Among the things to like, before you even start reading, is knowing that The Sense of an Ending was 2011's winner of the Man Booker prize. Besides, the book is small and short and comfortably written, pleasant to hold and to read.
On the surface the plot is relatively simple. Tony, now 60-ish and retired, looks back on his life, particularly his time in secondary school. There, he'd been close friends with three other young men, including intelligent and outstanding Adrian, and briefly, Tony had dated Veronica, before she and Adrian became a couple.
Now in the present, Tony receives a bequest after the death of Veronica's mother, a big surprise after all these years. A modest mystery follows, as Tony again locates Veronica, and learns some truths about those years which he could not have guessed.
More than this relatively straight-forward plot, Barnes deals with the relationship of one's memory to actual events. Tony begins to look back at his whole life and to question if his memories and his sense of himself are true and real. As I read, I did the same, and wondered how many of my memories would match what actually took place many years ago.
Sense of an Ending was easy to read, but offered lots of ideas I'd enjoy discussing. I know I would enjoy a second reading, and would probably understand much that I missed the first time through.
(Thanks, Dorla.)
Thanks again to Ann and her mom for recommending another excellent book that I had missed. Here's how amazon.com describes the plot, more succinctly than I could:
"When Maggie McElroy, a widowed American food writer, learns of a Chinese paternity claim against her late husband’s estate, she has to go immediately to Beijing. She asks her magazine for time off, but her editor counters with an assignment: to profile the rising American culinary star, Sam Liang.
"In China Maggie unties the knots of her husband’s past, finding out more than she expected about him and about herself. With Sam as her guide, she is also drawn deep into a world of food rooted in centuries of history and philosophy. To her surprise she begins to be transformed by the cuisine, by Sam’s family, and most of all by Sam himself. The Last Chinese Chef is the exhilarating story of a woman regaining her soul in the most unexpected of places."
It's a travel book, a bit of a mystery (Is her husband really the child's father?), a story of grief and friendship and love, all around wonderful descriptions of Chinese food and cooking.
I liked the author's painless delivery of some Chinese history and culture, too, and learned about the changes of the Cultural Revolution in the 60's, followed by the Communist government.
I'm not a "foodie" but liked this book very much--a many-faceted plot that just flows, and multi-cultural characters who were believable and likable.
This is one type of book I like---fictional characters in a historical setting, with some real people showing up in the action. ( I had to google once in awhile to see who was real and who was fictional.)
Sydney Stringfellow, young, naive, and straight from Chesapeake Bay, finds herself invited to swim in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where she falls in love with a German man. A Nazi? Or not? Returning home and alone again, she marries Jimmy, an American Marine ready to ship out to Guadacanal.
Bliss, Remembered is the life story that aging Sydney, now dying of cancer, chooses to tell her son. Nothing in her life had actually happened the way her family had always believed, and now Sydney decides to tell the truth before her death.
Sydney asks her son, "What would you be willing to do for love?" and that's the answer she reveals as she talks. The narrative is Sydney's conversation with her son, sometimes interrupted for a question from him or an explanation--or a gin and tonic. It's a different style, and one I found I liked, as Sydney's own voice, and her son's questions, help the reader know both of them.
Through the book, I experienced life on Chesapeake Bay and in New York of the 1930's, learned about history of the Olympics in those years and about Hitler's Germany. But, much of the book was timeless: about whom people choose to love and how major world events can totally change a person's plans.
I didn't see the ending coming, but it was believable and "happy" and satisfactorily tied the story together. (Thanks very much for the recommendation, Ann Yates!)
(The book's cover above shows a young woman swimming on the top half, and marching troops on the bottom half. It fits the book, but doesn't grab a reader's attention, I didn't think.)
What a remarkable boy, who took the journey described in this book! Even though In the Sea There Are Crocodiles is classified as fiction, it is based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari's long escape from Afghanistan to Italy. Enaiat's mother takes her ten-year-old son across the border into Pakistan, and leaves him there alone, believing so strongly that her son must get away from the Taliban and their culture.
Enaiat perseveres and survives horrific situations to get to Turin, Italy, where the book ends, as Enaiat graduates from high school and prepares for college. The adventures are narrated in Enaiat's own voice, making them believable and even sometimes funny. If I hadn't known that this book was factual, I probably would not have believed this boy could overcome these obstacles and survive on his own.
