The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (translated from French by Allison Anderson)

"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary---and terribly elegant."
                    -Paloma Josse, from the novel

With a trip to Paris coming up, I selected this book which is set in "the City of Lights." The plot sounded intriguing enough and it was available in paperback from Amazon. All I can say is, it was VERY challenging for me. I was not surprised to learn that it was written by a philosophy professor! A person I met on the trip had read the book and encouraged me not to quit. She said the ending was worth it and I'll admit I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.

The novel has two protagonists and the story alternates between them in first person narratives. The first is Madame Renee Michel, concierge of what is called an elegant hotel, but what seems to me to be more like a condominium. She appears to the hoity toity residents as a common person but secretly is an autodidact. I had to look that up: it means self-educated. The second is Paloma Josse, a super smart 12-year-old, who is planning to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. The reason still isn't very clear to me. Paloma's chapters are somewhat like diary entries or advice columns. Both characters express very profound thoughts. (No problem finding worthy quotes!) Fortunately Paloma adds some humor occasionally.

The book was entirely too transcendental for me. It required too much concentration at a time I needed lighter reading. The characters must have been somewhat engaging though---by the end I was rooting for them both! I rate it a 3.

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,

When first we practise to deceive!"

                           -from Marmion, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, Scottish author & novelist 

                             

What a page-turner this was! The plot was unique and spellbinding with characters just complicated enough by their emotional baggage. I had chosen this novel for our Page Turners' November read because the film version was just being released, it had been a best-seller for some time and it could be found in paperback. Also one of our members had recommended it. It did not disappoint! I am rating it a 5.

Tom Sherbourne, a decorated war hero, takes a position as light keeper on Janus Rock, a remote island off western Australia. Soon after, he marries Isabel Graysmark. For a time they are deeply in love and very happy in their isolated life but after two miscarriages and a still-birth, Isabel becomes an emotional basket case. Not long after the third devastating loss, Tom and Isabel hear an infant's cry and discover a boat has washed up on shore and it contains a dead man and a live baby. Isabel quickly sees this child as God's gift to them to make up for their losses and begs Tom not to report it. An inveterate rule-follower and stickler for details, Tom goes against his better judgement and gives in to his wife. They bury the dead man and begin to bond with this foundling child they call Lucy. 

The quote with which I began the post will hint that the future will not be a rose garden for this family and when, at Lucy's christening, Tom and Isabel become aware that a young widow of the church has lost a husband and a baby, the reader is quick to discern the dead man in the boat was her missing husband and Lucy, the lost infant. I cannot say much more without spoiling the plot so I will end my commentary here.

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When our book club met, we had a smallish group. The change of regular meeting day caught some out of town and others with Wednesday conflicts. We had a wonderful discussion of The Light Between Oceans with everyone having liked the book. The average rating was 4.7, one of our highest of the year. One of our members had visited the area in Australia used as the setting and said it made the descriptions more meaningful for her. We all admitted we learned a lot about lighthouses and their keepers and even thought it would be interesting to follow up with a "field trip" to a local lighthouse. (Florida has many!) It was mentioned that isolation was a big factor in the story and that themes of family dynamics, making tough choices in life and the importance of forgiveness were compelling. We were amazed this novel is the author's first and will eagerly await her next!

 

  

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

"There was a time long ago in Africa when the people could fly. They flew like blackbirds up above with their wings shining against the blue sky. When these people were captured into slavery they forgot that they could fly. They shed their wings on the long boats to America. As slaves the people lived in misery, they got sick on the waves of the sea and they no longer could breathe and smell the sweet scent of Africa."

                      -from the folk tale The People Could Fly

I fondly remember much of Virginia Hamilton's children's literature from my teaching days. As I read The Invention of Wings, I kept thinking of the book pictured here and quoted above. There were a number of references to blackbirds' wings and flying away to freedom, even in the title.

I LOVED the The Invention of Wings! It's a 5, for sure. Since historical fiction is my favorite genre it was bound to grab me. It is plain to see why it has been on the Bestseller List for quite a while now.

