Book Review: Reckoning

From Goodreads: Heartbreaking, joyous, traumatic, intimate and revelatory, Reckoning is the book where Magda Szubanski, one of Australia’s most beloved performers, tells her story.
In this extraordinary memoir, Magda describes her journey of self-discovery from a suburban childhood, haunted by the demons of her father’s espionage activities in wartime Poland and by her secret awareness of her sexuality, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself and her family. With courage and compassion she addresses her own frailties and fears, and asks the big questions about life, about the shadows we inherit and the gifts we pass on.
Honest, poignant, utterly captivating, Reckoning announces the arrival of a fearless writer and natural storyteller. It will touch the lives of its readers.

Thoughts: Once again a Richard Fidler Conversation sparked my interest. I mean apart from the fact it's Magda Szubanski, one of Australia's funniest people, it's first line is this:

If you had met my father you would never, not for an instant, have thought he was an assassin. 

Seriously!! Is that not the best first line you have ever read!! Thankfully I have excellent friends who totally get me and my reading style so one of them bought it for me for Christmas - thanks Jodie! Nailed it!!

This is not your typical celebrity memoir. Szubanski takes you into her childhood, viewed from the eyes of a new immigrant to country. She explores complex and life changing feelings, events, experiences and thoughts, relating them back to her growth as a person, a comedian, an immigrant, a daughter. She is brutally honest about her struggle to accept her sexuality and her fear of it's affect on her relationships not only with her family but the public.
You cannot read this book and not admire Magda Szubanski. I don't think it would be easy for those who are valued for being funny to write so seriously. It wouldn't be easy to expose so much of yourself. 
Reckoning was definitely an excellent way to end the year.

Reckoning gets 4 stars.

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

Book Review: Island Home

From Goodreads: 'I grew up on the world’s largest island.' 
This apparently simple fact is the starting point for Tim Winton’s beautiful, evocative and sometimes provocative memoir of how Australia's unique landscape has shaped him and his writing. 
Wise, rhapsodic, exalted – Island Home is not just a brilliant, moving insight into the life and art of one of our finest writers, but a compelling investigation into the way our country shapes us.

Thoughts: Winton. Seriously, you can't go wrong with the man. His ability to place you smack bang in the middle of Australia and view it through his eyes is second to none. Everything from the cover to the explorations of place will make you long for this place we are lucky enough to go home. His description of what it feels like to be an Aussie overseas may be one of the big reasons I am not so eager to travel overseas. The love he has for the country only fuels my desire to see more of it - especially Western Australia and it's beautiful coastline. As one other review I read of Island Home said, all of Winton's books are about place, but this is about The Place.

Without beating the reader over the head, Winton gently reminds us how ancient this land is and how it captures people's hearts. He acknowledges the love non indigenous Australian's feel for their home, but points out we lack the ancient connection our indigenous population feel and revere. We have much to learn from the aboriginal culture and if we would only open ourselves up to it, they would be happy to teach us and maybe we could heal some of the hurt caused by our ancestors. 

Australia is big enough for all of us and I only hope that we all find the love and joy in this land that Tim Winton wants us to.

Island Home gets 5 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

Book Review - Relativity

From Goodreads: Ethan is a bright young boy obsessed with physics and astronomy who lives with his mother, Claire. Claire has been a wonderful parent to Ethan, but he's becoming increasingly curious about his father's absence in his life, wanting to fill in the gaps. 
Claire's life is centred on Ethan; she is fiercely protective of her talented, vulnerable son, and of her own feelings. When Ethan falls ill, tied to a tragic event from when he was a baby, Claire's tightly held world is split open. 
On the other side of the country, Mark is trying to forget about the events that tore his family apart. Then a sudden and unexpected call home forces him to confront his past, and the hole in his life that was once filled with his wife Claire and his son Ethan.
When Ethan secretly intercepts a letter from Mark to Claire, he unleashes long-suppressed forces that – like gravity – pull the three together again, testing the limits of love and forgiveness.
Heart-wrenching, absorbing and magical, Relativity is an irresistible novel about science, love, unbreakable bonds and irreversible acts.

Thoughts: Antonia Hayes did not give a lot of interviews about this book. Understandable when you realise how closely she cuts to the bone with the premise of the book. One interview she did give was on Richard Fidler's Conversations. (seriously, I should track how many books I get from that show!) It was interesting and heart-wrenching enough for me to add to my list. In the end, I listened to it as a audio, read by the author herself.

