The House of Hawthorne

Title:  The House of Hawthorne

Author:  Erika Robuck

Publication Information:  NAL. 2015. 416 pages.

ISBN:  0451418913 / 978-0451418913

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "In the second-floor start room where we never go, someone has wound the music box."

Favorite Quote:  "Man's accidents are God's purposes."

The House of Hawthorne is built on the strength, sacrifice, and love of one woman. Say the name Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a renowned author comes to mind. Say the name Sophia Peabody Hawthorne and what comes to mind? Although an author and artist in her own right, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne is now most known for being Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife, if she is known at all.

Before reading this book, I knew nothing about Nathaniel Hawthorne's life or marriage. This book fictionalizes his marriage - a relationship that lasted almost 30 years. "Our love is a work of art. It is the great masterpiece of my life because it has been rendered over decades. It has been made of blood and tears and love and laughter and despair and a million tiny moments that in isolation seemed small, but as a part of this vast canvas convey a depth of feeling as has never been seen before and might never be seen again.

Unlike their described life which seems to center around Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne plays a supporting role in this book. This is Sophia's story and her perspective. It briefly presents her childhood, her life changing experiences in Cuba, and her return home. She meets Hawthorne through her sister, and the attraction is instant. From that point, Sophia's life is about caring for and enabling Hawthorne to achieve what he did:

• "Try as I might I cannot image my Apollo slopping or ironing. He was made to write - not the engage in physical toil."
• "I so often restrain my frustration for his sake..."
• "He is so easily frustrated by the minute of life."
• "I wish to be home, reassuring my husband with my touch."

Sophia Peabody is the one who held the Hawthorne household and, most likely, the man himself together through their life. Their married life included joys - love, children, publication of Hawthorne's works - and sorrows - death, illness, poverty. As a friend and a later critic warns, "...For you do not want to end up the little marker at the side of the grand headstone, where future writers and readers will lay their offerings, only honoring the man published and not the woman who supported and even made his work possible." That is indeed the epithet for Sophia as depicted in this book; in the pull between her artistic endeavors and her home, she chose home and family.

Sophia's thoughts almost always are of protecting Hawthorne. What is less clear is whether she was happy and whether he returned her caring in the same way. What makes this book such a marvelous read is that Sophia's caring is so very clearly exhibited. Yet, I find myself seeking to understand her emotions and thoughts for herself, in particular her struggle between home and art. That is much less clear, but the clues are there - in her comments about her art, in her memories of Cuba, and in the one instance in which she feels unable to offer him comfort. Did she ever regret her choice? Did she ever resent her husband for all her sacrifices? Did she ever question his inability to provide for them at many times in their lives? He loved her, but did he care for her in the way and with the ferocity with which she cared for him?

This book is a love story but seems a very real one - not the stuff of fairy tales but the stuff of life. Where love is not always balanced. Where sacrifices are made and are often unspoken. For all her time in the shadows, this is Sophia's time to shine.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters

Title:  Texts from Jane Eyre And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters

Author:  Mallory Ortberg

Publication Information:  Henry Holt and Co. 2014. 240 pages.

ISBN:  1627791833 / 978-1627791830

Book Source:  I found this book browsing through the local library online catalog.

Opening Sentence:  "hiiiiiiii"

Favorite Quote:  "save my number okay" [from Medea to Glauce]

Texts from Jane Eyre is one of many books that reinterpret a story or stories into essentially a different "language". The History of the World According to Facebook presents what a record of history might have been if Facebook had always existed, and if everyone and everything posted on Facebook. Ian Doescher's Star Wars series reinterpret the original Star Wars trilogy into a Shakespearean play.

Texts from Jane Eyre, as the title implies, imagines text conversations between characters from modern and classical literature. Odysseus and Circe. Medea and Glauce. Lizzie Bennett and her mother. Plato and his brother Glaucon. Some of the more modern texts include Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, the American Girl series, and the Lorax. The book includes a fairly well rounded compilation from different time periods and different genres.

Each section is only a few pages, and, as you can imagine, really quick to read in text message. If you want a sample, check out The Toast. The author Mallory Ortberg is the co-editor of the site and features a "texts from" section. The idea for the book originally stems from her feature on The Hairpin. Both these sites provide a flavor of what has eventually become this book. Because the sketches are independent, it is a very easy book to read in short spurts. Leave it on your book stand, and pick it up when you need a quick laugh.

