105 - Black Out; Lisa Unger

Black Out, by Lisa Unger

I started out listening to the audio book and was enjoying the reader a lot, but the story became a little confusing to listen to, so about half way through I got the printed version from the library. This is Lisa Unger's third book out four published. I've read them all and sadly enjoyed this one the least. Here's the plot line:

Annie Powers seems to have the perfect life: wealth, a loving husband and a beautiful daughter, but all is not as it appears.

In reality Annie is a damaged woman who was known as Ophelia March as a child. "When my mother named me Ophelia, she thought she was being literary. She didn't realize, she was being tragic". Ophelia was born to a couple who had no clue how to raise a child. Her father was a tattoo artist who left early on in her life. Her mother, always distant, was too busy searching for love instead of nurturing a child. Ophelia's mother hooks up with a serial killer named Frank Geary who is on death row. Her mother attempts to get him a new trial and prove him innocent, all the while Ophelia is being ignored.

If this isn't bad enough, she lets Frank's son Marlowe move in with her and Ophelia. His is a manipulator who begins to take advantage of mother and child, and things go from bad to worse.
In an attempt to get away Ophelia fakes her death, and resurfaces as Annie Powers.

But you cannot escape ones past. She is haunted by her past, and is unsure of what is real and what is imagined, and she is soon believing that her past is not dead at all.

The plot method for telling this story was extremely confusing as the author jumped around too much, in my opinion. Given the fact that the story is a combination of real and imagined events, this only added to my confusion.

Don't get me wrong, Lisa Unger writes some amazing thrillers. I suggest anyone who has not read her starts out by reading Beautiful Lies; it was very very good.

RATING - 3/5; COMPLETED - 7/10/09; Library Book

104 - A Happy Marriage; Rafael Yglesias

The story A Happy Marriage begins in the 1970's when Enrique Sabas meets Margaret Cohen, who becomes his future wife. The two come from different backgrounds, but despite that, there is an immediate attraction.

Told in alternating chapters, it is a poignant story. It covers their dating tears, their marriage and other import events in their lives, which includes touching and compassionate detail about Margaret's battle with cancer, her ultimate demise and her husband's devotion to her throughout.

It was not a perfect marriage, there were disappointments and financial challenges along the way, but it was portrayed as a "happy Marriage" which seemed to grow deeper when the reality set in for Enrique that her would indeed be losing his wife to this dreaded disease.

Throughout the novel there was this amazing use of foreshadowing which I found very effective. The characters were real, and developed in a way that will stay with me for a long time to come. I found it particularly touching when Enrique was making final arrangements for Margaret's death, and although there were many passages I had to stop and reread a second time, this one left me teary eyed, (as it reminded me of something my mother did when I cared for her as she was dying).......

"She wants to go in oblivious peace, he thought, looking down at the profile that appeared on the sheet's edge. That morning an alert Margaret had announced that she completed her last chore, choosing her burial clothes. He understood now that when she has asked to go to her grave wearing the earrings he bought her for her birthday, she meant that to be her goodbye to him, her last words of approval and gratitude. She had spoken and he did not answer."

A deep, passionate love story of a marriage through sickness and in health. Although this one is a work of fiction, the story was inspired by the author's relationship with his wife Margaret who passed away in 2004. The author was a high school drop out who published his first novel in 1972 at the age of 17. He is the author of nine books. RECOMMENDED

RATING - 4.5/5 ; COMPLETED - 7/9/09; REVIEW BOOK

Booking Through Thursday - Unread

“So here today I present to you an Unread Books Challenge. Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, ‘No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!’"

I'm pathetic really, but how could I take a picture of over 200 books, so I narrowed it down to (7) that I really want to read, but have been avoiding for some unknown reason??

