Review: My Man Jeeves

My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse is one of those books that everyone says is funny, but I'm always suspicious that it actually is. So, get this - it is! My Man Jeeves is a collection of eight short stories by Wodehouse -- half feature the perfect* butler Jeeves and his employer, Bertie Wooster, while the others are about Reggie Pepper, an early prototype for Wooster. While I definitely preferred the Jeeves stories over the Pepper ones, the whole book is quite amusing. And short! Just the perfect thing to read between diaper changes and late night feedings, when your brain is too frazzled to read anything more serious. Or maybe that's just me.

Buy My Man Jeeves on Amazon or download free at Project Gutenberg.

*Edited for bad writing!

Review: The Cookbook Collector

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman is about two sisters, one a successful, practical-minded business woman, and one a somewhat flighty perpetual grad student, as they navigate life and love during the dot-com boom/bust and the 9/11 attacks. It is, I believe, a modern day retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (not having read the Austen, I'll take everyone's word but the plotline seems very Austen-y to me.) This is the second book I've read by Goodman, after Kaaterskill Falls, and I much preferred it to the earlier work. Maybe that's because it is set in Berkeley, CA and Cambridge, MA, two places with which I am quite familiar.

I read this book for my book club and we had an interesting discussion about it. One of the women in my group had experiences that were very similar to the book's main characters - MIT, Berkeley, worked at a start-up, and so on. She said that at first, she liked that someone had written a book about these experiences, but as the book went on, it was all just a little off - just not quite right about what that time and places were like.

I didn't really love The Cookbook Collector in totality - it tried to do a lot with its big cast and broad scope and just ended up being spotty. But there were pieces - little moments, like someone eating a peach - that I did love. It was a worthwhile book, though not one I'd call a classic.

The paperback will be released on July 12, 2011. Pre-order The Cookbook Collector: A Novel or buy The Cookbook Collector: A Novel on Amazon now.

Review: Life from Scratch

Life From Scratch by Melissa Ford is about a woman starting life over. Rachel Goldman feels helpless - she's divorced, on leave from her unsatisfying job, and lonely in her little NYC apartment. She doesn't even know how to make an egg! So she starts at the beginning: she will learn how to cook and venture out on a few dates. To her surprise, the blog she writes to track her progress is a hit. But life is complicated and Rachel can't make herself forget her ex as easily as she can teach herself to make dinner.

This was a really charming, sweet read. Rachel is a likable heroine and the author has done an good job of making her and the other characters - even the Latin love interest (I pictured Javier Bardem!) - fully fleshed out, while keeping the tone very light. I also liked the structure of the book, with snippets from Rachel's blog at the beginning of each chapter (though I was surprised that the author didn't incorporate recipes into the book as well - maybe that would have been overkill, but it would have fit).

While Life From Scratch isn't a heavy book, it is an endearing story that I think many readers will enjoy. I look forward to the promised sequel when it comes out.

Buy Life from Scratch by Melissa Ford from the publisher, at B&N.com or on Amazon.

Review: The Good Thief

I finally finished reading The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti recently, having put it down several times to read something else, but not having quite given up on it. I've read many positive reviews of this book. I mean, hey, The New York Times loved it. So I wanted to keep going. But I just didn't click with this book. I thought it was, to be honest, odd, with a confusing ending.

The Good Thief is about twelve year-old Ren who is missing his left hand and was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. One day Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother, and his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand and his parents persuades the monks at the orphanage to give him Ren. But Benjamin is just a thief, looking for an apprentice. Or maybe he's not, and there's more to this story.

If you like Dickens, I think you'll enjoy this book more than I did. For me, there were just too many coincidences, too many quirks. The elements are all there, I just didn't really like the way it was put together.

Buy The Good Thief: A Novel on Amazon.

Teaser Tuesday: 7/27

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

Today's teaser is from Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

They hanged her, as the did murderesses then, on the roof of the Horsemonger Lane Gaol. Mrs. Sucksby stood and watched the drop, from the window of the room I was born in.

Teaser (almost) Tuesday 6/15

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

I know its not quite Tuesday yet, but because of Nerds Heart YA, I want to post this early. I'm sure it's Tuesday somewhere in the world already.

