Back in November, the London Times published their list of the 100 best books of the 00's. The usual suspects are there (J.K. Rowling, Phillip Roth), and the number one book is not much of a surprise. Overall though, an impressive compilation.
London Times - 100 Best Books of the Decade.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Line By Line: Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
"All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market."
"At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice."
"See, you don't have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking."
"Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Book Review: Clare Morrall, Astonishing Splashes of Colour
Author: Clare Morrall
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins, 2004
Review:
There were high expectations for this novel prior to picking it up simply because the title was so evocative. Clare Morrall, with her first novel, does not fail in fulfilling these expectations as she has crafted an immensely appealing protagonist in Kitty Wellington, whose alienation, both internally and externally constructed, is both saddening and life-affirming. Astonishing Splashes of Colour is indeed astonishing in its composition, as Morrall weaves colour through the narrative as sign posts for insight into Kitty’s physical, emotional, and psychological wounds and wonderings.
Kitty lives what can be termed a dysfunctional existence. Her family, comprised of four much older brothers, who share little in common besides her, and her tempermental and creative painter father, are emotionally distant. She does not have any memories of her mother, a woman who was supposedly killed in a car crash when Kitty was very young. She is also living out an unusual arrangement with her husband James, who lives across the hall in his own flat. Together they are bound by marriage, and individually they are attempting to assuage an encompassing grief that neither one can easily shed.
To all, including herself, Kitty is emotionally unstable and unable to fully deal with her miscarriage and subsequent inability to have children. Her response to the grief is to cast everything around her in varying colour hues. This creative device known as synaesthesia, a condition in which emotions are seen as colours, allows the reader vivid insight into Kitty’s devastion and quite fantastic imagination.
Using the miscarriage as her staring point, Morrall slowly reveals the true impetus for Kitty’s internal anguish, her search for an identity. Because she has no memories of her mother, Kitty questions her brothers and fathers for answers, answers that they are quite reluctant to reveal. Her search culminates in one emotionally charged event, where Kitty comes to understand that the life she so desperately clings to is built on two equally devastating lies.
The emotional impact of these revelations sends Kitty spiraling for solid ground. She ends up acting on her child-like impulses, actions that result in a dangerous double kidnapping. It is this event that triggers yet another emotional and tragic event that finally forces Kitty and James to fully face the reality of their current lives if they are to ever move forward.
Morrall has created a tremendously powerful novel that is fresh and unsentimental. She layers her prose with dark humor and emotional breaks, building upon plot turns and character faults to construct a suspenseful tale of depression and devastation, loss and love, optimism and starting over. Astonishing Splashes of Colour is a brilliant debut novel, and the undercurrent of hopefulness threaded throughout its pages is the element that sets it apart from rest of the pack.
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins, 2004
Review:
There were high expectations for this novel prior to picking it up simply because the title was so evocative. Clare Morrall, with her first novel, does not fail in fulfilling these expectations as she has crafted an immensely appealing protagonist in Kitty Wellington, whose alienation, both internally and externally constructed, is both saddening and life-affirming. Astonishing Splashes of Colour is indeed astonishing in its composition, as Morrall weaves colour through the narrative as sign posts for insight into Kitty’s physical, emotional, and psychological wounds and wonderings.
Kitty lives what can be termed a dysfunctional existence. Her family, comprised of four much older brothers, who share little in common besides her, and her tempermental and creative painter father, are emotionally distant. She does not have any memories of her mother, a woman who was supposedly killed in a car crash when Kitty was very young. She is also living out an unusual arrangement with her husband James, who lives across the hall in his own flat. Together they are bound by marriage, and individually they are attempting to assuage an encompassing grief that neither one can easily shed.
Using the miscarriage as her staring point, Morrall slowly reveals the true impetus for Kitty’s internal anguish, her search for an identity. Because she has no memories of her mother, Kitty questions her brothers and fathers for answers, answers that they are quite reluctant to reveal. Her search culminates in one emotionally charged event, where Kitty comes to understand that the life she so desperately clings to is built on two equally devastating lies.
The emotional impact of these revelations sends Kitty spiraling for solid ground. She ends up acting on her child-like impulses, actions that result in a dangerous double kidnapping. It is this event that triggers yet another emotional and tragic event that finally forces Kitty and James to fully face the reality of their current lives if they are to ever move forward.
Morrall has created a tremendously powerful novel that is fresh and unsentimental. She layers her prose with dark humor and emotional breaks, building upon plot turns and character faults to construct a suspenseful tale of depression and devastation, loss and love, optimism and starting over. Astonishing Splashes of Colour is a brilliant debut novel, and the undercurrent of hopefulness threaded throughout its pages is the element that sets it apart from rest of the pack.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Table of Contents: Bed Rest
Author: Sarah Bilston
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins, 2007
Synopsis: Quinn "Q" Boothroyd is a young British lawyer married to an American and living in New York City. She's checked off most of the boxes on her "Modern Woman's List of Things to Do Before Hitting 30," and her busy working life has been relatively painless. But when her doctor tells her she must spend the last three months of her pregnancy lying in bed, Q is thrown into a tailspin. Initially bored and frustrated, Q soon fills her days by trying to reconnect with her workaholic husband, provide legal advice for her sweet Greek neighbor, forge new emotional bonds with her mother and sisters, and figure out who will keep her stocked up in cookies and sandwiches.
