Read This!: Midwives

By Chris Bohjalian

Challenge: Medical Book

I found this on Good Reads medical book list.  No interesting story to tell about that.

It is 1981 and Sybil Danforth is a midwife who performs home births.  One of these goes terribly wrong and Sybil performs a c-section on her patient, Charlotte Bedford, who is dead so that the baby will be saved.  However, was Charlotte dead when the c-section was performed or did Sybil kill her when she performed it?   Soon Sybil and the entire midwife community/ home births by association are put on trial.

The idea of the story in this book was really interesting and got me going.  Since reading it, I have had passionate discourses on home births with anyone who would listen.  I won’t give away the ending but at first I was thinking, if these women want to have their babies at home, fine.  NMS but ok, do what you want.  And then I started to see the other side and I began to think, why would a woman want to have a baby at home with a non-school trained midwife when there are hospitals and nurses and medically trained midwives available?  It seems kind of reckless when so much can happen in a birth which may cause the mother or the baby to die.  Why be risky like that when you do not have to?  It almost seems a little selfish on the part of the mother to choose this.  (Fortunately, I don’t think many people read this blog so I am hoping I won’t be inundated by comments from home birth ladies (and maybe some men) about how it’s the right choice and to watch The Business of Being Born.)

Side note:  This book has reaffirmed my hatred of the verb use of the word “birth” as in “I birthed him”.  Gag.  And it has also reaffirmed that I am not a suffering through childbirth is nature’s way to embrace my womanhood kind of girl.  But you probably caught on to that by now.

PS I realize this isn’t really a review of the book per se so last but not least, I would recommend, it was a page turner.

Sharp Objects

Mrs. read Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects back in May and reviewed it here.  I won’t repeat the plot description from her review, but just quickly state that it was a pretty good thriller.  Not quite at the same level of Gone Girl, but Sharp Objects was Flynn’s debut novel and so it’s no surprise that it’s not as polished.  I didn’t think many of the characters were very sympathetic and I never understood Camille or the cutting thing, but that’s just me.  But it kept me turning the pages and was a fine start to Gillian Flynn’s career as a novelist and worth the read if you like her other works.
 
It’s also worth pointing out that Flynn is doing quite well for herself these days, with three popular novels (even if the first two only became popular after the success of Gone Girl), and now two of those novels being turned into films.  Which leads me to the casting for Gone Girl.  Mrs. and I had discussed who might play the leads, with the idea that in the book Amy was older than pretty boy Nick and that was one of the reasons for her insecurity.  So we had surmised that maybe it would work to have January Jones opposite Ryan Gosling or something along those lines.  So of course instead they cast Rosamund Pike (I didn’t know her before the casting) opposite . . . well of course Ben Affleck (he's everywhere!), a man seven years her senior.  Of course in Hollywood, having a man only seven years older than his screen wife may be the equivalent of the woman being older.  And for the record I’m sure Affleck will be fine.  I’m not whining about him in particular, like the idiots having a coronary over his Batman casting (seriously, settle down super hero nerds).  It was just a different direction that I had envisioned.

And finally, not only is Gone Girl (the movie) set to be released sometime in 2015, but as mentioned above another of Flynn’s books is being filmed as we speak, with Dark Places (we haven’t read) being scheduled for a late 2014 release.  I only found this out when I read that Christina Hendricks from Mad Men was cast in a supporting role.  Is someone working to get Sharp Objects into pre-production?  Not too late for three movies in three years. 
 
Next up:  Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

Read This!: Orphan Train

By Christina Baker Kline

I picked up this book because I had a gift card to Barnes and Noble and went shopping and even though I kind of gave it the side-eye, it must have piqued my interest as I bought it.

I had low expectations going in. Not because of anything I had heard about this book but just generally from the description, it seemed like not something I would get into. I was wrong.

Molly is a 17 year old foster kid in Maine in 2011. Because of a bit of theft at a library, she is forced to do community service at an old lady’s, Vivian Daly’s, house, cleaning out her attic. As the two of them go through Vivian’s things, Molly learns that Vivian was born in Ireland and her parents came to America in the 1920s. Through a series of events, Vivian found herself orphaned and put on an “orphan train” to the Midwest. The idea behind the orphan train (and these were a real thing) was that Midwestern families wanted children and would raise these orphans. The truth is that the older orphans were basically taken to work as free labor on farms and such until they were of age. Throughout the novel, we learn both Vivian’s and Molly’s stories.

I really, really liked this book. So much so, that when I was reading it, I didn’t realize I was at the end and was soundly and truly disappointed it was over. My original presumption that I would dislike it was therefore wrong and I highly recommend.

Foray into Fondant

Last weekend, I took a cake decorating class to learn how to use fondant.  I thought it would be hard but it actually was pretty easy and I am looking forward to decorating fab cakes in the future.

Here are a couple of pictures.  We got take our cakes home and Mr. and I enjoyed snacking on it all week.

Read This!: The House of Velvet and Glass

By Katherine Howe

I bought this book while on my recent book spree in MN. 

Word of advice: When flying somewhere, don’t go on a book shopping spree unless you have lots of room in your bags and a strong man to carry it.  Yes, Mr. was with me.

Sybil Allston’s mother and sister died on the Titanic.  Two years later, Sybil and her father inhabit their Back Bay mansion in Boston while her brother is at Harvard.  To deal with her loss, Sybil attends a séance on the second anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking.  Here, she believes she makes contact with the other side.  Soon after, her formulaic life is transformed when her brother gets kicked out of school, his “friend” comes to live with them, and she finds she has the ability to tell the future through scrying.  Not to mention, there is a former love suddenly back in her life.  All of this combines to make for a "surprise" ending. 

This book jumps around from the night on the Titanic, to the present-time of 1914ish, to 1860s Shanghai.  All of these help you to better understand the different members of the Allston family and why they make their decisions in life.  While the story was somewhat interesting, it did bore a bit.  I gritted my teeth through the constant use of “obsidian” and “cloying”.  Moreover, it took everything in me not to write a letter to the publisher when I saw the phrase “I could care less”.  It’s “I couldn’t care less”!!!!!!!!!  If you could care less, then you care about it.  BIG SIGH….  I also thought the romance between Benton was forced.  Semi-spoiler.  I get that they had a thing in the past and he married someone else but then suddenly he is back on the scene randomly and she is calling him every two seconds.  Huh?  (The former wife died, he was not stepping out on her.)  Then his explanation for why he married this other girl was lame.  Side-eye.  Either way, it wasn’t a bad read but it wasn’t the best I have read lately. 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

In Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke crafts an epic story of the return of practical magic to England after hundreds of years of absence.  Magic was once commonplace, but theoretical magic is all that’s left at the start of the 19^th century when the novel begins.  But in this alternate universe real magic does indeed exist (not to say it doesn't exist in our own universe), and to the surprise of the theoretical magicians, one Mr. Gilbert Norrell decides to come out of seclusion and show off his skills, returning practical magic to it's place as a useful tool.  Norrell establishes himself as the premiere (and seemingly only) practical magician in England, assisting the English in the fight against France during the Napoleonic Wars, and even bringing back to life the recently deceased young wife of a minister in the government (with the help of a fairy – a fairy who will reek havoc throughout the rest of the book).  But soon another magician arrives on the scene, the young Jonathan Strange, who despite being new to the world of magic quickly shows that he's as good as Norrell, much to the latter’s frustration.  They become master and pupil before a rift causes them to go their separate ways.  But they’ll have to come together to save those who’ve been put in danger (including Strange’s wife) by the evil magic performed by the fairy.

Needless to say I could write a really, really long review about a complex novel that contains over 1000 pages, but I'll try to keep this short and sweet.  If you’re looking for a book about rival magicians set in an alternate universe, where fairies exist, people can be brought back from the dead, and cities can move locations, then this is the book for you.

Ok, in all seriousness the book is very entertaining and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  It’s original and imaginative and thoroughly British (for lack of a better term).  It made me laugh several times and Clarke is a talented writer.  I wish I were creative enough to write a novel as intricately plotted and inventive as this one.  It was long, and although it was a surprisingly easy read despite its length, it did seem like it could have been edited down a bit.  At first it was moving along wonderfully, but halfway through I did find myself thinking, "Ok, I get it, the fairy dude is bad.  Norrell hates Strange’s interest in darker magic.  Let's get on with the story.", so yes there were occasions that I felt Clarke got a bit repetitive.  But I would still definitely recommend.  And it even ended with what could leave room for a sequel, yet provided enough closure to feel satisfied.  And I read that they may be making a BBC miniseries out of the book, which I would watch, if only because I’m curious how this could possibly be translated to the screen.

Next up:  Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Read This!: Don't Look Now

By Daphne du Maurier

Challenge: Short Stories

If you read this blog, you know I am a Daphne du Maurier fan so when I was browsing the huge Barnes and Noble we went to on our visit to Minnesota in June and saw a short story book by her, I thought I might read one of her books for the challenge. 

Side note: All of our super big suburban style bookstores are no more and when I saw this B&N, I went wild and told Mr. we had to go.  So we may have spent a small fortune on books because browsing a bookstore and purchasing books is not something I get to do these days. Damn you Kindle!!!

Anyways, so when we got home, I looked on Amazon to see more information about du Maurier’s short story books and ended up buying two. This one and one called The Doll. When I received these in the mail, I knew beforehand that The Doll would have a creepy cover but what I didn’t realize is that Don’t Look Now was a picture of someone screaming. So needless to say, both covers gave me the creeps and I hid them on my bookshelf.

Don’t Look Now is a compilation of nine of du Maurier’s stories. If you read her work, you know it can be dark with occasionally ambiguous and usually unhappy endings. This set of stories is creepy, suspenseful, and many have a hint of the supernatural. The most famous story in the set is The Birds which was made into an Alfred Hitchcock film. It has been years since I have seen it but the birds in the story have more malice and intent than the ones in the film, making it a bit darker than the movie.  I was most surprised at the ends of Don't Look Now and Kiss Me Again, Stranger. My least favorite was The Escort because I just didn't get into it.  

After reading this, I am looking forward to reading the other short story book that I bought.