Today's teaser is from The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti. Here are the book's first lines:

The man arrived after morning prayers. Word spread quickly that someone had come, and the boys of Saint Anthony's orphanage elbowed each other and strained to catch a glimpse as he unhitched his horse and led it to the trough for drinking.

Friday Update 6/11

Most Fridays, I update my library and share what new books I bought or received during the past week.


I got my second book for the Nerds Heart YA tournament: Donut Days by Lara Zielin. (The other book was The World is Mine.) Stayed tuned for next week, when Angela of Bookish Blather and I reveal our pick to move on in the tourney!

I also got Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl. It came from a friend who shares my love of food books ( I had lent him one of Reichl's other books, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, which we both loved.)

In other book news: As I'm sure you've heard, The New Yorker is publishing a 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. Looks like a pretty interesting list, but I was most interested in one name: Daniel Alarcón. Congratulations, Daniel! As you may recall, I reviewed War By Candlelight quite some time ago and enjoyed it. I wasn't sure until I read the New Yorker interview with him that I was allowed to mention this, but I have gotten a sneak peek at Alarcón's next project and it looks awesome. From the interview:

I’m in the final stages of a graphic novel, with the artist Sheila Alvarado, adapting a short story of mine called “City of Clowns,” which appeared in The New Yorker in 2003 [and is my favorite story from War By Candlelight - Lorin]. It will be published this summer in Peru, Mexico, and Chile.

I hope it will be published in English at some point as well, since I don't read Spanish. But the illustrations look great. All you Spanish speakers out there should look out for it.

On a personal note, I know I've been a spotty blogger recently. Because of the tendinitis in my arm, I've mostly stopped using the computer at night. This means I only do any writing on the weekends or on my lunch break at work. And when I'm busy at work or out of town for a weekend, that means blogging is the lowest thing on my priority list. Many thanks to all of you for continuing to stay tuned, despite the lack of posts.

Happy weekend!

Review: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

Before Truly Plaice was even born she was an oddity in her small upstate New York town. As her pregnant mother grew larger and larger, the townspeople placed bets on just how big the baby boy would be. When Truly was born instead, her ill mother dying in the process, it sent her father into a tailspin of depression. Unfit to raise the enormous young girl and her dainty, pretty older sister, Serena Jane, Truly's father dies not long after. While Serena Jane is taken in by the Pastor's wife, Truly is sent to live on the run down Dyerson farm.


Truly and her sister's lives split dramatically then. Serena Jane is adored by the town and, less fortunately, becomes the focus of Bob Bob Morgan's desire. Bob Bob is the next Morgan doctor in a long line of them and he is just a right bastard. When Serena Jane finally leaves him - and Bobbie, their young son - he bullies Truly into coming to live with him and watch Bobbie. Things go from bad to worse for Truly then, but eventually she finds a way out. And along the way, she finds love and helps her nephew to do so as well.

I really enjoyed reading The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker. Truly was a fascinating character. Her life was just different enough to be remarkable but also familiar in a way that I think anyone would relate to. It helped, I think, that the book is written from her omniscient perspective. Even though she shouldn't have known everything she talked about, it was interesting to get her take on everything from the Morgan family history to some of Bob Bob's more vile acts.

There is one thing in the book that really bothered me. Near the end of the book, a certain character (I won't say who, to avoid spoiling anyone) dies unexpectedly, indirectly as a result of Truly's actions. I felt like Truly's reaction to this was very blase, considering how much this person had meant to her. I definitely found myself thinking about this after I finished the book and if any of you have read it, I'd be interested in hearing your take.

That said, I definitely recommend this book. In fact, I'm thinking about picking it for my next book club selection!

Buy The Little Giant of Aberdeen County on Amazon.

Review: Cloud Atlas

I have never gotten as many comments about a book I have bought or checked out of the library than Cloud Atlas. I'm not talking about comments on my review of a book, but comments on a post where I said I was planning on reading a book. Now that I've actually read the book, I can see why.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is incredibly strange, totally different, and really wonderful.

