Reader Review: "The Armor of Light"

 

 

by Cathryn Conroy (Gaithersburg, Maryland): When it comes to life, the one thing you can be sure of is change. This novel by Ken Follett, the fifth in the incredible Kingsbridge series of historical fiction, embraces this adage as the primary theme of the 750-page book.

Taking place from 1792 to 1824 in the fictional English town of Kingsbridge, this is the story of a large cast of characters rich and poor, male and female, young and old at the beginning of the industrial revolution. The story opens with a horrific scene as a beloved husband and father is killed through a wealthy man's negligence and the rippling effect that has on the dead man's survivors.

Among others, we meet: • Sal Clitheroe is a tough and resourceful widow. She is the mother of 6-year-old Christopher (nicknamed Kit), who is forced to go to work at his young age. • The wealthy and influential Riddick family. The squire is the old father of three young men, one of whom is evil and one of whom is good. • The Anglican bishop, his wife Arabella and daughter Elsie. Arabella is much younger than her old husband, and she has a torrid affair that is kept secret…until it can't be suppressed any longer. Elsie is in love with someone who thinks of her as only a friend so she marries another man in haste. • Amos is a good-hearted man who owns a mill in the town, employing many people. He is madly in love with Jane Midwinter, who spurns him. • Spade, whose real name is David Shoveller, is a prosperous weaver and a good soul. He is close to his sister Kate, who is the town's premier dressmaker. Kate harbors a big secret that could ruin her reputation and business. • Jane Midwinter, the daughter of the Methodist minister, is only interested in a lavish, comfortable life, but the marriage she makes to achieve that is fraught with despair and little love. • Alderman Hornbeam, the requisite bad guy, who values money and his own style of living above all else, isn't afraid to bash others to get what he wants—even if it means hanging them in the public square.

The book is filled with the history of this period, beginning with the invention of the spinning Jenny that radically changed the way cloth was made, transforming it from the labor of individual spinners working alone in their homes to a mechanized process done in a mill. How this invention changed employment, culture, and society is a primary focus of the book, including the rise of worker unions as employees are summarily displaced by technology. The characters embody what is needed to both force and embrace the radical changes that are taking place.

Since lawbreakers in England could join the army to escape prison, the story ends with several of our more nefarious, as well as patriotic, Kingsbridge friends fighting for Britain against Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. If you enjoy war stories, this battle is quite the tale—but not for the squeamish.

Filled with intrigue, violence, love, sex, passion, scandal, and lots of drama, this is an engaging and engrossing book to savor and enjoy. (Even though the last book in this series, you don't have to read the books in order, although each one is special and worth reading.)

Bonus: Find out where the term "Luddite" comes from and how the Luddites had unsuccessfully tried to squash the industrial revolution in England.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "All the Light We Cannot See"

 

 

by Cloggie Downunder (Australia): All The Light We Cannot See is the Pulitzer prize-winning second novel by Anthony Doerr. The audio version is narrated by Julie Teal. In 1934, six-year-old Marie-Laure LeBlanc is going blind, and her widowed father, Daniel, principal locksmith at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, spends his spare time crafting intricate models of their part of the city so that she will be able to find her way when her sight is gone. She spends her days interrogating the scientists, technicians and warders at the museum about their expert subjects, or reading and rereading the Braille novels her father gives her on her birthdays.

Also at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, hidden behind many locked doors, is the Sea of Flames, a pear-cut diamond that, according to legend, is cursed, preventing the person who has it from dying, while bringing bad luck and even peril to those around them. When the war begins, the director of the museum understands just how coveted it might be, and takes action. He's not wrong: it's on Adolf Hitler's wishlist.

In a home for the orphans of coal miners in Zollverein, Germany, seven-year-old Werner Pfennig and his younger sister Jutta are under the care of French House directress, Frau Elena. Werner is small, with a shock of white hair, resourceful, a talented scavenger, and ever curious, always, always reading, and when they find a discarded radio, he is able to make it work, even improve its function. Educational programs from who-knows-where have Jutta's fervent attention while the other children love the music.

But while Werner is absorbed in his textbook, Jutta hears news from foreign countries, and is dismayed and disturbed by what she hears her country is doing (bombing Paris!)

All the boys in the home are destined for the mine where his father died; it's Werner's reputation for radio repair, and his aptitude for mathematics that puts him on a different course. At General Heissmeyer's famous school, he joins other German boys of the right appearance, some smart, some the offspring of influential people. It's not a kind place but Werner's genius puts him under Dr Hauptmann's protection.

With the threat of occupation by German forces, the Museum director sends Daniel LeBlanc away: he and Marie-Laure end up in the Saint Malo home of his uncle, Maire-Laure's seventy-six per cent crazy Great Uncle Etienne.

