2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Not a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Spellbinding by Maya Gold: Done! My review is here.

Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson, book 7) by Patricia Briggs: Done! My review is here. (Short version: Loved it! I want to live in Mercy’s world.)

New Monday Agenda feature: Fresh Catch!

In addition to looking at my reading plans from the last week and setting goals for the coming week, I thought it might be fun to provide an update each week on all the new acquisitions that make their way into my home and onto my shelves. So, Fresh Catch for the past seven days:

From the library, I picked up copies of A Natural History of Dragons by by Marie Brennan; The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan; and The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones.

Front Cover

Other new books purchased or received:

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (of course!); Where She Went by Gayle Forman; and for my son, Stranded by Jeff Probst. (Yes, the Survivor host has written the first in a middle-grade trilogy about a bunch of kids stranded on an island. Hey, write what you know, Jeff!)

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

I received an e-ARC of a new science fiction book, The Best of All Possible Worlds, by Karen Lord. I’ve only read the first few pages, but I’m intrigued. I hope to make a big dent in this one in the next few days.

Next up, I’m expecting a copy of Ruth Ozeki’s new release, A Tale for the Time Being. I loved this author’s My Year of Meats, and I’m really looking forward to starting her newest book.

And if I finish both of these books and still have time, I need to dig into some of the books that have been patiently waiting for me. Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell is inching its way to the top of the pile. Our destinies may finally intertwine by the end of this week.

In the world of reading with my kiddo, we’re still enjoying — and puzzling over — Down The Mysterly River by Bill Willingham, although the kiddo has now discovered the joys of reading books on my IPad, and has ditched our mom/kid reading sessions for individual reading for a few days now. He is totally hooked on Dan Gutman’s hilarious Funny Boy books. Could it be that my boy is finally reading without being pressured to do so? I’m not holding my breath just yet, but perhaps we’re having a breakthrough!

And yes, I’m still reading Philip Pullman’s collection of Grimm fairy tales, a few stories each week. Slow and steady, but I’m getting there. Boy, there are some really gross and disturbing fairy tales in the mix!

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

9Mar2013

Book Review: Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson, #7)

Mercy is back! Mercy is back! Mercy is back!

Clearly, my babbling inner fangirl is dominant at the moment, as I get practically giddy over the return of my favorite urban fantasy heroine and her pack of strong, conflicted, devoted werewolves.

Frost Burned is book #7 in the outstanding Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Fingers crossed — here’s hoping there are many more stories set in Mercy’s world yet to come. Brief spoiler alert: While I won’t give away too much from Frost Burned, from this point forward you may encounter spoilers for some of the earlier books. You have been warned!

For the uninitiated, Mercy Thompson is a talented VW mechanic living in the Tri-Cities region of Washington, who also happens to be a shapeshifter. Thanks to her Native American lineage, Mercy can shift at will into coyote form and has certain other magical predispositions as well. At the outset of the series, Mercy lived in a trailer adjacent to the property of werewolf pack Alpha Adam Hauptmann, which gave Mercy all sorts of childish pleasure as she found new and creative ways to annoy the bejeesus out of Adam.

Flash forward to book #7, and Mercy and Adam are happily married, completely in love, and enjoying life surrounded by their pack and their friends. When Adam and the pack are attacked and kidnapped, Mercy has to use all the power at her disposal and call in some significant favors in order to find the wolves and rescue them before disaster strikes.

That’s the two-second version of the plot, and I won’t go further. If you’re a Mercy fan, you’ll want to read this book at the first possible second. And if you’re not already a Mercy fan — what are you waiting for? Go get book #1 (Moon Called) immediately, and don’t stop reading until you get through Frost Burned!

I don’t often gush so enthusiastically, but I have to say that these books are really special. The characters are unique and unforgettable. By this point in the series, I’m in love with at least half of the pack, and would want the rest at my side in any dark alley imaginable.

What I really love about these books is the wonderful world that Patricia Briggs has built, especially when it comes to creating a fully-formed werewolf social structure. The pack dynamics echo those of wolf packs in the wild. Dominance is a key theme, and each werewolf in Adam’s pack knows exactly where he stands in the pack rankings. There’s a magic involved as well — Adam can call on the strength of the pack when he needs an extra boost, or he can send his power to a wolf who’s in trouble. Likewise, the mate bond between Adam and Mercy isn’t just about love. They have a connection that they can use to reach one another, to strengthen one another, and rather surprisingly, to physically save one another when in danger.

