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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 – 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 – A Discovery of Witches

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A Discovery of Witches

By Deborah Harkness

Viking

ISBN: 9780670002241-0

5 stars

Diana Bishop is from one of the most powerful witch families known to exist and she may be one of the family’s most powerful witches ever, but she goes out of her way not to practice magic. She’s become a well-known scholar in the fields of history and science, in particular the intersection of science and witchcraft, and while she might not practice magic intentionally, she’s aware of it all around her. While doing research in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, Diana recalls a manuscript — Ashmole 782 — which has been considered lost for the last 150 years. Finding it bound by a spell, she breaks it unknowingly, and once the book is open, she can’t say why but something about it is all wrong. Slightly shaken by her discovery and the magic, Diana sends the book back to the stacks bothered by its contents and the influx of witches, daemons, and vampires that have suddenly gathered in her vicinity. Unsettled by what she’s seen, Diana leaves the library and plans to forget the book and hopes that the attention from the other creatures will fade too.

Matthew Clairmont is a pioneering researcher known for his work in the genetics field. He’s also a vampire looking for a way to get his hands on the Ashmole 782 manuscript and he thinks he may have found that way through Diana. What Matthew doesn’t expect is to fall in love with her in the process of looking for the book. Diana is an enigma to him — not only does she appeal to him both intellectually and physically but he stuns even himself when he can’t walk away from her even when he should.

Diana and Matthew find themselves in an unorthodox relationship, and because of it, are being hunted by the Congregation, a group of witches, daemons, and vampires that rule the world of creatures. Diana and Matthew find themselves in danger from not just from the discovery of Ashmole 782 but also their growing relationship. Knowing Diana will never be able to defend herself without knowledge of and control over her powers, Matthew convinces her they must go to her family for help.  Safe with Diana’s family of witches they try to understand what her connection is to the manuscript and why every vampire, witch, and daemon is after it.

I love books about books and throw in witches, daemons, and vampires and it appears I become very easy to please. Harkness throws a lot into the story — witchcraft, love, vampires, daemons, secret covens, lost spell-bounds books — but she makes it all work and very smoothly at that. It works thanks to the characters. Diana and Matthew are more than just witch and vampire and it’s about more than spells and bloodlust. While I’m not always a huge fan of love stories mixed with fantasy stories, it works very well here and manages to become the story without overwhelming it.

Matthew’s history combined with Diana’s research, lend the story a fantastic scope that spans generations but the science Harkness infuses into the story grounds it so it never feels as if it goes off on a strange tangent. There are explanations for the witchcraft as well as background for the hidden lives of the creatures (witches, vampires, daemons, and humans) that make the story feel less fantastic and more realistic. Well, as close as one can get to real in a story about creatures that don’t exist.

A Discovery of Witches is the first book in the All Souls Trilogy.  I for one will be waiting anxiously for the next two books in the 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 – The Tudor Secret

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The Tudor Secret

By C.W. Gortner

St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN: 978031265850-2

4 stars

A few years back, I overdosed on Tudor fiction but in the last few months I’ve been craving the drama, court intrigue, and ever present bedroom battles that come along with Henry VIII and his wives. What I liked about The Tudor Secret was that it wasn’t told from the perspective of the royal household, but from a 20 year-old with a blank past who is unceremoniously thrown into court life with the intent of letting it devour him.

Brendan Prescott knows nothing of his past other than he was abandoned as a baby and Mistress Alice, a woman who worked as a maid for the wealthy Dudley household, raised him. A child with no background or family, he knows only too well his lowly place in the household and society at-large. His hopes rise no higher than someday being a squire or a steward and even those positions don’t hold much interest for him. He would rather spend his days in the barn with the horses. When he is called to court by Lady Dudley to be a squire to her oldest son, Robert, his hopes of a peaceful life among horses are forgotten.

Knowing nothing of court life and with no one willing to teach him, he’s left alone among the court sharks looking to use him for their own gain, his Master Robert included. Robert promptly engages Brendan in court escapades that involve setting up a liaison with the Princess Elizabeth with whom he is in love. Brendan manages to find the Princess and deliver the message but he slowly begins to understand that nothing about court life is ever secret. Pulled unwillingly into a spy ring, Brendan becomes privy to the lives of his masters in ways he never imagined and ends up a double agent working not only for Master Robert but also to keep Princess Elizabeth safe and help her sister, Mary, to become Queen.

It is Brendan’s past though that keeps him involved long after he wants nothing more than to walk away. He wants to know who abandoned him that night so long ago but his real concern is for the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. They are targets of people who want nothing more than to overthrow Mary and Elizabeth and convince their brother Edward that neither are true heirs to the throne.

Court intrigue and espionage are always terms that are mandatory when talking about the Tudors. The spying, backstabbing, and face-to-face pleasantries while secretly whispering lies behind a person’s back are well-known traits of this family and the court they created. It’s also what makes them all so much fun to read about. The fodder they have provided for future generations is enormous and I think that’s why, while I might need a break to recover from the tension of crown politics, I never entirely tire of the Tudors. Gortner zeroes in on this tension and the moment that Brendan arrives at court, he starts to ramp it up making you turn pages wanting to desperately know what comes next. Telling the story from an outsider’s point of view also makes the character of Elizabeth much more interesting. She’s well-known but an enigma to Brendan which adds freshness to a character that can feel stiff and sometimes a little standoffish.

Covering about two weeks worth of time, the story does feel a bit forced in places though and in particular Brendan who while understanding nothing of the Tudor court, manages to become involved and an integral part of a spy ring. He blunders too much in the beginning and to see him mature so quickly and in a mere matter of days, feels unlikely. But, he’s somehow still very likable and that’s what makes it work. He doesn’t immediately grasp the implications of every move made at court and that sets him apart from the others and you can’t help but side with him. If you’re looking for a book that will pull you back into the Tudor’s, this one’s a good choice.

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.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

I’m only a few pages in to The Tudor Secret by C.W. Gortner but it’s proving interesting and slightly amusing.

“Though Guilford had been at court for over three years, presumably engaged in more than the satiation of his vices, he got us lost within a matter of seconds.  I imagined being discovered centuries later, two skeletons with my hands locked about his throat, and took it upon myself to ask for directions.”  (pg. 32)

The Distant Hours

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The Distant Hours

By Kate Morton

Atria Books

ISBN: 978-1-4391-5278-2

4 stars

Kate Morton is a new to me author.  I’ve read some mixed things about her books, and about half way through The Distant Hours, I felt I understood some of those reviews.  In the end, I did enjoy it with the exception of one odd thing that left me wondering which I’ll explain later.

Edie Burchill’s mother never cries so when a letter arrives that leaves her mother in tears, Edie wonders, almost obsessively, what was in the letter.  She finds out, after a lot of questioning, that her mother was a child evacuee during WWII.  Her mother, Meredith, was relocated from London to Milderhurst Castle in the deep countryside and found a life there she never imaged possible.  Unfortunately, it was also during this time that her greatest heartache occurred.  Edie finds herself researching the Castle and its three spinster sisters, Percy, Saffy, and Juniper, with the hope that she’ll be able to understand her mother better.  What she finds is a mystery neatly wrapped up in the pages of a children’s book.

A lot goes on in The Distant Hours but it all happens very slowly.  Morton takes her time un-wrapping the story which in some ways can be infuriating and at other moments it’s lovely.  Her writing style lends itself to long, meandering stories which The Distant Hours definitely is.  I liked that Edie was in publishing and had a deep appreciation for words and books.  It made her research and reading, which she does a lot of, fit seamlessly in but as you can imagine, it doesn’t offer a lot of action.  The story didn’t feel slow so much as weighty though and this book is over 500 pages so it’s a literal and figurative heaviness.

So what left me with an odd feeling?  Everything is this book comes to some sort of conclusion.  Every mystery, every thought, every wonder that Edie had about her mother’s life, the sisters of Milderhurst Castle, all find a neat ending.  I’m not opposed to tidy endings but I wasn’t left wondering at all — about anything.  Honestly, I think I would have liked the book more if some of my questions weren’t answered.  Even some of the peripheral sub-plots were tied up.  I almost felt a little ripped-off because I didn’t get the chance to wonder how certain things turned out — Morton told me everything.

But you’ll notice I still gave this book a rather high rating.  I did that because I enjoyed Morton’s writing and I did find myself at times unable to put the book down.  Parts of the story are wonderfully hypnotic, especially those that take place at the castle.  The sisters’ story is sad, almost as decrepit as the castle itself, and yet romantic.  The story is about love lost and love found.  It’s also about endurance (which is handy when reading a book of this size).  For these reasons, I enjoyed it.

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

The Sunday Salon

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We had visitors this weekend so not much reading was done. I did get in a few chapters here and there but mostly it was filled with football games and touristy things.

In the last week, I finished The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, The Exile by Diana Gabaldon, and started Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling so even if I didn’t get to read this weekend, it was still a good week overall.

I don’t have much to say today which is probably due to the lack of sleep I’ve had the last few nights.  Even the nap this afternoon didn’t help so I’ll be making this a very short salon today.  I was planning to talk about cleaning off the bookshelves or maybe even holiday reading but I don’t have it in me today.  🙂

Happy Sunday.