Busy week as we are coming to the end of Cross Country season. Yesterday’s race was in the rain and was a great race. Youngest spent a happy week with his grandparents and eldest continues to settle in at work. Himself is busy with tests, quizzes, and grades. In addition, with the colder weather, it is time to think about putting all the bonsai under protection for the winter. Thankfully eldest is a big help with all this. As for me, I am now totally hooked on Maisie Dobbs and can’t wait to get my hands on the second of the series.
Here is what caught my attention this week:
On the Blog Hop I saw several books piquing my interest starting with I Wish Someone Were Waiting for me Somewhere, a collection of short stories by French writer Anna Gavalda and highlighted in a review from Rikki’s Teledoscope Blog. The twelve stories are 5-10 pages and feature a character’s pivotal moment told through first person narrative. Focusing on love, loneliness and satisfaction, this collection sounds perfect for those times when I need a short bite of something good.
From Bookroom with a View I found The Orphan Sister by Gwendolen Gross, the story of triplet sisters, two identical and a singleton. I wondered why I haven’t heard of this author, turns out she is published abroad with The Orphan Sister being the first of her books to be widely available – although some of her other works are available through Kindle. The sisters, mother and father are entrenched in their family dynamic when things are thrown completely upside down with the father’s disappearance. Each character must come to terms with their position in their past lives as well as their new life. This on is going on my hold list at the library.
Swapna Krisna brings two books to my attention: The first is a debut novel, Falling Under by Danielle Younge-Ullman, originally published in 2008 and just released for the Kindle Reader (at the bargain price of $2.99). The novel is about a young Toronto artist, Mara Foster. Mara was raised by absentee parents who spend more time hating each other than caring for their daughter. Mara has her first affair (with a man in his thirties) at age sixteen and then loses her college boyfriend in a tragedy. She lives alone and develops a relationship with a new man that forces her to examine her past and see if the walls she has encased herself in can come down. Swapna raves about the writing in this novel stating, “The writing in Falling Under really is amazing, some of the passages so beautiful that they hurt. Younge-Ullman has a talent for turning the shadows of life into a thing of beauty, almost poetry.”
The second book is Nearer than the Sky by T. Greenwood which was reissued this month. I love books that center around memory, as this book does, and I have long been fascinated with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which also plays a center role in this novel. Indie Brown is summoned by her sister to help take care of their mother who supposedly took poison. Lily, the sister, cannot leave her very ill daughter. In undertaking this task, Indie has to examine her families past, the death of her brother, and the many close calls all three siblings had when they were children all while dealing with a mother in denial. This sounds like a great book group read.
Jackie from Vulpes Libris writes a review of Carol Wallace’s novel detailing the last days of Vincent Van Gogh called Leaving Van Gogh. Dr. Gachet is a widower with two children living in a small village in France. He is an amateur painter with connections to the painting world and he is asked by Van Gogh’s brother Theo to look after the artist. This sounds like a wonderful exploration of the brilliance of madness as well as its cost to both the artist and those around him.
One of the best things about an electronic reader is the increased access to books in USA, books that we would not necessarily see in print. One such book is reviewed by Winston’s Dad, a translated novel from Italy called Accabadora by Michela Murgia. This novel has won six literary prizes in Italy and is set in the 1950’s and 1960’s in a rural village and the bustling city of Turin. Bonaria Urrai is the village Accabadora or Angel of Death. She adopts Maria, the unloved fourth daughter of a widow and goes about her business of seamstress during the day and midwife to the dying at night. Maria doesn’t know of her adopted mother’s second job until Bonaria shepherds a young man to his death without family consent. Maria flees to the city struggling to find love and acceptance. I read the preview section on the Amaz0n Website and the writing is well done. It is well worth it to go and read the last paragraph of the section which is simply exquisite as it describes Maria’s adjustment to her new home with Bonaria.
Happy reading!
Reflections from the Hinterland 
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