside of an only slightly more civilized slum intent on looking far more advanced than their Indian forefathers.

The mercenaries contracted by the local authorities to bomb the Niaruna into submission make an odd pair: an American ex-pat who goes by Wolfie who is running from some sort of baggage in his past and his partner in crime, Lewis Moon.  Moon is also an American ex-pat, but his Chayenne Indian heritage presents complicated ethical issues for the job that he has been hired to do.  

The missionaries, appalled that anyone would cooperate with the corrupt local authorities to kill native people, attempt to exploit Moon’s past to prevent him from completing his contracted mission.  Martin Quarrier, the missionary who has experience working on Indian Reservations in the Dakotas, considers himself perfectly poised to change Moon’s mind about bombing the Niaruna at attempts to strike up a friendship with the Indian.  Quarrier’s supervisor, Leslie Huben, is less keen on dealing with Moon and more eager to actually make contact with the Niaruna on their own territory.

Wolfe and Moon leave in the early hours for their bombing run, filling the missionaries with dread that they will never have the chance to convert the Niaruna.  But when the time comes for Moon to release the bombs he hesitates and returns to the slum without killing a single Niaruna.  Moon abandons an incensed Wolfie at the local bar and then disappears back into the jungle in his plane.  His partner and the missionaries assume that Moon has left on a suicide mission; instead he leaves to follow the native call within his heart and attempt to become a member of the Niaruna.  In the meantime the missionaries set up a camp deep within the Amazonian jungle and begin their attempts to contact and convert the Niaruna.  

Matthiessen makes clever use of his characters to ask and open discuss some of the more insidious aspects of the missionary movement.   He also deftly illustrated how a person’s unflinching convictions and beliefs can be made pliable under the right circumstances.  It took me a while to completely appreciate the genius of each character, but by the end I realized that Matthiessen did not waste his words writing any non-critical characters.  As the characters are drawn further into a web of political and religious corruption, they are forced to confront spiritual and personal self doubts that cause them to question both their purpose and self identity.  

I was, and still am, surprised by how much I enjoyed this book in the end.  Matthiessen is unflinching and unbiased in his exploration of this topic, which I found refreshing.  I’ve read several fictional books that incorporate some component of the “missionaries coming to save the natives” theme, but none of them have been brave enough to actually confront the ugly realities of these “soul saving” missions square on.  

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The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Immediately after I finished Euphoria I went to Amazon to see what books were listed under the “Customers who bought this item also bought” heading.  This book caught my eye because the description likened it to Kingsolver’s The Poisionwood Bible and Patchett’s State of Wonder, two books that I love.  Eager to continuing fueling the adventure high I was still riding from Euphoria I clicked “download now” and immediately started reading.

The story follows the life of Norton Perina, a young anthropologist with aspirations of becoming the next great scientist.  The book reads as Norton’s memoir, passed on to the reader by his long term lab technician following Norton’s mysterious disappearance from his lab in the twilight of his scientific career.  The story opens with the beginning of Norton’s life, when he recalls that even at a young age he knew that he was bound for something greater than the mediocre life of his simpleton parents and much less scientifically inclined brother.

Norton’s chance at scientific greatness came shortly after completing medical school at Harvard in 1950; desperate for something more stimulating than just treating sick people, Norton signed on to an expedition with the great anthropologist Paul Tallent and his research associate, Esme Duff.  Tallent’s goal is to find and study an elusive tribe of natives in Micronesia.  Not completely understanding the draw of identifying a new civilization, Norton hesitantly becomes the third member of the expedition.

After arriving on the small, remote island of Ivu’Ivu’ Norton’s concerns turn into fears as he finds himself in a foreign jungle without any of his Western creature comforts.  Norton’s patience is seriously tested as they spend weeks navigating through the dense, lush jungle without asking a single scientific question or collecting any samples for further study in the lab.  His respect for Tallent, and especially for Esme, begins to wane as he comes to the conclusion that anthropology is more about observation than real scientific thought.  Norton even begins to doubt that Tallent’s so called “lost tribe” even exists.

