Bookreview: The Poisonwood Bible

Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Genre: Historical
Published: 1998
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 73

Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family – a wife and four daughters – on a mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

The Poisonwood Bible is narrated by Orleana Price and her daughters, who are all very different people with their own unique perspective. This gave the book a unique 3-D picture of the situation, both their private situation as the more general situation of the country they live in which is in turmoil. Right from the beginning I knew things were going to go wrong, and as the book followed the family as things slid from bad to worse without them knowing it, it seems, until it was too late. Every time there was a point at which they could turn things around I was hoping they would, but didn’t really expect it.

What I liked very much was that the story continued after the main happenings in the Belgian Congo, that it showed how the events there affected the family for decades afterwards and how they ended up living their lives. That, for me, was perhaps the best part of the book.

All in all, this was a heavy book (both in subject as in size), but very, very good. It will stick with me for a good long while and I highly recommend it!

Bookreview: Rules of the Wild

Author: Francesca Mariano
Genre: Realistic
Published: 1998
Personal rating: 3/5
Yearly count: 72

Rules of the wild tells the story of Esme, an Italian immigrant now living in Kenya, and her struggle to fit in there, to find herself, and the love she feels for two very different men. The fact that the author herself is also an Italian now living in Kenya shows and brings the descriptions in the book to life. The writing style did take me a while to get into, but once I got used to it, it was fine. The ending, while not the happy ending I was hoping for, felt hopeful even if it was ambiguous and fit the tone of the story. So despite it not being a fairy-tale ending, I ended up liking it quite a lot.

However, a lot of the story is about looking back, and Esme reflecting on her life and how things all went wrong. Esme is a fairly passive character and that combined with the lack of forward movement in the story made the whole book feel very passive. I didn’t like that very much.

All in all, this was an ok book. It didn’t shine for me, although the immigrant lifestyle was very well depicted, as were all the different aspects of Africa. That, for me, made the book more worth reading than the whole story about Esme.

Sunday Salon: London Here I Come!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a great day and that you get lots of books from your wish list!

For me it’s only one more day until I fly to London. I will stay there until after New Year, so while there some pre-planned posts will be published during that time, I won’t be online. Instead, I am going to go book shopping!

One of my stops will be Cecil Court road, a tiny little street filled with bookshops. The prices are not always as nice as the street, but it’s a delight to just browse.

Bookreview: A Wrinkle in Time

Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Genre: Science fiction
Published: 1962
Personal rating: 3/5
Yearly count: 71

Meg Murray, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. He claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a "tesseract," which, if you didn't know, is a wrinkle in time.

Meg's father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?

For a science fiction book written almost 50 years ago this story held up really well. The science of the time travel in the book, the different planets and races, and the evil the characters face seem as ‘real’ today as they did when this book was first written. The story has the right amount of tension and lighter moments in it and always seems to be moving forward.

Yet having said all that, all this book did was show me once again that science fiction really isn’t my cup of tea when it comes to books. The only science fiction I like seems to be the science fiction on tv. So while I didn’t hate this book, in fact, I found it to be highly readable – it is the first science fiction book I can remember actually finishing – I didn’t really like it either. That, however, had nothing to do with the book and everything to do with me. So for everyone who does enjoy science fiction I would recommend this book, because it is charming and simply a good story. And that, coming from a science fiction book hater like myself, is high praise indeed!

Bookreview: A Different Kind of Christmas

Author: Alex Haley
Genre: Historical
Published: 1988
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 70

It is 1855. Fletcher Randall is the son of a Southern plantation owner who is pro-slavery, as it is all he’s ever known. But when he goes to school up North, he’s exposed to the anti-slavery sentiments of several of his classmates. It is the start of a personal journey for Fletcher which culminates in a risky undertaking on Christmas Eve that could cost him his life.

This book is short but packs quite a punch. The writing style fits the story beautifully, and that’s not something I say lightly. The emotional journey Fletcher makes is believable and even when he’s still pro-slavery he’s easy to empathize with, despite not sharing his views at all. The ending is a little unexpected, but I thought it was a fitting end to the book.

Bookreview: Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
Published: 1938
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 69

It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture, followed by a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. But when Hercule Poirot, who is staying in the village with a friend for Christmas, offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is an old-fashioned mystery, where all suspects are gathered in one manor house in the country and the murder victim is despised by all. The fact that it is Christmas makes the actions of Simeon Lee, the murder victim, all the more vicious, and without it being Christmas the murder would probably never have taken place, or at least there would have been fewer suspects with motive around. As always in Agatha Christie’s books there are plenty of secrets to go around and it falls to Hercule Poirot to find those details that actually matter in this murder case. I don’t always like Hercule Poirot as a character, but he was more tolerable in this book than normal. And the twist at the end was brilliant.

