Things I want my Daughters to know ~ Elizabeth Noble

Synopsis from Waterstones

‘My beautiful girls. If you’ve read this, you’ll know it contains some – not all, but some – of the things I want my daughters to know. And the greatest of these is love …’ How would you say goodbye to those you love most in the world? Barbara must say a final farewell to her four daughters. But how can she find the words? And how can she leave them when they each have so much growing up to do? There’s commitment-phobic Lisa. Brittle, unhappily married Jennifer. Free-spirited traveller Amanda. And teenage Hannah, stumbling her way towards adulthood. Barbara’s answer is to write each daughter a letter, finally expressing the hopes, fears, dreams and secrets she couldn’t always voice. These words will touch the girls in different – sometimes shocking – ways, unlocking emotions and passions to set them on their own journey of discovery through life.

My thoughts

What a lovely book. I don’t normally read much ‘chick lit’ but this book was recommended to me by the BCF and has really reflected what I have recently gone through with my mum.

Barbara, the girls mum is dying of cancer and has written each of them a letter to read when she is gone and also had kept a Journal of her fight with cancer.

The book follows the four daughters and their lives and how they deal with their mums death. At times funny, at times sad but nevertheless a lovely lovely book. I could relate to so much of this book and found myself recognising myself in many of the experiences.

There were so many similarities to my mums own way of dealing with cancer; arranging her funeral with everyone wearing bright colours, being buried at an humanist site in a biodegradable coffin and the wake being held outside on a bright summers day.

I would like to quote the following from the book about her funeral:

It was exactly how she would have wanted it to be – good friends, good food, good weather.

Even if you haven’t (thankfully) lost your mum it is still a good read and certainly I will look out for more of the authors work.  If you have sadly lost your mum,  I think this book would offer you comfort and understanding.

Learning Disabilities by Etta K Brown

An interesting book where the first part looks at how the nutrition, sleep deprivation, parental care and physical, psychological and emotional trauma can have an affect on how a child can and is able to learn. With both my children having difficulties with reading and comprehesion I thought it would be an interesting read. I always thought that the suicide of their father would have affected their learning although much of the time no evidence was seen of this, but my daughter was having difficulty before this, but upon her father’s death concentration at school did certainly become much more of an issue and this type of trauma is certainly, suggested by the book, to take it’s toll on the child. It has twice been suggested by teachers at different schools that she may have dyslexia as she seems to have many of the traits, but even though she has been tested twice there has been no definite diagnosis.

The second part of this book is very much geared to the American school system and seems to thoroughly cover all the options open to parents with regards to the choices available to them for the child with learning difficulties. I would see this as a very good resource for them.

The third part covers the forms of processing disorders including visual and auditory problems that learning disabled children may have and it appears that a child can be weak in the visual or auditory field. It appears that my daughter has some weaknesses in both these areas along with parts of the others. Fortunately her school appears to be working wondefully with her and she is a much more confident student of late. I really like the way this third part of the book was laid out and I felt it really gives an understanding to the problems these children/students face. The author also gives strategies for dealing with these issues in and out of the classroom.

I can see that the author has issues with Ritalin being given to those diagnosed with ADHD and from my limited knowledge I do have to agree.

All in all an informative book and well worth reading.

Publisher: Langdon Street Press

Once Upon a Time in England by Helen Walsh

This novel is set in the 70’s and 80’s in the Northern town of Warrington and folllows the lives of a mixed race family: The Fitzgeralds.

My initial thoughts were what a beautiful writing style and straight away I wondered where this story would lead for Robbie and Susheela. Reading further on I was surprised the direction the book took and about 100 pages in I wasn’t sure where the story was heading at all, but oh my goodness 200 pages in and I was totally hooked – I began to feel it was like car crash reading though. It feels like one of the most miserable but enchanting tales I’ve ever read.

Half way in I was finding this quite a depressing read and I was waiting for something positive to happen to lighten it up. I didn’t really like She or Robbie as characters and most stories that I really enjoy I find I connect with the characters and so I feel this book is unusual for me.

Moving, harrowing, disturbing, depressing and thrilling are the words I would use to describe this book. Utterly compelling reading through each time period. Well worth reading. Also the ending was not completely a negative experience. I would definitely read more by this author.

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd

The Teahouse on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens

Synopsis from FantasticFiction:

The old tea house on Mulberry Street in Belfast hasn’t changed much over the years. But it’s about to bear witness to some significant transformations Daniel Stanley might make the most glorious deserts in the whole of Ireland, but he won’t support his wife Penny’s desire to have at least one bun in the oven. And the owners of Muldoon’s Tea Rooms are just two of the people inside hoping for change. Struggling artist Brenda sits penning letters to Nicholas Cage and dreaming of a better life. Sadie finds refuge from her diet and her husband’s infidelity in Daniel’s famous cherry cheesecake. Clare returns home from twenty years in New York, still cherishing the memory of the one night she truly loved and lost. And Penny herself discovers a secret from the past and a sexy estate agent very much in her present. They all want their lives to change but are they willing to face the consequences? And the possibility that you might not always be able to have your cake and eat it.

This was another author I had not read before and found her to be OK. The book is a bit disjointed. The characters don’t really mix – all of them led separate lives which did not connect.

However, I enjoyed the story. I found it interesting to discover what would happen to Penny as she tries to change her unhappy life, Sadie plots revenge on her cheating husband, Clare pines for and hunts down the love of her life and Brenda as she paints and longs for Nicholas Cage. There were more characters that I can’t even remember much about. There was just a little bit too much going on and it didn’t come together neatly.

All that said, I did read to the end and wanted to know what happened. Maybe the ending wasn’t too convincing but then that didn’t spoil the story too much.

This is an OK chick-lit book.

7/10

Head Over Heels by Jill Mansell

Synopsis from Amazon:

Jessie has kept the identity of her son Oliver’s father a secret for years. She’s stunned when she discovers that the man in question, actor Toby Gillespie, has just moved in next door. The truth’s about to come out.  One glance at Oliver, and a little mental arithmetic, and Toby has the situation sussed. Meeting the son he never knew he had is the shock of a lifetime. It’s a shock, too, for Toby’s wife, the beautiful Deborah, though she seems to take it in her stride. Would Deborah be so relaxed if she knew just how close Toby wants to get to the mother of his firstborn? As the attraction between them flares up again, Jessie just can’t see her way to a happy ending. But no one is quite what they seem, and there are more surprises to come…

This is the first Jill Mansell novel I have read, and I enjoyed it. The story stars Jessie, who for 21 years has kept the identity of Oliver’s father a secret. But that is revealed when Toby Gillespie, a celebrity shows up. He quickly works out that Oliver is his son, but that does not bother him nor his wife. However, what Deborah does not realise is that Toby is still in love with Jessie. But Deborah has secrets of her own – as do most of the people in this seemingly quiet village…

This was a gripping chick-lit novel. Mansell’s style of writing draws you in. You connect with the characters and want to know what surprises are in store. Some of them were predictible but others came as a surprise – Bernadette’s being one of them.

This is another book that I have read recently that has slated men. In this book they were playing away from home and expected their women to do everything for them.

The more I read of this book the more I wanted to find out what would happen. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any chick-lit lovers.

8/10

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

In a post-apocalyptic America, a man and his young son try to make the journey south, where they hope to find a life where they can do more than just survive.  At the moment, they are just about managing to stay alive in a barren world where houses and stores have been plundered and ruined, and every stranger they encounter is a very real threat.

This is an amazing book.  The relationship between the man and the boy – who remain unnamed throughout the novel – is totally believeable.  They are both all that the other has, and the man will do anything to protect his son, while the son puts all his faith and trust into his father.  The pair show the lengths that people will go to to survive, while still trying to hold onto their humanity; they also show the reserves of strength and thought that people find in such situations, where they are having to consider their every action and deed.

The bare landscape is also portrayed magnificently, and is frighteningly imaginable. The language is very clean, with no unnecessary words; the barren-ness of the prose reflects the barren-ness of the country.

I was drawn into this book from the very first pages, and didn’t want to put it down.  I was anxious to get to the end to find out what would be the fate of these two characters, but when I finished it, I wished that there was still more to read.

A very thought provoking novel that will stay with me for a long time – highly recommended.

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

Date of Publication: 1926 (my edition: 2001, Cold Springs Press)

Number of Pages: 239

Synopsis (from back cover): Lud-in-the-Mist, the capital city of the small country Dorimare, is a port at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple has its origin beyond the Debatable Hills to the west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. In the days of Duke Aubrey, some centuries earlier, fairy things had been looked upon with reverence, and fairy fruit was brought down the Dapple and enjoyed by the people of Dorimare. But after Duke Aubrey had been expelled from Dorimare by the burghers, the eating of fairy fruit came to be regarded as a crime, and anything related to Fairyland was unspeakable. Now, when his son Ranulph is believed to have eaten fairy fruit, Nathaniel Chanticleer, the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, finds himself looking into old mysteries in order to save his son and the people of his city.

Review: This is a very delightful story, and one that meets every reader’s expectations of what should happen. In terms of good versus evil, right versus wrong, innocent versus guilty, every expectation is met. One may think that this sort of predictability would make the story dull and stale, but in fact, it elevates the story to a higher plane.

One of the most important themes in Lud-in-the-Mist is the unreality of our reality. Life is a story that we have control over. If we have control, why shouldn’t the innocent be vindicated and the guilty punished? Mirrlees points out, rather uncomfortably, that we has humans, choose to believe in what we believe in, but nothing is at all certain. Is Fairyland a myth, or our all-important belief in Law and Order actually a myth? Our hold on reality is tenuous at best, and in order to regain control, sometimes we must choose to believe in things once cast aside, which is exactly what Nathaniel Chanticleer does.