Cloud Atlas is six loosely connected stories - the first a journal of a sad sack clerk crossing the Pacific in 1850, then jumping forward in time to a bisexual grifter/composer in post-WWI Belgium, jumping again to a journalist in 70's California, to a hapless vanity publisher in England, to a condemned clone in futuristic Korea, and ending with a man in post-apocalyptic Hawai'i. Then, wonderfully, we begin to go back again, finishing each story, and learning a bit more about what connects these characters.

Some of the stories have a happy ending, some left me teary-eyed. Each was markedly different from the next in tone and setting. Despite the fact that I usually don't like short story collections (which this is not, but it resembles), I loved this book. I highly recommend it.

Buy Cloud Atlas: A Novel on Amazon.

Teaser Tuesday 5/4

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

Today's teaser is from Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell. It is my next book club book, so I just picked it up at the library, but I haven't started reading it yet. Here are the first two sentences:

Beyond the Indian hamlet, upon a forlorn strand, I happened upon a trail of recent footprints. Through rotting kelp, sea cocoa-nuts & bamboo, the tracks led me to their maker, a White man, his trowzers & Pea-jacket rolled up, sporting a kempt beard & an outsized Beaver, shoveling & sifting the cindery sand with a teaspoon so intently that he noticed me only after I had hailed him from ten yards away.

I love the word kempt - one hears it so rarely, especially to how much we hear in comparison to unkempt.

Review: Maynard & Jennica

I picked up Maynard & Jennica on a whim at my local bookstore and bought it after reading the first several pages. It was a clever take on a "boy meets girl" story, as the story is told in multiple first person narratives from, not just the lead characters, but also their friends, families, attorney, and various other random people.

On a sweltering day in the summer of 2000, musician and filmmaker Maynard Gogarty spots the beautiful Jennica Green on an uptown number 6 train. Though their initial meeting is brief, when fate next brings them together romance ensues. And as with most things in life, everyone has an opinion.

I thought the format of this book was unusual and enjoyable, but I didn't quite click with the characters. I think this was because the story cut back and forth between everyone so much, meaning we didn't spend too much time with any one character. Then again, Maynard, actually, annoyed me a bit, with his old fashioned clothes and lack of common sense, so I probably wouldn't wanted to have spent an entire book in his head. Still, I found the book to be charming and fun to read.

My favorite thing about it, though, was quite personal - I really liked the very California touches in the book. While it is mostly set on the east coast, in New York particularly, Jennica grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and talks about California life quite a bit. Clearly the author, Rudolph Delson, is a California native. Only a local would think of some of the funny touches he includes - making fun of the Nut Tree, for example.

The history is, between the world wars, developers started cutting down the fruit trees in Santa Clara Valley and subdividing the orchards. So by the time I got to high school, in 1986, you could tell the age of the shade trees in San Jose by the age of the houses. Like, "That's an Eichler from the fifties, so that maple must be in its thirties." Eichler was this notorious developer, to be mentioned only with distaste. It was a point of ridiculous pride in my family that our house was built in 1924 and was in the Rose Garden District, which Eichler hardly touched. And that our house had wood-frame windows, not aluminum. And that instead of having a swimming pool in our backyard, we had cherry trees, and a cement fountain of a shepherd pulling a thorn from his foot that came from a 1920s Sears, Roebuck catalogue. I knew about all this before I knew how to multiply, about Eichlers and wood-frame windows and fruit trees versus shade trees.

These days Eichlers are in style, but I read this passage to my husband, a Bay Area native, and he laughed at how true it was.

I think Maynard & Jennica would appeal to anyone who likes their love stories a little bit different.

Buy Maynard and Jennica on Amazon.

Teaser Tuesday 2/9

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

From Maynard and Jennica by Rudolph Delson:

"You can't let David be your lawyer, Arnie. Why do you think he's going to do a better job with keeping you out of jail than he did with advising you on that contract?"

Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is about the lives of the residents of an upscale French apartment house, focusing on the frumpy, introverted caretaker Renée and the precocious twelve-year-old Paloma, who has decided to kill herself at age 13. The book is told through the diaries each of them keep, cutting back and forth between their viewpoints. It felt, to me, like a very French book. Not just because of the frequent use of French words, but because the culture it described felt very different than my own.


