lkernagh's 2015 ROOT Challenge

Lori's (lkernagh's) 2015 ROOT Challenge

I managed 26 ROOTs in 2014 - currently reading one more book that may take the 2014 tally to 27 ROOTs read - so I think I have found my sweet spot of 25 ROOTs a year. That is what I will aim for in 2015. As with previous years, the only caveat is that the books I read (or the audiobooks I listen to) have to have been in my possession as of December 31, 2014. I am looking forward to starting the challenge on January 1, 2015.




Books read:
1. The Firebird Mystery by Darrell Pitt -
2. I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton -
3. The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke -
4. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters -
5. The Babylon Contingency by Clifford Longley - (review)
6. The City & The City by China Mieville -
7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd -
8. Light Boxes by Shane Jones -
9. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion -
10. The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble -
11. J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton -
12. The Wars by Timothy Findley -
13. K is for Killer by Sue Grafton -
14. Incantation by Alice Hoffman -
15. The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma -
16. The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson -
17. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel -
18. The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry -
19. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane -
20. Pure by Andrew Miller -
21. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon -
22. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips -
23. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell -
24. The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz -
25. The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll -
26. The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll -
27. The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll -
28. L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton -
29. M is for Malice by Sue Grafton -
30. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan -
31. The Leprechauns of Union Township by James F. Walsh -
32. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank -
33. np by Banana Yoshimoto -
34. Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto -

Welcome back and good luck!

Good luck with your rooting!

Good luck Lori!

Happy ROOTing, Lori!

Welcome back and happy ROOTing!

Thanks everyone! I finally have finished reading a ROOT.

-------------------------


ROOT #1 - The Firebird Mystery by Darrell Pitt
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Happening
Reading BINGO square: inspired by another piece of fiction
CAT(s): SFFFCAT - Steampunk
Source: NetGalley / TBR
Format: ebook
Original publication date: February 26, 2014
Acquisition date: December 25, 2014
Page count: 352
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website:

Welcome to London. A city of fog and snow, filled with airships, steamcars and metrotowers soaring into space.

Before his parents died Jack Mason was an acrobat, travelling around England in the circus. But when the world-famous detective Ignatius Doyle comes looking for a young assistant, Jack's new training begins. And when Scarlet Bell's father disappears, they are all plunged into a mystery so baffling that the future of the whole world may be at stake.

Review:
I enjoy steampunk as a genre. Such a fun way to escape day-to-day realities! In The Firebird Mystery, Pitt pays homage to the Sherlock Holmes novels I enjoyed reading in my youth, and in true steampunk fashion, spins the concept on its head by creating a fun mashup character in the rather eccentric Ignatius Doyle. Even Doyle's lodgings on the top floor of 221 Bee Street excite imagination, filled to the rafters with curiosities, including a tarantula named Bertha and a personal steamship parked on the roof. Filled with Nazies, MI5, a secret society, and a nefarious character in Professor M, Pitt keeps the plot moving forward at a good clip. The historical fiction reader that I am enjoyed all the references to Leonardo Da Vinci's works and seeing General Winston Churchill as a character, strutting across the pages. I like that Pitt has created in Scarlet a feisty young suffragette to match wits with Jack. The world build is also pretty good. I really liked the idea of the metrotowers and all the various methods of travel. A possible downside of the book for me was that the characters came across to my adult reading mind as rather flat and flimsy, lacking complexity or development. As the first book in a planned series, it is hoped that the characters will further develop in future books. The story also takes on a 'telling' rather than 'showing' approach that made it come across less vividly to me, but that probably does not matter for a younger reading audience.

Overall, this is a fun bit of YA adventure reading and may appeal to readers who enjoy Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy.

A copy of this novel was provided courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Could you tell me exactly what steampunk is?

Wikipedia does a better job explaining the genre than I can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

Basically, steampunk writers take elements of 19th century American wild west or British Victorian periods and mix things up with fantastic steampowered or otherwise mechanized machines.

I did see in the Urban Dictionary where it is often used with horror themes. Steampunk has a very very small part in the Stephen King book Dr. Sleep. My question (hypothetical) is: is steampunk really a genre of literature, or is it sci-fi or fantasy?

I am not a big fan of sci-fi or fantasy but I love steampunk so that is a good question. I am guessing that steampunk is probably considered to be a sub-genre, which has me thinking it leans more towards fantasy than sci-i, but its roots with H.G. Wells and Jules Verne type stories would pigeon hole it more in the sci-fi camp. I like to say I don't know or understand some of the literature classifications schemes that abound out there, especially now that there is mention of "New Adult" books.

ROOT #2 - I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books made into Art
Reading BINGO square: you've owned more than one year
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 1992
Acquisition date: July 14, 2013
Page count: 352 pages / 9 hours, 13 minutes reading time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from my local library online catalogue listing:

Five years ago David Barney was acquitted of the murder of his rich wife, Isabelle. Now, Isabelle’s ex-husband, Ken Voigt—who is suing Barney for her estate—is claiming the jury made a fatal mistake... Enter P.I. Kinsey Millhone, who takes the Barney case over from a former colleague…and comes up with more questions than answers. Why are Mr. Barney’s witnesses denying ever having spoken to him? Why did Isabelle have so many enemies—including but not limited to her best friend, Voight’s second wife, and her own twin sister? But the most troubling question of all is: Why is it that everything David Barney has to say about his beloved Isabelle still checks out? Now it’s up to Kinsey to figure out who’s getting away with murder….before she courts her own.

Review:
It is always nice to slide back into a comfort read series after an extended absence. I don't know if it because of my recent binge audiobook reading indulgence of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series or the book itself, but it took me a bit of time to warm up to the story and settle my feet - and mind - back in circa 1980/1990's California, sniffing out the details of Kinsey's latest assignment. As with previous installments, I love the attention to detail Grafton puts into her stories, be it the description of the surroundings, the subtle details about the characters and the intricacies of solving a case, P.I. style that continue to bring me back for more. This particular mystery proved to be a rather good one, including the suspense build near the end, but the reason I really enjoy these stories is the fact that they are so entrenched in the late 1980's - early 1990's time period, I almost feel as though I am traveling back in time as I read them. great reminders of pop culture items like the magic 8 ball and the day to day realities of pay phones and land lines as opposed to cell phones are just some examples of the wonderful details Grafton includes in her stories.

Overall, another good installment.

ROOT #3 - The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books made into Art
Reading BINGO square: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR/LTER
Format: Hardback
Original publication date: November 4, 2014
Acquisition date: October 24, 2014
Page count: 352 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.ca web listing:

When Jens Baedrup was asked to draw a cartoon depicting in some way or other the controversy what were infamous cartoons of Muhammad, he didn't expect his cartoon to prompt protests, arson and even an assassination attempt. Forced to flee his home town of Skagen under the protection of the CIA, Jens also didn't expect to find himself being protected by a CIA agent who appears to go rogue and relocates him to a small town in upstate New York where he is given a new identity and a job as a high school guidance counselor. What can possibly go wrong in a small New York town, thousands of miles away from where Jens problems had begun? Well, an awful lot when Jens finds himself falling in love with the wife of the high school principal, who himself is trying to get over the effects of a misguided love affair in a town where virtually every other person is a spy or a spy wannnabe.

Review:
I struggled with this one and had to read a number of reviews to see if I was the only one having difficulties with the story. I am assuming that the story is supposed to be a social satire of sorts crafted in a weird blending of a spy thriller styled version of Kill Bill meets Get Shorty.... does that make any sense? It has been a number of years since I watched either movie but that is what comes to mind when I think about the shifting scenes and the overall senselessness of the story. You have an entire cast of what I can only call hapless misfits - and dangerous misfits at that - with a complete lack of grounding who inadvertently trigger events through their misapprehension, paranoia and overall ability to take a situation, completely blown it out of proportion based on misinformation, and as a result, cause events to occur that have no reason for occurring in the manner they happen. The premise itself has great potential and I will admit that I am fond of books filled with quirky characters, comedy of errors and satirical attacks on events and situations, but there still needs to be some level of normal connection to give the story some grounding. Even though this story starts out with blatant foreshadowing, I still found it difficult to follow the rather random pieces as the story unfolded and I really do not see the point of the various internal monologues some of the characters engage in.

Overall, while a good premise with wonderful potential, in the end this one just came across as a flat read that was too far out there in the world of improbable for me to enjoy it. Maybe it would work better as a movie.... or maybe not.

>13 lkernagh: you know, I think that's a good point.... it probably would work better as a movie!

>14 avanders: - Agreed!

ROOT #4 - Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, BAC, ROOT
Category: The London Group
Reading BINGO square: with an LGBTQ main character
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2002
Acquisition date: December 31, 2011
Page count: 560 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.30 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website listing:

London 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.

