Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz

Fiction

It's a cold winter, on a lonely island when Mathilda drowns, leaving her child Ruth with sister Amanda to take care of her. Ruth's father eventually returns from the war and the three have to learn how to live with each other. Even though Ruth was only a few years old, she has a few fragmented memories including her being in the water and there being a baby. The rest of the book is Ruth piecing these memories together as she grows older under Amanda and her dad's watchful eye.

I've had bad luck with Oprah Book Club books in the past few years. This one isn't as bad as some of the othr ones out there. It was over dramatic, with Amanda being rather neurotic. I understand that she wants to take care of her niece after her sister dies but there's really no reason to the extremes she goes to in her thoughts of protecting Ruth.

The ending was a bit of a let down as well. I'm sure I hoped for the same type of ending that the majority of sane people would want for Ruth in this book. Unfortunately it was just more of the same for these characters.

First Line: "Ruth remembered drowning. "

Rating:
(3/5)

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage

Fiction

When Ava finds out she's HIV positive, and her hair styling business starts to dry up because those in Atlanta are scared of her, she decides she needs a change of scenery. Ava returns to small town Michigan, where her widowed sister still lives. Joyce is happy to have Ava back, and puts her to work helping with her woman's group, the Sewing Circus. Joyce is trying to educate the women of the small town on how they should be treated, safe sex, child care, and other essential life skills. Of course, not everyone in the town agrees with these teachings and try to throw a wrench in Joyce and Ava's plans.

This book is an Oprah book club book, which I haven't had much luck with recently. This one, thankfully, was different! It was very easy to connect with the characters. Joyce just wants to help the women in her town and is passionate about doing so. Her passion is infectious and makes me hope that there are many Joyces in the world. Ava is a little more reserved, because of her disease. She is insecure and on the brink of love, not knowing whether one trumps the other. Her emotions are so real and the conflict in her head is completely believable.

While some could take this away as a romance novel, I found the human struggle the more interesting story, and how we gain strength from those closest to us. Oprah got it right with this one!

First Line: "I'm sitting at the bar in the airport, minding my own business, trying to get psyched up for my flight, and I make the mistake of listening to one of those TV talk shows."

Rating:
(4/5)

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

Fiction

March and her teenage daughter Gwen return to March's home town for the funeral of the loving homekeeper that helped raise her. March's husband stays behind in California but is concerned, knowing that March will be in the same town as her teenage love Hollis. She never really got over him and knows that seeing him will be hard so she tries to avoid him. We learn about March's childhood in this sleepy town and what happened between March and Hollis. Gwen, having never been to this town before, quickly catches the eye of Hollis' ward and a horse that they keep on their property. For a California girl , she may want to stay here.

Typical to Oprah's book club books, this book is beyond frustrating. Yes, I understand that love can make people do crazy things. But in this case March has a daughter. You would think that March would put her daughter above all else, but it seems like she just forgets she even has a daughter to spend time with Hollis. It's irresponsible and annoying to read.

I found the ending disappointing as all of the characters got off to easy; even Hollis. Furthermore, where and what March ended up was glossed over. For all the flowery descriptions that Hoffman had throughout the book, the ending was rather rushed and not well thought out.

Overall, disappointing. I'm not sure why I bother with Oprah book club books anymore.

First Line: "Tonight, the hay in the fields is already brittle with frost, especially to the west of Fox Hill, where the pastures shine like stars."

Rating:
(2.5/5)

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

Fiction

Ellen is an 11 year old girl that starts off with a depressed mom and abusive father and ends an orphan. She takes us through how this happened and how she feels about the losses, being put in her aunt's care, then being removed from it, in a voice only an 11 year old would have. This rather short book only wound up on my bookshelf because I've been slowly trying to make my way through Oprah's books, though I'm not sure why I bother anymore because I don't seem to like many of them.

Ellen narrates with what feels to me like lack of emotion and simplicity. The simplicity fit with an 11 year old, but it clashed with a feeling of disassociation and too much wisdom for what you'd expect from an 11 year old. This book didn't sit well with me and I think that's the best I can do to put my finger on why.

Looking beyond Ellen to the story itself, I felt rather bored during the whole thing. Thankfully, the book is a pretty short one.

First Line: "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy."

Rating:
(3/5)

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

Romance

Ria is a doting, loving mother of two to Annie and Brian. Her husband, Danny, is charming and a powerful real estate agent. They live in their dream home on Tara Road in Dublin and have friends and family coming and going, constantly filling the home with love and noise. Ria loves her live until one day, everything comes crashing down around her. Her husband has been unfaithful and has gotten a younger girl pregnant and wants to make a life with her. Trying to escape her problems but still desperate for a reunion with her husband, Ria accepts a house exchange in the USA.

This is the first Maeve Binchy book that I've read and I'm surprised it made it to Oprah's Book List. The characters were interesting and the novel flows very well. I did have a few problems with this book though. I felt like the purpose of this book was to have Ria and Marilyn exchange homes to learn more about themselves. Marilyn isn't even introduced to the book until 1/2 way through. Less background on Ria and more on Marilyn would have made more sense.