How the boy, the blind girl, and the diamond end up in Saint Malo on August 8th, 1944 as the Americans bomb the city and a Nazi gemmologist searches for the elusive stone, is the story Doerr tells, over two time-lines, via multiple narratives (even the city gets a turn or two), and letters between family members.

With gorgeous descriptive prose, Doerr easily evokes his setting and era even as he describes the subtleties of the German propaganda machine, the instances, both large and small, of indoctrination, the mindset that led to collaboration with the enemy, the cruelty of those in power and the atrocities they commit or condone; but also the tiny acts of resistance that will have the reader cheering on the Malouins.

Like Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, it tells the story of ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances, and Doerr gives the reader characters who repay emotional investment. Marie-Laure's descriptions come from her unique perspective: "Madame seems like a great moving wall of rosebushes, thorny and fragrant and crackling with bees." It's war, so there are no unrealistic happy endings, but there are lots of moving moments and one or two very satisfying ones. A deserving prize-winner.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "The Sequel"

 

 

by Bonnie G (Canada): The Sequel is as much fun for voracious readers as The Plot. Sprinkled throughout a solid mystery thriller, Hanff Korelitz slyly winks to the peculiarities of the book business. She saves her sharpest knives for book signings, the idea of sequels, agents and editors, book festivals, and those deluded souls who read the Goldfinch and decided they too can write a novel about a boy who was in a museum explosion and hung onto a priceless painting. But this is only back drop to the real mystery - which is how is Anna, the widow of author Jacob Finch Bonner, going to extricate herself from clutches of someone (or someones) who know her real identify and deepest darkest secrets.

Remarkably, Hanff Korelitz (sort of) makes you root for Anna, despite the body count piling up in this novel. This is not a spoiler. If you read The Sequel as a sequel to The Plot, you know you are in for some dastardly and unexpected twists and turns. The Sequel does not necessarily have to be read after The Plot because Hanff Korelitz gives us lots of sign posts and information and reminders about how Anna has found herself the widow of a famous author in the first place, but it is a much better book read as a sequel.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "The God of the Woods"

 

 

by Katherine M (Seattle, WA): There was a lot to like about this book, although I can see why some people would find it frustrating; there is a huge cast of characters, and there are multiple timelines. The writing style is also very pointed; Liz Moore uses a lot of very detailed writing, a matter-of-fact style that isn't very flowery, or 'pretty.' It doesn't help that most of the characters are unlikeable, so if that bothers you when reading, you might not enjoy this for that reason alone.

I like getting swept along in all the details, but they have to move the story forward to be necessary. (I think they were all necessary, but I didn't have the time to pore through the text to analyze whether that was the case, when all was said and done.) Overall, this must have an incredibly complex book to write (and edit), and I was mostly in awe of that, even if I was a little underwhelmed by the actual mystery or climax upon finishing.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "Tell Me Everything"

 

 

by Cathryn Conroy (Gaithersburg, Maryland): Oh, I just want to hug this book.

It is a book about nothing. And at the same time, it's a book about everything. It is a book about what people think and say and do. It is a book about how they treat one another in good times and bad. It is a deeply perceptive book about life and how we will be remembered.

It is extraordinary.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout, this is an imaginative culmination of almost everything she has written—the four books in the Amgash series featuring Lucy Barton, the two Olive Kitteridge books, and "The Burgess Boys"—pulling together the characters from those seven novels into one incredible story about friendship, love, healing, and hope.

Well-known novelist Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William Gerhardt are living together amicably in the small town of Crosby, Maine, along with grumpy Olive Kitteridge, who is now in a continuing care community, and Bill Burgess and his wife, the Unitarian minister, Margaret Estaver. Lucy and Bill go on long weekly walks, telling each other everything. It's a kind of emotional affair. Lucy visits Olive in the home where they exchange stories about people's lives, which they call "unrecorded lives." And Bill, who is an attorney, takes on a murder case defending a man named Matthew Beach whom prosecutors think killed his own mother by drowning her in a rented car in a nearby quarry. Matt has an odd hobby of painting nude pregnant women, which has caused some in this small town to think of him as a pervert, but the paintings are spectacular.

And that's pretty much the plot, such as it is. But that isn't the point. The point is in the characters, who are so genuine, so vivid, so vibrant you will think you know them in real life.

The brilliance of the story—the masterful ambition of it—is Strout's inimitable way of writing about life and feelings and emotions. I surmise that virtually every woman of a certain age will see herself somewhere in the story and in that moment will feel authenticated. It's that powerful!

There's just one really important catch: You must (must!) read those seven books mentioned in the beginning of this review before you read "Tell Me Everything." First, there are many references in this novel that would be spoilers from the previous books. Second, you won't understand the nuances of the characters if you don't know their full backstories. But what a treat awaits you with these eight Elizabeth Strout gems!

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "Like Mother, Like Mother"

 

 

by Maureen C.: This is the story of three generations of very strong women. This is a complicated story, the characters are well developed each with their own story to tell. Is a thought-provoking novel that will get you thinking about motherhood. Would you follow the path? Perfect book for book clubs.