Bookreview: Last Call

Author: Jennifer Schmidt
Genre: Romance
Published: 2011
Personal rating: 3.5/5
Yearly count: 68

While on vacation, a night out turns into a drunken haze, and Novalee Jensen wakes up hung over, confused, and… married? Fleeing Nevada, Novalee returns home to Montana to hide out, dreading the moment when her husband will show up to take her hard-earned business. But two years later just when Novalee thinks her secret is safe, guess who walks through her door? Now, face-to-face with the man she left in a hotel room two years ago, Novalee discovers the difficult part isn't having to explain her actions that night, or the questions that arise about the sexy stranger's arrival, it's keeping her hands off her husband. And what's Novalee to do when the hardest part turns out not to be confronting her past, but facing a possible future without her soon-to-be ex-husband?

Multi-millionaire Dean Philips wakes up in a Las Vegas hotel room to find the pretty blonde he married the night before gone. The piece of paper he possesses proves she served her purpose, and guilt ridden over his actions, Dean begins a battle with his father for a fight for his grandfather’s fortune. When Dean is ordered to have his wife appear in court, he finds himself in a small town in Montana, looking for the woman who ran off two years ago. Caught up in secrets and lies of his own, he has to find a way to persuade her to come back to Vegas with him without having her find out that she's the missing puzzle piece to everything he's been fighting for. But when Dean decides to mix a little pleasure with business, he suddenly finds himself in unfamiliar territory that could cost him everything.

I liked this one. What started out as a fairly typical romance plot was made just that little bit better by the realism of the feelings and events. There was no easy acceptance on Novalee’s part of the lies, nor was Dean completely comfortable with lying in the first place. I also liked how Novalee’s past was dealt with – she’s damaged but not broken, and there are no magical solutions, just Novalee doing her best to move on with her life. The writing style of this book was pleasant as well. All in all, I enjoyed this book.

Short Story Reviews

When Tony Met Adam – Suzanne Brockmann – 4 stars

This short story is part of the Troubleshooter universe of Suzanne Brockmann and was written in honor of the final repeal of DADT. I loved this story a lot, even though the end was a bit sudden. What I liked most was the fact that the teammates of the gay Navy SEAL were afraid of saying the wrong thing and thereby putting their teammate in an awkward position due to DADT. Highly recommended, even if you have no idea who these characters are!

The Affair at the Victory Ball – Agatha Christie – 3 stars

A short Hercule Poirot story that was mediocre compared to Agatha Christie’s usual brilliance. Still a solid little mystery, but easily solved by me early in the story – something that never, ever happens with Agatha Christie’s full sized novels. I also think Hercule Poirot doesn’t really work in a short story, but otherwise this story was a nice, quick read.

Daddy Die Hard – Isaac Sweeney – 2.5 stars

A short non-fiction story about the author using John McClane as a father figure after his own father leaves him and his mother alone. While I liked what little he said, I had expected more from this going by the description of the story. It left me rather dissatisfied and I think it could have been a lot better.

Bookreview: The Third Option

Author: Vince Flynn
Genre: Thriller
Published: 2000
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 67

Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterterrorism operative, is sent on his final mission, to eliminate a European industrialist who has been selling sensitive equipment to one of terrorism's most notorious sponsors. But he doesn't know that the ultimate target of this mission is himself. Set up by forces within the US who do not want the next Director-elect of the CIA to take over, and therefore need a disaster for the present regime, Mitch refuses to die... the conspirators have made an awful miscalculation. They have enraged one of the most lethal and efficient killers the CIA has ever produced. Now they will pay.

This book has an explosive start and from there on it’s a thrilling ride as Mitch Rapp is on the run, unsure of who he can trust – if he can trust anyone at all. Written in the same style as the previous book Vince Flynn draws the reader into the plot with multiple threads that all converge. But where Transfer of Power kept the same break-neck pace until the end, this book did not. The last 150 pages or so the pace slowed down, which I thought was a pity.

Still, despite that, this book was a good one and although this particular case is closed there’s a loose thread which I assume will become the main plot of the next book. I’d still recommend this book, if only because Mitch Rapp and his reactions were outstanding in this one.

Bookreview: The Last Kashmiri Rose

Author: Barbara Cleverly
Genre: Mystery, Detective
Published: 2001
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 66

In a land of saffron sunsets and blazing summer heat, an Englishwoman has been found dead, her wrists slit, her body floating in a bathtub of blood and water. But is it suicide or murder? The case falls to Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands, who survived the horror of the Western Front and has endured six sultry months in English-ruled Calcutta. Sandilands is ordered to investigate, and soon discovers that there have been other mysterious deaths, hearkening sinister ties to the present case. Now, as the sovereignty of Britain is in decline and an insurgent India is on the rise, Sandilands must navigate the treacherous corridors of political decorum to bring a cunning killer to justice…knowing the next victim is already marked to die.

Set in the early 1920s in British India The Last Kashmiri Rose is the first book of the Detective Joe Sandilands series. And I’ll tell you, if the rest of them are as good as this one I’ll be a very happy girl. The plot is well thought out, the setting is crucial to the plot and, unusual for this type of book, the why of the murders is more important than the who, although for about half the book the killer’s identity isn’t known. This book scores very well on all fronts, plot, setting and characters are great and make this a page-turner despite the slow simmering of happenings.