The other major issue with this book is how the female characters let their male counterparts walk all over them. There's very little justice for most of them. I wanted to slap Ria a few times for how she felt and acted around Danny. This is part of what made me so surprised that this was an Oprah book club pick because she usually likes her women strong and to stand up when being treated like crap.

First Line: "Ria's mother had always been very fond of film stars."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

Kathryn is woken in the middle of the night to a knock on the door and her worst nightmare. Her husband Jack is a pilot for an airline jointly owned in the USA and England and his plane has just gone down. They don't believe there are any survivors. Robert from the pilot's union is there to guide Kathryn through the grief and answer the phones for her. Katheryn knows she needs to break the news to her teenage daughter Mattie and knows how much it will hurt her.

The next day, a rumor leaks that there was a bomb on board, and it was in Jack's bag. Suicide is what they are calling it. This destroys Mattie and makes no sense to Katheryn. She starts questioning past interactions she had with Jack to see if there are any clues there. Pulling out receipts from Jack's pants he last wore reveals some vague clues and Katheryn starts piecing them together to learn that there's a lot about Jack that she didn't know.

This book seemed to coast along on a wave of grief and mourning until the last quarter where there were a few plot twists. It seemed a bit unbalanced because of this. The other part of the book that bothered me was Robert. The two seemed to be flirting right after Katheryn found out about Jack and it didn't sit right with me. How many people would act that way after finding out their husband is dead?

This wasn't my favourite book, but it was ok. Better than some other Oprah books I've picked up!

First Line: "She heard a knocking, and then a dog barking."

Rating:
(3/5)

Mother of Pearl by Melinda Hayes

Mother of Pearl by Melinda Hayes
Fiction/Literature

In the 1950's, small-town Mississippi, there were still racial divides. In the coloured part of town is Even Grade, a black man who is an orphan and only a few friends. Across the river is Valuable Korner, whose grandmother recently passed away so her mom came back to take care of her but is known to the whole town as a whore. The story revolves around these two and eventually their stories merge. Val is experiencing teenage love with her only friend Jackson and becomes pregnant right before he leaves town when his family moves. Even tries to hook up his elderly friend Canaan and falls in love with Joody who can see things that will happen in the future.

This book is part of Oprah's book club, and as such I expect a bit of a slog through the book but with reward at the end. This is probably one of the worst Oprah's books I've read. The writing is unnecessarily heavy and it takes forever to get through when it really doesn't have to. The story could have been much simpler, with less characters, and probably could have resulted in the same end result.

I feel like there was lots of alternative meanings and symbolism included in this book but the reader has to work much too hard to figure it all out. I'm a rather lazy reader. I want to be entertained by a book and don't want to think too hard on it. This book didn't give me this at all. And because I wasn't willing to do the work to figure it out, I didn't understand all of what was going on. I'm actually surprised at myself that I finished the book.

From the other reviews I've read, it looks like this is a love it or hate it book so I guess I'm on the hate it side!

First Line: "EvenGrade walked past the spot on the bridge where Canaan caught the bottle with his head and saw the blood mark was still there, but just barely."

Rating:
(2.5/5)

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J. Gaines
Fiction/Literature

Grant Wiggins left his small Cajun community as a young man to attend university, though he returned to his hometown to teach the other children of the community. When Jefferson, a young black man, is convicted for killing a liquor store attendant when he really was only in the wrong place at the wrong time, Grant is asked to help. Jefferson's godmother and Grant's aunt persuade him to try to make Jefferson see that he is a man. Grant doesn't want to confront Jefferson because there are a lot of hidden feelings he has about having to return to his hometown rather than becoming a successful black man in the world.

There are a lot of characters in this novel that seem to have no relevance to its outcome. Many children that Grant teaches are frequent to the story, as well as his girlfriend. They don't add too much. The story really could take place with Jefferson, Grant, the two elderly ladies, the reverend, and a few of the folks at the jail.

I can understand why people really enjoy this novel but it didn't really resonate with me. The only part that I really enjoyed was one of the last conversations that Grant and Jefferson had together, where Grant realized that this was about more than just Jefferson but about himself and the rest of the community too. The rest of it I neither loved nor hated.

First Line: "I was not there, yet I was there."

Rating:
(3/5)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Fiction

In the mid-70s, India went through quite a bit of turmoil. The Prime Minister declared a state of emergency and there was a government sterilization program convincing, or at times forcing, citizens to stop having children by surgical means. Poverty was rampant and despair more common than happiness. A Fine Balance focuses on the lives of a student, a widow, and two tailors. The reader learns about their backgrounds, which are plagued with grief, and how they came to meet each other.

Dina is the widower, having lost her husband of three years to a hit and run accident. She is inherited his flat and the landlord wants to try to kick her out to rent it at a higher rate. She used to sew but as she's grown older her eyes have gotten worse so she wants to hire two tailors. At the same time, she takes a border in her flat. Income from these two sources should mean she doesn't have to ask her brother for money but at the same time the landlord can use both of those to try and get her kicked out. The border is the son of a grade school friend named Maneck. He grew up in the mountains and wanted to take over his dad's general store business but his parents decided it was more important for Maneck to get an education in the big city. While on the train to Dina's flat, he meets the two tailors Ishvar and Om. The tailors are uncle and nephew, coming from a small town where they both apprenticed in a tailor shop. Despite losing most of his family to a massacre, Ishvar has a fairly good attitude about life while Om does not. The two start to sew for Dina in her flat and Om wants to cut out the middleman.

This has to be one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Without giving too much away, there is just too much pain and misery for the characters and all of India. There's supposed to be "a fine balance" between happiness and misery but I felt like this was false advertising for the book!

Despite this being such a depressing read it was still satisfying. Mistry is a master at writing characters you can connect with, despite their foibles. You care for them, you want them to pull through and be happy.

I think this book would have been better off without the Epilogue. There were too many coincidences to make it believable and it got way too depressing.

First Line: "The morning express bloated with passengers slowed to a crawl, then lurched forward suddenly, as though to resume full speed."

Rating:
(4/5)

Stolen Lives : Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir

Stolen Lives : Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir
Memoir

Malika Oufkir grew up the daughter of an important advisor to the King of Morocco. Her father's relationship with the King is so close that the King adopts Malika as a young child. While Malika enjoys spending time in the castle and being with the King's daughter, she longs for her family and eventually moves back in with them.

These times, however, were troublesome for Morocco. When Malika's dad stages a coup d'etat, he is shot multiple times and the family is taken away from their home. What results is an incredible story of imprisonment. Malika's large family (she has 6 sisters/brothers) and two friends of the family are taken and their home is immediately looted and leveled. Over the course of about 5 years they are moved to worse and worse conditions until finally, the family is split up into different cells and never let out. The living conditions are deplorable. They had little to eat and lived with rats, mice, and many insects. They stayed in this prison for over 10 years, not being able to see each other and only recognizing each other by voice, before they started to plan how to escape.

I almost stopped reading this book about 50 pages in because I found Malika's account of her earlier years to be quite boring. She provided too much detail as to royal life while I just wanted to get into the meat of what happened to her when she was imprisoned. I'm glad I stayed with it. What an amazing survival story. It's incredible that anyone could survive such conditions. I'm also surprised that Malika didn't request an audience with the King to give him a piece of her mind since she knew him so well and he seemed fond of her. I'm glad that her and her family are getting on well.

First Line: "From the living room came the strains of mambo and cha-cha music, the percussion and guitars punctuated by the arrival of the guests."

Rating:

(4/5)

A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
Non-Fiction

There is a lot of controversy about A Million Little Pieces. Even Frey's stay in the treatment centre could evidently be a lie. Taking all that into consideration, this book is still worthy of attention.

Frey brings you down to the addict's level. There are very graphic descriptions of bodily functions or lack thereof; vomiting, bloody shit,etc.

Frey is adamantly against the 12 step program and one wonders if part of the reason for writing this book is too laud himself for 'beating' the drugs without the program.

There is a sickening description of a dental procedure done without novocaine. Why would any reputable dentist agree to do such a procedure?

Frey's writing style can be a little annoying to start with as he tends to write very short sentences and absolutely no paragraphs. It also gets a tad confusing as quotation marks are non-existent.

I found the book to be an interesting insight into an addict's recovery and treatment

Rating:

(4.0/5)

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
Pseudo Memoir

Practically everyone knows about the controversy that this book caused after Oprah placed it on her book list then found out that parts of it were fictionalized. Frey has apparently only been a minor player to the FBI, and that dentist scene probably isn't real. But Frey is an addict, an alcoholic, and a criminal - which he often repeats throughout the book. When his parents bring him to this clinic, he has a hole in his cheek and just doesn't care about anything. He soon learns that if he does anymore drugs or drinks anymore he will most likely wind up dead.

Frey in no way makes thing easy in his recovery. He doesn't believe in the 12 steps of AA or any higher beings, which the treatment centre people say is the only thing that could possibly cure you. Instead, Frey believes it's just a matter of personal choice.

Despite the fact that you have to read this book with a grain of salt, it is quite something. It really gets down into the nitty gritty of drug and alcohol addiction and shows how Frey tries to climb out of his hole. The relationships he creates with the other people in the centre is fascinating. I really liked reading about Leonard, the mobster, and I'm interested in reading Frey's other book; "My Friend Leonard".

The writing is scattered. Frey doesn't believe in proper sentence structure, but once you get used to it, you hardly notice it. I was glad to see that Frey included a little "where are they now" section at the end. This book really puts a personal face on drug and alcohol addiction in attempts to get readers to understand what is going on behind all the negatives.

Rating:

(4/5)