Citadel - Kate Mosse

Welcome back resident guest blogger Julia! Today, Julia shares her thoughts on Kate Mosse's latest book - Citadel.

"Citadel is the third novel in a trilogy of historical adventures.  The story takes place in 1942 - 1944, during the German occupation of France.  Ms. Mosse brings to life the beautiful landscape of southern France, contrasted with the horrors of the Nazi occupation.  The heroine of the book, Sandrine Vidal, is a young woman working for the resistance with a secret group of women, including her older sister.  

 

There is also another story within the book.  A young monk in the 4th century travels across France to place a document in a safe place.  Ms. Mosse takes the reader back to the 4th century for small glimpses into the monk’s travels throughout the novel. 

 

As the story unfolds, the reader learns there are several people trying to find the Codex, the hidden document.  They believe the Codex will reveal a secret so powerful it will change the course of the war.  There is an element of fantasy and magic surrounding the Codex, which is contrasted with the very real horrors of this time.  

 

The best parts of the novel are the glimpses provided into what it was like to live in German-occupied France.  Ms. Mosses brings the reader right into the warm and beautiful landscape, contrasted with the fear and brutality of the Nazi occupiers.   She brings to life the daily struggles of the citizens - neighbours informing on neighbours, multiple check points to travel within the town, endless paperwork, and constant fear. 

 

There are a lot of characters in the story, and I sometimes found it hard to keep straight.  It was, however, refreshing to read about the women who worked in the resistance movement and the risks they took to save their country.  The pictures painted of their lives are very vivid, real, and sometimes frightening.  

 

This book is rich in characters, stories, and action.   This review is but a glimpse into the complexity of the novel.  

 

I have not read the previous two books in this series, Labyrinth and Sepulchre, but this book certainly can stand on its own.  However, I now plan on reading the first two books! "

 

As always, thanks Julia for your thoughtful review!

 

You can keep up with Kate Mosse on Twitter.

Resident Guest Blogger Julia returns!

We haven't heard from resident guest blogger Julia in awhile, but she's back today with two great reviews!  The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt and Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones.

"I joined the 50 Book Challenge this year, and I am almost there! #45 and #46 were The Sisters Brothers, and Hand Me Down World, respectively.

Both books are about a person on a journey, although the journeys are taken by very different people and for different reasons. I read The Sisters Brothers on my iPad, and loved being able to highlight and make notes along the way. Hand Me Down World was a good, old-fashioned paper book.

First, the Sisters Brothers. To quote from the book: “Here was the picture of moral negligence”. This tale of two hapless brothers, Charlie and Eli, making their way across the American Wild West in the mid-1800s, leaving murder and mayhem in their wake, is indeed a story of two men who appear to have no morals. They are called “serial killers” and need only invoke their names to bring fear to the people around them. The narrator, Eli tells the story and indeed the reader comes to understand some of his motivation and why things turn out as they do for him. Charlie is clearly the leader, Eli the follower. Yet in some ways Eli is the more thoughtful and perhaps wise brother.

The book is full of quirky characters, including a prospector named Hermann Warm and a horse named Tub. There is bloody, gory mindless killing for sure, but the reader has some sympathy when Eli tells Warm about their childhood. Eli has a poetic streak in him, which makes the telling of the story colourful and always entertaining. For example, when they come upon a fellow reduced to brewing dirt for coffee, Eli says “It would seem to me that the solitude of working in the wilds is not healthy for any man.” Indeed. This is story about two desperados, but with a twist. Not your “normal” cowboy story for sure! Read an excerpt.

The other book about travels, Hand Me Down World, is equally as complex and blurs the lines between good and evil, black and white. This is the story of a black woman (and her colour is important to the story) working in a resort hotel, who gets involved with a guest, and has his baby. This is not a romance novel, so the story does not end happily there. The man confiscates the baby and flees home to Berlin, Germany.

The story is about the woman, and for most of the story we think her name is Ines, travelling to Germany, finding the baby, and then doing what she must to see the little boy, as he is by then. The story is told through the eyes of all the people she comes in contact with through the journey, both to and within Berlin. The Blind Man, The French Man, The Truck Driver. Finally we hear her heartbreaking story, and then the story of the wife of the man.