Fortunately, the book does not use text-speak or short hand like "LOL, "BRB", etc. The conversation really is a true reference to the original text. Reading the conversations requires an understanding of the original. It's really only funny if you "get" the reference and the unstated history. I find myself laughing out loud (LOL!) over the conversations from the texts I have read and then researching the ones I am not familiar with so that I could understand. Then, I laugh over those. The author knows her literature! The original characters are definitely recognizable in these texts.

In looking up unfamiliar references, I became familiar with texts I might not otherwise have read, and I love books that bring me to other books I have yet to discover. I find myself adding some to my never-gets-any-shorter to read list. This is definitely a book for the bibliophiles! It might also serve as an introduction to younger readers who may not yet have read the originals. It is by no means a tool to teach the original, but perhaps, a reader may be intrigued enough by the sketch to then read the original it references.

Reading a book like this one also requires a somewhat irreverent sense of humor. If reinterpreting and poking some fun at the classics is not for you, then this is not the book for you. Based on the original texts references, this book is for the serious readers; based on its content, it is for readers open to a little silliness in their lives. If you are both, this is definitely the book for you. Put seriousness aside, and just enjoy it.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Dress Shop of Dreams

Title:  The Dress Shop of Dreams

Author:  Menna van Praag

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2014. 336 pages.

ISBN:  0804178984 / 978-0804178983

Book Source:  I read this book based on its cover.

Opening Sentence:  "When ordinary shoppers stumble into the little dress shop, they usually leave without buying anything."

Favorite Quote:  "It's a great shame ... that the heart cannot feel joy without also feeling pain, that it cannot know love without also knowing loss."

The surface plot of this book is about Cora Sparks, a studious scientist who never recovered from the mysterious death of her parents. Her grandmother Etta raised Cora after her parents' death and watched her forge a path in science in an effort to live up to her parents' unfinished legacy. Etta knows that there are secrets that Cora has buried and that perhaps her path should allow for more than science. So, it begins with Cora. A revelation from her grandmother leads her on a path of discovery of what happened to her parents and on a journey to herself.

More than the mystery of Cora's parents, The Dress Shop of Dreams is a story of love - secret loves that go unexpressed, actions we take to protect those we love, sacrifices we make for love, love where we don't expect it - romantic love in a myriad of expressions. Be warned, however. The love stories in this book are not always sweet and heart warming. Each has a sadder, darker element to them.

The first love story is Cora's. The scars of her childhood leave Cora unable to open herself up to see the love before her; she leads a somewhat sad, closed off life.

Investigating her parents' death, Cora meets a young detective. He is in the middle of a divorce, but he still loves his wife. His story leads to sad discoveries about the reasons for the divorce.

Walt is Cora's childhood friend; he has loved her all his life. However, he ends up involved with Milly, a young widow; he leads Milly on in a way that she certainly does not deserve. His voice brings magic to other people's lives, but he cannot bring it to his own. His unrequited love turns into sadness for someone else as well.

Milly is a young widow. Bereft after her husband's death, she begins to envision a future. However, when Walt's reality does not match the letters signed by him, she stands on the brink between the joy of new love and the sadness of loss.

Walt's boss is leading life alone. His love story seems to be living vicariously through the dreams of others.

Etta herself runs a dress shop, and not an ordinary one. Her dresses seems to find the right people at the right time in their lives. Etta's magical stitches in the dresses seem to reach wishes and desire that perhaps even the wearer does not know she had. However, Etta hides her own secrets and wishes well. Her love story is one of walking away to give the one she loved the freedom to pursue his life dream.

A local priest has the ability to hear confessions that his parishioners wish to share and to provide them the solace they need. However, the secrets of his own past make his heart heavy. The solace does not reach his sadness.

All these lives intersect in this one book. Sometimes sweetly, sometimes, disturbingly, and sometimes sadly. By the end, things sort themselves out as you would suspect they would. It's not quite the feel good book I expected, but it is a very quick, very easy read.  A few stitches in a dress, a little magic - All it takes is a little suspension of disbelief to spend a quiet afternoon with this story.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Three Many Cooks: One Mom, Two Daughters: Their Shared Stories of Food, Faith & Family

Title:  Three Many Cooks: One Mom, Two Daughters: Their Shared Stories of Food, Faith & Family

Author:  Pam Anderson, Maggy Keet, Sharon Damelio

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2015. 336 pages.

