Girl With a Pearl Earring

I read a book of Tracy Chevalier's last year. See here. I enjoyed that book and so was expecting to enjoy this one as well. She did not disappoint.

The story is another historical fiction set in 17th Century Holland. The inspiration for the story is a Vermeer painting with the same name (see the cover of the book). I had heard of Vermeer because I read a kid's book a while ago called "Chasing Vermeer". I had never heard of him before, even though I took lots of art history classes in college. (At one time I wanted to get a Master's in Art History).

Anyway, Chevalier does a fantastic job of describing Dutch life at this time. In her fantasy world, the girl with a pearl earring is actually one of Vermeer's maid. Obviously there is no historical basis for this, and actually very little is known about Vermeer. Which makes him a perfect artist to write a historical fiction about because we really don't know who his models are and what the stories are behind the paintings.

I was intrigued from the beginning and Chevalier kept me gripped all the way to the climax of the plot. It's definitely not a page turner, but it's such an interesting setting and idea that you can't help but want to find out what happens next. Although I think a lot of the ladies in the book club didn't particularly like the book, it certainly caused a lot of discussion, which really made it endearing.

Half Broke Horses

I just finished reading this story today. I really enjoyed it and was sorry (again) that it sat on my bedside table for so long. The author, Jeannette Walls, is the author of "The Glass Castle". My mom told me about The Glass Castle a couple years ago, but something about it has made me not want to read it.

When she brought me this book, I was hesitant. She said, "It's not like The Glass Castle at all. This is about the author's grandmother". So I said I'd give it a try. I liked it so much it has made me want to read The Glass Castle.

Anyway, Lily Casey (and then eventually Smith) is Ms. Wall's grandma. She was born and raised on ranches in Texas and New Mexico. She leaves at a very young age to teach in a one room school house (after going to boarding school herself) in Arizona. That's how the story starts out. I won't bore you with details of the plot.

I'll just tell you why I liked the book.

1) It is organized in short vignettes and sections within the book. This was perfect for me because I was able to read little bits at a time and wasn't feeling like I was missing anything.

2) It's told in 1st person and you really get a sense of who Lily Casey Smith was (at least how her granddaughter remembered and interpreted her). She was quite the character and becomes endearing in her own little way. She's exactly how I picture a woman of the west in the early 20th century to be. I didn't know Rusty's grandma very well, but from what I hear, Lily Smith reminds me of her. I don't know if it's a generational thing or more like a rancher thing, but it's interesting.

3) The book had a "These is my Words" feel to it, but it was clearly more realistic. Not because These is my Words was unrealistic, but because I knew Lily Casey Smith actually existed and much of the story could be verified. I don't know why that was important to me, but it was.

4) It made me wish I had asked my own grandmother questions about herself before she died. I was too young to care or understand how important this would become to me, but I never really knew my grandmothers on either side. I think that's sad, and wish I had cared more.

I highly recommend the book. It's entertaining, fun, light and a quick read.

Remarkable Creatures

My mom gave me this book to read. She bought it at a shop in Cabo San Lucas when she was down there in May. I had never heard of it, or the author, Tracy Chevalier. She told me it wasn't the best book in the world, but an enjoyable read. I agree with her.

Set in 19th Century London, this is a story of a unusual but lasting friendship. Elizabeth Philpot is a spinster whose brother marries and so she and her 2 unmarried sisters are forced to relocate because the sister in law doesn't want them living in her house. She is given 150 pounds a year as "salary", which doesn't sound like much, but she is still part of the upper class. They relocate to Lyme Regis, a small village on the sea.

Mary is a young girl who was struck by lightning when she was young and has always been a little different. Her father is a cabinet maker and so she comes from the lower, working class.

Mary and Elizabeth meet on the shores of Lyme Regis and become friends, tied together by their love of fossils. You have to remember that at this time there wasn't much known about Natural History. I'm not quite sure if Darwin was before or after this time, but I think he was after. The common scientific belief was that everything was created by God and everything you see today is how God created it.

Mary finds a fossil that is unlike any they have seen before. They call it a "crocodile", but it doesn't look like one. There were terms used in the book that I never looked up, I just kind of used my inferencing skills to determine it was probably some kind of dinosaur. Anyway, this find makes Mary somewhat famous and people come from all over the country to find fossils with her. A series of events happen that cause Mary and Elizabeth to have a falling out. But after some years, Elizabeth helps Mary in a way that buries the hatchet.

