A Journey to France with Julia--Julia Child's "My Life in France"

After reading and really enjoying "Julie and Julia" I felt like I HAD TO READ Julia Child's "My Life In France." I felt like not reading it was like reading a sequel without reading the original. So after several foiled attempts (why does a book suddenly become unavailable in Kindle edition? I mean it's not like they run out of copies or something), I managed to download this book. It was WONDERFUL. Like being transported to Paris with Julia Child. If you're a fan of Julia or you simply love Paris, French Food, or just plain food--you MUST read this book!

"My Life in France" is a wonderful autobiography. Julia Child recounts the joys of her life in France, and it's easy to see why her experiences led her to love both the food and the country. She also discuses how she came to become the famous figure we all know and love--from her modest expectations for her first cookbook to her first TV show. Throughout the narrative it is clear that this was a life well lived by someone who truly loved her life.

While I really enjoyed this book--what fan of Julia Child wouldn't love it--it's not the best written autobiography and at times I felt like I was reading a technical cookbook rather than an autobiography. I supposed Julia was simply writing in a style that she was comfortable with, but these more technical passages lessened some of the joy in the rest of the narrative.

This book is a must read for Julia Child fans. If you're interested in reading this because you enjoyed the film "Julie and Julia" I don't think you'll be disappointed with the original!

Keep Halloween Going a Little Longer with a Spooky Read--Sarah Waters' "The Little Stranger"

Happy November! This month officially kicks off my favorite time of the year--the holiday season. The only bad thing about the holidays--it cuts into my reading time!

In case you're in the mood to keep the fall and Halloween creepiness going a bit longer, today's review is from a gothic novel from Sarah Waters.

Sarah Waters' "The Little Stranger" is set in rural England in the years immediately following the Second World War. A country doctor, Faraday, is called to the isolated country house of the Ayres family to treat their maid. This simple and routine house call pulls Faraday into the peculiar world of the Ayres family. The Ayres' fortunes are not what they once were, and their great country estate, Hundreds, is falling down around them. Slowly, each member of the Ayres family becomes ill--either by a family mental illness or under the influence of an evil presence that is haunting the house. Faraday tries to save the family before the illness effects the Ayres' daughter Caroline, who he has become engaged to. Will Faraday be able to save the family and Hundreds before it's too late?

In the tradition of great Gothic novels, Waters paints a thoroughly creepy mystery in "The Little Stranger." Her portrayal of the Ayres family is excellent, as is the mental picture she gives her reader of Hundreds, the manor house past it's prime. My problem with this novel was the timing. Waters would build a sufficient amount of suspense and energy in her story, and then instead of sustaining it to build a truly great Gothic story, she would let the suspense fade and the pace of the novel would slow WAY DOWN. This unevenness made it really hard for me to remain engaged in this nearly 500 page book. I also found the ending and the characters other than Faraday disappointing.

If you're a big fan of Gothic novels I would recommend this book, but if you are only a casual fan, I recommend that you read something else.

A Long And Twisted Trip Beyond Twisted River

So I was really, really excited when I got an advance copy of the new John Irving book through the Amazon Vine program. Too bad the book turned out to be a total dud. I think true Irving fans should give it a read just to see how Irving's work has changed, but I would not recommend this to the casual reader.

John Irving's "Last Night in Twisted River" begins in the mid 1950s in the isolated logging town of Twisted River. A cook and his son are about to be drawn into a series of events that will change their lives forever. After the events, the cook decides to take his son on the run, and the next 50 years of their lives are shrouded in tragedies related to the events of that one fateful night.

I felt like "Twisted River" was an apt title for this book--since as a reader I felt like I was being twisted and turned on a wild goose chase that lasted for 500 plus pages. The book was long, it was meandering, and it simply is not Irving at his best. The core of the story is simple--the cook makes a decision after a misunderstanding to save his son, and the two of them spend the remainder of the book running as a result. However, the book lingers on this point for too long, and I felt like the characters never grew beyond their actions. Also, the book is broken into segments set in each decade following the 1950s, but instead of focusing on the events happening in that decade, it typically jumps back to events that happened previously. This made it hard for me as a reader to follow the book, since I never knew exactly where in time I was. When coupled with the slow moving plot, this made the book almost unreadable in sections.