And then one day, they come across a member of the tribe.  The group meets her as she climbs, sloth like, down from a tree containing her favorite fruit.  To their surprise she seems nonplussed to meet a group of strangers in the middle of her jungle.  Eventually they come across more of her companions, one of which can communicate with Tallent’s guides and eventually leads the group to the main tribe’s village.  Talent and Esme begin diagramming and documenting everything they can about the villagers, but they fail to notice something that Norton immediately detects: there is something different about the initial group of villagers they met compared to the main tribe.  They seem older, most of them show signs of senility, and the rest of the tribe seems wary and uneasy around them.  Norton eventually discovers that these few villagers, which Tallent calls The Dreamers, are in fact much much older than the ordinary members of the tribe and that they all share one thing in common: they have all eaten the flesh of the opa’ivu’eke, a sacred turtle.  

Smelling the opportunity for fame, fortune, and scientific greatness, Norton goes against the direct orders of Tallent and takes both The Dreamers and the opa’ivu’eke back to his lab for further study.  When he publishes a paper citing the flesh of the opa’ivu’eke as the long sought after source of immortality he instantly becomes a scientific rock star, while also destroying the land of The Dreamers.  Norton spends the remainder of his career attempting to build on his initial scientific findings, while also assuaging his guilt for destroying an entire civilization.

Yanagihara uses the story of the lost tribe and the opa’ivu’eke to bring up obvious moral and ethical conversations (what can be justified in the name of science?  Should we seek immortality, no matter the cost?  What do we sacrifice, both personally and professionally, for our science) and then allows her ingenious and detestable main character to provide his insight.  I disliked Norton from the book’s very first page, and my dislike continued to grow into an all out hatred by the time I finished the very last page.  It took me a while to understand Yanagihara’s brilliance in creating such a corrupt and villainous character to be the story’s narrator.

I enjoyed Yanagihara’s ability to surprise me with her plot shake ups and surprises.  I started this book fully expecting it to be about one man’s scientific discovery and contributions and came away with a much deeper exploration into personal and moral issues.  As a scientist myself, I think Yanagihara brought up several salient moral and ethical issues that we all struggle with during our careers.

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Happy 3 year (and a day) anniversary to What’s She Reading!  Thanks to everyone who has been following along.  Here is to another year of good books!

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Dust by Hugh Howey

This review has spoilers for Wool and Shift, so scroll on past if you want the ending to this trilogy to remain a surprise.

This final book of the Silo trilogy unites all of the storylines that were introduced in Wool and Shift.  We meet back up with Jules and the other members of Silo 18 after they’ve discovered the drill-type machine hidden between their silo and Silo 17.  Desperate to rescue her friends from the neighboring silo, and intent on showing her fellow silo-mates that she is telling the truth, Jules authorizes using the machine to dig into Silo 17.  This decision is not widely accepted by the other members of Silo 18 and Jules’ newfound authority is openly questioned, causing even more unrest in the silo.

Meanwhile, we learn that Silo 1 is dealing with their own leadership issues.  Donald, the man who remembered life above the silo, continues to try and understand his own role within the silo and how he can stop further horrors from being committed.  While the other members of the silo continue to cycle through shifts, Donald finds a way to avoid being stored in deep freeze so he can stay on shift and learn more about how to end the era of the silos.

Both Jules and Donald continue asking questions, each hoping to better understand how their world came to be.  Working with vastly different tools, they eventually both come to the same breathless realization: life above ground might actually be possible.  But how can they be sure?  And how do they get past the nanobots and re-establish life back on Earth’s surface?

Howey spends most of the book setting up the answer to these two questions, which are really the whole point of the trilogy.  With such a long lead up to these answers (made even longer if you factor in the previous two books) and after spending so much time with this story and its characters, it would have been more satisfying if Howey hadn’t abruptly delivered these answers and then ended the book.  

Howey did answer almost all of the other questions brought up in the previous two books, which I appreciated.  When I picked up Dust I was worried the trilogy might end similar to the TV show Lost: with significant questions still lacking answers.  