Review:
I really, REALLY wanted to love this one. I enjoy Water's atmospheric settings, the way she gets inside the characters' minds and the intricate plots she weaves, but darn it all..... this was a bit of slog for me. I have learned that Waters works best as an author when I am able to commit 100% to reading her stories, like when I am on vacation, and RL doesn't interrupt my reading. I plowed through the first 150 pages in one afternoon and was hooked but having to resort to dipping in and out of the story with a busy RL schedule made it impossible for me to reconnect with the story. I had lost that bond. I also found the story to be rather Dickensian in feel, more so than her other books I have read so far - Night Watch and The Little Stranger - which didn't work in my favor after my somewhat disastrous encounter with Bleak House this time last year. I still have evil thoughts about that one. ;-)

On the positive side, I really like the way Waters shifts the point of view from Susan, to Maud and back to Susan again. I just wish the story didn't go on and on and on for the last 150 pages and as for the ending.... well,.... a bit sloppy IMO and kind of a quick out for Waters to wrap up the story.

All that being said, I still appreciate the gifted writer that Waters is and will probably read more of her books, but not rushing out to pick up Tipping the Velvet or Affinity any time soon.

>16 lkernagh: hmm, good thoughts! Maybe I'll wait a while before picking this one up.... ;)

Sorry you didn't like Bleak House. I had to slog through it for about 3 months, but I couldn't put it down.

>17 avanders: - Thanks. Waters is a good writer, but I need to be in the mood and have the time to be able to immerse myself in her stories to properly appreciate them.

>18 Tess_W: - Bleak House has been my one rather bad Dickens experience. I love Great Expectation and have enjoyed the other stories I have read so far but Bleak House almost was an over-the-top experience for me. I can highly recommend the miniseries of Bleak House starring Gillian Anderson, so not all bad. ;-)

I took me three months to read Bleak House, too. Have you read Dan Simmons book Drood? He provides a very interesting portrayal of both Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

ROOT #5 - The Babylon Contingency by Clifford Longley
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made into Art
Reading BINGO square: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR / LTER
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: October 30, 2014
Acquisition date: December 23, 2014
Page count: 336 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.com website listing:

Investigating a burglary at an English country house, Detective Chief Inspector Robbie Peele comes face to face with one of the most mysterious objects in world archaeology, the Phaestos Disk—and with a Middle Eastern terrorist cell determined to steal it. The vital clue leads Peele and his assistant, Sarah Shipton to Crete and an abandoned Muslim village, where a Victorian gentleman explorer witnessed horrors that were meant to be secret and recorded what he saw in coded diaries, leading Peele and his team to dig deeper and ask harder questions to solve what proves to be much bigger than the original burglary case.

Review:
While I did realize going in that this was not going to be your typical police procedural novel, I wasn't quite ready for the "cop meets spy world" approach to the story. I also wasn't prepared for the rather complex - and somewhat academic - archaeology/religion angle that at times made me feel more like I was back in university attending a class than reading what I was expecting to be a more action-packed story. Don't get me wrong, the historical information made for some interesting reading and it did make me curious to learn more about the persecution/expulsion of the Ottoman Muslims from Crete in the early 1900's but the action itself was lackluster, but I did grow tired of the barrage of police, spy agencies and government officials that seem to dance their way through the pages of this story like a swirling, muddled mess - MI5, MI6, CI7, Mossad, Interpol, etc.

I am chalking this one up as a beach read, not the intense, adrenalin pumping action packed ride I was expecting/hoping it would be.

>19 lkernagh:, No, I have not read Drood, although that has been recommended. I think my next Dickens is going to be The Old Curiosity Shop.

>21 Tess_W: - The Old Curiosity Shop sounds like a good choice for your next Dickens read!

ROOT #6 - The City & The City by China Mieville
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: The London Group
Reading BINGO square: that is a genre bender
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2009
Acquisition date: January 5, 2013
Page count: 352 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.60 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website listing:

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. To investigate, Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to its equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the vibrant city of Ul Qoma. But this is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a seeing of the unseen. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them more than their lives. What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Review:
Mieville has done it again….. bending the boundaries of genres to come up with something new, different and yet at the same time, with recognizable elements to attract readers of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, police procedural and crime thrillers. Mieville continues to be one of the authors I would love to meet over coffee because I am pretty sure the conversation would be a fascinating one! His world build continues to captivate me - I love the whole idea of crosshatched cities and Breach! - but this story fell a little short for me in that police procedural and crime novels in general are not my usual reading fare, and I didn’t feel as absorbed into the setting of Beszel/Ul Qoma as I was with Bas-Lag and my read of Perdido Street Station. Probably because Mieville has kept our world (all those references to Canada, etc) connected to the story. This one works as a good grounding mechanism for readers who like to only lightly dip into the sci-fi/fantasy genre, but it left me wanting something more…. wanting something that would completely disconnect me from reality. The investigation into the crime was alright as far as investigations go but I really wasn't taken with any of the characters or the circumstances. As per other reviews I have read, The City & The City is a great book for a new Mieville reader to start with or if they find his other stuff – like Perdido Street Station – just a little to gritty, bizarre and ‘out there’ weird for their reading tastes.

Overall, an alright police procedural/crime story with ‘other world’ elements that kept me reading. Without the other world elements of the crosshatched cities and Breach, I probably would have abandoned this one.

>23 lkernagh: ah, good info. The City & the City was my first Mieville and I really enjoyed it (though I think your points are fair :)), and I have Perdido & a couple others by him on my shelves... I'm glad that Perdido is a little more "disconnecting" from reality. While I thought The City & The City was brilliant, I think you're right that you can't get quite as far into a different world as you want...

>24 avanders: - Mieville does like to mix things up and try new things, which is a good thing for readers that might not like certain genres or writing styles while making it a bit challenging for me to be a true Mieville fan for all of his works. ;-)

ROOT #7 - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made into Art
Reading BINGO square: chosen by someone else
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2004
Acquisition date: August 28, 2014
Page count: 302 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website listing:

When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the town’s most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love—a story that women will continue to share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Review:
I am lumping this book in with the other 1960's civil rights stories that I have read in the past couple of years, books like Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and The Help. An okay story but it failed to captivate me as a coming of age read like Saving CeeCee Honeycutt did or the more prominent civil rights angle of The Help. It has all of those things and then some but I found it hard to connect with a character who kept on lying about her past and the whole minor romance angle that was thrown into the story, almost as if to provide something further for readers to discuss. I never really bought into Lily Owens as a character. She lacks the clarity of wisdom of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, she doesn't have the same tenacity of the Help's "Skeeter" Phelan, and while she kind of tries to come across a bit like Idgie Threadgoode from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, she just didn't work for me as a character. I received the copy I read from my Mom and while I can appreciate that this story received some awards and accolades when it was released, I found it to be a bit of a 'ho-hum' story in comparison to the other books mentioned in this review. There was a fair bit of interesting information about beekeeping I did not know about before reading this one but overall, a good read, but on the 'ho-hum' side.

ROOT #8 - Light Boxes by Shane Jones
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made into Art
Reading BINGO square: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2010
Acquisition date: May 4, 2013
Page count: 160 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website listing:

With all the elements of a classic fable, vivid descriptions, and a wholly unique style, this idiosyncratic debut introduces a new and exciting voice to readers of such authors as George Saunders, Kurt Vonnegut, and Yann Martel. In Light Boxes, the inhabitants of one closely-knit town are experiencing perpetual February. It turns out that a god-like spirit who lives in the sky, named February, is punishing the town for flying, and bans flight of all kind, including hot air balloons and even children's kites. It's February who makes the sun nothing but a faint memory, who blankets the ground with snow, who freezes the rivers and the lakes. As endless February continues, children go missing and more and more adults become nearly catatonic with depression. But others find the strength to fight back, waging war on February.

Review:
This was such a great fairytale type read and one I recommend for everyone who suffers through that 'never ending winter' that the month of February can feel like to this Canadian. I love reading stories written by authors who are poets first / novelists second. There is a poignant, whimsical, emotional feel to their stories and Light Boxes is a perfect example of this wonderful synergy of poetry and prose. Some may call this one a miniscule fairytale. Others may call it a literary dalliance to tantalize the reader. I call it a delightful fantasy escape that is fresh, surprising in it's delivery and spontaneous in its radicalism against an personified oppressive force of nature. A quick read that can be completed in one sitting, or in my case, during a short 1 hour plane trip. ;-) Because I am just no good at getting to the deeper meaning of this story, I will instead quote what Steven Poole wrote in his Guardian review of Light Boxes:

"Early on, a list of remedies (including the titular light boxes) suggests dourly that this is, in one sense, a fable of seasonal affective disorder; but eventually the awful truth dawns that it is an allegory about a depressed and unhealthy writer"

Makes a lot of sense after reading Poole's review! Still, I really enjoyed my read of this one and I will now check out his other works.

