All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark

"East side, west side,
All around the town,
The tots sang 'Ring-a-Rosie,'
 'London Bridge is Falling Down.'
Boys and girls together,
Me and Mamie O'Rourke,
Tripped the light fantastic,
On the sidewalks of New York."
                         -lyrics from "The Sidewalks of New York"

This Mary Higgins Clark was as good as any other of hers I have read. She is appropriately called "The Queen of Suspense." Clark is one of my go-to authors when I just want to enjoy a thriller and not think too hard. Our Page Turners group tends to read literature with more challenging plots and more profound themes so an easy read like this is refreshing at times, just mindless fun. Most of Clark's novels are centered around a song, often oldies, and this one is no exception. If I ever hear "The Sidewalks of New York" again it will probably give me goose bumps! And I never want to see a decapitated chicken!

Two sisters are the main characters, one a lawyer and one a troubled young lady with multiple personality disorder. The second sister, Laura, finds herself accused of a murder and the older sister, Sarah, takes on the task of defending her. Short chapters and a gripping plot made this book a true "page turner"---I could hardly put it down! I would give it a 5.

The problem for me with books like this is they are not very memorable and there is really no redeeming social value that I can see. A couple of weeks from now I will have forgotten much of it. It was a great ride while it lasted!

The House I Loved by Tatiana De Rosnay

"I think of our happiness, I think of the happy, simple life that is woven through these walls, the fragile tapestry of our existences. I think of the long, tall windows glowing out to me into the night when I used to make my way home from the rue des Ciseaux, a warm, beckoning light. And there you used to stand, waiting for me. I think of our doomed neighborhood, the simple beauty of the little streets stemming from the church that no one will remember."
                                           from Rose's letter, the novel, page 220

I chose this book for our Page Turners group to read and discuss this month because some of us had read Sarah's Key by this author and loved it. Also the novel was available as a Book Bundle, multiple copies from our public library. It did not disappoint me. I can't really say I liked it quite as much as the other but I did enjoy it.

The time and place were not terribly familiar to me---Paris in the mid-1800's. European history is not a strength, to say the least. The story takes place at a time when Napoleon III and his prefect, Baron Haussman, are carrying out a plan to modernize Paris. The whole plot is carried by letters written by the main character, Rose Bazelet, to her late husband, Armand, centered around the possible destruction of their family home. Occasionally letters TO Rose from Armand, her late son, her daughter, brother, mother-in-law, and friends appear, some providing flashbacks and revealing much about the characters.

I believe the clearest theme of the book is reaction to change. It is interesting to get into the heads of those who see the "progress" or "improvements" others are making as destructive and sad.

My favorite parts of the novel are when Rose is introduced to flowers by Alexandrine and to books by Zamaretti, particularly the description of Rose's first experience with a "page turner," Madame Bovary by Flaubert (see pp.147-50).

I look forward to hearing what my friends thought of The House I Loved. I will rate it a 4. In the Author's Note we are told just where to go and what to look for if we should go to Paris. Wouldn't it be lovely if our group could take a field trip there?

***
Our group met today and gave The House I Loved mixed reviews. The average rating was 3.0 but 4 people of 12 gave it a 2 and there was only one rating of 5. During the discussion, several members commented on what they thought was a lack of character development. None of us could relate to Rose's obsession with the house. Those of us who have also read Sarah's Key by this author agreed it was a much better read than The House... Luckily one member provided mini-quiches and petit fours as refreshments! Another member sent us background on the setting of the story from an encyclopedia and even shared with us the poem that Rose particularly liked.
The group thought my idea of a field trip to Paris sounded great. Now we just have to come into bundles of money to make that happen!

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

"She was embarassed that her five-year-old was asking questions that had not occurred to her. But she refused to be first in the long line of people who would shrug him off. 'We'll have to look that up.'.....Googling a butterfly. It sounded comical, like tickling a catfish, but she knew it wouldn't sound that way to Preston. He would clamber up to the computer at Bear and Hester's and punch the keys, finding what he needed in there. Having children was not like people said. Forget training them in your footsteps; the minute they put down the teething ring and found the Internet, you were useless as a source of anything but shoes and a winter coat."
                                                       -from the novel, page 93



I chose to read Flight Behavior because I saw it on the Best Seller list a few months back and because I had read The Poisonwood Bible by this author several years ago and liked it. I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much; I will rate it a 3. The writing is excellent, though wordy at times. She can really turn a phrase, for example when the main character, Dellarobia, is describing her young daughter scattering Cheerios in the living room carpet as if she were planting seeds, she writes that the resulting grit on the soles of everyone's feet will be "like a beach vacation minus the beach, and the vacation." Humorous, I thought.

I had a hard time relating to the setting, a farm in Tennessee. Dellarobia's family raised sheep which I knew little or nothing about. Because of these things, it was somewhat difficult to identify with the characters. The science got a little deep for me at times also, understandable since the author studied biology and worked as a scientist. I was intrigued by the appearance of the monarch butterflies, seen by some in the story as a miracle. I especially loved the idea first put forth by Josefina, the little Mexican-American girl, that when babies die, their souls become butterflies. A lovely idea!

I absolutely could relate to the environmental theme of the story. Global warming is something that I believe is real and it greatly concerns me. Quite possibly this is what kept me reading to the end.