2nds Challenge 2010 Wrap-Up

I am delighted to have successfully completed the 2010 2nds Challenge! I reached the level of "Fascinated" by reading six (actually I read seven!) My completed books are:

Gail Godwin, Violet Clay. Previously read Father Melancholy's Daughter
Jennifer Niven, The Aqua Net Diaries. Previously read Velva Jean Learns to Drive
Andrea Levy, The Long Song. Previously read Small Island
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Previously read The Hound of the Baskervilles
Carol Goodman, Arcadia Falls. Previously read The Lake of Dead Languages
Joshilyn Jackson, Between, Georgia. Previously read Gods in Alabama
Sue Miller, The Lake Shore Limited. Previously read While I Was Gone

Review: Between, Georgia

This is my second Joshilyn Jackson book, and I think I liked this one better than Gods in Alabama, though this does suffer from some of the same problems. The novel tells the story of Nonny Frett, trying to manage her unconventional family, and her looming, but uncertain, divorce. All of this happens against the background of the tiny and colorful southern town of Between.

The plot of this book moves along at a good pace, and the story is full of colorful characters. The similarities to Gods in Alabama are striking: the unique maternal situation, the overbearing aunt, and the troubled romantic relationship are all here.

My main issue with the book was the ending: it was a bit too neat, and definitely a let-down. I'm not sorry that I invested the time reading this book, but I was disappointed at the end.

Joshilyn Jackson, Between, Georgia (Grand Central, 2006) ISBN: 0446524425

Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I had previously read Holmes in novel-length, but this is the first I've read Holmes in short form. The shorter form really seems to suit the larger-than-life character that is Sherlock Holmes. Holmes's quirks and ego, and Watson's sycophantic toadying are far more tolerable in smaller doses. Holmes's deductive reasoning is also on full display in these short tales, as attention to the details leads him to the solution, which is always "really rather simple, Watson!"

It's possible for the reader who attends to the details to figure out the solution to many of these cases, generally at least, if not in all the details. The stories in this volume are just the right length to be suspenseful without being stale. It is easy to see why these detective stories have withstood the test of time.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Puffin, 1995, orig. 1892) ISBN: 014036689X

Review: The Lake Shore Limited

Devastation is the expected response to the death of a loved one. This is a book about all of the other complicated emotions that can interfere with pure grief, and the impossibility of expressing those emotions. The book focuses on the web of people who surround a young man who died in the 9/11 attacks. His girlfriend writes a play about the experience, revealing that she might not be as grief-stricken as she ought to be. The play's viewers and actors form the core of the group of characters. The play focuses on an aging academic, caught in the drama of not knowing what has happened when a terrorist attack is reported on his wife's train. The play is, of course, meant to be a metaphor for the playwright, Billie's, own relationship. It's very difficult to write a play within a novel, and I can't say that this novel is better for it. So much of the book focuses on the play, and the play is just not all that interesting or nuanced. The play is such an important part of the story, but it's essentially flat. I didn't think that this was one of Miller's better books. I much preferred While I Was Gone.


Sue Miller, The Lake Shore Limited (Knopf, 2010) ISBN: 0307264211

Review: Violet Clay

The story of a young artist's coming of age, Violet Clay explores a woman's efforts to come to terms with a life that has turned out quite differently from her expectations. Violet Clay, orphaned as a small child, shuffled through boarding schools, finds her adult self with only one family member to speak of, her uncle Ambrose, a troubled writer. Ambrose has never managed to finish his second book, and Violet has failed to become an artist of note. A move to New York brings Violet little success. Eight years after her move she finds herself stagnating at art, life, and love. When Ambrose commits suicide, Violet takes the opportunity to move to her uncle's remote upstate cabin to try and reinvent her life. Godwin does an excellent job of creating complex worlds around her characters, and Violet Clay is no exception. Violet's history and psyche are richly drawn, and Godwin deftly recreates Charleston, New York City, and upstate New York. I did find some of Violet's relationships to be somewhat tiresome. Indeed, Violet herself is tiresome, the poster child for a navel-gazing artist's personality. Still, this is an intriguing book: more interesting than the story of an artist trying to figure herself out might seem.

Gail Godwin, Violet Clay (Penguin, 1986) ISBN: 0140082204

Review: The Aqua Net Diaries

High school in middle America in the 1980s: this is Jennifer Niven's memoir of high school in suburban Indiana. Like any other high school student Jennifer angsts over her weekend dates, spends hours on the phone, and is profoundly embarrassed by her parents. She spends time dreaming up ways to cut school and acquire alcohol. In other words, this is the story of an entirely unremarkable high school experience. Most of us will find plenty in Niven's narrative that sounds familiar. Reading this book is quite a bit like reminiscing about high school with one's old friends at a reunion. That said, I'm not sure that there's anything more to this book. I absolutely loved Niven's novel, Velva Jean Learns to Drive, but I was disappointed in this memoir. The memoir was neither as deep nor as interesting as the novel. This is a light and entertaining read, but there's not a lot more to it.

Jennifer Niven, The Aqua Net Diaries: Big Hair, Big Dreams, Small Town (Gallery, 2010) ISBN: 1416954295

Review: The Long Song

The horrors of chattel slavery are described in stark relief in Levy's fictional life story of a nineteenth-century Jamaican woman. Miss July, born into slavery, lives through some of Jamaica's most tumultuous events: warfare, emancipation, and the difficult transition to free labor. Miss July has endured more tragedy than most modern readers can comprehend: pulled away from her mother as a child, only to see her mother executed in the wake of a slave rebellion, Miss July's own child is given away. Ultimately Miss July finds herself in love with a dangerous white man. This book brings the horrors and brutality of slavery into full relief. It also shows how slave ownership corrupts slave owners, as we see two Britons become slave masters. This book is an accomplished family epic. It is a novel deep with emotion, and one that recreates a thoroughly believable nineteenth-century Jamaica. This is a world of tremendous violence and exploitation, yet one in which we still see tremendous human tenderness. I thoroughly enjoyed Levy's earlier novel, Small Island, and was not disappointed by my second foray into her work.

Andrea Levy, The Long Song (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010) ISBN: 0374192170

Review: Arcadia Falls

This book bears distinct resemblance to Goodman's earlier Lake of Dead Languages. Both take place at elite private schools in the northeast. Both books' main characters are single mothers and teachers who move to these schools to teach under difficult circumstances. And both books rely heavily on student and faculty obsession with old myths. In Arcadia Falls the single mother in question is Meg Rosenthal, recently widowed folklore scholar, who moves herself and her daughter to a remote region of upstate New York to take a much-needed teaching job at the Arcadia School. The school began its life as a feminist artist colony, whose founders wrote and illustrated fairy tales. The school's founders, Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhart, are professional and romantic partners, but with the arrival of a charismatic sculptor at the colony, Lily finds herself in the midst of a troublesome love triangle. The consequences of this triangle will lead to Lily's death. It quickly becomes apparent to Meg that the Arcadia School is a dangerous and deadly place,not just in Lily's time, but in her own, too. The books is the retelling of three stories, that of Meg and Sally Rosenthal, that of Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhart, and the fairy tale, The Changeling Girl. Goodman does an excellent job of weaving these tales together. While the book does bear some similarities to some of Goodman's earlier work, it is not merely the same story retold. I was captivated with discovering who or what was responsible for Lily Eberhart's death. I did find that after the circumstances of Lily's death were revealed the book was neither as compelling, nor as plausible. The ending is not the most satisfying, but this was still an enjoyable and suspenseful read.

Carol Goodman, Arcadia Falls (Ballantine, 2010) ISBN: 0345497538

2nds Challenge

This year I'll be participating in the 2nds Challenge, hosted by Royal Reviews. I've read lots of new authors this year, and I'm definitely excited to read more of their work. I've decided to go in at the curious level, reading four authors for the second time this year. I can always work my way up if need be. Some of the authors I'm considering include:

Carol Shields
Elizabeth Berg
Joanne Harris


Obviously, this is still a work in progress, but I'm excited to join!

Review: A Virtuous Woman

Gibbons's novel, a novella, really, is the story of a southern woman's relationships and the profound effect she has on those close to her. Born to a privileged family, Ruby Pitt enters first a disastrous, then a profoundly loving marriage. Though these relationships move her squarely into the working class, we see that love triumphs over class, status, and lineage. Told in alternating chapters by Ruby and her husband, Jack, at the time surrounding her early death from cancer, the book relates the history of Ruby and Jack's relationship. This is not a plot-driven, so much as an emotion-driven book. A beautiful, quick read, I couldn't help but feel deeply for Ruby, and especially for Jack.

I read this book as part of the 2008 2nds Challenge. I'd previously read Sights Unseen, which is still my favorite, but this was an enjoyable read too.

Kaye Gibbons, A Virtuous Woman (Vintage, 1997) ISBN: 0375703063

Review: After the Dance

Carnival is one of the defining events of the Haitian year, and nowhere is it celebrated with more verve than in the seaside town of Jacmel. The Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat never had the opportunity to attend carnival. Thus, as an adult, she returns to Haiti, to Jacmel, to experience what she missed in childhood. This book is an account of Danticat's trip back. This is a travel essay, but at the same time, it's so much more. After the dance is a travel narrative, a memoir, and a history, of Haiti and of the carnival. A beautifully-written homage to the carnival, the book spins out in multiple directions, telling stories, and full of descriptive imagery. This is quite a short book, and given all of the things the book tries to do, it doesn't do any of them completely. Instead, we get snatches and tidbits of histories and memories, and the book is a pleasure to read. Danticat uses Carnival and its activities as metaphors to discuss larger events and issues in her own and Haiti's past and present. This is a book one should read to get a taste of Haiti. It's not necessarily comprehensive, but it paints a brilliant picture.

Edwidge Danticat, After the Dance: A Walk through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (Crown, 2002) ISBN: 0609609084

A Second Post from Me Today

You're hearing from me again today because I've decided this evening that I must join yet another challenge. My new challenge is the 2nds Challenge, hosted by Thoughts of Joy. Here's the official word:

WHO: Anybody

WHAT: Read 4 books by authors that you have only read one other

WHERE: Mister Linky will keep track of monthly books read here on "Thoughts of Joy..."

WHEN: September, October, November and December, 2008

WHY: Because we love to read...why else?

So there we have it. When I started going through my TBR pile I realized just how many books fit into the 2nds category for me. Here's my list, but I can't promise I'll stick to it exactly. I'm planning:

1. Barn Blind by Jane Smiley (I've read Moo)

2. After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat (I've read Breath, Eyes, Memory)

3. Alentejo Blue by Monical Ali (I've read Brick Lane)

4. Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison (I've read Bastard out of Carolina)

I've got many, many more authors who I may substitute: A. Manette Ansay, Chris Bohjalian, Zadie Smith, Adriana Trigiani, Augusten Burroughs, Jacqueline Mitchard, and that's just to name a few.

So, we'll see how this one goes. If you'd like to join just click on the icon!