The author’s depictions of dominance struggles among the wolves is fascinating. Even in human form, the pack members know better than to look the Alpha in the eye. When in a crowded or unfamiliar location, it’s difficult for the dominant wolves to relax, as their instinctive need to control their surroundings and protect those packmembers who are weaker can push them toward a violence that always lurks below the surface. As we learn in Frost Burned, even a simple card game used to pass the time can end in bloodshed when two dominant wolves are involved, and it’s a bad idea to get too close to a wounded werewolf, when his aversion to showing vulnerability might just trigger an attack.

Mercy herself is a wonderful hero. She’s physically strong and capable, and even stronger willed. She’s driven to protect her loved ones, even when doing so puts her own life on the line. Mercy dives in and takes action. She never waits to be rescued; she’s the rescuer. Of course, she suffers for it, too — over the course of the series, very bad things have happened to Mercy, and they do leave scars, both emotional and physical. Unlike some lead females in ongoing paranormal series, Mercy doesn’t get bogged down in her beauty routines or other silliness. She works hard, she takes care of her family, she pays attention to her pack… and she pretty much never has a dull moment.

I suppose you could complain that the books are so action-packed that the characters never have a quiet moment to breathe. Well, that’s true, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The plots in the Mercy Thompson books are hyper-fueled by danger, threats, conspiracies, and various and sundry super-scary bad guys. While there are tender, domestic moments built in, I suppose we just have to imagine that in the months that go by in Mercy’s life in between the books in the series, she and Adam and their wolfy gang are able to catch up on their sleep, enjoy their families, go out on runs, and play intense rounds of video games.

By now, I’m sure that it’s clear that I adore the Mercy Thompson series, and I’m wild about the spin-off Alpha & Omega series as well. My chief unhappiness at the moment? Having read the book the absolute second I got my hands on it, I have no more Mercy adventures to read! I understand that at least nine Mercy books are planned, and that #8 is due out in 2014. I don’t want to wait!

Seriously, read these books. You can thank me later.

7Mar2013

Flashback Friday: The Mind-Body Problem

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight. If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

Has to be something you’ve read yourself
Has to still be available, preferably still in print
Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

The Mind-Body Problem by Rebecca Goldstein

(published 1983)

From Goodreads:

When Renee Feuer goes to college, one of the first lessons she tries to learn is how to liberate herself from the restrictions of her orthodox Jewish background. As she discovers the pleasures of the body, Renee also learns about the excitements of the mind.

She enrolls as a philosophy graduate student, then marries Noam Himmel, the world-renowned mathematician. But Renee discovers that being married to a genius is a less elevating experience than expected.

The story of her quest for a solution to the mind-body problem involves the prickly contemporary dilemmas of sex and love, of doubt and belief.

I read The Mind-Body Problem ages ago, but can still more or less quote one of the lines from this book which I found marvelous:

I am beautiful for a brainy woman, brainy for a beautiful woman, but objectively speaking, neither beautiful nor brainy.

That, in essence, is the heart of main character Renee’s struggle. She’s always considered herself an intellectual, but when she marries a bona fide genius, has to face some hard truths about herself, what it means to be smart, and what it means to love and be loved. Renee’s exploration of identity, success, love, and desire is both philosophical and physical, and always fascinating.

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers!

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join the Flashback Friday fun, write a blog post about a book you love and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!

5Mar2013

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Wishlist Wednesday!

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Do a post about one book from your wishlist and why you want to read it.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

A Small Death in the Great Glen by A. D. Scott

From Amazon:

In the Highlands of 1950s Scotland, a boy is found dead in a canal lock. Two young girls tell such a fanciful story of his disappearance that no one believes them. The local newspaper staff—including Joanne Ross, the part-time typist embroiled in an abusive marriage, and her boss, a seasoned journalist determined to revamp the paper—set out to uncover and investigate the crime. Suspicion falls on several townspeople, all of whom profess their innocence. Alongside these characters are the people of the town and neighboring glens; a refugee Polish sailor; an Italian family whose café boasts the first known cappuccino machine in the north of Scotland; and a corrupt town clerk subverting the planning laws to line his own pocket.

