Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

By: Helen Simonson

Pub. Date: March 2010

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Format: Hardcover , 358pp

ISBN-13: 9781400068937

ISBN: 1400068932

Source: Library Copy

Synopsis:

Written with a delightfully dry sense of humour and the wisdom of a born storyteller, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand explores the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of family obligation and tradition.

When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but will he be forced to choose between the place he calls home and a future with Mrs. Ali?

My Review:

 

I loved the writing in Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. The story progressed slowly.. but not so that it was boring, more that it flowed along at its own pace. I think the writing and progression match the characters and their narrative about the changes going on in their town and lives.

Major Pettigrew is a 68 year old widower who has steady lifestyle and habits that keep his life rather calm and predictable. One day, though, he meets the 58 year old  Pakistani, widowed shopkeeper in his village. As Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali begin talking, they discover their shared interest in poetry. Their friendship blossoms very slowly and tentatively as neither want to upset the balance in their lives, especially Major Pettigrew. The story line is rather simple, but it's written so that the reader really cares for Major Pettigrew and wants him to find happiness in his life.

I really enjoyed this book as I watched Major Pettigrew, an elderly man, take charge of his life again and begin really living. It was a sweet and entertaining story. I also really liked the cover of the book :)

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell

Claude & Camille

By: Stephanie Cowell

Pub. Date: April 2011

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Format: Paperback, 330pp  

ISBN-13: 9780307463227

ISBN: 0307463222

Source: Library copy

Synopsis:

Sometimes he dreamt he held her; that he would turn in bed and she would be there. But she was gone and he was old. Nearly seventy. Only cool paint met his fingers. “Ma très chère . . .” Darkness started to fall, dimming the paintings. He felt the crumpled letter in his pocket. “I loved you so,” he said. “I never would have had it turn out as it did. You were with all of us when we began, you gave us courage. These gardens at Giverny are for you but I’m old and you’re forever young and will never see them. . . .”

In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his father’s nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his father’s will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.

But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet – a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. But even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time.

His muse, his best friend, his passionate lover, and the mother to his two children, Camille stayed with Monet—and believed in his work—even as they lived in wretched rooms, were sometimes kicked out of those, and often suffered the indignities of destitution. She comforted him during his frequent emotional torments, even when he would leave her for long periods to go off on his own to paint in the countryside.

But Camille had her own demons – secrets that Monet could never penetrate, including one that when eventually revealed would pain him so deeply that he would never fully recover from its impact. For though Camille never once stopped loving the painter with her entire being, she was not immune to the loneliness that often came with being his partner.

A vividly-rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of the artist at the center of the movement, Claude and Camille is above all a love story of the highest romantic order. (Image and synopsis from goodreads.com)

My Review:

Claude & Camille is the story of young Claude Monet, the famous impressionist painter. First, I'd like to say that while I would not consider myself that knowledgeable about art, Monet is my favorite artist and Impressionism my favorite style. I love the Impressionist gallery in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Monet, along with his friends Bazille, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Pissarro, and Cezanne, are poor starving artists. They believe in their artistic vision even though no one else is the least bit interested in their work. They are considered too modern and are often turned down at the yearly Salon art exhibit in Paris. Many of them have left their families and potentially stable futures in pursuit of the ever unstable world of art.

Along the way, Claude Monet meets Camille Doncieux, a privileged girl already expecting a proposal from a  well-to do gentleman. Claude and Camille throw caution to the wind and fall in love with each other and move in together. This book shows their relationship and how two people who truly care for each other can still go through both good times and bad times. Their bad times are often compounded by their continual lack of money, Claude's artistic depressive episodes, and Camille's manic-depressive disorder (although never diagnosed, this book makes it clear that she has MDD).

I think Cowell's best aspect in this book was accurately portraying life. As I've grown up, I've realized that life is not easy and there will always be hard times and hard decisions but there will also be good times that make life worth living. Cowell portrays that through Claude and Camille. They have their own very hard times and they make mistakes but they also have their great times in life. They also have their days where they are just living and going through life.

