The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder. We sold over forty copies of the book, which was very pleasant, but much more thrilling from my standpoint was the food. 

"January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever."

I'd certainly heard of this one and its peculiar title before, but I hadn't really read the plot, so I didn't realize how interesting it sounded. I love, love, love historical fiction of all kinds, and this sounded like a really interesting (although popular) novel. But even semi-popular novels can be good, right? I have read The Essays of Elia too. 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is completely composed of letters, which was a bit confusing at first, but was a good medium. I think it could definitely have worked in normal novel format, though. The epistolary novel is certainly an interesting, and it gives other opportunities for development. The problem with it is that for the conceit to work, the characters have to be in different locations. 

I really enjoyed the writing of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society too. After about 40 pages, I was already deeply immersed in the characters' lives and, like Juliet, wanted to find out more about the literary society and about wartime on Guernsey. I loved the descriptions of the literary society; it's one that I would love to join. The society was born out of necessity, but then its members realized that they loved talking about books with one another. It brings them together. 

 But The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is not just a book about curling up by the fire and reading books, although it is what I would call a feel-good read. The novel does, after all, deal with the aftermath of World War II, and there were a lot of not-so-great things that happened on Guernsey that must be related. One of the members of the literary society, the founding member in fact, is taken to prison and still has not returned as the book opens. 

I really liked the portrayal of Juliet as she was struggling to find a topic that she really wanted to write about. I think it was very convincing. I also loved the letters that she wrote; they were so compelling and so amusing, but many of the letters were also sobering. I did kind of wish that there were more letters from Sidney and his sister to Juliet in certain parts of the book. 

The further I got into the book, the more I wanted to read on. The story of Guernsey is such a compelling one, well described in this wonderful novel, which I would highly recommend.

274 pages. 

Rating: ****

Mary Coin, Marisa Silver

There is something gripping to Walker about a town in decline. As he drives down the streets of his youth, he feels as if he were looking at faded and brittle photographs of a place lost to time. 

"In this New York Times bestselling novel, critically acclaimed author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange’s "Migrant Mother" photograph as inspiration for a breathtaking reinvention—a story of two women, one famous and one forgotten, and of the remarkable legacy of their chance encounter. In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road in Central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting the migrant laborers who have taken to America’s farms in search of work. Little personal information is exchanged, and neither woman has any way of knowing that they have produced what will become the most iconic image of the Great Depression. Three vibrant characters anchor the narrative of Mary Coin. Mary, the migrant mother herself, who emerges as a woman with deep reserves of courage and nerve, with private passions and carefully-guarded secrets. Vera Dare, the photographer wrestling with creative ambition who makes the choice to leave her children in order to pursue her work. And Walker Dodge, a present-day professor of cultural history, who discovers a family mystery embedded in the picture. In luminous, exquisitely rendered prose, Silver creates an extraordinary tale from a brief moment in history, and reminds us that although a great photograph can capture the essence of a moment, it only scratches the surface of a life." Mary Coin's actual name was Florence Owens Thompson and the photographer was actually named Dorothea Lange, but Silver re-imagines these characters and gives them new names and new identities in a brilliant work of fiction. 

Mary Coin is told partly in present tense, partly in past tense. Walker's section is told in the present tense, since it is set in the present day, but both Vera and Mary's narratives are told in the past tense. Present tense makes the narrative feel more immediate, and I thought the author could have told all of the sections in present tense. I'm not sure if I liked how the tense switched, but it was certainly an interesting choice. 

I love interwoven narratives, and Mary Coin is one of those books that definitely has that. Walker's narrative seemed to me to be a bit redundant, but I really enjoyed having three vastly different perspectives and three very compelling narrators. I think Vera, the photographer, was the one who was most interesting to me. She had polio as a child, and one of her legs is severely damaged. This infirmity changes her life drastically, and makes her the person she is. Her reflections interested me the most too, though some of her later sections were kind of depressing. 