At first, I didn't really like Renée. She is obsessed with the class differences between her and the apartment residents. I couldn't figure out why she hid behind the facade she had created, pretending to be an uneducated peasant when she was actually an intelligent, sophisticated woman. Without giving anything away, though, once I found out more about her past and how she came to make the decisions she made, my heart really opened up to Renée and I liked the character quite a bit.

As for Paloma: anyone who read my review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie may have noticed that one of my least favorite character types is the precocious child. Reading her parts was an uphill battle for me to begin with. Sadly, I really didn't like Paloma any more at the end of the book than I did at the beginning.

I read Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog for my book club. I'll be honest: I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't needed to. It took me a really long time to get into this book. I was warned that it started out slow, but I would say that I didn't start to warm up to it until about page 150 (of only 325 pages).

This is not to say that there weren't some great moments in this book. The diaries by Paloma and Renée each have their own distinct voice, but both have passages that had me reaching for my little flags, to mark the spot. Paloma's diaries drip with sarcasm - the architect in me particularly liked this from her, describing dinner at a fancy restaurant:

When the French want to get away from the traditional "Empire" style with burgundy drapes and gilt galore, they go for hospital style. You sit on these Le Corbusier chairs ("By Corbu," says Maman) and you eat out of these white plates with very Soviet-bureaucracy geometrical shapes, and you dry your hand in the restroom on towels so thin that they don't absorb a thing.

In contrast, I felt like Renée's diary was more measured, and while not necessarily softer, more willing to see the good and bad in life. More grown-up, I guess.

...I witness the birth on paper of sentences that have eluded my will and appear in spite of me on the sheet, teaching me something that I neither knew nor thought I might want to know. The painless birth, like an unsolicited proof, gives me untold pleasure, and with neither toil nor certainty but the joy of frank astonishment I follow the pen that is guiding and supporting me.

I don't really have a recommendation for this one, whether you should read it or not. If you have read it, I would love to hear your opinion.

Buy The Elegance of the Hedgehog on Amazon.

Review: Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life by Roald Dahl is a collection of seven short stories written for adults, and originally published in magazines during the 40's. The stories are all centered on life in a country village, just after WWII, and follow the exploits of a small cast of characters. The star is Claud, a working class, good natured guy who is looking for an easy way to get ahead in life. Life in Dahl's stories can be sweet, but is just as frequently sour, and is always funny. If you've ever read Dahl's children's books to your kids and thought, This guy is weird and I love it, you'll get a kick out of Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.

Buy Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life on Amazon.

Review: Never Let Me Go

There are a lot of really spoiler-y book reviews out there for Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I will try very hard to not make this one of them. I was spoiled for this book and still thought it was incredibly powerful, but I think it would be even better to not know. So, what can I say that doesn't give too much away?

Set in England, Never Let Me Go is narrated by Kathy, a woman on the edge of a major life change, as she looks back on her past, especially her years at an exclusive boarding school with her friends Ruth and Tommy. The book builds up slowly. Kathy's story is mostly chronological, but she jumps around as memories come to her and we learn about where all three of them go as adults. As the story comes together, realization emerges of just who these people are and why they were at Hailsham.

This is an incredibly powerful book. I found it to be very moving and sad, but in a very subtle way. This isn't a weepy book, where I need to carry a box of Kleenex around with me while I read. Instead, I felt like a blanket of sadness was being pulled onto me, as I gradually realized the magnitude of Kathy's story. When the book was done, I put it down and sat quietly for a while, just absorbing what I'd read, and in the days since, I've thought about it several times. (This is actually my next book club book and I'm very disappointed that I will not be able to attend the meeting, as I would love to have a long conversation about Never Let Me Go with someone who's also read it.)

I highly recommend Never Let Me Go. It was one of the best books I've read so far this year, and will stay with me for a long time to come.

Buy Never Let Me Go on Amazon.

Never Let Me Go is by the author of Remains of the Day, and was a Man Booker Prize finalist.

Review: The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a pretty remarkable debut novel. It tells the story of a famous and reclusive author, Vida Winter, who hires a troubled young woman, Margaret Lea, to write her biography. The book consists of Vida telling Margaret her life story, and Margaret's research in finding out the truth behind Vida's story. Margaret has her own secrets, though, and she and Vida find themselves uncovering each other's stories. It is a real Gothic tale - spooky and strange - and draws on some of the great old Gothic romances, most especially Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

It took me awhile to get into this book. I read about the first third and then put it down for a week or two while I read some lighter fare. But once I picked it up again, I tore through to the ending, eager to know the end of Vida's story. I, for one, did not see the plot twist coming at all, and I even flipped back a few times once it was revealed to see if I could find any clues the author may have left in the earlier part of the story.

This book made splash when it came out a couple of years ago, so lots of other bloggers have already reviewed it. Here are a few:

Maw Book's Blog
Devourer of Books
The Book Lady's Blog

As you can see, I am not alone in enjoying this book. Book lovers and fans of books by the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen will particularly like this book.

Buy The Thirteenth Tale on Amazon.

Review: Home to Holly Springs

Back of the book description:

Readers of the nine bestselling Mitford novels have been captivated by Jan Karon’s “gift for illuminating the struggles that creep into everyday lives—along with a vividly imagined world” (People). They learned quickly that “after you’ve spent time in Mitford, you’ll want to come back” (Chicago Tribune). Millions eagerly awaited the publication of each novel, relishing the story of the bookish and bighearted Episcopal priest and the extraordinary fullness of his seemingly ordinary life.

Now, Jan Karon enchants us with the story of the newly retired priest’s spur-of-the-moment adventure. For the first time in decades, Father Tim returns to his birthplace, Holly Springs, Mississippi, in response to a mysterious, unsigned note saying simply: “Come home.” Little does he know how much these two words will change his life. A story of long-buried secrets, forgiveness, and the wonder of discovering new people, places, and depth of feeling, Home to Holly Springs will enthrall new readers and longtime fans alike.

I read most of Home to Holly Springs in one long afternoon, laying on the couch next to my husband, while rain poured down outside, and I drank a cup of tea. It was really the perfect way to experience this comforting, not-challenging, warm book. The follow-up to Karon's equally sweet and unchallenging Mitford series, Home to Holly Springs takes us on a tour of Father Tim's childhood hometown and history. There are new characters, more coincidences than you'd ever believe in real life, a lot of Bible-passage quoting and a few not-that-surprising surprises. But I just can't find it in me to be cynical when it comes to these books - I really enjoyed spending my rainy afternoon with Father Tim. I am glad that Karon is going to continue this new series and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Mitford books.

Buy Home to Holly Springs on Amazon.
Visit Jan Karon's Amazon store here.

Review: The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book

I read The Eyre Affair a few weeks ago and recently finished the sequel, Lost in a Good Book, so I thought it might be a good idea to review these together.



The Eyre Affair Amazon description:

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. … Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit [by Charles Dickens] and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that's just a prelude . . .

Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .

Lost in a Good Book Amazon description:

The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Jasper Fforde’s magnificent second adventure starring the resourceful, fearless literary sleuth Thursday Next. When Landen, the love of her life, is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction—the police force inside books. She is apprenticed to the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens’s Great Expectations, who grudgingly shows Thursday the ropes. And she gains just enough skill to get herself in a real mess entering the pages of Poe’s “The Raven.” What she really wants is to get Landen back. But this latest mission is not without further complications. Along with jumping into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

Reading the back of the book description for The Eyre Affair did not properly prepare me for reading this book. It is weird. In addition to the dodos, the Prose Portal and time travel, there are also random vampires, terrible (or terribly funny) puns everywhere and a crazy plot. It took me a while to decide what I thought about this book. But you know what? I really liked it. It’s a fun book to read – fast moving, lots of silliness, interesting main characters (though the secondary characters are pretty one dimensional), a satisfying ending. While I’m not sure it’s necessary in order to enjoy The Eyre Affair, I do love Jane Eyre, which added layer to my appreciation of The Eyre Affair.

