'The Paris Wife' by Paula McLain

The Paris Wife, Paula McLain (3.5)

If you enjoyed the movie ‘Midnight in Paris’, this book will have a special attraction for you.  It is a novel based on Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage, as told through the eyes of Hadley, his first wife.  They meet in the US, but immediately head to Paris after their wedding to start their life and his writing career.  The characters in their life are many of the writers that were highlighted in ‘Midnight in Paris’ such as Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I am not a huge fan of historical fiction as it blurs reality and the reader is easily swayed to believe all words and actions really happened.  In this case, Paula McLain obviously made some assumptions with day-to-day occurrences, but she is benefited by a wealth of documents (letters and memoirs) from the two main people.  Not only was Hemingway prolific during this time, but also he was often autobiographical (‘The Sun Also Rises’) and followed up with a memoir.  While Hemingway’s writing can be admired, his personal life (4 wives, mental illness and suicide) is not impressive.  I’ve never been particularly interested in him as a person and he did not redeem himself at the end of this book, but I did find the beginning of his marriage touching and interesting.  As with ‘Midnight in Paris’ you find yourself yearning for that simpler time when you could sail to Paris, live on little to no salary and take a train to Switzerland for a few weeks of skiing to clear your head!

'Jamrach's Menagerie' by Carol Birch

Jamrach’s Menagerie, Carol Birch (3.5)

This book is a combination of an adventure story and a coming of age story.  It has been on several 'Best Book of 2011' lists and looked to be something quite different.  While I found it unique and interesting to read, the tone changed from almost whimsical in the face of darkness (Jaffy, the street urchin, survives a meeting with an escaped tiger on the streets of London with a feeling of magical intervention) to horribly tragic (as the shipwrecked crew of a dragon-chasing ship turn to cannibalism).  It felt like a let down and something of a betrayal to the reader.  A few authors can change their tone throughout and are considered to masterful writers.  I cannot pinpoint why, but I felt that Ms. Birch falls just short of that.  Maybe there is an element that needs to stay constant to pull you through; I’m just not sure.  I did like the colorful characters and unique story telling, in general.  But I was hoping the good feelings I had at various parts of the book would overwhelm the sadness I was left with at the end. This did not happen and I was left somewhat unsatisfied.

Book club book: 'Little Bee' by Chris Cleave

Little Bee, Chris Cleave (3.5)

‘Little Bee’ is the type of book one can’t discuss too much for fear of giving away major plot details that are best learned by the reader. The group had a long discussion about the various characters and plot points.  What I can say is that Little Bee is the protagonist who is a Nigerian teenager.  We start with her in an immigrant detention center in England.  She is released with no papers and needs to find somewhere to go. She has a business card of a man she met on a beach in Nigeria.  We have no idea how they know each other, but the story is revealed in a forward and backward telling.  It’s quite extraordinary and involves what appears to be a moral choice. While we all agreed that Little Bee is an interesting character, most of us found the rest of the characters quite unlikable. We even had a healthy argument on who was the most despicable! There were also some issues with plot believability towards the end of the book (back to the despicability – ‘would a mother really do that??’ was asked on several occasions). While we didn’t love the book for those various reasons, we did have to admit that it generated a good discussion.  One almost had the feeling that Mr. Cleave specifically wrote this book for book clubs (someone who wanted to attract Oprah’s attention?), given it’s controversial nature and the fact that the kindle version ended at 80% and the last 20% was devoted to questions of the author and book club type ‘thought’ questions. It’s an interesting read, not a long read, but be sure you know someone else who has read it, as you will want to discuss it with someone!

'In The Garden of Beasts' by Erik Larson

In the Garden of Beasts, Erik Larson (4)

Erik Larson writes very readable non-fiction.  He has done it again with this telling of the lives of the American Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, and his daughter, Martha, through 1932-1937.  As you likely know, these years were the incubation stage of Hitler’s agenda and power.  It is very interesting to follow events unfold through the eyes of ‘foreigners’ living in the capital.  While they begin trying to be positive and support the isolationist behavior of many Americans (including Roosevelt and his secretary of state who was far more worried about Germany paying debts than the social situation), they could not ignore many of the telling signs of the erosion of rights and privileges of every German.  One of the biggest surprises to me was that Hitler was not the top power in Germany during this time.  He was Chancellor, but Hindenburg was the President and controlled the regular army (the Reichswehr).  There was also Ernst Rohm, who ran the SA (the SS were an elite group within the SA and the Gestapo were also separate).  Hitler was very powerful by 1932, but he still was not all-powerful until Hindenburg died in 1934.  As many books (fiction and non-fiction) I’ve read about the war, I found it interesting to read about the time prior, particularly from an outsider’s view.  We always strive to learn from history in order not to repeat such horrible events.  WWII and the actions of the Nazis are some of the hardest to understand.  I don’t know if the lessons and signs as illustrated in this book are clear enough to avoid, if anything it was rather scary to read how subtle they were to many people.

'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline

Happy New Year! Here is to a delightful 2012 full of many good books :). 

I wanted to let you all know that I've added an Aug/Sept/Oct archive page and moved the corresponding posts to it. I also added the viewable comments on the bottom of the main page. Apparently there is no way to have them below each post on the main page without requiring a 'click', so Blogger makes you add a 'gadget' at the bottom of the page.

Hopefully you will feel comfortable commenting - thanks to Diane for some great comments. This was always intended to be a conversational blog, as much as possible!

Here is my first, great book of 2012:

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (4.5)

I must say, I really enjoyed reading this book! Several times, while reading it, I told S ‘you are going to love this’. That being said, my caveat for my rating is that not everyone will likely agree with me. Ernest Cline seems to be a mix of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Cory Doctorow. If you like these authors, this book is for you. The story is set in the future where many people spend the majority of their time in the OASIS, an on-line world where they can live and function through their avatar. The inventor of OASIS, a Steve Jobs like figure, has died. As his legacy, he has established a game within OASIS that invites all to find the keys and gates by doing tasks with the final goal being an ‘egg’. Whoever finds this will get all of his enormous fortune and be the ultimate owner of the OASIS.  This is an exciting quest story that follows a handful of youth as they fight their way through the challenges while trying to stay ahead of the evil conglomerate that fiscally enslaves users to help them win. The story is exciting and taut; an extra joy for those of us in our 40’s comes from the constant references to 80’s pop culture (movies, music and arcade games) that were shockingly familiar.  Not only did he quote many of my favorite movie lines, but even referenced some favorite obscure characters. For those of you who like cyberpunk and pine for 80’s pop culture, enjoy!