Again, this woman does some not very nice things to achieve her goals. We sympathize with her, but we do not always like her. As with The Sisters Brothers, the reader is forced to look at humanity from many different sides. Everyone has a story that makes them who they are and makes them do the things they do.

If you read Jones’ book, Mr. Pip, you will know he writes about the dark side of humanity. The story of a woman searching for her child is of one of our most basic instincts, but this story is combined with other human emotions and actions, some lovely and some not so.

I loved both of these books and would recommend them to anyone who likes reading books with complex characters!" Read an excerpt.

As always, thanks Julia for such thoughtful,  well written reviews!

YA reviews with Ella!

Resident teen blogger Ella is back to school and back to work at the library, but has lots to share on what she read this summer. And we're glad to have her back - her take on books is fun and unique.

First up is Blood Red Road by Moira Young.

"First, let me say how refreshing it was to have a truly selfish protagonist. Paragons of virtue are all very well and good, but every once in a while it's nice to read about someone who has less than any interest in being a hero. Saba's twin brother has been kidnapped and her father murdered, so she starts an epic journey across the dusty wasteland of their dystopian world to get him back. They have a little sister that Saba truly harbors nothing but jealousy and anger towards (which was nice while it lasted) who insists on tagging along. Gladiator-style cage matches, slavery, a drug empire, an attractive young man named Jack and some truly cool warrior girls all come included. The book is divided into parts, which I found made it slightly disconnected, like a series of novellas in one book, but it was still pretty good, despite Saba's disappointing sudden growth of a conscience. More of a library read than a addition to a personal collection is my advice." Read an excerpt of Blood Red Road.

Next - Wildefire by Karsten Knight.

"Yet another teenage girl has a crazy catalytic thing happen to her, and gets sent to boarding school. 3 guesses what she finds out there, and the first 2 don't count. You got it! She has magic powers, and is part of an epic power struggle between light and dark. What makes Wildefire different is that it's AWESOME! Ashline Wilde (I'm jealous of her name) has a pretty original power, and the drama with her homicidal, cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs sister was kind of cool. What made this book stand out of the identical backstory crowd? I really don't know. It just clicked. The amazing ending had something to do with it. Be warned, I was left gasping in shock and upset I have to wait to find out what was going to happen. Also, be aware before you get attached to characters that Knight has no qualms killing people off. The clever, evil man is ruthless, and knows how to play your emotions like a piano. It gets a little tiresome in the middle, cause it seems like the book is just doing exactly what every other book like it would do, but stick around a few more chapters and you won't regret it." Read an excerpt of Wildefire.

Thanks Ella for sharing your thoughts on some great YA titles - watch for more in the coming weeks. See you at work on Thursday Ella!

Welcome to Ella!

I'm very happy to announce that A Bookworm's World has a new resident guest blogger - this time with a focus on YA titles. Welcome to Ella, who just happens to work at the library as well.  She's one of our teen pages who gets to shelve all those books that cross over my counter. And she's a voracious reader as well.  Now that school is out, she's got a bit more free time on her hands and has come up with a few quick reviews for us.

 Abandon by Meg Cabot: Not actually a suggestion, more of a warning. I never thought I'd see the day when I wouldn't love a Meg Cabot book, but it has come. It was a cool idea (modern-day Persephone and Hades, a little rearranged), but the book itself was kind of blah. She didn't bridge the gap from memory-story to happening-right-now-story very well, and it fell kinda flat.

Soulless by Gail Carriger: Amazing! Really, really funny. Romance/non-obnoxious Victorian quasi-mystery on a backdrop of unimposing steampunk with characters that happened to be vampires, werewolves and 'soulless' beings. It's the first in a series, but I have yet to try the rest.

Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore: Humanity evolved into humans, werewolves and vampires, and now that vampires invented fake blood, they're the elite of society, and the wulfen (werewolves) are second-class citizens. Parts of it rang a little too close to Nazi concentration camps for comfort, actually. Second half wasn't as cool as the first, but still pretty good. The hero is half-vamp, half-wulfen and is turning at the next full moon for the first time-drama, drama, drama.

