Review

Review – Emily and Einstein

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Emily and Einstein

By Linda Frances Lee

St. Martin’s Press

ISBN: 9780312382186

4 stars

Emily Barlow is an editor at a small, New York publisher and she loves her job. She’s dedicated to her authors, her publishing house, and her husband. Her husband, Sandy Portman, is, however, not so dedicated to their life together. After two years of marriage, Sandy wants a divorce. On the night he plans to drop his ultimatum, he dies in a car accident caused by a small dog outside of the animal hospital where Emily volunteers. Refusing to believe he could be dead — nothing happens to Sandy Portman he doesn’t want to happen — he strikes a deal with the old man who comes to take him away into the nothingness. He can go back but he must help Emily. Sandy, wanting nothing more than to go back and believing he will eventually return to his own body, takes the deal and finds himself in the body of a scraggly, ugly dog named Einstein.

Insulating herself in a bubble of grief and disbelief, Emily makes it through the funeral in a fog waiting for Sandy to walk through the door and for the nightmare that has become her life to end. She stops by the animal hospital to check on the dog Einstein she spent her last bit of savings to rescue, and in a fit of grief, she takes the dog home and attempts to make a life without Sandy. Unfortunately, nothing is simple for Emily. Her job security crumbles in front of her eyes, her former mother-in-law wants to evict her from the apartment she shared with Sandy, and her sister, who has a tentative grip on reality, shows up on her doorstep needing a place to stay and money. For a few weeks, the only thing that tethers Emily to life is the dog Einstein and even he seems not to care too much for her at first. Months pass before Emily can find her footing again, and in the process of understanding who she is and what a sham her marriage was, she begins to understand a mother and a sister she always thought too distant and different, finds out she can still love, and family is not always so worrisome.

While Emily is a likable, if grief stricken character, Sandy is not. He’s loathsome as a person — cheating on his wife, running away from any bit of difficulty in life, and throwing money at everything — and when he becomes Einstein (don’t worry this happens very early in the book, no spoilers) you revel in the fact he’s now an ugly dog. He’s still arrogant, believes himself the one scorned, and even though he was not a great husband to Emily, the divorce he wanted was really her fault in the end. Sandy reneged on promises he made to her, like deeding Emily the apartment so his mother couldn’t evict her, and was the type of person you feel sorry for and disgusted by at the same time. He was so wrapped up in who he was he never even took a moment to look at the woman he married. As Einstein, he comes to appreciate Emily; more than he ever did as a man.

I will admit up front this book is out of my normal genre range but I will also admit to enjoying it quite a lot. One thing you need to keep in mind is that this is a book about second chances and pretty much everyone gets that second chance here but if you’re willing to look past a small bit of predictability, Emily and Einstein is a fun read. There are several stories that intermingle and while I would have liked to have learned more about certain characters and their pasts, you don’t really get that but you get enough to know who the people are and appreciate the role they play in Emily’s life. She grows in the course of grieving for her husband and while it doesn’t seem much at first, the new life she creates for herself surprises even her. It’s a feel good story and there’s nothing wrong with that. Also, I’m a sucker for any story that has a lovable, if ugly, dog in it. Einstein plays the part well. If you’re looking for a fun Saturday afternoon read, Emily and Einstein is that book.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Review – Twice a Spy

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Twice a Spy

By Keith Thomson

Doubleday

ISBN: 978-0-385-530-79-8

3.75 stars

I can be a sucker for a thriller/spy novel and when I was contacted about reviewing this one, I agreed.  It has been a good minute since I read a book like this and I do try to step out of my comfort zone when possible.

Charlie Clark is a gambler, a wiz with math but he still can’t win with the horses, so he goes on the run with his girlfriend Alice, who just happens to a NSA agent, and his father Drummond Clark who in fact was a spy but is now suffering from Alzheimer’s.  The interesting thing about Drummond is that when necessary, he can recall his old spy skills which help them get out of a few situations that would have left anyone but Drummond Clark dead.  In Twice a Spy, the plot revolves around a washing machine which is actually a nuclear bomb and a group of terrorists trying to get their hands on it.