Despite the changing tenses, I really, really loved the writing style. It was so thoughtful and thought-provoking. Perhaps a bit too much, but that doesn't change the fact that it was brilliant. This is the kind of historical fiction that tries, if not to re-imagine, then to breathe life into well-known history. That photo has become so iconic that we don't even really see it anymore. But that woman was a person, and in Mary Coin, her life is fully imagined with "devastating grace." You can read The New York Times's Book Review here. 

As I said, Walker's narration didn't seem to serve that much purpose for most of the book. He starts off Mary Coin and finishes it, but I was never really interested in him as a person or as a historian. However, his section was well-written.

I definitely would recommend Mary Coin; it was a compelling, beautifully written, and disturbing novel, and I loved it.

Read Mary Coin:

• if you like historical fiction
• if you like history
• if you like Marisa Silver

322 pages (in the ARC I bought at Powell's).

Rating: *****

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, Jennifer Chiaverini

On Election Day, Elizabeth Keckley hurried home from a mid-afternoon dress fitting to the redbrick boardinghouse on Twelfth Street where she rented two small rooms in the back. 

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker is a novelized version of the story of the friendship between Mary Lincoln (Mrs. Lincoln) and her seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, a freedwoman who had a very good reputation in D.C. from outfitting the most elite in the city. "Keckley made history by sewing for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln within the White House, a trusted witness to many private moments between the President and his wife, two of the most compelling figures in American history. In March 1861, Mrs. Lincoln chose Keckley from among a number of applicants to be her personal 'modiste,' responsible not only for creating the First Lady’s gowns, but also for dressing Mrs. Lincoln in the beautiful attire Keckley had fashioned. The relationship between the two women quickly evolved, as Keckley was drawn into the intimate life of the Lincoln family, supporting Mary Todd Lincoln in the loss of first her son, and then her husband to the assassination that stunned the nation and the world. Keckley saved scraps from the dozens of gowns she made for Mrs. Lincoln, eventually piecing together a tribute known as the Mary Todd Lincoln Quilt. She also saved memories, which she fashioned into a book, Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Upon its publication, Keckley’s memoir created a scandal that compelled Mary Todd Lincoln to sever all ties with her, but in the decades since, Keckley’s story has languished in the archives."

The idea of this book is that Chiaverini brings this story to light, and that sounded great, but the reality of it is that apparently a lot from the book is taken directly from Keckley's memoir. That's not only not good fiction, it's inherently dishonest. I mean, it's definitely right that parts from Keckley's memoir would be in the novel, but not so much. Also, there was the usual "this is a work of fiction note" at the front which made me laugh, because even though Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker is a historical fiction, obviously the characters are historical people. 

Also, a lot of the book did feel like biography, since the book is told in the third person. Like, "her reputation grew as one delighted patron after another recommended her to their friends, and soon she had almost more work than she could handle." That's all right, but it would have fit a biography much better. The style actually reminded me of Eighty Days, which I loved, but it's not very fiction-like. It felt like a biography with a bit of dialogue added in. 

That said, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker was definitely an interesting novel, and I learned a lot about what the White House was like during the Civil War. The characters did feel a little flat, and the style left much to be desired, but the book was still entertaining enough. I may pick up Elizabeth Keckley's own memoirs. 

I also loved the descriptions of the fancy dresses that Elizabeth makes for her customers; it also really showed the attitudes of the wealthy towards black people and the war. Despite the war, they still want elaborate things to wear. But it was also just fun to read about them. 

I did feel at times that the friendship between Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Lincoln didn't come to life; the relationship wasn't really well portrayed. Despite that, the bond was interesting to read about, especially since I'd never heard of Keckley before. 

The Civil War is definitely one of the periods I'm most interested in, so I was glad that I managed to get a review copy of this one from Dutton. It was definitely worth reading, although the advertising was somewhat false. It's a lush and absorbing historical novel. 

Read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker:

• if you like historical fiction
• if you like books set in the Civil War era

350 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, Susanna Clarke

From "The Ladies of Grace Adieu": When Mrs. Field died, her grieving widower looked around him and discovered that the world seemed quite as full of pretty, young women as it had been in his youth. It further occurred to him that he was just as rich as ever and that, though his house already contained one pretty, young woman (his niece and ward, Cassandra Parbringer), he did not believe that another one would go amiss. He did not think that he was at all changed from what he had been and Cassandra was entirely of his opinion, for (she thought to herself) I am sure, sir, that you were every bit as tedious at twenty-one as your are at forty-nine. 

