All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I finished All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr this week. I sat for a long time after remembering some of the lyrical prose from this beautifully written story. Before we move on, let me indulge you with the prose I was allowing to roll around my head for a time.

 “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” 

“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?” 

 “His voice is low and soft, a piece of silk you might keep in a drawer and pull out only on rare occasions, just to feel it between your fingers.” 

 “I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.

It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.” 

This is a story about parallel lives of a boy and a girl in their teens living in two different countries, Germany and France during WW2. 

Marie Laure lives with her papa  in Paris, he is master of the keys in the Museum of Natural History. Marie Laure goes to the museum every day with him to learn everything she can by touching. Marie Laure is blind. 

Once the Germans were beginning to occupy Paris, Marie Laure and her papa flee to get as far away as they can. They head east. For two reasons, something that  Papa possessed and their survival. They end up in St. Malo. A city surrounded by sea walls at a distance North of  Normandy Beach. They move in with an agoraphobic elderly  uncle in a tall narrow house by the sea wall. 

Paralleling Marie Laure is Werner, he is a young German boy who loves to tinker with all kinds of things, he is gifted in turning  a smattering of materials into something that runs, like radios.  He lives in a loving but bleak orphanage with his sister, Jutta. He gets plucked up by  the Germans and sent to a barbaric  boarding school where life is hard. Werner grapples between the do or die patriotism and the rational words of his younger sister.

The reader goes back and forth  between the past and present to build up the story. It is not confusing or hard to keep up with. The story is a compelling one, a reader would not forget a single moment between the two main characters.

The book will surprise the reader in  many ways. It's a peripheral story of WW2, not unlike The Book Thief, however, both stories are vastly different.  It takes the reader into other ares that were affected devastatingly by the war but away from concentration camps, not that they are dismissed in any way. You feel the sadness and desperation of the people is quite the same even on the periphery.

One more thing:
The third character: St. Malo.
St Malo is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I suggest a Google search of its' entirety before you read the book.

Buy it.

Da Burds: A Tale of Birding, The Mob, and Redemption by John Hartmann

John Hartmann who wrote Jacket (my next review) as well as a couple of other books wrote this wonderful short book.. And it is very close to my heart. Living in Jersey, exposed to a book  about a  bird competition and the mob written by Hartmann with his keen sense of humor, well, that's a win-win for me!
And would be for anyone that liked the Sopranos which was sadly lacking birds. I think.

My exuberant review on Amazon and I meant this review with all my Jersey being!

5.0 out of 5 stars Da Burds: A Tale of Birding, The Mob and Redemption. A fine read! June 28, 2014

By Cheryl Musgrove

Verified Purchase

After watching the entire Sopranos series back to back last year, I am still grieving over not having it on my nightly viewing schedule. This novella gave me a slice of what I have been missing. Adding the world's largest birding competition in the mix, I felt it deserved a high score, due to Hartmann's creativity with mixing the two into a superb story.
A story I do not want to spoil for readers, I will be brief with the premise. Preston Brooks owes Tony "Screws" Cavalucci a lot of money. As we all know through fiction and non-fictional historical accounts, this is never good. Preston is one of the judges for the world's largest birding competition which may be his way out of leaving the world early for lack of payment to the mob. Tony forms a birding team and from there, family, redemption, mob talk and plenty of adventure ensue on their daring trip around NJ to find certain birds to win the competition.
Rich in descriptive New Jersey landscape, as well as enhanced by beautiful bird drawings by local artist, Thomas Baumann, this book has a story to tell and one would be remiss in passing it by. John Hartmann can weave a tale, making you want to don binoculars and search out every bird in New Jersey while waiting for his next story or book to come out. Well done, I give it five stars on creativity, story, character development, and inspiration.

Well done, John! 

The Dinner by Herman Koch

I read this book a while back during a stressful period in my life. So I was not paying attention to it until midway through. Then I locked my sights on it and am here to recommend it.

Housekeeping first:

1. The Dinner is a book that has been compared to Gone Girl and we need to stop right here.

It's nothing like Gone Girl.

The characters in The Dinner are far worse disordered.

Gone Girl has characters of loathsome qualities but there was a bit of a sympathy factor for them as the reader. (It was a very slight sympathy factor.) The books are two different stories.Both in high regard (unless you talk to a few of my book group members. I had to promise to read Harry Potter so they would at the very least, go see Gone Girl in the movies, they are a very loving but tough crowd.) 

we can talk about my blatant rebellion on not reading happy potter another day.

2.It also received the rap that it was "very disturbing" which I have to add, not so. I have read disturbing and this book scores a five out of ten in the very disturbing reads category. But we can also say disturbing can be subjective. I say it's a five.

