Who are your favorite authors?

I do definitely have favorites where I'll read anything they write, but may not always be overwhelmed with joy or enthusiasm.

Among the classics, I fall into the great legion of Jane Austen fans, except for Mansfield Park. I haven't been able to get through that one yet. I really like Emily Bronte, though she only really has the one book.

For more modern writers, I really like Victoria Holt/Phillipa Carr/Jean Plaidy; I was a big fan of her Daughters of England series though I never finished it. As well, I am a a very big Anne Rice fan. I really like the Mayfair Witches series as well as the Vampire Chronicles and the other Vampire books she wrote. However, I think I like some her other older, non-porn fiction the best -- like Servant of the Bones, Mummy, the book about Quadroons in New Orleans, and Cry to Heaven. I've also read her first in the series of Seraphim books -- mixed feelings there.

Other writers I have enjoyed are Toni Morrison -- I've read Tar Baby, Song of Solomon, Sula, Beloved, and at least one more. I also intend to read the Bluest Eyes. Similarly, I enjoy Alice Walker -- the Color Purple and what I've read so far of Meridian and a few others. These are books I want to read and re-read.

Next entry maybe I'll talk about some of my all time favorite books.

Review of Hannah's Daughters

Hannah's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is about three generations of Swedish women starting from the tough life of a farmer's wife to the city transplant and the development of modern urban life and socialism in Sweden. I am not so much interested in Swedish history and farm life as I am in Norwegian farm life, but the setting for the first generation turns out to be on the Norwegian border and to be not far away from the town my mother was born in.

The book is framed by Anna, the third generation who is writing a book about the mother and grandmother. When she is writing the book, her mother is in a nursing home and has lost most of her faculties. Actually, this part of the book is not so interesting in my opinion as the story of Hannah. The life on the farm, the mill that she eventually moves to, and even her moving and adapting to the city is quite gripping at times. Hannah is very stoic and accepting of life -- it is what it is, and death and hard times are just part of the way things are for most farmer's wives. It gives a real glimpse into the world of my ancestors -- probably my father's father's family and their farm life in northern Norway.

The story of Johanna "told in her own words" brings us a view of what life is like through the Depression and World War 2 in Sweden. We also get a sense of how things are starting to change for women -- though ironically not enough. I found this part to be up and down in keeping my interest, but to be fair it was in its own way as compelling as Hannah's part. I'm sure not everyone would find the daily life of farm women to be gripping.

Anna's story - the interlude or frame of the story -- is the least interesting. I think I find Anna the hardest character to relate to and also we start getting more and more in to psychology. A little too much of that whereas Hannah was perhaps the polar opposite with her superstitions.

Anyway, it is not an action or plot oriented book, and I would not even call it character-driven. It is a "study" of how time, location, and history shape three generations of women without all the drama of a Sidney Sheldon or Jackie Collins or Nora Ephron novel might offer.
Overall, I would call this a 3 star effort.



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City of Light review

City of Light by Lauren Belfer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Although this book is just shy of 500 pages, I read it in 3 days, and I also managed to grade stack of essays and read part of another book. I also made myself slow down to enjoy all the description and really try to soak in some of the history. I have always enjoyed historical fiction, but rarely do I pay much attention to the details of the place since I don't really KNOW the place personally. However, City of Light takes place at the turn of the last century when Buffalo hosted the Pan-American exhibition. The streets and places the characters go are places I know now, and many of them still bear the unmistakable brand of the era they were built in. This is historical fiction at its best when you realize truly the research that went into the book and the accuracy of many of the details and even some of the people. The behavior of many of the tycoons of that era seem in someway so believable to me. I can just imagine the behavior of Grover Cleveland just as described. I can imagine that Albright was as eccentric as depicted, and that Rumsey was the benevolent and arrogant father-figure. Now what I have figure out is if the Love estate is still there in part. I know the Albright mansion was torn down, but what of the Rumsey estate or the Love estate? Now I have a new "search" to add the next time I'm on Delaware Avenue.
The character of Louisa Barrett is one of the more three-dimensional characters in the book, and she is a very believable narrator. She tells the story about 10 years after the final events in the story take place, 10 years after the McKinley assassination. You never really know what is going to happen -- the suspense is kept, the surprises (with one exception) are not really foreshadowed, and even the more predictable surprise doesn't seem predictable until you look back a bit. Louisa seems sometimes wound a little too tight, but when I think about the times and the fact that she was in society without being married...well, then I think I understand the reason: survival.
One of the things that I think makes the book also a "pleasure" besides the story line and the narrator is the way I actually could get just as furious as she did at the arrogance of some of these tycoons. I could see the slums and the charity hospitals and compare them to the opulence of the rich, and I got angry. I understood why the unionists were striking for better wages and especially the better safety and working conditions. I am appalled at the expendability of working class men.
I got mad about the racism too! Mary Talbert was a real person, and having visited 1st Michigan Baptist Church just 6 months ago, I already know quite a bit about her -- a black woman fighting for justice in a very racist country. I loved the relationship that developed between Louisa and Mary, the true rockiness of it, and yet the gradual understanding the two had.
I could go on, but I want to save some for the book club discussion on this, and anything else would include spoilers.



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What is an immergent reader?

The emergent reader is a young reader who is developing their skills. Immersion is when you are completely immersed in something. Hence, I have decided that I am an immergent reader. As an adult, I am fully literate, and yet I am coming back to books in a way I never probably read since my late elementary school days or even my English lit major days. I credit my book club for reawakening my passion for reading. I also love to post my books on Goodreads. However, I think a reading blog is just the thing for posting reviews and communing with the larger reading world. From time to time, I'll be posting my thoughts on books as I read them, and sharing the final reviews that I post on Goodreads.