What a great first paragraph, so distinctly British. "From the author of the award-winning, internationally bestselling Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an enchanting collection of stories. Set in versions of England that bear an uncanny resemblance to the world of Strange and Norrell, these stories are brimming with all the ingredients of good fairy tales: petulant princesses, vengeful owls, ladies who pass their time in embroidering terrible fates, endless paths in deep, dark woods, and houses that never appear the same way twice. Their heroines and heroes include the Duke of Wellington, a conceited Regency clergyman, an eighteenth-century Jewish doctor, Mary, Queen of Scots, Jonathan Strange, and the Raven King himself. The Ladies of Grace Adieu is the perfect introduction to a world where charm is always tempered by eeriness, and picaresque comedy is always darkened by the disturbing shadow of Faerie." Doesn't that description just sound so delicious?                 

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I loved, might be a bit too dense for some, and if that's the case, this collection of short stories is perfect. At first, I didn't get into it very well, but I eventually grew very fond once again of Clarke's amazing writing style, which draws from many 19th century British authors. The title story is very good, and it tells of how three ladies from the village of Grace Adieu befuddle the renowned magician Jonathan Strange, who is coming to visit his brother-in-law. I really liked this one because it had a feminist streak to it; Strange is contemptuous of female magicians (actually, he believes that they don't exist), and the ladies teach him otherwise. Jonathan Strange, of course, appears in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and on page 515 in Chapter 43 there is a footnote which deals of the incident expanded upon in "The Ladies of Grace Adieu." I really liked how Clarke tied the story back to the original book; that added a nice touch. 

"On Lickerish Hill" is very different in tone. It was written in a cross between country dialect and medieval spelling, making for strange writing, but the story itself was very good. It's a creative new twist off of Rumpelstiltskin, and I enjoyed it. "Mrs. Mabb" tells of a mysterious woman in the village, except no one seems to know quite who she is, where she lives, or when she came to the village. She has stolen Venetia's suitor, and Venetia is determined to find out who she is. I really enjoyed "Mrs. Mabb"; it was an excellent tale with an excellent writing style that was really entertaining. Both "On Lickerish Hill" and "Mrs. Mabb" tell of encounters between strange Faerie kind. 

"The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse" is set in the world that Neil Gaiman created in Stardust. The innkeeper in the town of Wall takes a dislike to Duke Wellington, and sends his horse across the Wall, to the land of Faerie. Of course, the Duke must follow to try and get his charger back. Though a very short story (7 pages), "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse", like all of Clarke's work, is amusing and entertaining. I loved the ending of it too. 

I didn't love the next story in the collection, "Mr. Simonelli", or "The Fairy Widower", but it was a good story as well. Just not as great as the others in the collection. It's also very long, but I did really like some aspects of it. "Tom Brightwind" tells of the friendship between a Jewish doctor and a fairy prince. Like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, it is filled with long and amusing footnotes which sometimes take up the entire page! "Antickes and Frets" is a short, unremarkable story whose main characters is Mary, Queen of Scots.  "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal-Burner" is the final tale in this volume, and I enjoyed it as well. 

The Ladies of Grace Adieu contains many amazing stories, all of which deal fascinatingly with clashes between humans and faeries. It's a fascinating, though not particularly insightful read, which I loved. 

Read The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories: 

• if you like fantasy
• if you like fairy tales
• if you like short stories
• if you enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

235 pages. 

Rating: ****

Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath, Lauren Child

The sun flickered on the ocean, cutting bright diamonds of light into the surface of the indigo water. A three-year-old girl was peering over the side of a sailboat, staring down into the deep. 