I enjoyed the setting immensely. The author did a great job creating imagery throughout the book. The idea of being a part of cutting edge science as a woman at that time was interesting to me. Of course the modern woman looks back at that time with disdain, but I have to wonder if I would have gladly accepted the limits placed on me, or if I would have fought them. Not sure?! Although it took me a little while to get into the book, it kept my interest, which is a feat these days!

Escape to Zion

I've been on a dry spell as far as reading is concerned (as you can tell from my lack of posts). I needed something to read, and my mom gave me this. I had it for a while before I actually picked it up. I was hesitant because it was clearly an LDS book (don't know why that made me not want to read it--I loved The Work and The Glory). Anyway, so I picked it up and read it in a couple days.

It's a really quick read. I don't know much about the author, but I know in the preface she said she tried to make the book as accurate as she could with a historical fiction. That may be true, but I found her talent pretty lacking. There were some major cheesy parts in the book and the end was the worst ending I think I have ever read. I was really disappointed.

That being said, the plot was actually pretty good. The main character, Maria, was an indentured servant from Germany. Her parents died on the ship ride over to America, so she was sold to pay for the passage. She was supposed to gain her freedom at age 18, but her master at that time was a southern plantation owner and claims she's a slave. He rapes her and she runs away. The entire book he chases her across the continent because he believes she has his child (I'll let you read it to find out if she really did). Anyway, she meets up with some LDS people in Mississippi and ends up joining the church. She travels to Salt Lake City and goes through some pretty trying stuff on the way and after she gets there. I did want to keep reading to find out what happened to her, but honestly, the literary talent was pretty lacking.

If you're looking for a really quick, easy read and are interested in LDS church history, this might be a book for you. The book isn't about church history, it's just part of the setting, so don't let that deter you!

The Help

WARNING: Do not pick this book up unless you have nothing to do for a couple days! It's that good!

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, is a book set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. The author herself grew up in Jackson, so she had some personal background with the material. This is her debut novel and I can't wait to see what she writes next. She was a fabulous writer. It was so refreshing to read something so well written!

There are 3 main characters in the book and there are sections written in each of their voices. The first is Aibleen, who is a 54 year old black maid. She recently lost her only son and it has affected her greatly. She works for a woman named Elizabeth who has a young girl. Aibleen is basically mother to Mae Mobley because Elizabeth could care less that her daughter is there. She's the consummate southern woman: plays bridge, is a member of The League, etc.

Elizabeth's friend, Skeeter, is another of the main characters. She is a graduate from Ole Miss with an English degree. She wants to be a journalist. She comes back to Jackson and is pretty much the only one who hasn't gotten married yet. She's quirky and awkward, but very loveable. Her maid, Constantine, raised her and mysteriously left when she was at college. Skeeter spends the entire novel trying to locate Constantine and find out the story about why she left.

The final character is Minny. She is hilarious! Definitely the comic relief in the story. Minny is another black maid, with 5 kids of her own. She was working for the mother of one of Skeeter and Elizabeth's friend--Hilly. But Hilly is the town's busy body and b*tch. Seriously, there's no other word to describe her. Hilly fires Minny after a big ta da that you don't find out about til the very end.

The plot of the book is woven around the idea of Skeeter writing a novel about the stories of these maids. She gets Aibleen and Minny to tell her their stories so people can see what life is like for a black woman in the south in 1962. Obviously, this is in the heat of the civil rights movement. It is poignant, sad and makes you think about your own prejudices and the plight of suppressed people everywhere.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This was a fantastic book! Once I realized I wasn't going to finish The Art of Happiness, I decided to pick up this one that my mom recommended. (She always has great recommendations!) I read it in just a few days, after trying to trudge through the Dalai Lama's book. It was fun, entertaining and easy to read.

Written by Mary Ann Shaffer, this book is set in England just after WWII. The format of the book is letters and telegrams written back and forth between the characters. I thought this was a very creative way to tell the story and I didn't feel like I was missing any information in between letters. I'm sure that was a difficult feat to accomplish.

This was different from other post-WWII books that I've read. Maybe it was the geography (mostly set on the island of Guernsey), but I think it had more to do with the author's approach. I loved it and I highly recommend it! I'm so sad that the author didn't live to see the fruits of her work (she passed away in 2008).

I won't give too many details, but the main character is Juliet and I just love her personality! She was a strong willed woman who knew what she wanted in life. She had a witty sense of humor and seemed like the kind of person who would make any gathering more fun just by being there. She starts a correspondence with a man who bought a book with her name and address in it. He lived on Guernsey and was part of a book club during the war. You'll have to read it to find out the rest!