I enjoyed all the aspects of Money's life and I particularly enjoyed learning more about my favorite artist. I hadn't realized how close he had been to his fellow contemporary artists. It was fun to see all of them interact and grow up.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu

Uncle Silas

By: Sheridan Le Fanu

Original Pub. Date: 1864

Pub. Date: June 2001

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Format: Paperback , 528pp   Series: Penguin Classics Series

ISBN-13: 9780140437461

ISBN: 0140437460

Source: Personal Copy

Synopsis:

From the moment that Madame de la Rougierre is hired as governess to the young, naive Maud Ruthyn, a dark cloud of foreboding hangs over the entire household. A liar, a bully and a spy, Madame eventually leaves, taking her dark secret with her. But, unhappily for Maud, that is not the last of Madame de la Rougierre. For when Maud is orphaned she is sent to live with her mysterious Uncle Silas, a man with a scandalous- even murderous- past, and encounters Madame once more. This time her sinister role in Maud's destiny will become all to clear. With its world of spirits, locked cabinets, kidnapping and past secrets that spill into the present, Le Fanu's shocking novel of sensation is a chilling and groundbreaking psychological thriller.

My Review:

I'm torn how to rate Uncle Silas. I give it an A for atmosphere and writing but a B-/C+ for plot. Right from the beginning of Uncle Silas, the reader knows that the are reading a classic Gothic novel. The young protagonist, Maud, is naive and isolated from the world. She lives relatively alone, with only her distant father and a few servants. In order to remedy Maud's education, her father hires a governess, who turns out to be cruel and mad.

Shortly after convincing her father to fire Madame de la Rougierre, the governess, Maud's father dies. Maud then has to follow her father's last instructions, which include communicating with a seemingly-creepy man, and then following the instructions in his will. Maud's father instructs that Maud is to be under the care of his brother, Silas. Silas is a reclusive man with a rumored past... rumors which include murder.

It's during this time when the plot seems to falter. The middle of the book had very little action, and what did happen didn't really seem to build up to the conclusion at all. It may have let the suspense build up since the reader knows something bad will happen but doesn't know what or who will be the cause of it. Uncle Silas is full of seedy characters- some who turn out good and others not so good.

The conclusion is excellent. Most of the loose threads are tied up and the reader can finally breathe easily.

I recommend this book for those who like classic books with mystery and gothic aspects but also the patience to read through some tedious passages.

P.S. Isn't the picture on the cover creepy??! I did not like it sitting on my bedside table when I went to bed... it's too scary.

My Rating: 3.5-4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited

By: Evelyn Waugh

Pub. Date: January 1982

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Format: Paperback , 368pp  

ISBN-13: 9780316926348

ISBN: 0316926345

Source: Personal Copy

 

Synopsis:

The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, "Brideshead Revisited" looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.

My Review:

I have very mixed feelings about Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. On one hand, the writing, especially in the beginning, is too dense and flowery which makes it hard to get into and the characters have few redeeming qualities. However, the writing is also beautiful at moments and the characters grow on me so that I begin to care about what happens to them.

Brideshead Revisited is about Charles Ryder's reflections on his youth (college years). His memoir starts because his military unit is stationed at the former house of his college friend, Sebastian Marchmain. In his first year at Oxford, Charles meets Sebastian, an unusual fellow who carries around a teddy bear called Aloysius. Sebastian's family represents the rich and luxurious life of the slowly decaying privileged class in England.

Sebastian does not like his family or feeling like anyone is trying to control him, so as Charles becomes more familiar with his family, Sebastian turns to alcohol to give him relief. Charles and Sebastian's relation at Oxford starts at an extreme high. Although it's never directly stated, their relationship has a very homosexual feeling to it. While reading about it, I felt really uncomfortable because I didn't know if it they were actually gay or if I was just reading too much into. I really wish that Waugh had been a little more direct about what they were to each other. I think there's strong evidence for Charles being homosexual since he had an affair with Julie, Sebastian's sister, and his main attraction to her seems to be that she bears a strong physical resemblance to Sebastian.

Another big theme in Brideshead Revisited was the role of religion, particularly Catholicism. The Marchmain family is steeped in Catholicism, which may be what led to Sebastians alcoholism. He may have had strong feelings of guilt if he did have homosexual tendencies. Their religion affects all the members of the Marchmain family at some point during the book, even though many confess to being agnostic or atheist earlier.

There were some beautifully written parts of the book and I grew to care about some of the characters. However, I thought a lot of them seemed shallow and I wanted to know more about them and what they were thinking, rather than just seeing their actions, so that I could relate to them and like them more. This is the first book by Waugh that I have read, I'm not sure if I will read more or not.

 

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath

 

Whiskey Sour

By: J.A. Konrath

Pub. Date: June 2004

Publisher: Hyperion

Format: Hardcover , 284pp  

Series: Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Series #1   

ISBN-13: 9781401300876

ISBN: 1401300871

Source: library

Synopsis:

Lieutenant Jacqueline 'Jack' Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself 'The Gingerbread Man' is dumping mutilated bodies in her district. Between avoiding the FBI and its moronic profiling computer, joining a dating service, mixing it up with street thugs, and parrying the advances of an uncouth PI, Jack and her binge-eating partner, Herb, must catch the maniac before he kills again...and Jack is next on his murder list. Whiskey Sour is full of laugh-out-loud humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense, and it introduces a fun, fully drawn heroine in the grand tradition of Kinsey Millhone, Stephanie Plum, and Kay Scarpetta.

My Review:

One day I was talking to a friend about Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and my friend recommended the Jack Daniels series by Konrath. Because I want to talk to my friends about books, I rushed online and requested a copy from my library right away to give the series a try. While not as light and humorous as the Plum series, I really enjoyed this first book in the Jack Daniels series.

Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels is a cop who has dedicated her life to her work, to the ruin of her personal life. She wants justice to be served and the world to be right. Her life gets even more difficult when a serial killer shows up and with a plan to go after Jack.

The point of view switches between Jack and the Gingerbread Man (the murderer). The characters that Jack surrounds herself by are interesting and funny. My two favorite were Herb, her partner, and Phineas Troutt, an ex-convict who she meets in a bar to play pool.  While not as laugh-out-loud funny as the Stephanie Plum series, I was often amused by these secondary characters. While in the Gingerbread Man's head, though, nothing was funny. He was a very creepy and disturbing character. He reminded me a lot of Dr. H.H. Holmes from The Devil in the White City, which I had just finished reading before starting this book. They are both sociopaths, although Holmes was a real man whereas the Gingerbread Man is, thankfully, a work of fiction.

My favorite quote: "No one likes an asshole, Jack, until you have to move your bowels" page 101

I've requested the next several books in this series from the library and I look forward to learning more about Jack and her friends.

My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Book Review: The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Synopsis:

Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

My Review:

The American Heiress is a cross between Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind and some of Edith Wharton and Jane Austen's works. Cora Cash (not sure if I like or dislike her name... it seems too easy but also perfectly fitting) is the heiress to a large fortune made in the flour industry in America. Her mother knows that Cora is pretty and rich, meaning all that she needs to have the perfect life is a title.

Cora's mother envisions her daughter in the English aristocracy, regardless of Cora's desires. Therefore, they set off to England. Along the way Cora meets a secretive and, dare I say it, sexy English Duke, which sets off their romance.

I include Gone with the Wind as an inspiration to this novel because I found a lot of similarities between Cora Cash and Scarlett O'Hara, they are both from well to-do families but still need to confront the realities of life as they grow up. They are both spoiled but also determined so that no matter what life hands them, they persevere. I found both characters annoying, especially in the beginning, and I enjoyed their maturation over time.

Cora's English Duke, Ivo, is an interesting characters. He tends to drop out and fall back into the story so that the reader, like Cora, has trouble figuring him out. We don't know what he may be hiding or what he is feeling. This was very frustrating for me to read.

There were some slow points in the novel and some extra, very small, subplots that weren't at all necessary to the story. However, I did like the overall flow of the novel and the growth, or lack thereof, of the characters.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I recieved a free copy of this book from Goodreads First Reads. This did not influence my review of The American Heiress.

Readalong: The Iliad by Homer Post 2

I am participating in the readalong hosted by A Literary Odyssey for The Iliad by Homer. This is the second, and final post for The Iliad. Here is my first post for The Iliad.

I've come to the conclusion that everyone in this book is selfish and no one is inherently good- including the gods. They are killing each other over one woman! If only Paris could have controlled his libido and not have stolen another man's wife, the Achaeans need not spend 10 years outside of Troy trying to kill them. I think Achilles is probably the most selfish of all since he refused to fight because he was insulted (when Agememnon took her prize, a girl). Yet, he sits there and watches the battle because he wants to see his former allies fall in battle. When his best friend dies though, he is outraged and goes on a killing rampage. So don't insult Achilles because then he won't help you when you need it and don't kill his friend because then he seeks out revenge with an overwhelming vengeance.

I don't think Achilles is fully redeemed when he is kind to Priam, king of Troy, and returns Hector's body and lets the Trojans bury him properly. I definitely think it was a step forward in maturity for Achilles but he was pretty awful throughout the story.

However, these are complaints of the characters and a great book can be made up of terrible characters. I have two complaints for the story itself. 1.- the second half of the book was made up very long battle scenes that chronicles the name of the dead, the graphic cause of death, their killer, their fathers, and homelands. I liked the excitement and adventurous feeling of the battle scenes, but I think narrating each death was a little too much.

I also did not like the ending of the book. The Iliad ends with the burial of Hector. Well..... how did the war end? We aren't told. We assume that the day of Hector's burial, they began fighting again but we don't know how it ended up. I'm just not sure why it ended there.

After all of these complaints, I must say that I did enjoy reading The Iliad for the most part. I really enjoyed the first half. I am also proud of myself for reading this since I had tried once before but wasn't able to finish it. Did anyone else have any problems with the unending battle scenes or the ending? I plan to follow this up with reading The Odyssey.

Book Review: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Synopsis:

In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks--was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to understand? Such doubts persuaded the judges to commute her sentence to life imprisonment, and Marks spent the next 30 years in an assortment of jails and asylums, where she was often exhibited as a star attraction.

In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks's story in fictional form. Her portraits of 19th-century prison and asylum life are chilling in their detail. The author also introduces Dr. Simon Jordan, who listens to the prisoner's tale with a mixture of sympathy and disbelief. In his effort to uncover the truth, Jordan uses the tools of the then rudimentary science of psychology. But the last word belongs to the book's narrator--Grace herself

My Review:

I found this to be an interesting read. Atwood based her narration off of an actual court case. However, because Grace's case did not go to trial, there aren't many absolute facts, which leaves plenty of room for Atwood to spin her tale and create her own reasons for the crime.

One thing I liked is that the beginning to each chapter included quotes from the courst transcripts and/or newspaper articles. These tidbits flavored the story with different points of view and some gossip. I also liked Atwood's conclusion to who committed the murder and why.

However, although I liked her explanation story-wise, I must say that it is scientifically very unlikely and sometimes overplayed in the media and popular works. I won't say more though, since I don't want to give anything away, I just wanted to state my views on her story.

The way the story was told changed from chapter to chapter. Sometimes it was in epistolary form and sometimes in the third person view. It also changed viewpoints between the characters so that the reader followed different characters. At time I liked the different viewpoints but often I thought it interupted the flow of the story. Instead of  figuring out who's view we were in, I just wanted to get on with the story. But this is a minor complaint, overall the story was very good.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Readalong: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence: Post 2

This is the second, and final, post for the Lady Chatterley's Lover readalong, hosted by A Literary Odyssey. My first post can be found here.

I generally liked the second half of this book more than the first half. I did not connect with any of the characters right away, but in the second half, the characters become more personable. This is especially true of  Mellors, the gamekeeper and Connie's lover. We know very little about him from the first except that is very reserved. In the latter half of the novel, we see that he really does care about Connie and wants her as she is, she is not just a sex object for him but a person. We also learn more of his history, which I thought was interesting. Mellors served in the army for a while.  He also was separated from his wife, who tried coming back, but she was crazy and just tries to hurt him. One of the things I liked the most was that Mellors could talk both like a refined, intellectual gentleman and with the common dialect of the region. I thought that was interesting way to sort of bridge some of the gap of  classes between him and Connie.

Class differences is definitely an important topic in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Many characters were not shocked to find out that Connie had taken a lover, but they were shocked or upset when they found out that was the gamekeeper instead of a nobleman. Connie's sister is particularly upset with this news, although it does not stop her from allowing Connie to see him.

One of the aspects of Lady Chatterley's Lover that I liked most was Lawrence's notion of the importance of both the mind and the body in creating a fully functional and fulfilled person. Lawrence believes that you can't live well through just the mind (such as Clifford) or the body (such as Bertha Coutts, Mellors estranged wife). Through Connie's sexual reawakening, we see that she becomes a more fully developed person because she fills the needs of both her mind and her body.

Overall, I enjoyed Lady Chatterley's Lover. I thought it was fairly easy to read with some interesting, apparent themes. The history behind the publication/banning of the book is also interesting to learn. I didn't love this book though, I think the characters were still a little too distant for me.

Book Review: The Tigress of Forli by Elizabeth Lev

Publisher:		Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Imprint:		Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pub Date:		10/20/2011
ISBN:		9780151012992

Synopsis:

Wife, mother, leader, warrior. Caterina Riario Sforza was one of the most prominent women in Renaissance Italy--and one of the most vilified. In this glittering biography, Elizabeth Lev reexamines her extraordinary life and accomplishments.

Raised in the court of Milan and wed at age ten to the pope's corrupt nephew, Caterina was ensnared in Italy's political intrigues early in life. After turbulent years in Rome's papal court, she moved to the Romagnol province of Forli. Following her husband's assassination, she ruled Italy's crossroads with iron will, martial strength, political savvy--and an icon's fashion sense. In finally losing her lands to the Borgia family, she put up a resistance that inspired all of Europe and set the stage for her progeny--including Cosimo de Medici--to follow her example to greatness.

A rich evocation of Renaissance life, The Tigress of Forli reveals Caterina Riario Sforza as a brilliant and fearless ruler, and a tragic but unbowed figure. (Image and synopsis from the publisher from netgalley.com)

 

My Review:

The Tigress of Forli is an historical account of a courageous woman, Caterina Sforza, which is her maiden name. She was married three times to a Riario, Feo, and Medici. She had 8 children, held her fortress under a siege for many days, and spent a significant amount of time imprisoned in a dungeon. Yet, have you ever heard of her? She was a woman known throughout Europe for her spirit and fearlessness. This account of Caterina appears very well-researched and all-encompassing, it spans from Caterina's young childhood to her death and includes a lot of the history of her family and Italian politics of the day.

In the late 1400s and early 1500s, Italy was a divided country with constantly warring city-states. Assinations and political corruption were rampant. Depending on the who was the Pope at any given moment, your family could be blessed with good fortune or thrown in a dungeon and forgotten about.

Caterina was schooled as a child that family matters more than the individual and one must do anything to keep the family in good standing (even complacently accepting a marriage at the age of 10 to a much older man) and that military skills are extremely valuable. Surviving three husbands, Caterina proved herself to be an able warrior and protector of her children, since she had to fight to keep her lands so that her children would receive it as an inheritance. Elizabeth Lev's portrayal of Caterina shows her as a caring mother with the spirit of a hundred men in battle. It was inspiring to read about Caterina's life and actions.

I liked that Caterina's struggles were always placed well within the Italian politics of the day. If someone was attacking her, the reader understood why (mostly because they wanted her land). The reader also got glimpses of what else besides military actions were going in Italy and the world. For example, there is a brief mention of Columbus setting sail from Spain in 1492... and we all know where he is heading! Artists were also frequently mentioned and placed within the narrative, such as Botticelli and Michaelangelo.

However, while there were many good parts of the book, I found the beginning a little hard to get into. First, while Caterina is a child, she doesn't control her life, she only watches it around her without making decisions. This makes it hard to connect to the girl until she begins to be an individual for herself. In addition, most of my history comes from historical fiction, where the author takes some creative license to imagine the person is thinking and feeling and spins an historical narrative around the character. The Tigress of Forli, however, is non-fiction and relies only on documented facts. Therefore, the reader is never inside of Caterina's head with an all-access pass to her thoughts and decisions. This makes the book read more like a textbook than a novel.

I think The Tigress of Forli is a great book for anyone interested in strong women in history, Italian politics, European history, or well-written non-fiction books.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I received this book free of charge as an eGalley from the publisher via netgalley.com. I was not compensated for this review in any way and the review is my own opinion.

Book Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Synopsis:

The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, their cousin Eustace, and Caspian to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan's country at the end of the world. (Image and synopsis from goodreads.com)

My Review:

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the fifth installment of the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. This book tells the tale of Prince Caspian of Narnia's voyage to the east and the end of the world. Caspian is joined by the ancient king and queen of Narnia, Edmund and Lucy, who are from England. (There is some murky time travel between Narnia and our world for this to be possible.)

Lewis once again provided a fun story, full of adventure, magic, and morals for children. While I appreciated the story, as an adult, I'm getting a little bored with Narnia. The plot is not complex, nor is the language spell-binding. Yet, this book is not meant for me, it's meant for children as a way to make the Christian religion accesible to them. I think Lewis has succeeded in that goal, the lessons he wants them to learn are transparent enough for children to understand and the plot and characters are exciting enough to keep their attention.

My Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars



Book Review: Human by Michael Gazzaniga

Synopsis:

One of the world's leading neuroscientists explores how best to understand the human condition by examining the biological, psychological, and highly social nature of our species within the social context of our lives.
What happened along the evolutionary trail that made humans so unique? In his widely accessible style, Michael Gazzaniga looks to a broad range of studies to pinpoint the change that made us thinking, sentient humans, different from our predecessors.
 
Neuroscience has been fixated on the life of the psychological self for the past fifty years, focusing on the brain systems underlying language, memory, emotion, and perception. What it has not done is consider the stark reality that most of the time we humans are thinking about social processes, comparing ourselves to and estimating the intentions of others. In Human, Gazzaniga explores a number of related issues, including what makes human brains unique, the importance of language and art in defining the human condition, the nature of human consciousness, and even artificial intelligence.  (Synopsis and book image from bn.com)

My Review:

I picked up this book because I had heard of Michael Gazzaniga before, through my Honors Intro to Neuroscience class (yes, I was a neuroscience major!) and the premise of the book intrigued me. Are humans unique and distinct from all animals that came before us or are we merely on an evolutionary continuum with even more evolved species to follow us?

Gazzaniga believes that humans are unique and sets about convincing his audience through explaining what is known (and still not known) about different cognitive processes in humans and animals, especially comparing us to non-human primates (i.e. monkeys and apes). Topics include language, art, and consciousness. An example of this is asking if animals produce or appreciate art. We know humans do, but why? What is the evolutionary function of art? How does it help us to survive?

Gazzaniga is able to cover many topics in this book to provide evidence for his pont. All of his facts are well referenced, so that interested readers can find the primary documents for the research (I even found a paper that he cited because I wanted to know more!). Gazzaniga's own research is also very interesting, he studies split brain patients, patients who have had their corpus callosum (the main fiber tract that allows the two hemispheres of your brain to communicate with each other); through his research, Gazzaniga is able to test what each hemisphere is responsible for doing and how important that communication between hemispheres is for an integrated self-awareness.

While I found many of Gazzaniga's points interesting, there were a few things I did not like about the writing in the book. Some parts went into very basic explanations of science (which is good for many readers without a science background!) but then other parts listed more scientific detail than necessary to make the point, which meant that some parts felt tedious. I read this book for the ideas that Gazzaniga postulated and to find out why he believed that humans are distinct, not to pretend that I was retaking functional neuroanatomy. While I have no problem with either basic scientific explanation or in-depth scientific reasoning, I felt that they didn't belong in the same book. Non-science readers can still read the book and understand most of Gazzaniga's point, there may just be a few parts that are best to skim if you want the ideas and not the explanations.

My favorite section was the last topic covered in the book, robots and artificial intelligence. I've never studied much computer science or robotics (nor do I want to), but I find it fascinating nonetheless. I liked that Gazzaniga brought in many perspectives on A.I., from believing that we will soon have human-like robots to the belief that we will never be able to create computers that act/behave/think/feel like humans. This section also included DNA therapy ideas and the ethic questions that necessarily go along with these therapies.

Overall, I enjoyed the ideas in this book and I learned many interesting facts (my favorite: monkeys have two tubes in their throat, one for eating and the other for breathing, which means that it is impossible for them to choke! Yet it was evolutionarily more advantageous for humans to combine the tubes, making it possible to choke, but allowing us to make all the sounds that we can make- which monkeys cannot). I recommend this book for anyone interested in neuroscience and human nature, regardless of science background, but with the understanding that it is not necessary to understand every point if you don't have a biology or neuroscience foundation.

My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars



Book Review: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Synopsis:
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life-solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope. (Image and synopsis from bn.com)

My Review:

This book tells a great story of a psychiatrist being drawn into one of his patient's world by trying to find out why the patient won't talk and what he knows. The Swan Thieves is a delightful mystery that entertains and enthralls the reader while their reading.

I loved the different points of view from the characters, as the psychiatrist, Andrew Marlow, goes about piecing together Robert Oliver's (the patient) past and knowledge of the distant past and how the narration changes from the present to past and back again.  It developed a richness in the story since it spanned many characters and time periods.

However, while I found the book entertaining, I feel that it is kind of forgettable once you put it down. I loved the idea and the narration, but ultimately I felt that I didn't quite care enough for the characters from the past to have the ending be truly gripping and exciting. I wanted more from Robert Oliver and Andrew Marlow in the present in the ending because I cared more about them.

Overall, I think this is a beautiful story and wonderfully written, I just wish there was more in the end to make it a memorable piece.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars