Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Company we Keep, Robert Baer and Dayna Baer

I rarely allow my self the glossy-paged pleasure of reading a magazine even though I enjoy it so. I find they wake my inner “want” beast who insists I spend money on products and clothes I really can’t afford. Only when flying do I give in, and then I only ever get Marie Claire. Why MC? It’s progressive, has an international section and just flat out has the best content. Case in point – it was in an MC where I found an interview with husband and wife authors (and true-life CIA spies) Robert and Dayna Baer. They were promoting their new book The Company we Keep.
                                                                                                                     
This book has it all.

Foreign settings and languages? Check.
Secret Ops and spy vernacular? Check.
Hand-to-hand combat and weapons training at clandestine camps? Check.
Engaging writing that reads like a story even though is based on a true events? Double check.

These two meet while doing recognizance on suspected terrorists in Greece. I think it was in Greece… Might’ve been in the Middle East. They know cool stuff. Stuff like: ceramic is tougher than glass, can be found in a common light bulb and is your best option when you need to shatter a car window without raising too much suspicion. They know how to take down a 200-pound guy holding a knife to your throat. And, perhaps most amazingly of all, they know how to write.  

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman

Apologies for my lack of December posts, but The Dovekeepers took up quite a bit of time. Alice Hoffman is one of my favourite authors. I rarely read books twice but I fell in love with Practical Magic and have re-read my tattered copy more times than I can count. So excited I was when I saw The Dovekeepers that it actually pains me to report bad news. I didn’t really like it. It was long, dragged on and detailed to the MAX. Forgive me Ms. Hoffman for I still worship your other pieces of work (I also loved Here on Earth); but this took some real muscle to finish. And finish I did because every step of the way I patiently waited for the story to pick up.

The book is broken into four parts, stories told from the perspectives of four separate women. Brought together by fate, the lives of these women are woven together in a secret village hidden from the Romans. One will find Hoffman’s usual themes tucked away inside the pages of this book. You’ll find love, magic and strong female characters; you’ll even find a history lesson. I could see a lot of literary critics hailing this as "an important piece of work" or "a brilliant look into the past" - comments like that came to mind when I read it. But overall, this book still yielded one big yawn from me.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

In theory Water for Elephants should have been great. It had all the makings of an interesting story: a love component rife with complications, it was based on true events and ended surprisingly; yet this novel was still just “ok.” I could never quite get into it, was never excited about reading it. Surprising more so since it made it into Heather’s group of guaranteed reads.

Sara Gruen gets points for originality, this story is truly unique and her descriptive voice is vivid. She just failed to get me excited about the story and its characters. As always I encourage everybody to be their own judge, but I know I’m not totally alone in this thought as two friends of mine have read this book and had very similar reactions. Regretfully, I have yet to find anyone that raves about this book… 

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Girl who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen


The Girl Who Chased the Moon was the perfect chaser to the harsh bitterness of Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone.  Allen’s nice blend of real-life depth with just a touch of magic made this book an absolute delight to read.

The Story is set in a small town in North Carolina where the sweet smells of peach trees mingle with the smoky scents of barbeques. In this town, people can visibly see the sweetness of cakes wafting in the air and strange floating lights roaming the town’s forests at night. Although set in a modern context, country civility is still very much a part of life here. The book follows two characters: 30 something Julia and Emily who’s 17. Any reader who finds herself within this age frame will relate to the two characters; though the tone leans a little more to the mature side.  

Sarah Addison Allen has filled her book with town secrets and vivid characters with mysterious pasts. She did a stand-up job of keeping the material grounded while experimenting with whimsical concepts. I’m a total fan. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a nice light read.   

Sunday, November 20, 2011

She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb


shescomeundone.jpgShe’s Come Undone was suggested to me from a fellow-avid-reader acquaintance of mine. Having just read a few of Lambs’ books, he was high on her recommendation list. I’d looked at this book before but for whatever reason always put it back, even despite it being on Oprah’s Book Club list. 

I struggle to talk about this book tactfully. When I had brought it up with my roommate that I was reading She’s Come Undone, she gave me a look of knowing hesitation and said a number of people had told her to avoid it. Another friend who’d read it said she’d cried a lot during it. I like to read because I like to momentarily dive in to someone else’s life. A quarter of the way through this book made me want to dive into the pavement.  

From witnessing her father beating her mother, to being raped at 13 and going through her teens and early twenties as a woman weighing in at over 200 pounds; Dolores has seen the cruelest life has to offer. Compound that with the loss of her mom to a tragic death before heading off to college and another near sexual assault, you honestly can’t blame Dolores for attempting suicide in the ocean. Heavy D’s failed suicide attempt gets her institutionalized where she (and the reader) is given new life. But the sad story continues to follow Dolores right up to page 400 where the book thankfully takes a new shape.

To Lamb’s credit you really can’t tell how this story is going to end. But for 400 pages I ventured into Dolores’ horrid situation of a life and didn’t enjoy much of it. Now it is not my intention to come here and slam someone else’s work; I can fully appreciate that books are a story of someone’s telling and take a great deal of time, sweat and tears. But if I’m going to look at content only, I cannot call this a page-turner and wouldn’t refer it to a friend.

Having said that, I can say that Lamb did a fantastic job of not only narrating a female voice but of also narrating one through so many obstacles mostly only known to women. For that, I tip my hat to Mr. Lamb.   

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman

  

What I’ve come to call “Eat, Pray Love goes to Prison,” it is my humble opinion that this book has not received its due recognition. I’m sure at one point in your life you’ve done something completely out of character. Something daring and impulsive. Hopefully you did anyway… At the time you were probably steeled from the false sense of confidence that comes from being young and reckless. But I also bet you got away with it. I find that most people have either done one thing or experienced a short phase of risky behaviour in their life, but it’s usually characterized as just that: a phase or one time thing. Indulge me for just a moment if you will and imagine how your life would have changed if you were caught for that risky little stunt you pulled. What if you were caught years after the fact?   

Enter the story of Piper Kerman, a woman convicted of a crime almost 10 years after she committed it. The crime: international drug trafficking. Kerman’s upper-middle class background didn’t quell her urge to rebel at the age of 24 when she became mixed up in a crowd of international drug dealers. For about a year Kerman lived the high life – no pun intended – but gave up turning her life around completely. After years of living like a normal, working member of society, her past catches up to her and Kerman is sentenced to 15 months in a woman’s federal prison.

Kerman craftily recounts the events leading up to her incarceration and her experiences on the inside. Kerman’s insights about her time in prison and the surprising other women she meets are sharp and hilarious. Kerman’s writing is as remarkable as the situation she finds herself.