Best Review Contest (Fall 2015)

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

This is the thread where you can submit reviews for the Best Review contest. The thread is open for submissions and will close at Midnight EST on November 14, 2015. Voting will start the next day and run until the end of the GR day on November 30. The person whose review gets the most votes will get to design a 20 point task for the Winter Challenge.

To be eligible for this task opportunity you must have achieved at least 100 points on the Readerboard by Midnight EST on November 14, 2015.

Just a reminder that each person can only submit one review - but you can make edits to your review up until the end. The review does not have to be any particular length and doesn't have to be a positive one (i.e. you can choose to review a book you didn't like).
Please include your Readerboard Name.

PLEASE DO NOT comment on people's reviews in this thread - this is for submissions only - you will be able to comment when voting begins.

SPOILER ALERT!- These reviews may include spoilers.

[Trish]

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald

Reviewed by Trish Hart (trishhartuk)

I spotted this when I was looking for a book set in Iowa for a task in a previous SRC. It was advertised in the Goodreads sidebar (you know, the way they tempt you!), but when I looked in the popular Iowa books list it wasn’t there. So I added it, and then looked for a different task to read it for. I finally found one this challenge.

This is a book about friendship and rediscovery. However, the primary friendship - between Sara from Sweden and her elderly penfriend Amy, from Iowa - is presented in an unusual way. By the time Sara arrives from Sweden, Amy has died of a long illness. However, despite her not being physically present, we also get to know her through the letters she sent to Sara in which they explored their mutual love of books. Through the letters, Amy introduces her friend to some of the folks around town, and then you get to see Sara actually meeting those people and getting to know them herself.

Broken Wheel is a town with a lot of problems. From a thriving farming town, the various financial crises of the late-20th/early-21st century have left it with a population of 637 people, one bar, one diner, a couple of stores, and a broken soul. However, much in the way of Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm, Sara’s arrival begins to act as a catalyst for the town to finally get back some of its old spirit.

Even better, as a confirmed biblioholic, I can’t help but approve of the way Sara starts changing everything for the better: through opening a second-hand bookstore with Amy’s books.

She begins to get the town reading (and along the way also ends up accidentally turning the one bar into a premier LGBT destination in that part of Iowa!), and eventually, despite the people of Broken Wheel having poo-pooed her idea, once the store is open, they realise that it’s a way to bring people back to their town - at least to visit. And slowly, they begin to regain some pride in their home.
The book is a wonderful combination of the styles of Cold Comfort Farm, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Chocolat, and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. It also shows a much softer side of Scandi literature. No dark detective stories here, but a tale of friendship and warmth: perfect for curling up with in front of the fire with a glass of wine.

If I have a criticism, it’s that the timescale gets a bit lost at times: the book covers just a couple of months in Autumn, and it’s therefore not quite realistic that everything that happens does so in such a short space of time. However, it’s such a readable book about the love of books, that it’s easy enough to gloss over that in the same way that you can accept it in books like Chocolat.

So, a rare five Goodreads stars from me. However, be warned, this book isn’t going to make your TBR lists any shorter!!

[Heather(Gibby)]

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

Reviewed by Heather Hamelin (Gibby)



I read the Penguin Modern classic. The introduction by Lorna Stage had way too many spoilers, so I skipped it until I finished the book, and then went back to it.

The back cover states, "a breakthrough book... a novel poised between hope and despair."

Personally I felt the story leans quite heavily to the side of despair. The main character Julia Martin, is really rather pathetic, with very few redeeming qualities. Rather than making something of herself, she is relying on others to do something for her, and as she gets older, sees her chances getting slimmer and slimmer. The story starts with Ms. Martin pondering her future as her ex-lover has cut off the meagre living allowance he has been providing her to leave him alone. My frustration with Julia is that she considers herself a free spirit, but just unlucky. I know the choices open to women in the 1920's and 30's were more limited than they are now, but I just could not dig up much empathy for Ms. Julia Martin.

My favourite quote from the book:
When you are a child you are yourself and you know and see everything prophetically. And then suddenly something happens and you stop being yourself; you become what others force you to be. You lose your wisdom and your soul.

Much of this book is said to be autobiographical for the author, Ms. Jean Rhys, that makes me quite curious to read a biography. I gave the book four stars as I did really enjoy Ms. Rhys's writing style, and look forward to reading some of her better known books.

[Lauren]

LAUREN JODI

Forget Me Not by Marliss Melton
3 Stars

Suffering from amnesia following his capture and escape after a mission gone wrong, Navy SEAL Gabe Renault returns home to a wife and daughter who are virtual strangers. Believing her husband dead, Helen Renault has moved on with her life and is shocked and distraught not only by his return, but by the changes in his personality. No longer distant and cold, Gabe is a new man who can easily make her love him again. However, Gabe’s memories are slowly returning and a traitor will stop at nothing to ensure that they don’t …

Melton’s writing style is fast paced and immersive, and the suspense plot is satisfying. That said, Helen is one of the most selfish and self-absorbed heroines I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter and her attitude all but ruins the book.

Although it is made clear that Gabe and Helen’s marriage wasn’t all roses and it is understandable that she would be upset by his sudden reappearance, these do not explain or excuse her cold-hearted spite and even anger that the man is still alive. Helen’s deliberate attempts to cause Gabe pain and her inability to believe that someone is after him make it virtually impossible to believe their romance. Gabe is not entirely blameless in all this, in fact, he initially comes across as arrogant and shallow. Nevertheless, it is clear that he is a changed man and deserves a woman who doesn’t regret that he isn’t dead.

Thankfully, the amnesia/assassin storyline is intense and exciting enough to mitigate the awful romance to a certain extent. There is some excellent misdirection in this area, which leads to a twist that I didn’t see coming even though in hindsight there are several obvious clues.

The supporting characters also compensate for the annoying heroine. Gabe’s stepdaughter, Mallory, is utterly charming and their relationship is the best part of the book. The secondary romance between Helen’s friend, Leila, and the Master Chief is sweet and sexy.

In sum, Forget Me Not has potential but Helen's attitude is so off-putting that it ruins the romance. I’m willing to give the next book a chance as it continues the storyline and has a different, and hopefully more likable heroine.

[Deana]

DEANA

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer by Harvey Karp

Two Stars

I recently gave birth to our first child, and immediately the book recommendations started pouring in. This one was mentioned multiple times and it was nice and short, so I prioritized it.

My biggest complaint? There are many chapters before he even gets around to telling you what the methods are. I think they start at chapter 6? Annoying. Get to the point! If you have a screaming baby, you don't want to read 5 chapters about the history of calming babies and how African !Kung women feed their babies 100 times a day or why he believes gas doesn't cause colic. You want to know how to calm your freaking baby down!

This book could have been a 5 page pamphlet. It is incredibly repetitive. It's full of fluff. It has lots of sidebar anecdotes about people who had fussy babies and successfully used these methods.

I think the reason he repeats so much (aside from needing enough material to have an actual book) is that the "Five S" things just sound too easy (Swaddling, Stomach/side position, Shushing, Shaking/bouncing, Sucking). These parents who have babies who cry for 3 hours straight (which thankfully is not me) are skeptical that these really simple techniques will work. Plus, we've all had it ingrained into our heads that we need to be GENTLE with babies, and be really quiet around them. So when he says to bounce them vigorously, or SHHH really loudly into their ears, he needs to make clear that he means REALLY vigorously (so their heads wobble a little!), and VERY loudly (like a vacuum cleaner!) and it just won't work if you wuss out for fear of bothering the baby.

And so, he repeats himself a lot. Over and over. And gives anecdotes about parents who didn't SHH loudly enough and claimed shushing doesn't work and then asked him to help and were SO SURPRISED by how vigorously he shushed and bounced those poor little babies.

Do the methods work? Well, (so far?) our baby doesn't cry often or for long. The few times that he has been fussy for a longer period of time, doing these 5 "S" things calmed him down very quickly... but as soon as I stoped doing any one of them he is instantly awake and screaming again. I can't sleep. I can't read a book. I can't talk on the phone. I can't cook dinner. I can't do anything but walk around the house for hours on end with the whitenoise app on my phone (automated shushing!) bouncing the swaddled baby and replacing the pacifier in his mouth when it falls out. While it was merely annoying the 2-3 times we've had to do it so far, I can't imagine if I had a truly fussy baby. I don't want a quiet baby just to have a quiet baby (though it's better than a screaming baby), I want a quiet baby so I can get to sleep myself!

A number of friends in my mommy group said that they "tried" to read this book but it was just so boring and repetitive, so they gave up and just watched the (short) video. They ALSO expressed surprised at how loud he shushed them, and how vigorously he bounced them and were also surprised at how quickly it worked. Unlike book readers, they instantly saw that they had been bouncing less vigorously and shushing more quietly, knew the problem and upped the game.

In conclusion, my recommendation for this book is, if you have the choice, don't read it -- watch the video instead.

[Book Concierge]

Garlic and Sapphires – Ruth Reichl
4****

Subtitle: The Secret Life of a critic in Disguise
Well, that’s a pretty good synopsis of this memoir of Reichl’s tenure as the restaurant critic for The New York Times in the 1990s.

I loved her stories of the various restaurants, from tiny noodle shops to elegant restaurants, where even the King of Spain is kept waiting at the bar. What I really appreciated about the book, however, was the “secret life” part – her own growth as a person. As Reichl tried on various disguises she found that she was also revealing different personalities – timid or demanding, happy or dour, compassionate or selfish. She learned much about herself, what she liked and what she didn’t like. And she was fearless in revealing these various facets of herself to the reader.

Her writing really shines, not surprisingly, when she is describing food. I am in awe of her palate, her ability to tease out and identify the subtle flavorings in a complex dish:


(Describing the risotto) It tasted as if a chef had stood at the stove, stirring diligently as he coaxed each grain of rice into soaking up stock. As a finale he had strewn plump little morsels of lobster through the rice, giving it the taste of the ocean.

(Gougeres) And then I didn’t say anything else because I had taken a bite of one of the little puffs and I was concentrating on the way they simple evaporated into hot, cheesy air when my mouth closed over them.

(Quenelles de brochet) Very few restaurants still make these ethereal dumplings, a marriage of air and ocean, and even fewer do them right. … I take a bite and the softness surrounds my mouth with the taste of lobster, of fish, of butter and then it just dissolves, disappears, leaving nothing but the memory in my mouth. And I take another bite, and another, and suddenly I’m floating on the flavor, and the world has vanished.

(Venison) Surrounded by chestnuts, apples, a fruity puree of squash, meat is so delicious that I find myself eating as if it is the first course. When I look down, I realize that I have eaten everything, even the single aromatic grape that decorated the plate.

A delicious memoir, and I devoured every word.