2010/11/28

Review: A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses


A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' HousesA Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses by Anne Trubek

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Do not underestimate the importance of the word "skeptic" in the title of this book. Ms. Trubek makes it very clear from the beginning of this book that she doesn't understand why a dead author's fans enjoy visiting their homes that have been turned into shrines. I would suggest, however, that the word "guide" in the title be replaced with "journey", because that is what happens here. Do not be tempted to skip around the chapters to see what she has to say about Hemmingway's Idaho home before reading about her visit to Louisa Mae Alcott's Orchard House. This is not a guide book, but a narrative about how a literary academic discovers there is something to visiting the past, even if it's a completely falsified past as in the case of Twain's Hannibal, Missouri. Her comments in the first chapters may seem harsh and snarky, especially if you're someone who does like to see where *your favorite author goes here* lived and wrote, but don't stop reading. Eventually, she comes around to the realization that, just as there is more than one way to tell a story, there is more than one way to "loooooooove" literature. As the reader goes along with her on that discovery, they'll also get some interesting trivia and a visitor's hints about the places she visits.



View all my reviews

2010/11/22

Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret


The Invention of Hugo CabretThe Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this entirely because I've heard some buzz about the movie being made from it, supposedly using 3D because it enhances the story, not just the box office. I wondered how a story set in 1931 Paris, about an orphan who lives in a train station and keeps busy setting the old-fashioned clocks while trying to restore something as archaic as an automatron could possibly need the flash and zoom of 3D filmmaking. What I didn't know is that this is also the story of the birth of films made to entertainment and it interweaves some of the classic scenes of the very first movies. There is a connection between the mechanics of Hugo's life and the dream of telling stories through moving pictures, and I now fully understand why the newest technology will work its own kind of magic with this story.



About the book itself, it's a graphic novel that knows there's a reason graphic is the first word in the genre. The choice to border all the pages of the book in black lends to the time period feel of the etching style illustrations as well as making this a very unique looking book. The characters are classic children's book characters, there are the helpful adults, the evil adults, and the adults that must learn through the eyes of a child. No, that's not very original, but this is a kid's book, and there's a reason that sort of story is told over and over - it needs to be told!



View all my reviews

2010/11/20

Review: Full Dark, No Stars


Full Dark, No StarsFull Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The first piece, 1922, is nice piece of Rural Gothic, something I don't think I've read from King before. Of course there's some supernatural goings on on, used for what reads more like easy story telling than good story telling, but it's far and away the best story in the book. Big Driver and A Good Marriage use exhaustive amounts of internal dialogs, so much in the former that I really began to dislike the main character. Fair Extension is short and to the point (yes, really, Stephen King! Wonder of wonders!), but lacks the kind of staying power that, in the Afterword King says is his goal. Speaking of the Afterword, that;s really the best part of the book. King excels at writing about writing, and there's a line of advice there about writing dark fiction that every writer should have on their wall:



"... if you're going into a very dark place..... then you should take a bright light, and shine it on everything. If you don't want to see it, why in God's name would you dare the dark at all?"




View all my reviews

2010/11/18

Review: At Home: A Short History of Private Life


At Home: A Short History of Private LifeAt Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first Bryson book I've read, and now I understand why there's a flutter of excitement every time he publishes a new book on any subject. He does have a gift for taking loads and loads of information and arranging it in a story like manner. The book has a "stumbled upon this when I was looking for that" feel to it, a tone that any research junkie will love and hate, but mostly love. Bryson takes us on a tour of how the homes we in the English speaking part of the world (one the few disappointments I had with the book) came to be the shape and materials that they are by touring through his own home. The trip includes many side trips, such as how concrete invented for American canals made basements possible and the many discovers made by under-employed rectors in 19th century England. The book is absolutely packed with information about when certain pieces of furniture came in and out of style, how the uses of rooms changed not only with income but because of cultural influences as well. In fact, there's so much information that at times is seems that Bryson was so intent on covering it all, he glosses when he might have dug deeper, and then sometimes digs so deep he has to remind the reader what subject he started with. The book is a bit uneven in that respect, and I can only hope he or someone else will look in to doing for the rest of the world's homes what he's done for England and the American colonies in this book.



View all my reviews

2010/11/11

Review: Muldoon, a True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten Rectory


Muldoon, a True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten RectoryMuldoon, a True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten Rectory by Rocco A. Facchini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is so much more than a first person account of possibly paranormal activity in the lovely old gothic style rectory at the now non-existent Saint Charles Borromeo Church. It's also a memoir of a former priest's first years answering what he believed to be his calling, serving under one of those awful demagogue priest that sound like a stereotype, but as this book shows, really do exist. There's also a lot of history about Chicago and how the Catholic immigrant demographic helped make the city what it is today, from swampland through the 1950s. The actual ghost sightings are few, but what comes between, telling Bishop Muldoon's life story, including the crazy zealot that kept him from what might have been his highest aspiration is one of those great "every body has a story" stories that read like fiction but are totally true. The writing style is so natural, I suspect that most of this book was transcribed from an oral narrative of a natural born public speaker. Each chapter ends with a epilogue, notes on things that couldn't be verified and/or the personal reaction of the author to the events in the narrative. In doing that, the author draws a clear line between fact and opinions, something a lot better known works of non-fiction fail to do.



View all my reviews

2010/11/10

Review: Van Gogh, Encore


Van Gogh, EncoreVan Gogh, Encore by John A. Karr

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Karr shows us the famous and infamous moments of Van Gogh's life as an artist through a 21st century filter, and creates a contemporary fiction to fill in the rest. The people that we know of that played a large part in Van Gogh last years come with him, and play similar roles as they did in the real story. What Karr does best in this book is creates the inner dialog of the mind that "saw" Starry Night, Night Cafe, Wheatfield with Crows and all those other magical recreations of light and color and movement. There are many theories of what was wrong with Vincent Van Gogh, what illness or disability caused his seizures and depressions. Instead of trying to explain the problem Karr allows it to be a tool, the very important tool of bringing those masterpieces to life. This is when this book is the most readable, when the "why" is forgotten and there's no attempt to make modern sense of a man who didn't do very well into his own time, let alone ours.



View all my reviews

2010/11/08

Review: The Kitchen House


The Kitchen HouseThe Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I lost track how many times I almost gave up reading this book. As a historical, there's something a little new in the book - the life of an Irish indentured servant in a slave holder household. Unfortunately, it's used more as a gimmick, with no exploration of how the born to slavery characters would really feel about this white girl who's placed on equal ground with them. Everyone else in the story is a character: the brutal over seer, the sadistic tutor, the weak but good hearted wife of the plantation owner, and of course, the fair minded slave owner who of course is also the father of one of the slaves who he loves dearly, but darn those societal pressures, he just can't forget that she's property. Perhaps it was a mistake reading this book so closely to having read All Souls Rising, where there's no romanticizing the life of a slave. But even then, I would have had problems with cardboard characters who remember their past at a dramatic rather than a natural pace and share information when it suits the author, not when the story would demand it.



View all my reviews

2010/11/04

Review: The Last Witchfinder: A Novel


The Last Witchfinder: A Novel The Last Witchfinder: A Novel by James Morrow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A book narrated by another book. That threw me off at first, as the narrating books own voice is a little on the stodgy side. But it would be, thatbook is over 300 years old. But it turns out that Newton's PhilosophiƦ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a natural born story teller, and as the story of Jennet Stearne's journey from student to world changing author progresses, so does the narrator's side story move along, slyly pointing out how books have changed the world. Jennet's family's business is witchhunting, but like so many children, she decides to fight rather than join. Her story is a bit Moll Flanders, a bit Forest Gump, and I mean that as a compliment. I think there might be some historical inaccuracy in how now matter where Jannett goes, her past is only held against her by the most evil of antagonists, but beyond that, this is a fun and intelligent look at the power of reason against an unreasonable world.



View all my reviews

2010/11/01

Review: The Widower's Tale


The Widower's TaleThe Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Glass weaves together many current political themes: ecoterrorism, illegal immigration, gay rights, and healthcare; throws in some instances of intellectual snobbery and agism; and even takes a stab at the death of hardcopy communication. That's a lot for one book, and yes, it IS too much. Just because a writer is good at writing from multiple perspectives (and Glass is, there's no arguing that, in my opinion) doesn't mean they have to see how far they can take that skill in one book. All of the plot lines are tied to the Darling family: patriarch Percy is the grounding character, and in the end everything does come back to him. However, some of the story threads are stretched pretty thin, while others are cut off and then picked up when it's convenient to tie up the loose ends. Perhaps it's simply a case of too much of a good thing, half of this book would have been better told by itself, either half. Together, it diminishes the whole.



View all my reviews

Review: Sarah's Key


Sarah's KeySarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Intriguing historical fiction with an opportunity to shed a light on an event that,as the author points out, the participants tried to forget. Unfortunately, the writing is so shallow that it was hard to not get angry at the author for using such an important story to tell the really, really, really childish contemporary half of the book. The characters in both stories are flat and unoriginal, some make it all the way to stereotype level. The only thing that kept this from being a 1 star book for me was that the information dumps were very informative. Faint praise, but it's all I've got for this book.



View all my reviews