This is the second book in an obvious much larger series waiting to happen.  I didn’t read Once a Spy, the precursor, so at times I did feel slightly lost but not because of the story which is easy enough to follow but because I didn’t feel as though I knew these characters well enough.  There’s an interesting camaraderie going on between Charlie and his father but I felt there might have been more about that in the first book.  It transferred well enough but since I’m the type of person that likes to read books in order, it could very well have been my sub-conscience being annoyed at me for not reading the first.

Drummond is a particularly interesting character though and I enjoyed seeing him pull up spy tactics as if he were watching a movie.  The plot, while there, is thin but that’s all right.  It’s a book about terrorist and a bomb so it has all the elements and it moves.  And I mean it moves fast.  The chapters are short.  Dialogue is short.  It’s pretty much non-stop action which is what you expect in a book of this nature.  I don’t know if it’s a series I would continue with, but I thought this installment was a good fast read.

This book was sent to me by the publisher for review.

 

Review – Madame Tussaud

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Madame Tussaud

By Michelle Moran

Crown Publishers

ISBN: 978-0-307-58865-4

4.5 stars

Michelle Moran crept up my list of favorite authors with The Heretic Queen and I very much enjoyed Nefertiti and Cleopatra’s Daughter.  When I heard she would be writing about the French Revolution I’m sure I screamed with joy.  Knowing how well she handled Egypt, I had all the faith in the world she would do Marie Antoinette’s France proud.

Maria Grosholtz is a wax sculptor living and working in her family’s small museum.  Marie is extraordinarily talented when it comes to creating lifelike models of people, including the aristocracy, and her skills are in demand from well to-do patrons who want to see themselves immortalized.  Her family has always considered their work to be a means for the public to look at and admire not just royalty but the newsmakers of their day which included Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson among the long list of French men and women making a name for themselves through good works or bedroom antics.  When whisperings of the Revolution begin she worries about business, and when the full out assault on the King and Queen begins, she does her best to stay afloat in business and keep her head attached to her neck in a time when everyone is being beheaded.

Before becoming Madame Tussaud, Marie was a woman tied to her business and because of that she lets the love of her life escape France without her.  The emotional outpouring she has in that moment is the reason I enjoy Moran’s books so much.  She takes someone we know and re-creates that person in a way that makes you unable to put the book down.  In this case, it helped so much was going on in the background too — it kept me wondering who was going to walk through the door of the wax museum next and whether or not Marie would be off to once more create a plaster impression of a newly beheaded traitor to the Revolution.  She found the work disgusting but wanting to keep her family safe, agrees to do it anyway.  In some ways she becomes a bit of a walking zombie torn between her work and sad life she lives during her country’s darkest days.  (In real life, I think this may have been exactly the opposite because from what little I know, Madame Tussaud was supposedly quite the show person when it came to her work.  But don’t quote me on that, I haven’t confirmed it with the internets as of this writing.)

I have a soft spot for books set in this time frame and I think it has much to do with the fact that I have a not so secret desire to visit France.  I want to walk the halls of the Palace of Versailles and be awed by the sheer number of mirrors, experience the gardens, and stroll the Champs-Elysees.  Madame Tussaud was a satisfying little diversion for the France trip dream and if you’re new to Michelle Moran’s work, I’d recommend this one.  She does a good job creating a fantastic corner of France during the Revolution.

 

Review – Autumn: The City

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Autumn: The City

By David Moody

St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN: 9780312570002

4 stars

Donna Yorke is reporting for the early shift at her office when her colleague is overcome by a strange coughing fit that quickly turns into a bloody, choking convulsion killing her in minutes. After trying unsuccessfully to help several colleagues and friends in the office experiencing the same symptoms, she moves the bodies to a far off section of the office not wanting to look at her dead co-workers. Afraid to leave not knowing what she’ll face outside, Donna gathers supplies and holds up in her small office with a sleeping bag, some snacks from the vending machine, and a flashlight to ward off the dark.

