Looking Back - Like Water for Chocolate

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel
Fiction
1989 (English translation 1992) Anchor Books (Doubleday)
Finished on March 30, 1996
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

With more than two million copies in print, Like Water for Chocolate has taken its place alongside such beloved first novels as The Joy Luck Club and How to Make an American Quilt as a treasured part of America's literary memory.

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, "Like Water For Chocolate" is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit - and recipes.

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her. For the next twenty-two years, Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.

My Original Notes (1996):

Wonderful! I read it in one day! Very quick, easy and light. A happy ending, too. Some interesting mystical, almost unbelievable events or interpretations. Very well done.

Rented the video - Terrible! Dubbing instead of subtitles. Made the acting seem forced. Disappointing! 

My Current Thoughts:

This may have been my first exposure to magical realism. I still have my copy and after thumbing through a few pages, I know I can (and will!) easily read this again in a day or so. I haven't read anything else by Esquivel. Any recommendations?

Wordless Wednesday

Book Signing for Progeny at Barnes & Noble

(My husband with Tosca Lee)

Unremarried Widow

Unremarried Widow by Artis Henderson
Nonfiction - Memoir
2014 Simon & Schuster
Finished on January 27, 2016
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In the tradition of The Year of Magical Thinking and What Remains, this breathtaking memoir by a young Army widow shares her heartbreaking, candid story about recovering from her husband’s death.

A world traveler, Artis Henderson dreamed of living abroad after college and one day becoming a writer. Marrying a conservative Texan soldier and being an Army wife was never in her plan. Nor was the devastating helicopter crash that took his life soon after their marriage. On November 6, 2006, the Apache helicopter carrying Artis’s husband Miles crashed in Iraq, leaving her—in official military terms—an “unremarried widow.” She was twenty-six years old.

In Unremarried Widow, Artis gracefully and fearlessly traces the arduous process of rebuilding her life after this loss, from the dark hours following the military notification to the first fumbling attempts at new love. She recounts the bond that led her and Miles to start a life together, even in the face of unexpected challenges, and offers a compassionate critique of the difficulties of military life. In one of the book’s most unexpected elements, Artis reveals how Miles’s death mirrored her own father’s—in a plane crash that she survived when she was five. In her journey through devastation and heartbreak, Artis is able to reach a new understanding with her widowed mother and together they find solace in their shared loss.

But for all its raw emotion and devastatingly honest reflections, this is more than a grief memoir. Delivered in breathtaking prose, Unremarried Widow is a celebration of the unlikely love between two very different people and the universality of both grief and hope.

Some readers shy away from sad stories. The death of a spouse, child or pet are topics that most people aren't comfortable talking about, let alone reading books whose main focus is the grief one faces with such losses. I, for some morbid reason, am drawn to these narratives. Perhaps losing a child and a parent has made me more curious about how others deal with their own grief; perhaps I am subconsciously comparing their grief to mine. 

I came across Artis Henderson's memoir in the ARC stack at work one day and took the book home before even glancing at the back cover or publisher's letter to booksellers. I had a gut feeling it was something I'd want to read (Note, I didn't say enjoy, because rarely does one enjoy such a book.) and added it to my stacks. It turns out I was right. Unremarried Widow is a engrossing memoir that reads like fiction. I rarely stay awake more than 15-20 minutes at night while reading in bed, but Henderson's debut kept me wide awake for well over an hour. On the first night, I finally turned the light off at 11:00 pm, but could have easily read the entire book (242 pages) in one day.

Final Thoughts:

For a book about death, Unremarried Widow is a page-turner, filled with raw honesty and beautiful prose. We know the outcome from the opening pages, yet the details are compelling and heartbreaking. The author has always dreamed of becoming a writer and I think she can safely say that she's achieved that goal. I will eagerly seek out her next book.

Looking Back - Wuthering Heights

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Fiction - Classic
1959 Signet Classic (Originally published in 1847)
Finished on March 29, 1996
Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:
 
In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere...

As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge - and continues to torment those in the present. How love can transgress authority, convention, even death. And how desire can kill.

My Original Notes (1996):

I have never read this, not even in high school! It started off a little confusing, with lots of characters to get familiar with, plus a flashback told by the housekeeper. I really got into the book, though, and couldn't put it down. Very tragic. Not your happy ending romance. Heathcliff was horrible! Not as good as Jane Eyre, but still enjoyable.

