Just Finished: "The Help"

As most of you know (or should know if you've 1. been reading this blog for awhile or 2. know me well) I used to work at a bookstore until quite recently. My favourite part of that job was hearing what people were reading, getting recommendations, and suggesting books to customers. Now that I have more time for myself, I am slowly making my way through all the book customers have been recommending for awhile and I'm so glad that I am. The Help was one of those books like Water for Elephants that people had been telling me I need to read ever since it was released in February 2009. I have to say that I honestly had no idea what it was about. The only thing I knew was that it took place in the 1960s or so and involved some African Americans. And that came from the information about the movie adaptation that's currently in production. I can't believe I never even picked up the book to find out what it was so I could better recommend it to customers! *hangs head in shame* Here's the synopsis from Chapters:

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

Massive synopsis, I know. Sorry! But now you know more than I did when I picked up the book.

Once I got started and figured out what the story was I really didn't think I was going to love it. It's not a time of history that's ever particularly grabbed me before. Happily, the book proved me wrong. I ended up really enjoying this book and I highly recommend it.

My favourite thing about this novel was the fact that there was such great historical detail wrapped up in the most amazing personal stories. The characters were so well rounded and all three women, Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter, had the most unique and fantastic voices. Stockett does a great job of bouncing between stories and it doesn't get confusing at all. She seems to perfectly sense when she should switch to another character to get their perspective on a certain event.

I liked that Stockett had quite the extensive author's note at the end of the novel. I don't have the book with me anymore (supported my local library :) reserving books is a fantastic thing) so I apologize if I get something wrong. She explains why she felt the need to write this story. She grew up in Jackson, Mississippi (where the novel takes place) and had a black maid and this relationship seems to be mirrored in Skeeter's relationship with Constantine. She also talked about how she had many helpful people who made sure her historical details were accurate, and also made sure to mention that there were three things she refused to change even though the timing was incorrect. If you can figure them out, I applaud you...though, in my defense, I was born about 25 years after the book took place... :)

There isn't really anything negative I would say about this book. The only thing I that would have made me like it more would be an ending that is more clear cut. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that while things do get wrapped up for the most part, there's one character whose life is completely up in the air at the end of the novel. I guess this makes it more realistic, which I can respect, but I enjoy knowing exactly what the characters are doing after the novel is over. Anyone else feel that way?

The movie comes out later this year and I will be going to see it. Or, at least renting it. It's hard to find people who want to see these adaptations with me. Still waiting to see Water for Elephants! I think they have a pretty good cast and am looking forward to seeing how the actors portray these amazing characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I think it can appeal to many different types of readers, particularly those who like historical fiction. Has anyone else read The Help? If so, what did you think? If you're looking for a good read, definitely go pick up this book. You won't regret it!

Just Finished: "A Discovery of Witches"

I know it's been awhile since I posted but life has been CRAZY! Not to worry though, I am back and do I ever have a great book for you to read. I just finished A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and it was so incredibly fantastic that I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe how amazing it is. Right now it is definitely the front runner for my favourite book of 2011.

I happened upon a review of this book in an issue on Entertainment Weekly, which you can find here. I'm usually pretty happy with their reviews and both my mom and I decided to check this one out. Boy, oh boy, are we ever glad that we did.

Here's the synopsis from Chapters:

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.
Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the "Twilight" series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

Both this synopsis and the EW article compare this book to the Twilight Saga and I have to agree with them. I hate to do it because there's just this sort of stigma associated with Twilight (and as someone who is slightly older than the target audience and as a former bookseller, I've heard and told all sorts of excuses for reading them) but the comparison really is hard to avoid. I'll put it this way - if you enjoy the idea of Twlight, the vampires, forbidden love, and different types of mythical beings, you'll love A Discovery of Witches. This a grown up version of Meyer's novels with more creatures (witches and daemons instead of werewolves) and an amazing historical aspect. The writing is so incredibly well done and, well, Twilight isn't exactly a literary masterpiece (no matter what those teenyboppers think).

Let me explain why the historical aspect is such a great part of this novel. I wasn't a history major in university and I didn't even take any history classes (and since I saw what my roommates had to deal with, I am sooo glad that I didn't) but I enjoy a good documentary or historical novel every once and awhile. Diana is researching alchemy in an effort to push aside her magical ancestry. She has tenure at Yale so is obviously quite the historian. What makes this kind of neat is that she ends up with a vampire who has personally known some of the greatest minds Diana has been reading about her whole life. I love how amazed Diana gets when she learns Matthew knew someone famous and how she becomes distracted from an original conversation once she finds that out. Can you imagine how cool and completely crazy that would be?

There are a ton of secondary characters but Harkness does a great job of giving just enough background information on each of them so they are really three dimensional characters, just like Diana and Matthew. It is a massive book and each page is used to its fullest with descriptions and explanations cleverly written so as not to give too much away at once.

This novel had just the right amount of magic, suspense, romance, and action all wrapped up in its 592 pages. I was so hooked on this book that I couldn't put it down and I was constantly thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. One of the best things about this novel is that it is the first of a trilogy. Of course, I am going to go crazy waiting for the next book in the All Souls Trilogy (it comes out sometime in 2012) but at least there will be a next one!

Overall, I am completely and utterly in love with this book. I love novels that have a bit of witchcraft (as long as they don't venture into the fantasy category) and this one was just about perfect. It created a world where not only witches live, but also vampires and daemons, all with their own unique powers. The regular stereotypes of each creature are present, but with Harkness wisely puts her own twist on the powers and defining features of each. I highly recommend this book. It is well worth the price in hardcover, but buy the e-book or check it out from the library if you really don't want to spend that much money. I would love to hear from anyone else who has read this one or who knows someone who has read it. Were they as enthralled with is as much as me? Let me know!

Another weekend is done and I happily spent most of it reading this amazing novel. Please please please give it a try as it is just so fantastic. Until next time, happy reading :)

Just Finished: "Spin"

Good evening on this snowy March day! Yes. Snow in March. Welcome to Canada! This particular morning was pretty brutal as it took almost 20 extra minutes to get to work, no fun. So, I am now relaxing and watching Morning Glory.

I also have to tell you all about this book I just finished the other night. If you follow me on Twitter (@KaleyS23 if you don't!) you'll know that I stayed up MUCH too late the other night finishing a book...Spin was that book. The book came out in December of 2009 and it was one of those books I would always see on the shelves and think about getting. I was at the library last weekend and happened upon it when wandering through the stacks, so I thought...why not?

Here's the synopsis from Chapters:

Katie Sandford has just gotten an interview at her favourite music magazine, The Line. It's the chance of a lifetime. So what does she do? Goes out to celebrate -- and shows up still drunk at the interview. No surprise, she doesn't get the job, but the folks at The Line think she might be perfect for another assignment for their sister gossip rag. All Katie has to do is follow It Girl Amber Sheppard into rehab. If she can get the inside scoop (and complete the 30-day program without getting kicked out), they'll reconsider her for the job at The Line.
Katie takes the job. But things get complicated when real friendships develop, a cute celebrity handler named Henry gets involved, and Katie begins to realize she may be in rehab for a reason. Katie has to make a decision -- is publishing the article worth everything she has to lose?

To be honest, I didn't have high hopes for this book. A 30 year old boozer who clearly doesn't realize how much her drinking is completely and utterly screwing up her life? It could have gone so wrong...however, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was annoying that she didn't realize that she was quickly becoming an alcoholic but she had one of those fantastic literary "journeys" while following Amber into rehab.

As I mentioned, this book was written by a Canadian author. That was one of the things that I really loved. What kind of surprised me, though, was the fact that there wasn't any mention of any Canadian cities or icons or anything. The major city Katie lived in was called The City. And the little town where she went to rehab wasn't mentioned either. The fun thing is that I think I kind of figured out where the novel took place. How? you ask? Well, let me explain. Even though the author is from Montreal I thought that the novel likely took place in Ontario (it's the province I live in so I feel like I can say this...it's where everything seems to be set in Canadian literature, movies, and television shows. It's probably all Americans think there is in our country!) There was also something else that tipped me off. When Katie goes off to rehab she mentions that it is in a teeny tiny town near where she grew up. She says that her hometown is near a Santa's Village and my first thought was Bracebridge! Of course rehab would be in Muskoka. Wouldn't you want to get cleaned up while looking at a view like this:

That's what I thought.

To summarize the above ramblings...I loved that the author is Canadian but wish the novel had had more Canadian aspects to it. Maybe that's unreasonable, but I think that we, as Canadians, need to celebrate our culture and not make our stories so ambiguous that they could be taking place in the US. Thoughts?

Overall, I definitely recommend this book. The characters are great, the writing is well done, and the story has just enough little twists and turns to make it interesting without being a rehab roller coaster. Not only all of that, but this was a debut novel! Fantastic. I am going to have to look into finding Arranged, McKenzie's second novel. I actually almost bought it a few weeks ago when it was on sale and am now wishing I did. I'll find it and let you all know how it is!

Well, the movie is over and I'm not sure how much I absorbed...what does that say about the movie? Or me? Not sure, but I do know that it is time for bed. Night all!

Just Finished: "Water for Elephants"

Oh my goodness. This book was amazing! I've been hearing for years that this novel was really great, as it was released way back in May 2006. When I was working at the bookstore, I tended to hear lots of reviews and recommendations, and Water for Elephants was no exception. For some reason I never got around to picking it up and I am so glad that I finally did!

Here's a synopsis from Chapters:

Orphaned and penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob Jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing train and inadvertently runs away with the circus. So begins Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen's darkly beautiful tale about the characters who inhabit the less-than-greatest show on earth.

Jacob finds a place tending the circus animals, including a seemingly untrainable elephant named Rosie. He also comes to know Marlena, the star of the equestrian act and wife of August, a charismatic but cruel animal trainer. Caught between his love for Marlena and his need to belong in the crazy family of travelling performers, Jacob is freed only by a murderous secret that will bring the big top down.

This was one of those novels that you just cannot put down, and I haven't read a book like that since The Forgotten Garden this past summer. There was just one little thing that I didn't love (and I say didn't love because it wasn't that I didn't like it, it just wasn't my thing) and that was that the story goes back and forth from the present to the past. Jacob isn't necessarily telling his story, but learning about his life in the circus is interspersed with present day when he is ninety three and in a nursing home. I think the reason I wasn't into this was that it ended the "action" part of the novel. One page I'm learning about how they're trying to train Rosie the elephant, and the next I'm stalled in the nursing home with Jacob waiting for his family to arrive. It's not that it was boring - Gruen wonderfully captured the scared feeling that I'm sure many elderly people feel when they know that their mental and physical capabilities are slipping - it was that I wanted to get back to the circus! Part of that feeling of needing to get back to the action was because, I think, that there was a prologue and I desperately wanted to find out how the circus tragedy was set in motion.

One of the unfortunate things about reading this book now, is that I knew who the actors are who are in the upcoming adaptation. I'm one of those people who must read the book before seeing the movie, so I guess that's another reason I finally got around to reading this book. I had known the movie was coming for a long while, and knew right away who the actors were going to be. I like being able to imagine the characters myself, so it was too bad that I couldn't do that with the main characters for this novel (which is why, when I read The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks, that I didn't look online to see who will be in the upcoming adaptation). While I couldn't picture Reese Witherspoon as easily as the magnificent Marlena, I do think she'll do a fantastic job. On the other hand, I think they picked a great actor in Robert Pattinson to play the young Jacob. I know what you anti-Twilight people are thinking, but I choose to ignore all the naysayers (that's right, I said naysayers, what of it?). He has just the right moodiness and brains to pull off the character. Hopefully I won't be disappointed. By the way, the movie is set to be released on April 22.

I enjoyed that Gruen took real life anecdotes from the traveling train circuses from years past. She mentions this in the author's notes and I'm really glad she did. Some of the things were really interesting and neat, but others were sad (such as the fact that elephant execution was common among circus elephants that misbehaved). Either way, I liked that Gruen made sure that the historical part of this novel had credibility.

Overall, this was a fantastic novel. Highly recommended to anyone who likes a good read, or really enjoys the circus. Anyone else read this book? What did you think?

Stay tuned for an Oscar related post - I'm hosting a party tomorrow night and can't wait to tell you all about it. It's going to be so much fun! :)

Just Finished: "Safe Haven"

I just finished reading Safe Haven the other night. Safe Haven is Nicholas Sparks' newest book (released in hardcover on September 14th of this year). I've been reading Sparks for the last nine years or so and have found that I like each new book a little bit more than the older ones. This one, in a way, was no different. Like usual, it was amazingly well written but because of that, I found myself getting very immersed in the story. Let me back up and give you a quick synopsis...

The book follows Katie, a newcomer to a small town in North Carolina (which isn't surprising since pretty much all of Sparks books take place in North Carolina). You realize almost right away that she's hiding a deep, dark secret. She meets a single dad with two young children and starts to develop feelings for him, but the three of them are just getting over the death of Carly, wife and mother.

It was because of Katie's secret that I was getting pretty stressed out near the end of the book. Bits and pieces are revealed along the way and I found myself feeling like I was really there and living this life and dealing with this secret along with Katie. This is a testament to how great the writing is in Sparks' books - I always feel as though I'm right there with the characters.
I don't want to give anything away (read it yourself!) but I would definitely recommend it for anyone who loves a good story, particularly women.

I found that this novel, along with his last two (The Lucky One and The Last Song) had fairly evil (for lack of a better word) characters. It started in The Last Song with Marcus (another absolutely amazing book. Don't let a hatred of Miley Cyrus get in the way of reading this one. I, just so you know, have no problem with her. I actually quite like her :) ) and then in The Lucky One with Keith. It's just interesting to note how these characters are coming about in Sparks' books now. Is it intentional? Is he trying to get away from such "soft" and sad books like A Walk to Remember or The Notebook? I suppose he probably has some idea, but it's interesting to think about.

Well, I think I've gone on enough about Nicholas Sparks for the moment. It'll be a little while before I read another of his (I find I need to take breaks between his novels) but I'll be back to talk about the next book I start reading.
Until next time! :)