One of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, wrote the foreword to Lud-in-the-Mist writes that this book “is, most of all, a book about reconciliation – the balancing and twining of the mundane and the miraculous.” Mirrlees achieves this balancing act superbly, and she deserves a much higher place among the ranks of modern fantasy writers. I recommend this book to any fan of fantasy, or to anyone looking for a great story that helps to disrupt the monotony of daily life.

One warning: the Cold Springs Press edition, which is the most common, is fraught with typos. Please be patient when reading.

Rating: 8/10

The Painter of Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

This book tells the story of Pan Yuliang, a young Chinese orphan girl, who in 1913, when she is 14 years old, is sold by her opium addicted, heavily in debt uncle, to a brothel in Wuhu.  After spending two horrific years at the brothel, under the watchful eye of the manager, known as Godmother, Yuliang manages to escape when a young Government Official named Pan Zanhua, rescues her and takes her away.  Yuliang discovers that she has a flair for painting, and wants to cultivate her new found talent.  However, she discovers that she is living in dangerous times for a female artist who wants to push boundaries…

 

I enjoyed this book very much.  Pan Yuliang was a real person, but this book is not intended so much as a biography, as a novel based on Yuliang’s life.  The writing is beautiful – as artistic and enjoyable as the work of Yuliang herself.  The main character is entirely believable – portrayed as a woman in conflict with the traditional standards of the society she lives in, but who also loves her country very much.  While she is not always portrayed as a likeable person, she is always deserving of admiration, and I found it impossible not to root for her.

This is the first full length novel from Jennifer Cody Epstein, and it is eloquently written.  It manages to be descriptive, yet never boring.  The story moves along at a fair pace, but never feels hurried.  I will await more work by this author, with great interest.

(NB: My copy of this book is called The Painter of Shanghai, but it also appears to have ben widely published under the name The Painter from Shanghai).

Pictures of You by Jane Elmor

Pictures of You tells the story of three different women, two with an obvious link, and one that doesn’t fit until the final few pages.

The book actually starts with a mysterious prologue that makes little sense at this point, but which is referred back at the end. We are then introduced to Luna, in 2003, strangely enough having sex in a cupboard, during her father’s funeral! It does sound a little odd, but it does start to make sense as the book progresses.

Luna lives in London with her boyfriend, and they are both artists. They have always been happy, until Luna attends the funeral of her estranged father. It stirs a yearning to find out more, about her past and her family, and also about her future. Through some photos that her father took when younger, she starts to wonder more about the life her mother led when younger.

We are then taken back to 1970, where we learn about Angie’s past – Angie being Luna’s mother. These chapters are cleverly interspaced, exposing Luna’s incorrect assumptions about her mother and her past, and what actually happened. Angie’s story tells a fascinating tale of life in a commune, and a changing view of the world.

Between these two stories is the tale of Nat, a teenage mum living in the 90s. There appears to be no connection with the other two women, and it gives a bleak and frightening insight into her life.

Luna and Angie’s stories slowly come together, as they both take their very separate journeys. The older Angie becomes more interesting as you discover what she has been through, and Luna shows that not everything is black and white.

Towards the end we discover Nat’s link into the overall story. It does feel a little out of place, but her story does add to the book – I think views will be divided on that aspect.

Overall, this is a rather clever book, as the stories come together. It can be confusing at the beginning, and the content, especially during Angie’s stay at the commune, may not suit everyone. It has, however, stayed with me, and I am now  interested in the author’s previous books. It’s one you may just have to try for yourself.

Pictures of You is published by panmacmillan 3/7/09 £7.99

In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde

The temperature is over 100. The rapids are some of the largest in North America. Water levels are rising. And JT Maroney, veteran river guide, is leading his 125th trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.

For the next two weeks, his 13 passengers – strangers, mostly – will paddle, row, swim, ride the rapids, eat gourmet meals, sleep under the stars, and learn a lot about geology. They’ll learn a lot about each other, too – perhaps more than they want to know. Allegiances form, and likewise dissolve, in the course of an afternoon. JT’s decision on the first day to adopt a stray dog further complicates the group dynamics, leading to a series of fateful mishaps, one of which will alter the course of many lives.

This a perfect summer read, with a character driven plot, and a fascinating setting. It’s obviously well researched, and I wasn’t surprised to learn that Elisabeth has not only made the trip herself, but she also done it as an assistant. This research is evident in the telling of the story, as you can almost imagine yourself there, taking that journey with them.

A river trip also provides an ideal opportunity to bring together many varied characters.. which leads to some interesting individual stories, interactions, and outcomes. I won’t go into details about these, but I’m certain that you’ll have your favourite by the end of the book – there are definitely one or two who haven’t left me since reading!

There is a major crisis during the trip (personally I worked it out quite early, but thought that by the end it was well handled), but Elisabeth doesn’t try to fall back on making this a thriller.. there’s no need for a murder or anything similar. The book is all about the characters, and the journey.. both the physical river one, and their own personal ones.

Highly recommend for your suitcase this summer, allowing you to take a holiday within a holiday!

In the Heart of the Canyon is published by panmacmillan 3/7/09 £7.99

Elisabeth Hyde’s official site