ISBN:  080417895X / 978-0804178952

Book Source:  I received this book through the GoodReads First Reads program free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Some people plan what they are going to do when they get together; our family plans what we are going to eat."

Favorite Quote:  "Talking about love - or truth or faith or beauty - only gets us so far. We need love we can touch, truth we can eat, faith we can drink, beauty we can share."

The "three many cooks" are Pam, Maggy, and Sharon - a mother and her two daughter. Pam Anderson is the author of seven cookbooks, former editor at Cook's Illustrated, and current food expert for AARP. Maggy Keet works as a fundraiser and pursues her passion for cooking with her family. Sharon Damelio also has a full timer career in non-profits and finds her relaxation in cooking.

Together, the mother and daughters team co-author the blog Three Many Cooks to, as they say on their website, invite people into their "favorite place" - the kitchen. The blog is a compilation of recipes, organized as you might see in a cookbook. Accompanying each recipe is a story from their lives - their history with this recipe or day to day events. The posts are authored individually by each of the three women.

This book picks up on the same theme. The book has fewer recipes and more blog like essays about life and lessons by each woman in turn. As such, they can be read as discrete essays or all together.

My favorites are the first and the last. One deals with the loss of a father; the other with a celebration of life. Both touch deep emotions; the first had me in tears. The topics for the others range from teenage rebellion, tough economic times, marriage, children, weight issues, and, of course, the mother-daughter and sister relationships. Each has a similar feel, and, of course, each one comes back to the role food has played at each juncture in their lives.

The book does not follow a chronological sequence; as such, certain junctures of their lives are visited through multiple essays and, hence, multiple perspectives. This results in a certain amount of repetitiveness in the books. For example, the move to Darien, the lessons learned in growing up having to work for things, and life lessons being passed down the generations in the kitchen are discussed many times. After a while, you wait for the book to take that topic beyond what has already been said and to reach what makes their story unique.

The best and worst part of the book is that the stories are sweet. The book is a nostalgic look back. It makes you want to reach out and gather family around. The stories are warm and comforting. Almost too much so. The nostalgia seems to gloss over what must have been some very tough times. The resolutions and journeys beyond the difficulties almost seem to come too easily. Perhaps, the essay format requiring a resolution before its end that lends to that feel. It is a feel good book, but the view through rose-colored glasses seems to create a veil between the reader and the reality of their lives.

I love and complete agree with the premise of how much life happens in and around food. It is certainly true in my family - food triggers memories, and food shared creates memories. A couple of the essay come close to capturing that feeling. but most just fall a little short in completing conveying those emotions.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The World Before Us

Title:  The World Before Us

Author:  Aislinn Hunter

Publication Information:  Hogarth. 2014. 368 pages.

ISBN:  0553418521 / 978-0553418521

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through Edelweiss free of cost in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Blogging for Books.

Opening Sentence:  "How many ways to begin?"

Favorite Quote:  "Names are the most valuable things. We have always said this. The are more valuable than the clocks, books, photographs and objects we find ourselves circling ... Names are pronouncements, entries, claims ... They say, I was, I am."

The World Before Us is a ghost story, in that, the ghosts are the main characters in the book. As such, the book is very different from what I expected. From the description, the book sounds like a mystery tying together two disappearances a century apart. The book actually is more a reflection on life and the things that bind us to the past and the things that define our identity.

The book is a very complex story, with multiple time periods, multiple narrators, and a whole lot of characters. The chronological timeline of the book is as follows: In the 1800s, a woman only identified as "N" disappears from the Whitmore Hospital for Convalescent Lunatics. About a century later, a little girl Lily disappears in the same woods. Jane, her babysitter, is traumatized by the event. Years later, Jane elects to study the Whitmore asylum as part of her graduate research. At age 34, Jane works in a museum and is still troubled by the two disappearances. The closing of the museum and an unexpected encounter with Lily's father, William, sends Jane running back to the same woods. She begins to search anew for the reasons behind the disappearances.

Jane's story is very scattered in this book and way too complicated. She is traumatized at age fifteen when Lily disappears. She builds a life, unable to let go of that trauma. Over the years, she has imagined the aftermath for William. Then, in flashbacks, she dreams of her own teenage crush on the man. Facing him in reality turns out to be nothing like her imaginings. So, now she is back in the town and woods around Whitmore. Why? It's never really made clear, except that the two disappearances have pretty much shaped her entire life. Along the way, she also lies about her identity and enters into an affair with a nineteen year old boy. By the end, nothing about Jane's story is resolved, and I am left puzzled by her choices.

Through Jane's research, we are also introduced to the Farringtons, who owned the estate near the Whitmore. Theirs is the story of wealth, sibling rivalries, parental favoritism, illicit affairs, and the prodigal son. It could be an entire family saga in and of itself expect for its cursory treatment here. Their story seems to be here to simply provide a setting for the first disappearance and a loose connection to the present.

Then, we have the group of ghosts, spirits, ethereal beings, or whatever you want to call them who surround Jane. They have no names and are at times like a collective Shakespearean chorus. Having lost their identity and their knowledge of who they were, they gather around Jane in the hopes that the work she does may perhaps reveal something about them. The group is very much like a family, with their disagreements but also the concern for each other.  Coming back to Whitmore and the neighboring Farrington estate triggers thoughts that perhaps they have been here before, perhaps they might know who they were.

Theirs is the most interesting part of the story, for it touches the most emotions and raises the philosophical questions in the book. The caring and the bickering and the sense of loss expressed so beautifully by the author makes these characters more alive than any of the living humans in the book. Although the entire book is a complicated a story that reaches no resolution, because of the characterization and writing of the ghosts, I look forward to reading more from the author.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Gilead

Title:  Gilead

Author:  Marilynne Robinson

Publication Information:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2004. 247 pages.

ISBN:  0374153892 / 978-0374153892

Book Source:  I read this book as this month's selection for my local book club.

Opening Sentence:  "I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I'm old, and you said, I don't think you're old."

Favorite Quote:  "But I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books. This is not a new insight, but the truth of it is something you have to experience to fully grasp."

The year is 1957. The place is the small town of Gilead, Iowa. The character is Reverend John Ames, suffering from heart disease and knowing that he may die before too long. Gilead is his epistle to his seven year old son. He writes, "I'm trying to make the best of our situation. That is, I'm trying to tell you things I might never have thought to tell you if I had brought you up myself, father and son, in the usual companionable way. When things are taking their ordinary course, it is hard to remember what matters. There are so many things you would never thing to tell anyone. And I believe they may be the things that mean the most to you, and that even your own child would have to know in order to know you well at all." At many points, he also writes that these are his son's "begats."

This book is part a dramatic story, part memoir (even if of a fictional character), part theology and part philosophy. Reading it the first time through, my reaction goes between feeling like I am reading a compilation of essays to being caught up in events being described. I feel like I am looking at a life lesson but that somehow I missed the lesson. I feel like I need to ponder over it and to perhaps re-read it to puzzle through John Ames' message. I want to know the other characters in a way other than through John Ames' eyes. Gilead leaves me thinking and with so many questions unanswered.

Why is a dying man investing his remaining time in documenting his life rather than living it? Why not spend the time with his wife and son, leaving his son with the memories of his father that are his rather than his father's writings about others? John Ames even comments on his own detachment, "This morning you came to me with a picture you had made that you wanted me to admire. I .... didn't look up right away. Your mother said, in the kindest, saddest voice, 'He doesn't hear you.' Not 'He didn't' but 'He doesn't.'" That statement is never explained. Why does John Ames not listen to his own son? What is the story behind his marriage - his second and to a woman considerable younger than he is?

A large part of the story has to do with John Ames' godson, Jack Boughton. He left Gilead under unfortunate circumstances and has now returned at least for a while. Slowly, the book does reveal why Jack Boughton left town. Slowly, you also see the friendship developing between Jack and John Ames' wife. Why does John Ames harbor such strong feelings towards Jack? The history, once revealed, alone does not seem to explain the intensity of the feelings. Also, if these writings are his son's legacy, why is Jack such a big part of them?

The Christian theology and references are abundant in this book. From the title Gilead to the idea of writing his son's "begats." From the varied Christian traditions represented to the discussions of the atheist Ludwig Feuerbach. This book definitely takes some work. I find myself rereading passages, doing research, and looking up references to further my understanding of the book for I clearly do not have the background to understand it. Is a more knowledgeable reader the target audience for this book? Is there a bigger philosophical lesson in the book tied to a deeper understanding of the references?

Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2005 National book Critics Circle Award. Since that time, Marilynne Robinson has written two companion books. Published in 2008, Home tells a concurred story, focusing on the Boughton family - Reverend Robert Boughton who is John Ames's best friend and Jack Boughton, who Ames' godson and the Robert's prodigal son returned home. Lila, published in 2014, picks up on the story of John Ames' much younger wife - her life before coming to Gilead and then her courtship and marriage to John Ames. I am looking forward to one day reading both companion books to see if they answer some of the question Gilead leaves unanswered.

I feel like I did not truly understand this book. Did I like it? Yes, I did for it leaves me thinking and I am engaged enough to want to understand.  Many unanswered questions remain, but the book feels complete. We hear only John Ames' perspective, but I am left caring about all of them and wanting to know the "why" behind their story and what happens to them? They may be fictional characters, but they leave a very real, lingering impact.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Girl on the Train

Title:  The Girl on the Train

Author:  Paula Hawkins

Publication Information:  Riverhead Books. 2015. 336 pages.

ISBN:  1594633665 / 978-1594633669

Book Source:  I read this book based on its publicity and the cover.

Opening Sentence:  "She's buried beneath a silver birch tree, down towards the old train tracks, her grave marked with a cairn."

Favorite Quote:  "He never understood that it's possible to miss what you've never had, to mourn for it."

Rachel Watson is the girl on the train. Unable to have children. Recently divorced. Recently unemployed. With a drinking problem. With a tendency for alcoholic blackouts. With a fixation on stalking her ex-husband and his new wife. A somewhat pitiful sight, and a great, unreliable narrator!

Every day, Rachel takes the train into the city, pretending to go to work. Every evening, she takes the train back. Unfortunately, the train path goes by where her ex-husband Tom lives with his new wife Anna and their new baby. That certainly does not help her issues with alcohol or stalking.

In her rides, Rachel also fixates on a house down the street. She sees a house with a young couple, who she views as the golden couple. She gives them names - Jess and Jason - and envisions their fairy tale life. Of course, life is not a fairly tale.

One day, Megan, the woman in this golden couple, disappears. Rachel continues her misguided fairly tale and starts to imagine what might have happened and how devastated her husband might be. She also thinks she might have seen something that relates to Megan and may shed light on her disappearance. However, with her alcohol induced blackouts, she is not sure.

Clearly lacking in good judgement, Rachel gets involved. She reports her thoughts to the police and to Megan's husband. She is obviously not a reliable witness. In fact, the more the police research, the more holes they find in her story. The fact that Tom and Anna live on the street and accuse Rachel of stalking further complicates things.

Confused yet? That's pretty much how Rachel feels. The book twists and turns, showing us the events from Rachel, Anna, and Megan's perspectives. What do these three women have in common? Anything at all? Do their stories share a common link beyond the street they live on? What happened the night Megan disappeared? The first sentence of the book reveal what happened to her, but how and why? All these questions keep you reading.

The book really only has five main characters. Rachel is the drunk fixated on her ex-husband. Anna is the new wife, who "got" her husband through an adulterous affair and then moved right into the house Tom shared with Rachel. Megan has plenty of unpleasant secrets of her own, some of which lead to her disappearance. Tom is Rachel's ex-husband and Anna's husband; he is forever trying to placate both. Justin is Megan's husband, distraught at his wife's disappearance but with a few skeletons of his own in the closet. A supporting cast of stereotypes surrounds these main characters. I don't particularly like any of the them, but keep reading because, at the same time, I want to know what happens.

Many books recently have been compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl; this is the first one for me that elicits the same reaction. The characters in both are certainly unlikable. The ending to this book does not have the surprise element of Gone Girl. By process of elimination, I did guess the correct guilty party, but it is a whole lot of fun to see how the book gets there.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.