But what I loved most about this book was the setting. India is described so vividly that I felt as if I were there. While Anglo-India is most prominent, something of the native people and culture is also shown in this book. The time period is also an interesting one. There is unrest simmering under the surface due to tension between the British and the natives, and an uprising resulting in a lot of casualties is not that long ago. Not to mention that World War I is only just over and nobody was left untouched by that. The early 1920s is also an interesting time for forensics and criminal psychology, which were just up and coming in being used in investigations, and of which Joe Sandilands is a fervent fan. But perhaps most striking of all did I find the gap between Joe, who hasn’t spent that much time in India, and the English living in India that he meets. Time is ‘behind’ in India, often Joe thinks ‘it could have been the 90s’ by which he means the 1890s. This contrast puts you even more in the 1920s frame of mind than mere descriptions of the time period could have done.

All in all I really liked this book and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Highly recommended!

Bookreview: Transfer of Power

Author: Vince Flynn
Genre: Thriller
Published: 1999
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 65

On a busy Washington morning, the stately calm of the White House is shattered as terrorists gain control of the executive mansion, slaughtering dozens of people. The president is evacuated to an underground bunker, but not before nearly one hundred hostages are taken. One man is sent in to take control of the crisis. Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterterrorism operative, determines that the president is not as safe as Washington's power elite had thought. Moving among the corridors of the White House, Rapp makes a chilling discovery that could rock Washington to its core: someone within his own government wants his rescue attempt to fail.

This is the first book where Mitch Rapp appears as a main character and boy, what a main character he is! The perfect hero for a series of thrillers about covert counterterrorism operations, Rapp is good at what he does, yet imperfect at the same time. I fell in love with this character right from the first page he appeared.

Other than a great main character, this book has a lot of things going for it. A great plot, good, fast-paced writing and an explosive ending that wrapped things up quite nicely. But above all this plot was believable in a way that was absolutely chilling, because if something like this ever happened in real life – and it could, unfortunately – we sadly don’t have a Mitch Rapp to call upon to save the day. All in all this was a great book that I highly recommend!

Bookreview: Term Limits

Author: Vince Flynn
Genre: Thriller
Published: 1997
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 64

In one bloody night, three of Washington's most powerful politicians are executed with surgical precision. Their assassins then deliver a shocking ultimatum to the American government: set aside partisan politics and restore power to the people. No one, they warn, is out of their reach -- not even the president. A joint FBI-CIA task force reveals the killers are elite military commandos, but no one knows exactly who they are or when they will strike next. Only Michael O'Rourke, a former U.S. Marine and freshman congressman, holds a clue to the violence: a haunting incident in his own past with explosive implications for his country's future....

This thriller is fast-paced and Vince Flynn juggles the different strands of the story with ease. Never did I get confused about who I was reading about and one by one the different storylines started to come together to culminate in an exciting, realistic ending. For a first novel, this was absolutely amazing!

But more than just a well written thriller Term Limits is also a book that made me think. Who do you feel sympathy for? The killers, the FBI, or the politicians? Perhaps only for the innocents caught in the crossfire. Since the publication of this novel politics has only gotten worse and the monetary crisis this book predicts has come to pass. But when does fighting for freedom, for civil rights, become an ordinary crime? How far can and should you go in today’s world if you want to change it? Can killing ever be justified? Though questions that this book made me ask, and I still haven’t found an answer to them. And that, I think, is the true power of this book.

Bookreview: The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax

Author: Dorothy Gilman
Genre: Spy novel
Published: 1971
Personal rating: 3.5/5
Yearly count: 63

While waiting for a view of her night-blooming cereus, the mild-seeming Mrs. Pollifax received urgent orders for a daring mission to aid an escape. Soon, the unlikely-looking international spy was sporting a beautiful new hat that hid eight forged passports....

Where giving Mrs. Pollifax the mission instead of a seasoned CIA agent in the first two books was half-way credible, this time it totally isn’t. As always, the storyline is rife with coincidences, even more than normal and if you can’t stand that, then this isn’t the book for you. If, however, you want to read an amusing, cozy spy story than you should definitely pick up The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax. Always fun and more often than not with quite a bit of fast-paced action this is another fine addition to the Mrs. Pollifax series.

Bookreview: Hoe schrijf ik een biografie? (How to write a biography)

Author: Dik van der Meulen and Monica Soeting
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 2010
Personal rating: 5/5
Yearly count: 62

I picked this book up because I am interested in writing family history, which often amounts to writing the stories of one ancestor at a time. In that aspect it very much looks like a biography, so I had hoped this book might help me.

Many books that deal with writing family histories focus on the near past, where there are still people who remember it, and the ins and outs of using interviews as a source often play a huge role in those books. This book, however, dealt not only with writing the biography of a recently deceased person, but also of people who lived further back in time. Therefore it described methods of finding, interpreting and using information other than interviews. As such, I found this the best book I have yet to read about writing a biography or family history. It was not only informative, but also easy to read and understand. Highly recommended!