Family Pictures by Jane Green (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

After Silvie has lost the love of her life, in the death of her first husband, Mark comes along and pretty much sweeps her off her feet.  Handsome and charming, he is the ideal husband and step-father to her daughter, Eve.  Until he’s not…

This book is a sort of Pilot’s Wife of the Facebook era.  And unfortunately, it is so much more contrived that it’s less plausible.  The characters are vague and stereotypical and undergo miraculous changes that are just too hard to believe.  And the voice changes from first person to third person, depending on whom it is referring to and the choice of voice is particularly strange because the main character is the one who does not get her own voice.

It is a quick read and it has some suspense, but all in all, it’s so implausible that it is a little absurd.

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This very suspenseful novel celebrates the many gentiles who sacrificed their security and sometimes their lives in order to hide Jews during the second World War.  This fictitious gentile, an architect named Lucien, was initially engaged by a man named Manet, to design unusual hiding places for Jews in various residences in and around Paris.  Manet outwardly managed construction projects for the Germans during their occupation of France, but simultaneously and secretly worked tirelessly to save innocent Jews from the Germans.  Lucien was initially enticed mainly by the glory and the money of the large German construction projects and resented having to go along with the smaller although still strategically challenging projects for the Jews.  However, as the story unfolds, this changes and his anger with the Germans mounts and he becomes emboldened by what he is able to accomplish.

While the writing in this book is not flowery or beautiful in any way, the story is told with frank boldness.   The crudeness of the writing I believe is trying to match the crudeness of the characters and while it lessens the quality of the book it does get a point across.  That said, there are a lot of unexpected turns to the story and suspense does gradually build and build to the point that I was truly unable to put the book down.

I think there is a lot of historical significance to this book as there are not too many stories that involve the French perspective on WWII.  In light of the current surge in anti-semitism in France, this is a timely novel.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

If you’re looking for a vacation/beach book, this is it.  It’s not fine literature but it’s a fun, suspenseful read.  Kate, the single, hard-working lawyer mom of Amelia, a sophomore at an elite Brooklyn high school, gets a call to come to school immediately because her daughter is in trouble.  In fact, her daughter is dead.  As Kate recovers from the shock of losing her daughter to what has been deemed a suicide, the suspicion that her daughter was not suicidal grows in Kate’s mind.  Triggered by an anonymous text, she is spurred on to discover an intricate cover-up of sorority-like hazing/bullying in which both she and her daughter have been victims.

Again, this is not high literature.  There is not exactly deep character development. There are some cheesy scenes and some dead-end story lines.  But you are still taken in by the plot and through the whole story you are itching to know what happens.

Definitely pack this is in your suitcase next to your toiletry bag!

The Kitchen House (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

If you are looking for a book that will grip you and hold you tight until you get to the very last page, this is the one for you!  This beautifully written, historical fiction novel is about a young white girl, Lavinia, who is raised among black slaves in the south at the turn of the 19th century.  Since she’s raised among a loving, close-knit black family, she feels deeply that they are her family, but as she grows older, she is thrust into the world of the white family she is serves.  We learn, along with her, how the intimate nature of the relationships that develop between the 2 races strongly conflict with the forced, artificial separation between them.  (They love but they are not allowed to love.)  And Lavinia is tragically trapped between the two.

What really pulled me in was the beautiful characters that are so poignantly drawn.  I lived with the characters and felt their pull even when I wasn’t reading the book.  I felt as though they were my family, they were drawn so artistically and deeply.  I HAD to know what happened to each of them and when it wasn’t good, I felt it in my heart.

These characters were genuine, the story was captivating, and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened and didn’t want it to end at the very same time!  This is what the experience of reading should be!