This is the sequel to Ruby Redfort, in which there is more mystery and a lot of deep-sea intrigue. "Everyone’s favorite girl detective is back for a second mind-blowing installment, packed with all the off-the-wall humor, action, and friendship of the first book. This time, though, it’s an adventure on the wide-open ocean, and Ruby is all at sea. . . . Can she crack the case of the Twinford pirates while evading the clutches of a vile sea monster as well as the evil Count von Viscount? Well, you wouldn't want to bet against her." 

I certainly don't love this series, but it is entertaining and amusing, if very unrealistic. At least, I think it's unrealistic. There's nothing wrong with that though. It's a very fun series, although I haven't read the original picture books in which Ruby Redfort is first mentioned. To tell you the truth, I didn't remember much about the first book, even though I didn't read it that long ago. But still, it wasn't really necessary. Most of the main points of the previous book were re-summarized, and I quickly remembered the basics (if not the details) of Look Into My Eyes. Spoilers for it are somewhat inevitable. 

So, the book begins with Ruby, Spectrum's youngest agent, at a training camp by the ocean. She's learning to scuba dive. Ruby isn't afraid of sharks and other sea creatures...at least not yet. She's all in all enjoying the camp, except for a certain obnoxious officer. Anyway, it didn't seem realistic to me that a super top secret agency would be training its agents to...scuba dive. I mean, it certainly is a useful skill, but it's hardly spy-like. Most hard-boiled detective stories don't occur underwater. That was a bit confusing, but it set the stage for the rest of the book's mystery, which involves lost treasure (of course), pirates, and deep sea creatures. All a bit over-the-top, you might say, but certainly entertaining.

Both the characters of Hitch and Clancy, Ruby's two main friends in the know, are very amusing to read about. I particularly like Hitch. Clancy is a bit strange, and the way he and Ruby talk to one another seems very unrealistic for two thirteen year olds. I mean, not many people talk like that anymore. Ruby's smart, but why must she insist on talking ungrammatically? However, if you just let yourself forget that aspect, Take Your Last Breath is certainly an enjoyable read. 

Another great thing about this series is that in both books, there are these little recurring things, and the reader isn't sure whether they're related to the mystery or not. For example, in Take Your Last Breath, the asteroid, the radio station being disrupted, the strange man hanging around town, and most particularly, the loose clasp on Ruby's escape watch. I wasn't sure whether that was incidental or would play a big part in the story later. (Spoiler: It did). This kept me reading, and once you get into Take Your Last Breath, it's quite suspenseful and quite absorbing. The reader also gets to know Ruby's parents much better, and become more sympathetic to them. I would definitely recommend it. 

Read Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath:

• if you liked the first book
• if you like mystery

406 pages. 

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

Magic Study, Maria V. Snyder

"We're here," Irys said. I looked around. The surrounding jungle bulged with life. Overgrown green bushes blocked our path, vines hung from the tree canopy, and the constant chatter and trill of jungle birds beat at my ears. 

"You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster... With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be reunited with the family she'd been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But though she has gained her freedom, she can't help feeling isolated in Sitia. Her Ixian background has changed her in many ways—and her newfound friends and relatives don't think it's for the better... Despite the turmoil, she's eager to start her magic training—especially as she's been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes involved with a plot to reclaim Ixia's throne for a lost prince—and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians. If that wasn't bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with all her new enemies..." I read Poison Study fairly recently, and loved it, so I was eager to read the sequel, Magic Study, in which Yelena has new adventures, new experiences, and makes some new friends and some new enemies. 

I didn't love Magic Study as much as I loved Poison Study, but it was still really entertaining. I think it was easier to get into at first than Poison Study, and I read the book very quickly. There were some things that were jarring to me though. The way the Sitian characters talked felt weird, like they were people in the modern day. They used phrases like "yep" and "buddy-guarding". Buddy-guarding? Really? 

I did think that the two vastly different societies, Ixia and Sitia, were compared really well. They both have problems, but neither one is a great place. Ixia is kind of a Communist state - no one has much choice about their life, but at least they're provided for. Whereas there are beggars in Sitia. I really like it when a fantasy novel like this has some political commentary, but it doesn't feel forced or interfere with the action. 

