Juliet

"Juliet" by Anne Fortier

I'm going to start with the end of this book first. No, you don't need a spoiler alert, because the end I am referring to is the Author's Note. While it was apparent throughout the book that it was well researched as far as location, I was even more fascinated to learn, after reading the book, which characters were also loosely based on real people, and how much of the novel also referred to historical events or families. The story itself is indeed fiction, but knowing that the fiction grew on roots of facts delights me. And as such, I wished I had known some of that prior to reading the story.

The book starts in the present day with the death of Julie's beloved Aunt, who raised her and her twin sister from the age of three. The details of her childhood prior to being adopted by her Aunt are very vague, except for the death of her parents in a car accident in Italy when she was an infant. When Aunt Rose's will is read the twins are amazed to discover the estate is left to the less favored Janice while Julie's inheritance is nothing more than a key to an Italian security lock box and the "promise" of finding some unknown ancient treasure left to her by her long deceased mother. Leaving her estranged sister behind in the US with her spoils, Julie sets off for Italy to discover her "inheritance."

Once in Italy Julie begins to unravel the mystery of her past through a small box of documents her mother left in a safe-deposit box. As she learns of her ancestry leading back to the couple that Shakespeare later based his Romeo & Juliet love story on she finds herself in a world unfamiliar to her and not certain of who to trust and who not. The author takes the reader back to 1340 Siena telling the tragic story of Julie's ancestor, Giulietta, and her true love, Romeo, alternating chapters with the present day Julie's attempts to find the treasure her mother sought, until the two stories explosively collide.

I thought I was figuring out the characters throughout the story, alternately deciding which ones wore black hats and which wore white hats. Of course the hats changed a few times as I re-evaluated a good guy into a bad guy and vice versa. But even up to the very end I wasn't quite sure who Julie should trust or not.

When I started this book I would put it down and not pick it up for a few days or even a week at a time. I strongly suggest not reading it this way. I enjoyed the author's style and the way the story was written, but the reader doesn't do the book justice by not reading consistently through the story.

This book has a little for most readers, mystery, crime, adventure & romance. I thought of several books or stories as I read... The Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones, and of course, Romeo & Juliet. My personal rating is four of five shots.

Still Alice

Still Alice
by Lisa Genova

This is a fictional story is about a woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. It's a topic that has interested me as the daughter and caregiver of a woman who likely had Alzheimer's. But lucky for my mother, she lived a long life and accomplished many things before she was disabled by the disease late in life.

The story is told through the eyes of Alice. She is just 50, a highly respected professor and scientist at Harvard. She begins to be aware of instances where she can't find the words she wants, misplaces things or becomes temporarily disoriented. At first she suspects menopause and makes an appointment with her doctor to confirm her suspicions. Her doctor thinks it is more than just menopause and sends her to a neurologist who suspects Alzheimer's. (The author admits that a quick diagnosis is not usual for early onset Alzheimer's disease. For the sake of the story she cut through the potential months and years of looking for the diagnosis.)

Alice's husband is a biologist and she is a psychologist with emphasis on linguistics. Through their Harvard connections they research treatments, medications and clinical trials. Unfortunately, there is not much hope for Alzheimer's victims. Alice develops routines and processes to help herself navigate her way through her days. She contemplates suicide and creates a plan to carry it out when the disease has stolen too much from her. Written in the first person, we feel not only her frustration as she stumbles through obstacles that never were before, but also horror as we realize how much more the disease has affected her than she does.

The story hit emotionally close to home for me. I have issues with my own memory, I have as far back as I can remember, so I don't know how concerned I really need be. But to know that I am not too young for Alzheimer's is a terrifying thought. Having cared for my mother as her life escaped her memory of it really allowed me to feel what Alice was experiencing as I read it. The story moved me to tears more than once. Alice eventually forgets that she was a world renown psychologist and very bright. Similarly, my mother forgot that she earned a veterinary degree in the days when most women who attended college became either teachers or home ec majors.

Alzheimer's not only steals your precious memories, but interferes with immediate memory, too. Listening to people speak is unbearably hard when you can't decipher the meanings of the words quickly enough to follow what is being said. Reading a book is impossible as well as watching TV or a movie. The Alzheimer's victim becomes a silent observer of people and things she feels no relation or connection to. Never mind that it's her own family.

