The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Teen Mystery

When multi-millionaire Sam Westing dies, his will asks those people to move in to a new apartment complex and play in his game to win $20M from his estate. He pairs up the heirs and gives them each a clue, asking them to figure out who murdered him. The clues that each pair were given, however, make no sense by themselves. While the heirs try to figure out what these clues mean, there is a person stealing stuff and putting small bombs around the apartment. The two don't seem to have anything to do with each other though, which is part of the reason why I felt this book was disjointed.

This book is supposed to be a book for young adults, but I couldn't figure out the mystery and don't think an average teenager could either. I couldn't even guess because not enough information was given to do so. When the mystery was finally revealed, it wasn't really a shocker and definitely wasn't worth the confusion that was in the rest of the book. I didn't enjoy this one.

First Line: "The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east."

Rating:
(3/5

The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Sci-fi

Jasper Fforde has written a devilish clever novel. It is partly sci-fi, partly mystery and partly speculative fiction.

Thursday Next lives in an alternate world where the Crimean War still wages and England is not an empire but just a country and Wales is a Leninist state.

The villian, Acheron Styx, is as evil as they come and has stolen an original manuscript of Dickens and is holding the characters up for ransom. When this Machiavellian plan goes awry, Styx moves on to Jane Eyre. Thursday pursues Styx outside and inside the novel in order to fight this evil.

There are a lot of play on words, maybe too many but still fun to catch and chuckle about. This book was okay. Will I read another in the series. Yes, but. I just can't put my finger on what I didn't like but to say it was a little bit too much. As a side note the reader does not have to have read Jane Eyre but it will increase the enjoyment if you have.

First Line: "My father had a face that could stop a clock."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Beyond the Abbey Gates by Catherine MacCoun

Beyond the Abbey Gates by Catherine MacCoun
Historical Fiction
Ingrid is a nun that grew up at Greyleigh Abbey and took an interest in the infirmary at a young age. As she helps the elder nun that works there, she realizes that she can miraculously cure people. The Abbey declares her a saint and wants her to see visitors that have written in about their illnesses. Ingrid is less sure she is a saint. She couldn't feel God working through her when she performed the miracle and doesn't feel special at all.

When a young troubadour breaks his leg near the abbey, he is entrusted to Ingrid's care to help his leg heal. Jack is incredibly bored and being a womanizer, there is nothing for him to do in the Abbey. As Ingrid cares for him, he feels the connection and eventually the two sleep together. Ingrid runs away from the Abbey and Jack tries to find her.

This book was a rather slow go for me. I don't think enough background was given on Ingrid to explain why she thought she wasn't a saint. I also didn't understand her connection with God; was there one or wasn't there? Once she got out of the Abbey, the story moved a bit better and was more interesting. This was not my favourite historical fiction.
First Line: "When the man was injured so near their gate, the nuns said it was God's will."
Rating:
(3.5/5)

Russian Winter

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
Historical Fiction

Nina Revskaya is a former ballerina with the Bolshoi ballet. She is now living in Boston in a wheelchair and has decided to auction her precious jewelry. She believes this might ease her mind about the memories of her past life.

Nina auditioned and was accepted into the Bolshoi ballet school. She dedicated her life to her dance. All around her Stalin made his mark and people disappeared into the night. Neighbours informed on each other. People were packed into small apartments and life was tough. Nina seemed to be on the outskirts of all this.

Nina falls in love with a renown poet, Viktor and though him meets Gersh, a Russian Jew and composer. This was not a safe friendship as jews were persecuted during Stalin's years in power.

As Nina in Boston reflects on her life she is approached by Grigori Solodin, a translator of Nina's husband's poetry. He has a matching piece to her amber earring and bracelet. Of course, he wants some answers which Nina does not want to face. Slowly the mysteries get unraveled.

I enjoyed this book and felt the pace was just right. I loved learning about Stalin's regime and especially about the rigors of the Bolshoi ballet.

First Line: "The afternoon was so cold, so relentlessly gray, few pedestrians passed the long island of trees dividing Commonwealth Avenue, and even little dogs, shunted along impatiently, wore thermal coats and offended expressions."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Fiction
It seems like most people I know got a chance to read this book in high school. It wasn't required reading for me in high school so it took me a while to get around to reading it. I'm glad I did and I'm sure I'll read it again later in my life.

Everyone knows this story is of a sleepy town in Alabama during the Great Depression. It focuses on the Finch family, with lawyer father Atticus, son Jem, and daughter Scout. The two kids have an innocent and somewhat naive view of the world, which starts to change when Atticus is told to represent Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping a white teenager. These were the days of strong racial prejudice and while Atticus doesn't worry about himself, he does worry about what his kids will have to endear during and after the trial. It's a story of growing up and good vs. evil.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I really took to each member of the Finch family and felt that Atticus Finch was one of the most enjoyable fathers to read about in literature. The life lessons he wanted to impart on his children were so simple and yet so essential. He was a true advocate for justice and made sure to act in such a way that he could come home and face his kids, proud of what he had done. The two children were just as endearing; Jem always protecting and teaching his sister, Scout always having innocent inquiries and trying to do good by her family.

First Line: "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
Rating:
(5/5)

The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Historical Fiction

This novel/biography is from the point of view of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife. It depicts the time line of meeting in Chicago, travelling to Paris, having a child in Toronto and back to Paris.

The author has managed to capture the characters and the ambiance of the 1920s. Nowadays we have our 'bad' celebs like Paris Hilton. This story takes the reader on a journey of how two people in love degrade into these 'bad' people along with the others of the time like Gertrude Stein and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

The reader does not know whether to feel sorry for Hadley and her love and support of the larger than life Hemingway or wring her neck over her seeming 'wimpiness'.
McLain brought the characters to life and made me first google about Hemingway's life and second want to read some of his novels a second time.

First Line: "Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris."

Rating:
(4.0/5)

Holy Fools

Holy Fools by Joanne Harris
Historical Fiction

This book is set in seventeenth century France in an out of the way monastery by the sea. When Juliette finds herself pregnant she escapes her life as a gypsy and tightrope walker to lead a peaceful and serene life at the monastery. She tends to her garden and her daughter and teaches the novices to read Latin.

All is well until the abbess dies and the new abbess who is only eleven comes with an old acquaintance, Le Merle. He is posing as a priest but has the most evil of agendas. Juliette, now Sister Auguste would expose him but he is holding her daughter and she must find a way to help the other nuns and save her daughter.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the storyline compelling but the ending fell flat. I had difficulty getting into the story but once there, was riveted. The information about the nuns and their lives during this time period was interesting.

First Line: "It begins with the players."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Literature

Alice is a published Harvard professor in psychology, specializing in linguistics. When she starts to forget small items, she thinks maybe she is headed for early menopause. The items she forgets start to become bigger problems and eventually Alice forgets where she is for a moment in Harvard Square. Still hiding this from her family, Alice visits her family doctor and a neurologist and is given a positive diagnosis: Alzheimer's.

Alice has to share this devastating news with her husband and family, knowing that there's a 50% chance her three children have the disease. Alice notices things getting worse and knows that it's her Alzheimers but can't stop it. Slowly this disease starts eating away from her, affecting everything she does and all of her relationships.

This book is guaranteed to hit home for anyone that has dealt with this disease. My grandmother lived with Alzheimers and after reading this book, I wonder if she knew that her memory lapses were from the disease and if she had similar thoughts to Alice's on whether she wanted to carry on and the depression of knowing that you're slipping away. An incredibly emotional read, this is both a tragic and captivating story. It makes you want to have discussions with your loved ones on how they will react if you ever contract the disease yourself, especially after the disappointing way Alice's husband reacts. It's hard to believe that this is Genova's first novel.

First Line: "Alice sat at her desk in their bedroom distracted by the sounds of John racing through each of the rooms on the first floor."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
Fiction

Nina Revskaya was one of the great stars of the Russian ballet during a perilous time for her country. Nina escapes Russia to Boston, where we meet her as an elderly lady who is selling off her jewelry collection. She is frustrated by her body starting to fail her and for other reasons that, at the start of the story, the reader is unsure of. The process of selling off her jewels brings back memories of Nina during her ballet days, when she met her husband Viktor, danced with her best friend, and watched a good friend taken by Stalin's government for crimes he did not commit. Nina's memories also come back when she is contacted by Grigori Solodin, a translator of Nina's husband's poetry who has a necklace that exactly matches some of the jewels that Nina has put up for auction. Some of her memories as painful as she remembers her life in Russia.

This book was a little hard to get in to because I had problems reconciling the sweet Nina of the past versus the crusty Nina of the present. Obviously something makes her this way but it takes a very long time to figure out. Once you realizes what it is that Nina believes happened and how she reacts to it, you become much more invested in the book. I think that a little could have been cut out of the story to get to this point sooner because I enjoyed the novel quite a bit at this part but I felt it took a bit long to get there.

The novel also gives an idea of how normal people coped in the Stalin era. There were worries about spies and being reported on, about doing nothing wrong and still being arrested, about having one person say something bad about you which could ruin everything, and even about taking a train stop a few stops too far and being where it is illegal to be. These people had to be so careful about everything it's a wonder that any of them had any fun.

First Line: "The afternoon was so cold, so relentlessly gray, few pedestrians passed the long island of trees dividing Commonwealth Avenue, and even little dogs, shunted along impatiently, wore thermal coats and offended expressions."

Rating:
(3.5/5)