Overall, I enjoyed each of the books and the way Howey wove it all together.  The story was unique, compelling, terrifyingly realistic, and managed to keep me guessing for most of the trilogy.  Lovers of the post-apocalyptic genre should add these books to their list.

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Shift by Hugh Howey

This review will have spoilers for Wool, so scroll on past if you want the ending to remain a surprise!

I started Shift right after I finished Wool and I couldn’t wait to pick the story back up and see how the residents of Silo 18 reacted to Jules’ incredible discovery that their silo was only one of many.  You can imagine my disappointment when the book did not start from this point.

Shift is more of a prequel to Wool than a sequel, despite the fact that it comes second in the trilogy.  The plot eventually parallels the events of the first book in the series, in addition to setting the stage for the third book, but the majority of the events take place long before we meet Jules and the rest of silo 18.  The majority of story takes place in the time surrounding when humans made the shift from living above to below ground.

In this version of the world, 2007 was a banner year for nanotechnology: scientists developed incredibly small robots, smaller than human cells, that would change human health as we once knew it.  The nanobots were initially developed to make medical diagnoses and prevent small issues in the body from turning into life ending problems.  People began to live longer and diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s became a thing of the past.  However, it wasn’t long before a new generation of nanobots were developed; instead of repairing the body from the inside out, these micro robots destroyed the body with the skill and efficiency of a trained assassin.  The worst part about them is that you wouldn’t know if they inside your body and killing you until it was too late.  It wasn’t long before wars were being fought with nanobots rather than guns.  Humanity’s quest for eternal life had spawned a dangerous weapon that would very likely become its undoing.  

In this book we meet the men responsible for the conception, building and implementation of the silos.  We learn why the silo dwellers cannot go outside for extended periods of time (nanobots) and learn more about Jules’ discovery about multiple silos existing and come to better understand not only why so many exist, but also why the are isolated from each other.  

The majority of the story occurs in Silo 1, the main silo that is responsible for keeping the other silos running.  This responsibility means that Silo 1 operates very differently compared to the other silos: unlike in Silo 18 there is no “normal” life.  Only the men are awake in Silo 1 and they are expected to complete their work in defined shifts.  At the end of their shift they are put into deep cryogenic preservation for tens or hundreds of years, and then they are reawakened to fulfill their next shift.  Also unlike the other silos, all of the people in Silo 1 are from the original generation of people that moved from living above ground to underground.  Their memories are erased by very powerful drugs.

Each of the other silos depend on the smooth, consistent operation of Silo 1, so there is no room for mistakes or deviations from the plan (we never really find out what that plan is).  For years and years everything moves forward without a hitch.  Until one day, when one of the workers begins to remember who he was and what life use to be like.  This one man becomes the key to understand both the purpose and the goal of the silos.

Initially, I was frustrated at how slow the story moved.  The author spent considerable time setting up the backstory for the silos and getting the reader invested in this new batch of characters.  For me, I could have done with a bit less of this in favor of the plot moving forward at a quicker clip.  Ultimately, the story picks up and intertwines with the events of Wool; when I reached this part of the book I couldn’t put it down. Howey once again walks the fine line between reality and fiction and creates a (mostly) believable story.  He also knows how to create an incredible cliffhanger.  Stay tuned for the conclusion of this trilogy.

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Wool by Hugh Howey

The post apocalyptic genre has become very crowded in the last few years.  Like any new field, the first few books were fantastically original and unique in their storylines and characters.  But it didn’t take long for books to become repetitive and derivative of what had come before them.  As a result, I’ve become especially picky about what I read from this genre.

Wool surprised me with its originality and depth.  In this world, humanity has been driven below ground by a previous event that no one really knows the details of and are scared to even speculate about it openly.  Within an immense silo, life goes on very similarly as it does above ground: children are born, people go to work each morning, neighbors have arguments.  All of the millions of minute details that make up a life still occur, they just happen below ground.  

