Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Ghost Brush by Katherine Govier

The Ghost Brush by Katherine Govier
Fiction

Oei is the daughter of a famous Japanese painter Hokusai, living in 19th centry Edo, Japan. Despite being from a large family, Hokusai picks Oei as his apprentice and she is obviously his favourite child. The two paint and travel together, coming up with new ideas for paintings. When the North Star school is opened, they start taking students to ghost brush under similar names as Hokusai. As Oei grows older, her paintings become more beautiful. Some think that she could surpass her father, yet she is too loyal to her father to take the steps to make that happen.

The art and the culture of Japan are an important part of the book but the relationships are equally important. Oei falls in love with those she can't have or can't hold on to for long. She has relationships with a prostitute, other artists, actors, novelists, but most important is her father. She endures his abuse and love, helps him with his money and commissions, goes in his place to talk to foreigners, and takes care of him while his health declines. Can Oei move past her relationship with her father to live with one brush or will her work forever be known as Hokusai's work?

I find that most books that are based in Japan have a certain grace to them, that this book also possesses. The story doesn't move quickly but it is elegantly told and even though the characters are different from a normal fiction book, you can't help but pull for Oei and hope that she's given the recognition she deserves.

I loved the way the paintings were described. I could imagine the vivid colours that Oei prided herself in and could picture what those paintings looked like. It's obvious that a lot of research was put into this book and that Govier has seen thousands of Japenese paintings to be able to describe them as she did.

This book will be one I still remember by the end of the year.

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First Line: "Hey, You!"

Rating:
(4/5)

Friday, May 28, 2010

So Much For That

So Much For That by Lionel Shriver
Fiction/Literature

Shep Knacker has had a dream for his 'Afterlife'. He wants to settle down in a third world country , relax and have a wonderful life on a few dollars a day. In preparation he has sold his home repair business and his house. His wife Glynis has always found reasons not to go but Shep has finally reached the end of his patience and has booked a one way ticket for his family. He is going no matter what.

On the eve of his departure Glynis returns home with devastating news. She has cancer. She needs Shep's medical insurance and his resources. Shep goes through the frustrations of dealing with doctors and their conflicting procedures which always seem to drain more and more money from his account. Shep has worked as a peon for his former company but when confronted with enormous medical bills, he is fired. Will Shep have his dream?

As a side story Shep's best friend is going through turmoils of his own: addiction, depression and a child with a disability.

This book delivers a bold statement about the health care system and the money involved and the moral issues behind it all.

First Line: "What do you pack for the rest of your life?"

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Skin

Skin by Mo Hayder
Sick Shit

Less than a week after the 'close' of their last case Jack Caffery and Flea Marley are at it again. Both are searching for a missing celebrity's wife. Jack stumbles upon an apparent suicide by the railway tracks. But is it a suicide? Or is it the monster from the 'Ritual' case, someone who seems to be able to do what he/she wishes and enter houses at will.

Flea has been searching the old quarry, She has dived down to dangerous depths all in search of this missing person. After being unsuccessful, she arrives home exhausted to find the biggest mess her alcoholic brother has ever put her in.

Poor Flea has to battle demons of her own this time. She deals with her parents' death and her brother's impossible significant other and her brother's weaknesses. Flea has to come to terms with what is right vs. wrong.

Jack is still battling his demons but seems in this book to be more calm. Although this book is not as gory and downright 'sick' as Hayder's other novels, it is still a very good read.

First Line: "Human skin is an organ."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

Monday, May 24, 2010

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen
Fiction

Louis Drax is an accident-prone boy. He's also much more intelligent than a child of his age is usually, which earns him the nickname of "Wacko Boy" at school. Louis has a therapist Fat Perez, whom notices that Louis is stuck on the idea that his father is not his real father. Several encounters with his father and mother seem to confirm this idea in Louis' head. During a family picnic, a fight occurs and Louis falls off a cliff, almost killing him and Louis' dad disappears. Louis is brought to Dr. Dannachet who specializes in coma patients, but Dr. Dannachet starts to unravel what really happened during that picnic and both his family and the Drax family start to fall apart.

This book is quite twisted and different from any other book I've read. Despite the fact that certain aspects of the story could never happen, the story pulls it off and makes the book quite the page turner. I never really liked Dr. Dannachet because I don't believe he could fall in love so easily but I really enjoyed Louis' story, including the narrative during his coma. Quite an interesting book!

First Line: "I'm not most kids."

Rating:
(4/5)

Friday, May 21, 2010

The Eternal Ones

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
Romance

Haven Moore is a troubled young woman. She has had visions all her life although she has had some counseling to try to control them. Her visions are of a man named Ethan in New York and herself in a fire.

Haven lives in Snope City, Tennessee. She is a senior at high school and is an outcast from her classmates due to her visions. She lives with her heart-broken mother and her dictatorial grandmother. She makes money designing prom dresses with her best bud, Beau. While watching TV one night she sees heart throb Iain Morrow and faints. She knows that he is her destiny and has to find a way to meet him. Her grandmother concerned that Haven's visions are occurring with increasing frequency wants her to go back to counseling with her local preacher. When one counseling session leads to some violence Haven's grandmother hints at a mental institution commitment and the other students in the high school shun Haven and cancel their dress orders. Haven is more determined than ever to get to New York and find out what her visions are about. Her mother gaining a momentary backbone hands her a box put together by her dead father collating all the information about her visions. Is it a past life she remembers? The box leads her to think that either Iain or The Ouroboros Society can maybe help her.

