~ ~ First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros ~ ~

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by theSea every Tuesday.  We share the opening paragraph, or two, of a book we’ve decided to read based on that paragraph. I‘m reviewing this book next month.  I chose this book after reading its summary on Goodreads.  The characters and setting caught my attention. I was also struck by the author’s interest in music and writing music which is how he segued into book writing. The author’s three prior books are stories about the reality of struggling to grow up and the difficulties one encounters along the way. The storylines are based in reality and hard luck but also show glimmers of inspiration and hope.  All of the author’s books have won prizes, have been highly recommended and praised. I'm really looking forward to reading this book! 

Don't forget to drop by Bibliophile By the Sea to read Diane's selection this week and to see who else is participating. You'll probably get some good book titles, too!

 

The Free

by

Willy Vlautin 

Leroy Kervin opened his eyes to see a woman in a blue-and-white-starred bikini holding a pneumatic drill.  He could see her blond hair and high heels and thin, long legs.  For the first time in seven years he could see her without blurred vision.  He could see her clearly from the glow of a small colored nightlight.

He lay in a twin bed and looked at the girl.  He could read the company name below her on the calendar: JACKSON’S TOOL SUPPLY. He remembered that his cousin worked there. Suddenly he could think things through, he could put things together, where in the past years he’d been unable to.  It was like his mind had suddenly walked out of a never-ending snowstorm. Tears dripped down the side ofhis face in relief.  Was he finally free?  Was he really himself again? 

What do you think?  Would you keep reading?

The TBR Triple Dog Dare

Triple Dog Dare January 1, 2014 – April 2014

I am a little late to this party but very excited about the TBR Triple Dog Dare Reading Challenge hosted by CB at his blog, Ready When You Are, C.B..  I’ve been reading books from my shelf for the past few months because, when I went through them looking for a particular title, I found some great books.  There are still plenty of books I want to read and don’t yet own, but I’ve got a good start.  I especially want to participate in this meme if this is going to be the last year it's hosted. Hopefully somebody will host this meme next year!  Okay, enough of that!

 

Here's a list of books I hope to read while participating in this meme. Some I will read, and some will be replaced with others and so on and so forth:
 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
Bingo's Run by James A. Levine

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCamm

The Gathering by Anne Enright

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
Goat Mountain by David Vann
The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

......etc.

Review: Playing St. Barbara by Marian Szczepanski

 

Playing St. Barbara by Marian Szczepanski 

 

Publisher:  High Hill Press

Published:  2013

ISBN:  978160653077151895

Pages:  380

Rating:  3 out of 5

 

Book Summary:   The secrets, struggles, and self-redemption of a Depression-era coal miner's wife and three daughters play out against a turbulent historical backdrop of Ku Klux Klan intimidation and the 1933 Pennsylvania Mine War. Their intertwined lives eerily mirror the 7th century legend of St. Barbara, patroness of miners, reenacted annually in the town pageant. Tested by scandal, heartbreak, and tragedy, each woman will write her own courageous ending to St. Barbara's story. 

My Thoughts:  This book is well written, intense and thoughtful.   The characters, though fully developed, have lives so foreign to me I am unable to relate to them.  Since they are, however, so seemingly real, with struggles I couldn’t imagine facing, I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic.  There were times I wanted to step in and help them,  if only I could.   

Playing St. Barbara is the dark, somber story about the Sweeney Family, told from the viewpoints of the family’s mother, Clare, and the older daughters, Deidre, Katie and Norah.   Fin Sweeney, a heavy drinker with a violent streak, is the tyrannical head of the family.  He works in the coal mines which are dangerous, frightening places to work.  There are several coal miner deaths due to accidents every year.      

The women are afraid of Fin but they also stand up to him.  Fin physically abuses Clare every day.  He wants a son so, when he returns home nightly, drunk from the pub, he forces himself on Clare.  The following day, she does whatever she can to guarantee a miscarriage.  She doesn’t want Fin to have a son who would be under Fin’s influence.  It’s bad enough she’s had to watch, helplessly, as he abused his daughters over the years.   

