Firsts

By Heather T.


Estella’s Revenge's January ‘Firsts’ theme gave me some difficulty in the beginning. When contemplating this theme I gave some thought to how the books I had on the go would fit and whether or not a review would work. I had a number of books in the rotation but none were of a genre I hadn’t previously explored so I wasn’t sure where I could really go with that.

I thought perhaps I could reread the first book I remembered and explore some ideas surrounding that but I tried to remember the first book I ever read and couldn’t come up with a title. Books have simply always been there and although they haven’t run together, I certainly didn’t have a blog back than to help me keep track of the books I read and what I might have thought about them. It certainly would have been fun to reread that first book though. I suspect it was a fairytale of some sort since I do remember being obsessed with having my father read to me every night the wonderful tale of Cinderella.

I do remember the first time I went to the public library by myself. It was during summer vacation and I was fourteen. I don’t know if that seems old or not but before that I’d only ever gone with my father. I suppose it never occurred to me that I might like to go by myself but I think there was one morning my father was busy working in the garden with my mother so off I went.

I remember feeling a different sort of excitement than usual – a certain empowerment. The length of the walk seemed shortened. The sky seemed a deeper blue and the sun seemed to shine even brighter than usual. It was late summer and the sound of tree frogs was amplified by my excitement and happiness.

What books did I explore that wonderful summer day? I wish I could remember but I’ve no idea what books I might have taken home with me. I remember only the joy I felt in opening the door to the library, striding inside and breathing deeply, smiling to myself and entering a random stack to see what I could discover. I still behave exactly the same each time I enter a library.

Author Interview - Jane Johnson

By Heather T.

I was lucky enough to have been invited to interview the author of The Tenth Gift, Jane Johnson. She was kind enough to answer my questions via e-mail. She is an interesting, talented woman and I’d like to once again offer my thanks to her for writing such an entertaining novel and for taking the time to reply to my questions.

HT: How long did it take to write this novel? Did you have trouble finishing the book and leaving Julia and Cat behind?

JJ: I started it in 2004, and finally delivered it in 2007, so I lived it for three years, and really immersed myself in it, so yes, it was hard to leave the characters behind. Though a relief, too, to be truthful: when I started out it seemed the most immense and difficult task and I was very, very relieved to have completed it to some degree of satisfaction.

HT: Did the writing process flow smoothly for you? Could you explain your process?

JJ: Hmm, not sure 'process' is something I have! I don't really have a disciplined routine, partly because I'm juggling so many things at once and many of them can get in the way of the writing. I'm not a quick writer, though: generally I will aim for 1000-2000 words a day, but if they don't come, they don't come, and it certainly doesn't happen every day. I keep a notebook, and I often find new material comes easier if I write longhand outside somewhere, especially in wide open spaces or by the sea, as if my imagination needs a lot of space in which to roam. Then I'll type the draft into the laptop and edit as I go.

HT: I noticed a bit of a supernatural strain throughout with the sad attic and Annie Badcock. I wondered if you plan to next write a novel which explores this theme more fully. I want to know more about Annie!

JJ: Yes, it's really a well-disguised ghost story! I do enjoy a touch of the supernatural and magical -- for me they enliven a book, and the next novel certainly involves these themes. But not Annie, nor indeed Cornwall, I'm afraid. In fact, Annie is based on a local character in my village, so I think I'd better leave well alone!

HT: Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual and/or religious person? Whether or not you do, do you think it had an impact on the story itself?

JJ: Not in any serious or organised way. I indulge in a bit of magical thinking and superstition from time to time (I blame my mother and Cornish ancestors); and I've had one or two strange experiences in my life which raise the question of there being things we simply don't understand, patterns of life that catch us in their toils. And yes, certainly, these things influence the story and how it's told.

HT: Do you keep a journal and record story ideas? Will we see more of Julia and Cat in a future novel?

JJ: I keep all sorts of notebooks and scraps of paper and computer files, but as ever, not in any organised way. A lot of them just stay in my head, and emerge when they join together, like story molecules! No more plans for Julia and Cat, though: I like to think I've set them free to live their own lives now.

HT: I like to re-read books and I wondered if you do the same and whether or not you have a particular favourite?

JJ: Yes: I have a very unretentive memory, so after a few years I can quite happily revisit a favourite book and find new things in it, especially with heavily textured, rich books like those by Mary Renault; or classics like Thomas Hardy.

HT: Is there a much loved quote you could share that speaks to your thoughts and feelings about life?

JJ: I don't go in much for aphorisms or pearls of wisdom (if I knew them I'd forget them!). But I do like, and try to follow, some of the 14th Dalai Lama's wise words:

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, Responsibility for all your actions

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

When you realise you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend some time alone every day.

Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

Be gentle with the earth.

Once a year, go somewhere you've never been before.

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

(Especially the last one!)

Thanks very much to Random House Canada for this one.

The Tenth Gift

By Jane Johnson
Random House Canada
Reviewed by Heather T.

(Possible spoilers.)

This is a captivating story that spans 400 years. Mystery, pirates, romance, embroidery, strains of the supernatural, history and adventure – this book really has everything and goes at a wonderful pace; I could barely put it down. I’ll be first in line to read Ms. Johnson’s next book, I can tell you.

Julia Lovat is given a seventeenth-century embroidery pattern book with margins full of faint writing. The writing turns out to be the story of Cat who was kidnapped from the Cornish coast by North African pirates with the intention of selling her as a slave. Prior to reading this story I was unaware of the fascinating historical fact that ‘the Barbary corsair raids on the south coasts of England, which took place intermittently over the course of more than two hundred years during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries…’ (p.387)

After I finished the book I realized that I hadn’t stopped to make any notes for quotes! Yes, it was very captivating indeed! I did love the first line of the book which follows.

p.3

‘There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they have never happened before, like larks that have been singing the same five notes for thousands of year.’

The Winter Rose

The Winter Rose
Written by Jennifer Donnelly
Hyperion
Reviewed by Heather T.

Estella’s theme for this issue is ‘change’. Barbara Taylor Bradford, a well known writer of romances classifies the heroine of ‘The Winter Rose’ as “a new breed of woman” and I must say that I agree. The novel is set in a time of much political and social change and hints at real world events make this romance a unique epic.

I’ve mentioned before that I am a fan of lovely, mushy romance and ‘The Winter Rose’ did not disappoint. However, this is no average bodice ripper but rather a substantial novel of over 700 pages. Even more endearing about this story were the added elements of mystery, historical detail (political and otherwise), adventure and varied locals. As a woman, I was particularly impressed with the strong, passionate and unlikely heroine, India Selwyn Jones who struggles with her medical school teachings of holding in her emotions and that of her deep instincts that tell her to follow her heart.

India is an idealistic aristocrat who has just graduated from the London School of Medicine for Women. It is naturally assumed that she will set up a safe and acceptable practice for her peers but she has other plans. Whitechapel’s poor and indigent are calling to her and she dreams of setting up a ‘modern’ clinic for those most in need, the women and children. In the early 1900s when women’s suffrage has become an important topic, this will be no easy task when most of those around India can do nothing but laugh at her plans and try to convince her to do nothing but marry and have children.

India’s life is complicated when she meets the gangster Sid Malone, saves his life and then falls in love with him. Sid’s life of crime has lost its attraction and he finds he is definitely not immune from India’s unintentional charms. Can they truly be happy when there are those around them that would like nothing better than to see them apart?

From England to Africa to America, the passionate convictions they hold are nurtured and challenged, both at the same time. ‘The Winter Rose’ follows ‘The Tea Rose’ and which I suspect was the first in a long line of an excellent series. I’ve added ‘The Tea Rose’ to my personal ‘to be read’ list and when the next ‘Rose’ is published I suspect I’ll be first in line to read it.

As most of you know, I like to include quotes with my reviews but when I finished this book, I realized that I hadn’t stopped to write even one! This novel really captured my attention and my imagination. I do hope you enjoy it should you choose to read it.

Comfort Food

By Heather T.

Comfort. This month’s theme, is one that conjures up images in my mind of long winter Saturdays; a book or two at my side, wrapped in a cozy blanket, a large mug of tea and a huge plate of cookies.

I decided to step away from the usual book review I’ve submitted in the past and instead share two very tasty cookie recipes. You’ll need these to complete your perfect reading marathon. You may not actually get any reading done because you’ll be too busy eating cookies! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies – adapted from Anna Olson’s Sugar

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips or mini chips

Preheat oven to 350F
Cream butter with hand mixer
Add sugars and continue to mix until smooth
Mix in egg and vanilla
Stir in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt
Stir in chocolate chips

Using a tablespoon, scoop a small amount of mixtures and drop onto a baking sheet
Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges
Let cool slightly and eat – gobbling down is good!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 325F
Mix peanut butter, sugar and egg with a large spoon until well blended
Using a tablespoon, scoop a small amount of mixture and drop onto a baking sheet
Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned
Cool in pan for 5 – 10 minutes
Eat right away! Again, gobbling down is good!

