Julie's Review: The Sandcastle Girls

Summary: The Sandcastle Girls is a sweeping historical love story steeped in Chris Bohjalian's Armenian heritage. When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The year is 1915 and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo and travels south into Egypt to join the British army, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost. Fast forward to the present day, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents' ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed "The Ottoman Annex," Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura's grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's history that reveals love, loss - and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations. ~amazon.com

Review: The Sandcastle Girls moved me in ways that are hard to put down. It made me thankful that humans can persevere through the worst kinds of atrocities. This story kept me up the night I finished it because I couldn't get it out of my mind. It is one that will stay with me for a long time.

We are introduced to this story by Laura Petrosian, who tells us that she wanted to write a book about her grandparents and their experiences during the Armenian genocide. Every chapter starts off with Laura's point of view on what she has found out about her grandparents involvement and then shifts point of views to Elizabeth and Armen during the genocide. With a less experienced author, this could have been a mis-step but with Mr. Bohjalian it was seamless.

Elizabeth was a women before her time and yet she fit perfectly into her role as a caregiver to the refugees. She wanted to help where she could and put to use her limited nursing knowledge. Where she excels is when she's dealing with the women and children that have recently been marched in from various cities. She tries to help in any way she can. It is here where she befriends Nevart and a young girl, Hatoun. She goes out of her way to ensure these two are safe and taken care of. She begins to view them as family. As a reader, you wonder if this is wise on her part to become so attached.

Armen is a broken man. He is certain that both his wife and young daughter are dead, since the protection he tried to provide him didn't work. He comes to Aleppo to try to find out what happened to them. Meanwhile, he meets Elizabeth and they form a friendship based on educating each other on their backgrounds. As they grow closer, he isn't so sure that he should continue with his plan of leaving Aleppo but he is bent on revenge for the wrongs of his family.

As the story is weaved together you know that there will be tragedy on a personal level for both Elizabeth and Armen. Tragedy that neither of them will speak to any one about. Laura is an excellent narrator for she pulls the story together and adds another level of emotion.

As always Mr. Bohjalian weaves a masterful story in with the facts of the Armenian genocide. The story of the Endicott's and Petrosian's is an important one. For their granddaughter, it was about understanding her grandparents and her history.

I can't recommend this novel enough. It will break your heart and make your stomach wretch for the things that we humans do to each other in the name of religion and power. I haven't read Skeletons at the Feast yet but I'm sure it will be equal to the same emotional level as this novel.

Final Take: 5/5

The Sandcastle Girls will be out tomorrow, July 17th.


 

Children's Corner: Neville

 This is a wonderful story about a little boy in the middle of moving. We join the story just as the moving truck is pulling away.  The boy's worried about going to school and making new friends, and his mother suggest taking a walk around the block.  He's dubious that this will help him make friends, but then he has an idea. He starts hollering for Neville. Soon all the kids in the neighborhood are helping him look for Neville.

It's a cute story about making new friends and finding your own way.  I adore the creative and humorous treatment of a serious subject.  I'll be giving a copy of this to my best friend who's son is concerned about their upcoming move.  However, even if you don't have an impending move, the lesson can certainly be applied to any anxiety causing new situation.  I will certainly seek out more works from Norton Juster.

  

Author Interview: Emily Jeanne Miller

Earlier today, I reviewed and raved about Emily Jeanne Miller's Brand New Human Being. We are delighted that Ms. Miller took some time out of her schedule to answer our questions.

GJR: Why did you choose Montana as the setting for Brand New Human Being?

Emily Jeanne Miller (EJM): In 1998, I moved to Missoula, Montana, to get a Master’s in Environmental Studies. I loved it there; the place really captured my heart and my imagination. I hadn’t really started writing fiction yet, then, but a few years later, when I was living in Florida (getting my MFA) and very homesick for the west, I wrote several stories that took place out there, including the one that would eventually become Brand New Human Being.

GJR: I thought going into the book that the redemption part would be the longest part of the book but instead it’s the lead up to the redemption that’s the longest. What made you decide to focus on the buildup instead of the redemption for the majority of the novel?

EJM:  I think that what interested me most in writing the story was Logan’s dislocation in his life, the desperation he begins to feel because of it, and the bad decisions he makes as a result. His unraveling is what allows him to grow. I wanted the book’s focus to be that.

GJR: I never doubted Logan’s love for Julie but from the very beginning I did doubt her love for him. Was that your hope for your readers? Did you want us to doubt Julie so that Logan’s journey would seem more rational?

EJM: Yes. I wanted Julie to be complicated, and imperfect (like all of us). She does love him, but she’s also completely fed up with his inertia. She wants their life to move forward, and he’s stuck in the past. Actually, I felt a lot of empathy for Julie, despite the fact that she wasn’t particularly nice.

GJR: Logan seems stuck or at a standstill after the death of his father. I got the feeling that Gus was a good dad but that Logan felt he was still somewhat of an enigma.