The premise: Two brothers meet at an expensive restaurant to talk about Serge's career as possibly the next PM of the Netherlands. Babett and Claire, their wives, respectively, attend as they are a part of this family business that must be attended to. Paul, the other  brother,  is a man of many neurotic intensities and complexities.  They have business to discuss before Serge goes forth into his candidacy. 

This business is their sons who committed a violent act.

The entire book is over many dinner courses in the restaurant. They are allowed to venture off for walks or mental back stories to build up the story. Serge has a career to uphold and Paul is a curmudgeon who has a lot of violence boiling inside of him. They have a lot to go back to in memory that adds so much to the story. A good twist here and there, you won't be able to guess what is going to happen next.

Where does violence begin? How is it cultivated and cooked down to a fine mixture? 

You will have many questions.

It's a book that I have a bit of a hard time reviewing as I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. I downloaded the book after reading the premise and was transfixed with this very psychological, gastronomical, and violent story. It was written well, it was executed with brilliance in using a full meal/evening to tell this disturbing story. and I tend to like the whole "sit down for a whole drawn out meal while we go back and forth to get the end" story. 

Borrow it.

Or keep a check on Kindle for a low price, it has happened here and there. 

Ditching the Facebook app for reading

This is one of my photos from Fat Mum Slim's Photo of the Day Album.. The sad part was the first year I did FMS (when I took this photo) it was with a 3G iPhone. Many good photos killed by the furry 3G camera.

 I hope I can re-do this photo.  In fact, I have to leave Middlesex out as my husband was not amused that I wasn't "savvy" enough to pick up on the fact that Middlesex should be in the middle not near the bottom. He is right. 

On to the point..

I had to make a few decisions about my online life. It's very easy being out with a bum post-surgical foot to read all the book blogs I love, spend time on Facebook, Word Chums as well as other places I love to read. I will be going back to work at some point and I think I need some reading time. And blogger time.

I made some crazy changes (take a deep breath, I did these things, not you, it's okay.) 

I told my FB book group that I had to slow down on posting books. I planned to post a slew of books once during the week then once on the weekend. On the other days I will respond to their posts and such. I think I need to pull back a bit even though it is truly one of my best book ventures I have ever started..

Then....
I took Facebook off my phone.
I am FACEBOOKLESS when I am out.
Today was pretty good. I went out, took my Kindle and spent a good hour and a half reading.
I felt no pressure.
No temptations to reassure myself that the Facebook world and all my friends were intact and alive.
They are tough critters, they do not need me worrying all day right?

I thought, hmm if I want to have a book blog I really need to READ. 
No kidding, Cheryl.
So here we are. I have reviews I can catch up on old reads that may fill up some posts until I get my current three books completed.

That's my goings on.
See you this weekend.

Freckle Juice by Judy Blume

My daughter, C, has Cerebral Palsy. She is twenty but she loves to be read and she really loves to be read to. As far as her cognition goes, she's smart as a whip but has some varying degrees of memory loss among other things.This does not diminish story time.

We picked Freckle Juice by Judy  Blume the other morning. I read a chapter or two to her in the morning while my H gets things together for the day (I just had foot surgery.) I ask her questions after and she has been spot on with her answers. 

Andrew Marcus sits behind Nicky Lane who has a tremendous amount of freckles. The only way that Andrew can get freckles is by paying off the ever cunning Sharon, for fifty cents which is a lot to Andrew. But getting the "recipe" from Sharon is more important than his allowance, he really wants freckles.

After he gets the recipe, he concocts this incredibly .. (it made my stomach lurch like I was on a roller coaster) horrible drink and proceeded from there with a story so poignant you have to praise Blume once  again for reaching out to kids and making them feel better about .. pretty much anything that no one wants to talk about. 

Buy it! For all your kids and their friends. 

C's favorite character: Nicky Lane (boy with freckles)

Least favorite character: Andrew Marcus (probably because he drank the awful concoction that made him sick, she was not having any of that bad behavior.) 

Favorite part of the book: When Sharon pulled her frog faces.

Moral of the story: "I like freckles." 

And the time together is priceless, really. She's a cool kid and knows what she likes (see photo below, the glam sunglasses.)

 Photo taken by Cheryl

~I will be reviewing children's books as well~

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch

I was so happy to get this book in the mail. I could not wait for B and N to send it to me and when it arrived it was like Christmas! *note; I wrote this review in another blog in 2012

When is getting a book in the mail not like Christmas? 

Nina Sankovitch lost her sister who was 46, to bile duct cancer. Sankovitch then started a journey of being incredibly busy so she would forget all the bad things. Until she decided that memories are the most poignant part of moving on.