The silo is divided into three distinct regions, which also serves to divide the population into three distinct classes.  The people who live in the upper third of the silo are considered the most well-to-do because of their better access to resources, hold more white collar type jobs and proximity to the top of the silo, which is the only place you can actually see outside.  The people living in middle third of the silo are considered middle class, having less than the people above them but substantially more than those living below them.  The people in the bottom third of the silo, referred to as the Deep Down, are the exact opposite of the people who live in the upper parts of the silo: they work difficult, manual labor jobs that keep the whole silo running and live in dark, dirty conditions.

While the silo residents don’t know exactly why they live below ground, they are absolutely sure that they cannot leave the silo.  Anyone that steps outside the protective bubble of their home almost immediately succumbs to death.  And they don’t know this based on myths or stories: they know this because they’ve seen their neighbors, friends, enemies, parents, brothers and sisters die outside the confines of the silo.  This expulsion from the silo, and subsequent guaranteed death, is referred to as a Cleaning, so named because the person being punished dons a cleaning suit and is required to clean the external cameras before succumbing to their death.  It is the highest form of punishment and the most effective way to maintain order within the silo.

The book opens with a Cleaning.  The silo sheriff began speaking treasonous words about going outside the silo and thus earned himself a one way alfresco trip.  The silo’s mayor begins the search for a new sheriff, starting with the candidate the recently departed previous sheriff suggested.  She is shocked to learn that his candidate is not someone from the upper third of the silo, but a woman from the Deep Down named Jules.  Although it takes significant convincing, Jules eventually accepts the position.

Jules new role as the silo sheriff suddenly changes the strict political pecking order of the silo and the mayor finds her selection meeting opposition from the head of the IT department, technically the second most powerful position after her own office.  Determined to give the dead sheriff his dying wish, the mayor moves forward with her plans to nominate and confirm Jules, despite the sudden push-back from IT.  When the mayor suddenly dies under suspicious circumstances, Jules is forced to engage in silo politics that she has never before experienced.  As she settles into her job as sheriff she begins seeing and hearing things about the silo and the outside that peak her interest.  Jules quickly becomes swept up in IT’s scheme to restore order and balance to the silo and suddenly finds herself sentenced to perform a Cleaning.

In the interest in not revealing too many spoilers I’ll stop my review here, but this is only a small fraction of what happens in this book.  Similar to Sand, Howey has created a story and characters that are almost real enough to be believable, which makes this world even more terrifying.  There were several times throughout this book that I found myself thinking how realistic this scenario is and how it could easily be our reality in the not so distant future.  Scary stuff, let me tell you.

There are also two subsequent novels in this series that I will also be reviewing here in the coming weeks, so readers beware if you want the other books to be spoiler free!

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Euphoria by Lily King

When I was shopping around for this book I had one major criteria: I wanted the book to take me on an adventure to foreign lands and introduce me to new things.  I found Euphoria when I searched for book like State of Wonder, which I love and find myself re-reading about once a year.  A quick look over the description convinced me that this was just what I was looking for to satisfy my craving for adventure.

The story is set in the 1930’s in the largely unexplored jungles of New Guinea.  It follows three anthropologists who’s fates become entwined when they happen to cross paths while performing their work studying the numerous cultures and people of this region.  The story is told from the perspective of Andrew Bankson, a British anthropologist who desperately wants to perform important studies, but feels like his loneliness and looming family obligations hold him back from reaching his full potential.  By chance he meets his idol Nell Stone, a brilliant and trailblazing American anthropologist whose most recent book set both the field and society on fire.  Nell is accompanied by her husband Fen, a brash, jealous and volatile man who is openly resentful of his wife and the fact that her career easily overshadows his own.