Interview: Sleuth of Baker Street

Interviewed by Heather T. of The Library Ladder

http://www.sleuthofbakerstreet.com/

Twenty-five years ago J.D. Singh and Marian Masters saw an ad in a Canadian national newspaper called the Globe & Mail that said ‘bookstore for sale’ and in Marian’s words, “that was basically it.” I’m sure we’ve all had a moment like this – falling in love with an inanimate object or the idea of that object, usually book-related. That bookstore became a large, cozy and very specialized bookstore called Sleuth of Baker Street stuffed to the rafters with mysteries of all sorts.

I’ve had the pleasure of asking Marian a few brief questions via email.

Library Ladder: Twenty-five years ago you purchased Sleuth of Baker Street; why? What first drew you to Sleuth?

MM: Twenty-five years ago we saw an ad in the Globe & Mail that said ‘bookstore for sale’ and that was basically it. It was a small store, 500 square feet compared to today at 1700 square feet, but it seemed to have so much charm and potential that we took a chance and here we are today!

LL: Do you have an all time favourite mystery author? If so, who?

MM: I do not have one favourite mystery writer. I’ve always read everything that Michael Connelly writes as well as Lee Child, Stuart Pawson, Robert Crais, James Twining, martin O’Brien and Janet Evanovich. I read and enjoy the more ‘lighter’ style of mysteries written by Victoria Laurie, Joanne Fluke and Jerrilyn Farmer. I also love spy novels written by Henry Porter and Stella Rimmington. And that’s just a few.

LL: Do you have a favourite Canadian mystery author/s?

MM: It would be tough to pick a favourite Canadian mystery writer as well, although at the moment it would have to be Louise Penny. I also love reading Susanna Kearsley and Lyn Hamilton but there are some other great ones as well.

LL: Name three authors you would recommend to someone new to the genre.

MM: Picking three authors to recommend would be hard because I would want to know what type of story someone would want to read. British setting, Canadian or US? Female sleuth or policeman? I suppose I would pick Louise Penny, Michael Connelly and Stuart Pawson. That would cover all three countries For private eye I would pick Sue Grafton and Robert Crais.

LL: Is there a particular sleuth you wish you could sit down and have a conversation with or play ‘Watson’ to?

MM: Sorry, I have no desire or talent to be a ‘Watson’. (Ditto Marian, ditto!)

LL: Do you have a favourite quote that sums up your philosophy of life or the world of bookselling?

MM: ‘My philosophy’, I don’t have one. I just wish we could all spend more time reading!

Thank you so much Marian!! To celebrate their twenty-five years as owners of Sleuth, J.D. and Marian are hosting mystery writer, Louise Penny who will launch her Inspector Gamache novel, The Cruellest Month on Saturday, October 20th at 7pm. If you are in the Toronto area, please join them!

My Happy Life

My Happy Life
By Lydia Millet
Soft Skull Press
Reviewed by Heather T.

Before reading My Happy Life, I examined what Estella’s July, "young at heart"theme meant to me. "Young at heart" strikes me as a happy theme; one in which you can be confident that only good things will happen…after all, isn’t youth supposed to be full of innocence? July was always a time of lazy days filled with activities such as running through the sprinkler, gorging myself on ice cream and reading all the books I could get my hands on.

I began the book and read this:

“The door is locked from the outside; they went away and forgot me" (1).

Nice! Perhaps this isn’t going to be a happy sort of book after all (at this point I hadn’t read any of the accompanying review material) This book was kindly sent to me by the lovely ladies of Estella’s Revenge and I was really looking forward to it. From the title alone I had made up some notion in my head that it was a happy-go-lucky coming of age story. It’s a coming of age story alright but it is a distressingly tragic one.

This first line, I discover, is stated at a later stage of life and sets the reader up for a comment made later in the novel in which the narrator is told she is an extra; she is told this when she is child. How awful! To be told you are an extra!! Many times people don’t want the extra, it is usually destined for the refuse pile and her life, filled with horrendous abuses, illustrates just that. I felt sad the entire time I was reading this book.

The positive things I’d like to say about this book are that the writing is wonderful. This counts for major points in my personal tally book. The narrator has some very awful things happen to her but the author doesn’t get graphic. She uses a certain amount of grace to tell the reader what is happening but frankly if the reader isn’t paying attention then they’ll have missed everything – this adds something special to the story and I think it takes a talent not too many writers have.

Have you ever read a book that you found you detested while at the same time you are filled with admiration for the talent of the writer? This happened to me with this book. I was in the mood for a happy read so I couldn’t find the positive in the story. The narrator finds positive in everything around her but unfortunately I knew what was really happening to her and felt too much sadness – I suppose not understanding the world around you would lead to a happy life.

Being young at heart does not mean that you are completely naïve as the narrator is. It does not mean that you shake your head and say "excuse me" as someone hurts you, like the narrator does. Being young at heart means you view life with a lighter touch…with a small smile.

I wanted to write a much more positive review but I think the author will understand when I say that this book’s topic was too much for me. Her talent as a writer I could never dispute and in fact I would urge you to read this book. Perhaps you can find the happy and the small smile.

The Road

The Road
Written by Cormac McCarthy
Knopf
Reviewed by Heather T.

I had two reviews written for two very proper mysteries, the type with a dead body or two, a suspect or two and one very insightful mystery solver. Then I read The Road and I had to submit a review to Estella’s Revenge and while it definitely does not match the accepted idea of a mystery novel, it most certainly is a mystery. It presents the mystery of ethics and human existence in a very intriguing way.

Their names are never told. The man and his son, the boy, have survived; we’re not sure how as shortly before the birth of the boy there is an apocalyptic event which throws the world into absolute chaos. There is death and destruction but we’re meant to fill in the visual gaps ourselves and I’ll tell you that I had to stop reading the book every once in awhile as I willed my imagination to show me the opposite of what the book portrays so very subtly and so very disturbingly.

Sometime in the past, the boy’s mother has used one of the three bullets in the small gun they carry as their only protection. Then they are alone, together. Six or seven years have past and the man is dying but must reach the ocean and must shield the boy from the horrors found in the ash. Each event along the road is shrouded in half explanations and hidden meanings. They continue to walk.

They carry the fire, is it their soul? There are those that have lost their fire or perhaps have never had it and would kill them to merely survive and those that would pass quickly by in the night, running towards their own oceans, hoping for their own meager survival, carrying their own fire. The boy remains as true goodness throughout the long journey.

I cried many times throughout this book and I felt gratefulness at this safe life I lead; I’ll be frank and tell you that the very idea of this book frightened me…frightened me deep down. There were many quotes I wanted to write here but the following passage in particular illustrated the story so perfectly that it is the only one I’ll share with you.

p. 60

“In the morning they came out of the ravine and took to the road again. He’d carved the boy a flute from a piece of roadside cane and he took it from his coat and gave it to him. The boy took it wordlessly. After a while the man could hear him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin. The man turned and looked back at him. He was lost in concentration. The man thought he seemed some sad and solitary changeling child announcing the arrival of a traveling spectacle in shire and village who does not know that behind him the players have all been carried off by wolves.”

Candide

By Voltaire
Reviewed by Heather T.

I'm not sure how to write this without it sounding like an essay for University or some such. Bare with me while I gush. My blog is called The Library Ladder and my rating system involves Library Ladder Rungs, of which Candide earned 5 out of 5.

The subtitle of Candide is 'Or Optimism' and the back cover bills it as "the most brilliant challenge to the idea endemic in Voltaire's day, that -all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds-". Writing during the Enlightenment Voltaire, created Candide to explore cause and effect, to speak out against blind adherence to one authority (Church or State) and to preach tolerance. Using humour, Voltaire was able to produce a philosophical triumph which is that each individual should be able to come to his own answers and that one’s destiny is one’s own – the human condition.

A few quotes to whet your appetite:

p. 19"You could read his character in his face. He combined sound judgement with unaffected simplicity; and that, I suppose, was why he was called Candide."

p.142"'I had been looking forward,' said Pangloss, 'to a little discussion with you about cause and effect, the best of all possible worlds, the origin of evil, the nature of the soul, and pre-established harmony.'At these words the dervish got up and slammed the door in their faces."

p.144"'There is a chain of event in this best of all possible worlds; for if you had not been turned out of a beautiful mansion at the point of a jackboot for the love of Lady Cunegonde, and if you had not been involved in the Inquisition, and had you not wandered all over America on foot, and had not struck the baron with your sword, and lost all those sheep you brought from Eldorado, you would not be here eating candied fruit and pistachio nuts.''That's true enough,' said Candide; 'but we must go and work in the garden.'"