Closing this review with the following list from the story (just 'cause):

List of Artists Who Created Fantasy Worlds to Try and Cure Bouts of Sadness
1. Italo Calvino
2. Gabriel Barcia Marquez
3. Jim Henson and Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths
4. The creator of MySpace
5. Richard Brautigan
6. J.K. Rowling
7. The inventor of the children's toy Lite-Brite
8. Ann Sexton
9. Davide Foster Wallace
10. Gauguin and the Caribbean
11. Charles Schulz
12. Liam Rector

>25 lkernagh: that's fair! I feel like Matt Ruff is the same... really mixes things up and doesn't really hang out in 1 genre :)

>27 lkernagh: BB!!!

>27 lkernagh: This is an excellent review and a great idea for a book........till I saw Vonnegut

>28 avanders: - Now you have intrigued me to investigate Matt Ruff's works. ;-)

LOL!

>29 Tess_W: - I have to admit that I have never read anything by Vonnegut - or Saunders or Mantel for that matter - so the references to these authors in the amazon book summary meant pretty much nothing to me. Sounds like Vonnegut is not one of your favorite authors. ;-)

ROOT #9 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made into Art
Reading BINGO square: about autism
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2013
Acquisition date: June 7, 2014
Page count: 324 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.10 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website listing:

A first-date dud, socially awkward and overly fond of quick-dry clothes, genetics professor Don Tillman has given up on love, until a chance encounter gives him an idea. He will design a questionnaire—a sixteen-page, scientifically researched questionnaire—to uncover the perfect partner. She will most definitely not be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker or a late-arriver. Rosie is all these things. She is also fiery and intelligent, strangely beguiling, and looking for her biological father a search that a DNA expert might just be able to help her with.

Review:
Simsion has written an absolutely delightful, endearing romantic comedy that made me smile and laugh as I read it. The romantic comedies I have read in the past have all followed the same old pattern of boy/girl develops interest in boy/girl and pursues the object of their attraction, usually with mixed/comic results. Simsion has incorporated a number of romantic comedy elements into his debut novel, with an interesting twist: The key protagonist, Don, is a logic-driven autistic genetics scientist with OCD tendencies and who is incapable of feeling or experiencing emotions such as love – that key ingredient that usually ‘runneth over’ in other romantic comedies - because, as he states, he is 'wired differently'. It came as no surprise that Simsion chose to craft Rosie as the perfect “opposites attract” personality, opening the story up to a myriad of possibilities and entertaining dialogue as Don helps Rosie with the 'Father Project'. I really enjoyed the academic setting and the awkward scenarios that crop up. I also really appreciate the inclusion of the supporting cast of Don’s friends – his Melbourne university hormone-sex driven colleague Gene and Gene’s psychologist wife, Claudia – to exemplify the differences in Don’s way of thinking/acting and how some individuals may interpret his actions. As you can imagine, I was cheering for Don from the very start of the story – who wouldn’t? – even as I was trying to picture what it must be like to try and live in a world where deciphering, understanding and registering emotional cues is so essential for social interactions. I think all of us can relate to an instance in our past where an inability or insensitivity to the nuances of what we said/meant ended up having disastrous social consequences. Try living you whole life confused or baffled as to why people act a certain way or say certain things. I would feel as though I was an alien dropped in from a different planet, which makes me appreciate all that much more how challenging our social world must be for individuals with developmental disorders that make up the autism spectrum.

Overall, a quick, delightful weekend read that has given me some food for thought regarding the human diversity that surrounds us, and how everyone has something special to offer.

>31 lkernagh: Nice review, Lori, I felt just the same about Don. The peek at university politics was also interesting, I thought. It seems to take such precedence over actually teaching and researching stuff nowadays.

>31 lkernagh: I will start reading that book shortly because it's the May book for my book club! So I skipped the review!

>30 lkernagh: ooh, well if you read something by him, I look forward to your thoughts! (and sorry re the BB ;))

>32 MissWatson: - Thanks! University politics are way more complicated than I would have thought they would be. Nice to 'glimpse it' with humour!

>33 connie53: - I hope you found it to be an enjoyable read, Connie!

>34 avanders: - I will definitely let you know! BB's can be good.... they are not all bad!

ROOT #10 - The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: The London Group
Reading BINGO square: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2001
Acquisition date: 2009
Page count: 384 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.30 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website listing:

In the early 1900s, Bessie Bawtry, a small child with big notions, lives in a South Yorkshire mining town in England. Precocious and refined in a land of little ambition and much mining grime, Bessie waits for the day she can escape the bleak, coarse existence her ancestors had seldom questioned. Nearly a century later Bessie's granddaughter, Faro Gaulden, is listening to a lecture on genetic inheritance. She has returned to the depressed little town in which Bessie grew up and wonders at the families who never left. Confronted with what would have been her life had her grandmother stayed, she finds herself faced with difficult questions. Is she really so different from the South Yorkshire locals? As she soon learns, the past has a way of reasserting itself-not unlike the peppered moth that was once thought to be nearing extinction but is now enjoying a sudden unexplained resurgence.

Review:
I struggled with this one. The writing style is solid, but the story has that meandering quality to it that kept bring up the same question over and over in my head: "Why?" I probably should have read the Afterword first.... A story that is an author's attempt to develop understanding and meaning of the life of a departed family member through a fictional writing exercise is bound to leave some readers wondering about the direction of the story they are reading. For me, The Peppered Moth is more of a Drabble's catharsis then about the family stories contained on the pages. At least she admits that the exercise had mixed results, even for her. I did enjoy the historical detail the story contains and parts of the story reminded me of the manner in which Carol Shields chose to write her story The Stone Diaries... another book that some readers sings praise over while others wish to see it confined to the dustbin. If you haven't already guessed, The Peppered Moth is not an easy book to write a review for, so lets turn this review into a quick Q & A session instead:

Do I regret the time I invested to read this story? No. It didn't jump out and grab my attention but part of me could relate to or at least express sympathy for some of the emotions and experiences... although I did find the story to have a rather dour effect on me, which isn't a great positive.

Do I understand the choice for the title? Not really, so if anyone can explain their thoughts about why the title, I would appreciate it!

Will I read more books by Margaret Drabble? Not sure. I think the summary would really have to grab my attention, or if it was the only book available to read.

See.... even my Q & A isn't overly helpful in trying the capture my thoughts regarding this one. Let's try something a little different. The following quote, in my opinion, sums up this story quite nicely:

"There are too many memories here. Impatience is overcoming Faro. She has several plastic bags full of rubbish, and she is sure she is about to discard something important. Though how could any of this be of any importance? These are such little lives. Unimportant people, in an unimportant place. They have been young, they have endured, they have taken their wages and their punishment, and then they have grown old, and all for no obvious purpose. And now she is throwing them all into a plastic bag.

ROOT #11 - J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton - audiobook narrated by Mary Peiffer
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made Into Art
Reading BINGO square: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 1993
Acquisition date: July 14, 2013
Page count: 375 pages / 9 hours, 10 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the gvpl.ca library listing:

Wendell Jaffe looks great for a dead man! He's been six feet under for five years ago--until his former insurance agent spots him at a dusty resort bar in Mexico. Now California Fidelity wants its insurance money back. Can P.I. Kinsey Millhone get on the case? Just two months earlier, Jaffe's widow pocketed $500,000 in insurance benefits after Jaffe went overboard. Was his "pseudocide" a last-ditch effort to do right by his beloved wife? Perhaps. But how would that explain the new woman in Jaffe's second life? Kinsey is in for the long haul as she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Jaffe's life and death...and discovers that, in family matters as in crime, sometimes it's better to reserve judgment...

Review:
I usually enjoy my visits with Kinsey and the trips back in time courtesy of Grafton's attention to detail. This story was no exception, although it did have its slow bits where my mind would wander. Even the introduction of previously unknown family members into Kinsey's life had a bit of a "ho-hum" effect on me. As far as the mystery goes, this one was okay. Enough missing pieces, questions and suspicious characters to give the plot some depth, but still, not one of my favorite Kinsey reads so far. The last hour of the audiobook did grab my attention, as did the the rather surprising reveal of the guilty party at the end.

Overall, I am looking forward to the next book in the series as they are always a fun way to escape from reality. I am also curious to see if the new characters introduced in this story will reappear and be built upon in future stories.