If you are an Irving fan, I would recommend that you read this book to see how his approach to writing has changed. If you are considering this as your first experience with Irving, I would suggest that you start instead with one of his classics, such as "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" or "The Cider House Rules".

Happy Birthday Ratskellar Reads!

So turns out today is a big day! Not just because I'm off work to celebrate Mr. Columbus, but because when I opened my calendar this morning I discovered that this little blog is officially 1 year old today!

When I started a year ago, I was turning to blogging more as a way to keep track of what I read for me than for anything else. Now, a year later, I think that blogging has turned into a great way for me to share my thoughts on books with my friends and family. I know many of you have asked me about books that I've reviewed, and a few of you have even read some of them! It's always nice to think that people are reading my reviews!

So to commemorate this day, a review of one of my favorite recent reads. I'm hoping that this anniversary will encourage me to post a bit more regularly (I'm still reading, I just am having a hard time updating!).

"Julie and Julia" is Julie Powell's memoir about the year she tried to cook all of Julia Child's recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (MAoFC). Much like the movie with the same name, the book is as much about Julie's life--her marriage, her friendships, her thankless job--as it is about cooking. Unlike the movie, this book is really just about Julie, there is very little "real" Julia Child in this book. The only Julia in this book is the one in Julie's head, who almost like an imaginary friend, cheers Julie on as she make her way through MAoFC and helps her to discover an inner passion for cooking and how it brings people together.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought Julie was honest and funny about the challenges of being young and direction-less in modern urban America. I found it interesting to see how Julie used the project to discover a real passion in herself and to provide herself a purpose that ultimately led her to fulfilment (and an extra 15 pounds of butter weight!). That being said, I don't agree with everything that Julie said or did, and yes she could be a little self centered at times. But this is her memoir, so she has a right to share the world from her perspective.

If you are drawn to this book because you loved the movie--be warned, this Julie is a much more colorful (in both language and personality), well drawn character than the Julie in the movie, who in my opinion was sanitized into a typical romantic comedy heroine. Yes there are a lot of incidents that were in the movie that are also in the book. But the book is really about Julie and her life, not Julia Child. That being said, I loved both the book and the movie, but recognize them as two distinct works.

If you're interested in reading about how one woman found herself through the completion of an unreasonable project that most people would never even think of undertaking, this book is for you. It shows Julie's project as it was--with all of the messes, curses and challenges that it contained. If you go into the book knowing that, I don't think you'll be dissapointed.

A Classic Love Story Set Against the Niagra--Cathy Marie Buchanan's "The Day The Falls Stood Still"

So I seriously have not had much time for reading recently. Fall, that season I thought was going to be slower, seems to be flying by just as fast as summer did. And my evenings for the last week or so have been totally devoured by my other blog project, which just relaunched on www.990square.com. But hopefully now that it's done I'll have more time for reading! I have a couple of books I'm really excited about waiting for me--so that should be a good incentive.

This book had been on my TBR pile for a while, and I finally made time for it about two weeks ago. It was a pretty engaging read, even if it did feel a little too light on the history to be categorized as historical romance.

"The Day The Falls Stood Still" follows the life of Bess, a 17 year old rich girl who lives in Niagara Falls, Canada in 1915. After a chance meeting on a trolley car, Bess falls hard for Tom, the local riverman. They court in secret and ultimately Bess defies her family to marry Tom. Tom then ships off to World War I, and when he returns, nothing in Niagara Falls is the same as he left it. Will Bess and Tom be swept up in the change that surrounds them, or will they resist in an attempt to save themselves and the river they love.

"The Day The Falls Stood Still" is a classic love story--rich girl meets and falls in love with poor boy--mixed with the history of the eras around World War I and industrial change. Although much of the plot was predictable--if you've read one of these stories before, you can pretty much figure out what is going to happen--the historical element really provided an interesting twist, and I found myself completely sucked in to this story. I do feel like it was uneven at times, with some passages being completely riveting page turners, but others slower and more mellow. I really liked how the river itself was integrated into the story, becoming almost another character and companion for the protagonists.