I quite enjoyed the book, although I found Claire to be fairly annoying. However, there was one moment in the book where it completely lost me and it took a lot to get me back. During a meeting at school with Claire, Ethan, staff at the school, the parents of one of Ethan's friends and Ethan's friend, the mother of the friend reveals some very private and privileged information. The principal and other staff that were present just let it happen. There was time and space for them to intervene and they didn't. I do not know of, nor can imagine such a situation ever occurring. Schools are big on privacy and protecting children. There is no way what was revealed would be allowed. It was necessary for Ethan to find out the information disclosed, but it was done in such a clunky, plot device way it completely jarred me out of the story. For quite awhile I was so angry about the whole thing  I struggled to slip back into the story. However, in the end I managed to move past it and follow the story to the end.

The book is one of those that presents several questions to the reader. How would you react in Claire's position? What would you tell your child about what happened and the effect it has had? What are the dangers of hiding such information from a child - especially when they form answers for themselves that may be very far of the mark. And at what point do you start to believe your own lies in order to cover the pain?

Part of me wants to give Relativity 4 stars, but the reality is the school scene plus a few other little niggling issues means it will stay at a 3.

Relativity gets 3 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

Book Review: Bitter Greens

From Goodreads: An utterly captivating reinvention of the Rapunzel fairytale weaved together with the scandalous life of one of the tale's first tellers, Charlotte-Rose de la Force.
Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. She is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens...
Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death, sixty-four years later. Called La Strega Bella, Selena is at the centre of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition, retaining her youth and beauty by the blood of young red-haired girls.
After Margherita's father steals a handful of parsley, wintercress and rapunzel from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off unless he and his wife give away their little red-haired girl. And so, when she turns seven, Margherita is locked away in a tower, her hair woven together with the locks of all the girls before her, growing to womanhood under the shadow of La Strega Bella, and dreaming of being rescued...
Three women, three lives, three stories, braided together to create a compelling story of desire, obsession, black magic and the redemptive power of love. 

Thoughts: Kate Forsyth has become one of those authors I immediately recommend to people who ask me for something new. Her writing is fluid, magical, provoking strong images and emotions. Her female characters are flawed but strong and compelling. And when the blurb tells you it's "three stories, braided together" it speaks true - the stories are interwoven, each strand clear and engrossing but so precisely interlocked with the others the change over is seamless. The women have lives that are complicated and intriguing. They are living in a time when their sex can be such a disadvantage, yet all of the rise against this and carve out a life of their own - not perfect, but theirs. Still their paths cross and their stories overlap and parallel. It's a bit like seeing an intriguing pattern come to life with words instead of lines.

Add to this Forsyth's incredible detail of King Louis XIV Versailles court, her attention to detail in her research shining through and you have a book well worth exploring. Much like the court itself, Forsyth's descriptions are rich, but there is an undertow of seediness as well.  You can see the tightrope the court walks on to maintain the favour of the king, knowing full well how devastating the drop will be if you fall. 
Bitter Greens is a book to immerse yourself in. It is a book that will make you fall in love with fairytales all over again.

Bitter Greens gets 5 stars

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

November in Review

So are you ready for Christmas? I'm not, nowhere near it! I'll just stick my fingers in my ears and sing la la la for a little while longer!

8 reads this month. Not bad, but I am unlikely to hit my target of 100 by the end of year. Such is life, no biggie really.

Stats first.

Kindle - 1                              Library - 6
Book - 4                                  Own - 2
Audio - 3                                Borrowed (non library) - 0
Fiction - 6                       
Non-fiction - 2
Female Author - 6                  New to Me Authors - 4
Male Author - 3
Australian Author - 6

Big month for audio - 3. Only one that I was really impressed by though was Still Alice. The Heart Goes Last and The Serial Killers Club fell short of the mark. I was bitterly disappointed with The Heart Goes Last as I quite like Margaret Atwood but this one just didn't do it for me.

The Jungle Dark was a very personal read for me and has definitely left it's mark, but the pick of the month is by far and away Geraldine Brooks' The Secret Chord. Brooks is an author who just gets better and better. The Secret Chord has reminded me I've yet to read Caleb's Crossing so expect to see that soon.

Looking Forward

Nothing new borrowed or bought this month, although I have made a list of books I hope to get through over the Christmas break. I made it a few weeks ago and have already made a start, but this is what is still on it.

Island Home - Tim Winton (we all know I adore Tim Winton!)

The Little Red Chairs - Edna O'Brien

The Beast's Garden - Kate Forsyth

Caleb's Crossing - Geraldine Brooks

Not Just Black and White - Lesley & Tammy Williams

This list only includes those books I actually have in my possession. My actual TBR list is way longer!!

So how was your November? What are your plans for holiday reading?

Book Review: Cracking the Code

From Goodreads: This story of a father's search to find a diagnosis, and ultimately a cure, for his son's mystery disease is an inspiration that has set the world of genetic medicine and research abuzz with the possibilities for the future.

