TONY'S BOOK REVIEW: Maureen Lee's 'Kitty and Her Sisters'

 

Once again, Maureen Lee brings us to her side of Britain and its indefatigable women.  In this book entitled, 'Kitty and Her Sisters' - Kitty McCarthy is the central figure among a group of four sisters with another four brothers all living in Liverpool.  She comes from a working class family and she is the focus of the novel because of her unorthodox ideas of finding happiness and life and her desire not to follow in the usual footsteps of a modern British woman.

What happens in the novel are consequences mainly to the decisions of Kitty that are quite unorthodox and do not reflect what women would usually do if faced with the same situation.  Her character wants to live her life in her own terms and she is willing to go through the 'pain' if she feels that her future would be more secure if she made some 'sacrifices' now.

The decisions she makes are quite tough and at first, I thought she just wanted to make her life more unbearable but when the same predicament occurs, she still 'wisely' does the same thing and prevents any difficult situations to arise because of all her secrets.

Maureen Lee deftly navigates each storyline well and my only gripe is that the novel has too many characters, one has to list them in a notebook to make sure I'd remember who is who.  This is an expansive novel with many characters - this is a family novel after all!  Towards the end of the novel, I am faced with so many names, I have to slow down my reading a bit, so I can visualize who is who.

Maureen's female characters are quite unique because they make decisions which are not straightforward and not 'normal'.  She also shows us a side of England right after World War II straight to the early 80s and how the Brits rebuilt their lives after the devastation of war.

TONY'S BOOK REVIEW: The Seven Streets of Liverpool by Maureen Lee

My fascination with stories about people living during World War II continues and it's normally narrowed down to people living in continental Europe, usually France and Great Britain.

This time, Maureen Lee writes about the lives of the people living in Liverpool during the war in this aptly titled book "The Seven Streets of Liverpool" - Liverpudlians living with all the bombings and the food rations and having their men go off to war and their women working as nurses, secretaries and auxiliary officers.

It's a different world filled with fear of the unknown, never knowing when the war will end and having to live with the spectre of death just round the corner.

There are so many characters in the book it's so easy to get lost as to who's who so you'd have to have this idea that this is one community of families she is talking about so better to have that in mind as you read it.

Women play a very central role in most of her novels and here - there's a sorority of sisters helping each other - wives, widows, single mothers, young ingenues - all trying their best to keep their families together while their men are away.

Liverpool as well Ireland are two places I would want to visit soon because of all these fiction novels that I've read that have used them as settings for their stories.

Definitely something to look forward to!

TONY'S BOOK REVIEW: Philippa Gregory's The White Princess

Thanks to today's bed weather, I was able to finish, finally, Philippa Gregory's 'The White Princess'. This is apparently the fifth book in a set of books set in the Cousins' War in England's medieval times, but apparently, each book can stand on its own and you didn't have to read the earlier ones to know how the story flows.

When I first read it, I was a bit bothered by the weepy complaints of the lead character so at the 40th page, I stopped reading and even wanted to return the book to the library! But since I have never abandoned any fiction book, I reread it two weeks later and at a much faster pace, and much to my amazement, it turned out to be quite a page turner.

By reading this book, you get to realize, Prince Harry and her blushing bride were lucky to be royalty today, and not in 15th century England. Then, it was not unlikely for fathers to kill their sons, or brothers to kill their younger brothers, especially if they are in line to the throne. For the kings then, the only way to have a long reign, was to kill everyone that followed you on the bloodline - brother, son, notwithstanding.

So with that spine-tingling premise, the book navigates Henry of Tudor's reign in England with Elizabeth of York as her reluctant bride. Gregory is such a crafty writer that you think everything's sorted out now, then she unleashes, in the last fifty pages of the book, a twist that left me unable to leave the book unread!

So thanks to today's rains, instead of going out, finishing this book was a better idea, and allowing myself to be sucked into Elizabeth's world, was such a thrilling ride!

Can't wait to get my hands on another one of her novels, but which one? I should just eenie-meenie-meine-mo.....

Book Review: Revisiting Anne Rice's 'The Tale of the Body Thief'

I haven't touched an Anne Rice book for twenty years now so I am very thankful to my friend Linda Chua Buan for bringing her back to my life again and relish how amazing the world she created and the creatures she conjured.

The Tale of the Body Thief puts the Vampire Lestat once again in the forefront. If you've seen The Interview with the Vampire, you will have an idea as to who the characters are in this book - Lestat (Tom Cruise), Louis (Brad Pitt) and Claudia (Kirsten Dunst).

However, there are new characters whom I encounter for the first time who play very vital roles in the book like David Talbot, Gretchen, and Marius. It would've been interesting if this book was adapted into a movie using present day actors.

It would be interesting to see who they cast into those roles, including a present-day Lestat, Louis and Claudia.

I also understand now why Anne Rice disapproved of Tom Cruise. Lestat had to be 6 feet with blonde hair and Alexander Skarsgard would've fit that bill perfectly.

Anyhow, this book introduces us to yet another type of being, which is the body thief - a person who can enter anyone's body, especially if that person is weak and can easily be suppressed.

That is basically the core of the story and the Vampire Lestat plays a very important role in that switching of bodies. It's like Tom Hanks' Big, but only this time, with vampires and body thieves.

And of course, this is no comedy. There's a lot of blood spilled and Rice writes from two points of view - Lestat as a vampire and Lestat as an ordinary human being.

She delineates both worlds very clearly and you understand the troubles that Lestat faces as he decides to become human.

I love how the story progresses as there are many twists and turns. However, I find it overly long and Rice could've chopped of 20% of the book.

I do not really enjoy philosophical musings very much and there are parts of the book which do that, and since this is not Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, I just want the action to keep moving and keep the philosophical musings to a minimum.

Otherwise, it's an exciting read, and once this virus is kaput, I will seek out Anne Rice's books in the bookstore and slowly complete her Vampire Chronicles.

TONY'S BOOK REVIEW: Ian Rankin's 'Bleeding Hearts' Brings You Deep Into an Assassin's World

Just like in my taste for movies, action thrillers don't usually rank high up even in the books I read. However, once in a while, I try to experiment with writers popular in that genre and see if I like what I read.

I did with Ben Elton last year, who writes with a comedic touch. This year, I am trying Ian Ranking, whose novels I see all over the second hand shops which I visit every week.

So this time, I chose Bleeding Hearts and I am happy to say that Mr. Rankin did not disappoint. In this story, you are sucked into the world of assassins and hired mercenaries and shady government figures and dubious cult leaders peddling redemption.

Put that all in and an assassinated journalist, and you get a wild tale that brings you all over England, from London to Yorkshire, then to America, from New York to Oregon, reaching up to that slice of peninsula where the slam bang ending happens.

I like the way Rankin writes his characters. Each one is pretty defined and these are characters you do not want to meet at any point of your life.

If you happen to crisscross with their paths, you will most likely end dead.

As a whole, it's a very fast and entertaining read. I don't usually like parts where authors talk about guns but Rankin makes it palatable, especially to those whose gun knowledge is zero.

He distinctly differentiates each one and their power, so we the reader, can appreciate their damage. This is after all, a story about an assassin.

This one was a fast read for me, although I did not quite like the ending because it was too much ado about nothing. There is a twist in the end which kinda throws you off and makes you think - so all those shootings and killings from page whatever to whatever were just a waste of time?

I have other Rankin novels in my collection and I will most likely read one after I read a depressing novel. His writing is not only snappy, it also perks you up, and if your imagination is as strong as mine - be ready for a wild ride!

Book Review: Elizabeth Kostova's 'The Swan Thieves' Brings the Art World To Your World

I read Elizabeth Kostova's 'The Historian' more than a decade ago, and it took me another decade to finally read her follow-up book, which was released a decade ago.

Anyhow, Kostova uses a similar formula for her second book, this time, bringing us readers into the art world - basically, the lives of the artists that produces all these paintings that we love.

The book's themes centers not only on the art world but also on issues of mental illness and the myriad difficulties of adult relationships.  The book moves back and forth between the present and the past, as there are two stories happening which are all resolved in the end.

What I Like About the Book:

It was fun to read about the Impressionist painters and how they are still influencing today's artists.  All the art talk is new to me, especially that there aren't many fiction books that include art in their story.  There are several excerpts in the book which show how adept Kostova is in describing painting and making art.

What I Don't Like About the Book:

It's a very looooonnnggg read!  I started it in November last year, and it is mid-February already the year after, so I have been reading this on and off for the past four months.  There are parts which dragged on, that's why I would be unmotivated to read it, that's why it took me so long to finish it.  It takes some time as well to warm up to the characters, so that's why I was reading it slowly.

Warnings:

This is a work of fiction, and although it does feature real Impressionist painters, some characters in the book are not real, because I did search their names online, only to realize, they were characters Kostova created to provide a parallel universe for the story.  It really fooled me, as I wanted to know about these 'people' she created.

I wish the book were more compact and the action a bit more fast-paced but it is how it is so we loya readers, just plod on.  What I discovered in the end makes it bittersweet for me and the characters I have learned to care for.  However, if the characters can live with those decisions they made, I should be able to take it as well, since I am only an outsider, looking into their world.

Recommendation

If you a slow art mystery wrapped in a love story, feel free to read the book!