Someone lent me this book and I'm so glad they did because it was fascinating and I had not otherwise heard of it.
This is a true story - in 2009 while searching through old movies in his parents' den, Kurtz came across a home movie shot by his grandfather while touring Europe in the summer of 1938. His grandparents were fairly well off immigrant Jews now living in Brooklyn and they sailed to Europe for a vacation with three friends. They visited London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Switzerland, but what really caught Kurtz's eye was three minutes of film from a visit to a town in their native Poland. Since this was taken just a year before the Nazi invasion of Poland, he realizes this is probably one of the very few surviving records of a lost community. So he sets out to try and locate where the film was taken and whether any of the many people who wander through the frames can be identified and have survived. His grandparents have both passed away and his father cannot help so he has little to go on - though his aunt finds several postcards and letters sent to her at summer camp that year which help him build the itinerary.
He first seeks the help of the US Holocaust Museum to restore and then catalogue the film. He hits many dead ends in identifying the film (in fact, he first believes it's his grandmother's home town then discover it was in fact his grandfather's). His first big breakthrough is when a woman sees the film on the Holocaust Museum website and recognizes her grandfather, as a boy of 13, jumping in front of the camera. Now 86 and living in Florida, Maurice Chandler and his family reach out to Kurtz and together they piece together fragments of the lost history.
Maurice recognizes some of the faces, puts Kurtz in touch with a handful of other survivors from the town, or their descendants and shares both memories of his happy childhood and the horrors of surviving the war (and being the sole survivor from his family). Kurtz travels throughout the US, Canada, Israel, England and Poland to meet with other survivors and build as comprehensive list as possible of the people in the movie and their fates.
Parts of the book can be a bit dry - details on the film is restored; some of the lists he reads and creates. And at times it can be hard to keep track of all the players (it might have been helpful if he'd appended his lists at the back of the book as a reference). There are the many people in the movie (some of whom survived and anglicized their names so are referred to in more than one way) as well as their descendants, the Polish and American researchers who assist Kurtz and his many friends and family members.
But overall this is really fascinating and a tremendous tribute to a community that was virtually eliminated. It's no wonder this three minutes of film now runs in a continuous loop at the Auschwitz museum documenting pre-World War II Jewish life in Poland.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Two Quick Reads
Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner
After last year's disappointing release, this was back to the Jennifer Weiner that I know and love. Her books aren't deep or full or meaningful symbolism, but they are easy to read, funny and always contain great characters.
This book centres on Rachel and Andy. They first meet when eight year old Rachel, who has a congenital heart disorder, is hospitalized yet again and while recovering wanders into the emergency room where she meets Andy, also eight, alone and suffering from a broken arm. The two cannot be more different - Rachel is Jewish, upper middle class and doted upon by her parents who fear for her health. She is also close to her Nana (Weiner almost always has a wonderfully strong grandmother figure). Andy is the son of a single white mother whose father was black. He is often neglected by his mother, he never knew his father, and his mother cut her off from her parents. He does have a wonderful role model, Mr. Sills, a local handyman who takes him under his wing and keeps him out of trouble in his rough neighbourhood. The two children bond as Rachel tells Andy a story and gives him one of her many stuffed animals.
About 8 years later the two meet again while working on a Habitat for Humanity style building project. They both remember each other well (Andy admits having saved the stuffed animal) and, despite obstacles, they fall in love. They maintain a long distance relationship until graduating high school when they meet again briefly (aided by Rachel's nana). In college their differences cause them to part.
The rest of the book deals with their separate lives - Rachel becomes a social worker while Andy is an olympic runner. And with their long lasting feelings for each other that just don't seem to survive in the real world. And though they each have other relationships, you know that eventually they'll find their way back to each other.
A thoroughly enjoyable summer escape.
Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova
This is essentially the Huntington's Disease version of Still Alice. Joe O'Brien is a Boston police officer in his early forties when he is diagnosed with Huntington's Disease. The book deals with the impact of this terrible disease on him and on his four adult children who struggle with whether or not to get tested for the gene and the implications of that decision.
