Mailbox Monday for 12/5/11

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books and is being hosted all this month by Jenny of Let Them Read Books.

On a trip to BestBuy I found Barbra Streisand's A Christmas Album on CD for $4.99. 

I won a trade paperback of My Soul To Take by Tananarive Due from Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit.

A Train In Winter by Caroline Moorehead

Part Of Synopsis From Back Cover:

They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, secreted Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of fifteen who scrawled "V" for victory on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer's wife in her sixties who harbored escaped Allied airmen. Strangers to each other, hailing from villages and cities from across France, these brave women were united in hatred and defiance of their Nazi occupiers. 

Eventually, the Gestapo hunted down 230 of these women and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, education, profession, and class, as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie. 

In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.  

I have been reading a lot of great books, both non fiction and fiction, that deal with WWII.  It's not a subject I had sought out on purpose, but for some reason I was presented with books this year that I could not turn down.  For the most part, they blew me away with their narrative voices and I walked away feeling as if I had not only learned something, but my emotional thinking was altered as well.  So when I agreed to review A Train In Winter, I was betting on the same thing happening.  I wish that that bet would have payed off.  


It's not that I didn't find the story being told compelling, because I did.  I found the women (and men) featured in this book to be both heroic and engaging.  What happens to them after they are captured broke my heart and reaffirmed for me the inhumanity that we, as a species, can show to each other.  They are true heroes and deserve all the recognition and honor that we can bestow upon them.  My issue with the book, and I'm sure it's more of me comparing this book to others that I have read this year, is the tone of the narrative voice.

I don't think cold is the right word for it, but it comes close to the way I reacted to it.  In the beginning of the book the author throws a lot of names, dates, and events at the reader, hoping that he/she will be able to follow along and not get bogged down in facts.  The author shows her skill as a biographer and historian, but the human side of the story seems to get lost in the shuffle.  There are moments where the women shine through the recital, but it's pretty sparse.  As the book continues, the narrative changes a bit, especially after the women are captured and put into the camp.  But even then, as the women take more shape and the author lets us to get to know them on a more personal level, there still seems to be a level of detachment there that I was just not able to get over.

I'm glad I read the book and even happier to learn even more about a period of history that seems to, the more time passes, get glossed over in our schools.  The women whose stories are being told, deserve to be remembered for their courage and strength.  I just wish I had been able to connect with the author's style a bit more.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

The Doll by Daphne du Maurier

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Before she wrote Rebecca, the novel that would cement her reputation as a twentieth-century literary giant, a young Daphne du Maurier penned short fiction in which she explored the images, themes, and concerns that informed her later work.  Originally published in periodicals during the early 1930s, many of these stories never found their way into print again... until now.

Tales of human frailty and obsession, and of romance gone tragically awry, the thirteen stories in The Doll showcase an exciting budding talent before she went on to write of the most beloved novel of all time.  In these pages, a waterlogged notebook washes ashore revealing a dark story of jealousy and obsession, a vicar coaches a young couple divided by class issues, and an older man falls perilously in love with a much younger woman - with each tale demonstrating du Maurier's extraordinary storytelling fits and her deep understand of human nature.

I adore a well written short story more than I do the same writing in novel form.  The skill needed to tell a finely honed story in such a small amount of space, when done well, never fails to impress me.  This collection of thirteen stories blew me away, every single one of them made me laugh, shudder, and stare in amazement once I was done.

I don't know what to type next or even what to say if someone were to ask me about this one.  I think I would just stand there, tongue-tied, unable to fully express the way these stories affected me.  I would find myself being both fascinated and horrified at the same time.  I don't even know which story to start with, because there wasn't one of them that failed to impress.

The title story, "The Doll", is one that because of the subject matter, will never leave my brain.  Rebecca and her doll will wander the corridors of my imagination, doing things that I never even dreamed of, let alone want to do.  The young lady in "The Tame Cat", who comes home after years at school, only to be caught up in a web of jealousy involving her mother and her mother's lover, will find a a few brain cells to move into, and set up permanent residency.  "Maize" and her fellow prostitutes forced to live in dreams, and get back alley abortions, are frozen in time, right behind my optic nerves.  The manipulative harridan of "The Limpet", who just can't seem to understand why nobody loves her, made me pity and hate her at the same time.  She now whispers in my ear anytime she needs to whine about how unfair life is.

I had only just read Rebecca for the first time a month or so ago, and Daphne du Maurier blew me away with her lushness of style.  With these thirteen short stories, she is cemented in my brain as someone who I need to read more of, and I don't think I'll ever be disappointed.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

Mailbox Monday for 11/28/11

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books and is being hosted all this month by her Mailbox Monday Blog.

I received a trade paperback of Monsters of L.A. by Lisa Morton for review.

I bought Christmas Cheers, Straight No Chaser's second holiday CD for $6 from Target.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Northstar

Growing up I was a comic book junkie, not as bad as a lot of kids my age were, but serious enough.  As I grew older though, my interest died down a bit, but never went away completely.  I still knew what was going on with my favorites, even if I didn't read the books all the time.  So when Northstar came out of the closet, I was thrilled.  I had enjoyed him for a few years and found him to be my favorite of Alpha Flight, so him being gay just topped of my love for him.

Born Jean-Paul Beaubier, Northstar had a rather hard childhood.  Shortly after he was born both of his parents were killed and he was separated from his twin sister.  He was raised by distant relatives until they were both killed when he was six, and he was put into foster care.  As he got older he started to realize that he was both gay and a mutant, he has the ability of super speed and can manipulate his own kinetic energy. He acted out by petty theft until someone took him under his wing and introduced him to skiing, an activity that allowed him to train his powers as well.  He had a brief run as a trapeze artist for a circus but quickly went back to skiing, where he won an Olympic Gold Medal.  A medal he had to give back years later when the public found out he was a mutant.

He eventually joined the Canadian team, Alpha Flight, were he was reunited with his twin sister who went by the codename Aurora.  She shared his same ability and when they touched, their powers were amplified.  Throughout the years he was been killed, turned into a zombie, brainwashed to kill other heroes, and adopted a young baby girl with AIDS who dies shortly after.  Now since this is superhero land, he was done all this in different alternate realities, instead of in the same time and space.

His sexuality has been both ignored and explored, in one reality he dated Colossus.  He has had issues with his sister and the public over it and has even mentored another young hero who was gay.  He was been a role  model for thousands of gay kids who needed a hero they could look up to, and thankfully the Marvel writers (for the most part) have allowed him to do just that.

Happy Haulidays!

The great people at Chronicle Books are hosting their Happy Haulidays giveaway once again this year.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it's this great opportunity for one blogger and one of their commenters to win $500 dollars worth of books.  This year they have added in another winner as well, the winning blogger will get to pick their favorite charity to win $500 dollars in books as well.  It's such a great thing that they are doing, now I just need to keep my fingers crossed.

If I win, the charity I chose is Positive Directions.  It's a local charity that assists clients with HIV/AIDS obtain housing, transportation, food, and a varied list of other services.  They also do a great job with HIV/AIDS prevention outreach.  Every year they give out holiday boxes with not only food but other items, such as books.

Not to the fun part, picking the books.  After selecting the books I wanted, the grand total was $494.25.

Non-Fiction:

This Is NPR by various authors

Ramayana by Sanjay Patel

Smart on Crime by Kamala D. Harris

The Anatomy of the Sea by Dr. David Ponsonby and Professor Georges Dussart

Cookbooks: 

Grilled Cheese by Marlena Spieler

Macaroni & Cheese by Marlena Spieler

The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

The Big Book of Casseroles by Maryana Vollstedt

The Big Book of Soups and Stews by Maryana Vollstedt

Photography:

Microworlds

Bird by Andrew Zuckerman

Creature by Andrew Zuckerman

The Life & Love of Trees by Lewis Blackwell

Fiction: 

A Time To Run by Barbara Boxer

Blind Trust by Barbara Boxer

The Conductor by Laetitia Devernay

Journals:

Birch Forest Flexi Journal