Bumped by Megan McCafferty: what every dystopian, adults-get-a-funky-virus-so-teens/early-twenties-people-have-to-have-the-kids, 'the man'-is-too-powerful-man,the-media-is-controlling-us book tries to be, only it works. It was the funniest end-of-the-world I've read in a while, but not a "ha-ha!" funny, more of a comedy of errors. Twin sisters were separated at birth and raised in wildly differing environments- one religious extremist, one being groomed to "bump" and carry a baby for big bucks (but that actually means she has to be the best at everything).

Those That Wake by Jesse Carp: freaky. Dystopian, despair, the-end-is-upon-us-only-we-don't-care-'cause-we-have-cell-phones (which were actually totally cool, really advanced) crossed with zombies that weren't dead (but may as well have been) and epic journey style fantasy. Also Jungian theory. The opening: Laura, a suburbanite, is suddenly erased from the memories of everyone she knows, as well as computers, pictures (sorta), the works, and Mal's brother has dropped off the face of the Earth. Why has this happened? What's with the building with the endless doors? Are those men really Homeland Security agents? When it was done, I felt kind of stunned, like at the end of a roller coaster, minus the nausea. Still thinking about it, a while after I'm done.

Born at Midnight by CC Hunter; I might have already told you about this, but I was pleasantly surprised enough to repeat myself: I thought the genre was dead, that no more good would come of the unknowing-teenage-magic-girl-goes-to-boarding-school/her-relative's-house-for-the-summer/summer-camp-for-troubled-teens-and-finds-out-she's-a-*insert flavour of the week*, but I was wrong. Quite good.

Red Glove by Holly Black: Holly Black. Need I say more?

Thanks Ella! So glad to have you on board and I know we'll all be looking forward to more of your reviews!

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a novel I've heard nothing but good things about, but haven't read yet. Resident guest blogger Julia has - and it's one she is passionate about! After this review, I have to read it. Thanks for lending me your copy Julia!

"I told Luanne I would write a review of The Help for her blog, because I absolutely loved this book. When I finished it, I did not want to start another book because I didn’t want to let go of these characters. I wanted to keep them with me for just a little bit longer.


However, I find I am having trouble describing all the emotions this book arouses. Let’s start with a description of the plot. The book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s. A time when the light was shining on long-held beliefs and practices like segregation, and “northerners” were coming to Jackson to try to show them another way to do things. As with all great social change, there are still people living their lives, and trying to figure out where they fit in their changing society. This book is the story of three women living in Jackson: two maids, Aibileen and Minny, and one privileged white women, Skeeter. As the world around them starts to show the people of Jackson a different way of doing things, Skeeter starts to question her friends, and most particular Miss Hilly, the chair of the Junior League. Skeeter hatches a plan that she hopes will launch her career as a writer. She plans on writing a book about the experiences of black maids, and Skeeter and Aibileen manage to convince a number of the maids to tell their stories to Skeeter.

From the first page of the book the reader is wrapped in the language and accents of the three women whose stories become intermingled. Stockett moves easily from the accents of Minny and Aibileen, to that of Skeeter and the other white women. There are some touchingly funny moments in the book, as we learn about the relationships the maids have with the children they care for, who eventually become their bosses. Not to give anything way, just know that “toilets” are discussed several times throughout the book.

When we read about Jackson, Mississippi in 1960 it is hard to believe that the world was like that, just 50 years ago. The maids were not allowed to eat at a table with white people. If a maid was out in town during work hours, they had to be dressed accordingly (in their white maid uniform). Slavery had been abolished, but little else seemingly had changed.

There has been criticism of this book – some saying this is just another book by a white woman trying to explain the black experience. I think the important message from the book is about women and their relationships. How situations can throw people together to form unlikely friendships and support systems. Stockett has written a book about great change in the southern states, in an entertaining, personal, and intelligent manner.

I repeat what I said at the beginning; I love this book and have no hesitation recommending it!

Read an excerpt of The Help.  The movie version of The Help will be released in August 2011.
 
What a great review! As always, thanks Julia!

Secret Daughter - Shilpi Somaya Gowda

I'm thrilled to welcome resident guest blogger Julia back to A Bookworm's World (We hope to see more of her in 2011!) A Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a book I've heard lots of good things about and Julia's review confirms it. Another book for my TBR list!

"Apparently international bestseller, Secret Daughter, has been made such a hit, in part, by the fact that Canadians loved this book. I count myself as one of those admirers.

First, the story. Secret Daughter is about a woman, Kavita, from a small village in India who takes her second daughter to an orphanage, after her first daughter is taken away at birth and murdered by her husband’s family. Across the ocean, in California, a young couple, Somer and Krishnan, are faced with the fact that they will not be able to have children of their own. The husband is from India, and his mother helps to facilitate an adoption from an orphanage in India. Of course, the baby they adopt is the one given up by Kavita.
From there, the novel switches back and forth between the two families. We read about the struggle of living in India, and the forever pain that Kavita has at losing her daughter. In California, Somer is living with a different kind of pain as her teenage daughter begins to demand answers about her real family, and yearns to learn more about India, a country and culture that are foreign to Somer.
Eventually the novel switches to focus on Asha, the daughter. She travels to India and spends time with her grandmother, learning to love her native country.
This book has so many thought-provoking themes. We read about India, seen through the eyes of different people. The smells, the sounds, the food, are all brought to life in vivid detail. There are stories about finding your self – both literally, as Asha tries to discover her roots, and also for Somer as she tries to rediscover the person she once was.

For me, the theme in this book that touched me the most was the story of moms and hope and love. The main characters tell their stories of what it means to be a mom – Somer, Kavita, Krisnan’s mother (Dadima). But there are also the stories of the mothers that Asha meets in the Dubai slums. The book is a reminder that families come in many different forms, are constituted out of the most unlikely relationships. They endure in large part because of the deep love we, as mothers, have for our children.

So, give yourself a little gift, curl up before the fire on a snowy afternoon this winter and read Secret Daughter. I promise you it will enrich your understanding of your own family."

Read an excerpt of Secret Daughter. This would be a great selection for a book club as well - Gowda has provided a set of discussion questions.

A great review - thanks Julia! Also reviewed by Mystica, who also gave it a resounding thumbs up. And also just chosen as a certified 'Savvy Read' by Harper Collins Canada.

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Having fallen a tad behind on my TBR pile, I thought of resident guest blogger Julia when I received Her Fearful Symmetry. A creepy tale set in England......

Here's what Julia thought

"When Luanne asked me to review this book, I confess I was a little hesitant. I read Audrey Niffenegger’s first book, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and found it a little confusing and difficult to read.

Well, for those of you who already like Niffenegger, and for those of us who were unsure, this new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, is a winner. As the title suggest, there are many layers of symmetry in the book. There are couples, and pairs, coming together, and coming undone. As one of the main characters, Valentina, begins to separate emotionally from her twin Julia, she begins to form part of another pair, with someone who is still in the process of separating from his former partner.

The book explores the concept of death and how we try so valiantly to hold on to life. The book begins when American twins Julia and Valentina inherit a flat in London, England from their aunt, the twin sister of their mother. The stipulation in the will is that they must live in the flat for a year, and their parents are not to enter the flat. Julia and Valentina are young and lack any real direction in their lives. They decide to take Elspeth, their deceased aunt, up on her challenge and move to England where they discover the joys of London, and some interesting co-tenants in their building.

No book about England would be complete without quirky characters, and this is no exception. But in addition to the obsessive compulsive living upstairs, and the cemetery tour guide downstairs, Julia and Valentina discover they have an unexpected roommate. And from that discovery on the book is full of shifting relationships and pairings, with a truly fearful symmetry of sorts to end the book.

So grab a cup of tea, and you might want to spike it for this read!"

(Can I say it? I knew you'd like it!!) As always, thank you Julia for a great review.

Crossed Wires - Rosy Thornton

Resident guest blogger Julia is back with her review of Rosy Thornton's Crossed Wires!

"Crossed Wires is a sweet little book, a story about two single parents raising their daughters and living their altogether “normal” lives. I love reading books set in England, and Rosy Thornton does a good job setting the stage: everything from a sister who is “squatting” in a run-down house, to the incessant cups of tea, “pudding” for tea, and trips on the motorway.

Essentially the story is about Mina and Peter who strike up a telephone friendship and look forward to their weekly telephone calls. When Mina’s daughter goes missing, Peter comes to help but brings his research assistant in the car with him. Hence the “crossed wires”, when Mina gets the “wrong end of the stick” and thinks Peter is already involved with someone.

The book is filled with the every day trials and tribulations of parenthood, and in particular, single parenthood. It is about the things that bring people together, the different ways of being “family”, and about basically good people trying to do the right thing.

If I have one criticism of the book, it is that it takes too long to develop the story of Mina and Peter. You know it is going to happen early in the book, but it takes a good half of the book for anything significant to happen. Or maybe this is how real life is? Crossed Wires is one of those “nice” books that I like to read from time to time. No major trauma, no nail biting cliff-hangers, just real people dealing with real life joys and sorrows. A good book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon, with a cup of tea and the cat on your lap."

Thanks Julia!

Those Who Save Us - Jenna Blum

Julia - our resident guest blogger is back!

Jenna Blum’s first novel, Those Who Save Us, is a powerful story within a story set both in Second World War II Germany, and in modern day Minnesota.

The story is of a German History professor, Trudy, who becomes obsessed with learning the truth of her mother’s experience in Nazi Germany. Anna, Trudy’s mother, won’t talk about her life in Germany and Trudy harbours a misguided belief about who her father is based on one surviving photo from that time; that of Trudy, her mother, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.

Ms. Blum gradually reveals the truth about Anna’s life in Germany. This is a story of a mother’s fierce love and what she will do to protect her daughter, set against the grim reality of the effort needed to survive in a harsh and unforgiving time. It is also a story of the shame that carries people throughout their lives, and how it is so easy to misjudge those around us.

This is one of those books that stays with you. I think about it even weeks after finishing the last page. It is a compelling story, but also has something to teach us as citizens of the world. Although it is definitely not a happy story, the underlying theme of a mother’s love makes you want to continue reading, even through the more difficult passages.

This is a good book club book. A reader’s guide is available at the back of the book, or online.

Until next time,

Luanne’s Guest Blogger,

Julia

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

Well, I'm very glad that my resident guest blogger has been reading while I've been on vacation. Julia is back with her review of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A really great read. If you read The Little Stranger, you would enjoy this one as well.

"It is funny that I have put off reading this book for so long. It has been recommended by many, and in fact, I have a strange connection to the book. My grandparents’ names were Ethel Violet and Ambrose Charles Setterfield; this book is dedicated to Corina Ethel and Ambrose Charles Setterfield. My mother contacted Diane Setterfield some time ago and they decided that they are somehow related, but not sure how.

I tell you this story, because it relates perfectly to this “Thirteenth Tale”. This book is all about families and relationships and the ways that people are related, both by blood and by shared experience.

The book is about Margaret Lea, a book seller who, with her father, runs a book store specializing in classics and antique books. Margaret receives a letter from Vida Winter, a popular and prolific, modern-day author, known for never telling the truth about her life, inviting Margaret to write her biography. Vida promises to tell the truth, much as she finds comfort in the “soothing, rocking safety of a lie”.

The story, the truth, is one about children abandoned and neglected. About a mother unable to cope and eventually institutionalized. About an uncle who retreats to his rooms to deal with his own demons. This book has all the elements of a good mystery: children living unsupervised in a mansion, adults who are unable to gain control of forces seemingly unexplainable, and haunting images of England in the cold and bleak winter months. Throughout the book the reader works through the puzzles presented to try to make sense of the story. From the beginning, Vida makes Margaret promise not to ask questions to jump ahead in the story, so as the reader, one must be patient and wait for the whole tale to unfold.

Ms. Setterfield writes with beautifully descriptive language for both large landscape descriptions, and to help the reader visualize the tiniest details. I could picture Angelfield (where the girls lived) both in its glory, and in its current state of ruin. The descriptions of the weather made me want to grab for a quilt to guard from the winter cold. And this: “… her frame was marked by only the smallest rise and fall in the bedclothes. Warily she stole each breath…” What a compelling and precise picture she paints!

Although this book was published in 2007, it would be a good one to pick up for summer reading this year. I look forward to the next novel by Diane Setterfield."

What a great review! Thanks Julia!