Alice struggles with her relationship with her husband and although I felt he still loved her, he couldn't bear losing her while she was still there. Her children responded differently and although in different processes, all rallied around her, and at least one mother/daughter relationship was better than it had been prior to the onset of the disease. I found this very plausible having experienced a similar thing with my own mother.

I loved this book and felt it gave me a lot of insight to what my mother experienced the last few years of her life and also made me even happier that she came to live with us and I could be with her. I think Lisa Genova did a wonderful and sensitive job of bringing a face and personality to a disease that cripples so many elderly people and even more horrifically, many younger people as well. I wish I had read this book while my mother was still living.

Gunn's Golden Rules

Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making it Work
by Tim Gunn

Sadly, as much as I adore Tim Gunn, I am not finding this book very inspirational.

He writes like the editor never gave it back and said "let's re-work this part." It rambles in different directions shamelessly. And I really believe that although he's saying one thing in the book, the anecdotes he's sharing actually say something else. I still adore his TV personality but I am feeling like he is a person that was stabbed with hundreds of little pins & needles throughout his life and has yet to forgive or forget a single one of them. He's all about "taking the high road." To me that means really letting go and moving on. I'm just finding that disappointing.

I felt the writing did get better the further I read and either he seemed to stay on track a bit better or I grew accustomed to his style of writing and developed a sense of how to follow him.

The book is of course, by title, Tim Gunn's rules for life. I think it's important to keep that in perspective because his rules fit him. It's not a one size fits all book of rules to live by. That said, I think he imparts many good lessons in the value of manners and etiquette. Actually, upon reviewing the titles of all his chapters, I can't disagree with any of his rules. I suppose my disagreement comes in their interpretations. One anecdote that sticks clearly in my mind involves showing up at a party with an uninvited/unexpected guest in tow. Yes, this would absolutely be verboten, particularly for a sit down dinner party. But in Tim's anecdote he was a guest, not the host, and he chose to jump up and relinquish his place at the party and go home!!

This particular story really disturbed me. I thought about the host, how he/she must feel to have Tim insist on leaving as the result of another guest's poor decision. I think it would put a negative feeling on the entire evening that could have been avoided if handled differently. I also would have wondered why he even chose to accept the invitation if he were so willing to give it up. I know I am putting a lot of my own feelings into the anecdote, but I think the polite thing to do would have been to allow the host and the guest/non-guest involved to "make it work."

There were other examples where I felt Tim was saying one thing and writing about acting another way. Perhaps I just don't find a gossipy "tell-all" book the right venue for "Ms. Manners."

I am sure I will continue to love Tim on Project Runway and other venues he surfaces in, but I may have a tiny bit less respect for him. Or not. After all, as with all of us, he's only human.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

A Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray

Sometimes catching up on books I've owned for a long time simply means purchasing more books in the end. This book is the first of a trilogy and of course now I must read the other two, right?

When I purchased this book I was not aware of the supernatural aspect of the story, even though it refers to it on the back jacket. Silly me. I was expecting a period piece about a young girl in a British boarding school in the late 1800's. I thought the visions and powers referred to were about social power and status. I was a little put off when I realized the book was indeed of the fantasy/sci-fi genre. However, I carried on and discovered a story I very much enjoyed.

Gemma has been raised in India her entire life and very much wants to go to England to school. When her mother commits suicide she sadly gets her wish only to discover it's not the perfect life she'd been dreaming of.

She finds herself at Spence, a school for young ladies, and feeling much out of place. She tentatively makes friends with some of the girls and together they delve into the supernatural, visiting a realm, another world, of beauty and peace where Gemma finds her mother alive and the forgiveness she seeks.

But of course what appears to be wonderful on the surface has dark and evil currents below and Gemma and her friends are soon in danger.

I was thoroughly entertained by this story and particularly enjoyed the time period it takes place in. This book is found in the young adult section, where I find many enjoyable books. I'm ether young at heart or just never matured into full blown adulthood.

Sundays at Tiffany's

Sundays at Tiffany's
by James Patterson

Another book that has been in my inventory for quite some time. Yes, I am finally trying to work my way through some of those books I've owned since my days as a Barnes & Noble bookseller before I invest in more. I'm only being partially successful, as I still frequent the bookstore and continue to purchase books, but even "partially successful" is better than just letting them sit on my bookshelves unread forever.

Excuse me while I pat myself on the back.

This book was featured as a Lifetime made for TV movie this month. That was my impetus for getting it out and reading it. I very much dislike watching a movie if there is a book to be read first. Books offer so much more insight into the characters. And I will also know if the screenwriter butchered the book or not.

In this case I didn't feel there was too much of a book to be butchered. I'm all for some light fluff in my library, but this was so fluffy it lost most substance. I think the movie version, although quite different in some significant ways, was probably a better story, although I felt the book did a better job of defining an imaginary friend.

As an adult, Jane Margaux becomes reacquainted to the man who was her imaginary friend as a child. The premise of the story is quite fun as we discover the realm and rules of imaginary friends. But the story is totally predictable, which I wouldn't really mind, if it wasn't so full of the same questions repeated over and over again.

It's a quick read and could have been lots of fun, but I don't really recommend it unless you just don't have another book anywhere on hand that interests you.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I finished reading Edgar Sawtelle quite some time ago - 2 full books ago actually. I was so mad when I finished this book, I couldn't write a review. Now I hope I still recall enough of it to do so.

I glanced at some (non-spoiler) reviews prior to reading the book and one that stuck in my head in particular referred to the book as one people either hate or love... or have a love/hate relationship with it. That definitely sums up my feelings.

I started Edgar with a lot of hope and enthusiasm. The author writes beautifully and drew such wonderful pictures in my mind. I don't have patience for a lot of detail usually, but I was drawn in by the author and could clearly see the landscape of his book. It was almost like watching a movie and thoroughly enjoyable.

Edgar Sawtelle, the main character of this book is a young mute boy growing up on a rural farm breeding dogs. The dogs they breed are extraordinary. Much of the story revolves around their history and evolution and sometimes does bog down on the details of these mystical dogs.

Edgar, although young has a maturity about him and his role on the farm. He takes his responsibilities very seriously. Tragedy strikes and we watch him deal with his father's death and his mother's subsequent depression. The events that follow kept me cheering on Edgar, worrying for him & his dogs and desperate with curiosity of how it would all be resolved. Edgar is the hero, the champion of his dogs and his mother and I knew he would expose the evil and resolve the issues.

***Spoiler Alert***

It doesn't happen that way. With all the emotion I invested into Edgar's odyssey, he loses the fight. Not only does he lose, everyone loses. There are no winners at the end of this book. Right up until the end I loved the book. Honestly, I hated the ending so much I almost wish I hadn't invested all the time in the first 500 pages.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

I put off buying this book for a quite a while because I kept hearing so many poor reviews of it. "Not as good as her first book" (The Time Traveler's Wife) is inevitably written where ever I looked. That alone was not enough to deter me since a follow-up to TTTW would be very hard to match. But the reviews went further than that and I wondered if I really wanted to read this novel at all. But the synopsis had me hooked and I decided I finally must find out for myself.

The story centers around the lives of twin girls, themselves the daughters of a twin girl. It begins with the death of their aunt (Mother's twin) who they've never met, nor heard of. The twins inherit their aunt's estate and must move from Chicago to London to live in their aunt's flat for a year.

It is in London where the story develops amid the people who were formerly part of the aunt's life. This is a love story, a ghost story, a story of secrets and betrayal. There are some turns and twists, some expected, some maybe not.

Niffenegger's style is very readable and enjoyable. What I get most from other reviews is that readers had enjoyed the first half of the book but not the second half. One was a little more specific and said the first 2/3 as opposed to the last third. I mention the 2/3 vs 1/3 ratio because I believe that is likely the point where most dissenters fell out of the story.

As in TTTW, Niffenegger asks her reader to suspend belief and follow a story that is supernatural in nature. It's not too difficult to do in the beginning when the ghost character is introduced to the story, in fact the introduction of the ghost is quite charming as she discovers what it is to be a ghost. But further developments in the story require the reader to go outside the normal (?) boundaries of suspension of belief. The elements of the story seem no longer feasible or likely, even supernaturally.

I found myself falling down that same rabbit hole, thinking, "Nah, couldn't happen." But in an effort to really continue enjoying Niffenegger, I decided to suspend my beliefs just a bit further and go with it. If skepticism was to destroy my enjoyment of the tale, I should have let it take over much sooner. As long as I had come along this far, why stop now? I decided to play along and go for the entire ride.

I am glad I did. The story didn't play out how I wished it would but that was never the author's intention. It did, however, keep me thinking about the characters and their lives (or deaths) even after I closed the final page.