Lost in a Good Book picks up where The Eyre Affair left off. It is very much a sequel in that I can’t really imagine someone reading Lost in a Good Book without having first read The Eyre Affair. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do think this book doesn’t quite stand on its own as well as the first one did. It is also clearly setting up for the next in the series, which annoys me a little. That said, it’s a fun book to read. Miss Havisham (yes, that one, with the musty wedding dress) is a hoot and while I’d never want to spend time with her in person, she’s a fun character.

All in all, I’m thrilled to have discovered a new author to enjoy. Jasper Fforde is a very creative writer and I look forward to reading more from him.

Buy The Eyre Affair on Amazon.
Buy Lost in a Good Book

Review: War by Candlelight

From the author’s website:

Something is happening around the globe: mass movements of peoples, dislocations of language and culture in the wake of war and economic crises —simply put, our world is changing.

As I previously mentioned, a neighbor of mine suggested that I read War by Candlelight, a book of short stories by Daniel Alarcón*. Actually, she suggested I read it about a year ago and lent me her copy. It fell to the bottom of my “to be read” pile and stayed there. I know it doesn’t really make sense, but I am always so apprehensive about reading a book that is recommended by a friend. And this was a book of short stories. I never read short stories.

The neighbor came over for dinner recently and I tried to give this book back to her, as I felt bad for keeping it for so long. When I told her that I had never gotten around to reading it, she grabbed the book out my hands and opened it to page 17, the first page of the story “city of clowns.” Read it tonight, she told me, you don’t even have to read the rest of the book, just read this story. Feeling chastised, after she left I sat down and read the story. Long story short, as you can guess, I loved the story. I finished it, and then flipped back to the first page of the book to read the rest of this collection.

As the quote at the top of this post alluded, and the title of the book more directly references, the overarching theme of this book is conflict. Much of it is real war, bloody and fought in jungles and streets. The rest is the quieter kind of crisis that takes place in our lives. I liked these stories more, to be honest. “City of clowns” is probably my favorite story in the book, though “third avenue suicide” and “a science for being alone” were also excellent, and quite moving. It’s the personal relationships that give these stories weight.

Globalization, movement and place are strings of themes that echo through these stories. It’s hard not to reference the author’s real life in light of this. As the biography and Q&A at the back of the book explain, Alarcón was born in Lima, Peru, raised in Birmingham, Alabama, educated many places, including Iowa, and now lives in Oakland, California. This is a man who knows what it is like to be new in town and to revisit a familiar town, only to find out it is no longer familiar.

Several of the stories suffered from what is a common complaint I have about short stories: too short! With such little space to write, these pieces felt like interesting sketches about a character or a place; they are evocative of mood but not much more. It will be interesting to read a longer work by the same author. Fortunately, Alarcón’s novel Lost City Radio was published in 2007, so we won’t have to wait.

Buy War By Candlelight on Amazon.

* In the interest of full disclosure, I need to share that I know Daniel Alarcón, albeit just in passing. He is also a neighbor of mine, though not one I have over for dinner. We’re more at the “say hello when we bump into each in the parking lot” level. But this review wasn’t spurred because of that. I didn’t have to review (or even finish) this book; I honestly liked it and wanted to share.

Wish List (3)

More books to put on my wishlist! Maybe I'll go pick one of these up this weekend with the gift card I got for Christmas.




84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, from the Book Lady's Blog

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had been looking forward to it since many of you recommended it as similar to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. ... I’d recommend it for anyone who loves books and bookish people.

Sounds like a nice book to read, you know?

The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, from The Literate Housewife Review

I cannot recommend this novel enough. It is a wonderful way to learn about the origins of Islam through the eyes of a complex and strong young girl and then woman.

I will probably get this one at the library instead of buying it, as I have read as many negative reviews as positive ones. But the concept intrigues me, and it's a somewhat controversial book, so I want to see what that's all about.

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers, from Pop Culture Junkie

I have no idea how to express my feelings about this book. It's powerful, emotional, important, and really spoke to me.

I actually read the first chapter of this book online, thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. I, alas, did not get the book, though, when I requested it, and actually kind of forgot about it until I read Alea's review.

Buy 84, Charing Cross Road on Amazon.
Buy The Jewel of Medina on Amazon.
Buy Cracked Up to Be on Amazon.