Review - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

This was a book which I skirted around. I have seen it for a very long time on several blogs and blogs which I love (so you would think I would get to it faster) but somehow the words dystopian, sci fi, fantasy put me off. I read a synopsis of the book and got put off completely. It was for me bordering on eerie, maybe for me it was something that I really am frightened that "maybe could happen".

We have seen things in our lifetime which we would have thought unimaginable years ago and I may have thought this is also too weird to be even imaginable! After reading the umpteenth paen of praise for this book it almost fell into my hands on my search for books and I thought it was almost an omen that I had to read this book.
I can only kick myself in the you know what for not getting to this earlier.

Despite the science fiction tone, the high degree of improbability (at times not so improbable also) I know this is a contradiction but it is so - it is a challenging read. It is also a book that you should not read in stages! Read it one go so that the enormity of this book hits you hard. Under an autocratic (read here dictatorship) the Gileads a fundamentalist Protestant group have taken over the world and women - women of child bearing age are forced into a sexual liaison with superior men in order to populate the world. The birth rate is almost zero mainly due to pollution and nuclear war.

Revolving around a Handmaiden one who has lived a "normal" life previously the story delves into human feelings and emotions, passion and jealousies which cannot be kept out despite all the stringent rules and regulations which abound. The story shows clearly how humans need to interact and laying down the law will not always work because people will react differently despite all the rules of how they should behave. Sexuality is a tool in this story, women are only there for child bearing (they cannot own property, they cannot write) (we have seen this happening today so it was no surprise for me here) and a creation of a superior race of children has Nazi overtones which also did happen. It was not fantasy.

After reading the book, I felt angry, sad, annoyed and fearful in turn. It could be science fiction, it could be whatever you may call it but it could happen and that is why it is disturbing. I dont think I could say I loved the book but I certainly am glad that I read it.

This is a powerful tale! Thought provoking and should be read.

Mixed haul of books for my Mailbox Tuesday

This was a beautiful haul of books from my second hand bookshop yesterday. Its my version of Mailbox Monday. It happens on two Tuesdays of each month though!!! as this is when the shop is opened. I invariably get a nice pile of books and oh so reasonably priced. I do wish the ladies would stack the books in a way which would make it accessible to buyers as I am sure we would buy more if we could reach everything that is just thrown around!


The first book that I have shown is Eragon. (Incidentally this is the last picture I uploaded but for some strange reason my pictures get uploaded in a different form and order!) At least its getting uploaded so I am not complaining. This book is for my son and I have already sent it across to him through someone flying to Melbourne tonight.



Nick Hornby - a Long way down. The review said extremely funny and wise. I like that
combination.



I loved the cover of this one Dolly by Anita Brooker - a review called it "close to perfection".



The Firemaster's Daughter goes for my love of historical fiction by Christie Dickason an author I had not heard about before.



The next was an author I have avoided altogether. Margaret Atwood - for some strange
reason I have been nervous to try her books but this fell at my feet and I thought it was a sign to get on with it.


Erica James Love and Devotion is next.


Loved the cover of Wild Designs by Katie Fforde. I know its a bit cheesy to get carried away by covers, but I still do.


Another Erica James Time for a Change.
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The Irish Signorina which I thought gorgeous!


Thats my haul which will keep me going I think for a while. It cost me the equivalent of 5 dollars!!!!

I'd like an answer please!

All of us have blogs that we follow. We do this because we like this blog. Either for the style of writing, the subjects they cover, for whatever reason. What does one do when the writer does not blog for months on end? Do we remove the blog from the blog roll?

The reason why I am asking is this. Sometimes on a blog roll, there is an indication of when the last post went up, so at a glance you could go into or not into the blog as you wish. But, and this is very often, there is no indication of when the last post went up and after all the effort of going into this blog you find that the last post was written weeks ago and one you have gone into and commented maybe.

Is this happening to other people as well as myself. I go into lots of blogs (where I am not a follower) its the link from a link sort of thing that I like to ramble on with and I feel its such a waste of time when this happens.

Would like to have the opinion of others please.

Review - The girl with the dragon tattoo - Stieg Larsson

For the life of me I cannot imagine why I delayed to read this book. I did not even read reviews of the book so I had a hazy idea that yes the author was Swedish and for some strange reason I thought next of paranormal/fantasy etc genres which are really not my cup of tea. So I never got around to even trying to get the book.

I picked it up last week and thought I'd rather not be the last person on the planet who hasn't read it and was I hooked. I loved the book.

Set in modern Sweden a journalist is sued for libel. Simultaneously and for me right at the beginning suspiciously he is offered a fabulous offer - a job offer actually - involving a period of one year to solve a murder mystery which is now 30 years old and unsolved.