The setting spans from 1803 to 1838 mostly in Charleston, South Carolina, though some of the action moves North later in the story. Sarah Grimke is the white daughter of a judge and plantation owner who, as an eleventh birthday gift, is given a 10-year-old slave girl named Hetty, also called Handful. Sarah tries to free her at that time, unsuccessfully. This attempt foreshadows Sarah's rebelliousness and her future as an abolitionist and women's rights advocate. When Sarah's baby sister, Angelina, is born, Sarah becomes her godmother. Under Sarah's influence, Angelina, called Nina, adopts similar views on slavery and gender equality. In fact, after Nina becomes a notorious speaker, she is called "Devilina" by some who oppose her radical opinions.

I had heard of Angelina Grimke, one of few female abolitionists of historical note. Through the story, Sarah and Nina's crusade introduces them to William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott and Theodore Weld, who marries Angelina. The first two names were familiar to me but not the last.

Alternating between chapters of the Grimke sisters' story, is the fascinating but ugly saga of Handful. I was no stranger to the ill-treatment of slaves but by becoming involved with these characters, the cruelty seemed more intense. It was easy to recognize Handful's voice since she used such expressions as "It was April and half the heat from hell had already showed up in Charleston" and "the picture I had of [Mauma] was washed-out like the red on a quilt after it's boiled too many times." The author did not use dialect heavily, however.

In the Author's Note, Ms.Kidd tells how she came to write this story. She says she did not know about the Grimke sisters until recently, even though she was a Charlestonian.  She felt her ignorance was "a personal failing" and set out to share their amazing journey and their before-their-time feminism. She added the fictional Handful as a contrast and it works perfectly. I highly recommend this novel!
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At the time I could check out a set of copies of The Invention of Wings, I chose it for our book club selection. It was very well-liked by our members who gave it a 4.8 average rating out of 5. In fact it was very close to 4.9. My plan was to skim over the book and read my blog and the book jacket to remember the plot. However, when I started rereading I didn't want to stop! One of our Page Turners thought the Grimke sisters would be SO shocked and pleased that we have now had an African-American president and will possibly elect the first woman to that office. An interesting point!

Forever by Pete Hamill

"...Cormac too looked back at Ireland, and the crossing of the ocean sea, the first years in New York and the years of the Revolution, and thought of them as part of his youth, that strange youth prolonged by a gift from African gods. That youth filled with miracles and magic. But a youth that was, he thought, only sporadically real."

This novel is appropriately titled for a couple of reasons. Protagonist Cormac O'Connor immigrates from Ireland via a slave ship to the colony of New York in 1740. He is in search of an enemy responsible for the deaths of his parents. By his kindness to a slave called Kongo, who happened to be a babalawo (what I understood as a shaman), he receives the gift of eternal life so long as he stays in Manhatten; essentially he can live forever. As a printer's apprentice, a painter, and a journalist he becomes involved in a slave revolt, the American Revolution, the corruption of Tammany Hall, and so on, until he finally is eyewitness to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Historical fiction is my favorite genre and I liked this book at the start. However, at 608 pages it seemed as if it would take me forever to finish it. It became rather tedious half way through; I found myself wanting just to get to the end! I will rate this one a 3. I think New Yorkers would like it much more than folks like me who were raised in the South.

By Its Cover by Donna Leon

"...There's nothing to understand. People steal them for money....That's the only reason that animates thieves. Forget the articles about the men who suffer a mad passion for maps and books and manuscripts: that's all romantic nonsense. Freud in the library...People steal books and maps and manuscripts, and they cut out single pages or whole chapters because they can sell them."
                -Contessa Morosini-Albani to Commissario Brunetti

This was the first novel I've read by this author. The book was chosen for the Page Turners by one of the members who is a fan of Leon. I must admit the story grew on me but I can't give it higher than 3.

The setting was one of my favorite things about the novel---the city of Venice. I was intrigued by police taking boats to the scenes of crimes and it was a fun challenge to figure out some Italian phrases from the context. Commissario Guido Brunetti is called to investigate some significant thefts from a renowned Venetian library. In the process a murder is discovered and it is probably related to the thefts. The suspect list is not extensive but includes a mysterious library researcher who is supposedly American. I found the ending abrupt and disappointing but I'll not be a spoiler.

One interesting thing about this author, who apparently has written a series of mysteries featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, is her mention in another book I read very recently. In The Little Paris Bookshop set in France, a character is listing books, among them "who-dunnits by Donna Leon." It seems she is well-known in Europe.

Well, I won't rule out another of the series but it will likely be a while. So many books in my queue!