The book is primarily written from the points of view of Joe and his youngest daughter, Katie, who is a yoga instructor and involved in a very new relationship. We see her struggle with whether she even wants to get tested.
This is an eye opening description of a terrible disease. But it is not all dark. Genova also illustrates the power of family bonds and how the family members can help each other through the tough times. There are even some humorous parts - like where Katie speculates that her Irish Catholic father may get over the fact that her boyfriend is a black Baptist but will struggle mightily with his affinity for the Yankees.
I found the book a little depressing though not quite as bad a Still Alice. It's not a bad read though not so great that I would run out and get unless you're just looking for something easy to read.
After last year's disappointing release, this was back to the Jennifer Weiner that I know and love. Her books aren't deep or full or meaningful symbolism, but they are easy to read, funny and always contain great characters.
This book centres on Rachel and Andy. They first meet when eight year old Rachel, who has a congenital heart disorder, is hospitalized yet again and while recovering wanders into the emergency room where she meets Andy, also eight, alone and suffering from a broken arm. The two cannot be more different - Rachel is Jewish, upper middle class and doted upon by her parents who fear for her health. She is also close to her Nana (Weiner almost always has a wonderfully strong grandmother figure). Andy is the son of a single white mother whose father was black. He is often neglected by his mother, he never knew his father, and his mother cut her off from her parents. He does have a wonderful role model, Mr. Sills, a local handyman who takes him under his wing and keeps him out of trouble in his rough neighbourhood. The two children bond as Rachel tells Andy a story and gives him one of her many stuffed animals.
About 8 years later the two meet again while working on a Habitat for Humanity style building project. They both remember each other well (Andy admits having saved the stuffed animal) and, despite obstacles, they fall in love. They maintain a long distance relationship until graduating high school when they meet again briefly (aided by Rachel's nana). In college their differences cause them to part.
The rest of the book deals with their separate lives - Rachel becomes a social worker while Andy is an olympic runner. And with their long lasting feelings for each other that just don't seem to survive in the real world. And though they each have other relationships, you know that eventually they'll find their way back to each other.
A thoroughly enjoyable summer escape.
Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova
This is essentially the Huntington's Disease version of Still Alice. Joe O'Brien is a Boston police officer in his early forties when he is diagnosed with Huntington's Disease. The book deals with the impact of this terrible disease on him and on his four adult children who struggle with whether or not to get tested for the gene and the implications of that decision.
The book is primarily written from the points of view of Joe and his youngest daughter, Katie, who is a yoga instructor and involved in a very new relationship. We see her struggle with whether she even wants to get tested.
This is an eye opening description of a terrible disease. But it is not all dark. Genova also illustrates the power of family bonds and how the family members can help each other through the tough times. There are even some humorous parts - like where Katie speculates that her Irish Catholic father may get over the fact that her boyfriend is a black Baptist but will struggle mightily with his affinity for the Yankees.
I found the book a little depressing though not quite as bad a Still Alice. It's not a bad read though not so great that I would run out and get unless you're just looking for something easy to read.
Monday, August 17, 2015
My Secret Sister by Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith
This is an interesting story of two English twins who were separated at birth and find each other about 50 years later.
One daughter, Jenny, is given up for adoption at about 6 weeks old; the other, Helen, is kept by her birth mother. The early chapters alternate between the sisters as they tell the story of their childhood and growing up. While Jenny is adopted by a loving family who dote on her, Helen's childhood with her neglectful, narcissistic mother and abusive father is horrific. Not that Jenny doesn't suffer, her beloved adoptive father dies when she is young and she only finds out she is adopted when an angry cousin blurts it out. Her mother refuses to talk about it even after she hears.
This is nothing, however, compared to Helen's life. She is never touched unless she is being beaten, she is treated like a servant by her parents and though she has many friends and does well in school whenever she gets too comfortable she is uprooted by her parents. She does have a loving grandmother and extended family but she is taken away from them too - and in the end learns they have been complicit in covering up the true story of her birth.
What is fascinating is the many coincidences in the girls' lives - they both suffer from fainting spells as teenagers, they both have many childhood illnesses and they both long for a sibling. They probably cross paths at least twice too - once as children when Helen is playing on the beach near Jenny's summer cottage; another time as adults when Jenny has back surgery and Helen is the nurse to her surgeon. They also share a remarkable strength of character.
Later in the book we learn how Jenny searched for her sister and eventually found her - Helen had absolutely no idea she had a sister. We then see how they piece together their shared past from discussions with cousins who remember a little from childhood (by then the adults who knew the truth were all dead), DNA tests and countless searches through medical and adoption records.
While not necessarily a literary masterpiece this is certainly an entertaining weekend's read.
One daughter, Jenny, is given up for adoption at about 6 weeks old; the other, Helen, is kept by her birth mother. The early chapters alternate between the sisters as they tell the story of their childhood and growing up. While Jenny is adopted by a loving family who dote on her, Helen's childhood with her neglectful, narcissistic mother and abusive father is horrific. Not that Jenny doesn't suffer, her beloved adoptive father dies when she is young and she only finds out she is adopted when an angry cousin blurts it out. Her mother refuses to talk about it even after she hears.
This is nothing, however, compared to Helen's life. She is never touched unless she is being beaten, she is treated like a servant by her parents and though she has many friends and does well in school whenever she gets too comfortable she is uprooted by her parents. She does have a loving grandmother and extended family but she is taken away from them too - and in the end learns they have been complicit in covering up the true story of her birth.
What is fascinating is the many coincidences in the girls' lives - they both suffer from fainting spells as teenagers, they both have many childhood illnesses and they both long for a sibling. They probably cross paths at least twice too - once as children when Helen is playing on the beach near Jenny's summer cottage; another time as adults when Jenny has back surgery and Helen is the nurse to her surgeon. They also share a remarkable strength of character.
Later in the book we learn how Jenny searched for her sister and eventually found her - Helen had absolutely no idea she had a sister. We then see how they piece together their shared past from discussions with cousins who remember a little from childhood (by then the adults who knew the truth were all dead), DNA tests and countless searches through medical and adoption records.
While not necessarily a literary masterpiece this is certainly an entertaining weekend's read.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
I can't remember where I heard about this book, but I'm certainly glad I discovered it. The book is a fascinating study of family relationships and particularly how the past of the parents shape their dreams for their children. It also shows how we often really know very little about the people we think we know best.
The story starts with the disappearance of 16 year old Lydia. She is the middle child of a Chinese-American father and a southern white woman - and she is clearly their favourite. The father is a professor at a small college in Ohio and the family is one of very few non-white families in this small town in the 1970s. When Lydia's body is found at the bottom of a lake, the family struggles to figure out what happened.
The narrative shifts perspective and time fairly frequently. We see the years and days leading up to Lydia's disappearance through her eyes, those of her parents, her older brother, Nathan, and her younger sister, Hannah. Though the children clearly saw the pressure the parents put on Lydia - her mother wanted her to be a doctor, thus fulfilling her childhood dreams which were abandoned when she fell in love and had children; while her father wanted her to be popular and to fit in, something he was never able to accomplish as the only non-white, working class child at an exclusive private school.
Lydia tried very hard to please her parents and eventually struggled under the weight of that burden though it was an encounter with her friend Jack, the neighbourhood bad boy, that leads her to try to conquer her fears and choose her own future which ends badly in the local lake. Nathan suspects Jack is involved in Lydia's death and in the end we see that Jack is harbouring secrets, though very different ones than Nathan suspects. Through most of the book I felt very sad for this family - everyone trying so hard but not quite getting it - but in the very last chapter I felt maybe the parents had learned from what happened and might be able to redeem both their relationship and that with their remaining children.
I really recommend this book if you like to look at family relationships, parental pressure, how the past influences present behaviour and even racism in the US in the 1950s through 1970s.
The story starts with the disappearance of 16 year old Lydia. She is the middle child of a Chinese-American father and a southern white woman - and she is clearly their favourite. The father is a professor at a small college in Ohio and the family is one of very few non-white families in this small town in the 1970s. When Lydia's body is found at the bottom of a lake, the family struggles to figure out what happened.
The narrative shifts perspective and time fairly frequently. We see the years and days leading up to Lydia's disappearance through her eyes, those of her parents, her older brother, Nathan, and her younger sister, Hannah. Though the children clearly saw the pressure the parents put on Lydia - her mother wanted her to be a doctor, thus fulfilling her childhood dreams which were abandoned when she fell in love and had children; while her father wanted her to be popular and to fit in, something he was never able to accomplish as the only non-white, working class child at an exclusive private school.
Lydia tried very hard to please her parents and eventually struggled under the weight of that burden though it was an encounter with her friend Jack, the neighbourhood bad boy, that leads her to try to conquer her fears and choose her own future which ends badly in the local lake. Nathan suspects Jack is involved in Lydia's death and in the end we see that Jack is harbouring secrets, though very different ones than Nathan suspects. Through most of the book I felt very sad for this family - everyone trying so hard but not quite getting it - but in the very last chapter I felt maybe the parents had learned from what happened and might be able to redeem both their relationship and that with their remaining children.
I really recommend this book if you like to look at family relationships, parental pressure, how the past influences present behaviour and even racism in the US in the 1950s through 1970s.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope
I bought this book because I know relatives of the author and I thought I should support her first novel. And I'm really glad I decided to do that because the book was very enjoyable - well written with an intriguing storyline.
The thread that ties the story is that of an expensive, hand made brooch apparently made by a Jewish jeweller in the the 1300s and passed down from generation to generation until we find it in 1994 in the hands of a young drunk from New York who is recovering from the death of his grandfather. He arrives at a Kibbutz in Israel determined to give it to the one woman, Dagmar, who is grandfather felt was worthy of it - his only problem is finding Dagmar.
But the real story is about the people we meet on the Kibbutz. First there is Adam - he feels very guilty as he had stolen the brooch to pawn it and pay off his drug debts right before his grandfather, who raised him, dies of a heart attack while holding the empty box the brooch was taken from as well as a goodbye letter from Dagmar written 50 years earlier. We see his guilt as he struggles with addiction, the role he played in his grandfather's death and the terrible things he did to recover the brooch (we only learn the full extent of those in the epilogue). On the Kibbutz he befriends Ulya, an immigrant from Belarus who only pretended to be Jewish to escape her homeland and dreams of moving to Manhattan. She initially pretends to love Adam so he will take her to the US; later she is obsessed with stealing the brooch to finance her future with the Arab labourer she is really in love with.
Ulya is roommates with Claudette, an French Canadian with OCD who was raised in a convent and is trying desperately to escape her past and her obsessions. She becomes the only friend of Ziva - a strong willed elderly woman who founded the Kibbutz prior to the founding of the State of Israel and is fighting desperately for it to retain its socialist ideals. Ziva is perhaps the most interesting character; we hear of her brave departure from Germany, her early days in Palestine, her relationship with Dov, her best friend who becomes her husband and her love of Franz who she sets free so she can pursue her Zionist dreams.
In addition to learning about the lives of all of these interesting characters, we hear of the history of the brooch (though with gaps when if falls into the hands of young men who are too self absorbed at times to listen to its tale) and see the history of Israel through the eyes of its earliest pioneers.
All in all this was a great read. My only disappointment was with the epilogue - I would have liked a bit more closure on what happened to the characters, but I guess it's not a bad thing to keep me thinking about them...
The thread that ties the story is that of an expensive, hand made brooch apparently made by a Jewish jeweller in the the 1300s and passed down from generation to generation until we find it in 1994 in the hands of a young drunk from New York who is recovering from the death of his grandfather. He arrives at a Kibbutz in Israel determined to give it to the one woman, Dagmar, who is grandfather felt was worthy of it - his only problem is finding Dagmar.
But the real story is about the people we meet on the Kibbutz. First there is Adam - he feels very guilty as he had stolen the brooch to pawn it and pay off his drug debts right before his grandfather, who raised him, dies of a heart attack while holding the empty box the brooch was taken from as well as a goodbye letter from Dagmar written 50 years earlier. We see his guilt as he struggles with addiction, the role he played in his grandfather's death and the terrible things he did to recover the brooch (we only learn the full extent of those in the epilogue). On the Kibbutz he befriends Ulya, an immigrant from Belarus who only pretended to be Jewish to escape her homeland and dreams of moving to Manhattan. She initially pretends to love Adam so he will take her to the US; later she is obsessed with stealing the brooch to finance her future with the Arab labourer she is really in love with.
Ulya is roommates with Claudette, an French Canadian with OCD who was raised in a convent and is trying desperately to escape her past and her obsessions. She becomes the only friend of Ziva - a strong willed elderly woman who founded the Kibbutz prior to the founding of the State of Israel and is fighting desperately for it to retain its socialist ideals. Ziva is perhaps the most interesting character; we hear of her brave departure from Germany, her early days in Palestine, her relationship with Dov, her best friend who becomes her husband and her love of Franz who she sets free so she can pursue her Zionist dreams.
In addition to learning about the lives of all of these interesting characters, we hear of the history of the brooch (though with gaps when if falls into the hands of young men who are too self absorbed at times to listen to its tale) and see the history of Israel through the eyes of its earliest pioneers.
All in all this was a great read. My only disappointment was with the epilogue - I would have liked a bit more closure on what happened to the characters, but I guess it's not a bad thing to keep me thinking about them...
Monday, July 20, 2015
The Green Road by Anne Enright
I think this is the last of the Ireland based books that I decided to read in anticipation of my trip there (this one took a while to get from the library so I ended up reading it after the trip). The good thing about reading it later is a lot of the geographical descriptions were now of familiar places so I could visualize them better.
I didn't love the book, but it got better as it went on. It starts in Ireland when Rosalyn Madigan is a mother of four teenaged and young adult children. We get a glimpse of her depressive behaviour when her eldest son, Dan, announces that he is to become a priest and she takes to her bed for days. This part is reasonably interesting.
The book then fast forwards eleven years and we see that in fact Dan is not a priest but is living and working in New York - and spending tremendous energy denying his sexual orientation. This chapter which deals with the New York AIDS scene in the early nineties, as well as the next one which follows Dan's brother Emmet as he partakes in African humanitarian work, are not nearly as interesting as the later chapters where the family returns to Ireland. Enright's strength lies in her descriptions of Ireland as well as her capturing of the complicated family dynamic - which really works best when the family is all back together again one Christmas.
The relationship the siblings have with each other, and more importantly their mother, is at the heart of this book. I'm glad I read the whole thing but I almost put it down while I was trying to force myself through the New York section which had so may characters that were hard to keep track of and not sufficiently developed to remember who was who. But how the children turned out as adults - and the impact their mother's personality had on them is interesting - particularly when they fear something has happened to their mother and must pull together to save her.
I only recommend this book if you have time and patience and an interest in complicated family dynamics.
I didn't love the book, but it got better as it went on. It starts in Ireland when Rosalyn Madigan is a mother of four teenaged and young adult children. We get a glimpse of her depressive behaviour when her eldest son, Dan, announces that he is to become a priest and she takes to her bed for days. This part is reasonably interesting.
The book then fast forwards eleven years and we see that in fact Dan is not a priest but is living and working in New York - and spending tremendous energy denying his sexual orientation. This chapter which deals with the New York AIDS scene in the early nineties, as well as the next one which follows Dan's brother Emmet as he partakes in African humanitarian work, are not nearly as interesting as the later chapters where the family returns to Ireland. Enright's strength lies in her descriptions of Ireland as well as her capturing of the complicated family dynamic - which really works best when the family is all back together again one Christmas.
The relationship the siblings have with each other, and more importantly their mother, is at the heart of this book. I'm glad I read the whole thing but I almost put it down while I was trying to force myself through the New York section which had so may characters that were hard to keep track of and not sufficiently developed to remember who was who. But how the children turned out as adults - and the impact their mother's personality had on them is interesting - particularly when they fear something has happened to their mother and must pull together to save her.
I only recommend this book if you have time and patience and an interest in complicated family dynamics.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
What I read on my summer vacation
As regular followers know, I tend to read lighter fare during the summer. So I will do brief reviews of what I have read over the last few weeks, but for the most part they are not sufficiently deep or complicated to warrant a detailed analysis.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I have deliberately avoided reading this book as I never find books hyped as heavily as this one was deserve that hype. But I had nothing to read, and this was lying around the house, so I gave it a try. I will say, I didn't hate it (unlike, for example, The Goldfinch). At times I was kept on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what had happened, which was of course the author's intent. I also found the characters interesting, if generally distasteful. I can't really say much more without giving away the plot, and don't bother reading the book if you know the ending as the suspense was by far the best aspect. But I will say after anxiously awaiting the ending I was disappointed in it - I think it was probably the right ending given the personalities of the main characters, but that didn't make it any more satisfying. I suppose I wanted to see justice done as much as all the characters in the book seem to want, but like with them, my wish was not granted.
In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
Like many women my age, I eagerly anticipated Judy Blume's newest adult novel, having been an avid fan since picking up Are You There God, It's Me Margaret in fourth grade. And the book did not disappoint - no, it wasn't high level literature fit for discussions in university English classes but it was an entertaining read. The narrative primarily takes place over the course of a year in the 1950s in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In that year (this part is factual) three planes crashed in Elizabeth while trying to land at Newark airport. Many lives were lost both on the airplanes and on the ground. Blume grew up in Elizabeth and lived through this time period so now returns to it to examine the impact it had on the people living there. Her main character is teenaged Miri who lives with her mother, grandmother and uncle having been born to her mother out of wedlock. So in addition to seeing how the plane crashes impact Miri we see her struggle with learning who her father is (and meeting him for the first time), her relationship with her best friend (who is so badly scarred by the plane crashes that she develops anorexia), her first love (with an Irish Catholic boy living in an orphanage who is not her grandmother's first choice) and how she reacts when new loves enter the lives of all the other adults living in her home. At first I was confused by the multitude of characters, but then I got used to why Blume was introducing them (they tended to be somehow involved with the three planes if they were not major players in Miri's life) and I found it easier to follow. She also did a masterful job at eventually weaving together the lives of seemingly unrelated players. In sum, I recommend reading this book, particularly if you are fond of Blume's writing. As an aside, I love the title - derived from the standard airline of safety video - "in the unlikely event of..."
The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
Like with Blume, I anxiously await Elin Hildebrand's new summer releases. They are generally set in Nantucket and are perfect light summer reading fare. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with this one. In fairness, Hilderbrand wrote it while being treated for breast cancer (and is also a young mother) which is incredibly impressive so I have to give her credit for that. The premise of the book is how rumours spread in a small town and the damage they can bring to people's lives. Although, in the end it was actual behaviour rather than rumoured ones that got most of these characters in trouble. The action centres around Madeline King and her husband Trevor, their son, their friends, Grace and Eddie Pancik and their teenaged twin daughters, Eddie's sister, and a landscape architect working on Grace's property. There are also assorted other friends or acquaintances who wander in and out of the narrative. The chapters are written from the perspective of several different characters though it is not hard to follow as this is clearly laid out. The rumours have Madeline having an affair with Eddie (though the reader knows from the start that this is not the case) but in fact it is Grace who gets into relationship troubles and Eddie who gets into financial and legal troubles. At the same time the various teenagers get into relationship troubles of their own. The stories were interesting enough but none of the characters really grabbed me - I didn't really find myself caring who ended up with whom and where. If you have nothing else to read on a summer's day, this isn't terrible but it isn't great either. Some of her earlier books would make a better choice.
The Guest Cottage and An Island Christmas by Nancy Thayer
Thayer is another Nantucket writer who writes Nantucket based beach reads. The Guest Cottage was an entertaining romance with likeable characters. Her books all follow the same basic formula - woman meets man, they try to resist each other for various reasons and then they realize they belong together (usually a welcomed pregnancy is also involved). If you're expecting unpredictable her books aren't for you, but if you want sympathetic characters who get the happy ending they deserve, you won't be disappointed. In this novel, by a series of misunderstandings two different families end up renting out the same beach house for the same summer. The first is Sophie and her 15 year old son Jonah and 8 year old daughter Lacey. Sophie's husband has just announced he wants a divorce so he can marry another woman and Sophie decides to use money inherited from an eccentric aunt to take this vacation and figure out what to do. The second family is Trevor and his four year old son Leo. Trevor's wife has recently died of a drug overdose and his son is developing peculiar behaviours so he decides to take him on vacation to help him heal. That puts Sophie and Trevor in the same house together and given what I said above you can figure out what eventually happens. Though predictable there are some great scenes with the children as well as an elderly man who lives on an adjacent property. Not a bad way to spend a few summer hours. Because I enjoyed the escapism of this book, when I needed to download something else for a plane ride I picked up Thayer's Christmas novel, An Island Christmas. It wasn't as good as the other book but it was okay. It dealt with the story of two very different daughters who return to Nantucket to spend Christmas with their parents and to celebrate the wedding of the younger daughter. Again as might be expected the mother doesn't like her daughter's choice of fiance and wants her to marry a high school boyfriend but in the end discovers that her daughter has in fact made the right choice. There were some very amusing scenes when the mother latches on to a cat to channel her maternal instincts and when the father gets repeatedly injured trying to keep up with his son-in-law to be. So not a great book but served as a good distraction on an airplane.
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
This is the only book I read which doesn't fit into the category of easy summer reading - though it wasn't a difficult book to read. This is the story of young Aron, a child trying to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto. He is a bit of a no good street urchin prior to the war and during the war his smuggling skills and questionable connections do serve to keep him alive. He eventually ends up living in Janusz Korcak's orphanage and the book fictionalizes the final days of this famous doctor and the children under his care. The book is written from Aron's perspective so has a very stream of consciousness style which I suppose is intended to represent his youth. Frankly I didn't like the style that much - while I understand what the author was trying to do, it just came off as poorly written. Like the book My Mother's Secret, maybe if this book had been hyped as aimed at young adults I would not have been so disappointed. I thought the story had so much potential, and the book did get good reviews, but I just found it shallow. There was so much opportunity to explore the impact of the war on a misfit child like this and I just don't think the author got there. Perhaps a good book to give a young adult reader a different perspective on the Holocaust but otherwise I'm not sure I'd bother.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I have deliberately avoided reading this book as I never find books hyped as heavily as this one was deserve that hype. But I had nothing to read, and this was lying around the house, so I gave it a try. I will say, I didn't hate it (unlike, for example, The Goldfinch). At times I was kept on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what had happened, which was of course the author's intent. I also found the characters interesting, if generally distasteful. I can't really say much more without giving away the plot, and don't bother reading the book if you know the ending as the suspense was by far the best aspect. But I will say after anxiously awaiting the ending I was disappointed in it - I think it was probably the right ending given the personalities of the main characters, but that didn't make it any more satisfying. I suppose I wanted to see justice done as much as all the characters in the book seem to want, but like with them, my wish was not granted.
In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
Like many women my age, I eagerly anticipated Judy Blume's newest adult novel, having been an avid fan since picking up Are You There God, It's Me Margaret in fourth grade. And the book did not disappoint - no, it wasn't high level literature fit for discussions in university English classes but it was an entertaining read. The narrative primarily takes place over the course of a year in the 1950s in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In that year (this part is factual) three planes crashed in Elizabeth while trying to land at Newark airport. Many lives were lost both on the airplanes and on the ground. Blume grew up in Elizabeth and lived through this time period so now returns to it to examine the impact it had on the people living there. Her main character is teenaged Miri who lives with her mother, grandmother and uncle having been born to her mother out of wedlock. So in addition to seeing how the plane crashes impact Miri we see her struggle with learning who her father is (and meeting him for the first time), her relationship with her best friend (who is so badly scarred by the plane crashes that she develops anorexia), her first love (with an Irish Catholic boy living in an orphanage who is not her grandmother's first choice) and how she reacts when new loves enter the lives of all the other adults living in her home. At first I was confused by the multitude of characters, but then I got used to why Blume was introducing them (they tended to be somehow involved with the three planes if they were not major players in Miri's life) and I found it easier to follow. She also did a masterful job at eventually weaving together the lives of seemingly unrelated players. In sum, I recommend reading this book, particularly if you are fond of Blume's writing. As an aside, I love the title - derived from the standard airline of safety video - "in the unlikely event of..."
