Books

As I mentioned in a previous post, I like to re-read childhood favorites every now and then.   In fact I usually pick one up whenever I go home.   Lately I've been revisiting the Laura Ingalls wilder books about her childhood as a pioneer girl.   It's fascinating reading them as an adult because you pick up on so much stuff you missed as a child.   This one was probably my favorite of the series when I was little.   It's full of sunshine and summer and wild flowers and running around barefoot.   What struck me most about this one this time around was just how independent these people were.   They did everything for themselves, from making their own clothes to building their own houses.   And how precarious life was for them, and how brave they were to chose that life.   The family almost loses everything after losing their crops to locusts two years in a row.   Their whole lives were a real life adventure and I have to say I am a tiny bit jealous.   So all in all, a lovely read for children and an eye-opening read for adults.  

Next up, Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier.   I would count myself as a Tracy Chevalier fan; I very much enjoyed Girl With a Pearl Earring, and rather enjoyed The Virgin Blue and The Lady and the Unicorn as well.   I was very eager to read this one, as it's about William Blake, who I really like.   But I have to say I don't think this one was her best.   I was quite disappointed to find that William Blake's character had relatively little screen time, and that it concentrated far more on the lives of Jem and Maggie, two children growing up in London.   For me William Blake's character just didn't make much of an impact.   There just wasn't enough poetry and mystery and fire attached to him.   He was really just a plesant father figure for the two children.   What I usually enjoy about Tracy Chevalier's writing are her unique and very evocative descriptions, but with this book she changed her writing style entirely (perhaps because it was set in England?).   In a blind taste test I wouldn't even have been able to tell it was of hers.   All in all, an alright read, but not as good as I have come to expect from Ms. Chevalier.

And finally, We Are All Made of Glue, by Marina Lewycka.   This one was brilliant!   I raced through it!   I've read her previous two novels, A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian and Two Caravans and loved them both, so I was eager to get stuck into this one, and it didn't disappoint!   Marina Lewycka's strong points are her amazingly larger than life characters and her ability to capture people's idiosyncrasies and style of speaking perfectly.   Her writing of English dialogue spoken by foreigners is both very funny and astoundingly convincing.   In a bit of a departure from her previous two novels, this one does not follow the lives of Ukranians, but of Jews and Palestinians.   Through the lives of her characters she tells the story of the founding of Israel and the hardships the Palestinians have suffered.   It's an emotional rollercoaster.   Just like her first novel, WWII is a major theme.   And just like her first novel, one of the main characters is a very feisty elderly person who you can't help falling in love with.   There is also a similarity with her first novel of a bad situation escalating into a huge mess there just seems to be no way out of, and in the end, against all odds, all the characters just decide to get along and make things work.   The only criticism I would offer is her glue theme.   The main character writes for a builders' magazine about adhesives, and the author tries to include glue metaphors throughout.   I'm just not very convinced they work.   They seem a bit forced.   But overall, fantastic book, just like her other two.   And just like her previous two novels, this one is hilarious!   Highly recommended!