EJM: I agree. Gus was a larger-than-life figure to so many people, this great hero; it was hard for Logan not to resent him somewhat, knowing him as a real, flawed—and sometimes selfish, harsh, and inaccessible—person.

GJR: Do you think that Logan taking Owen on his quick exodus from his life will help their relationship in the future? Or is it something that Logan will always remember and will retell Owen because he was just a bit too young to remember it?

EJM:  I think that it is something Logan will always look back on as a turning point in his own life, but it’s also something he’ll always feel ashamed about, regarding Owen and what he put him through. I think that when Owen’s older, Logan will try to explain why he did what he did and that at some point, perhaps years into the future when he has his own kids, Owen will understand, and feel empathy for what his father went through when he was four.

GJR: How do you think it shaped Logan and Julie’s relationship/marriage by having them get together and married fairly quickly?

EJM:  It left them with a lot still to figure out—about each other, about marriage, and about themselves. Dealing with the death of a parent is hard enough without an infant in the mix—much less one who came into the world in a traumatic way. They didn’t have much of a “honeymoon” phase, is another way to say it; they’re sort of learning about each other as they go.

GJR: Do you think that Logan ever had real feelings for Bennie or do you think it was a schoolboy crush?

EJM: I think it was something in between. His feelings for her were real, but they were complicated; Logan was jealous of Gus—and also of Bennie, for getting so much of Gus’s attention and affection, which he felt he never quite got. So it was complicated—a schoolboy crush, with some Oedipus and Electra thrown into the mix.

GJR: Can you give us a glimpse of who/what your next novel focuses on?

EJM: Yes: Brothers. (GJR comment: Intrigued already)

GJR: You’re having an author get-together (aka dinner party): Who’s on the guest list, which recipe would you grab, and why?

EJM: Richard Russo, Michael Connelly, Alice Munro, Kauai Hart Hemmings, and John Cheever’s ghost. I’m not much of a cook, so I’d make lasagna, because they’re very hard to mess up!

                                                          

GJR: Since this is your first novel, did you have any preconceived notions about writing a book? What is easier or harder than you thought?

EJM:  It was harder, I think. I had no illusions about it being easy, but making myself sit down every single day, even when I felt hopeless or lazy or stuck (which was often), that was hard. On the other hand, I finished the whole thing in about a year, which feels pretty quick, in retrospect.

Thanks to Ms. Miller for taking time out of her schedule to answer the Q& A.

Photo by: Eliza Truitt

Julie's Review: Brand New Human Being

Summary: I’m putting the drill back in the safe when my fingers touch something unexpected—paper. An envelope. I take it out. Where an address should be, my name is written in Gus’s unmistakable, back-slanting hand. Meet Logan Pyle, a lapsed grad student and stay-at-home dad who’s holding it together by a thread. His father, Gus, has died; his wife, Julie, has grown distant; his four-year-old son has gone back to drinking from a bottle. When he finds Julie kissing another man on a pile of coats at a party, the thread snaps. Logan packs a bag, buckles his son into his car seat, and heads north with a 1930s Louisville Slugger in the back of his truck, a maxed-out credit card in his wallet, and revenge in his heart. After some bad decisions and worse luck, he lands at his father’s old A-frame cabin, where his father’s young widow, Bennie, now lives. She has every reason to turn Logan away, but when she doesn’t, she opens the door to unexpected redemption—for both of them. A deftly plotted exploration of marriage, family, and the road from child to parent, Brand New Human Being is a page-turning debut that overflows with heart and grace. ~amazon.com  

Review: When I was contacted from TLC about joining the tour for Brand New Human Being the summary pulled me in immediately and I jumped on being on the tour. After reading it in essentially 24 hours, I can say that this debut novel packs a powerful punch. I loved that it was from Logan's view point. I immediately felt for Logan, he's in a kind of limbo at this point in his life. His son Owen is acting like a baby again with his wife Julie feeding into it and saying it's normal. You can guess how Logan feels about all of this. His wife is also working on a life altering case and is becoming distant. He also hasn't really dealt with the slow death of his father, Gus, from cancer. While Gus was a hands on dad, he was also some what of an enigma to Logan. Gus was a big personality in a small town. He was a man either you loved or you hated. There was apparently no middle.

Ms. Miller spends most of the book building up to Logan's jettison from his life. The resolution took very little of the books pages. I actually thought that it would be the reverse. Even though the I didn't feel like the ending was rushed, I did want a bit more time for Logan to figure things out. I never doubted Logan's love for Julie but I definitely doubted where she stood with their marriage. I understand that she was the breadwinner and the pressure was on her but it seemed like she checked out of her marriage.

I also liked that Logan didn't want to give in to the idea of Owen regressing. I liked that he was trying to teach his son that he was 4 going on 5 and that meant he was going to be a big boy. Owen was definitely a mama's boy and Julie definitely fed into that. I loved how Logan tried to talk about death with his son and found it difficult. Death isn't an easy thing for an adult to understand at times and it's even harder to explain to a child.