On the other side of the city, Jack Baxter is hiding in his home when he makes the fateful decision to leave his refuge in the hope of finding other survivors. He finds one; a young girl named Clare who lost her parents to the disease. Together they make their way into the city center and after spending a comfortable night in a department store, they make a gruesome discovery — the corpses are moving around, awkwardly, but they’re moving on their own. When Jack and Clare hear a car they track it down hoping to find others like themselves. Not only do they find two survivors but are told there is a group of about fifty people living at the local university.

The university has become a beacon for not only survivors but the dead who surround the place. Drawn to the living, the re-animated corpses flock to the university, and at first are calm almost unaware of the living walking among them but that soon changes. In a few short days, the rather sedate corpses become violent, attacking survivors venturing out and stalking out places where the living are congregating.

Soon after, a soldier left behind after a failed mission into the city joins up with the university group. Knowing food supplies are running low, a decision is made by the survivors to make their way to the military base in the hope of finding supplies and other survivors. What they don’t count on is how the dead will react to the plan.

I wasn’t sure if I should refer to this book as apocalypse or zombie fiction. As far as the survivors are concerned, it’s the end of the world they knew. Then again, it’s also a story full of the walking dead; although I was appreciative of the fact Moody doesn’t mention the word zombie anywhere in the book. Reminding me of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, Moody manages to evoke a loneliness that feels surprising real slowly introducing us to each survivor along the way. One thing he doesn’t do is get bogged down in details and in a way it’s refreshing. Why should I know what’s going on when none of the survivors do? Some might find that annoying but in this book, I enjoyed the sense of lawlessness and the unknown Moody created and he didn’t deviate which can be so tempting in a story like this one. Leaving the reader with very little knowledge made it interesting to imagine what would have caused the metamorphosis.

This isn’t a book for everyone. While it’s not gross or disgusting, quite restrained actually, it’s not something you read at lunch either. And it does have a few scenes that reminded me of a popular zombie movie but if you’re willing to look past those small bits, Autumn: The City is a fast and entertaining read.

Autumn: The City is the second book in the Autumn series.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Review – Fathom

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Fathom

By Cherie Priest

TOR

ISBN: 0-7653-1840-7

3.5 stars

Over the past months and probably years if I’m honest, I’ve read some good things about Cherie Priest’s books (Boneshaker and Four and Twenty Blackbirds come to mind) so when browsing the library for something new, I stumbled upon Priest’s Fathom and decided immediately it should come home with me.  I liked this book well enough but I don’t know how to classify it — it was surely fantasy, felt a little like a fairy-tale re-telling of a few mashed up stories, and then a story about sleeping gods.

Arahab waits in the water for the right moment.  Waiting for a foot to dip in or a body to be thrown overboard so she can find her next pet child to mold into the beast she needs to wake the Leviathan.  She finds her next child in Beatrice a spoiled teenager, murderer, and genuinely wicked person.  Her cousin Nia would have been a better capture for Arahab but it was Beatrice she caught.  Nia, lured into the water as a means of escaping Beatrice on a murderous rampage, runs from Arahab and believes she has escaped until she realizes she’s been turned to stone.  While the beast that made Nia waits for her to awaken, the gods begin to play their own games.

Priest created a strange little world to drop Nia and Beatrice into.  Toyed with by gods in the hope these two mortals will do their bidding, they are surprised by the strength the mere humans possess.  Nia and Beatrice defy both gods that created them in ways the gods never imagined.  The roles they played were interesting even if they were being used as a means to show how the gods have fallen.  What I really wanted though was background.  In some books I’m good with nothing — drop me in and I’ll learn as I go.  Other times, I want ropes.  This time I wanted ropes.  Not because the story was hard to follow, it wasn’t at all, but because I felt I was missing vital information that would have made me love it more.  We know no more of the gods than Nia and Beatrice which is fine and understandable, but I wanted more and that I think is my hang-up.