And there's plenty of action. Much of Magic Study is Yelena getting captured by various enemies, escaping, getting beaten up, captured, escaping, etc. We also meet a lot of new characters in Sitia, but things get much, much better when Valek returns. He's definitely my favorite character; he's so fascinating. 

Really, I thought Magic Study would be much less good than Poison Study, but it was still a fantastic read. I couldn't put it down, and would have read it in one setting if I could. I really like how there is a romance, but Yelena can still be friends with other guys, like Ari and Janco, two soldiers she met in Ixia. 

Some of the plot-line with "Ferde", a mysterious person who's been kidnapping young girls, seemed a bit disconnected from Yelena's life, and it felt a bit like a forced problem just so her old memories of Reyad could be dredged up. It was still absorbing, but a bit unnecessary. Yelena definitely has enough on her plate without that. 

I find it somewhat interesting that Poison Study (at least the edition I read) was marketed as an adult book, whereas the edition of Magic Study that I read was marketed as a YA book. Make up your mind! The books aren't that difficult, so I definitely think they should be YA. 

I'm really looking forward to reading the final book in the series, Fire Study; I really love the world that Snyder has created and the characters as well. She's great at world-building and suspense. I may also try some of her other books, though I don't know whether they can be as amazing as this series. 

Read Magic Study:

• if you like fantasy
• if you liked Poison Study (read it first)
• if you like Maria V. Snyder

440 pages. 

 

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell

From "Ava Wrestles an Alligator": My sister and I are staying in Grandpa Sawtooth's Old House until our father, Chief Bigtree, gets back from the Mainland. It's our first summer alone in the swamp.

You already know that something not so great is going to happen to Ava and her sister. Karen Russell is the author of Swamplandia! and a new collection of short stories, Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I'd read and loved Swamplandia!, but I wanted to try this first collection before getting Vampires in the Lemon Grove. At first, I was a bit disappointed by the stories, but as the collection progressed, they got much better. "Ava Wrestles an Alligator" contains the same characters as Swamplandia!, but I didn't like it as much. The story about a sleep-away camp for kids with sleep disorders was really good, and also really disturbing. That's the thing about Karen Russell's stories. They're so good, and so well-written and also so strange and scary. But the weird worlds that she create work so well. Here's the official summary: "In these ten glittering stories, debut author Karen Russell takes us to the ghostly and magical swamps of the Florida Everglades. Here wolf-like girls are reformed by nuns, a family makes their living wrestling alligators in a theme park, and little girls sail away on crab shells. "

I think either these stories sound interesting to you, or they don't. I can definitely see why some don't like Russell's writing, but I can also see why it mesmerizes so many, including me. I didn't love St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves quite as much as Swamplandia!, but it was still really good, and some of the stories were amazing.

There are so many great images that arise from the situations that Russell puts her characters in. For example, in one of her stories, a family is migrating westward. In their old home, they lived next to an asylum. The migration isn't going well, and the mother misses "the predictable madness". I just really liked that turn of phrase. I also forgot to mention that the father of the family is a minotaur.

One criticism that I did have (and that many other reviewers have too) is that most of the stories are really very similar in terms of mood and ambience. There isn't much variety; each story on its own is great, but in a collection, one likes to have a variety of different types of stories. These are all twisted realities, which is of course what Russell excels most at, but I would have liked to see something different. It's not that the stories weren't creative; on the contrary. Each one did have a unique plot, (side note: why don't we see "an" here? Or do we?) but they all gave off the same general aura, if you know what I mean.

While I was reading this, I was thinking (not for the first time) about how an author becomes a "classic" author. There were probably hundreds of failed writers in the 19th century, and only some are remembered. I was also thinking about those giant collections of all of an author's work, and of course, the "complete stories" collections. And my question is this: will Karen Russell ever have a volume of complete short stories. Or will she be forgotten like countless other writers? She's good, that's for sure, but is she good enough? Just something to think about. I find it very fascinating...

Anyway, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is an excellent book of short stories, although I did like Swamplandia! better.  I also like the hardcover edition's art (left) much better, but I read the paperback version, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Read St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves:

• if you like short stories
• if you like Karen Russell
• if you like gritty magic realism

246 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!