Add to the murder mystery (which is eventually solved/uncovered) a twisted, macabre family with intrigues, jealousies both petty and enormous, envy and hatred and you have a book you can't put down.

I will not be going into the explanation of why this book is a hit. The details of writing a novel is way beyond me - but this book draws you in. You are literally on the edge of your seat as you are willing Blomkvist (our journalist) to be discovered in the nick of time/to be saved/to fall in love and for everything to end happily.
It does but it is not soppy, it is not syrupily sentimental!!! The book is good.

A must read and for the princely sum of Rs 50 (half a dollar) a huge bargain.

Book Review - Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

This is my second read of Adriana Trigiani and I really liked this book. Set in the 1950's in cosmopolitan New York in an atmosphere of much love, family and strict ethics this is a story about Lucia in particular and the Sartori family with the Italian immigrant population and the new designers of New York's fashion scene in general.

An old fashioned story of how hard work always pays, love being the secret of harmony in life and a very clever con man who gets away with jilting the heroine of our story forms the basis of the novel. The human feelings of passion, betrayal, sorrow are also portrayed so well in this story. Lucia's story is interesting from beginning to end. Starting with being the only girl in a family of four boys in a strongly protective environment of an Italian family to her becoming a career girl who has no intention of ever giving up her job, from being an obedient daughter to her parents and then going against the wishes of her father in her choice of partner are part of the story.

The story highlights contrasts and similarities. Jewish and Italian immigrants facing the same prejudices, the fact that traditions were being strictly followed not just in the matter of food but also in matters of religion, respect to elders and inheritance to property. How the ethos of hard work, of the family sticking together in times of good and bad, the extended family's importance and how each community tried to stick to their own are also interestingly shown.

I also liked to see Lucia growing up - from an obedient daughter to making up her own mind on what she wanted to do with her life, irrespective of what those around her thought of her. Her sacrifice of her career to look after her ill mother was heart breaking but this was a case of Hobson's choice as far as Lucia was concerned. How Lucia emerges not embittered at how life turned out for her was also a very nice feature of the book. In her 70s Lucia was still a light hearted, loving woman not angry at the way her life turned out to be.

This was a book which got positive reviews on both Bermudaonion as well as She is too fond of books and I am so glad I got the opportunity of reading this book.

Review - The Law of Similars - Chris Bohjalian

Leland a state prosecutor has been widowed for two years and has single handedly brought up his little daughter. He has been feeling out of sorts for well over six months and has met a homeopath Carissa, who he hopes will make him well - fast. His "cold" and fluey symptoms are dragging him down and he feels he cannot do whatever he has to properly because he never seems to shake off his illness. This forms the base of the story that evolves.

Leland is attracted to Carissa instantly and although Carissa does like him, she realizes that she should not be seeing him whilst treating him professionally. A week into their relationship a patient of Carissa's goes into a coma and Carissa and indirectly Leland are thrust into the limelight when Carissa is charged with negligence and Leland knows that as a prosecuting attorney for the State government he should not be associating with either Carissa or with the other parties to the case. Knowingly he goes about visiting the patient and befriends the patient's wife - mainly with an idea of how he could help Carissa and not seeing the danger he is putting both himself and Carissa into.

The conflict between his personal and professional duties bothers him very little as he is at the moment only conscious of how he could "save" Carissa. The book is not a sensational book - its a good read. It also brings into focus the importance of alternative medicines and the general idea that this kind of medicine is becoming popular in America.

It was my first foray into Bohjalian's books. A pleasant read.

Book review - Life of Pi by Yann Martell

I get books very late so that all my reviews are mainly of books which have been around for quite sometime. This is just my own circumstances of how I get books and it cannot be helped. I am only grateful that I get books at all.

The book is a story of a young Indian boy called Pi (short for Piscine) from Pondicherry. The first half of the book deals with Pi's life in Pondicherry in the unusual circumstance of living in a zoo - along with his own family. The book very early on also reveals an unusual characteristic of Pi - his yearning to be a Christian, a Hindu and a Muslim at the same time and somehow succeeding in this despite coming from a secular family where his parents just do not know how to deal with religious fervor! Fortunately they just let it ride, hoping it will go away (it doesnt!).

The second half of the book deals with the incredible journey of Pi. Th family decides to migrate to Canada along with an entourage of animals which they hope to exchange in Canadian and American zoos for a great deal of money. How the ship sinks leaving Pi with Richard Parker a Bengal Tiger, how the two survive the wretched, hazardous journey and how fantastically they land in Mexico is a tale that one has to pinch oneself that one is still reading the book!!!!!

Fantastic though the story is, it is riveting and I loved the book. The bottom line you do come to believe in God.