The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
Like with Blume, I anxiously await Elin Hildebrand's new summer releases. They are generally set in Nantucket and are perfect light summer reading fare. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with this one. In fairness, Hilderbrand wrote it while being treated for breast cancer (and is also a young mother) which is incredibly impressive so I have to give her credit for that. The premise of the book is how rumours spread in a small town and the damage they can bring to people's lives. Although, in the end it was actual behaviour rather than rumoured ones that got most of these characters in trouble. The action centres around Madeline King and her husband Trevor, their son, their friends, Grace and Eddie Pancik and their teenaged twin daughters, Eddie's sister, and a landscape architect working on Grace's property. There are also assorted other friends or acquaintances who wander in and out of the narrative. The chapters are written from the perspective of several different characters though it is not hard to follow as this is clearly laid out. The rumours have Madeline having an affair with Eddie (though the reader knows from the start that this is not the case) but in fact it is Grace who gets into relationship troubles and Eddie who gets into financial and legal troubles. At the same time the various teenagers get into relationship troubles of their own. The stories were interesting enough but none of the characters really grabbed me - I didn't really find myself caring who ended up with whom and where. If you have nothing else to read on a summer's day, this isn't terrible but it isn't great either. Some of her earlier books would make a better choice.
The Guest Cottage and An Island Christmas by Nancy Thayer
Thayer is another Nantucket writer who writes Nantucket based beach reads. The Guest Cottage was an entertaining romance with likeable characters. Her books all follow the same basic formula - woman meets man, they try to resist each other for various reasons and then they realize they belong together (usually a welcomed pregnancy is also involved). If you're expecting unpredictable her books aren't for you, but if you want sympathetic characters who get the happy ending they deserve, you won't be disappointed. In this novel, by a series of misunderstandings two different families end up renting out the same beach house for the same summer. The first is Sophie and her 15 year old son Jonah and 8 year old daughter Lacey. Sophie's husband has just announced he wants a divorce so he can marry another woman and Sophie decides to use money inherited from an eccentric aunt to take this vacation and figure out what to do. The second family is Trevor and his four year old son Leo. Trevor's wife has recently died of a drug overdose and his son is developing peculiar behaviours so he decides to take him on vacation to help him heal. That puts Sophie and Trevor in the same house together and given what I said above you can figure out what eventually happens. Though predictable there are some great scenes with the children as well as an elderly man who lives on an adjacent property. Not a bad way to spend a few summer hours. Because I enjoyed the escapism of this book, when I needed to download something else for a plane ride I picked up Thayer's Christmas novel, An Island Christmas. It wasn't as good as the other book but it was okay. It dealt with the story of two very different daughters who return to Nantucket to spend Christmas with their parents and to celebrate the wedding of the younger daughter. Again as might be expected the mother doesn't like her daughter's choice of fiance and wants her to marry a high school boyfriend but in the end discovers that her daughter has in fact made the right choice. There were some very amusing scenes when the mother latches on to a cat to channel her maternal instincts and when the father gets repeatedly injured trying to keep up with his son-in-law to be. So not a great book but served as a good distraction on an airplane.
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
This is the only book I read which doesn't fit into the category of easy summer reading - though it wasn't a difficult book to read. This is the story of young Aron, a child trying to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto. He is a bit of a no good street urchin prior to the war and during the war his smuggling skills and questionable connections do serve to keep him alive. He eventually ends up living in Janusz Korcak's orphanage and the book fictionalizes the final days of this famous doctor and the children under his care. The book is written from Aron's perspective so has a very stream of consciousness style which I suppose is intended to represent his youth. Frankly I didn't like the style that much - while I understand what the author was trying to do, it just came off as poorly written. Like the book My Mother's Secret, maybe if this book had been hyped as aimed at young adults I would not have been so disappointed. I thought the story had so much potential, and the book did get good reviews, but I just found it shallow. There was so much opportunity to explore the impact of the war on a misfit child like this and I just don't think the author got there. Perhaps a good book to give a young adult reader a different perspective on the Holocaust but otherwise I'm not sure I'd bother.
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