Though the book is very well written, intricate and realistic, I personally found it difficult to get through because it’s so bleak.  Often I try to find in the author’s voice a message in their story, whether it’s one of hope or maybe redemption through suffering.  I was hard pressed to find anything like that here.  It takes some doing but an argument could be made that there is a testament to the human spirit.  The women try to live on the most basic levels of survival, but that means accepting the violence as a fact of life.  Rather than breaking free of it, it seems the best Clare can hope for is a miscarriage to keep Fin from being able to terrorize another innocent victim.  If Clare gets caught by Fin, there’s little doubt he’d kill her.  This is why I found it so hard to take anything positive away from the book.  At every turn there’s a dead end with violent consequences, and the Sisyphean nature of the women’s lives, having to face the same fate day in and day out left me depressed.   

The book’s title refers to an annual play put on by the high school.  St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners.  There is redemption in St. Barbara’s story, but for me this just adds to the frustration because there is no parallel between the play and the lives of the women in the story. If anything, it serves to add to the chasm between real life and what the women could ever hope for.   Deirdre, the second oldest daughter, did marry but it was against her father’s wishes.  Even her marriage was dangerous and sacrificial:  she needed her mother’s help to keep her father from preventing it, knowing that the steps he would’ve taken would have been extreme.   And now that she is married, she is alienated from her family and the only contact she has with them is if they visit her.  She even has a son, and it goes without saying that he will never meet his grandfather.  Even events that should seem joyful have to be shrouded in secrecy and fraught with fear.   

It’s difficult to say I enjoyed this book but I found it interesting. I don’t like happy endings with everything tied up neatly with a big red bow.  But I also prefer more than a continuation of the same bleakness and despair with which the book began.  The problem here seemed to be that Deidre, Katie and Norah weren’t satisfied with the lives they made for themselves. Deidre’s discovered that marriage to Billy, who loves her and whom she loves, and a house filled with children isn’t as satisfactory as she imagined.  Deidre seems to want a career or a job like Norah. Basically, Deidre wants it all. Katie’s not completely happy in the convent. She may wish she married Jack after all, it's hard to say.  But both women have a life better than Clare has had despite any struggles they face.  It would be nice if they showed some appreciation for their lives.

The granddaughter of immigrant coal miners, Marian Szczepanski grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania and lived as a young child in the Jamison Coal Company house where her mother and aunts were raised. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and has won awards for short fiction and magazine feature writing. Playing St. Barbara is her first novel. She lives in Houston, Texas.

The author's website and Facebook addresses:http://www.marianszczepanski.com/
https://www.facebook.com/marianszczep...

~ ~ First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros ~ ~

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea every Tuesday. To participate share the opening paragraph or two of a book you've decided to read based on that paragraph. This book was highlighted in the Shelf Awareness newsletter I receive in my email a few times a week.  I've read some of Doctorow's book in the past and really enjoyed them. This book caught my attention because of its unique, creative nature.  My copy is an ARC. The book hasn't been published yet but is due to come out sometime next week.  I hope I enjoy it as much as I expect too!

Don't forget to drop by Bibliophile By the Sea to read Diane's selection this week and find out who else is participating in this fun meme! You'll probably get some good book titles, too!

Andrew's Brain

by

E. L. Doctorow

 

I can tell you about my friend Andrew, the cognitive scientist. But it's not pretty. One evening he appeared with an infant in his arms at the door of his ex-wife, Martha. Because Briony, his lovely young wife after Martha, had died.

Of what?

We'll get to that. I can't do this alone, Andrew said, as Martha stared at him from the open doorway. It happened to have been snowing that night, and Martha was transfixed by the soft creature-like snowflakes alighting on Andrew's NY Yankees hat brim. Martha was like that, enrapt by the peripheral things as if setting them to music. Even in ordinary times, she was slow to respond, looking at you with her large dark rolling protuberant eyes. Then the smile would come. or the nod, or the shake of the head. Meanwhile the heat  from her home drifted through the open door and fogged up Andrew's eyeglasses. He stood there behind his foggy lenses like a blind man in the snowfall and was without volition when at least she reached out, gently took the swaddled infant from him, stepped back, and closed the door in his face.

This was where?

Martha lived then in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York, in a neighborhood of large homes of different styles _ Tudor, Dutch Colonial, Greek Revival - most of them built in the 1920's and 30's, houses set back from the street with tall old Norway maples the predominant trees. Andrew ran to his car and came back with a baby carrier, a valise, two plastic bags filled with baby needs. He banged on the door: Martha, Martha! She is six month's old, she has a name, she has a birth certificate. I have it here, open the door please, Martha. I am not abandoning my daughter, I just need some help, I need help!

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

~ ~ It's 2014 ~ ~

 

 

Happy New Year!!