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When the Page Turners met on our usual day, several regulars were missing but the discussion was great! The group average rating was 3.3 with most members liking but not loving the novel. I don't believe any of us had read this author before (well, maybe the one who selected it). Apparently Leon is quite prolific and well-known in Europe. Perhaps we will try another of her "who dunnits" one of these days.

Most in the group enjoyed the setting and we found Commissario Brunetti plenty resourceful and a bit more simpatico than most detectives. It was interesting hearing everyone's take on the value of antique books and/or pages of the same. And discussion about the possible theme of "You can't judge a book by its cover" was thought-provoking. Several of us admitted the plot thickened when the murder took place. The most common complaint about the book was the abruptness of the ending. You are warned!

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

"Like my own patients, I had to face my mortality and try to understand what made my life worth living---and I needed Emma's help to do so. Torn between being a doctor and being a patient, delving into medical science and turning back to literature for answers, I struggled, while facing my own death, to rebuild my old life---or perhaps find a new one."
                      -Paul Kalanithi

I believe this book was recommended to me by a friend some time ago and I had seen it on the Best Seller list for many weeks so I requested it from the library. When it arrived I put it off in favor of others in my book queue. When I saw that it was on hold and could not be renewed, I began reading and finished in a day and a half. I was hooked by the Foreword by Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone, one of our book club selections years ago. His impressions of Paul Kalanithi, the author of When Breath Becomes Air, were so beautiful I just had to keep reading.

This memoir by a gifted neurosurgeon/neuroscientist was the most powerful book I have read in ages! Just over 200 pages contain the story of an amazing and brilliant doctor with a terminal cancer diagnosis and his poignant advice for living and dying. It reminded me so much of The Last Lecture, a memoir written by Carnegie Mellon University professor and computer guru Randy Pausch who also died of cancer. Both are beautifully written, very inspiring and could appropriately be represented by Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young."

I found this book to be a page-turner even with its medical jargon way above my head. My rating is definitely a 5! Although it was very sad that Kalanithi's life was cut short (he was only in his mid-30's) he left an amazing legacy through the patients he helped and the writing of this book to share his journey as physician and patient as he confronted what was most important in life.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

"Books are more than doctors, of course. Some novels are loving, lifelong companions; some give you a clip around the ear; others are friends who wrap you in warm towels when you've got those autumn blues. And some...well, some are pink candy floss that tingles in your brain for three seconds and leaves a blissful void. Like a short, torrid love affair."
                        -Jean Perdu, from the novel

The word Paris in the title drew me to this novel since my husband and I will be traveling there in October. Right in the front of the book there is a map showing Paris and some other places we'll be visiting along the Rhone River, among them Lyons and Avignon. If that wasn't enough to hook me, the title bookshop is on a barge in the Seine River. Add to all that the fact that I am a fan of bookshops and this novel became a must-read for me!

The story involves Jean Perdu, the owner of the floating book store, known as la pharmacie litteraire (literary pharmacy) because Perdu prescribes books for his customers according to their emotional needs. The reader realizes early on that Perdu is grieving  a lost love---one who is not even named for several chapters---merely represented by a blank, for example "He fought off the blurry picture of himself sitting at this table, not alone but with _____."  This mystery woman sent him a letter some 20 years prior after she had left him to return to her husband. He has never opened it out of fear or bitterness, I am not sure which. When he finally does open the letter, he is in for a shock and a mountain of guilt. By the time we get to the first excerpt of "Manon's Travel Diary" we learn the identity of Perdu's lost love and some of their back story.

I had trouble settling on a quote to begin my post because there were many rather poetic and/or profound expressions, especially having to do with books. I liked The Little Paris Bookshop at the beginning but later I found it a bit tedious. I neither loved nor hated it but I am rating it a 3 because I am glad I read it. Here's why: the ending held a bit of a surprise. Also the mention of the "Saint Benezet Bridge, which had been  immortalized in song." I remember "Sur le Pont D'Avignon" from high school French class and we will see this bridge at Avignon in person soon. Also in one of Perdu's letters, he suggests how to organize books by genre and mentions "whodunits by Donna Leon." My Page Turners book club is reading By Its Cover by Donna Leon this very month.

The book jacket calls this a "warm and charming tale of love, loss and the power of reading." Most readers will find it so.