This book is about good and evil, love and betrayal and whether love transcends all.

First Line: "Haven was back."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja

Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja
Memoir

Fauziya Kassindja grew up in Togo and was very close to her father. Her family did not believe in tribal practices of polygamy or female genital mutilation. Kassindja is very close to her father, who makes sure she gets a proper education. When Kassindja's father dies though, things change. According to local tradition, the father's family takes over the home and family. Her aunt and uncle kicked her mom out of the home and then sold her into a marriage as a forth wife, with the promise that she would be circumsized.

With the help of her sister and mother, Kassindja fled to Germany where she stayed for two months trying to find out what to do. She met another African who told her that she should fly to America and ask for asylum, which is what she does. As soon as she enters the States she's taken into a prison for immigrants, after questionning and a strip search. Things degrade from there. Kassindja suffers through a prison riot, is placed in maximum security with murderers, suffers many health problems, and can't seem to get her case to court. With the help of her cousin she finds lawyers to help her cause and eventually become her very good friends.

It's impossible to read this story with a feeling of disgust towards how immigrants are treated. Immigrants should not be housed in the same areas as murderers. Even though it's not the point of the book, it becomes quite obvious as to how taxed the prison and court system is. Eight months to get a hearing? That's ridiculous. That being said, Kassindja did not help her circumstances. Coming in with a fake passport and not telling the full story, I'm sure, did not help her scenario at all.

I was interested to see that Canada was one of the first countries to consider female genital mutilation an acceptable immigration claim. I'm also happy to see that Kassindja's case helped break groud in the USA. I would have been interested in knowing what path she chose for her life and where her career was heading, but I guess the book was written too soon after the whole ordeal for her to understand what she was going to do.

First Line: "I returned to my cell after lunch."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

Friday, May 14, 2010

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen
Mystery

Louis is a very accident prone boy. Every year he has a horrendous accident from which he survives. This year while on a picnic with his parents for his ninth birthday he falls over a cliff. Louis dies but is brought back to life and ends up in a coma. This story is told by Louis and his doctor (Dr. Pascal Dannachet).

Louis' mother is in shock, his father has disappeared and Louis is in a coma. What happened? Louis slowly unravels the bizarre and dark tale while the doctor relates his own impressions and feelings.

I loved this story but felt the doctor's actions were truly creepy and unbelieveable. A great psychological thriller!

First Line: "I'm not most kids."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

The White Bone

The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy
Fiction/Literature

This story is told from the prospective of a group of elephants. Mud is a young female elephant orphaned at birth but blessed with visionary powers. She and her fellow elephants are forced to remain at a watering hole by drought. There, the herd is ambushed by a group of ivory poachers and decimated. They then set out to find the White Bone which will lead them to the Safe Place, an Eden for elephants.

Although a little difficult to follow at first the reader is quickly brought into the elephant lingo and lore. Though visions, memories and other gifts the elephants start on an odyssey of pain, suffering, endurance and hopefully ultimately, joy. I loved this book and was swept up into caring and hoping for the best for these incredible creatures.

First Line: "All day there are glaring omens that go undetected."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

The Other Side of the Bridge

The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Fiction/Literature

This is a Canadian story about two very different brothers in a rural Northern Ontario town. Arthur, the eldest brother, is shy, retiring, loyal and dutiful. His father approves of him and sets him up to inherit the farm. Jake is outgoing, egotistical and self-absorbed. His mother thinks he can do no wrong and makes Arthur protect him even when it goes against Arthur's best interests. So is set an antagonistic relationship.

When Laura comes to town with her father the preacher during WWII, each brother falls in love with her.

This story is told in the past (WWII era) and the present. In the present the doctor's son, Ian is smitten by Laura and goes to help out on the farm where once again Arthur and Jake are forced to face each other.

This is a well-written story with a somewhat predictable ending. However, predictable or not the reader is drawn in and engrossed in the details of the small framing community and the lives of the Dunn brothers.

First Line: "There was a summer back when they were kids, when Arthur Dunn was thirteen and his brother Jake was eight or nine, when for weeks on end Jake pestered Arthur to play the game he called knives."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Virgin Suicides

Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Fiction/Literature

The five Lisbon girls live in suburbia Detroit in the seventies. The book is narrated by the group of boys interested in these girls and what occurred. What occurred is that each of the girls committed suicide. The boys go back and try to discover what happened to allow such a tragedy.

The author writes only little snippets of what happened. The boys seem more like stalkers than in sleuths trying to find out why. The parents while portrayed as being very strict don't seem strict at all but just cautious.

I found this read very unsatisfying as nothing is resolved. It is left to the reader and personally was 'beyond' me. It appears to me that the author was very interested in writing the first part of the book and then lost his way or couldn't really figure out the ending either.

First Line: "On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicides - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese - the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope."

Rating:
(3.0/5)