Keeping the Castle: A Tale of Romance, Riches, and Real Estate by Patrice Kindl

Every review of this book compares the author to Jane Austen, and uses words like “frothy” and “endearing” to describe it. Many books are compared to Jane Austen’s works, but few can live up to the hype. As a hardcore Janeite, I often try to read these modern imitators, but rarely manage to finish them. To me, most are dry attempts to echo the classic books that I love so much. Keeping the Castle is different. I’m not saying it’s destined to become a classic that will be read and reread for centuries to come. No, I am saying that it is a fun read—one I can recommend to those who love Jane Austen and to those who are just looking for a romantic comedy in a book.

A beautiful young girl named Althea is from a genteel but poor family and knows she must marry well in order to preserve the family home for her younger brother. Althea has two mean-spirited stepsisters who have money of their own, but who refuse to contribute to anyone else’s comfort. Her mother does her best to help, but figuring out how to make the most of the very little moneythey have falls on Althea’s shoulders every day, and she must be both diligent and creative.

Being only 17 years old, Althea is a little too honest sometimes. She loses one suitor when she lets it slip that his money plays a part in her willingness to marry him. But she knows there will be others, and of course there are. Soon a party of friends comes to visit the neighbors, and Althea’s prospects look brighter.

This young adult novel combines elements from Cinderella with Pride and Prejudice,and has a lighthearted fairy tale feel to it. I enjoyed the characters with names like Lord Boring, Lady Throstletwist, and Miss Sneech.  But, of course, Althea takes center stage and she is a delightful character—independent, fresh, and witty. She’s a younger Elizabeth Bennet, someone we would all like to know.

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Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

People have been recommending this book to me for the last three years and I have been completely resistant to its charms, mostly because of how it has been described to me – something along the lines of “it’s about a hostage situation, but also about opera.” Bo-ring. Or so I thought.

After having any book recommended to me often enough, I’ll eventually try it, which is how I wound up with a copy of Bel Canto on my nightstand, waiting to be read. The story is loosely based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis that occurred in Lima, Peru in 1996 when the terrorist group the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement took hundreds of government officials hostage, some for as long as 126 days. In Patchett’s fictionalized retelling, a Japanese businessman, Mr. Hosokawa, visits an undisclosed location in South America for a party honoring his birthday. Although invited in the hopes that he would bring business to the area, Hosokawa’s sole reason for attending is the evening’s entertainment – opera singer Roxane Coss. An avid opera-goer, Hosokawa is enchanted by her voice and jumps at the chance for a semi-private performance.

As Roxane and her accompanist finish their recital, armed terrorists descend upon the party in an attempt to make demands of the President, who was presumed to be in attendance (though was in fact at home, watching his soap opera.) What follows is the story of a group of disparate people from different cultures, speaking different languages, and how they help each other survive, hostages and terrorists alike. Some people might say that music becomes the common language for the characters in this book, but I don’t really think that’s true – it gives people something to do with their days, and something to occupy their minds, but the common language is perhaps time; how much of it they have left, and how to best spend what they do have.

The narrative weaves together different characters’ stories and shows how they build a life together over the several months that the hostage situation lasts. The book ends in much the same way that the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis did (so, sorry if I just ruined it for you) and a brief epilogue gives the reader a glimpse into what life after the event looks like for two couples.

This was my first Ann Patchett novel, and I’ll definitely come back for more.

For another perspective on this book, take a look at Brandy H.’s review of it on our blog two years ago.

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All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps edited by Dave Isay

Remember those how-we-met vignettes that punctuated the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally? The two who were born days apart in the same hospital and grew up in the same apartment building but never met until, as a young adult, he rode up nine extra floors just to keep talking to her? The man who married his high school sweetheart, then divorced her, then fell in love with her all over again and re-married her thirty-five years (and several wives) later?

If you were charmed by those, you will probably also enjoy All There Is : Love Stories From StoryCorps, edited and with an introduction by Dave Isay. Unlike most of Wake County Library’s audiobooks, there are no readers or actors in All There Is — just real people telling their own love stories in their own words to their children and families. The stories were recorded through Storycorps, an oral history project that allows regular people 40 minutes to interview a loved one about any topic in a recording booth. The best interviews are edited and then broadcast and podcast on National Public Radio. The one-disc, one-hour audiobook retains the documentary-style sound and the feel of a radio interview or podcast. Each 40-minute session is edited down to three or four minutes and most contain the voices of both interviewer and storyteller.

Some stories are stranger-than-fiction fun, like the pair who meet only because their email addresses are separated by just one character, though their physical addresses are oceans apart. And some are tear-jerking and poignant, like the Army widower who dispatched his own wife to the war zone where she died. All of them end with several seconds of mood music to guarantee that listeners experience the emotional after-effects they’d expect from any expertly-crafted short story.

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Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral

This book caught my eye immediately. The format is somewhere between a photographic coffee table book and a graphic novel; the story is told in words and pictures, but also through instant messages, you tube videos, and drawings. The result is a beautiful finished product to leaf through leisurely or to tackle as a quick read (I was able to plow through the entire book on my lunch break one day.)

