40 & 41

Book 40 was a teeny little collection of short stories my mum got me for Christmas. The collection is a set of two (does that qualify as a collection?) previously unpublished Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women and one of my favorite authors when I was a little girl). The stories are very much in the same vein as the Little Women books and made me want to quickly read through those stories again.

But then I picked up Month of Summer by Lisa Wingate when we stopped at Nuggets on Saturday. I don't even know how to describe what this book was about...Love? Forgiveness? maybe grace? The story is alternately told through the point of view of Rebecca and Hanna Beth. Thirty five years ago Rebecca's father left her and her mother for Hanna Beth. since the day she and her mother left their home to move to California, Rebecca has not had any contact with her father.

Then Hanna Beth has a stroke and Rebecca's father (who suffers from Alzheimers and dementia) and step brother (who is mentally challenged) are left to fend for themselves. Rebecca gets a phone call from the police letting her know that if she doesn't fly home to Dallas the social services will take over.

And the story progresses from there.

I found myself relating to this story a lot more than I wanted to. Here's a quote from early on that I thought really captured what it's like to be the adult child of a broken marriage (to set it up, Rebecca thought she had put her dad and new family out of her mind. She'd spent her entire life trying to forget him and the pain of losing him. Now she's in Dallas and about to meet her dad and step brother again:)

"Unfortunately, the pain had travelled with me across the country, across the years, and as I stood outside her door, it was as fresh and as much a part of me as it had been that twelfth summer. It stabbed as sharply now as then - like a chronic injury, reawakend by a careless movement, a sudden strain caused by the burden of picking up something too heavy. It's intesity surprised me. I'd expected, in this adult body, safely entrenched in a life that was completely separate from that of Hanna Beth and my father, to be able to maintain a comfortable detachment, a reasonable objectivity. Instead, I wanted to lock myself away someplace quiet, and nurse the raw spot until it stopped burning."

And then talking about what it would be like for her daughter if her own marriage were to break up, "Would her confident smile, her openness, her self-worth slowly diminish until she found trust a struggle, faith a chore? Would she always feel vaguely inadequate, unworthy, as if she had to prove something to be more than she was, because no one could love her for just herself?"

Well, anyway, I guess my point is that it seems Wingate is particularly good at characterization and at capturing human emotion. Good read.

39: Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy is one of my favorite authors. And so I was pleased as punch that so many of my favorite characters from previous books made it into this story.

At 452 pages, I was worried that it would take me a couple of weeks to read, but I managed to finish it in just over a day. I was that caught up in the story. Love it.

38: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

Somehow, I lucked out with my book selection this year. I don't think I've had a stinker yet.

The Cellist of Sarajevo is completely different from the other books I've read this year. I wish I had some profound words to share with you to explain how deeply it affected me. I can tell you this: the writing reminded me somehow of Douglas Coupland, which is funny considering Galloway is also a BC writer. It's an awful, horrible story, and yet it's strangely hopeful at the same time. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

37: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

After only a few pages, I already loved this book so much I had to change my Facebook status and share my love with the whole world. In fact, after gobbling this book up (I'm going to have to read it again, more slowly this time!) I have only one criticism: It was obvious to me that whoever wrote this book was not British. The voices of the Guernsey characters were quite blatantly American to me. And that was a bit sad. But I decided that I liked the book enough that I would overlook that fact. And luckily they weren't annoying American. Just not British.

36: The Minotaur by Barabara Vine

I can't believe I didn't know Ruth Rendell wrote under the name Barbara Vine. Though why I should have known, I'm not sure.

I first discovered Ruth Rendell when my mum used to watch Ruth Rendell mysteries. As is typical of most crime shows set in modern times, Ruth Rendell's mysteries always seemed to have what I'll call dark twists. Let's just say they're not exactly the sort of thing I feel comfortable watching with my parents. Probably for that reason, Ruth Rendell isn't my favorite mystery writer. But when I read a reivew of Minotaur, I was intrigued. I logged on to amazon where Minotaur is alternately described as "a sort of blend of Edgar Allan Poe and Anthony Trollope" and Brontesque.

I gobbled this book up in less than a day and was delighted to see that Rendell as Vine has written several other novels. In fact, I see that many of Minotaur's reviewers call this one of Vine's weaker books. Let's hope they're right, because I can't wait to read more!

35

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastian Japrisot,

Whew, talk about culture shock! After all those charming little books about British country life, this one was a bit tough slogging! Actually though, I think it was a case of reading the right book at the wrong time. I've been awfully tired lately and very distracted by my yard (I looooooooove yardwork even more than I love books!) and this book deserves more attention than I was willing to give it just now. However, it's a borrowed book and I always feel as though borrowed books should be read (and returned!) promptly if possible.

The premise of the book is this: Five French soldiers are marched to their own front lines where they will be tossed into no man's land with their hands tied behind their backs. Their crime? Three of them had attempted to escape the atrocities of World War One by purposefully injuring their hands. One injured himself as a form of protest and one was actually injured in an accident. However, self mutilation to escape active duty is considered treason. Five bodies are recovered and the men's families are notified that they were killed in the line of duty.

Mathilde is the fiance of one of the condemned men. She cannot accept that her Manech is dead and so she begins a search to find out the truth of what really happened that fateful night.

The story, originally written in French and translated to English in this version, is told through a series of flashbacks, letters, memories and real time occurences.

As I said above, if I'd had more time and fewer distractions, I think I would have loved this book. Especially as my great grandfather is rumoured to have been a French defector. Our story is a bit jumbled and confused, but it seems he married my great grandmother, had a son (my grandfather) and then disappeared. Or was found and taken back to France to be similarly dealt with. Either way I felt a connection to this story.

The story is beautifully written and very intersting. And the ending was (in my opinion) very satisfying (though not a Hollywood ending). I think I'll have to try to find the movie version - if nothing else to watch the beautiful Audrey Tatou play Mathilde.