Fred Stenson "The Great Karoo"

Sorry for the delay...I've been waiting for those books I ordered to show up, and nothing has jumped out at me at the bookstore. I've been rereading stuff on my shelf. Over the next couple of days I'll list some that I've enjoyed just as much the second or third time around!

Fred Stenson "The Great Karoo"

Set in the early 1900's during the Boer War in South Africa. The British are trying to gain control of South Africa and send out a call to arms in the colonies. One of those who answer is Frank Adams, a cowboy from Alberta, Canada. He and several others travel to South Africa, bringing their prized horses from home to act as their mounts. This book follows them through the war and beyond. I really loved this book. I've thought and thought about it and I'm afraid I can't give a simple answer why. Part of it is obviously that I liked Frank's character, flaws and all. The author really made me identify with him and his situation. This is one of those books where you're sort of cheering him on from the sidelines. I liked that although there is a definite military component, it reads as 'real'. So many books based around the military and war in general turn into incredible tales of heroic action, unbelievable conspiracies, or dare I say propaganda. This book is more about the average person thrown into a not so average situation and the resulting impact on their actions and character. There's no glamour here, but there is a great story of camaraderie, of overcoming incredible difficulties, and of course the bond of the men and their horses.
Insomnia aside, I would have still stayed up all night to read this :)

I'm still here...and reading!

What a looooong Christmas this turned out to be. That's the nicest way to describe it. Long in the sense that it seemed like it would never end. It might have something to do with the fact that they started showing all my favorite Christmas movies back in December. It might have something to do with the fact that my significant other had family come from far and wide to visit...and they basically stole his every waking moment. Here's where I explain that hubby is 11 years older than me. Which works out just fine for us, but since he is by far the youngest in his family means his siblings are my parents age, and although nice enough, we just don't have all that much in common. They are very traditional and old fashioned, even for their age group. I am a very nice girl, but unfortunately not in any way traditional. My horses are my children and 'hubby' and I aren't actually married. Just living in sin for the last 6 years :) You can see how disappointed I make them. So, being shy and quiet in addition to being nontraditional, I sit around feeling awkward and out of place and counting the minutes. Times like that I would pay to be one of those outgoing, positive people that have fun no matter what life hands them.
Anyways, I haven't posted much on what I've been reading, because quite honestly I haven't read anything lately that was good enough to recommend or bad enough to warn you away from.

"Horse People" by Michael Korda. I found this one to be slow. I think you'd have to like horses or Michael Korda to get any sort of enjoyment from it.

"Mr Maybe" Jane Green. A nice light read. Bought this from the thrift store and teased my 'hubby' that it's a story about him :) Definite chick lit. Not the best and not the worst. I'd read another from this author because I didn't hate it and it had some funny moments.

"Tongue In Cheek" Fiona Walker. Probably the worst of hers that I've read. Her novels are my guilty pleasure, so obviously I still liked it. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but a fan.

"Dark Horses and Black Beauties" Melissa Holbrook Pearson. Not sure about this one. It sort of loosely explores what the attraction is with people and horses. So there is a bit of poetry, a bit of history, and a bit of autobiography. Some of it was interesting, some of it was boring. It was one of those books where I turned the last page and immediately forgot just about everything about the book, except for a vague sense that it was "OK".

Lets hope my next few reads are a little more inspirational or noteworthy than these were. Time for some more serious reads, I think.
Happy New Year!

"The Little Stranger" Sarah Waters

From Amazon.com:
"From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past.

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules.

Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds.

But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely.

Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today. "

Since, I really didn't like "Wideacre" (see last post), I wanted to offer up an alternative. There's no point in comparing the two books beyond the obvious: yes they're both set in England, and they both deal with people obsessed with a specific home or estate and the lifestyle associated with it.
"The Little Stranger" kept me reading well into the night. I couldn't put it down. This one reminded me of an old fashioned suspense or even horror novel. I'm thinking Edgar Allan Poe. The writing is superb, the story is stylish, and the author knows how to involve you in the story and keep you in suspense. I can't say much more since I don't want to give anything away.
I can easily see this book becoming a great movie.

"Wideacre” Phillipa Gregory

I ended up with this one, once again, from the local thrift store. Can I be honest? I hated it. Really and truly did not like this book one little bit. I guess what bothered me was that at the beginning I was reading along thinking it was OK…until suddenly it just wasn’t…and for me, it just never recovered. Let me explain – the story starts out about a girl in 18th century England. She loves the land and the estate she was born on. So much so that she assists her father in the management and running of it. She has a brother who seems uninterested, and a doting father. So, it’s all good right? This is going to be a book about the girl proving her worth, and since this is 18th century England, maybe marrying well. And maybe, if we want to be all progressive, even inheriting the estate. I was thinking Jane Austen “Pride and Predjudice” with a bit more of a ‘girl power’ angle. I was so, so, sadly mistaken. Our first clue is when she has an illicit affair with the gamekeeper. All well and fine, exciting even, maybe she’s going to really challenge conventions and marry him? But no, turns out she just thinks he can conspire with her to get the estate. The end result of which is that her father ends up being murdered…and then she tries to kill her lover to ensure there’s no one to tell how awful/guilty she is. Of course, the estate is left to the brother, and so of course, she has to sleep with him. You heard me right, she has to seduce him so she can still be in control of the estate. And the rest really isn’t worth telling…it just goes downhill from there. She pretty much manipulates everyone and everything and ruins a bunch of people’s lives. The whole time she imagines herself as totally righteous and smarter than everyone around her. I disliked nearly everyone in the book. The main character for being so generally awful, and everyone else for being so weak and stupid. I mean seriously, no one thought she was a little out of control? Maybe a little, I don’t know, CRAZY? I dislike books like this because the plot, to me, just reads as ridiculous. I never really understood why she was behaving so awfully, why the estate meant so much to her, why no one around her could see what she really was, until, of course, it’s much too late.

There’s nothing wrong with the actual writing. In fact, I have enjoyed some of Phillipa Gregory’s other books. This one though, to me, just epitomizes what I don’t like about her books. Lots of characters behaving irrationally for pages on end…lots of attempted shock factor, and ‘powerless’ women gaining control in all of the wrong ways. I sent this one back to the thrift store as soon as I could. I hear there is a sequel or two so I’m going to stay away from her books just in case I end up bringing home one of those.

"The White Tiger" Aravind Adiga

I'm on a roll at the moment - I've found another book I really like. The story follows Balram Halwai, a successful entrepreneur living in Bangalore, India. Upon hearing that Premier Jiabao of China is coming to India "to learn the truth about Bangalore", Balram starts writing him a letter. "Apparently, sir, you Chinese are ahead of us in every respect, except you don't have entrepreneurs. And our nation, although it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs."
Balram follows by writing his life story to date, the story of how he became a successful entrepreneur. It's also the story of a servant, a sharp and witty observer, a philosopher, and a murderer.
The beginning of this book reminded me a little of Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" in that it tells all too vividly the other side of India. The dark, corrupt, brutal side . There's some really humorous stuff, but in the so-awful-it's-funny way. Kind of the antidote to all those beautiful, poetic stories you've read about India and I'm sensing, closer to the reality. But where "A Fine Balance" left me feeling sort of deflated and hopeless, this one left me with a smile on my face, rooting for Balram, even if he is a thief and a murderer. This one is part crime novel, part black comedy, part social criticism.
Definitely worth the read and I can't wait to read more from this author.

"Sarah's Key" Tatiana de Rosnay

Wow is all I can say. I was a little uncertain when I picked this one up. I wasn't sure whether it would really be my thing. Because honestly, a lot of novels I've read set during or about the Holocaust are so awful, so heartbreaking, and so graphic that I just end up wishing those images weren't trapped in my head forever. This book was written for those, who, whether we'd like to admit it or not, would rather forget how awful humans can be. Before I get into this, here's a quick outline of the book (without giving too much away):

The book follows Julia Jarmond, a middle aged American living in Paris with her french husband and their 11 year old daughter. Julia works for a magazine and is given the assignment of covering the 60 year anniversary of the 1942 roundups and deportations of Jewish families in Paris.
Julia soon learns that the apartment she and her husband are moving into once belonged to one such  deported and dispossessed family. She vows to find out who they were and what happened to them.

What I loved about this book was that it weaves the past and present together into a cohesive and fascinating story. I love that it addresses the fact that most Parisians would like to forget the round ups ever happened, or failing that, would like to blame the Germans. I like that this book is a friendly reminder that everyone at the time wasn't an innocent victim. Neighbours were turning on each other. The city police organized the raids. In fact that the Germans didn't have nearly as much to do with it as we'd like to think. I think this book is a good reminder about the necessity of standing up for what is right, about the consequences of your actions or in this case, so many people's inaction. And how at the end of the day, the past doesn't always disappear.

"Notes From A Small Island" Bill Bryson

Like nearly everyone else, I'm most familiar with Bill Bryson as the author of "A Short History of Nearly Everything", which incidentally is well worth reading. It's part history, part comedy, part social insights, but mostly just awesome.

So I saw "Notes From A Small Island" in a big display at the bookstore a few days ago. I mistakenly thought it was his new book. Its not (it was originally published in 1995), but that's OK, it was still worth the purchase.
Bryson has, when this book starts, been living in England for 20 years after leaving Iowa as a twenty something. Deciding it is time to return home to the US, he starts off on one last tour around Great Britain before his departure.
This book could be filed in the "Travel" section. In fact, I think it is at my local bookstore. But really, it's not just a travel novel. It would be fairly useless if you're looking for places to stay, road maps, or what to have for dinner. Where this book shines is in it's humorous descriptions of English life. His travel disasters are related in all their glory, and he has a knack for making even the most awful events seem funny and worth the experience. Some of the critical commentary in this book had me laughing out loud, but the best part is it's never over the top or nasty. His love of the country shines though even the most sarcastic entries.