In spite of the awful things Enaiat lives through, the book is positive and even hopeful. Many of the people Enaiat encounters are helpful and kind, and the main character himself is resourceful and resilient.
In the Sea There Are Crocodiles is a small book, easy to hold and quick to read. It would be good to use with adolescents, showing what other young people in the world must overcome to survive. But, it's a good book for adults, too, and I appreciated the first-person picture of what life was like for this young Afghan refugee.
I think it's fun to look at the end-of-the-year lists of "best books of 2011" which appear in many publications and websites. Lots of the titles experts select are ones I also liked. For example, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (August 23rd below) and The Submission by Amy Waldman (October 29th below) seem to be appearing on most lists.
But, there are other titles which appear frequently on lists that, for one reason or another, wouldn't be on my personal "top ten" list from 2011.
I was eager to read Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. He's a debut author from Racine, Wisconsin, and the book's setting is a small college on the shores of Lake Michigan. My brain was already thinking, "Book club, book club."
I liked the young baseball pitcher a lot, and empathized when he threw a wild ball that severely injured one of his teammates. But, I never could believe the sexual affair between a gay male student, and a 60-year-old, previously heterosexual, college president. Whether gay or straight, this behavior would be abusive by the older, and official, adult, and I could never "buy" it.
I couldn't get past this unbelievable relationship, and the book just didn't live up to its pre-publication hype. It was certainly well-written, and I would read a second book written by this Wisconsin author.
I'm never have been a reader of fantasy. In fact, when I was a school librarian, I often depended on fantasy-reading colleagues to let me know the best genre books for middle school readers.
I tried Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and agree that it is charming, inventive, and well-written. The two main characters, Celia and Marco, rivals in magic, are likable and the mystical circus is amazing.
But, it was just too unrealistic for me. However, I can see that a reader with a better imagination than mine would be enthralled with the likable characters in the magical setting.
Almost every list has The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht near the top. The debut author is a 20-something-year-old woman whose writing ability seems to far surpass her age.
The complicated plot goes from the present, as a young doctor goes back to her European roots, to the past, as she explores her grandfather's life, as well as mythological tales from his culture.
You can tell I read this book sometime ago. I did stick with it till the very end, even though I didn't like the complex overlap between time periods, and between realism and mythological folk tales.
Maybe I was just too lazy a reader, as I agree that this is probably an excellent book. But, it took more effort than I was wanting to expend at that time, and I guess I didn't read carefully enough to let the author tie it all together.
I enjoyed this book very much, a debut novel by an author who works as an "investment professional." I liked the plot, the characters, and the New York City setting---but I loved the language. I wished I had had someone reading right along with me, so we could share the careful metaphors and well-constructed sentences.
That doesn't mean, though, that the plot in 1938 doesn't clip right along. Katey is a native New Yorker, a secretary and the daughter of immigrants. She and her roommate Eve, from the Midwest, meet handsome banker Tinker Grey at a jazz club on New Year's Eve. Tinker's name and clothing tell the girls all they need to know about his social class, relative to theirs.
But, the three become good friends, and a bit of a love triangle develops, till a tragedy changes all their lives, and Katey is left on her own. She's a likable and resourceful girl, and takes advantage of her experiences to climb both in society and in her employment.
The plot had surprises all along the way, and has a good ending, although not the one I expected. And, I liked the depiction of Manhattan, in the years following the Depression and just before WWII.
Rules of Civility is listed on some "best of the year" lists I have seen, and I would personally include it as one of the best books I read this year.
A historical novel set by Niagara Falls (a place I've never visited), a believable love story, and resourceful and fascinating characters: I agree with Barnes and Noble that The Day the Falls Stood Still can accurately be called "unputdownable."
In 1915, Beth must cope with her father's job loss, leading to a real change in social position for their family. Her sister Isabel falls into a deep depression, Mom makes a living as a seamstress, and Beth leaves her private school. These circumstances kick off the action, and the plot follows Beth as she falls in love, marries and has children.
Tom Cole, a natural riverman, is another main character, whose knowledge of the river and the falls makes him legendary, as well as indispensable in the community. Tom is based on a historical Niagara Falls personality, making the setting and characters more compelling.
And, there are lots of themes and discussable topics. The history covers World War I in Canada and the US, as well as French/English conflicts in Canada. One of the main conflicts---whether Niagara Falls should be harnessed for electricity, even though its natural beauty and power will be sacrificed--reflects modern concerns about the losses we may experience from any type of progress. The characters wonder about what constitutes true love, and about maintaining faith in God.
I thought The Day the Falls Stood Still was a lovely book, easy to read, but worthwhile, too.
I've been told I like mostly depressing books. I don't know if that's true, but it seems to me that well-written books, books that face the human condition, often deal with people with real-life-problems to solve.
So, when I found a list of books that Barnes and Noble calls "unputdownable," I thought I'd take a look at one of those titles, A Vintage Affair. On the cover, a quote says, "Read this if you're in need of a serious feel-good factor."
I agree with both Barnes and Noble, that this is a book a person (a women, anyway) wants to keep reading, and with the "feel-good" reviewer.
Phoebe owns a vintage clothing shop, and I learned a lot about expensive clothing, something I'd never much wondered about. Phoebe is recovering from the sudden death of her best friend, a death that she feels some guilt about. And, Phoebe has three men in her life, and the reader wonders which, if any, she will end up with.
But, most interesting, a client of Phoebe's has a child's blue coat she refuses to part with, a coat whose story takes us back to the Holocaust. The author skillfully ties the two time periods together, and with some coincidences, Phoebe learns the story of young girls and a blue coat in 1942.
Other peripheral stories, too, about customers and clothes enrich the plot.
Vintage Affair reminded me a little of Sarah's Key, where some clue in the present starts a young woman on a quest back to the years of the Holocaust. Thus, while this is a book with a mostly happy ending, it is not "polly-anna-ish" and definitely handles real human problems. Vintage Affair clips right along, and I thought it was worth reading. But did Phoebe end up with the right man?? I'm not so sure.
I have reservations about this debut novel. It's based on an interesting topic: that from Victorian times, different types of flowers have been able to communicate emotional messages from the giver to the recipient. (For example, honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love.)
And, The Language of Flowers deals with a societal problem that I don't know about: how foster children are just emancipated into society at large when they reach their 18th birthdays. So, it was good to read something quite different.
But, the novel was told in alternating chapters, first when main character Victoria is 9 years old and loved by a foster mother, and then when she is 18 and trying to make it on her own. I thought it was somewhat difficult to keep the two time periods and the character's relationships separate, possibly because I skimmed some of the middle when I thought it became too long.
I also found characters less than empathetic, until I got near the end and realized I was rooting for Victoria to make connecting relationships as an adult. But, somehow the book as a whole wasn't as good as the premise made me expect it would be.
I think I may be wrong about this one, and that people are going to latch onto it. Amazon readers and reviewers rave: "enchanting," "unexpectedly beautiful," "captivating," "couldn't put it down," "deeply human," "compelling," "poignant," "first class," "powerfully engaging."
OK, I've convinced myself I'd better take a second look at this one. Flower-lovers will probably be suckers for this title, but I'll be eager to hear what the rest of you think, if you decide to give Language of Flowers a try.
Fascinating life. Very well-written. Reads easily. I sped through this autobiography of film critic Roger Ebert, even though I'm not a big movie buff and don't think I ever watched the Siskel and Ebert TV show.
Ebert, born in 1942, starts with his Midwest childhood, and I marveled from the first page about his enormous memory for detail. I could picture Roger as a boy, in the family, in school, in his Catholic church. He tells about the oppportunities and connections which got him into the newspaper business in Chicago.
From there, with a lack of arrogance which pleased me, he tells about famous people with whom he became friends and about the travels and adventures his job allowed him. Ebert was intimate with Martin Scorsese, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Woody Allen, Oprah Winfrey, for example, and has chapters about each.
But, those were not my favorite chapters, and some I skimmed. A person more acquainted with Chicago and a person with more knowledge about movies would definitely appreciate those chapters more.
I liked best the sections about his personal life: his parents, his religion, his alcoholism and recovery, his loving wife and grandchildren. And, he handles his recent health problems with good nature and no self-pity. You've probably read about the thyroid and salivary gland cancer, and the treatments which have left this man of words without being able to eat, drink or speak.
His personal philosophies and optimistic nature came through, and made him seem really likable. This man, who has spent his life and career writing, uses those abilities to write a book well-worth reading, about experiences well-worth hearing about.