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

I finally finished it! I have been reading this book FOREVER! It took me at least a month to read the first half and then I finally got into it and read the last half in about 2 days. I have no idea why it took me so long to get into it. I think it had more to do with me than the book.

Written by Betty Smith in the 40's, this book is considered a modern classic. There is nothing spectacular about the plot--it's just a story about a girl growing up in Brooklyn around 1914. I found the description of Brooklyn at that time fascinating. I've never been to New York, but I could definitely imagine it during that time.

The main character, Francie, grows up in poverty. Her parents are children of immigrants. Her father is an alcoholic and ultimately dies from it, although she absolutely adores him. Her mother works as a janitoress and wants her children to be educated so they don't end up like her. The division of classes in the country during that time seemed inescapable, yet somehow, poor people managed to get an education and make better lives for themselves.

I think one of the themes from this book is that education is the key to a better life. I have to agree. We are so lucky to live in a country that has student loans, grants and other ways to fund education. I think Americans totally take for granted the opportunities they have. Of course, I still think there is somewhat of a class system; how many Harvard grads have at least one parent that was a Harvard grad? I'm sure the percentage is something they don't want published! (Watch the documentary "Born Rich" for some interesting insight into that world!)

Anyway, I did enjoy the book, but just wish it hadn't taken me so long to get into! Let's hope the next one doesn't take that long!

Octavian Nothing

This was our book club book for this month. Apparently it is a young adult fiction, but there were so many vocabulary words in it that I didn't know, I can't imagine how difficult it would be for kids to read. Anyway, it's written by M.T. Anderson. It's a historical fiction set at the time of the American Revolution in Boston.

Octavian Nothing is a slave that was bought by an academy of professors. Actually, his mom was bought and she was pregnant with him. He and is mom are treated like royalty and given a royal education as an experiment to see if black people can have the same intelligence as white given education. He doesn't even know he's a slave until he's 7 or so. The professors are very scientific in their approach to him, but since he doesn't know any better, he thinks this is normal. He even has to weigh his bowel movements!

Anyway, it was an interesting book, but a little slow moving for me. I generally enjoy historical fiction, but I just wasn't buying it from this author. I'm not really sure why. I think historical fiction requires a ton of research, and maybe he/she just didn't do enough. There was a part when the philosopher makes a comment that included the word "atom" and I noticed right away that atoms weren't even known about during that time period. I guess things like that bother me and then I don't enjoy the book. I'm too much like my mom in that way. Oh well!

The Way to Paradise

Ok, so Keisha updated her blog today and said that I needed to as well. I haven't finished the book yet, so I wasn't going to write about it until I did. But seeing as we already had book club about it, I guess I can.

This book was originally written in Spanish by the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. Ana, one of our book club members, is Peruvian herself, so she exposed us to some foreign literature. I, of course, don't read Spanish, so I read the translated version.

This is a very interesting book. I would classify it as a historical fiction. Llosa alternates chapters between 2 characters: Flora Tristan and her grandson Paul Gaugain. If you haven't heard of either of them, Flora Tristan was a feminist in the 1840's working in France to create a Worker's Union and Paul Gaugain is a very famous French artist. (I believe it is one of his paintings on the cover of the book). I remember reading about Gaugain in Art History in college. I didn't know much about him other than he moved to Tahiti where he created his masterpieces (late 1800's).

Flora Tristan is a captivating character and I love how the author tells her life story through flashbacks she has while she's working the circuit in France trying to get the Worker's Union organized. She was a very strong woman (very unusual for her time and place). I suppose that's why I like her. I'd like to hope I'd have the guts to do what she did.

Paul Gaugain, on the other hand, was crazy. I don't know what it is about artists, but it seems like they're all a little crazy in the head. He had syphillus and didn't mind spreading the disease all over Tahiti with girls as young as 13. He "married" a couple of them, even though he had a wife and children living back in Denmark. He was a terrible father and husband to his first wife (essentially abandoning her). And the syphillus eventually drove him crazy. I do have to say though, it was interesting seeing life from his point of view, however distorted it may have been.

I will finish this book and thank Ana for expanding my exposure to foreign literature! Thanks!

Our First B&B Experience

Last weekend was October Break and we had Thursday and Friday off. Rusty and I decided to take a quick trip to southern Arizona before I got too big and didn't want to travel anywhere. We vascillated between staying at a resort we like in Tucson, or trying out a bed and breakfast somewhere. Rusty's always wanted to check out some abandoned mining towns down south, and we knew if we stayed at the resort we'd never leave. So the B&B it was.