In this discovery and now self set upon journey, Sankovitch devoted herself to read a book a day for a year.  She reads books. From Tolstoy to Barberry to Buechner. Each book, whether it's your genre or not makes one yearn to go out and buy every author she reads.

There are constraints, after all, she has four boys and a husband and a very busy life, but she tackles this 365  book a day with much vigor. This becomes a life line to move through (not around) her grief of the loss of her beautiful sister, Anne-Marie.

Every day she devotes a day to a book. She writes about the book itself, which is wonderful  and she has a list at the end which is something to copy and tuck into your wallet or purse for future book shopping dates. I felt her grief through her stories with each book she read and I appreciated how she mixed the world of books in with her grief to carry on. 

Sankavitch also tells stories about her immigrant parents and World War II, her own life and happenings.  It is blistering honesty that makes one see books (she believes fiction is truth, so do I) as a way to connect to memories of all those around us in all situations to place balm on the wound of death with much truth.

Also, if you like to read about people who love books, you will find comfort, solace, and hope in her quest.  Her blog www.readallday.org/  is a great site to bookmark on your smart phone or tablet, as when you are in the bookstore you can manage the reviews easily ( she read almost every genre) and find the book you want from her list. 

She finds it incredulous that we still go on after death. And now I think she understands why.

Enjoy or just "heal" while you read this book while you have your own memories to explore.

I highly recommend this book. Buy it. You will treasure it forever.

A work in progress

I am working very hard on this new blog by watching YouTube clips on HOW TO WORK VERY HARD ON YOUR NEW BLOG. It's boring and truly, so completely over my head. I will manage though. I will probably have to hog-tie my husband to the computer chair to help me. But we shall prevail!

My goal is to keep things very simple. I like simple. And it seems to me that the more simple I want my blog the more Blogger makes it difficult. 

I am not kidding.

Bear with me, as it will all come together.

Thank you for being here, truly.

Book subject obsession

What's all this shame and agitated jabberwocky with  book subject obsessions? 

There's no shame in it, that's what.

I love certain subjects and buy all the books about that subject until I feel I have had enough of the same information. If a new book is published on said subject. I. Am. Done. It is mine to buy immediately. If it's a new conspiracy book  on that said subject then I. AM. REALLY. DONE.  I will buy the crap out of that book and read it in one sitting. Gnawing on a cheek. There's always blood after. 

 What brings us to that same subject time and time again? My mom loves Henry VIII. I am not sure after today, I mean, I did tell her he had really gross cellulitis, not to mention a bit brain damage from that infamous jostling accident. She said NO I said YEAH and on it went. Though in the end her love for the subject of all things Henry and his is octo wives is right up her alley and any book that is pumped out she is there. Donning a hat with a tiny white feather gracing the top. (I have gone too far on this, I know.) 

I asked my book group what their obsessions were and it was a lively discussion. Some felt a bit shamed about their choices but I told all of them, "I am yelling in my head NO,  stop feeling shame!!" (or something like that) It's okay to like a subject  that  feeds your curiosity. This is how we learn. This is how we jump genres. If you read fiction all the time and say you want to read everything Kardashian. Then get out there and buy up all the books, ALL THE BOOKS, I yell! Kim is even pumping out a new "Selfie" book. Seriously. You just entered the biography/autobiography genre, congratulations!

There is no shame in having a book subject fixation. I have several. As you can see in my photo of my book shelf, Princess Di reigns. I mean the woman reigns. And I could not fit in the huge coffee table books, plus several paperbacks about her as well, in the photo. And I just can't take a picture of books about my Di in my Kindle. That would be completely ridiculous.

I also love every Dominick Dunne book that he ever wrote. Rest in Peace my great high society murder-mystery-trial-fiction/non fiction-friend. You have made me so very happy for so many years. 

What else?
I read everything Laura IngallsWilder.

All Gretel Ehrlich's books. The Solace of Open Spaces. I will write about that this weekend.

I read one Ann Rule true crime book a year usually during the bleak months of winter.

And  I read one Elin Hilderbrand book during the sunny months summer.

and many many more obsessions rest on my shelves.

Never fear your curiosity, there's no shame in reading your obsession, or any book really. I mean the entire Mommy World brandished Fifty Shades of Grey like a Olympian Gymnast with a gold medal. It's all okay. Trust me.

Letting a book go and my first audio experience

There are periods in my life when I find a good book and can't seem to finish not because I don't like it but due to the fact that life is too busy for a book that deals with a mix of past, present, and future with a lot of different men with crazy names. This is one of those books in one of those times in my life. So I am putting it on hiatus and will get back to it another time. It is very good though. Just not now.