Ms. Miller has a wonderful novel here that packs a punch even though it's less than 300 pages. Her characters are rich and enthralling. It was very easy to get caught up in Logan's life for a little while.I look forward to reading whatever Ms. Miller decides to write next.

If you are looking to get away from your own problems for a while (let's be honest who doesn't have at least one they are running from) and getting into some one else's, then you should pick up Brand New Human Being.

For more about Ms. Miller please check out her website.  You can follow her on twitter as well @EmilyJMiller.


Final Take: 4.5/5



Thanks to TLC Book Tours for a copy of the novel. 

Emily Jeanne Miller’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, June 11th:  Between the Covers
Wednesday, June 13th:  A Library of My Own
Thursday, June 14th:  It’s a Crazy, Beautiful Life
Monday, June 18th:  Sara’s Organized Chaos
Wednesday, June 20th:  The Blog of Litwits
Thursday, June 21st:  Southern Girl Reads
Monday, June 25th:  Knowing the Difference
Wednesday, June 27th:  I Write in Books
Friday, June 29th:  Colloquium (guest post)
Saturday, June 30th:  Colloquium (review)
Monday, July 2nd:  Life in Review
Tuesday, July 3rd:  Simply Stacie
Thursday, July 5th:  Unabridged Chick
Monday, July 9th:  Peeking Between the Pages
Wednesday, July 11th:  Bookfan
Thursday, July 12th:  Girls Just Reading
Friday, July 13th:  Book Club Classics!
Monday, July 16th:  A Novel Source
Wednesday, July 18th:  A Patchwork of Books

 

Julie's Review: The Hypnotist's Love Story

Summary: From the author of critically acclaimed What Alice Forgot comes a wonderfully fun, insightful novel about the crazy things we do for love. ~penguin.com  

Review: I've been sitting on The Hypnotist's Love Story for a few months and it's not because I didn't want to read it but because I had a few other pressing novels. The premise of the book sounded interesting and while overall it didn't disappoint, the characters did. At first I found Ellen sweet and naive, even though she's in her mid-thirties. By the end of the book I found her annoying and saccharine. I found it hard to believe that a woman would be o.k. with another woman invading her space and her relationship. Even if Ellen was intrigued by Saskia at first, I would have bet overtime she would have tired of it, but she really never did. I found this to be unrealistic. I found Ellen herself to be doing some things out of character after falling in love with Patrick. The things she did bothered me more than Saskia stalking him. Although it does come back to bite her at certain points in the novel.

I found Patrick to be annoying. For most of the book I believed that even having a stalker annoyed him that he actually gained pleasure from it as well. I thought he liked the attention and that is why he didn't ever go to the police. It wasn't until towards the end of the book that we found out why he let the stalking carry on for so long. It was interesting to hear his reasoning even if I didn't believe it.

 The most interesting and well-written character was Saskia. As Patrick's ex-girlfriend and stalker, she was the most flushed out. You didn't agree with her tactics but you almost understood why she was so consumed with not letting go. You wanted her to get the help she so obviously needed. She just wanted to be loved and to love. In some relationships there is always one person who cares more and loves more, in Patrick and Saskia's it was her.

I found the practice of hypnotherapy to be intriguing and one of the best things I came away with from the book is that the power of the mind is extremely strong. The power to influence people can be tapped into. I liked that it was central to the novel. If Ellen hadn't been a hypnotherapist I definitely don't think the story would have worked as well.

I know that quite a few people loved this book but I didn't. I didn't dislike it but it's not one I'll be  recommending to people. I will be checking out Ms. Moriarty's other novels because I did appreciate the way she told this story. I imagine her other novels are written/told in a similar way.  

Final Take: 3/5

 

Children's Corner: Down By The Cool of the Pool

Review: I purchased this cute book with my daughter's first Scholastic order and it has definitely been well worth the money. Now, she likes to read it by herself or to her brother and he likes me to read it to him now. Last week at summer camp for my son they were studying farm animals, so he took this to school with him. Both of his teachers said it was the perfect read since it is so darn hot out.

 Down by the Cool of the Pool is a frolicking fun book about animals trying to cool off in the heat. How each of them cool off differently and have fun doing it. What might be easy for one animal isn't easy for another one. Each of them appreciates the differences in the other animals and they make a game out of it. They each have their unique abilities and all use them to have some fun.

The colors are great and the illustrations depict the story extremely well. The animals are cartoonish enough so they fit the story but not overly distorted so kids will be able to identify them.

There are parts of the book that rhyme and then it switches and doesn't rhyme which always throws me off a bit. I make sure not to read this after a Dr. Seuss book because it will no doubt mess me up with the flow of the book.

If you are looking for a fun read about animal having fun in a pond, then look no further than Down by the Cool of the Pool.

It looks like Mr. Mitton has a great many books that I will have to be checking out. Especially since one involves Penguins. I love me some penguins. If only they didn't smell.