Lila Is abandoned by her mother who is put into an institution when Lila is a young child. She is left in the care of her abusive father and grandmother. Later, she is told by her father that her mother has died. Lila never saw her mother after she was institutionalized. Lila becomes a journalist. She marries her college sweetheart, and has three children. She wants a career, and is not around much for her children. Grace, her youngest child resents this very much and wishes she would spend more time at home. Grace writes a book about her mother and investigates about what happened to her grandmother Zelda.

This is a beautifully written book about family dynamics. It is at times humorous and emotional. Highly recommended.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House for this invitation to read this arc copy of this book. I truly enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "A Fever in the Heartland"

 

 

by Anthony Conty (Parkville, MD): "A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them" helps one with only a working knowledge of the KKK figure out how they were so popular in the 1920s. You will find most political rhetoric familiar, but knowing that the group wielded such power may shock you.

Reading about the Klan's rhetoric, you can't help but recognize the familiar pattern of scapegoating. The Klan's strategy was simple: you were either with them or against them. The establishment of a common enemy was crucial to their mission. It's a tactic that still resonates in today's political landscape, serving as a cautionary tale.

The Klan, despite its proclaimed values, exhibited a striking hypocrisy, engaging in the very vices it condemned. The influential figures in the group held sway over society, echoing Will Rogers' observation: "It is the most religion preached and the least practiced." You should be tuned into different news channels if this doesn't resonate.

The action starts at about the halfway point, in which we read about a devastating rape, kidnapping, and assault. Reading about rape never gets more accessible or less shocking. The legal proceedings that fellow show that men in power have been getting away with atrocities for generations. Like a good crime drama, you expect a cheerful ending but cannot see how it is possible when you recognize the breadth of control Grand Dragons indeed possesses.

The legal proceedings remind you of how hard it is to convict men in power. When the word of others holds so much weight, people stand up about the legal burden of proof. The trial reminded me that hearing about reasonable doubt is the biggest necessary evil in our society. Any police procedural teaches that painful lesson in hour-long stints.

 

 

 

 

Reader Review: "The History of Love"

 

 

by Cathryn Conroy (Gaithersburg, Maryland): This is a strange book. It gets big points for originality, but it's also confusing and confounding. About halfway through, I was so bewildered, I did something I rarely do: I got online to figure out what the heck it was I was reading.

Written by Nicole Krauss, this is a book within a book and stories within stories—hence the perplexity. There are two distinct story lines/plots (as well as several other minor ones) that take a very long time to connect, so the chapter changes between them are utterly jarring, a kind of literary whiplash.

The two main stories: • Leo Gursky's story spans 70 years beginning when he is a 10-year-old Jewish boy in Slonim, Poland and ending when he is in his 80s, living alone in an apartment in New York City. As a child, he fell in love with his playmate, Alma Mereminski. When she is 20 and Nazi Germany begins to threaten Poland, Alma's father whisks her to the United States for her safety. Unbeknownst to Leo, Alma is pregnant. He swears he will never love another. He, too, makes his way to the United States after his entire village—except for him—is slaughtered by Hitler's troops. Leo is a writer, and he pens a novel called "The History of Love" in which every female character is named Alma after Leo's one true love. He entrusts the only copy to his best friend, Zvi Litvinoff, who flees to Chile. Zvi presumes Leo is dead and publishes the novel—under his own name. Only 2,000 copies were printed in Spanish, and it quickly becomes lost in boxes in booksellers' basements.

• Alma Singer is a precocious 12-year-old girl living in an apartment with New York City with her widowed mother, Charlotte, and her brother, nicknamed Bird. Bird is convinced he is a "lamed vovnik," one of a group of 36 hidden saints in Jewish folklore who are responsible for the fate of the world. Charlotte has spent the past five years grieving for her dead husband, and the children acutely feel her pain and loss, as well as their own. The couple's favorite novel was "The History of Love," which is why they named their daughter Alma. Alma's quest is to help her mother find a new love, and when a mysterious man named Jacob Marcus offers to pay Charlotte $100,000 to translate "A History of Love" from Spanish into English, Alma is inspired. In addition to playing matchmaker, Alma is determined to find the original Alma after whom she is named. Eventually, Alma figures out the true identity of Jacob Marcus, and the two stories slowly—very, very slowly—begin to merge.

And the ending? It's quite creative…but just as confusing as the rest of the novel. This is an incredibly sad story. Ultimately, it is about significant, irreparable loss—loss of loved ones, loss of dreams, loss of country, loss of what is rightfully one's own.

While this complex literary novel often left me perplexed, once I figured out the rhythm of the writing, characters, and plotlines, I enjoyed it. As the reader, you'll have to work a bit, but it's worth it if you appreciate imaginative and artistic literature that strives to be different than mainstream fiction.