Together, these very different Scots harbor deep and troubling secrets underneath their polished and respectable veneers—revelations that may prevent the crime from being solved and may keep the town firmly in the clutches of its shadowy past.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ll be honest — they had me at Scottish Highlands. I’m a sucker for this setting, although most of my Highlands fiction tends to take place centuries in the past, with an emphasis on dashing men in kilts. I’ve yet to read a book set in Scotland within a more contemporary time frame — as soon as I spotted this one in a bookstore, I knew it was for me. The story itself sounds intriguing — local drama and deception, a tragic and suspicious death, a melting pot of townspeople and immigrants. Great ingredients for what I hope will be a terrific mystery!

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See the introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

5Mar2013

Book Review: Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Sixteen-year-old Abby is used to fading into the woodwork, lurking in shadows, never being noticed. Whether at home or at school, Abby is one of those girls who’s always in the background, not especially scorned, not surrounded by friends — just kind of there. She’s used to her lot in life and more or less knows her place, although she can’t help sighing over golden boy Travis, her life-long crush ever since he showed her kindness on the playground years ago when they were both small. Travis is dating perfect-but-mean Megan, and Abby can only watch from the sidelines and blush whenever anyone takes notice of her. Sensitive and shy, Abby is the quintessential high school wallflower:

Maybe this is the flip side of being invisible: Nobody sees me, but I notice everything.

Abby’s life takes a dramatic turn when a teacher assigns the class a genealogy research project: Trace your family back from the current generation to the family member who first set foot in America. Abby knew her late mother’s side of the family arrived centuries earlier, but is startled to discover a connection to Salem in the 1600s — the Salem of the witch hunts and trials, located just a short distance from Abby’s home town.

As Abby digs further, she seems to awaken her own magical powers and a deep connection to the dimpled, adorable Rem, a mysterious boy who seems to know a lot more than he’s willing to admit. Will Abby embrace the power promised by her newly discovered abilities? Can she change her life by using magic? Should she?

Even without her magical awakening, Abby was already facing a slew of mundane problems. Since her mother’s death years earlier, Abby feels overlooked by her father, who focuses instead on her soccer-star younger brother. As her father begins dating, Abby – the household cook – is full of resentment towards the woman she sees usurping her role in the kitchen and, not incidentally, in her father’s heart. Abby’s best friend moved away the summer before, leaving Abby without the security of a BFF. Abby is smart and has talents, but not the kind to make her admired or sought after at school. This is a girl with enough to deal with — and now she has to figure out if she’s crazy or if she’s a witch, and if she’s a witch, what should she do about it?

Abby’s inner struggles are what make this book particularly interesting. She clearly has a gift, but she’s also keenly aware of a sense of right and wrong. When Abby uses a love spell to get her crush to notice her, she does it as a lark, to see if she can. But once she realizes that her magic works, she’s not so sure that she wants it. Is it satisfying to have your dream boy suddenly devoted to you, when you know that you forced it to happen? How can you be happy in a relationship if you know, deep-down, that it’s not real?

A nice twist in Abby’s growing power is that it clearly doesn’t have all the answers. Abby gains greater confidence and starts letting her hair down — literally — no longer afraid to be noticed. But she quickly finds that the notice she gets isn’t what she wanted, as the school mean girls subject her to a campaign of gossip, bullying, and Internet abuse, all of which escalate as Abby gets her guy and becomes golden boy’s new girlfriend. Greater visibility is no protection against ridicule and scorn.

Author Maya Gold has a way with words, using surprise twists and references in ways that made me sit up and pay attention as I read. A few prime examples:

It’s as if the morning is posing for June on a calendar.

There aren’t evil earth witches who look like Keith Richards with blood in their eyes.

If I’m having some kind of schizophrenic breakdown, the voices inside my head sound like Gandalf the Grey.

What I especially liked about Spellbinding is how real Abby’s inner life seems. Given the mean girls and their nastiness, having Abby consider using magic as revenge doesn’t seem like power gone mad — more like a reasonable response to intolerable circumstances. When you’re backed into a corner, who wouldn’t use their secret strength to get back into control?

