Posted in Recent Reads

I first heard about this book on a radio program back in September, and was intrigued by the radio interview with the author.  It went on my "maybe I'll read that someday" list almost immediately, but it wasn't until this month that I got to read it.  Our MOMS Club book club picked this as our June read.  One of the moms confessed to me that she had very low expectations when we chose this book, because she thought that a memoir about a coffee shop would probably be very boring.  But she said she really enjoyed the book.  Today is our book club discussion, so I'll get to find out what others thought of it as well.  I enjoyed it - a very easy read, it is written simply, with no real surprises.  Each chapter opens with a quote that has been printed on Starbucks cups.  Michael Gates Gill was very successful in the advertising industry, came from a priveleged family and was part of high society.  But his firing, and a subsequent affair which led to his divorce, changed his lifestyle dramatically.  He also was diagnosed with a brain tumour at about the same time.  His book tells how this downward spiral led to his accepting a job at a Starbucks store and how his perceptions of the world were challenged and changed through his experiences.  He found that he enjoyed his much simpler lifestyle, and genuinely enjoyed his work and the people he encountered at Starbucks.

Gill tells his story in a very self-effacing memoir style.  His telling of the story is often punctuated with lengthy "flashbacks" to his earlier years as he makes comparison of then to now.  He says he is far happier in this service job and living simply than he was in his former lifestyle, and talks about how his eyes were opened to his own prejudices.  Obviously Starbucks is presented in a completely positive light - and as such a wonderful place to work, and I doubt they will have trouble finding employees as long as this book is being read and talked about!  If I wanted a part-time job, I think I'd head straight to Starbucks and see if it was as positive and wonderful as portrayed in the book!

The end notes in the book indicated that a movie may come out based on the book, with Tom Hanks playing the part of Gill.  I can only picture a movie kind of like "Forrest Gump" except not as humourous.  Hmmm.... I don't know how interesting a movie it would be.  But the book was a light, feel-good summer read. 

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This book was my book club's pick for May.  I've been interested in reading it for a long time, so putting it on the book club list was probably a good idea.  Last year our book club read another Tracy Chevalier novel, The Lady and the Unicorn, which I really enjoyed.  Girl with a Pearl Earring was interesting in that the whole story is narrated by the "girl" named Griet.  Her family falls on hard times and she goes into service as a housemaid for the Vermeer family.  Her eye for color and ability to clean the artist's studio without disturbing anything gain her some notice with him, but other family members dislike her. 

One of the reasons that I really enjoy historical fiction is my interest in the fact that everyone in history has been an individual "real" person, and although we know much of the statistics and facts about the famous people, often little is known of their personality.  And less is known about the more ordinary folks in days gone by - the foot soldiers, the servants, the peasants, and others.  Although Chevalier's story is fictional, it puts a face and personality on the poorer citizens of that time, those who served and worked largely anonymously.  The difficult positions Griet was placed in by being merely a servant are hard for us to imagine.  Chevalier presents her as a well-rounded character, with virtues and faults, and imagines a compelling story behind this famous, yet mysterious painting of Vermeer's.  Not a great deal is known about Johannes Vermeer himself, and Chevalier chooses, for the most part, to allow his personality to remain a mystery in her novel.

Something else interesting - since the movie based on this book has recently come out on DVD, our club decided that our "MOMS Night Out" activity for this month would be to get together and watch the movie.  So we are doing that tonight.  I am really looking forward to it - and I sure hope that I won't be disappointed, as I often have been when I've read a delightful book and then watched the movie. 

Posted in Recent Reads

Seems like I have had this book on my "I'm Reading Now" section of my little bookshelf widget f-o-r-e-v-e-r...  And I have been working on it for a long time.  It was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, but was willing to set aside while I was reading something for which I had a deadline!  I would need to put this on hold while I finished up a book club pick in time for the discussion, or had to finish a book before I had to return it to the library.  Galileo's Daughter often got put aside because it was not in huge demand at the library and I could renew it! 

