The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
In 1913, a little girl turns arrives in Australia from England on ship all alone . She can’t remember her name or how she came to be on the ship. The dockmaster takes the little girl in, gives her a name – Nell and raises her as his own. When she is 21, he decides to let her know about her mysterious origins. This knowledge changes her whole outlook and eventually she sets out to England to try and find out who she is and why nobody ever came to look for her.
The story is told from several different points of view, Eliza in the early 1900s, Nell mostly in the mid 70s and Cassandra mostly in 2005. After Nell dies, Cassandra, her granddaughter, is left to try and solve the mystery of Nell’s parentage and her solo voyage to Australia. Eliza is the author of a book of fairy tales that was one of the few things Nell had with her when she arrived in Australia.
The story had so many narrators and so many characters that it had the potential to become quite confusing but it didn’t. It was a long story with lots of twists and turns and while it wasn’t a book I just HAD to read, it was still very captivating and enjoyable to read. It moved slowly but not in a bad way. It was a very comfortable read. It’s the kind of book you like to curl up with on a rainy day. It reminded me a lot of The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield.
It is a very long book but it didn’t feel like it was too long. Sometimes books like this that have lots of little ends to tie up tend to wrap everything up at the end too quickly and it feels like the author was rushing to meet a deadline or something. Not this book – the pace was nice and even throughout the book and it had great flow (even though it was told through so many characters.) I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to read more of Morton’s novels.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Read for: Canadian Book Challenge 3, What’s in a Name? 3 Challenge
I loved this book! I don’t know how I haven’t heard of it sooner, I know people have been blogging about it because I just read a bunch of reviews, but somehow I’ve missed them all. Last month at book club a couple of people mentioned it and I decided it sounded interesting. I’m so glad I picked it up! I’ve been having a rough week (nothing serious – just adjusting to life with three kids) and it’s been the only thing that’s kept me sane (besides bedtime!).
Anyway, what made the story for me was Flavia, the main character. She’s an incredible intelligent eleven-year-old who loves chemistry. She’s inherited a very well appointed chemistry lab (seriously, I used to teach chemistry and some of the equipment she had was better than we had!) and she know how to use it. I think what I liked best about the novel were all the little chemistry references that were woven into the story. At one point she’s in a classroom and notices a mistake on the periodic table. This is too much for her and she has to correct it. I was cheering her on at that point!
But that’s not even the most important part of the book. One afternoon, the housekeeper finds a dead bird with a stamp on its beak on the front step. The very next morning, Flavia finds a dead man in the garden. After calling the police, she decides that she takes it upon herself to find the murderer. As I mentioned earlier, Flavia is very intelligent, but she is also eleven and this equals funny! Another reviewer said the story wouldn’t have worked if she had been older and more mature and I totally agree. The humour comes from her age and immaturity combined with her intelligence.
The book was fun and humourous and light but still had a great plot and a mystery with an unpredictable ending. I’m looking forward to reading more about Flavia!
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Read for: RIP IV and 1% Well Read Challenge
The Moonstone is a huge yellow diamond (valued at 30,000 pounds in 1848 – (I have no idea what that translates to in today’s money but 30,000 pounds today is a lot of money!) with a history. Originally set in the forehead of an Indian god who typifies the Moon, the diamond finds its way into the Herncastle family in England. At the outset of the novel, the diamond has been left to a young lady named Rachel. The diamond is to be given to her on her birthday. In the days leading up to the birthday party, three Indians are observed in the vicinity of the house acting suspiciously. Rachel is given the diamond on her birthday as planned and wears it prominently at the dinner party. The three Indians show up at the party, claiming to have magic tricks to amuse the party. After the guests have left, the house is carefully locked up (because of the presence of the diamond and the suspicious Indians) and everyone goes to bed. The next morning, it is discovered that the diamond is missing. So begins the search for the missing diamond. Many people are involved and many people are suspected through out the course of the book.