 

 

 

 

 

Best Wishes for a Great Year!!

 

 

 

 

Review: The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

 

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Publisher:  Putnam

Published:  January 22, 2009

ISBN:  978-0399155437

Pages:  256

Rating:  4.5 out of 5

 

Book Summary:   The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students' lives. One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian's food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen. 

My Thoughts:  This is a wonderful book.  It made me feel warm and cozy and hungry!  I adored the characters; especially Lillian who’s not only an incredible chef but she almost seems to be a little bit magician.  Lillian understands food and people and when she gets them together, she weaves a wonderful kind of magic that includes aromatic ingredients that meld together to create delicious and beautiful food.  But there’s something else going on, too.   Lillian’s cooking classes are a kind of therapy.  Her students finish the class able to create delicious dishes and they’ve made some life-long friends.  But even more, Lillian’s students come alive in her class;  they find themselves and whatever was missing from their lives.  Whatever the trouble, pain or angst they were struggling or dealing with when the cooking class began is resolved over the course of the class. 

Lillian lifted the cake pans from the oven and rested them on metal racks on the counter. The layers rose level and smooth from the pans: the scent, tinged with vanilla, traveled across the room in soft, heavy waves, filling the space with whispers of other kitchens, other loves. The students found themselves leaning forward in their chairs to greet the smells and the memories that came with them.  Breakfast cake baking on a snow day off from school, all the world on holiday.  The sound of cookie sheets clanging against the metal oven racks.  The bakery that was the reason to get up on cold, dark mornings; a croissant placed warm in a young woman’s hand on her way to the job she never meant to have.  Christmas, Valentines, birthdays, flowing together, one cake after another, lit by eyes bright with love.

 Erica Bauermeister’s writing is wonderful and delicious.  Her descriptions of the food and the different dishes are sublime and almost had me drooling. Her prose describes a scene in such a way that I was able to picture it almost as if I was there.  She brings the places in the book, such as Lilly’s restaurant and its kitchen to life.  It’s like her words paint us a picture.  Bauermeister does the same thing with her characters.  She describes them with just enough and the right detail, that we can fill in the rest and see them in Lilly’s kitchen or in their home.   Bauermeister’s writing drew me into the story immediately.  I was hooked and didn’t want to stop reading.  This is a delightful story with joyous moments and sad ones.  It’s about love, loss, friendship and life and celebrating it all.  I highly recommend this book.

Virtual Advent Tour 2013: Day 17 Christmas in NYC!!

Virtual Advent Tour 2013: Day 17

This is a fun and festive blog tour hosted by Kelly and Marg.  Visit their beautiful blog, Virtual Advent Tour, to see the other terrific blog participants and their holiday posts!

Christmas in NYC

When I was growing up on Long Island, a suburb of NYC, my parents would take my sister and I to the city for a weekend.  It was the start of the Christmas season for us.  My father’s firm had an apt for clients to use when they were in from out of town.  My dad would make sure, really early in the year, that we could stay there one weekend after Thanksgiving. 

Friday night was always casual and relaxing.  We’d usually go someplace super casual, like a pub for burgers.  After a leisurely dinner we would walk back to the apartment passing Lord & Taylor’s department store to see their window display.  
Every year their windows are decorated in some type of Christmas theme with each window telling part of a story.  Some other stores do this, too, but L & T’s have always been the best.

Saturday was always a shopping day for my mom, sister and me.  My dad usually went to his office for a few hours to get some work done.  My sister and I would meet him at a store later in the afternoon, usually Tiffany’s and from there we’d go to Rizzoli’s bookstore, to help him Christmas shop for my mom.  

We always walked past the NY Public Library, too to see their stately lion and their tree

On Saturday night, we usually saw The Nutcracker Ballet, a favorite of my sister and I, at Lincoln Center. 

Although, after several years of The Nutcracker, if there was a Broadway show we were interested in or Radio City Hall’s show enticed us, we might see that instead.  It didn't matter.  Anything we saw we enjoyed and the night was always magical. 

This was particularly true after the ballet or show because we would go over to Rockefeller Center to see the huge Christmas Tree there.  Even late at night, there are a lot of people around, but fortunately not the crowds there during the day. And we always stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral across the street.

Sunday was always brunch and a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see their tree and many other exhibits.  This was an especially good day because my dad spent the entire day with us…no work!

One fun place to visit, which we didn't get to every year, is the greatest toy store around -

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you and yours!!