I love history, biographies, and historical fiction.  This book turned out to be a delightful combination of history and biography that read almost like an historical novel in places.  The subtitle is A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love and I found that to be an apt description.  Author Dava Sobel gives us a full biography of Galileo, much of it based on the surviving letters written to him by his oldest daughter who lived as a cloistered nun.  The descriptions of Galileo's many scientific, mathematical, and philosophical pursuits and discoveries are complete, as well as an account of his appearance before the Holy Office of the Inquisition and its results; yet are not presented as timelines of dry facts.  Instead we are introduced to Galileo as very warmly human.  He loved his children deeply, and was a generous and devoted father and friend.  His daughter, born Virginia, entered a convent at San Mateo and took vows as Suor Maria Celeste.  Although cloistered as a nun, she nevertheless had a warm and loving relationship with her doting father and they continued a vibrant correspondence throught the years.  Sadly, Galileo's letters to her are lost, but he kept the letters received from her, through which we have a glimpse of a wonderfully intelligent and gracious young woman.  Her writing style is graceful and elegant, and she makes a fascinating character.   From the history books, I knew that Galileo did his best to remain obedient to the Church and to reconcile his discoveries and observations of astronomy with the teachings of the Church at the time.  However, from my reading of this book, I have also formed the opinion that not only was he obedient, he was devout and a man of personal faith.  Suor Maria Celeste's letters indicate that her religion was not just the imposed lifestyle of the convent, but the deeply personal convictions that she was under God's grace, that prayer made a difference, and that love and service to others was an expression on her devotion to the Lord.   When I read the final chapters, I thought how neat it will be to meet this father and daughter in heaven someday.   

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This was such an enjoyable read, and is definitely on my "own it for myself" list now, along with the second in the series, Silent in the Sanctuary.  In the opening pages, Lady Julia's husband collapses at a dinner party and is dead before The First Chapter comes to a close.  Julia finds that he had engaged a private detective named Nicholas Brisbane, who now suspects foul play.  As the story unfolds, Julia realizes that Brisbane's suspicions are perhaps well-founded after all and the two begin an uneasy partnership to investigate.  The murder mystery itself is intriguing, without an easy solution, and along the way we meet members of Julia's eccentric family and discover some of their quirks, flaws, and sins.  I found a good dose of humour throughout the story as well.

From the book jacket:

A wholly original mystery set in the extravagant surroundings of upper-class Victorian England, and introducing the compelling, charismatic Lady Julia Grey...

Well, I'm off to see if I can find a good deal on this and the second in the series at half.com or at amazon!  I was so wrapped up in reading this book (plus I couldn't renew it from the library so I needed to finish quickly) that I've neglected poor Galileo's Daughter and I also have a book club pick to get working on. 

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This fantasy novel, the first by James Stoddard, was recommended to me by someone at The Homeschool Lounge, is one of my new favorite books!! I'm so glad I decided to read it.  It's a wonderful story, with fairy tale and allegorical qualities, and I found it very hard to put down any time I was reading it.  If I hadn't felt the need to turn out the light so my DH could sleep, I probably would have finished this in two nights.  But there were other things to read (book club deadlines!) and so I limited myself a little bit.

The book introduces Carter Anderson as a young boy, living in a very unusual house.  When his life is threatened, his father sends him to live with friends.  Carter is summoned back to the house as a young man, his father having been missing for some time and assumed to be dead.  Carter and some faithful servants and friends have the responsibility of saving the house and the kingdoms within it.  The story takes many twists and turns as Carter seeks to restore balance between Chaos and Order, defeat the Anarchists, and become the Master of the House.

I did find one copy in our inter-library loan system, and of course will now have to return it, but I do plan on buying myself a copy of this book and its sequel, The False House, as soon as I can find them.  This is a book I highly recommend! And I would like to have my own copy so that I can offer it to my boys to read.

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I finally finished this book several nights ago.  It was my MOMS Club book pick for March, but we had all kinds of scheduling issues with the discussion, so we decided to hold over the book for April as well.  So naturally, I paused reading it so I could read other things.  LOL  Our discussion on this will be tomorrow, although a couple of us have already compared notes as to which stories we liked and which we didn't care for.  Will be interesting to get together and see how similar our tastes really are!

The cover of Emerald Magic states that it contains "Great Tales of Irish Fantasy" by a collection of authors.  The book is in two sections, the first is "The Little People" and the stories are all about Irish mythological creatures (faerie, leprechauns, banshee, etc); and the second section, "Literary Fantastics," contains stories based on Irish authors or literature.  Authors that contributed short stories to this book include:  Tanith Lee, Elizabeth Haydon, Ray Bradbury, Andrew M. Greeley, Peter Tremayne, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and Morgan Llywelyn. 