Another noteworthy aspect of Spellbinding — and one that really differentiates it from the plethora of supernatural-tinged YA novels saturating the market these days — is that “normal” life is clearly the better choice. Yes, magic exists and is tempting, but it’s made clear that if Abby journeys down the path toward embracing her witchiness, she’ll be forever giving up an everyday life of family, friends, achievements, and true connections. Despite the temptations, Abby has a good head on her shoulders, and quickly comes to realize that power is no substitute for relationships that come from the heart.

Spellbinding does a great job of weaving magical elements into the broader story of a girl trying to find her way, come out of her shell, and find her place in the world. It’s not Abby’s witch heritage that really matters in the end; it’s the connections she’s made that give her strength and enable her to look forward toward a brighter and happier future. I’m very glad to have read Spellbinding. It’s a quick read, but one that should resonate with teen girls (and their moms!). The combination of romance, suspense, magic, and girl power is quite fun and full of (ahem) charm.

Review copy courtesy of Scholastic via Netgalley

4Mar2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Series I’d Like To Start (But Haven’t Yet)

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is:

Top Ten Series I’d Like To Start But Haven’t Yet

This week’s topic is a bit problematic for me for two reasons:

1) One of my chief resolutions for 2013 was a NO NEW SERIES rule. Basically, I vowed not to start any more new series unless a) the series is by one of my “auto-buy” authors, b) the series is already completed written, or c) the series is still underway but the final volume has a release date.

2) Putting aside my issues from #1, how can I possibly narrow my list down to just ten choices? If I were to start naming series that I’d like to read, I could go on all day! (See, that’s why I made my resolution which — dammit it all — I’m doing my best to keep.) As you’ll see below, this is such a substantial problem that… I went all the way to 20 (and there are still more I could add). There’s just no stopping me now!

Here we go: A whole bunch of series (definitely more than 10) that I’d like to read — but haven’t started yet:

1) The Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce: This trilogy — Terrier, Bloodhound, and Mastiff — is set in the land of Tortall about 200 years before the events in the excellent girl-power Song of the Lioness quartet. I’ve enjoyed the Tamora Pierce books that I’ve read, but my daughter is a huge fan, and has been after me to read the Beka Cooper books for a while now. This trilogy is complete, so I could read this and still keep my reading resolution. Very tempting!

2) Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery: I was a total bookworm as a child (okay, not just as a child), but somehow, I managed to completely miss out on these books. I know a lot about them, but I’ve never actually read a single one. Maybe I’ll stock up and take the first few volumes with me on my next vacation. I feel like I should read these books in a beautiful setting.

3) The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons: I only recently heard of this series via my online book group, but it seems as though everyone loves it. Historical fiction set in Russia, before, during, and after World War II; it sounds intense, long, romantic, and quite engrossing.

4) Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde: I realize that I am totally remiss in never having read these books. The first, The Eyre Affair, is one of my choices for my 2013 TBR Pile Challenge, so I swear I’ll get to it this year!

5) The Colonial Trilogy by Kate Grenville: The three books in this trilogy — The Secret River, The Lieutenant, and Sarah Thornhill — are historical novels that chronicle early generations of white settlers in Australia. I love reading about Australia’s history, and I’ve heard such great things about these books and this author. I really hope to get to these soon!

6) The Dark Tower series by Stephen King: I’m including this series even though I have, in fact, started it. Last year, I finally picked up The Gunslinger, devoured it, and immediately read books 2 and 3. I loved what I’d read and yet — despite having a copy of the 4th book, Wizard and Glass, on my shelf and ready to go — for some reason I just wasn’t in the mood. And still haven’t gotten into the mood. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why I’ve stalled out on this series, but I do intend to get back to it and see it through. I suppose I’m including it on this list as a reminder to myself that starting a series isn’t enough — must finish reading!

7) The Eden Moore series by Cherie Priest: Comprised of three books — Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Wings to the Kingdom, and Not Flesh Nor Feathers, this trilogy sounds ghostly and spooky and overall terrific, with a Southern gothic atmosophere and simply amazing covers. I actually own these books! Just haven’t read them yet…

8) The Frontier Magic trilogy by Patricia Wrede: From what I understand, this is a series set in a magical world that has a wild west flavor to it. I’ve heard good things, and the final book came out in 2012, so it fits my series-reading requirements.

And moving on, a whole bunch of science fiction/fantasy series that I’m either dying to read… or feel like I really ought to read:

9) The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss: Everybody — and I do mean everybody — insists that I need to read this amazing series NOW. To which I reply, tell me when book three has a release date, and then we’ll talk. Seriously, I know this is supposed to be outstanding, but I just can’t start one more series without knowing when it’ll wrap up.

10) The Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis: Four novels and a short story. Lots of awards and accolades. I know I must read these! Plus, this series includes one of my favorite book titles, To Say Nothing of the Dog.

11) The Promethean Age by Elizabeth Bear: Fantastic premise, in which our world and the world of Faerie exist side by side, with historical settings and figures mixed in with the magical realms.

12) Riverworld by Philip José Farmer: I have a certain friend who pretty much yells at me every time I admit that I still haven’t read these books, despite his constant reminders that this series is the be-all and end-all. Don’t tell him I haven’t started yet.

13) The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan: Now that the final book has been published, I’m out of excuses.

14) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: No excuses, must read.

15) The Company series by Kage Baker: I’ve heard so many wonderful things about these books. Gotta get ’em, gotta read ’em.

16) The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin: See my comments about Ender’s Game. Same applies here.

17) Narnia by C. S. Lewis: I’ve read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but have never gone farther in the series.

18) Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler: I’ve read and loved several Octavia Butler books, but so far haven’t read any of her science fiction works. She’s an amazing writer, but her subject matter is usually pretty harsh, so I may need to gear up for this series.

And finally, two graphic novel series that I absolutely want to read, but which are so vast that I find the idea of starting them completely daunting:

19) The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman

20) The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman

Okay, so I definitely went a bit overboard with this week’s theme. Have you read any of the series on my top 10 (20) list? Where do you think I should start? And which series are you just dying to read?

4Mar2013

The Monday agenda 2/25/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler: Done! My review is here.

Spellbinding by Maya Gold: Started, but still have about half-way to go.

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

I hope to finish Spellbinding in the next day or two. And this is important, because it’s time to clear the decks for this week’s new arrival:

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs, book #7 in the Mercy Thompson series, comes out this week! I absolutely cannot wait, and want to be able to start reading it the second it arrives. I just discovered this series last year, and fell head-over-heels in love with it.

After Frost Burned, I really should try to make a dent in the TBR shelf — but what exactly I’ll read is TBD.

The kiddo and I are making steady progress with Down The Mysterly River by Bill Willingham, although it just took a big turn for the weird –which is probably a very good thing. So far, so good. Onward we go.

And yes, I’m still inching my way through Philip Pullman’s collection of Grimm fairy tales. Emphasis on inching. Forward motion is happening in very small increments, but it is indeed happening.

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

3Mar2013

Book Review: The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler

Nancy Richler The Imposter Bride

In the wake of World War II, the world was filled with refugees, some seeking shelter, some seeking new homes, some seeking forgiveness, some seeking peace. In Nancy Richler’s The Imposter Bride, one determined young woman arrives in Montreal seeking a new life, and more importantly, a new self. But can a person really reinvent herself? And what happens when her old life catches up to her?

Lily Azerov arrives by train in Montreal as a mail-order bride for Sol Kramer, whose family had settled in Canada one generation earlier and is now established within the Jewish community there. But for whatever reason, Sol sees Lily at the train station and changes his mind, leaving Lily without a plan or a future until Sol’s brother Nathan steps in and marries Lily instead. Nathan is drawn to Lily’s fierceness and determination, and falls for her almost instantly. And what does Lily feel for Nathan? Is he more than just a solution to a problem?

The Imposter Bride is layered throughout with mysteries. Lily, we quickly discover, is not who she says she is. We don’t know who she was exactly, but this stranger in a strange land has picked up the name and history of another girl. The original Lily and her entire family, like so may others, lie dead in Europe, leaving no trace behind. The new Lily does not have long to hide behind her new self, as the original Lily’s cousin also lives in Montreal and is quick to sniff out the deception.

After a dramatic first chapter, in which the point of view shifts radically from character to character, so that we see events through the eyes of Lily, Nathan, Sol, and others, we learn in the second chapter that the new Lily is long gone. Lily stuck around only long enough to give birth to a baby girl, and then left suddenly one day, never to return. From this point forward, we hear parts of the story through the words of Ruth, Lily and Nathan’s daughter, who narrates a life lived amongst a large, loving family and yet with a key piece of her own identity permanently denied her.

Throughout the remainder of the story, Ruth and other family members pour out their thoughts and emotions as they recount their experiences with faux Lily as well as the paths their lives have taken after her departure. The shifting points of view are quite effective in places, as we hear, one after the other, radically different interpretations of the same set of events.

The author skillfully creates distinct voices for the characters, each easily recognizable and with his or her own story to tell. The older generation recounts their stories of losses and loves; we see Ruth growing up from early childhood through middle age; we even get brief moments of Lily’s thoughts and experiences.

Sadly, for me at least, the pieces never really gel into a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Key elements of the central mystery are left unresolved — or are finally revealed in such a brief overview that I couldn’t relate to the events at all. What happened to the original Lily? What was her connection to the faux/new Lily? Why did new Lily choose to start over in Canada, despite knowing she’d have little chance of maintaining her charade? Who, really, was new Lily before she found her new name and new life? And why did she feel that she had to leave her husband and baby girl? There are answers provided, mostly, but I found them unsatisfying and not entirely convincing.

On the positive side, The Imposter Bride is richly detailed, and the author’s language is heartfelt and lovingly crafted. Through the words of the characters, the deep sense of loss so central to the Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust is finely portrayed, as each of the characters are impacted in different ways by the horrors and suffering of that time.

A central theme that emerges is the pain of not knowing. Many of the characters simply do not know what has become of the families they left behind in Europe. While the pain and questioning may become less acute over time, the absence never really goes away. So too is the case with Ruth, who has lost her mother, but spends most of her life not knowing how or why. Finding a way to keep going, to create a life for oneself, and to find joy despite deprivation and pain is a challenge for all of the characters in The Imposter Bride. Both Ruth and her missing mother are forced by their losses to redefine themselves and figure out just what kind of new identities they can forge. Do they let themselves be defined by the events that have happened to them? Or do they decide for themselves who they want to be and how they want to live, and find a way forward?

Overall, reading The Imposter Bride was a mixed experience for me. The details are wonderful, the characters feel real, and yet the narrative itself fails to coalesce into a powerful whole, so that the novel felt to me more like a collection of moving stories and vignettes rather than a solid work of fiction with a begininng, middle, and end. I’m glad to have read it, but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy The Imposter Bride or feel its impact nearly as much as I’d hoped to. Still, Nancy Richler is clearly a gifted and sensitive writer, and I’m sure I’ll seek out her works in the future.

28Feb2013

Flashback Friday: Into Thin Air

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight. If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

Has to be something you’ve read yourself
Has to still be available, preferably still in print
Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

(published 1997)

From Goodreads:

A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that “suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down.” He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more–including Krakauer’s–in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer’s epic account of the May 1996 disaster.

Into Thin Air is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel — part adventure story, part disaster tale, full of memorable characters involved in a once-in-a-lifetime challenge that ended in tragedy. Jon Krakauer participated in and then chronicled the 1996 Everest expedition that claimed lives, and describes in his book his own preparations for and experiences during the climb, as well as exploring the commercialization of Everest and the dangers that this has inevitably brought about. Into Thin Air is a remarkable account of bravery and hubris, a cautionary tale about the limits of adventure and the drawbacks of having more money than common sense, and a tribute to the beauty of the high peaks and the call of the mountains to the people who need to climb them.

I was completely fascinated by Into Thin Air, and while I’ve read other books by Jon Krakauer — a marvelous writer — this one, to me, packs the biggest punch.

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers!

26Feb2013

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Wishlist Wednesday!

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Do a post about one book from your wishlist and why you want to read it.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

From Amazon:

It’s 1950 and the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie Moraine wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve come across a few reviews of this new YA release recently — all raves. The New Orleans setting sounds wonderful. I like that the book is set in 1950; so much of the New Orleans fiction that I’ve read has been set in the 18th or 19th century. I’m interested in seeing what life in mid-20th century New Orleans would have been like for a young woman, particularly one growing up in such difficult circumstances. Out of the Easy sounds like a terrific mix of mystery, scandal, and coming-of-age tale. Yet another book that I can’t wait to read!