The Storyteller (migrated from Bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

So I have to share that this book was made all the more special to me because my daughter and I actually attended a reading of this book by Jodi Picoult herself!  I was of course expecting the worst (cynic that I am) — that it would be a mob scene and we’d wait and wait only to be at the back of a huge room at the Barnes and Nobles at Union Square where we’d only catch a glimpse.  But I was instead so pleasantly surprised!  It was so well-organized and easy and utterly enjoyable.  Ms. Picoult  is the ultimate storyteller!   She read from her book with the expression of a closet actress, she told us stories about the Holocaust survivors she interviewed during her research, and she so gracefully and with such humor answered many questions from the audience about herself and her writing.  She is a gracious presence — she is smart and funny and warm and the kind of person you just want to go out and have a drink with.  I could have listened to her for hours! After she signed our book and chatted with us for a minute or two, we walked away and my daughter turned to me and exclaimed, “Mom, I’m so star-struck!”  I have to admit:  I was too!

BUT on to the the book…  The book has an outrageously “Picoultian”premise.  A young, reclusive woman named Sage who has lost her mother, attends a grief support group where she befriends an old man in his 90’s.  This man, Josef, admits to her that he is a former SS guard at Auschwitz and asks her to help him die and to forgive him of his sins.  What he doesn’t know is that Sage’s grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.  In fact, Sage doesn’t really even know much about her grandmother’s history as her grandmother has kept the details to herself all these years.  This book is the resultant telling of stories — the recounting of history — by the two characters who lived it.  It is also the process of sorting out the ideas of evil and good as well as forgiveness and revenge.  Can someone who has committed  hideous deeds ever be forgiven?  And by whom?  Can a good person do bad things and get beyond that and/or compensate for it?  What is forgiveness?

As usual, Jodi Picoult gives the various perspectives on the story in her brilliant way and has the reader pondering yet another enormous, controversial issue.  This is why I love her writing and am already looking forward to her next book!

The Confidant (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Confidant by Helene Gremillon

When Camille, an editor in Paris whose mother has just died, opens what she anticipates is another condolence letter and instead finds the beginning of a story of romance and intrigue.  Each week she receives another installment, each with a new hint that suggests this story is not fiction but rather a message linking her to the main characters.  And with each installment comes a new perspective on the events that occur, enlightening both Camille and the reader to a different layer of the story.

Mainly, the story is about a lie that leads to another and another.  And each character has to fabricate his or her own version in order to survive what becomes a tangle of lies.

The book is a quick read that is very hard to put down.  It’s the kind of book that you can’t get your head out of until you reach the end.  Even when you are not reading, you are still thinking about the characters and feeling their struggles and their pain and trying to understand what is, indeed, the truth.  For each of the characters lives their own truth.  It is heartbreaking and tragic and there are many casualties of the lies.   But there is hope, too, in the untangling.

I’d love to hear what others think of this book.  It would be a great book club book!

Accelerated (migrated from Bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Accelerated by Bronwen Hruska

Wow, this one shoots right through the hearts of all of us parents who struggle with children with ADHD.  It doesn’t necessarily outright bash medication for the treatment of this disorder, but it sure calls into question the legitimacy of treating this very real medical/educational issue.

The story is about a father, Sean, whose son is enrolled in an elite Manhattan private elementary school.  As it turns out, Sean, a recently separated father of this 3rd grader, is pressured by the authorities in his son’s school to have his son evaluated for learning issues, and specifically for ADHD. Under duress, he follows through and the results are nearly disastrous.  In the process, the father discovers that he is not the first to be pressured by the school and learns more about the devious practices of the school as well.

It’s a good book — solid characters that the reader can easily like and relate to, and a plot that works its way into your heart.  It’s actually hard to put down.

But its message, while ringing a bit true, can put even more pressure on parents who are struggling to make decisions about the welfare of their children.  Without giving too much away, there is a lot of bias in this book against medications that treat ADHD.  True, these medications are not benign and are probably now the most abused drugs on the market.  But they are also a godsend to those who truly struggle to remain attentive in school and can give back self esteem to children when its fallen through its foundation.  In truth, the onus is upon the diagnosing physician/psychologist/psychiatrist to abide by the diagnostic criteria and do a proper analysis of all the information available (including formalized testing).  Once this is established, the many treatment options must be considered, medication being only one of them.  But if medication is deemed appropriate in this ideal scenario, and is carefully monitored and evaluated, it can be a gift to the child who truly suffers.  This must be remembered while reading this book…

Safe Haven (migrated from Bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

I believe I saw a trailer for this upcoming movie, which got me interested in reading this book.  It is very. very suspenseful and I can see it being a suspenseful movie as well.

Katie is a mysterious woman who comes to a small town in South Carolina, setting herself up in a small cottage and working at a local restaurant.  She quickly develops a friendship (and then of course, more than a friendship) with a man who owns the local general store.  He is a widow with 2 young children and gracefully accepts that she has a past she is running from.

The past becomes clear as she gradually sheds her terror of her past coming back to haunt her, in the form of her abusive husband from whom she has escaped.  The story flashes back and forth from her perspective to her husband’s as it builds into a very nail-bitingly scary crescendo.  Even while you can guess at some of the story, there are twists and turns and the writing really does have you on the edge of your seat all the way up to the end.  And while some of the details are somewhat gruesome, I imagine that this is the tragic reality of those who really do experience domestic violence.

Now the question is:  do I see the movie or not??

The False Prince (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

I love it when my kids ask me to read books that they’ve read.  I love sharing in the experience with them, discussing it with them, and hearing their reactions to special parts.  This was one book that my youngest son, who is not a huge reader, has been SO excited about — so I had to read it also.  The False Prince is an extremely well-written middle grade children’s book about Sage, a clever and brave orphan with an attitude.  Sage learns, after being bought by a wealthy noble named Connor, that he must compete with 3 other orphans for the position of prince, to replace the lost prince of (fictitious) Corythia.  Connor, who has the secret knowledge that the king, queen and older brother of the lost prince have been murdered, claims that if the lost prince and next heir to the throne is “found,” it will save Corythia from civil war.   Sage rebels against Connor and disdains his plan, but he realizes that he must vie for the position in order to save both himself and his country.

The tale is somewhat reminiscent of The Hunger Games, in its competition to the death theme and in some of its gruesomeness, but it is not nearly as violent or as disturbing.  It does have a torture scene, which was surprising to me for this reading level, but throughout the book there is more the threat of danger than actual danger.  The story takes unexpected twists and turns and was really suspenseful till the end.

There will be a sequel, so expect to see it later in this blog!

Once We Were Brothers (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson

When Ben Solomon begins his tale of how Otto Piatek, taken in and cared for by Ben’s family, turned against all of them and became a Nazi war criminal, you have the sense of this being just another Holocaust tale.  However, as his tale unwinds, you also begin to get sucked in to the charges that he stole from Ben’s family and how a civil suit is the means by which Ben might expose his true identity.  Otto Piatek, alias Elliot Rozenzweig, has created a persona for himself, however, enmeshed in the highest society of Chicago and known for his generous philanthropy.  It takes the team of a gutsy PI named Liam and an attorney with high ethics and strong drive, named Catherine, to help Ben pursue his challenge.

Essentially there are 2 stories that intertwine, with the telling of Ben’s story that took place in Poland and the tale of the legal procedures.  While the beginning of the book focuses on Poland, the latter part focuses on the lawsuit and the suspense of the legal proceedings builds and builds and makes the book very hard to put down.  The author definitely draws you in to feeling such affection for Ben and wanting to see him win in his cause.  You are also drawn in to feeling sympathy for Catherine who is fighting a whole team of expensive lawyers singlehandedly.   Catherine is quoted as saying that this made “David and Goliath seem like a fair fight.”  While it is only fiction, when you are reading it, it feels very real and very true, I think because of how well you’ve come to know the characters.  By the end, you just can’t help cheering them on or booing the “bad guys.”

An essential read for anyone who is interested not only in the Holocaust, but in anything related to human rights and in justice being served.