When Andrew first meets Nell and Fen as they are leaving the tribe that was the most recent focus of their studies.  Fen is bitter, saying that he would prefer to stay and study the tribe because they possess all of the qualities most interesting to his own studies (violence, aggression, male-domination, cannibalism), but that he must follow Nell’s whims because it is her grant funding their current stay in New Guinea.  Andrew can tell that Nell is clearly shaken from her time with this tribe and takes it upon himself to help her find a new tribe on which to focus her studies.  In Nell’s presence, Andrew begins to feel the fog caused by his loneliness and isolation lift.  He also feels the fog slowly being replaced by lust and desire for a woman who is not only physically attractive, but cognitively beautiful as well.

Knowing that these new thoughts are dangerous and can only lead down a path towards heartache and deceit, Andrew quickly departs after introducing Nell and Fen to their new tribe.  Much to Andrew’s relief, and Fen’s disgust, Nell decides to study the Tam, a peaceful, female-dominated tribe that focus on art and social interaction.  Back at his own tribe, Andrew channels his building desire for Nell into his work and begins to feel like he is making significant progress for the first time in several years.  But even this newfound love for his work cannot distract him from Nell’s attraction.  Before long he finds an excuse to visit the Tam, knowing that in making this visit he is willingly entangling himself in a dangerous and complicated love triangle.

According to the author, this book is loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead, a real life anthropologist who dedicated her life to studying the culture and social interactions tribes in this region.  A quick google search will show that this book is more than loosely based on Mead’s life and experiences, a fact that the author should better disclose given how many of the major plot points were taken from Mead’s real life.  All that aside, this book was wonderful.  The characters are vibrant, the writing is beautiful and the story is compelling.  My only critique came at the end, when I was suddenly on the final page and wishing I could read more about these characters and their adventures.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible or Pachett’s State of Wonder.

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I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

i heard about this book on another book blog.  The owner of that blog gave a very sparse review of the plot, but did heap praise upon Smith’s writing and story construction.  I’ve enjoyed other books found on this blog, so I decided to give this one a chance even though I knew nothing about it.

The story is set in the English countryside in 1930’s and is told through the eyes of a young girl recording a year of her life in a diary.  Luckily for the reader, this turns out to be a very busy, educational and exciting year for Cassandra Mortmain and her family.

We first meet the Mortmain’s after they’ve fallen on hard times.  There isn’t enough money, enough food, enough heat, enough of anything really.  Cassandra things back to when things were good for her family: when her father was still a successful writer, when her mother was alive, when they still had enough of everything to be happy.  It was then when her father negotiated their 40 year lease on the romantic and decrepit castle they currently call their home.  Back then Cassandra’s parents had big plans to fix up the castle and return it to it’s former glory; but then her father stopped writing, her mother passed away, and they had to abandon their dream in favor of selling everything possible to eat each day.

Cassandra does her best to keep a positive outlook about the future, always hopeful that they will go back to having enough one day.  Cassandra’s older sister, Rose, has a much harder time coping with their situation.  After years of heartbreaking poverty Rose harbors little hope that her situation will ever improve….or that she’ll ever find a husband.

Then one day fate unexpectedly stumbles into their crumbling castle in the form of the Cotton brothers.  Simon and Neil have returned to England from America following the death of their grandfather who leased the castle to Cassandra and her family.  Due to a family feud between their father and grandfather, the Cotton brothers grew up in America and never spent any time at the castle or their own family estate, located a short distance from the castle.  They are equally delighted by both the castle and the Mortmain family, despite each of their disheveled and impoverished appearances.  

It is here that Rose sees her chance to help change the family’s fortune.  She befriends the Cotton’s, paying particular attention to the eldest, Simon.  Cassandra is initially confused by her sister’s sudden infatuation given that Simon is the exact opposite of her sister’s ideal partner.  She is even more confused when Simon describes Rose as loving, kind, and spontaneous, virtues that Cassandra has never seen her older sister display in the past.  It is at this point that Cassandra begins to fear that her sister may be pursuing Simon not for his love, but for his wealth and what it could do for the Mortmain family.

The story is told in diary format, with Cassandra relating events and conversations after they have occurred.  This style of storytelling allows for Cassandra to engage in significant self reflection, which  drives her self growth and the forward movement of the entire plot.  Despite the significant difference in setting and time period, this book really reminded me of the classic coming of age novel I read growing up: Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume.  There are several parallels between the trials and tribulations that Margaret and Cassandra encounter and discuss in their respective novels and I think young girls of today would find Cassandra as relateable as Margaret.  Don’t worry if you’re well past your “coming of age” years, this book is still an enjoyable and worthwhile read.

[whatsshereading]

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth by Chris Hadfield

Yuri Gagarian was the first man to enter space on April 12th, 1961.  Eight years later Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on a planet other than our own when the Apollo 11 mission successfully reached the Moon on July 20th, 1969.  Just recently, American astronaut Scott Kelly returned from a 382 day stay at the International Space Station and broke the record for the longest stay in space of any US astronaut so far.

Space travel has fascinated and inspired us for years.  Part of what makes space so exciting is that so few people actually get to make the trip up there to see the Earth rise (in place of a Moon rise) or to place their boots on a foreign planet or moon.  You either need a whole lot of money or a whole lot of dedication to devote your life to becoming an astronaut if you want a shot at leaving Earth.  For those of us who don’t have these things, we travel to space vicariously through books like Hadfield’s.  

This book is the soup to nuts story of Hadfield’s career as an astronaut, starting with his training as a pilot to getting his foot in the door at NASA to his final trip to the International Space Station.  Along the way he discusses how he overcame the various roadblocks he encountered on the path to his dream and how he applies his training as an astronaut to problems we all encounter on Earth.  

I have read several books written either by or about astronauts where the standard message is that astronauts are awesome and everyone are the plebs living in their shadows.  To some extend I understand this inflated sense of self worth; it takes someone with a decent sized ego to volunteer to strap themselves to thousands of pounds of fuel and believe that they’re going to survive the ordeal.  Than being said, the typical astronaut God-like complex can get old, fast.  Hadfield managed to balance his ego with healthy dose of humility, hard work and appreciation for how cool his job really is.  He made it very clear that he loves everything about being an astronaut, not just the time spent in zero gravity.  He also dedicated a good portion of the book acknowledging and thanking the people who helped him achieve his goal, heaping a lot of praise on his family and all of the sacrifices they made for him.  Hadfield has a very refreshing perspective on what it takes to become and be an astronaut.  

I really enjoyed this book.  Hadfield had a unique road to becoming an astronaut and I enjoyed how he told his story.  If you love space and are interested in how a person goes from an everyday Joe to a spaceman, this book is a great place to start.

[whatsshereading]

Kindles Compared

Have you decided to buy a Kindle but aren’t sure which model will fit your e-reading needs?  Lifehacker recently posted an article  comparing all four models of Kindles (Basic, Paperwhite, Voyage and Oasis).  It is a nice, succinct review and overview of each model and how they compare to one another.  For what it is worth, their favorite is the Paperwhite.

[whatsshereading]

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

The book follows the adventures of Edward Moon, one time great magician and part time detective.  Edward doesn’t accept the standard detective jobs; he much prefers cases dealing with the bizarre, supernatural and otherwise strange.  His companion, both on and off the stage, is a mysterious and mute man who is simply called The Somnambulist.  

When we meet Edward and the Somnambulist they’ve fallen on hard times.  The London of old is changing and fewer people attend their performances each evening.  On top of that, Edward hasn’t had a good mystery to solve in quite a while.  His personal and professional boredom are obvious.   And then Edward is brought in to help solve a murder that has completely stumped and terrified the London police force: a man is found murdered in an opulent and hidden apartment above the city with very few clues left behind.  As Edward begins to investigate this strange and bloody murder he finds himself swept up into a web of lies, deceit, power and magic.  We are introduced to a decidedly strange cast of characters including a man who insists he can travel through time and another man that is referred to as the Human Fly.  The characters, and the plot, becomes more mysterious and strange as Edward’s investigation continues and he realizes that it will take all of his skills to successfully solve this mystery before anyone else is murdered.

The only thing I knew about this book before cracking the front cover was that I had heard it described as very strange.  Good, but strange.  Those two descriptors piqued my interest and I decided to give it a go without even reading the description on the inside flap.  Then I turned to the first page and read the first two sentences:

Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and willfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it.

I was hooked and couldn’t wait to dive into the story.  I’m sad to report that those feelings quickly faded.  As the story progressed the plot lines became more and more convoluted and confused.  I briefly wondered if the author had let the story get out of his control  By the time I reached the climax of the plot I knew that the author had lost control of his own story.  I kept reading, hoping that he was going to regain control and bring some clarity to the turn of events, but all my hoping was for not.  The ending felt like it was written by someone completely different than the person who started the story and I found myself wondering why certain events were relevant and why nothing was explained.  I’m not sure if Barnes thought that prolonging the mystery was a good idea or that his writing was clear enough, but I (and most people who have reviewed this book online) didn’t follow what the heck happened and why it was important.  I found myself feeling completely betrayed by the first two sentences that drew me into the book at the start.  Not exactly how you should want your reader to feel after they finish your book, Mr Barnes.  

Several people have compared Edward Moon to Sherlock Holmes, a comparison that I heartily disagree with.  Sherlock Holmes is logical, intelligent and thorough, and always explains how and why he reached his conclusions.  Edward Moon is mildly intelligent but not terribly clever and did nothing to explain his actions, observations or conclusions to the reader.  A character is only as smart as the author writing them, and Barnes is no Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

If you are interested in magical or supernatural mysteries set in London I would strongly consider skipping past this novel and reaching for something less confused and contrived (Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is an excellent place to start).  

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Arcadia by Lauren Groff

I was equal parts excited and worried to read this book.  Fates and Furies shook me in a way that few books have; it has been weeks since I finished the book and I still find myself thinking of the characters and the twisted lies they told one another.  But Groff’s writing was as beautiful as her characters were troubled and it wasn’t long before I found myself drawn back to the siren call of her lyrical words.

Set in Upstate New York during the 1960’s, Arcadia follows a small group of romantic idealists who have turned their back on traditional society and are working together to create the ultimate utopian lifestyle.  After years of wandering across the US in a traveling caravan, the group settles in an idyllic setting, complete with a derelict mansion, with the purpose of creating their commune.  They christen their new home Arcadia.

The founding members of Arcadia include Handy, their spiritual leader; his wife Astrid, the main midwife for the commune; Abe, the master builder for the community; Hannah, Abe’s wife; and Bit, Abe and Hannah’s son.

We follow the community’s growth through Bit’s eyes and memories, and as he grows up so does the commune.  Initially life at Arcadia are exactly the idealistic utopian heaven that the founding members hoped it could be; they fix up the old mansion and take up residence there, they begin growing all their food on the premises, they pair off and have children, and generally begin settling the land.  But as external societal pressures change and commune style living becomes more popular, the idyllic life created by the founding members of Arcadia begins to change.  The commune becomes overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving each day.  Arcadia begins to splinter as the founding members of the commune struggle to support the new arrivals who have little interest in contributing anything to a community that struggled for so long to be successful and self sufficient.  

Bit watches the changes coming to Arcadia with fear, afraid of what it would mean for him and his family if Arcadia buckles under the stress of so many new people.  He knows nothing of the world outside the safety and security of the commune and cannot imagine life in a world that the adults speak of with such hatred and contempt.  The founding members of Arcadia do their best to keep the commune productive and moving forward, hoping to keep their utopian dream alive as long as possible while also understanding that their idealism can only carry them so far.

This book completely fascinated me and I read it in only two sittings because I couldn’t put it down.  The characters, the daily ins and outs of commune style living, they way Groff utilized the current events of that era to influence her story…everything worked together to create a mesmerizing and addictive story.  Similar to Fates and Furies, Groff has created an incredibly colorful, vibrant and realistic world with equally intense and vibrant characters with Arcadia.  This book isn’t as emotionally manipulative as Fates and Furies, but it is still incredibly powerful and thought provoking.