Would I recommend it?  Yes, to someone who is OK with being dropped in to a story.  If you are, then all good.  Read it because it’s a good book.  I was slightly disappointed with it though but still found it well done.  I’ve been seeing a lot of talk (or maybe it’s only me looking for something specific) about Four and Twenty Blackbirds.  When I get through the stack of towering books threatening to fall off my desk and dent my floor, I’ll be on a hunt for it.

Review – Rebecca

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Rebecca

By Daphne Du Maurier

Doubleday

ISBN: 0-385-04380-5

5 stars

My first foray into Daphne du Maurier’s writing was last year with The House on the Stand which I truly and utterly loved.  I heard wonderful things about Rebecca and decided that it would be my second du Maurier book.  I’m asking forgiveness up front for all the gushing that will now be hurled at you because I loved this book so very much.

Rebecca has been dead for months when Maxim de Winter meets his second wife in Monte Carlo.  She’s training as a companion to a bitter, slightly haggard, older lady with no sense of class.  When her companion comes down with the flu, she begins spending all her free time with Maxim.  After a short and rather brusque courtship, she agrees to marry him and arrives at Manderely, his ancestral home in England, as the new Mrs. De Winter and is quickly overshadowed by the dead Rebecca.  She is shy and makes constant mistakes attempting to live up to the standards of the dead Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers, a completely domineering housekeeper who is still loyal to Rebecca, scares her but only wanting to make her new husband happy, she listens to the advice of Mrs. Danvers to her own determent.  Overwhelmed by her new life and the fancy dress ball she was talked into having to celebrate her new marriage, Mrs. De Winter  dresses up as an ancestor of Maxim’s not knowing Rebecca also wore the same outfit at the last ball held at the hall before her death.  Maxim barely recovers from the shock and smiles kindly through the whole evening but avoids his wife.  Fearing she has ruined her marriage, Mrs. de Winter plays the part of happy wife until the morning when she can take no more and decides to confront her husband.  Unfortunately, her plans change when a ship smashes into the rocks offshore from Manderley, and during the rescue, Rebecca’s small boat is found with a body inside.  It is then she finds out the secret her husband has been hiding from everyone.

This story is told as a flashback with Mrs. de Winter looking back on, and almost bemoaning her short but very vivid life at Manderley.  Mrs. de Winter and her husband are obviously living abroad and no longer at Manderly but her reminiscing makes it clear she misses the place and feels some remorse for not only her actions, and inactions as well, but also for the happiness she feels she and her husband could have had there.  In many ways it’s sad: the missing of a home, of a life missed, of a life not lived, of a life wished for and cruelly taken away.  Mrs. de Winter was not born to the life she married into.  She had no money and no hopes for a life better than the odd one she seemed destined to live as a companion to older women.  Becoming the wife of a powerful man is almost more than she can handle.  With no experience with servants, money, or appearances she worries about embarrassing her husband, saying the wrong thing, and having him leave her.  Their relationship is strange and strained.  Maxim is standoffish and you are left wondering if he really does love his new wife or if he married simply to escape loneliness which is hinted at by Mrs. Danvers and feeds on the fears of the new Mrs. de Winter.  When he finally opens up to her about his marriage to Rebecca you feel as though you understand what has made him they way he is.  Unfortunately, his secret is not one most would live with and their relationship takes one more step into the almost absurd.

I loved delving into the marriage of these two strangers and their life.  I was fascinated by the way du Maurier pulled me deeper and deeper into the psyche of Mrs. de Winter.  For as a humble and shy as she was, she could also be strong (steadfast is probably better).  She grows up suddenly in a span of 12 hours realizing the mistakes she made were out of fear and nothing more.  Using that fear, she finds her voice only to be taken aback knowing she understands so little about the man she calls her husband.

Characters are my thing.  (As a side note, the pacing is slow but the language is phenomenal and worth the build up. When all finally happens, you’ll be breathless.  This is a psychological story rather than an action one.)  The creation of Mrs. Danvers is a piece of art.  Cruel, loyal, and belittling, she is a person not to mess with and you hate her and are just as scared of her as Mrs. de Winter.  She appears out of nowhere, creeps down hallways, always dressed in black like a specter moving through Manderley.  Amazing.  I won’t say more; I don’t want to ruin her.

There is, I’m certain, much more to this book and in many ways when I read books such as this that are loved and well-known, I feel at odds.  I can’t imagine I’ve added anything of interest to a topic I have come to late so I will end with this — if you can, read this book.  You will be rewarded.

 

Review – A Conspiracy of Kings

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A Conspiracy of Kings

By Megan Whalen Turner

Greenwillow Books

ISBN: 9780061870934

4 stars

A Conspiracy of Kings in the fourth book in The Thief series.  I don’t know that I loved this one, which is supposedly the final book in the series, as much as the previous three, but I did enjoy it.

Sophos of Sounis is more concerned with complaining about his tutor than with the fact that he may one day be the King of Sounis.  When his father’s villa is attacked, he gets the chance to figure out whether or not he has what it takes to be King of Sounis.

I missed Sophos in the last two books.  He’s a likable character in The Thief but here, well, I wanted to slap him and yell at him to grow up.  He’s going to be King, let’s face it, you know he is, and his land is at war and all he can think to do is whine about the tutor he can’t stand because he thinks he’s smarter than him.  And while that might be true, it just shows you how childish he is.  When he finds himself a slave in one of his father’s Barons’ household, he thinks about staying there because it’s easier to let someone else make decisions which made me wonder why I liked him in the first place.  But then he finds out there’s more to him than even he thought and the rest flowed, although I did miss Gen, the King of Attolia and the former Thief of Eddis, in this book.  Gen was a whiner too but there was something still so likable about him because you knew he was doing it to hide something.  Sophos just whined.  This one is all about Sophos and while he’s good, he’s no Gen.

I’m slightly annoyed though.  It did end on a good wrap-up note but I feel there is still more and I don’t know if another book is planned — must Google!  Otherwise, it has been a satisfying series and I recommend it.

Review – Savage Kingdom

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Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America

By Benjamin Woolley

HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 978006009056-2

3 stars

Savage Kingdom is a recounting of the settlement of Jamestown, in particular, the people who led the enterprise and took on the challenge of settling a land they knew nothing about.  It follows their journey in a landscape completely alien to them with inhabitants they can’t control, and in the end, threaten to destroy.

The book is very broad in its scope.  It covers the goings on in England, John Smith’s explorations into Native American territories, the Jamestown settlement, the settlements in New England, the Spanish, Spanish America, and the monarchy’s involvement and interest in the Jamestown settlement.  Sometimes I felt it was too inclusive.  It wasn’t narrowed down and was more like a semester lecture and general overview of the world at the time instead of being sharply focused on the settlement.

I did enjoy the Native American interactions with the settlers though.  John Smith’s adventures, trading, crowing of Powhatan, fighting, etc. provided interesting insights into how and where it all failed; it’s more than just a general misunderstanding brought about by a language barrier.  Englishman with no ability to survive in the wilderness and with very meager survival skills were expecting the Native American tribes to feed them and became dumbfounded when it didn’t happen.  They were so arrogant in assuming the land was theirs for the taking and truly believed someone would care for them.

Savage Kingdom was a frustrating book for me because you see all the faults and in many ways the problems inherent in the system.  I wanted to really enjoy this book but I didn’t and I think it was due to the fact that I read another book on the subject last year and I felt I had already read some of this.  It doesn’t make it bad, just not for me.  It was well researched but I couldn’t get into it.