1. Sylvanus Now; Donna Morrissey - Morrissey's third novel set in mid-twentieth-century Newfoundland examines the interpersonal dynamics that link the inhabitants of an insular fishing village. This time the pressures on the fishermen and their wives come from both within (insularity suffocates even as it nurtures) and without, as modern fishing methods threaten the livelihood of the locals. Sylvanus Now is determined to fish the way his ancestors did, but his wife, Adelaide, yearns for escape: from a stultifying future of tending babies and working "on the flakes," where women salt-dry the freshly caught fish. Morrissey meticulously documents the bitterness that grows in both husband and wife as their very different dreams are slowly crushed. And yet, in the midst of seething emotions and steadily building disappointment, a sustaining love begins to grow between the beleaguered pair. Morrissey generates a remarkable intensity of emotion here, and if the novel often seems oppressively sad, it is buoyed by the crispness of detail and the author's ability to vivify the slow process through which an inner life is transformed.
2. East of the Sun; Julia Gregson - British author Gregson bows in America with her fast-paced second novel, an absorbing international period drama concerning three young Englishwomen and a troubled boy journeying to India in the late 1920s. The eldest at 25, Viva Holloway is an orphan hoping to retrieve her lost parents' personal effects; she's paying her way by chaperoning three younger travelers. Rose Wetherby is going to India to be married; Victoria Tor Sowerby is Rose's bridesmaid; and 16-year-old Guy Glover is returning home after getting expelled from school for stealing. Throughout, narrative shifts reveal the travelers' perspectives and fears: Viva is haunted by a childhood and family she barely remembers; Rose is growing increasingly nervous about how little she knows of her fiancé; and Tor is eager, after a disappointing deb season in London, to find a husband of her own and avoid returning to England. Guy's strange behavior makes it clear he's unstable, and before long, he's assaulted a member of a powerful Indian family, setting off a frightening chain of events for both himself and Viva. Gregson's rich imagery, strong characters and gripping plot make this a resonant page-turner.
3. Snow; Orhan Pamuk - A Turkish poet who spent 12 years as a political exile in Germany witnesses firsthand the clash between radical Islam and Western ideals in this enigmatically beautiful novel. Ka's reasons for visiting the small Turkish town of Kars are twofold: curiosity about the rash of suicides by young girls in the town and a hope to reconnect with "the beautiful Ipek," whom he knew as a youth. But Kars is a tangle of poverty-stricken families, Kurdish separatists, political Islamists (including Ipek's spirited sister Kadife) and Ka finds himself making compromises with all in a desperate play for his own happiness. Ka encounters government officials, idealistic students, leftist theater groups and the charismatic and perhaps terroristic Blue while trying to convince Ipek to return to Germany with him; each conversation pits warring ideologies against each other and against Ka's own weary melancholy. Pamuk himself becomes an important character, as he describes his attempts to piece together "what really happened" in the few days his friend Ka spent in Kars, during which snow cuts off the town from the rest of the world and a bloody coup from an unexpected source hurtles toward a startling climax. Pamuk's sometimes exhaustive conversations and descriptions create a stark picture of a too-little-known part of the world, where politics, religion and even happiness can seem alternately all-consuming and irrelevant. A detached tone and some dogmatic abstractions make for tough reading, but Ka's rediscovery of God and poetry in a desolate place makes the novel's sadness profound and moving.
4. The Walking People; Mary Beth Keane - Debut author Keane offers an extended meditation on leaving, finding and making home in a novel focused on the new Irish immigrant experience. Awkward, dreamy Greta Cahill was always in the shadow of her vivacious older sister, Johanna, as the two grew up on the far west coast of Ireland. Surrounded by houses left vacant by neighbors who emigrated, adventurous Johanna dreams of America, especially when, in the aftermath of a family tragedy, she befriends Michael Ward, the son of itinerant tinkers who wants nothing more than to stay in one place. When teenaged Johanna's dream comes true, Michael and Greta are dragged along to America in Johanna's impetuous wake. In New York City, however, Greta and Michael create their own home, happiness and success. The narrative, which extends from 1956 to the present, has the dusty feel of 19th-century literature, though Greta is an appealing character lacking in nostalgia. Her romance is also authentic and unsentimental, and despite the stodgy storytelling, her coming-of-age reflects a fresh take on the lives recent immigrants can create.
5. The Mosquito Coast; Paul Theroux; In a breathtaking adventure story, the paranoid and brilliant inventor Allie Fox takes his family to live in the Honduran jungle, determined to build a civilization better than the one they've left. Fleeing from an America he sees as mired in materialism and conformity, he hopes to rediscover a purer life. But his utopian experiment takes a dark turn when his obsessions lead the family toward unimaginable danger.
6. The Post Office Girl; Stefan Zeweig - The post-office girl is Christine, who looks after her ailing mother and toils in a provincial Austrian post office in the years just after the Great War. One afternoon, as she is dozing among the official forms and stamps, a telegraph arrives addressed to her. It is from her rich aunt, who lives in America and writes requesting that Christine join her and her husband in a Swiss Alpine resort. After a dizzying train ride, Christine finds herself at the top of the world, enjoying a life of privilege that she had never imagined.
   
   But Christine’s aunt drops her as abruptly as she picked her up, and soon the young woman is back at the provincial post office, consumed with disappointment and bitterness. Then she meets Ferdinand, a wounded but eloquent war veteran who is able to give voice to the disaffection of his generation. Christine’s and Ferdinand’s lives spiral downward, before Ferdinand comes up with a plan which will be either their salvation or their doom.
   
   Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel.
7. The Samurai's Garden; Gail Tsukiyama - Seventeen-year-old Stephen leaves his home in Hong Kong just as the Japanese are poised to invade China. He is sent to Tarumi, a small village in Japan, to recuperate from tuberculosis. His developing friendship with three adults and a young woman his own age brings him to the beginnings of wisdom about love, honor, and loss. Given the potentially interesting subplot (the story of a love triangle doomed by the outbreak of leprosy in the village) and the fascinating period in which the book is set.

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

103 - Dismantled; Jennifer Mc Mahon

Dismantled, by Jennifer McMahon

The summer following graduation, four college friends spend the summer together in a remote cabin in Vermont. During their summer at the cabin, the group commits acts of vandalism, and other serious pranks. They even name themselves "The Compassionate Dismantlers". Rule # 1 for the group is: "to understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart".

The group is headed by Suz Pierce, a sexy but jealous, with a motive for revenge. When things get out of control, and Suz dies, the group disbands and vows never to speak about what happened at the cabin in Vermont.

Some ten years later two former members of the group, are now married, albeit unhappily, with a nine year old girl named Emma. A somewhat lonely little girl with an imaginary friend. When a former victim of the disbanded group's prank commits suicide, after having received a "Dismantler" type postcard, it appears a long buried secret has not been buried for good.

Full of twists and turns to keep you guessing long into the night, my only complaint was that this book, at some 422 pages, could have been shortened considerably and would have still been just as effective. If you a looking for a fun thriller, give Dismantled a try.

RATING - 4/5 ; COMPLETED - 7/8/09; Library Book

Wordless Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday: Day After Night

"Waiting on" Wednesday is hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, and is a way for bloggers to share the upcoming books that they're longing for.

My pick:

Day After Night; Anita Diamant

Scribner - September - 2009

About the book:

Set in 1945, in the summer immediately following the end of World War II in Europe, DAY AFTER NIGHT tells the stories of four young Jewish women -- survivors of four different kinds of hell. They make their way to the land of Israel where they confront an uncertain future haunted by the past.

The protagonists -- Leonie, Tedi, Shayndel and Zorah -- are interned when they arrive, locked up behind barbed wire fences in a place called Atlit, a prison camp run by the British, who ruled Palestine at the time. In Atlit, the women meet and befriend one another as they grapple with a new life in a new land.

More New Books - Out This Week

The Crying Tree, by Naseem Rakha
Broadway Books
Pub. Date - 7/7/09

Book Description from Amazon

Irene and Nate Stanley are living a quiet and contented life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, on their family farm in southern Illinois when Nate suddenly announces he’s been offered a job as a deputy sheriff in Oregon. Irene fights her husband. She does not want to uproot her family and has deep misgivings about the move. Nevertheless, the family leaves, and they are just settling into their life in Oregon’s high desert when the unthinkable happens. Fifteen-year-old Shep is shot and killed during an apparent robbery in their home. The murderer, a young mechanic with a history of assault, robbery, and drug-related offenses, is caught and sentenced to death.

Shep’s murder sends the Stanley family into a tailspin, with each member attempting to cope with the tragedy in his or her own way. Irene’s approach is to live, week after week, waiting for Daniel Robbin’s execution and the justice she feels she and her family deserve. Those weeks turn into months and then years. Ultimately, faced with a growing sense that Robbin’s death will not stop her pain, Irene takes the extraordinary and clandestine step of reaching out to her son’s killer. The two forge an unlikely connection that remains a secret from her family and friends.

Years later, Irene receives the notice that she had craved for so long—Daniel Robbin has stopped his appeals and will be executed within a month. This announcement shakes the very core of the Stanley family. Irene, it turns out, isn’t the only one with a shocking secret to hide. As the execution date nears, the Stanleys must face difficult truths and find a way to come to terms with the past.

Dramatic, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting, The Crying Tree is an unforgettable story of love and redemption, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the transformative power of forgiveness.


Both Ways is the Only Way I Want; Maile Meloy
Riverhead Books
Pub. Date - 7/9/09

Product Description - From Amazon

Product Award-winning writer Maile Meloy’s return to short stories explores complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to readers.Meloy’s first return to short stories since her critically acclaimed debut, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It is an extraordinary new work from one of the most promising writers of the last decade.

Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields—and fields of victory—that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship. A ranch hand falls for a recent law school graduate who appears unexpectedly— and reluctantly—in his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire.

Knowing, sly, and bittersweet, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It confirms Maile Meloy’s singular literary talent. Her lean, controlled prose, full of insight and unexpected poignancy, is the perfect complement to her powerfully moving storytelling.


A Happy Marriage; Rafael Yglesias
Scribner
Pub. Date 7/7/09

From Publishers Weekly


Yglesias (Fearless) delivers his first novel in 13 years, an autobiographical and devastatingly raw appraisal of a nearly 30-year marriage. As the novel opens in 1975, 21-year-old Enrique Sabas, a high school–dropout literary wunderkind, has just met Margaret Cohen, a vivacious, beautiful budding graphic designer who will become the love of his life. Enrique and Margaret's romantic and sexual misadventures during the first awkward weeks of their courtship are interspersed with scenes from the couple's three decades together before Margaret succumbs to cancer: raising children, losing a parent, the temptation of an easy affair. Margaret's physical decline and Enrique's acknowledgment of guilt, inadequacy and a selfish desire to postpone his loss are described in blunt, heart-wrenching detail, and Enrique's ongoing struggles to define the nature of masculinity, the significance of art and the value of marriage add a philosophical layer to the domestic snapshots. Although the couple's privileged lifestyle can get in the way of the reader-character bond, the texture of their marriage and the pain of their loss will be familiar to anyone who has shared a long-term relationship.

Don't these new books sound great?

I'm happy to have received review copies and, I am looking forward to reading these soon.