Coming Soon ....

Hi everyone,

I have been offered to do a product review for CSN Stores. I normally only review books, but I thought it might be fun to branch out every now and again. I did a book case giveaway for CSN a while ago and it went well, so this time I am going to do a review. My only trouble is choosing something to review. I have been browsing around their websites and there are a few things that interested me.

I like this poster because it reminds me of my two daughters swinging on the tree swing at their grandparents home:
I also like this contemporary zen vanity:But then again, how about this shoe?I will probably go with something practical in the end though - you will just have to wait and see!

Poem: A Book

A Book

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!


- By Emily Dickinson

Library Photos

Goffstown Public Library

This library in Goffstown New Hampshire was build in 1909.

Review: A Wedding In December

Title: A Wedding In December
Author: Anita Shreve
Publisher: Back Bay Books (2006)
Pages: 352
Genre: Fiction
Book Source: My Own Copy

In A Wedding In December Anita Shreve tells the story of seven former classmates who come together for a weekend to celebrate a wedding between two of there group. Set at an inn in the stunning Berkshire Mountains, the complex characters gradually unfold to the reader. We learn about their shared history as well as the issues they currently face. The plot of this novel is very simple and provides the backdrop for the revelations and memories of the characters. The group's get together proves to be very important because there are some ghosts that need to be laid to rest involving a shared tragedy from their final year of high school.

Stories that feature numerous characters like this on, is not to my personal taste. I prefer a reading experience that takes me deeply into one unbroken, consecutive thread. That being said, A Wedding In December did keep my interest even though it wove around past and present as well as featuring many different characters. I enjoyed one character in particular who was writing a historical story piece by piece through the novel. It was interesting to see how she worked out some of her own emotions through the creation of imagined characters. Overall, I felt like this novel had a sad and nostalgic tone to it because all the characters life choices are being evaluated and they have many regrets to grieve over. So if you are in the mood for something somber than this would be a good choice.

Review: The Wives of Henry Oades

Title: The Wives of Henry Oades
Author: Johanna Moran
Publisher: Ballantine Books (2010)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Source: ARC from Publisher

Publisher Book Summary:
When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children.

For months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they’ve both found happiness in the midst of their mourning—until Henry’s first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity.

Narrated primarily by the two wives, and based on a real-life legal case, The Wives of Henry Oades is the riveting story of what happens when Henry, Margaret, and Nancy face persecution for bigamy. Exploring the intricacies of marriage, the construction of family, the changing world of the late 1800s, and the strength of two remarkable women, Johanna Moran turns this unusual family’s story into an unforgettable page-turning drama.

My Thoughts:
This is an extraordinary story that is based on true life events. I found that it kept my interest throughout. The writing style felt like a detailed factual description of events without too much sensational or emotional language. I like how Johanna Moran treated the subject in this way because the basic facts of the story have enough substance to then as is. Moran has taken the facts of a legal case and imagined all the details of the characters and their settings. It sparks interesting questions about marriage, family, morals and the role of women in the time period (late 1800's). The Wives of Henry Oades is essentially about good people caught in impossible circumstances, forced to grapple with the harsh realities of survival.

Opening Sentence:
"A common bat on the other side of the world elects to sink its rabid fangs, and one's cozy existence is finished." (p.3)

Author Website:
http://johannamoran.com/index.html

Pictures from a Saturday Drive

We had intended to go hiking in a New Hampshire state Forrest, but today turned out gray and rainy. Not wanting to stay cooped up inside the house all day, we decided to go for a drive out of town anyway even though it wasn't good walking weather.

We turned off onto a dirt logging road and the photo above is the view of the thick woodland we were driving through.

Along the way we came across this abandoned old farm. I thought this was a really interesting building. The picture came out kind of gray though because of the cloudy skies causing dull lighting. Also it was taken through the car windscreen, so you may notice some globs of rain.

I am not sure what these blossoms are called, but these flowering trees were everywhere along the road.

Review: Conditions of Faith

Title: Conditions of Faith
Author: Alex Miller
Publisher: Scribner (2000)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Source: My Own Copy

Dust Jacket Synopsis:
It's 1923 and at age twenty-five, Emily, an Australian, impulsively marries Georges Elder, a French-Scottish engineer ten years her senior. Suddenly she is propelled from Melbourne, where she is a promising scholar of classical civilizations, to Georges's small, conventional flat in Paris. Quickly dismayed at the traditional life she has married into, Emily resolves to look elsewhere for the exotic adventure and intellectual stimulation she believes to be her due. She will "live a Parisian fairy story," she determines, which suites her until it leads to an illicit liaison and unwanted pregnancy, altering her life irrevocably. At the center of the book is "the problem of a reason for living," a problem that society says should be solved, for women, by motherhood. For Emily, though, it's not sufficient. Her search for fulfillment will take her as far as the ruins of Carthage and ultimately challenge society's most deeply cherished beliefs about motherhood and family. Conditions of Faith is at once a provocative romance and an elegant meditation on a timeless dilemma.

My Thoughts:
I loved this book because it explores the themes that I am most interested in. The main character is a strong, intelligent young woman who is beginning her adult life. There is a sense that the protagonist, Emily, expects to "find herself" in Paris. She wants the culture to inspire her and provide opportunities for her to expand as a person. Instead of greater freedom she encounters more complexities and dilemmas. Alex Miller does an excellent job of describing the confusion of Emily's mind. He has created a very complex character by portraying a young lady who removes herself from the problems she had with her controlling father, only to discover that marriage actually increases her restlessness. Motherhood terrifies Emily because of the accompanying loss of freedom and the loss of control over her own life.

While Conditions of Faith is mainly a character driven novel, the plot does have a fair bit going on. Emily travels to a few different locations, meets some interesting people and embarks on an intellectual writing career. Her desire to pursue the challenge of career creates a lot of tension in her married life particularly when she falls pregnant. Alex Miller's writing was lovely. The descriptions of the various settings were very powerful. I will certainly be looking for other books by this Australian author and will re-read Conditions of Faith soon.

Two Quotes:
"... already at the age of unbelief - those precious treacherous years when we at last challenge our unquestioned childhood beliefs. Those years when to believe ceases to be the easiest thing for us and becomes the hardest thing. Then we spend the rest of our lives searching for the conditions of faith we once possessed so effortlessly and have lost. (p. 245-346)

"One goes by small degrees, one step at a time, until one stands at last on the place from which one refuses to be moved. And one is more astonished than anyone to see it is oneself who does this."(p.346)

Review: The Italian Slow cooker

Title: The Italian Slow Cooker
Author: Michele Scicolone
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2010)
Genre: Non-fiction, cookbook
Book Source: Free Advance Reading Copy

This cookbook takes Italian favorites and shows you how to cook them in an electric slow cooker. The sections include: soups, sauces for pasta, risotto/polenta/grains, seafood, chicken/eggs/turkey, beef/veal/pork/lamb, vegetables, and desserts. The introductory information gives tips on how to make the most of your slow cooker - such as "Avoid unnecessary peeking." (p.7) There is also a segment called The Italian Pantry that lists ingredients common to Italian cooking.

Michele Scicolone has concocted some great recipes that are easy to make. It is great to have some new ideas for my slow cooker that so often sits unused in a cabinet. Most of the recipes are easy to make, which makes it good for any skill level. The recipes cover a wide variety of Italian cooking and I am surprised at how much can be done with a slow cooker.

Giveaways

Here is a list of a few book giveaways that I have discovered on other book blogs:

Men & Dogs by Katie Crouch (Audiobook) @ Jo-Jo loves to read - June 19th

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea @ Peeking Between the Pages - July 3rd

April & Oliver by Tess Callahan @ Peeking Between the Pages - July 3rd

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman @ The Tome Traveller's Weblog - June 12th

June Giveaway of three books @ Alaine - Queen of Happy Endings - June 30th

Review: Loving Frank

Title: Loving Frank
Author: Nancy Horan
Publisher: Ballantine Books (2008-Trade Paperback)
Genre: Historical fiction
Book Source: My Own Copy

Set in the early 1900's, Loving Frank is the story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her long term love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Nancy Horan portrays Mamah as an intellectual woman who is unfulfilled in her life which confines her to the role of wife and mother. When Frank is hired to design their home, his personal charisma and unique design ideas spark what is initially a friendship between them. Mamah responds to the fact that Frank considers her his equal and discusses his theories about organic architecture with her. Horan writes, "Frank Lloyd Wright had ignited her mind like no other person she'd ever met. At first their conversations were about ideas. They talked about Ruskin, Thoreau, Emerson, Nietzsche." (p.16)

Mamah soon found herself willing to give up everything in order to be with Frank. Their conversations were inspiring and stimulating. They eventually both leave their spouses and children in order to make a life together... They subsequently struggle with the question, "Is the payment extracted for this choice too high?"

Loving Frank is more than a story about their relationship, though this is the main focus, it also chronicles Frank's struggles with his design and construction projects as well as Mamah's development as a feminist translator. It is a very complex and detailed story that explores the strengths and flaws of the two characters and those who (sometimes unfortunately) come into contact with them.

I enjoyed reading Loving Frank (Not that I agree with Frank and Mamah's life choices). Horan takes the historical facts and constructs very convincing characters. Her writing style complements the historical base of the story - it had a consistent tone and flow to it. The book was slightly slow in parts because of the very psychological and detailed exploration of Mamah's mind. She really struggled to make an identity for herself. The reality of the tension between ones responsibilities and self-fulfillment is a dilemma that Mamah found impossible to reconcile. It is a dilemma that we all face in one form or another and that a lot of literature grapples with.

Another Edith Wharton Quote ...

"The moral atmosphere of the Tillotson interior was as carefully screened and curtained as the house itself: Mrs. Tillotson senior dreaded ideas as much as a draft in her back."

- From "Souls Belated" a short story by Edith Wharton

Looking forward to ...

Writers On A New England Stage: Margaret Atwood

Coming up in September I am planning to go hear Margaret Atwood speak! I have just finished reading her latest book The Year of the Flood. I am sure that a lot of you have read it. (Leave a comment with your thoughts if you like.) Her dystopian literature is really thought provoking and engaging. Also, my favorite poem is written by Margaret Atwood. I posted it earlier this year because I wanted to share it with you guys. So when I was reading upcoming events on Atwood's website and noticed something in my state I was very excited.

New Hampshire Public Radio does this program called Writers On A New England Stage and it is recorded in Portsmouth, NH at an old music hall. The building itself sounds well worth seeing. "Its historic 900-seat theater, built in 1878, is the oldest in New Hampshire and designated an “American Treasure” by the U.S. Senate in the Save America’s Treasures Program administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service."(Quoted from the music hall website) There are a lot of great authors that have been on the program in the past, and if you are interested you can listen to the Mp3 online. I personally can't seem to get it streaming, but it is probably my old slow computer giving trouble.

I wish any of you who are Margaret Atwood fans could come with me!