The story starts with the main character, Glory, missing. She has escaped from a mental institution and hasn’t been heard from since. Rewind eighteen months, and the events leading up to her disappearance are revealed:

Glory is a teenaged piano prodigy about to embark on a worldwide tour. She’s known for her skill of mixing classical pieces with modern scores in a cohesive and innovative manner (think Bach alongside Madonna). Her father is demanding and her schedule grueling. Between lessons, practice, and keeping up with her schoolwork, Glory doesn’t have a lot of time to be a normal teenager. And then she meets Frank, and her whole world turns upside down.

Glory’s deteriorating mental state is shown through clipped articles, postcards to Frank from her tour, and other documents, placed together to form a sort of scrapbook. She becomes incapable of performing the pieces that she is known for (and expected to play) and instead only plays (you guessed it) Chopsticks.

For a peek at the type of imagery you’ll see throughout this book, check out the video preview of the book or take a peek inside the book online.

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Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Are you a fan of Polish science fiction? Do you fantasize about visiting the old stomping grounds of Stanislaw Lem – Lviv? Krakow? Do you venerate his name? If none of this applies to you, it is hereby suggested that you give Stanislaw Lem’s strange and hypnotic novel Solaris a chance.

When Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, after an extended and exhausting journey through space arrives to the planet Solaris, he is expecting a warm welcome. He has been sent to the planet to investigate the situation there, but instead of being received by fellow human beings his vessel is automatically transported to an empty hangar for spaceships, and the space station seems empty. When he begins to familiarize himself with the space station, what he sees bear witness of destruction and disintegration. Something unusual is going on here, and the process is not yet over.

But to describe the plot will not do Solaris justice. The inner and outer events are equally important and there is not necessarily a clear distinction between the two, and Solaris is a deeply psychological and philosophical tale about – well, read and find out for yourself, for this novel is on the most fundamental level a collaboration between the author and the reader and the reader’s will and ability to create meaning.

Stanislaw Lem once said that Solaris was an adventure in his career. He never planned the book, and he never thought that he could write a book like Solaris. The novel, he explained, came into existence through a process of self-organization.

Solaris was published in 1961 and Lem’s reputation as an author eventually began to grow, initially in the Federal Republic of Germany (or West Germany). Ultimately his fiction spread over the world and Solaris was filmed three times (twice in the Soviet Union – the second time around by Andrey Tarkovsky – and once in the U.S. by Steven Soderbergh). His books were translated to more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Poland has a proud literary tradition, so it is not surprising that Polish authors every now and then reach international recognition. Lem’s themes tend to center on alienation, the problems of communication, and the relationship between mankind and technology. All this makes him an author that has endured the test of time, but Solaris especially reflects a speech by John F. Kennedy in 1960. “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier [...] the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats.”

Welcome to 2012. And Solaris.

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One Day by David Nicholls

One Day is the story of a blooming love affair, although a very slowly blooming one. Dexter and Emma meet on St. Swithin’s Day (a British holiday that falls on July 15th) in 1988, and spend a lovely night together. They’ve just graduated from college and Dexter is about to head out of the country to find himself for a while, so, despite the obvious connection between the two, they part ways. Somehow a friendship grows out of their brief encounter, and they keep in touch through letters while Dexter is abroad.

Our next viewing of the pair is exactly one year later, on July 15^th, 1989. And so goes the book, showing us where the two stand on St. Swithin’s Day each year for twenty years. We watch as they support each other through jobs, relationships, and life, both the good and the bad.  Their friendship has its own ebb and flow over the years, and the snapshots throughout time allow the reader to see an overarching picture of their relationship over the years.

The book is beautifully written and switches its narrative between the two characters, giving different perspectives of the same events for a fuller picture of Dexter and Emma’s lives and encounters. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, One Day was a treat to read. You’ll find yourself rooting for their relationship to finally find its groove.

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Essential Poems (to Fall in Love with) presented by Daisy Goodwin

Did you know that there was a BBC TV show on poetry?  In 2003 Daisy Goodwin edited this little collection of love poems that have been performed by various actors on the show, such as Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” acted out as an office Don Juan flirting with the new temp.  What a cool idea—to take these poems that we think of as only read by English teachers, and show how full of life and truly “up to date” they are.

The poetry is arranged under topics from “Playing the Dating Game” to “Getting Over It,” with every nuance in between.  Here are poems for every mood and moment of love—or its absence.  Many of us can relate to the bitter truthfulness of Wendy Cope’s four-line poem:

I can’t forgive you.  Even if I could,
You wouldn’t pardon me for seeing through you
And yet I cannot cure myself of love
For what I thought you were before I knew you.

There are passionate poems, thoughtful poems, jealous poems, and some to cheer you up when you feel sad, like this little ditty from Adrian Mitchell:

When I am sad and weary
When I think all hope has gone
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on.

There are poems about old couples in love, how to deal with your ex’s new flame, and the ups and downs of marriage.  There are even poems about love that never quite was, such as these lines from Sara Teasdale’s poem “The Look”:

Strephon’s kiss was lost in jest,
Robin’s lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin’s eyes
Haunts me night and day.

Whether you’re thinking right now that love’s a joy or love’s a pain, there’s something in here for you.  Keep this book on your bedside table—or perhaps in your medicine cabinet!  It will remind you that love is worth searching for and worth cherishing when we find it.  This poem, which closes the collection, says it well.  It was written by Raymond Carver, shortly after he learned he had an inoperable brain tumor:

And did you get what
You wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
Beloved on the earth.

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Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá

The lyrics of The Wailers’ song “Get Up, Stand Up” goes something like this (depending on the version), “Most people think / Great God will come from the sky / Take away everything / Make everybody feel high / But if you know what life is worth / You will look for yours on earth / And now you see the light / You stand up for your right.”

The song claims that you should not wait for justice until the afterlife. Life is right here, right now, created by the Most High and thus holy, and therefore social injustice should be fought wherever it is encountered (as injustice is a violation of life and hence a violation of God). In short: this life is what you have – use it wisely.

Which is easier said than done. Contemporary postmodern life can be a mind-numbing whirlwind and life and its precious moments may pass us by if we are not living the present moment, if we are instead living in an imagined future, a place and time where everything will be just right, where everything will fall into place. A sense of fulfillment is hardly possible if we are constantly looking ahead, planning for the next stage of the journey – fulfillment can perhaps only be experienced when we realize that this, the here and now, is all we have, and that it is all we will every have as the past is gone, the future hasn’t even occurred yet.

Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá’s graphic novel Daytripper is a ingenious contemplation on life and the preciousness of every day that we receive. The art work may remind the audience of Jean-Pierre Autheman, it’s as vivid as his graphic novels but not as raw; instead the art of Daytripper is rather tender and gentle.

And the tale of Moon and Bá is compassionate. The duo basically asks, What is important? And they suggest that every moment, every encounter, every social initiative is significant; they claim that it is important to dream, to follow dreams and visions, and to love whatever the world offers – its magic and its profanities. As in many tales about life, death plays a major role in Daytripper. For death is the price we pay for being alive – without death there would be no life.

To face death can be hard, but it can also be liberating. In the words of Steven P. Jobs: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”  This is what Daytripper is saying, too.

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Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin

When I was a kid I loved catching fireflies.  My love for these denizens of the night has continued into adulthood, even though I don’t catch them so much anymore.  When I saw the title of this book, I had to check it out despite the fact that I knew nothing about the book or the author.  It was a great surprise to me that I liked it so much.  I have read few books that strike an emotional chord with me like this one does.  I venture to guess this will be my favorite book of the year.

Martin’s story revolves around a young boy found wandering alone after having been in a terrible wreck.  He has no identification and no one knows who he is.  He is mute and communicates only by writing and drawing.  His artistic ability borders on genius.  He says his name is “Snoot”. His body bears the scars of terrible physical abuse.  Chase Walker is the reporter assigned to write a story about the boy.

Chase relates to the boy as only another orphan can and the two soon forge a strong bond.  In Chase’s search to uncover Snoot’s identity, he discovers his own true past and the answers to the questions every orphan has about their origins.  This story has it all – mystery, reconciliation, and the amazing power of love.  Read it if you are in the mood for a tearjerker that will also make you laugh a lot.

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Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Fact is stranger than fiction. Or so the saying goes, at least. But as reality is multifaceted and elusive it can be hard to determine the difference between fact and fiction, and sometimes it may be more accurate to claim that fiction is part fact, and that fact is part fiction. The great Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez has stated that he loathes stories that are made up and – sure enough – the most fantastic parts of his novels are often deeply rooted in actual events.

García Márquez is mainly known for two of his novels: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). Both are masterpieces and the latter is one of the greatest love stories ever told.

As the story is rich and supremely well told it is easy to get swept away by its romantic traits, but what makes the novel great is García Márquez’s ability to show the complexity of romantic love. Fermina Daza, a beautiful and stubborn girl – based on García Márquez’s mother – is at the epicenter of Love in the Time of Cholera. When Florentino Ariza, a fictional character inspired by García Márquez’s father, one day encounters Fermina he falls in love and gets sick – lovesick, that is, a disease comparable to cholera. Florentino’s love for Fermina is as stubborn as she is, and his love isn’t all about sweetness and tenderness – it also gives rise to strong hatred: namely for the marriage between his beloved and Juvenal Urbino, a doctor famous for his struggle against cholera.

Florentino goes on with his life, a rather dramatic existence, at that. He courts hundreds of women, but remains true – in his heart – to the love of his youth.

Years pass, and along with Love and Cholera, Time plays a major part in this tale. The message resembles that of Tanekh (“the Jewish Bible” or “the Old Testament”): good things sometimes take time. Gabriel García Márquez has seen this in his own life. Like Jacob of Genesis, the author had to wait fourteen years before he could marry his beloved, and that she was worth waiting for is obvious. Gabriel García Márquez’s dedication of the epic Love in the Time of Cholera simply states: “For Mercedes, of course.”

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