As expected with any collection of stories, some I enjoyed and others - not so much.  A couple of these stories left me saying "Huh???" and wondering if there had been a point to the story at all.  The very first story in the book was one of these, which made it hard to continue reading! The stories I particularly liked were:

• Speir-Bhan (Tanith Lee)
• The Merrow (Elizabeth Haydon)
• The Butter Spirit's Tithe (Charles de Lint)
• Banshee (Ray Bradbury)
• The Lady in Grey (Jane Linkskold)
• A Drop of Something Special in the Blood (Fred Sabergaen)
• For the Blood is the Life (Peter Tremayne)

Overall, an entertaining read - the nice thing about collections of short stories is that if you come across one you don't like, you have the option to skip it entirely without affecting your enjoyment of the rest of the book.  The stories I did like balanced the ones I had to slog through.  And fortunately, in most cases, the ones I didn't care for were mercifully short.  The stories in the "Literary Fantastics" section even prompted me to look up a little more information about two of the Irish poets and authors they referenced - William Butler Yeats and Bram Stoker.  I must admit that I did not know that Stoker was Irish.  The result of that discovery is that it prompted me to read his Dracula.  Sometimes I think one mark of a good story or a good book is that it prompts me to read something related. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to discussing this book with my friends tomorrow!

Posted in Recent Reads

I actually finished Arthur well over a week ago, but I have not been keeping up very well with my blogs.  This is the third book in Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle and as the title suggests, it focuses on the life of Arthur - his rise to the position of Dux Brittanica and eventually to High King.  This book is, oddly, the darkest in mood of the three I have read so far.  Despite Arthur's victories in battle and his great successes, there is a sense of foreboding throughout most of the book.  Of course, the character Merlin speaks of his own sense of a fateful day coming; and as a reader I am familiar with the Arthurian legend and know that his glorious Kingdom of Summer eventually comes to an ignoble end.  It doesn't happen in this book, but there are some near misses; and anyone who has any knowledge of the Arthurian stories has a pretty good idea that it won't necessarily end as neatly and "happily ever after" as we might like.  The story is told in three narratives - first, that of Pelleas, Merlin's steward. Lawhead's Pelleas character bears little resemblance to the one described in the article!  The second narrator is Bedwyr (or Sir Bedivere, as we're more likely to know him) and I have to admit that I didn't figure out that Bedwyr was the Welsh version of Bedivere until I looked him up!  The third narrator is the poet Aneirin - a historical figure that, as far as I know, is not usually associated with Arthur.  The character comes into the story as a young boy apprenticed to Merlin.  Towards the end of his story, he tells how Arthur was seriously wounded in a battle, and the effort to save his life.  Merlin takes the ailing king secretly to Avallon - which in this story is a mysterious island where the Atlantean king Avallach and his daughter Charis (mother of Merlin) and their people are living.  Queen Gwenhwyvar and some loyal knights attempt to keep the kingdom intact while Arthur recovers.  But Merlin and Arthur do not return when expected, and when Aneirin leads Gwenhwyvar and the knights to Avallon, it has disappeared.  We are left with this mystery, and a very odd and mournful epilogue which is signed as being written by Gildas.  I read it assuming it was the final lines of Aneirin's story, only to discover it signed by Gildas in the last sentence.  Gildas was a Christian monk, and one story does credit him with an involvement in the Arthurian tales, but I found it an unsettling end to the book.    Good thing there is a sequel!! 

I don't know how soon I will be reading the next book, Pendragon.  It will depend on how quickly I get through the (at least) 4 other books on the "reading, and to-read" pile on my night table.

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Merlin tells the story of the legendary bard and wizard in a very interesting way.  In this story, Merlin is the son of Taliesin.  Lawhead combines many elements of the legendary figure of Merlin to create a complex character, and as in Taliesin there is a strong underlying theme of the power of God and the influence of Christianity.  This Merlin finds his strength, purpose, and power in serving God rather than in following paganism.  What an interesting take on the legend!  Another intriguing twist is that the people that escaped Atlantis are still major players in this fantasy story - the Atlanteans have a much longer lifespan than the Britons and Celts, and as a descendent of an Atlantean, Merlin's life is long indeed, spanning several generations.  By the end of this book, we have also been introduced to Arthur and events have been set in motion for his eventual kingship.  I loved this book - it was at times very dark and brooding, yet the hope of a coming "kingdom of summer" and the triumph of good over evil kept it from becoming too depressing.