Here is what I am doing right now.:

My friend, Robin, is the audio book champion of our book group on FB. Never really interested in anything audible I brought up this idea to my husband who said to me with great gusto, let's do it. He has been wanting me to read this book, and the rest of the trilogy for ages. I said with tentative gusto, why not? We bought it and popped it on the Kindle Fire and sat back for a listen. And here is what I experienced the first time listening:

• I was nervous. How could anyone read that much and not slurp or sneeze or stutter or stammer. I need to know who these readers are. It's a part of the book world I do not know. I did not belong in that world and now I have a toe in that pond and need some information on how these readers do it.
• I had some mirth go through me when the reader was reading the female characters. After a chapter or two he was somewhat adept I was satisfied. I heard that other books have men and women reading back and forth, I am so not sure on that just yet. I may stick to the lone reader making things up with their  own "voices."
• He has a lovely voice, this reader. The kind that could lull you into a coma for five years. Do not take a sedative before you tackle this audio book.
• I knew I could not have read Neuromancer all by myself. I needed this help. I needed my husband to explain a few things as well as me needing the book to come alive. It's just one of those books. I needed it to be more real .. in voice..than in my lap reading silently turning the pages. 
• William Gibson is a genius. The book is genius. 
• I will go back for more audio books in the future. I think that this is a one of the best ideas anyone ever had and I DID NOT KNOW! 
• AND I can Pin while listening. I almost wish I knew how to knit.
• Plus it's great for your relationship, our coffee breaks are filled with much more chatter than ever before. Highly recommended.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Susan Hill is one of my most beloved authors, I have a couple of other books penned by her on my to be reviewed list. 

The Woman in Black is a story about a young solicitor, Mr. Arthur Kipps, that is sent out by his superior to finalize Alice Drablow estate after her death. Eel Marsh House, where Mrs. Drablow lived, is out past the moors on a causeway alone in it's own ghostly world. The contentious villagers shy away from talk of the woman that lived there and the mystery behind it. Mr. Kipps finds a villager to take him to the edge of the causeway so he can get inside and gather all the paper work despite the sly words to the wise. He has a job to do.

What happens next is terrifying.

Children crying and screaming, flashes of movement in the woods and faces appearing in windows make for those rare incidences where I wanted to close the book and say, "Okay, they all lived happily ever after, I am so done with this." But it's too good to pass up. You have to know what happens to Mr. Kipps and the woman in black. 

Terror and death enters the village while Mr. Kipps tries formidably to solve this nightmare as  quickly as he can before another child dies.  

His night at Eel Marsh House is a harrowing one not just for him but for the reader, I knew that this was going to be a heart pounding ride. And it was the suspension of disbelief, my own,  that rocked the house on this one. (no pun intended)

Rating: Buy it

Published: 2001

Going through Netflix for the millionth time with my H,  I saw a flash (how ghostly) of The Woman in Black. I  yelled STOP!!!! ADD THAT TO OUR LIST! He did and we watched this moody, chilling horror movie last night.  It was like the director stepped into my head  when I had read this a while back,  saw my own imaginative brain  images and took a video camera to it. Outstanding atmosphere. Creepy, but outstanding.

 Daniel Radcliffe was perfect as the formidable Mr. Kipps.They stuck to the story like glue leaving out a few things but in the end you will feel like you watched one of the best ghost movies in a long time.

Rating: Rent it, Stream it. Go. Now. 

TBR find today

I found this on a book blogger's site. She had listed it as one of the best books of 2014. Here is the synopsis from Goodreads: 

 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143785-be-safe-i-love-you

"Lauren Clay has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq just in time to spend the holidays with her family. Before she enlisted, Lauren, a classically trained singer, and her brother Danny, a bright young boy obsessed with Arctic exploration, made the most of their modest circumstances, escaping into their imaginations and forming an indestructible bond. Joining the army allowed Lauren to continue to provide for her family, but it came at a great cost.

When she arrives home unexpectedly, it's clear to everyone in their rural New York town that something is wrong. But her father is so happy to have her home that he ignores her odd behavior and the repeated phone calls from an army psychologist. He wants to give Lauren time and space to acclimate to civilian life.

Things seem better when Lauren offers to take Danny on a trip to visit their mother upstate. Instead, she guides them into the glacial woods of Canada on a quest to visit the Jeanne d'Arc basin, the site of an oil field that has become her strange obsession. As they set up camp in an abandoned hunting lodge, Lauren believes she's teaching Danny survival skills for the day when she's no longer able to take care of him.

But where does she think she's going, and what happened to her in Iraq that set her on this path? Be Safe I Love You is a novel about war and homecoming, love and duty, and an impassioned look at the effects of war on women, as soldiers and caregivers, both at home and on the front lines."
Hardcover, 289 pages
Published April 1st 2014 by Simon & Schuster

Can't wait to read this one!