ROOT #12 - The Wars by Timothy Findley
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books made into Art
Reading BINGO square: centered around a major historical event
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: trade paperback
Original publication date: 1977
Acquisition date: May 15, 2011
Page count: 240 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing:

Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war—The War to End All Wars. He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare, of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

Review:
I have to start this review off by saying that I was a little shocked to see this book displaying as a "Beach Reads" book on the amazon.ca webpage. The gritty and yet metaphysical examination of the meaning of life, survival and the atrocities that humans have inflicted upon other humans doesn't quite equate into a "beach read"... not in my mind anyways. I mean, this has some similarities to the story telling of Brideshead Revisited but with the grim brutal futility of war as a full frontal assault, minus the whole drinking and waxing philosophical bit. Now, don't get me wrong. I happen to be a huge fan of Findley's stories, especially the way he gets under his character's skin to expose the human condition for the flawed thing that it really is. I can highly, highly recommend Findley's The Last of the Crazy People, but I digress. In The Wars, Findley experiments with story telling by presenting the narration of this story as one of an unnamed individual's work to cobble together fragments of memories, snapshots and facts to tell Ross's story. I am still undecided if this was the best mechanism to use, as the story tends to jump around a bit and I was a bit confused as to what exactly happened to one of the characters, but Findley's ability to make me experience the trench warfare of World War I in all of its mud, confusion, harrowing despair, coupled with the determination to rise above it all is what continues to resonate within me long after I finished reading this story. Findley has a knack for producing wonderful quote-worthy passages, like the following monologue by Robert's mother early in the story:

For a moment she looked at what she'd done and then, without looking up, she spoke in a voice as passionless as sleep: "You think Rowena belonged to you. Well I'm here to tell you, Robert, that no one belongs to anyone. We're all cut off at birth with a knife and left at the mercy of strangers. You hear that? Strangers. I know what you want to do. I know you're going to go away and be a solder. Well - you can go to hell. I'm not responsible. I'm just another stranger. Birth I can give you - but life I cannot. I can't keep anyone alive. Not anymore.

I close off this review with two more quotes that really resonated with me while I was reading this story:

The first dead man he'd seen, I think. And he said that after a while you saw them everywhere and you sort of accepted it. But the acceptance made him mad and he said this marvelous thing: I still maintain that an ordinary human being has a right to be horrified by a mangled body seen on an afternoon walk. So what it was we were denied was to be ordinary. All our ordinary credos and expectations vanished. Vanished There was so much death. No one can imagine. These were not accidents - or the quiet, expected deaths of the old. These were murders. By the thousands. All your friends were...murdered.

----------

Someone once said to Clive: do you think we will ever be forgiven for what we have done? They meant their generation and the war and what the war had done to civilization. Clive said something that I've never forgotten. He said: I doubt we'll ever be forgiven. All I hope is - they'll remember that we were human beings.

Overall, another brilliant, thought-provoking read from one of my favorite Canadian authors. I can see why this won the 1977 Governor General's Award. A worthy read.

>38 lkernagh: I don't think that sounds like a beach read, either. However, it sounds like a great read and it is going on my wish list!

Almost halfway! Good work, Lori.

>39 Tess_W: - I hope it is as good a read for you as it was for me!

>40 connie53: - Slowly but surely, kind of like the tortoise.... I will get to the end. I am hoping to have the majority of my summer reading to be from my TBR pile, so that should help with the numbers.

ROOT #13 - K is for Killer by Sue Grafton - audiobook narrated by Mary Peiffer
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made into Art
Reading BINGO square: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 1994
Acquisition date: July 14, 2013
Page count: 320 pages / 9 hours, 30 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the penguinrandomhouse.com book listing:

When Kinsey Millhone answers her office door late one night, she lets in more darkness than she realizes. Janice Kepler is a grieving mother who can’t let the death of her beautiful daughter Lorna alone. The police agree that Lorna was murdered, but a suspect was never apprehended and the trail is now ten months cold. Kinsey pieces together Lorna’s young life: a dull day job a the local water treatment plant spiced by sidelines in prostitution and pornography. She tangles with Lorna’s friends: a local late-night DJ; a sweet, funny teenaged hooker; Lorna’s sloppy landlord and his exotic wife. But to find out which one, if any, turned killer, Kinsey will have to inhabit a netherworld from which she may never return.

Review:
Thankfully, I have never suffered with insomnia. I am a bit of the reverse in that I have troubles staying awake past 10:00 pm and my perfect sleep potion seems to be reading while lying in bed. In this Alphabet series book, I got to experience insomnia through Kinsey. I found this mystery to be one the better one's so far n the series. The little details had me trying to pin the possible murder on four different characters at different points in the story. The prostitution/call girl/porno movie angle and the night investigations gives the story a grittier edge to it. While we don't see much if anything of the now regular cast of the "Alphabet series - Kinsey's landlord Henry Pitts, his brother William, her somewhat friend restaurant owner Rosie, etc - it was nice to have a new character in the form of Officer Cheney Phillips potential new love interest for Kinsey? arrive on the scene. As with previous stories in the series, I continue to enjoy the nostalgic trip back in time to a pre-cell/smart phone world where one looks for a payphone or asks to use someone's phone when one need to place a call.

ROOT #14 - Incantation by Alice Hoffman
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Minimalism
Reading BINGO square: whose author shares an ancestor's fist name - Bingo Challenge Completed!
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: October 1, 2007
Acquisition date: January 22, 2011
Page count: 192 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca book listing:

Estrella is a Marrano: During the time of the Spanish Inquisition, she is one of a community of Spanish Jews living double lives as Catholics. And she is living in a house of secrets, raised by a family who practices underground the ancient and mysterious way of wisdom known as kabbalah. When Estrella discovers her family's true identity--and her family's secrets are made public--she confronts a world she's never imagined, where new love burns and where friendship ends in flame and ash, where trust is all but vanquished and betrayal has tragic and bitter consequences.

Review:
This is a solid piece of historical writing, with a focus on the Jewish persecution that occurred in Spain. While the story does not include any specific dates, I think it is safe to say that it is set during the earlier years of the Spanish Inquisition, which would place the story around 1500's. The story chapters are uniquely named and their meaning becomes clear near the end of the story. Geared towards a YA audience, the three main characters - Estrella, Catarina and Andres - came across a bit-light weight against the backdrop of events occurring in their town/village, but that is just my observation. The romance angle seems to crop up in a lot of the YA books I have read. It cropped up in this book and I felt it really didn't add anything extra to the story.... more of an add on to justify the division in friendship, the acts that follow and to possibly attract an audience type that likes to see a bit of romance in their stories. The story also has a mystical feel to it, giving it the effect of experiencing the story as seen through a lace or gauze veil.

Favorite quote:

Knowledge was the way of our people, and knowledge was dangerous. It was the thing that freed you and the thing that put you in peril.

A true statement that can be applied to any number of situations and a valuable lesson for inclusion in any book.

>43 lkernagh: Sounds like a good historical premise for a book! I have her The Dovekeepers for a RL book club and we discussed the same thing.....there were several romances/affairs and we did not know for what purpose as it did not advance the story.

>44 Tess_W: - I do wish they would not add things like romance angles to stories when the don't need to be there. ;-)

------------------

I am hoping to have another ROOT read finished soon, probably this weekend. I am currently reading The Map of Time which has been on my TBR bookshelves since May of 2013.

Book #15 - The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma - translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOTs
Category: Street Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2008
Acquisition date: May 4, 2013
Page count: 656 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the public library book listing:

London, 1896. Andrew Harrington's lover Marie Kelly was murdered by Jack the Ripper and he longs to turn back the clock and save her. Meanwhile, Claire Haggerty, forever being matched with men her family considers suitable, yearns for a time when she can be free to love whom she chooses. As their quests converge, it becomes clear that time is the problem--to escape it or to change it. Hidden in the attic of popular author--and noted scientific speculator--H.G. Wells is a machine that might offer them the hope they need!

Review:
Just what I needed to distract me from the summer heat. Palma has taken H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and launches from there into a wonderful premise that has the reading believing / disbelieving / believing in time travel. Palma's all-seeing narrator leads us through three intertwining stories set in Victorian England, a wonderful time period for a good genre-bender read. Palma brings the author H.G. Wells - along, to a lesser extent, Henry James and Bram Stoker - to life in his stories which is good for a potential reader of Palma' story to know. I for one, tend to enjoy stories where real historical figures are characters and I don't analyze whether or not the author gives an accurate portrayal of these individuals. Let just say Palma brings enough accuracy to our three literary figures for me to settle back and enjoy the story.