I rented the video, which was very disappointing. It left out the second generation of characters!

My Current Thoughts:

Although it's been 20 years since I read this novel, I can still remember certain scenes in my mind's eye. I also remember that I compared it to Jane Eyre (which I have read a couple of times) and while I liked Charlotte Bronte's novel better, I still enjoyed Wuthering Heights, so much so that I'm willing to give it another read some day.

This relationship map sure would have come in handy!

 Photo credit

The Secret Place

The Secret Place by Tana French
Mystery
Dublin Murder Squad Mysteries
2014 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read by Stephen Hogan and Lara Hutchinson
Finished on January 22, 2016
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

The photo on the card shows a boy who was found murdered, a year ago, on the grounds of a girls’ boarding school in the leafy suburbs of Dublin. The caption says I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.

Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to get a foot in the door of Dublin’s Murder Squad—and one morning, sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey brings him this photo. “The Secret Place,” a board where the girls at St. Kilda’s School can pin up their secrets anonymously, is normally a mishmash of gossip and covert cruelty, but today someone has used it to reignite the stalled investigation into the murder of handsome, popular Chris Harper. Stephen joins forces with the abrasive Detective Antoinette Conway to find out who and why.

But everything they discover leads them back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends and their fierce enemies, a rival clique—and to the tangled web of relationships that bound all the girls to Chris Harper. Every step in their direction turns up the pressure. Antoinette Conway is already suspicious of Stephen’s links to the Mackey family. St. Kilda’s will go a long way to keep murder outside their walls. Holly’s father, Detective Frank Mackey, is circling, ready to pounce if any of the new evidence points toward his daughter. And the private underworld of teenage girls can be more mysterious and more dangerous than either of the detectives imagined.

The Secret Place is a powerful, haunting exploration of friendship and loyalty, and a gripping addition to the Dublin Murder Squad series.

I'm a big fan of Tana French's mysteries, having read everything she's published, starting with her first, In the Woods, which my book club read back in 2009. With each new book, I grew more and more fond of French's style and characters, looking forward to each new group of detectives. Typically, the new lead detective has had a minor role in the previous book, so it's fun to get to know more about them in the latest installment of the Dublin Murder Squad series.

My favorite book of French's is constantly changing with each new release; the latest always just a little bit better than the previous book. So why wasn't I chomping at the bit to read The Secret Place when it was released in 2014? Waiting to read some reviews from fellow bloggers, and not really hearing any positive remarks from friends and co-workers, I held off until early this year. I started with the audio and couldn't get interested, eventually calling it quits. After a few weeks, I decided to give it another chance and picked up the print edition. I finished, in spite of my overall dissatisfaction. There were too many unanswered questions about the supernatural aspect of the mystery (an on-going theme in all of French's books) and I didn't like either of the detectives or any of the eight girls. Also, the alternating time periods were confusing and didn't flow well, especially when listening to the audio book.

Final Thoughts:

Bleh. Definitely my least favorite of all of Tana French's books. 

Wordless Wednesday {more or less}

The Calm Before the Storm

  Eight hours later, a storm moved 

in with pea-sized hail.

Starting to fall pretty heavily now.

Torrential downpour and flooding.

Looks like snow!

Thankful it's only this size. 

Softball-sized hail just to the east of us!

If this was a video,

 you'd be able to hear the tornado sirens

 (and the hail!)

This lasted for over 3 hours!

Two tornadoes touched down in Lincoln. 

Almost 5 inches of rain.

The roof and siding are fine. 

The basement is dry. 

The flowers will rebound.

We got lucky.

For more Wordless Wednesday photos, go here.

Looking Back - Katerina

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Katerina by Aharon Appelfeld
Fiction
1991 Random House
Finished on March 17, 1996
Rating: 1/5 (Disliked)




From Publisher's Weekly (1992):

With piercing clarity, Israeli novelist Appelfeld tells the profoundly moving story of Katerina, a Polish housekeeper who works for a succession of Jewish families in the years before WW II. Raised in a culture permeated with virulent anti-Semitism, she must constantly try to overcome the prejudice instilled by her bitter mother, who beat her, and her callous father, who attempted to rape her. One by one, Jewish people who are good to Katerina die: an employer murdered by thugs on Passover; a moody, perfectionistic female pianist. Then her own baby, whom she has raised as a Jew, is snatched from her arms and killed. For knifing her son's murderer, Katerina spends more than 40 years in prison. Other inmates cheer as freight trains take Jews to concentration camps. Released from prison, Katerina lives in a hut on her deceased family's deserted farm and, at age 79, narrates her life story, lamenting that ``there are no more victims in the world, only murderers.'' A theme that might be didactic in the hands of a lesser novelist is here conveyed with moving, unpreachy simplicity. This masterful novel is a powerful study of the poison of prejudice, a poignant meditation on life's horrors, beauty and God's inscrutable ways. Appelfeld imbues every scene with deep humanity in a riveting tale of universal appeal.

My Original Notes:

So-so. Not a whole lot of depth and has a simplistic feel to it. Somewhat boring.

My Current Thoughts:

I have no memory about this book other than my disappointment. I don't think it was one my book club read, so I'm not sure what inspired me to pick it up.

Wordless Wednesday

Wertheim, Germany

October 2015

For more Wordless Wednesday photos, go here.

A Month in Summary - April 2016

After three months of great reading, my streak has ended, at least with regard to the numbers. I blame this on all the ARCs I gave up on after reading well over 50-80 pages of each. Four DNFs should count as the equivalent of one book, right? But I did wind up finishing a total of five books and they were all very good, so I shouldn't complain, especially since they were all from my personal library (or audio books). 

Once again, I stuck to my goal of reading from my own shelves, but next month is going to be a different story. Two weeks ago, I found myself at the library for the first time in years and I came home with seven books that I've been eager to read. I'm devoting the entire month of May to a personal challenge of "Support Your Local Library," even though it doesn't help reduce the stacks of unread books around my house. I've already begun one of the novels and it pulled me in from the very first page, so I'm looking forward to some great reads.

Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen (Own) 4/5

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (Borrowed - Audio) 4/5

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh (Own) - DNF

Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon (Own) - DNF

Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson (Borrowed - Audio) 4.5/5

Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie (Own) - DNF

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash (Own) 4.5/5

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian (Borrowed - Audio) 4/5

The Why of Things by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop (Own) - DNF

Stats:

Triple Dog Dare Challenge - Disregarding the books I did not finish, 2 of the 5 books read were from my own stacks (the other 3 were library audio books, so I believe I stuck to my goal).

5 books
5 novels
1 childrens
1 new-to-me-authors 
2 print
3 audio
3 female
2 male
3 borrowed
2 from my stacks 

Favorite of the Month: Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson

Reviews to follow 

{Gratitude Lately}

Lately, I've been thankful for

Inexpensive wine that tastes great!

Beautiful sunrises that make

 my early commute more tolerable.

My beautiful tree-lined neighborhood

 and that gorgeous sunrise.

This girl who knows just

how to spend her Saturday mornings.

Bike rides on a 

wind-free day in Nebraska!

Cool neighborhood yard art!

An extra hour in my day, 

thanks to Daylight Savings Time.

Short commutes and beautiful skies.

The beauty of spring blossoms.

Neighborhood trees in full bloom.

Tulips in my garden that, for once,

 the squirrels and rabbits ignored.

This sky.

That cloud!

Friday afternoons and this view from a stoplight.

Soaking rains and double rainbows.

and most of all, these two.

Happy Sunday, friends!
What are you grateful for this week?

For more Gratitude posts, click here.

The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Fiction
2015 St. Martin's Press
Finished on January 21, 2016
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)

Publisher's Blurb:

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah takes her talented pen to the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

I've only read one other book by Kristin Hannah (Distant Shores) and although that was many years ago, I remember it was the classic "fluff" or "chick-lit" beach read. When a friend gave me her ARC of The Nightingale, gushing about what a good book it was, I remained hesitant. I had recently read All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr) and wasn't too anxious to read another book about World War II, and to be honest, I prejudged the ability of Hannah to impress me with such a serious topic. Doerr's novel was so impressive that I was certain Hannah's book would only be a disappointment. So, it went on a shelf where it sat for over a year. The Nightingale become a best seller and very popular with book clubs and yet I still resisted. I don't remember who it was (probably a blogger, a friend or a customer), but somebody finally convinced me to give the book a try.

Wow. 

I am so glad I took a chance on this book! It may have started off with the feeling of a comfort read, but as the pages flew and I became more engrossed, the less it felt like "women's fiction" and more like a serious novel, in the same vein as The Book Thief and All the Light We Cannot See. I became captivated with the story, eager to get back to it at the end of the day, and found myself with tears in my eyes as I turned the final page. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the characters, so I immediately added the audiobook to my wish list and hope to get to it in the coming months.  This is one that is definitely worthy of a second read.

On Forgetting:

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. Today's young people want to know everything about everyone. They think talking about a problem will solve it. I come from a quieter generation. We understand the value of forgetting, the lure of reinvention.

Final Thoughts:

I wish I had thought to jot down some notes about my impressions of this book as soon as I finished. I'm afraid this review doesn't do the book justice. It really is a very, very good novel and one that touched me deeply. Highly recommend!

Looking Back - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Nonfiction - Autobiography
1993 Bantam Books (First published in 1969)
Finished on March 15, 1996
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)



 
Publisher's Blurb:

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

My Original Notes:

Very, very good! An enlightening autobiography. I'd like to read more of her works now. What a survivor. Glad I tried it again, as I couldn't get into it the first time.

My Current Thoughts:

Well, for a book that I claimed to be very, very good, I sure don't have any recollection of the subject matter. I no longer own it, so it must not have been something I wanted to read a second time.

Wildflower

Wildflower by Drew Barrymore
Nonfiction - Memoir
2015 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read by the author
Finished on January 20, 2016
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Award-winning actress Drew Barrymore shares funny, insightful, and profound stories from her past and present told from the place of happiness she's achieved today.

Born into Hollywood royalty, the granddaughter of the great John Barrymore, Drew Barrymore became one of the biggest stars of her generation. Despite an unconventional childhood, her life went on an incredible trajectory (in both good and difficult ways) after starring in E.T. at the age of six. She became an emancipated adult at the age of fourteen and built a life and career of her own that millions of fans admire. Growing up wasn't always easy for Drew, but through patience, hard work, and great friendships, she did it. And now she's writing about it.

Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences she's had throughout her life. It includes tales of living in her first apartment as a teenager (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck under a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the life she has today.

And that life, as readers will learn, couldn't be more happy or successful. As an actress, producer, entrepreneur, and mother to daughters Olive and Frankie, Drew has found a happiness, balance, and peace that is truly inspirational. From fans who love her work to anyone who has ever had to struggle to become an adult on his or her own terms, this is a book that will inspire, delight, and show the true meaning of family, happiness, and love.

I rarely read celebrity memoirs, but this one caught my eye and I decided to give the audio a try. I was recently disappointed with a couple of celebrity audio books, which were read by the authors (Carole King and Billy Crystal's), so I wasn't entirely sure the audio was the way to go with Drew's new book, Wildflower. And yet, other than a few times in which she literally screamed or exclaimed something like, "OH MY GOD, NO!!!!" (which was pretty annoying, since the sudden change in volume was enough to make me pull my headphones away from my ears), I was pleased with the memoir and enjoyed learning about Drew's life as a child star (I loved her in E.T., The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates), a wife and a mother.

Wildflower is more of a collection of vignettes about parenthood, work, pets, and friendships rather than a chronological account of her life. I appreciated the conversational tone and the absence of name-dropping, which only occurred when it was obviously necessary in recounting a story or event. When she shared stories about Steven Spielberg, Adam Sandler and Cameron Diaz, they were expressed with genuine honesty and I never got the sense that she was bragging about her superstar life as an actress. Drew comes across as a very down to earth woman, who like all of us, faces her own insecurities, heartaches and fears. In addition to her enthusiastic recounting of fun and exciting events in her life, she also shared more tender and heartfelt stories, which she read with great emotion and on a few occasions, with a catch in her voice. I'll admit that I found myself getting choked up a couple of times. And, this was all before she and her husband announced their divorce.

Final Thoughts:

Wildflower is an entertaining peek into Drew Barrymore's life and with the exception of the overly enthusiastic "performance," I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to fans of this sort of memoir, as well as those who like inspirational reads.

From Wikipedia:

Barrymore was named an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, she has donated over US$1 million to the program. In 2007, she became both CoverGirl's newest model and spokeswoman for the cosmetic and the face for Gucci's newest jewelry line. In 2010, she won the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for her portrayal of Little Edie in Grey Gardens.