Thoughts: Yet another book I was drawn to through Richard Fidler's Conversation Hour. Stephen and Sally Damiani's world was turned upside down when their first born child, Massimo was diagnosed with Leukodystrophy. The problem with Leukodystrophy is it has many variations - lots of them unidentified. Massimo had one of these forms. So the Damiani's set to work. Sally became responsible for managing Massimo's day to day care - therapies, medications, appointments - and Stephen became responsible for find a cure. OK, that may be a little dramatic, but he immersed himself in research to determine exactly what variation of the disease Massimo had and therefore develop effective therapies and treatments.
This book is a great example of what can happen when you are not constrained by the conventions of a job or industry. When you are not part of the machine, you do not see the reasons something can't be done. You see the reasons why it should and set about working out how. 
The Damiani's were lucky in several ways. Whether you believe it to be fate, divination intervention or just plain coincidence, they met several people on their journey who were not only able, but willing to help them in their quest. From being able to ask questions, to mapping Massimo's genome, to finding someone who understood how to read that genome, the Dimaini's ended up with an army of people on their side.
Cracking the Code is a fairly easy read. It's not bogged down in scientific jargon and at the heart of it is a pretty cute kid. Every parent will feel for Stephen and Sally. As a parent I was in awe of their determination and drive, but wonder is it any less than I would have done for my kids. I see a lot of my husband in Stephen - if there is a problem you work out how to fix it. While it's not discussed in the book (and nether should it have been), the Damiani's obviously had access to some financial support or fund as much of what they did was not cheap and not publicly funded. They also had the education level and intelligence to fully understand what needed to be done and to further educate themselves. I'm assuming not everyone is able to teach themselves genomics in the way Stephen did! This is the type of thing that makes you wonder if certain things happen to certain people for a reason. Yes, I know it's horrible to do this to your child - says the universe - but I know you have the resources, knowledge and drive to help him and through that so many other children. And the Damiani's and their team have. They identified Massimo's variation. They have developed treatments that help. They have a little boy they expected to be dead by 2 going to school. They have saved other parents the anguish of not knowing exactly what is wrong with their child. They have proven the importance of genomics in diagnosing rare illness. 
Cracking the Code is at it's very heart a feel good story. The triumph of hard work and determination and love. The Damiani's and Massimo have a long way to go, but their journey so far is well worth reading about.

Cracking the Code gets 3 stars

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing

Book Review: Still Alice

From Goodreads: Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life--and her relationship with her family and the world--forever.
At once beautiful and terrifying, Still Alice is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Judith Guest's Ordinary People.

Thoughts: I can be quite a morbid person. I will run the most horrific scenarios through my head wondering how I would cope. Loss of my husband, loss of one of my kids, going blind, cancer diagnosis. Alzheimer's is one of those most terrifying scenarios. How on earth do you cope with losing yourself, losing everything you believe makes you you, everything you have created, worked for, slipping away from you.

As a neuroscientist Lisa Genova knows her stuff. This makes this even more scary as you know what she is describing is in fact very, very real. As she says at the end, this book does not describe everyone's journey with Alzhiemer's, but it does depict one possible path.

As with her book Inside the O'Briens, Genova takes you through her characters realisation there is something wrong, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and deterioration. She explores the affect on spouses and children, especially given the hereditary nature of the disease. I was concerned momentarily about it become another O'Briens when the subject of testing for Alice's children came up and whether or not they should be tested. However, unlike the O'Briens where it became a significant sub plot, it was very quickly and easily dealt with.

I have no experience with Alzheimer's. It is not something that has appeared in my family tree and for that I am grateful. I do not know how I would react as a spouse of someone with Alzhiemer's, but I will admit some of John's (Alice's husband) reactions annoyed me. They had such limited time left and all he seemed to want to do was ignore it. Having said that, the book is told from Alice's perspective the only insight you get into John is through her.

I listened to this as an audio book, read by the author. It flowed easily and I think would be a fairly easy read, even if it is emotionally charged. There were times when tears welled, but they never spilled. Again, like the O'Briens, Genova finished the book before the ultimate demise - a good thing. As the reader you know where the story will end and it's almost like watching a family go through this, then withdrawing at the appropriate moment to allow them their privacy.

Genova has two other books I haven't read - Left Neglected and Love Anthony. Both sound interesting and I will have a look at them. Love Anthony in particular interests me as it seems to move away from the neurological disorders field. As I said, I feel one of Genova's strengths is her professional knowledge about the conditions she writes about. I hope it's a skill she can carry across to other areas.

Still Alice gets 4 stars

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing