WHEN WE WERE ROMANS

WHEN WE WERE ROMANS by Matthew Kneale
Nan A. Talese, Publisher
ISBN: 978-0-385-52625-8

I had not been reading a whole lot lately and decided that I would ease my way back into my 20 plus ARC pile. I chose this book out of the pile mainly because it was only 224 pages long and I figured I could blow through it fairly fast. What follows are my thoughts on this book. Please read the entire review before deciding on this book.

I was hoping for something reasonably light. What I found was a well written book with lots of characters that I did not like. All of them had issues and not a tremendous amount of redeeming qualities. The early reviews likened this book to “To Kill A Mockingbird” and I spent most of the book wondering why. I truly fought my way through the book. The entire book was about the frustrations that the 9 year old protagonist was feeling. It starts out with his mother, his sister, and himself fleeing their cottage in England because of an abusive father that was stalking the family. They run away to Rome to stay with the mother “Hannah’s” friends from years before. The troubles just seemed to get from bad to worse. Slowly throughout the book certain truths started to become more and more apparent to the reader. Even though the story was sad and frustrating I found myself wanting to read more and more. I wanted to have something good start to happen. I wanted the truth to finally come out. Finally when I was done I could feel satisfied. The ending was the best that could have come out of a very bad situation. During the book I got the sense of being a voyeur watching a train wreck taking place. It was painful yet I just could not look away.
After I was done reading the book I started to really think about the character of the boy Lawrence that Matthew Kneale created. I don’t think I have ever seen a better job of creating the voice of a nine year old child hopelessly trying to hold his family together. Torn between his needs as a child and his desire to care for his mother was so perfect that I was unaware of anything but his view of his world. Then in the end the difficulty of overcoming the situation that he was placed in was perfectly portrayed.
If this book is not put on the classic shelf I expect that a hole will exist there than can never quite be filled. If you are looking for a light beach read this is not the book for you. If you want a book that makes you feel and explore the relationships of life this is for you. Highly Recommended

RELATIONSHIPS

It helps if both parties want to be in the relationship. This is my entry for the PhotoFriday Meme for 9-12-08

SWORD by DA CHEN

FORBIDDEN TALES: SWORD
By Da Chen
Published by Harper Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-144759-4

Most Americans are aware of Fairy Tales based from a European background. Native American tales and African tales are also becoming more popular. The Chinese Tale, however. is not so well known in the west. This is a beautifully written book that describes what happens when a young Chinese girl reaches 15 and learns the truth about her father’s death. She now must face the challenges of avenging his death and the potential marriage to a man she has never met. All the while feeling the pressures of her mother and her community to do what is right.

If you have ever seen the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” it will help you to imagine what the beauty of Da Chen’s written words express. Through his words I can feel myself spinning in the air and flying through the trees.

As in all good tales this one has a moral to the story and an ending that will leave you surprised and satisfied. I had no idea what was coming in the ending until it came and I loved it. This book is only 229 small pages long. It gets you into the story quickly and resolves things equally fast. This is a great book for anyone who wants a good read with lots of heart.

TUESDAY THINGERS 8-26-08

From Boston Bibliophile....

Today's topic: LibraryThing authors. Who are your LibraryThing authors? What books of theirs do you have? Do you ever comment on an author's LT page? Have you received any comments from an author on your LT account?

I don't have any Library Thing authors. I need to get some, I need some, I feel so alone. Please Please I need some authors. (sorry, mild attempt at humor). I guess I need to check out that feature.

OLD FASHIONED

The working end of a John Deere H, complete with PTO (Power Take Off)

FIRST DAUGHTER

First Daughter
By Eric Van Lustbader
Forge Books

This book is timed just perfectly for a presidential election year. The time setting is of an outgoing administration that has held office for the last eight years and the soon to be new administration. The president on his way out does not really want to relinquish power while the president elect definitely has some different plans in mind. Shortly before the new president takes office his soon to be “first daughter” is abducted. Who did it and why? That is what the main character Jack McClure must find out. He himself is recovering from the accidental death of his own daughter who was the best friend of Alli, the first-daughter. The president –elect feels there is no one better for the job, against the wishes of the secret service. One unique quality that Jack has is dyslexia. While it is and has been a hindrance to him throughout most of his life, it also gives him the ability to see a situation three dimensionally often finding the answers long before anyone else.
The book opens with a bang and you are instantly caught up in finding out what is going to happen. I at times felt slightly disappointed in the writing because it seemed to me that a character was acting odd and I did not see why this author would write about them is such an odd way. Hah! I eventually found out why some of the characters seemed odd to me. It all made sense in the end. I had no idea some of the things that were coming and enjoyed every minute of it.
Not only was this a book about an abduction it also was about spirituality and religion. Throughout the book the characters were dealing with the idea of the impact of religion on their lives. How they justify their behavior with their beliefs and how much the government should allow religion to determine the direction of legislation. This was thought provoking and gave the book much more depth than your average everyday mystery/thriller.
Much in the book will seem to mirror the present political climate in the U.S. Only you can decide how much is fact and how much is fiction. The rest we will never know.
I enjoyed this book.

TUESDAY THINGERS 8-19-08

This week Boston Bibliophile asks:

Today's question: LT and RL (real life)- do you have friends in real life that you met through LibraryThing? Have you attended any LT meet-ups in your area? Would you be open to attending meet-ups or is LT strictly an online thing for you?

Sad to say I do not have any real life friends that are on Library Thing. I have met some really nice people there and love to hear what they have to say on all of the different forums but as of yet I don't know of any that live close to me and you would think I would since I live in Los Angeles. I have told my friends about Library Thing but somehow they just don't seem to get how cool it is. I am the only one of my real time friends that does admit to a book addiction. I hope to get more people interested though. I think what I like about the people that I have met so far on LT is that they in general seem to behave themselves and avoid bad online behavior when responding to other peoples posts that they may not agree with. I appreciate not having to read posts that turn in to flame wars just to keep up with what is going on in the book world.