Fans of Wells' novel and the subsequent movie adaptations may enjoy the details that Palma brings to his story. I know I did, but it is so much more than a Time Machine story. It is a wonderful historical fiction story first and foremost but it is also a genre-bending delight. It is a historical, literary, mystery, fantasy, steampunk-styled adventure wrapped up into one page-turning package. I have read a number of novels that have taken Victorian England and adapted it to suit the author's needs, but this one is different. The story doesn't try to tamper with the known Victorian England time period. Palma leaves that firmly intact for readers to ground themselves as they follow his characters down the train of thought of possible parallel universes and the "map of time" that parallel universes may create. I really enjoyed how Palma plays with the reader, leading them along and feeding them with tantalizing information that may, or may not, be proven correct as the story progresses, kind of like a carnival's maze of mirrors where one tries to find the right way through the maze. Palma has a gift for painting a detailed picture and for crafting his characters, drawing the reader into the scene and engaging with the characters. He also knows how to pace his story: slow enough to lay the groundwork and to bring all the subtle details to the readers attention while still carrying the plot forward at a decent pace, keeping my interest from waning.

Favourite quote:

"True literature should rouse the reader, unsettle him, change his view of the world, give him a resolute push over the cliff of self-knowledge."

If you are a fan of The Time Machine and H.G. Wells' novels, and if you are like me and enjoy reading stories where historical literary figures are characters in the story, this first book in a currently three-book series may appeal to you. I thoroughly enjoyed my escapism romp through Victorian England under Palma's pen and I am looking forward to reading book two in the series - The Map of the Sky.

Glad you liked the book, I have the series on my wish list.

>46 lkernagh: I also really enjoyed that one.... Although it wasn't at all what I was expecting at the time, now that I know what it all is... looking forward to the 2nd :)

>47 Tess_W: - It was a goody!

>48 avanders: - I like it when a book turns out to be something I was not expecting, in a good way!

ROOT #16 - The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Happening
CAT(s): July RandomCAT - Let there be Light!
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2011
Acquisition date: December 1, 2012
Page count: 400 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the book back cover:

Drawn to a confident and artistic wealthy older man she barely knows, bookish Eve recklessly embarks on a whirlwind affair that soon offers a new life and a new home at Les Genevriers, a charming yet decaying farmhouse in a hamlet nestled amid the fragrant lavender fields of Provence. But with autumn's arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scares of a failed marriage - one he refuses to talk about - his silence arouses suspecion and uncertainty. And, like its owner, Les Genevriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?

Review:
I love gothic tales so when I stumbles across this one - with is captivating cover and an author quote that it is "Reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca" - I figured this would be a good rainy day kind of read. The story has a slow build to it - at times, a painfully slow build - and Lawrenson's use of pronouns when she shifts the story narration from Eve in the present to Benedicte in the past left me in a bit of a muddle at times with the story and its overall direction. It seemed to just ebb and swirl, dancing around a mystery of mysteries not to be named or openly discussed. That was frustrating, at least for the first 2/3 of the book. Yes, it drags the reader around that long. Lawrenson spends a lot of time describing the story thorough the olfactory senses, which works well for the perfume angle of the story but seems a bit much when she is setting the scene or building the atmosphere of the story. What did work was the last 1/3 of the story and it worked so well that I am willing to forgive Lawrenson the slow, meandering build that it took to get us there. Sometimes, the view at the top of the hill is worth all of the struggle and effort to climb the hill to see it. Lawrenson shows promise with this debut novel for writing an atmospheric, gothic tale that creeps up on you. I still don't see the Rebecca angle but since I wasn't a big fan of Rebecca as a spellbinding gothic story, that reflects positively on this story by Lawrenson.

Overall, a slow build that takes a level of concentration to stay on top of the rapid shifting points of view while you collect the pieces of the mystery, but the ending does reward you for persevering.

Thanks for the reviews, Lori.

ROOT #17 - Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Happening
CAT(s): July HistoryCAT 1601-1700 CE time period
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 1999
Acquisition date: May 12, 2012
Page count: 420 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.80 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the amazon.ca website book listing:

Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of his daughter Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has crafted a biography that dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishments of Galileo. Moving between Galileo's grand public life and Maria Celeste's sequestered world, Sobel illuminates the Florence of the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during the pivotal era when humanity's perception of its place in the cosmos was about to be overturned. During that same time, while the bubonic plague wreaked its terrible devastation and the Thirty Years' War tipped fortunes across Europe, Galileo sought to reconcile the Heaven he revered as a good Catholic with the heavens he revealed through his telescope.

Review:
A fascinating exploration of not only Galileo's struggles to publish and make known his agreement - with theoretical and mathematical evidence - that Copernicus was correct in his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the other way around, and how the Church was determined that Copernicus was wrong as it countered what was spelled out in the Scriptures. Anyone who stayed awake during history and science classes while in school will know a fair bit about Galileo, his writings and his battles with the Catholic church, but I will admit to having no knowledge of his family life before reading Sobel's book. Being able to read the text of his daughter Suor Maria Celeste's letters and the context Sobel provides them in really helped to bring not only Galileo, but also the time period into clear resolution for me. The paternal love and respect Galileo had for his daughter and her intellect, and her unwavering devotion to her father, shines here. Some memoirs come across as rather dry reading for me, because I am usually not interested in the minutia of famous or historical figures. Being able to read about Galileo through his daughter's letters to him was anything but boring, even when she talks about the minutia of her cloistered life. That was very interesting!

Overall, a different approach to a memoir that I felt really works well and presents the details of Galileo's thoughts, beliefs and struggles in a manner that would have been a welcome replacement to any school textbook I had to slog through, back in the days.

Sounds like a lovely read! Going on my wish list!

>52 lkernagh: I remember history classes back in the day, Lori. A bit dry and pedantic I think. I have recently taken history classes at the college level and they are much more lively and accepting of different points of view. They also bring in primary sources as the whole class can have access online. Best of all, they use well written historical fiction as part of the course material, a great recognition for the research and understanding of the time that fiction writers bring to the subject.

>53 Tess_W: - Glad to see I caught you with the Sobel read!

>54 Familyhistorian: - I would have found history more fascinating to learn if the schools had been able to expand on the topics and make them more of a discussion than a dry recitation of facts. Glad to see the more recent classes you have taken have had that more flowing approach to the information and as you say, it does help when the resources being used are well written and well researched subject matter. ;-)

ROOT #18 - The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT, AAC
Category: American Realism
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Hard cover
Original publication date: 2014
Acquisition date: November 29, 2014
Page count: 196 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the barnesandnoble.com website book listing:

The Last Kind Words Saloon chronicles the closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most immortal figures, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Tracing their legendary friendship from the settlement of Long Grass, Texas, to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Denver, and finally to Tombstone, Arizona, The Last Kind Words Saloon finds Wyatt and Doc living out the last days of a cowboy lifestyle that is already passing into history.

Review:
What can I say about this one? McMurtry effortlessly captures the essence of the American West: its cowboys, is broad sweeping frontiers and its lawlessness as only he can. Billed by Joyce Carol Oates as being a "comically subversive work of fiction" I appreciated the banter that McMurtry has his characters engage in and their rather "ho-hum" approach to any disaster that seem to occur, from an enormous cattle stampede to sandstorms. McMurtry's story evokes a sparseness in both prose and description, almost as if the memories are no longer as sharply depicted as they once were. The story tends to jump around a fair bit, with more than one loosely-knit storyline to follow. McMurtry's female characters continue to be strong, determined and independent women, with underlying insecurities that occasionally bubble to the surface. The men, except for Doc Holliday, are taciturn and dare I say, a bit hen-pecked, at least the married ones seem to be. Problem with the book, for me anyways, is that after having dined at the succulent and abundant banquet that is Lonesome Dove, The Last Kind Words Saloon comes across as a poor man's sparsely-laden salad bar, leaving this reader craving so much more than this book has on offer.

A quick read, written almost as a last hurrah of the American Wild West before being assigned to the dusty shelves of history.

ROOT #19 - The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Happening
CAT(s): RandomCAT - Dog Days of Summer
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: September 2008
Acquisition date: May 5, 2011
Page count: 702 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book listing:

An unflinching family epic that captures the political unrest of a nation caught between a well-patterned past and an unpredictable future. This beautifully written novel of American history tells the story of two families—one black, one white—swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power at the end of World War I.

Review:
Having never read any of Lehane's works before now, and having only seen the movie adaptation of Shutter Island, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was not expecting a Babe Ruth baseball story, which is what I thought I was in for while reading the first 50 pages. I am not much of a sports fan at the best of times and wouldn't gravitate towards a baseball story so I was relieved to discover that I hadn't been mislead in acquiring a copy of this one. It is not a baseball story. It is a solid historical fiction circa 1918-1919 Boston, Massachusetts kind of story, which is more in keeping with my usual reading preferences. Lehane has a writing style similar to some other authors on my 'must read' list when in the mood for a sweeping saga kind of story. He writes with an attention to detail while controlling the pacing of the somewhat melodramatic plot so the reader doesn't feel as though they are facing an onslaught of description and action. I also really like how he has taken the big picture historical items - the influenza outbreak, the Great Molasses Flood, the growing anarchist movement, race relations, and labour strikes that were all part of post WWI Boston - and worked them into his family saga-styled story. With all of these positives working in the books favor, this is still just a moderately good read for me. Why? As much as I was enjoying the story, it felt long. I kept checking to see how much more I had to read. Never a good sign with me as that means I am not enthralled with the story and hoping that it will end at some point. For those who don't know, this one is the first book in the Joe Coughlin series. It started to really bug me that Joe was such a minor character and never really took center stage in the story except for two incidents. I can appreciate how a series usually has a name and maybe Joe is the central character in the other books in the series but his lack of presence in this book probably clouded my enjoyment a bit. I kept wanting to see when it was going to become "his" story.

Overall, a solid historical fiction period piece packed with enough historical material to captivate some readers of the genre and in particular readers with an interest in 1918-1919 Boston. Well written but not the page-turner I was hoping it would be.

Only six to go if I'm correct. Yeah!!!

Hi Connie, only five to go now!

ROOT #20 - Pure by Andrew Miller
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Minimalism
CAT(s): HistoryCAT - 18th Century / Medicine and Disease
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: June 9, 2011
Acquisition date: May 4, 2013
Page count: 342 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 2.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book listing:

Jean-Baptiste Baratte, an engineer of modest origin, arrives in the city (Paris) in 1785, charged by the King’s minister with emptying the overflowing cemetery of Les Innocents, a ancient site whose stench is poisoning the neighborhood’s air and water and leaving a vile taste in its inhabitants’ food. At first the ambitious Baratte sees his work as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to both his own demise and that of the monarchy. Baratte expects the task to be unpleasant but cannot foresee the dramas and calamities it will trigger, or the incident that will transform his life. As unrest against the court of Louis XVI mounts, the engineer realizes that the future he had planned may no longer be the one he wants. His assignment becomes a year of relentless work, exhuming of mummified corpses and listening to the chants of priests, a year of assault and sudden death. A year of friendship, too, and of desire and love. A year unlike any other he has lived.

Review:
Love the cover art of my copy but what a peculiar story. At times descriptive and flowing, and other times rather obtuse, vague and disjointed, I struggled as I tried to follow the author's logic - I am assuming there was some logic at work here - in piecing together this tale. My appreciation of the story - more the lack there of - could be chalked up to my impression that the story has a resigned Dickensian quality to it: The engineer's task is one that borders on the monumental, set in a time and place not wholly dissimilar to the dank, festering world of Dickens' grimy London. Dickens is very much a hit-or-miss author for me and sadly, this does not lend assistance in getting me to appreciate Miller's story. The whole story gave me the overall impression/feeling of ruin and crumbling decay - that was done rather well - but I found Miller's prose to be a bit stilted, almost as though it was a poor translation, even though it was written in the English language. Interesting story concept with a lot of potential but the delivery just fell flat for me. Part of me was hoping that this was the author's debut novel - it kind of had that 'debut' feel to it - but, no, this is novel number six so I am at a loss to explain my review and rating except to say that I am not Miller's target reading audience, even though the LT Will you like it? gave it a very high prediction confidence that I probably will like it. Always fun to click that after I finish a book!

good luck pulling those final 5 ROOTs!

Thanks! I am hoping to really push some ROOT reading in for the remainder of this year.... I just need to find the time to get in the reading time! ;-)

>62 lkernagh: I know the feeling... :)

5 to go! I'm sure you can do that!

>63 avanders: - Looks like I haven't been able to find as much reading time in September as I was hoping for. Maybe October will be better.

>64 connie53: - I have high hopes I can do this. Maybe I need to stop reading the larger page count books and focus - like the one being reviewed below -to get my book count up. ;-)

ROOT #21 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Books Made Into Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 2000
Acquisition date: May 4, 2013
Page count: 639 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.50 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the barnesandnoble.com website book listing:

A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.

Review:
How to summarize my thoughts regarding this one. Well, Chabon has done a wonderful job capturing the Golden Age of comic books and the buzzing energy of New York in all its World War II and post-World War II glory. He has created solid, three dimensional characters in Sammy, Joe and Rosa. I am not one of those readers who seeks to uncover the "story within the story" or to understand the symbolism the author may have imbued within his or her story, but even I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Chabon makes some interesting choices here with the Golem, the comic book superheroes and the internal demons our lead characters struggle against. The story has an epic quality to it, starting off in pre-World War II Prague before landing in the teeming streets of Brooklyn/ New York and then off to the desolation of Antarctica, which was one of my favorite sections of the story, apart from the escape artist/magician angle. While I don't know much about the history of comic books, I was able to follow along and feel the vibe of energy and passion that may have driven the artists, writers and publishers who conjured up the superheroes who graced the pages of 10 cent comic books.

As much as the story has all of the desired character and plot development - with some unexpected twists - all captured in Chabon's descriptive prose, I never felt drawn in. I never felt a part of the story. It was easy for me to put the book down, even for the most mundane of household tasks, which is why it took my almost a month to read through it. Good story, but not a great page-turning read for me like Chabon's novel Gentlemen of the Road.

Only four to go, right? You ticker says five though.

But I'm on your cheering team!

Whoops... forgot the ticker. Thanks for pointing that out Connie! Ticker fixed. ;-)

Glad to be of service, Lori!

ROOT #22 - Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Street Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2007
Acquisition date: May 12, 2012
Page count: 288 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.60 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.com website book page:

Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ. Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees--a favorite pastime of Apollo's--is sapping their vital reserves of strength. Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Review:
Having read Phillips' rather humorous take on Camelot and the whole King Arthur legend in her book The Table of Less Valued Knights, I kind of had an idea of what I was in for with Gods Behaving Badly and Phillips did not disappoint. A rather fun read to refresh my mind of the Olympian gods, their powers and their temper-tantrums. The presentation of the underworld was refreshingly different, even though the journey to the underworld had a slightly Harry Potter feel about it. I am not completely sold on the ending and I struggled a bit with both Alice and Neil's character personalities but overall, a fun bit of escapism reading.

ROOT #23 - Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: The London Group
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 2006
Acquisition date: August 3, 2014
Page count: 304 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from various sources:

January, I982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor – covert stammerer and reluctant poet – anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn’t reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, an elderly bohemian émigré, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. The yer of 1982 is going to be a year of a lot of firsts for Jason as he moves through the black hole between childhood and adolescence.

Review:
Having been one of those shy, awkward kids that never really fit in while growing up, I can really appreciate Jason's view of the world. A world where kids can be unbelievably cruel and adults just don't understand the social rules of being a kid and surviving the crowds. This is a bittersweet coming of age story. There is both good and bad to be found in Mitchell's created village of Black Swan Green. Being a huge fan of Dicken's Great Expectations - the only Dickens story that I never tire of - I could not help but see some interesting parallels between the experiences of Dicken's young Pip and Mitchell's Jason. Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, the elderly bohemian émigré of the story, has a slightly Miss Havisham feel about her that I really found quite charming, if you can make the leap I can and consider Miss Havisham to have any charming qualities, so you will probably not be surprised that I also saw the 'luscious' Dawn Madden as Mitchell's version of the cold Estella (poor Jason!). One of the better coming-of-age stories I have read so far and the perfect read for me as my entry into Mitchell's storytelling world.

ROOT #24 - The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: Art
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 1996
Acquisition date: March 26, 2012
Page count: 294 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from various sources:

In the shadow of the Second World War, the fifteenth summer of Beth Weeks’s life is full of strange happenings: a classmate is mauled to death; children go missing on the nearby reserve; and Beth herself is being hunted by an unseen predator. The isolated valley of the B.C. farming community where she lives is home to a host of unusual characters: Nora, the sensual half-Native girl whose friendship provides refuge; Filthy Billy, the hired hand on her family's farm with Tourette’s Syndrome; and Nora’s mother, who has a man’s voice and an extra little finger. Then there’s the darkness within her own family: her domineering, shell-shocked father has fits of madness, and her mother frequently talks to the dead. Beth, meanwhile, must wrestle with her new found sexuality in a harsh world where nylons, perfume and affection have no place. Then, in a violent storm, she is struck by lightning in her arm, and nothing is quite the same again.

Review:
This story has one of my favorite opening sentences:

"The cure for death by lightning was handwritten in thick, messy blue ink in my mother’s scrapbook, under the recipe for my father’s favorite oatcakes: Dunk the dead by lightning in a cold water bath for two hours and if still dead, add vinegar and soak for an hour more."

It really sets the tone for what I can only describe as a compelling coming-of-age story. A wonderful blending of isolated rural community living, family histories, native folklore, evocative memories stirred by the wonders captured within the pages of her mother's scrapbook and the luscious descriptions of food, gardening and bizarre remedies. It is a wonderful throw-back to a forgotten era and I love how Beth reminds us that the story she is telling is something that occurred in her past, not her present. The writing is a delight to experience, like this description of eating cherries fresh off a cherry tree:

"When you eat a ripe cherry straight from the tree on a sunny day, its juice is so hot, thick, and red that it has the feel of blood running down your chin, staining your lips, and filling your mouth. Once you've sucked all you can from it, you spit out the pit and go for another warm cherry off the tree, and another and another, because the cherry will seduce you every time. You don't see that ripeness, that hot blood juice, in a store-bought cherry. But a cherry sun-hot off the tree, well, that's where it came from, the insinuation of lust in the cherry, the smut-name put to the ripe button-love of a woman. Cherry. It's all juice and warmth, a O in your mouth, a soft marble for your tongue to play with, a sweet soft thing with a core cloaked in flesh."

I delighted in the recipes and remedies that are strewn throughout the story. The kinds of recipes and remedies that are handed down from generation to generation so I was very happy to see the index at the back of the book. While the story is set in the Turtle Valley region of British Columbia, it is easy to picture it as taking place in almost any Northwest valley farming community with an reserve nearby. Canadian specific references to such things as Vancouver, Vernon and residential schools are kept to a minimum. As with most coming-of-age stories, it has elements that are harrowing and emotional. Anderson-Dargatz focuses on how Beth reacts/deals with situations, instead of exposing the reader to minute details of the situations themselves. A nice touch as some of the topics are disturbing enough without having the read through pages and pages of ugly details.

Overall, a really good read.

Good review, Lori. I really read it with attention. Very beautiful quotes too.

>73 connie53: - It is a really good read, Connie. Very surprising as I don't always appreciate coming-of-age stories. I have been rather fortunate to have read two good ones, almost back to back this year.

ROOT #25 - The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 1994
Acquisition date: March 29, 2014
Page count: 176 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.80 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the back cover:

Seven kids. One dead husband called "Redser". And not a chance that she'll be defeated. Not by Sister Magdalen, her daughter's tyrannical teacher. Not by the amorous overtures of the French proprietor of the local pizza parlour. Not by the medical crisis that threatens her best pal, Marion. Every morning at five, Agnes Browne leaves her tenement flat and sets up her produce stall on Moore Street, i the teeming heart of The Jarro - home to Dublin's dealers, docker, draymen, and those on the dole. But to the fatherless Browne brood, Agnes is more than a beloved neighborhood character. She's just about everything there is...

Review:
Witty, charming and full of heart, O'Carroll has brought 1960's inner-city Dublin, Ireland to life. Life is tough in The Jarro, but Agnes, her friends and her brood of six boys and one girl will win you over with their quick witted banter and the misadventures that come their way. Agnes is the perfect "Mammy", tough when she needs to be, with a naivety that gives rise to some of the humour of the story. While this story is set in the run down tenement flats of the poorer, working class area, it sparkles with life, hope and compassion, presenting a happier version of an Irish childhood than portrayed in some other books I have read.

A quick, entertaining read. If you decide to read The Mammy, I suggest you have the other books in the series ready at hand. Once you enter The Jarro of O'Carroll's pen, you won't want to leave.

And that is me now completed my ROOT challenge of 25 books read off my TBR bookcases. I will continue reading and recording ROOTS here for the remainder of the year to help the group numbers along.

Yeah, you did it!

Congrats!

Thanks Connie! I am rather happy that I completed it with two months still to go. That is a first for me.

Congrats!

Woo hoo! Congratulations!!

Congratulations!

>79 Tess_W:, >80 rabbitprincess: and >81 Familyhistorian: - Thanks!

ROOT #26 - The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade Paperback
Original publication date: 1995
Acquisition date: March 29, 2014
Page count: 190 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the back cover:

Mother. Father. Business consultant. Cop. To her seven high-spirited "chisellers", Agnes Browne is all of these, and more. In the Dublin working-class neighborhood known as The Jarro, it's the Browne clan against the world - and against the backstreet villains and white-collar emissaries of market forces that threaten to tear this upwardly aspiring family apart. The Browne brood is about to be relocated to the wilds of suburban Finglas when their tenement is demolished as part of an "Inner City Renewal Plan". With the help of her ambitious eldest boy and her persistent French suitor, Agnes copes with the ups and downs of "rural" life, one unscrupulous gangster, and the son who is well on his way to breaking his mother's heart.

Review:
As the titles states, this second book in the Agnes Browne trilogy takes the focus away from Agnes and zooms in on her brood. While The Mammy was a story with a sweet, big heart feel to it, this one has more grit to it as not everyone is as sweet and as naive as Agnes is. Even with the troubles and misfortunes that befall the family, this story has lots of laugh out loud moments. As much as I liked getting to know Agnes's "chisellers" better and watch them grown and develop into teens and young adults, part of me missed the Agnes Browne focus of the first book.

Overall, a solid sequel to this wonderfully bittersweet family story. It made me laugh, smile, nod my head in approval, shake my head in consternation, sigh and, I am not ashamed to admit, even brought a tear to my eye.

Congratulations on reaching your goal!

>76 lkernagh: yeah congrats!

>84 MissWatson: and >85 avanders: - Thanks!

ROOT #27 - The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 1996
Acquisition date: March 29, 2014
Page count: 192 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the book back cover:

Raising a brood of unruly, high-spirited kids on her own didn't slow her down. Twenty years of eking out a living from her produce stall on Moore Street hasn't turned her into a quitter. Not even a French lover who wants her to become a "sexual animal" can take the starch out of Agnes Browne. But now, outside the maternity ward of Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, she has just heard the one word that stops her cold:

"Granny!"

Who would have believed it? Only yesterday they were children themselves. Now they are having "chisellers" of their own, and for the first time in her life, Agnes Browne feels old. But with a daughter stuck in an unhappy marriage, a homesick son in London, another son headed to prison, and another grandchild on the way, it seems that the Browne clan needs their mammy more than ever. And Agnes is more than up for the challenge - until she's faced with a crisis of her own. Which will prove once and for all that nothing brings a family together like trouble. And nothing heals a family like love.

Review:
I really love these stories. O'Carroll has single handedly wrapped the Browne family up in a myriad of emotions and circumstances, while at the same time presenting from a far a big, unfeeling world that, when you look up close, is really just a tiny world where warmth and compassion can be found, even in some of the most dire of circumstances. It is the continuation of a family saga that has the close, intimate feel of a story being told at the kitchen table over a hot cup of tea. Delightfully funny, movingly compassionate and just plain 'real', O'Carroll continues to captivate me with the very down-to-earth adventures and misadventures of the Browne family.

A really good quality read. Prepare to have some kleenex at hand... there are some good tear-jerking moments within the pages of this third book in the trilogy.... which is now a tetralogy courtesy of The Young Wan, a library book I am looking forward to diving into.

ROOT #28 - L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton - audiobook read by Mary Peiffer
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 1995
Acquisition date: July 14, 2013
Page count: 352 pages / 9 hours, 9 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.20 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: Adapted from the amazon.com book listing webpage:

Kinsey's skills are about to be sorely tested. She is about to meet her duplicitous match in a couple of world-class prevaricators who quite literally take her for the ride of her life. "L" is for Lawless: Call it Kinsey Millhone in bad company. Call it a mystery without a murder, a treasure hunt without a map, a quest novel with truly mixed-up motives. Call it the return of Kinsey as bad girl - quick-witted and quick-silvery, smart-mouthed and smartalecky - poking her nose into everyone's dirty laundry as she joins up with a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde in an Our Gang comedy that will take her halfway across the country. America's favorite borderline delinquent is back with her one-liners on tap and her energy level on high, romping through her fastest and funniest adventure in this, her twelfth foray into the alphabet of crime.

Review:
Oooohhh Yaaaaahhh..... Back in the saddle with Kinsey. I don't know if it is my extended absence from the series or the writing, but this is a goodie! Really grass roots crime stuff coupled with Kinsey attitude and penuche for getting into a big ass mess. I do love the whole retro feel of these stories. Can anyone remember the last time an "imprint" of a credit card was taken? Okay, I shouldn't talk since that did happen to me once on my recent trip to Vegas but in my home environment, those machines went the way of the Doodoo bird a good 10 years ago. Grafton has a wonderful way with diving deep into the details without making the whole deluge of information the reader is subjected to coming across as a sweeping influx of 'blah'.

An excellent mystery, an wonderful recipe for disaster and a rather interesting lesson about how far does one take one's "good neighborly" intentions to heart.

ROOT #29 - M is for Malice by Sue Grafton - audiobook read by Mary Peiffer
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Audiobook
Original publication date: 1996
Acquisition date: July 14, 2013
Page count: 384 pages / 9 hours, 32 minutes listening time
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the author's website book listing webpage:

"M" is for money. Lots of it. "M" is for Malek Construction, the $40 million company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California construction, one of the few still in family hands.

"M" is for the Malek family: four sons now nearing middle age who stand to inherit a fortune—four men with very different outlooks, temperaments, and needs, linked only by blood and money. Eighteen years ago, one of them—angry, troubled, and in trouble—went missing.

"M" is for Millhone, hired to trace that missing black sheep brother.

"M" is for memories, none of them happy. The bitter memories of an embattled family. This prodigal son will find no welcome at his family's table. "M" is for malice.

And in brutal consequence, "M" is for murder, the all-too-common outcome of familial hatreds.

"M" is for malice...and malice kills.

Review:
This one is more of a sleeper mystery, with a fair bit of attention being given to Kinsey's romantic interests and her newly found family relations. The first half of the book was very slow - great for listening to while engaged in other tasks - but it does pick up the pace and I have to admit that I thought I had identified the culprit, only to be found wrong as the story reached its "tell" plateau. As the saying goes, "The devil is in the details". As always, I continue to enjoy my "retro" journeys with Kinsey, being reminded of bygone days where answering machines where separate devices usually located beside the phone and not some password protected access system one dials in or connects to. Kinsey's love for peanut butter and pickle sandwiches continues to bring a smile to my face: I haven't had one of those sandwiches in decades and yet still remember, like it was yesterday, eating the very same sandwich as a teenagers, although my preference was for dill pickles. ;-)

Another good installment in the Kinsey Millhone series and the perfect accompaniment to listen to while engaging in my Christmas crafting activities.

One more ROOT read to close out my November reading. This one was purchased back in January, 2012. Snapshot summary only this time.

---------------


ROOT #30
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan - 4.30 decimal rating /
- Beautifully written story. Loved the moral agenda/issue angles McEwan portrays here.

ROOT #31 - The Leprechauns of Union Township by James F. Walsh
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: E-book
Original publication date: January 4, 2014
Acquisition date: February 16, 2014
Page count: 176 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.70 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website book listing webpage:

When a descendant of Irish immigrants to America relocated from a bustling city to the quiet back acres of an Indianan rural township in Marshal County where there were hills, valleys and eskars formed in ancient times by mile high ice, as if in Ireland, the wonderful power of Celtic imagination was actuated. There were leprechauns everywhere!

Review:
Sweet and charming are the first two words that come to mind to describe this short story collection. The stories are wholesome fairy-tale reading, especially as the idea of two young children being lost overnight in the woods doesn't seem to raise any alarm bells in town, but hey, fairy-tales only incorporate part of reality. Part of me wished that the fairyland influence was more pronounced in the stories but I had to remind myself that the idea of a tiny leprechauns the size of a thumb and are able to stand on a toadstool or perch on a shoulder don't really need to take up a whole lot of real estate. A hollowed out log can be a cavernous banquet hall for these tiny folks!

Overall, a charming collection of short stories with some good morals and values for readers to appreciate.

ROOT #32 - The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Trade paperback
Original publication date: 1999
Acquisition date: February 22, 2009
Page count: 304 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.40 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adaptede from the public library website book listing webpage:

Jane Rosenal sets out on a personal and spirited expedition through the perilous terrain of sex, love, relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. What is love, she wonders, as she scrutinizes the wiles and ways of older, possibly wiser women; casts a questioning eye toward various species of couples; and holds out her wrists for a spritz of perfume from her beautiful boss ... How do you find it (and keep it) - and above all, who makes the rules? From being swept off her feet by an older man into a Fitzgeradesque world of cocktail parties, country house and rules-that-were-made-to-be-broken, to a soul-searching game of strip poker in a floating house in St. Croix and repairing to the self-help shelves for assistance with a budding romance, Jane learns not only when to fish and when to cut bait, but who really makes the rules.

Review:
This is one of those strange books that I find to be a sophisticated, compelling read at the start but by the end I am a bit done with the overall smartness of the writing, if that makes any sense. As a series of connected stories - with Jane as the lynch pin - younger Jane comes across as worldly beyond her years, with a learned adult's range of philosophical colloquialism to carry her forward. The writing style has its pluses and minuses. As a series of bursts of pointed communications, Banks is able to provide pinpoint focus to what she wants to convey. On the down side, the stories have a bit of a disjointed feel to them. It also doesn't help when some of the more mini-bursts do nothing more than to give the stories that Fitzgeraldesque feeling. The following are just two examples of what I am talking about:

"He was some sort of boxing champion," she told me the night she took me out to celebrate my graduation. "He was always punching someone in the nose."
"Macho," I said.
"No," she said. "It was the clarity of expression that appealed to him."
- - - - -
I say that getting married isn't like winning the Miss America Pageant; it doesn't all come down to the bathing suit competition.
"What do you think it comes down to?" she says.
I say, "Baton twirling."

Don't get me wrong. Banks does have an unerring ability to assess and bring forward "in perfect pitch what it's like to be a young woman coming of age" during the late 1990's and possibly even today. At times fresh and funny, the stories that resonated more with me were the ones with the harder hitting real-life focus beyond just the relationship of the moment. While I found the stories to be interesting overall, Jane as a character started to wear off on me, especially when some of the things coming out of her mouth left me wondering if she shouldn't be drinking martinis and smoking cigarettes at some flashy 1920's literary party than engaging in conversation with her girlfriend while driving the expressway into the Bronx to go shopping at Loehmann's. Just saying....

ROOT #33 - np by Banana Yoshimoto - translated from the Japanese by Ann Sherif
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Hardcover
Original publication date: 1994
Acquisition date:November 26, 2014
Page count: 194
Decimal/ Star rating: 3.90 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: from the amazon.ca website booklisting webpage:

A celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English, N.P. But the book may never be published in his native Japan: each translator who takes up the ninety-eighth story chooses death too -- including Kazami Kano's boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji's death, Kazami is inexorably drawn to three young people whose lives are intimately bound to the late writer and his work. Over the course of an astonishing summer, she will discover the truth behind the ninety-eighth story -- and she will come to believe that "everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful enough to make you crazy."

Review:
One thing I love about Yoshimoto's writing is her ability to capture reality while at the same time transporting the reader into another world. The world of Yoshimoto's stories have all the necessary elements of our reality while at the same time infused with a feeling of magical surrealism. Reading her stories I feel as though they are projected on a large movie screen and I am sitting so close I feel as though I can reach out my hand and almost touch the action playing out before me. Yoshimoto admits in the afterword that she tried to touch on as many themes of interest to her as possible, so the story is a blending of lesbianism, incestuous relationships (what she refers to as "love within the family), telepathy, empathy, religion, occult, and so on. A lot to cram into a mere 194 page book! A lot to examine/analyze or if you are like me, to just enjoy how Yoshimoto makes it all work as a cohesive story. The story also touches on a topic that fascinates me as a reader: the role of a translator and written works. The following quote struck me as being particularly apt:

"You become so involved with the writer's style that it starts to feel like your own. You spend hours every day with it, and then you end up feeling that you alone had created it in the first place, and then your thoughts fall into sync with the author's, and that's very peculiar. Why, sometimes I get so far into an author's thought processes that I feel no resistance at all. I become unable to distinguish my thoughts from hers, and sometimes I find myself thinking the way she would, not just about the book, but about my own life, even when I am not translating. Particularly if the author has a very strong personality, a translator gets drawn in so tightly, much more so than an ordinary reader would."

Another fascinating read by
an author I find isn't afraid to push some boundaries with her writing.

ROOT #34 - Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto - translated from the Japanese by Ann Sherif
Challenge(s): 75 Group, 2015 Category, ROOT
Category: N/A
CAT(s): N/A
Source: TBR
Format: Hardcover
Original publication date: 1995
Acquisition date:November 26, 2014
Page count: 180 pages
Decimal/ Star rating: 4.00 out of 5 /
Book description/summary: adapted from the book inside cover flap:

In each of these six stories, the reader experiences Yoshimoto's original spin on magical realism and her own special Japanese kind of postmodernism - a blending of the traditional and popular culture, of the "old ways" and modern values through contemporary fiction of life and love. In each unique story, Yoshimoto's characters find themselves caught in emotional webs that they often initially fail to understand, but they discover themselves and in the process reinvent themselves through the power of the stories they tell.

Review:
This is Yoshimoto's first book of short stories, which she wrote after Kitchen and np. While Yoshimoto may not be confident about the success of her attempt at different narrative approaches with these stories (as she states in her afterword) - I found all six stories to work very well in communicating the raising awakening of awareness, hope and healing in her characters. If you have never read any of Yoshimoto's works, I can recommend this short story collection as the perfect forum to first experience Yoshimoto's gift for writing down to earth stories that explore such heady topics of time, healing, karma and fate.

....and that concludes my ROOT reading for 2015. Looking forward to another year of ROOT reading in 2016.

Woot! A great ROOT year!