Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Published September 2016 by Harper
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.

My Thoughts:
Ann Patchett. 'Nuff said, in my opinion. This is my fifth book by Patchett (I own three others) and I have never finished one of her books disappointed. Every book is unique but Patchett's writing is alway exceptional. Which is why I got a little giddy when I was offered this book for review.

And then I had to read 2900 pages in 5 weeks before I could get to this book. Which might not be that big a deal for some of my fellow book bloggers but it's a lot for this girl. Which leads to this confession: I haven't finished this book yet. I could have. I could have raced through the book in the past three days but it would have been a blur. I wasn't willing to do that. I wanted to savor this book. I knew that going in because I've read Patchett before. I knew it from the first sentence:

"The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin."

By 100 pages, Patchett has made me really want to get to know this blended, screwed up family. To watch them come together. To watch them fall apart.

"Here was the most remarkable thing about the Keating children and the Cousins children: they did not hate one another, nor did they possess one shred of tribal loyalty. The Cousinses did not prefer the company of Cousinses and the two Keatings could have done without each other entirely. The four girls were angry about being crowded together into a single room but they didn't blame each other. The boys, who were always angry about everything, didn't seem to care that they were in the company of so many girls. The six children held in common one overarching principle that cast their potential dislike for one another down to the bottom of the minor leagues: they disliked the parents. They hated them."

But maybe what really grabbed me was Patchett writing about a character going through chemotherapy. Like a whip, she pulled me straight back into the chemotherapy center I'd spent so much time in five years ago - the camaraderie with the nursing staff, the distance between patients, the bags of poison to kill the cancer cells, the bags of medicine to combat nausea and nerves, the recliners, the naps, the quiet conversations and bonding.

So, I'll be back again to talk about this book when I finish it. In the meantime, check out the full tour. Thanks so much to the ladies at TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour.

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels and three books of nonfiction. She has won many prizes, including Britain’s Orange Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the co-owner of Parnassus Books.

Find out more about Ann on her website and follow her bookstore, Parnassus Books, on Twitter. And, of course, if you leave anywhere near Nashville or are visiting there, you should definitely go give Parnassus Books some love.

The Girl Who Fought Napoleon by Linda Lafferty

The Girl Who Fought Napoleon: A Novel of the Russian Empire by Linda Lafferty
Published September 2016 by Lake Union Publishing
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
In a sweeping story straight out of Russian history, Tsar Alexander I and a courageous girl named Nadezhda Durova join forces against Napoleon. It’s 1803, and an adolescent Nadya is determined not to follow in her overbearing Ukrainian mother’s footsteps. She’s a horsewoman, not a housewife. When Tsar Paul is assassinated in St. Petersburg and a reluctant and naive Alexander is crowned emperor, Nadya runs away from home and joins the Russian cavalry in the war against Napoleon. Disguised as a boy and riding her spirited stallion, Alcides, Nadya rises in the ranks, even as her father begs the tsar to find his daughter and send her home.

Both Nadya and Alexander defy expectations—she as a heroic fighter and he as a spiritual seeker—while the battles of Austerlitz, Friedland, Borodino, and Smolensk rage on. In a captivating tale that brings Durova’s memoirs to life, from bloody battlefields to glittering palaces, two rebels dare to break free of their expected roles and discover themselves in the process.


My Thoughts:

Empress Catherine

• Have I mentioned before that I'm fascinated by Russian Empress Catherine The Great? Have been since I was in grade school and read a biography about her which I still have. She was the (not very nice to him) mother of Tsar Paul and when I saw his name in the summary about this book I was pulled in. Lucky for me, I also got some of Catherine as well so that made me happy. 

Nadezhda Durova, aged approximately 13

• Did you notice that bit in the summary about this book bringing Durova's memoirs to life? This book is a good reminder that there are not only a lot of people who have done brave and extraordinary things but also that a lot of those people were women. 

Durova's memoir was one of the few accounts of the Napoleonic wars told from the point of a junior officer and one of the earliest autobiographical works in Russian. Kudos to Lafferty for finding her amongst all of the stories in the world to tell.

• While the title of this book may be The Girl Who Fought Napoleon, it shouldn't scare of male readers. This book's focus is much more on Nadya's experiences in the military and in battle, Alexander's life from a man who had planned to abdicate to the man who overthrew Napoleon Bonaparte, the perils of war, and the perils of power. Certainly the fact that Nadya is female comes up throughout the book, but there is minimal focus on the ways being female affected her ability to function in the military, other than that everyone was always surprised by how young she looked because, of course, she didn't have facial hair. 