Q experiences adventures on the couch she never would have encountered in the law firm and learns a lot about herself and what she wants out of life—and above all, about the little one growing inside her.
What Others Have To Say:
Marian Keyes, Author
"Sarah Bilston has written a very clear-sighted novel about how tough it is for women to juggle career, marriage and childbirth- I laughed out loud and I couldn't put it down."
Trashionista
"...with a witty (rather than whiny) and snarky (rather than snippy) heroine it could have been just what Marian [Keyes] promised."
Plum Sykes, Author
"Even if you've never been pregnant you'll be as instantly hooked on this addictive novel. While most of us dream of days on end in bed with nothing to do but eat and watch television, Q shows us the true nature of being a caged animal."
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins, 2007
Synopsis: Quinn "Q" Boothroyd is a young British lawyer married to an American and living in New York City. She's checked off most of the boxes on her "Modern Woman's List of Things to Do Before Hitting 30," and her busy working life has been relatively painless. But when her doctor tells her she must spend the last three months of her pregnancy lying in bed, Q is thrown into a tailspin. Initially bored and frustrated, Q soon fills her days by trying to reconnect with her workaholic husband, provide legal advice for her sweet Greek neighbor, forge new emotional bonds with her mother and sisters, and figure out who will keep her stocked up in cookies and sandwiches.
Q experiences adventures on the couch she never would have encountered in the law firm and learns a lot about herself and what she wants out of life—and above all, about the little one growing inside her.
What Others Have To Say:
Marian Keyes, Author
"Sarah Bilston has written a very clear-sighted novel about how tough it is for women to juggle career, marriage and childbirth- I laughed out loud and I couldn't put it down."
Trashionista
"...with a witty (rather than whiny) and snarky (rather than snippy) heroine it could have been just what Marian [Keyes] promised."
Plum Sykes, Author
"Even if you've never been pregnant you'll be as instantly hooked on this addictive novel. While most of us dream of days on end in bed with nothing to do but eat and watch television, Q shows us the true nature of being a caged animal."
Monday, January 4, 2010
Line By Line: Joseph Heller, Catch 22
"You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age?"
“You wouldn’t be normal if you were never afraid. Even the bravest men experience fear. One of the biggest jobs we all face in combat is to overcome fear.”
"You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail."
"[T]hat's the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority."
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Table of Contents: The Abstinence Teacher
Author: Tom Perrotta
Publisher/Year: St Martin's Press, 2007
Synopsis: Ruth Ramsey is a divorced single mother teaching human sexuality in a Northeastern high school. When she makes a favorable comment about sexual pleasure in class, a girl in the class who belongs to the ultra-conservative Christian church in town is offended and her family complains to school officials. The school apologizes for any offensive comments Ruth might have made and changes the curriculum of her class. When Ruth's daughter's soccer coach, Tim Mason, a former drug user and alcoholic who also belongs to the church, instructs the girls to pray after a victory, Ruth is furious. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to the coach. The attraction is mutual and shakes up both of their worlds.
What Others Have To Say:
The New York Times
"As formulaic as [the] plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses"
Entertainment Weekly
"Perrotta leaves the fate of these sweet, baffled characters hanging, which is a disappointment. But he resists giving firm answers to the thorny moral questions lurking in his material — which is a relief."
The Washington Post
"[T]he novel lacks the necessary element of passion. It practices a strange kind of abstinence: a failure to consummate its satiric drive."
USA Today
"For a novel that is really about sex, not abstinence, Teacher gets a C-plus for sizzle. But it does earn an A for funny."
Extras:
A Writer's Search for the Sex in Abstinence
Q&A with Tom Perrotta
Publisher/Year: St Martin's Press, 2007
Synopsis: Ruth Ramsey is a divorced single mother teaching human sexuality in a Northeastern high school. When she makes a favorable comment about sexual pleasure in class, a girl in the class who belongs to the ultra-conservative Christian church in town is offended and her family complains to school officials. The school apologizes for any offensive comments Ruth might have made and changes the curriculum of her class. When Ruth's daughter's soccer coach, Tim Mason, a former drug user and alcoholic who also belongs to the church, instructs the girls to pray after a victory, Ruth is furious. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to the coach. The attraction is mutual and shakes up both of their worlds.
What Others Have To Say:
The New York Times
"As formulaic as [the] plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses"
Entertainment Weekly
"Perrotta leaves the fate of these sweet, baffled characters hanging, which is a disappointment. But he resists giving firm answers to the thorny moral questions lurking in his material — which is a relief."
The Washington Post
"[T]he novel lacks the necessary element of passion. It practices a strange kind of abstinence: a failure to consummate its satiric drive."
USA Today
"For a novel that is really about sex, not abstinence, Teacher gets a C-plus for sizzle. But it does earn an A for funny."
Extras:
A Writer's Search for the Sex in Abstinence
Q&A with Tom Perrotta
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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