If you enjoy historical romance this would be a good read for you. I am interested to see what else Cathy Buchanan writes, since this was a pretty strong first effort.

And the Greatest Hit of the Fall Continue On--Anita Shreve's "A Change In Altitude"

Our fall of bestsellers to be continues on with Anita Shreve (who I love) and "A Change in Altitude". I was quite disappointed by the last Shreve book, but this one did not let me down!

"A Change in Altitude" Anita Shreve's new novel, follows a young wife, Margaret, to Kenya in the mid-1970s. A few months after arriving in Kenya, Margaret and her husband agree to join two other couples on a mountain climbing expedition. While on the mountain a disaster strikes, and its repercussions threaten to tear Margaret's marriage apart. The rest of the novel follows the next year in her life, but will she and her marriage survive life in Kenya?

I really enjoyed this book from Anita Shreve. I've been a fan since at least "Fortune's Rocks" and I think I've read just about all of Shreve's novels. I was very disappointed by her last work "Testimony" and I found "A Change in Altitude" to be a return to the Shreve I know and love. Like many of her previous novels, "Change" gets inside its protagonist's head and stays there for the duration of the novel, exploring her thoughts and emotions and she tries to overcome the challenges of young married life in a strange and distant country. I thought Shreve did a good job of capturing the unique experiences of a young marriage, particularly how individuals can still be learning about each other early in their union. She also paints a vivid picture of Kenya in the 1970s--from the soaring vistas to the political turmoil rocking the country.

If you're an Anita Shreve fan you should definitely pick up this book. And if not, I think this might be a good one to try her out on. Although not as strong as "The Pilot's Wife" or "The Last Time They Met" this is one of her better recent offerings.

My Most Anticipated Book of the Fall! Audrey Niffenegger's "Her Fearful Symmetry"

So I'll be the first to admit that I was very late coming to the Audrey Niffenegger fandom. I was probably the last woman in America to read "The Time Traveler's Wife" (I only read it this summer after I stole a copy off of a friend's bookshelf!) but I still LOVED it. So how excited was I when the buzz started circulating about Niffenegger's new book. And how ecstatic was I when a review copy showed up on my doorstep. I think there was much squealing and jumping around here at the Ratskellar.

So did it live up to my expectations, and will it survive all of the hype. I think yes and yes. This is an excellent sophomore effort and I just can't wait to see what Ms. Niffenegger gives us next!

Audrey Niffengger's second novel "Her Fearful Symmetry" focuses on the Noblin family and it's two sets of twins--a mother and aunt to two teenage sisters--and the terrible secret that ties them all together. When the two teenagers are left an apartment in London by an aunt they've never met, the girls believe the apartment is their chance to escape their mundane life in the suburbs of Chicago. But soon after moving to London, the girls realize there is something not right with their apartment. With the help of their reclusive neighbors, the girls discover the building's secret and ultimately must make decisions about their own lives based on what they discover.

I loved this second effort from Niffengger, author of the bestselling "Time Traveler's Wife". The book is genuinely creepy as a ghost story, and Niffengger does a great job of weaving the different elements of the novel together to create a creepiness throughout the narrative. There are enough twists in the plot to keep you guessing, and Niffengger's obvious talent as a novelist is once again on display. Niffengger spends a great deal of time sketching each of her characters for the reader, so this book really has the feel of an ensemble piece rather than a novel with just a few central characters.

Some of the elements that worked so well in "Time Traveler's Wife" are back again, including Niffengger's use of fantastic/scifi elements to add a unique dimension to her work. Niffengger's strong narrative voice is also back, and it does a good job of pulling the reader right into this story.

I think if you enjoyed "Time Traveler's Wife" you will also enjoy this novel. Be warned that it's very different from "Time Traveler" but in a good way--you don't really want to read the same story twice!