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Thanks again for joining the "Italy in Books” reading challenge 2011! What? You haven't joined yet? No worries, there is time to sign up until the very last day of the year...
Below you can find a list of all the book reviews submitted in July (via this link). I am sure that everyone will find it useful to learn about new and interesting reading ideas - in fact, I suspect that as a result of this challenge my TBR list will expand dangerously!
Whether you know the books that are being discussed or have never heard of them, I strongly encourage you to leave comments below and on the blogs themselves. I want to hear your voices! Despite its name, the reading challenge is not a mere competition, rather an opportunity to share ideas and bond over common interests!
Let's begin!
01. Barbara read and reviewed Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon.
02. Maggie read and reviewed The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato.03. Gretchen read and reviewed Caesar's Legions by Stephen Dando-Collins.
And remember, two July reviewers are in for a chance to win a copy of Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer by Luigi Guicciardi, courtesy of Hersilia Press. Buona fortuna!
Thanks again for joining the LGBT reading challenge 2011! If you haven't joined yet, don't worry: there is still time.
Below is a list of all the book reviews that have been submitted in July (via this link). Hopefully you will all find new and interesting titles to explore - I, for one, am sure to gather another few books to add to my TBR list!
Whether you already know the books that are being discussed or not, I strongly encourage you to leave comments below and on the other blogs. I want to hear your voices! Despite its name, the reading challenge is not simply a competition, more of an opportunity to share ideas and bond over our common interests!
Let's begin!
01. Juliet read and reviewed The Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica edited by Lawrence Schimel.
02. Lucy read and reviewed All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West.
Don't forget, one June reviewer is in for a chance to win a copy of Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas, courtesy of Serpent's Tail!
By Tana French
Reviewed by Natazzz
There are crime novels that you read to pass the time and crime novels that you truly enjoy. Faithful Place (2011) by Tana French is one of the latter. Having already read her previous two novels - In the Woods and The Likeness - which I thought were both great, I was eager to get started on this one. Luckily, it did not disappoint.
Faithful Place tells the story of Frank Mackey, an undercover cop in Dublin (who was also a main character in the previous novels). Twenty years ago he planned to run away with his then girlfriend Rosie, but she didn't show up and he never heard from her again. He decided to leave home anyway and hasn't looked back since. That is, until he hears that Rosie's suitcase has been found. Frank is forced to return to the place where he grew up and get reacquainted with his dysfunctional family. Back home, Frank is soon to discover exactly what happened all those years ago.
It is your typical crime novel, but with a difference. The difference being that it is narrated really well. Just as in her previous novels, French makes you identify with her main characters and you end up feeling what they are feeling and even rooting for them. The novel is fast paced and doesn't waste pages on unnecessary details, which is always a plus. It also scores pretty good on the suspense factor, as for most of the novel I was not aware, yet very curious, as how the story would unfold.
To sum it up, Faithful Place is everything I look for in a good crime novel. It's got a good storyline, it's fast paced, suspenseful, with likeable main characters you can identify with and an outcome that it not too predictable. If you enjoy a good crime novel, you will enjoy this one!
By Pamela Ribon
Reviewed by Natazzz
A few years ago I discovered the blog Pamie.com by writer Pamela Ribon, which I have been reading ever since. Here she shares personal accounts of her life as a writer, as well as what she gets up to in her spare time. The blog is quite popular and was already around ten years ago, when having a personal blog was still something unique. During those early years Ribon decided that her blog and the traffic it created might be an interesting topic for a novel and that's when Why Girls Are Weird was born.
Why Girls Are Weird (2003) tells the story of Anna Koval, who decides to start a personal blog. To make it more interesting, and mainly to entertain herself, she starts making things up. For example, that she is still together with her ex-boyfriend, whom she broke up with ages ago. Little does she realize that thousands and thousands of people are reading her blog every day, and believing her every word. She soon starts to receive tons of e-mails from her followers, whom she gets into complicated correspondence with. After all, it's not easy trying to remember what is her real life and what is her blog life. This only gets more complicated when she decides to meet a few of her readers, not to mention when her ex-boyfriend finds out she's been writing about him.
This novel is a collection of blog posts and e-mail correspondence, connected and brought to life by an accompanying story of Anna's daily life. I thought it made for a very interesting read. I love the different formats that were used, the general topic of the story behind one girl's blog and her online life versus her real life. It also helped a lot that both the Anna in the blog and the Anna behind the scenes are interesting, funny characters. She gets up to lots of stuff that seemed very recognizable. Not that I have ever made up a blog and spread lies about people, but some of the things she worries about and the trouble she gets into because of her blog are things that anyone can relate to.
After reading this novel I haven't figured out just exactly why girls are weird, although weird is a label that can certainly be applied to the main character. If you are looking for a modern themed novel, that will make you laugh as well as cringe, you should definitely check this one out.
By Tim Parks
Published by Harvill Secker
In Teach Us to Sit Still - A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing, British novelist, essayist and translator Tim Parks describes his difficult path to wellbeing – both physical and mental.
Page by page, Parks details a long series of hospital tests and discussions with doctors and specialists both in Italy and in the UK, he takes us to India for a consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor and, after sleepless nights of Internet research, he shares his enthusiasm for finding a book that seems to promise an end to his pain.
The authors of this book, two Californian doctors, suggest that the discomfort in the pelvic area might be caused by muscle tension. Having found nothing wrong with his bladder or prostate – but still in excruciating pain - Parks is willing to believe this new possibility and the more he thinks about it, the more he realises that he’s been thinking too much his whole life. He’s hardly ever felt thoroughly relaxed.
He thus embarks on a journey of mental rediscovery. He starts a programme of breathing exercises in the comfort of his home. Still relatively sceptic about anything remotely “New Age”, he then goes on to see a shiatsu practitioner and, in the end, he gives in to meditation and joins those retreats that he had always sneered at.
It is a winding path of taking one step forward and three steps backwards but it is a path, nonetheless, that allows Parks to find a balance between the daily needs of his working and family life and the equally important necessities of his mind and body.
This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I extremely enjoyed it. Though I can see now that this was the most logical approach, I thought that Parks would concentrate on different kinds of alternative therapies without including his experience with Western medicine. I think I was sidetracked by the book cover!
A journey that starts in the middle wouldn’t be that much of a journey. And I feel almost guilty but I did find the description of the medical staff and their attitudes funny – despite, of course, sympathising with the fact that, in the grip of his pains, Parks might not have found them amusing at all. Perhaps I could have done with knowing less about the writer’s bowel movements and similar, rather intimate, details but, hey, writing is an intimate experience, right?
I had to chuckle and completely empathise with the account of Parks’s first attempts at meditation. Who hasn’t been sitting there, trying to empty their head of any thoughts and ending up having a silent but verbose fight with themselves to achieve that, only to fail? What makes this book such a pleasure to read is that Parks is not trying to show us the way, he doesn’t portray himself as an enlightened and holier-than-us person who we can only look up to. He’s simply sharing his experiences. It’s up to us if we want to learn something from them.
What I also wasn’t expecting – but then, I wasn’t familiar with Parks if not only by name – were his reflections and musings on authors, politicians, art and, generally, culture. A very educated man, Tim Parks is able to draw the most interesting conclusions and ask the most curious questions, linking subjects that you would not normally associate with each other, such as a painting by Velázquez and the prostate! This book has the potential to teach a number of things. Sitting still is only one of them!
By Jodi Picoult
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
Being a fan of Jodi Picoult’s novels – and having always received positive feedback from friends whom I had recommended them to – I couldn’t wait to read her latest work, Sing You Home. Now that I have, I remember all that makes her a great writer: an elegant style, thorough research, tri-dimensional characters and, last but not least, a good story.
Always thought-provoking, Sing You Home is no exception.
At the beginning of the novel we meet Zoe and Max Baxter. They have been married for nine years and have spent the best part of them trying to conceive a baby; naturally at first and then through assisted conception methods. Zoe’s last miscarriage, however, marks a turning point for their relationship. Zoe wishes to undergo a new cycle of IVF treatment, while Max is unwilling to face further stress and disappointment. They divorce.
At this very delicate time in her life, Zoe - a professional music therapist - is asked to help with the case of a suicidal teenage girl by Vanessa, a high school counsellor. Vanessa quickly becomes a trusted friend. One that Zoe doesn’t seem able to spend a single day without. One that makes her laugh when she most needs it; one that is always there for her; one that she wants to spend the rest of her life with.
And that’s how Vanessa Shaw, former business acquaintance-cum-best friend, becomes Zoe’s wife in the best of happy endings.
The only thing that would make this beautiful couple even more perfect would be the addition of a child to their family. Suddenly, Zoe remembers the three frozen embryos left over from her last IVF cycle: having had a hysterectomy after complications arising from her last miscarriage, her only chance to becoming a biological mother is to have Vanessa carry her baby. All she needs is the authorization of her ex husband to use the embryos.
In the meantime, Max has been going through some radical transformation. Following a spiralling descent into the depths of alcoholism and an alcohol-induced car accident, Max decides to join his brother’s church and follow the leadership of Pastor Clive. The conservative Eternal Glory Church couldn’t be more set against the “deprivation” of the “homosexual lifestyle” and does all that it can to persuade Max that giving his consent to have his “pre-born children” raised by a lesbian couple would be a mistake.
All this leads the way to court, where Max and Zoe will be at the centre of a history-making legal battle for the custody of the frozen embryos.
I have tried to be brief but Sing You Home is such a richly structured novel that it is hard to not want to disclose more. Narrated from the alternating points of view of Zoe, Max and Vanessa, readers will have a full understanding of all the emotions and circumstances that make each character think and behave in a certain way. While reading this book I cheered, I felt contempt, I got angry, I cried. Picoult deals with a number of contemporary issues – from IVF to same-sex relationships – that are unlikely to leave you indifferent.
Ultimately, Sing You Home is a novel about passion, be it for the freedom of being who you are or for the belief that you can control who you are.
Thanks again for joining the "Italy in Books” reading challenge 2011! What? You haven't joined yet? No worries, there is time to sign up until the very last day of the year...