I really enjoyed this story. There’s lots of plot twists and turns and I never figured out who had stolen the diamond on my own. It’s a perfect Victorian mystery! The characters are believable and likeable and entertaining. Like The Woman in White, the story is told from the point of view of several of the characters but unlike The Woman in White, I found the flow was so much better and the story was so much more entertaining. I think my favourite narrator was Gabriel Betteredge, the house steward. He had an obsession with Robinson Crusoe that was really funny. The second narrator was Ms. Clack, and ultrareligious, self righteous, interferring woman who I also found to be quite entertaining to read about. She put her foot in her mouth several times but of course never realized how offensive she’d been.
This was definitely better than The Woman in White, which I didn’t love. The other thing I truly enjoyed about this book was the particular edition I borrowed from the library. It was published in 1946 and was donated to the library sometime in the 70′s. So the pages were soft and yellowed and smelled old, which made reading it that much more fun. It also had some hilarious illustrations.
La’s Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith
Normally I love McCall Smith, but this book was entirely different and not at all what I was expecting from him. Once I got past that I actually enjoyed the book, but you know how it is when you love everything an author does because of a certain style that you’ve come to expect and then they come up with something entirely unique and you’re just a little shocked? (Holy, run-on sentence, Batman!) Well, that’s how it was for this book. And it was a lot slower than I was used to.
It starts with two mysterious brothers, visiting an English village that they were once familiar with. No names are mentioned, except La’s and then suddenly the book jumps right into her story. That was a little abrupt and unexpected and through out the rest of the novel I kept wondering who the heck those two brothers were? But, actually it works. It all makes sense in the last few pages of the novel, which is the best way to wrap things up right? It was a surprise ending, but not a crazy surprise, just a nice pleasant one.
Anyway, La’s orchestra (the one that saves the world) doesn’t actually appear until about halfway through the book (I told you it was slow!). La somehow finds herself living alone in a small English village during WWII. And really nothing happens, except that she makes some friends and starts an orchestra. The main event (the saving of the world) seriously happens in the last few pages of the book.
Now, I know I haven’t made this book sound all the interesting, but I actually really liked it. It was slow and sweet and had that lightness that I’ve come to expect from McCall Smith (one of the only ways it was typical of his other works). It lacked the humour of his other novels, but it didn’t fit in with the theme of the book. This was definitely a good book, just not full of adventure and excitement.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Ok, so this book was totally awesome. I don’t know if I can even attempt a summary. It’s a science fiction book about time travel where they spend most of their time in the victorian era so it’s got that angle. It’s also hilarious and there’s a little bit of romance in it just to round it out. Confused yet? It was a really enjoyable read that I had a hard time putting down. I would definitely reccomend this to anyone, even someone who wouldn’t normally enjoy science fiction or a book about time travel. I honestly think that this is a book that just about anyone (including non-readers) could enjoy.
I would give this a 10/10.
Other Reviews:
Have I missed anyone?
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Read for: Obris Terrarum Challenge and 1% Well Read Challenge
I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read this book! It was a slow read, but for the most part, I couldn’t put it down. The story is told by serveral different narrators and each narrator had his/her own voice, which authors don’t always do when they are switching from narrator to narrator.
The story begins in the voice of Walter Hartwright who is walking home late one night and is startled by a woman in white asking for directions to London. She refuses to tell him her name and just as quickly as she appeared, she is gone. I can’t even try for a plot summary because there is just too much happening right from the very beginning of the book. And it never stops happening until the very last page.
There are unexpected twists and turns and although the language and style of the prose are similar to Jane Austen, the story line couldn’t be more different. The mystery that surrounds the woman in white and her secret hatred of one of the main characters carries the story, but once that is discovered, there’s still more mystery and intrigue!
I would definitely recommend this book and I would give it a 8.5/10.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Winner of 2009 Newbery Medal
I just picked this up at the library yesterday and the cover drew me in right away. Even the title is mysterious and alluring. Anyway, I liked the reading of this story more than I actually like the plot, not that that’s a bad thing, but I found myself wishing for a little more information towards the end of the book. I think it’s partly because it’s meant for younger audiences than myself!
Before I get ahead of myself though…a summary. The book begins as three members of a family are murdered (not graphically, but maybe a little too disturbing to read to my six year old). The murderer heads to the last family members bedroom, a toddler and finds that the baby has disappeared. The murderer follows the baby’s scent to a nearby graveyard where ghosts help protect him and eventually become his family. They name him Nobody, Bod for short, and teach give him the Freedom of the Graveyard which allows him to see and visit with all of the ghosts and learn some graveyard tricks.
The rest of the story is kind of meandering as it tells the tale of Bod’s childhood, but Gaiman is such a good storyteller that the road is actually much more interesting than the destination. Of course, throughout the story, the murderer still looks for Bod and periodically appears, but it’s not until the climax that Bod must face him. Along the way he has many adventures and learns many lessons that aren’t necessarily related to the ending but they are so captivating that as the reader, I didn’t really care. This was a quick, enjoyable read with a little bit of magic and a little bit of intrigue and I loved it!
On a side note, I’ve decided I really need to come up with some kind of a rating system for the books I read because “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” just aren’t cutting it for me anymore. I think for now I’ll just give each book a rating out of 10 until I can come up with something a little more creative. So for this one, I give it an 8/10, maybe even an 8.5…
Other Reviews:
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Read for: What’s in a Name Challenge – book title with a building in it
Cassandra and her family (sister – Rose, brother, father, step-mother and Stephen – a boy who works for them but is more like family) live in an old castle in the English countryside. Her father once wrote a very celebrated book but hasn’t been able to write anything in some time. The family is struggling financially as a result. A new family takes up residence in a nearby estate and they soon become friends. The new family consists of 2 young men (Simon and Neil) and their mother. Eventually there is one big love tangle. Stephen is in love with Cassandra, Cassandra is in love with Simon, Simon is in love with Rose and proposes. Rose agrees to marry Simon even though most likely she isn’t in love with him. Meanwhile, Cassandra and her brother have a plan to get their father writing again.
The book was definitely entertaining and at times even funny. The ending was surprising (at least for me…maybe other reader’s saw it coming.) but it wasn’t all that satisfying. Overall it was a good read but not as great as I was hoping. The love stories were a little hard to believe. It seemed that characters were able to fall in and out of love pretty randomnly. Cassandra and her sister mention Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters a few times and in comparison to their lives and I think the author was trying to go for that type of story. If that was the case, she failed and I think that’s why I didn’t love this book. I think I was just expecting something a little more from the love story part of it.
St. Urbain’s Horseman by Mordecai Richler
Read for: Orbis Terrarum Challenge – Canada
This is either the third or fourth book I’ve read by Richler. I like his books because although they are definitely can lit they aren’t as depressing as some books in this genre tend to be. This one was no exception. Richler’s novels (at least the ones I’ve read) tend to be satirical and sometimes funny without being satirical, which according to the wiki article linked above is one of the traits common to can lit, who knew? (Probably lots of people, but I haven’t read that much can lit that was funny!)
Anyway, this one is about a man, Jake, who is on trial. The book is one of those story’s where the reader isn’t given a lot of information and has to try and piece it together until your suspicions are confirmed near the end of the novel. Richler gives us a peek into Jake’s life at the time of the trial and the reasons he is on trial but then back tracks to give the reader more insight into the Jake and his character. As Jake remembers different incidents and times in his life he begins to question who he is and where he’s been. St. Urbain’s Horseman, the title character is Jake’s cousin whom he pretty much worships even though he hasn’t seen him for years. I don’t want to give away too much more about the horseman and Jake’s trial because part of what is good about the book is finding these things out as they are revealed in the book.
I wasn’t really sure if I would like this book when I first starting reading. It took a while to get into it because as I mentioned before, the reader isn’t really given a lot of information. I think Richler did this on purpose though. He introduces his character, charging him with a crime and then puts him on trial. By the end of the novel, the reader knows whether Jake is guilty or not before the circumstances around his crime are described. We know whether or not he should be acquitted because we know Jake and we know his character. What I didn’t like at first, I had come to appreciate by the end of the novel. I would defintely recommend this book to most people. It is kind of crude though, so you might what to avoid it if that kind of thing bothers you.