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I've been thinking that there are likely hundreds of books out there titled Arthur, and after a recent online conversation, I've realized that there may be another series of books out there titled The Pendragon Cycle.   For the purposes of this blog entry, I am referring to The Pendragon Cycle of books written by Stephen Lawhead.  I am now the proud owner of the first four of the five books in this series, as well as some other Lawhead titles.  I'm becoming quite a fan of his.

The first book in the set is Taliesin.  Maybe I was not well-informed, but I didn't know there was a historical figure named Taliesin.  I thought of it only as a place, and that only recently, since we visited Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which was the summer home and studio of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  I knew he'd chosen the name from something related to his own Welsh background but that was all.  Well, there was a Welsh poet and bard named Taliesin that lived around 534 - 599.  Little is known about him, but he is the earliest Welsh language poet whose work has survived.  Legend surrounds other aspects of his life, but he was present in the courts of at least three Celtic British kings.  In this book, Lawhead weaves a fascinating story around the legends, and adds another interesting twist - some survivors of the Lost Island of Atlantis make it to the shores of the Island of the Mighty (as they refer to Britain) and the stories of the two groups of people are intertwined.  In Lawhead's tale, Taliesin also finds the One True God and is a player in bringing Christianity to the Britons and to the surviving Atlanteans.  This was a wonderful book, combining as Lawhead does so well the snippets of history with legend and fantasy, into a story that I didn't want to put down. 

Thankfully, when I finished reading it and had to put it down, I had the second book in the series ready to start so that the story didn't have to end. 

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The Legend of the Firefish by George Bryan Polivka.  I finished reading this one awhile ago and found it very enjoyable.  Again - a pirate theme, which is why I picked out the book in the first place!  This also has some of the flavor of POTC but a Christian theme.  The main character is an accomplished swordsman who has information from his late father about the feeding grounds of the legendary firefish.  He stows away on a pirate ship, hoping to be able to partner with the pirate captain in hunting the firefish.  Lots of adventure, and some unexpected twists along the way.  Unexpected to me, anyway.  Naturally, there is also a love story in the plot.    This is the first of a trilogy, and I've ordered the second book - it will probably arrive within the next week, and I will have to force myself to finish the books I have started already before diving into it!

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Isle of Swords by Wayne Thomas Batson.  I should open with a disclaimer that I am a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and my interest in all things pirate-y has been rekindled since the first POTC movie.  So... I was wandering through a local Christian bookstore just before Christmas, looking for gifts and spotted a display of Batson's books.  The name was only vaguely familiar to me, but a newer book of his that I hadn't heard of was prominently displayed and caught my eye.  Isle of Swords has a very colorful, strongly pirate-themed cover and I had to take another look.  The dust jacket confirmed that this was indeed a pirate story - sold!  I read the book in a couple of evenings, and was really impressed by it - the characters held my interest right from the start, much of it was reminiscent of POTC except that there was a definite undercurrent of a Christian rather than mythic theme.  It wasn't until I'd finished reading and started recommending it to some like-minded pirate fans that I noticed that it was categorized as "youth fantasy fiction"  - well that explains the short chapters, I guess.  LOL But other than that, I didn't notice that it was particularly "young" and since I am a 40ish mom of four, I think that says something about the broader appeal of this particular book.  Oh, and it's beautiful - I mentioned the striking cover art, but each page of the book also adds to the visual appeal - printed in sepia-type tones, rather than black on white, each page looks a little like a page from an aged manuscript.  Easy on the eyes though. My understanding is that this is the first of a planned trilogy - I, for one, am anxiously awaiting the next instalment!

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One of the main reasons I thought to add a second blog was to keep some notes about books I've read, and books on my to-read list.  This is the first "review" I wrote for the xanga blog that I've now all but abandoned.

Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts.  I've read this one twice now and really enjoyed it.  This is history, but in an easy conversational style, and will almost certainly be on the required reading list for my daughter when she reaches high school age.  I'm very interested in history anyway, and historical novels are one of my favorite genres, so of course this title appealed to me.  Roberts introduces the women of the Revolution - those who were mothers, wives, and daughters of the founding fathers - telling their stories with quotes from their letters and anecdotes about their daily lives.  These were courageous, intelligent and intrepid women usually overlooked by history textbooks.  Reading how the women viewed the events of the revolution and what they had to say about it, as well as how it affected their daily living, made the era more real to me.