We researched a few in the area we wanted to go and decided on one called the Dusquesne House. It was a gamble because it didn't have a website and only a couple of pictures. But it turned out to be a great pick. Found in Patagonia, Arizona, this adobe house was built in 1898 by the founder of the town. It was built as a bording house, so it was nice because we had our own suite. There was a front room with 2 day beds that we did our reading in, connected to the bedroom with a private bathroom off the back. It was only $125 a night and included a full gourmet breakfast in the morning.

The B&B was also only a couple blocks away from the main street, so we just walked to the restaurants and arts festival that was going on that weekend. It was really relaxing, and we did spend a day driving around checking out the old mining towns.

There's a couple reasons I'm putting this on my "Reading" blog. First, we met some really neat people over breakfast in the morning. Friday morning we met the owners of Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. They were there for a relaxing few days as well. We started talking to them because their license plate said "BOOKS", so Rusty thought one of them was a librarian. Turns out they own one of the last privately owned bookstores in the valley. We learned a lot about the publishing industry and Rusty came away with 2 books that Gayle gave him. She insisted he take them because of some of the things we talked about that morning. Anyway, that was really neat. I think staying at a B&B is so much better than a resort because you actually meet people in an intimate setting.

Second, for book club this month we are reading "These is my words", set in southern Arizona from 1881 to 1910 or something like that. Driving around these old mining towns and reading about the people who lived there really gave me a feel for the setting of this book. I have read the book before, but it's nice to read it again with a fresh perspective on it!

If you're ever looking for a relaxing weekend getaway, let me know and I'll give you the info for this B&B--I highly recommend it!

Empress Orchid

I actually started reading this book before I read Water for Elephants, but I stopped in the middle of it. I finished it a couple weeks ago, but just haven't gotten around to writing about it.

It's a historical fiction set in China around 1860. Empress Orchid's father is a governor of a part of China, but his title is stripped and he eventually dies leaving her family homeless and poor. They carry his body in a coffin to Peking (now Beijing) to bury him. While in Peking, she gets chosen to be a concubine for the Emperor, who is in his early twenties. She moves to the Forbidden City and settles in living there. Life in the Forbidden City is not all it's cracked up to be. She definitely has more than she would of had she not, but she's lonely and spends most of the time by herself with her eunich (servant). Eventually, she woos the Emporer into her bed, which is what all the concubines want and fight over each other for. She does get pregnant and bears him his only son. She also gets involved in the politics of the country, which is totally taboo for the women to do, but is instrumental in helping the Emperor.

There are a lot more details, but what I found was interesting was the history of China during this time. I know I learned some history of China in school, but I really had no idea how it worked. This was after the Opium Wars and European forces were trying to open trade with China, especially for Opium. They fought for ports on the seaside and essentially got them because the Emperor was so out of touch in the Forbidden City. He really had no idea how the common people (peasants) lived or how to have foreign relations. China's dynasties had existed for thousands of years under the same system, that they just couldn't change with the times. Eventually, the Forbidden City fell to the occupiers and the Emperor fled and died.

Like I said, the story was interesting, but it took me a long time to get through. I just felt like it wasn't very gripping. I think it lacked a serious conflict. I have the sequel, and really wanted to read it when I got it, but I think it'll be a while before I pick it up. I guess I'm just lazy and want a quick, easy read most of the time!

Water for Elephants

I just finished reading the first book club book of this year, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I thought it was an excellent book. I couldn't put it down. I was trying to read it during the commercial breaks of the Olympics. It was that good! And it was a pretty quick read too, which is always nice.

It's a historical fiction set in the time of the Great Depression. Because the setting is a train circus, they go from place to place. The story begins with the main character, Jacob, when he's 93 living in a nursing home. He has flashbacks to the days when he worked in the circus. He was at Cornell studying to become a veteranarian when his parents both die in a car accident and leave him penniless (remember, it was The Depression). He doesn't know what to do with himself and hops onto a train in the middle of the night. Unbeknownst to him, it's a circus train and the wheels of fate begin turning.

There's so much of the plot to tell, that I won't bore you here. I will tell you I loved the fact that Gruen goes back and forth between the old Jacob and the young Jacob. The old Jacob is just crochety and stubborn, but he's sweet at the same time. I have spent some time with older people in nursing homes and assisted living places (mostly on my mission), but I really came to love talking to them. I think they're really special. And the young Jacob is also sweet, but in a different way. I picture him looking somewhat like Rusty, because he's described as a red head!

Anyway, to those of you already not reading this book for book club, I highly recommend it. It was a great story and had a good twist at the end! Thanks Erin for the recommendation!