Nadya in uniform as Alexander Durov

• Lafferty may have stuck a bit too closely to Durova's memoirs at times during Nadya's portions of the book. Those parts felt at times weighted down by excessive details. Which is not to say that most of the detail wasn't well worth including - as much as we may feel we have an understanding of what it would take to move an army, we really can't imagine what it must have been like to try to move hundreds of thousands of men and horses, particularly into enemy territory. 

Tsar Alexander I

• I wish there had been a map (or maps) included. And maybe even a list of characters. It's a long book and there are a lot of names to remember; if one was reading at a more leisurely pace, it would be easy to forget them all. Besides, I do love me some maps and lists of characters!

• Also? I do like me some palace intrigue and this book has plenty of that - assassination, infidelities, back stabbings, paranoia. Good stuff.

• I liked the way Lafferty pulled the two story lines together and especially liked the way tied the ending of the book back to the prologue. Both Nadya (Alexander) and Alexander were interesting characters who led interesting lives and Lafferty does an admirable job of exploring the many facets of both.

Thanks of the ladies of TLC Book Tours for including me in this tour. For other opinions, check out the full tour.

Linda Lafferty was a teacher for nearly three decades, in schools from Madrid, Spain, to Aspen, Colorado. She completed her PhD in bilingual special education and worked in that field; she also taught English as a second language and bilingual American history. Linda is the author of four previous novels—The Bloodletter’s Daughter, The Drowning Guard, House of Bathory, and The Shepherdess of Siena—all of which have been translated into several languages. The Drowning Guard won the Colorado Book Award for Historical Fiction. She lives in Colorado with her husband.

The Classics Club - The Spin Is In!

The Classics Club spin is in and the spin number is...

For me, this means I'll be reading the plays between now and December 1: 

Hamlet

A Doll's House

The Importance of Being Ernest

Which also means that, instead of knocking off one of my Classics Club selections, 

I'll be knocking off three!

Magical Jungle: An Inky Expedition & Coloring Book by Johanna Basford

Magical Jungle: An Inky Expedition & Coloring Book by Johanna Basford
Published August 2016 by Penguin Publishing Group
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 
Follow ink evangelist Johanna Basford down an inky trail through the Magical Jungle and discover a forgotten world of flora and fauna just waiting to be colored in this new coloring book for adults. Through intricate pen and ink illustrations, color-inners of all ages are invited to explore an exotic rainforest teeming with creatures large and small. Encounter speckled tree frogs and dainty hummingbirds, prowling tigers and playful monkeys. Let your imagination run wild in the leafy treetop canopy or find yourself drawn to the delicate world of sensational blossoms and tropical plants below.


My Thoughts:
Yeah, so I'm late to the coloring book craze. Last fall, my Instagram account was filled with beautifully colored pages from books but I thought I had enough on my plate and didn't join in. At Christmas, I got Miss H a book and a set of pencils because she has always loved coloring books but still I didn't join in the fun. When this book was offered to me for review, I decided it was finally time to jump in.

When it arrived, it was full of possibilities and I was in love with it. But before I had even sharpened a pencil, I panicked. Because the drawings were so amazing, I knew I wanted to do them justice. But what if I started and didn't? Or, worse yet, couldn't?? I handed the book off to Miss H but she had the same problems I was having until she finally couldn't resist the sugar skull. She began that one in marker but moved on to trying some flowers in colored pencil. Finally, I dove in. I mean, it's a bug so how "cute" does it need to be, after all? I couldn't stop until it was finished.

It's not perfect - there are places I went outside the lines. I was using a terrible sharpener in the beginning and didn't have a sharp enough point. But that first picture is done. The one you will see. No one else ever has to see the rest if I so choose. And that has freed me up.

This book is filled with plants and animals and hidden surprises. There are some beautifully complex pages that are completely covered and will certainly take much more than an evening to finish. Maybe more intimidating than those pages are the pages that leave room for the "artist" to add their own creations.

I'm still working to get over the intimidation of starting the page. But I'm trying to remember to that this is about having fun. And to remember that sometimes, it's okay if you color outside of the lines!

Life: It Goes On - October 2

October. How did that happen so soon? I know, I know - you all are all excited for your pumpkin spice latte everything and Halloween but I am in no rush. This last week of September has been just lovely - crisp mornings, beautiful evenings for dinner on the patio. I even left work early an extra day this week to enjoy a perfect, sunny afternoon.

Fortunately, as there's no way for me to prevent time from rolling on, this is a month filled with fun for us. Our anniversary; my birthday as well as birthdays of two nieces (happy birthday this week to both of them!), a nephew, a cousin, a brother, and my mom; AND my niece gets married next weekend.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: I'm back to The Weird Sisters after finishing The Bone Tree this week. I'm really enjoying the narration so, even though I do own it in print, I'll probably finish it on audio this week.

Watching: The Voice, The Good Place, The Black List, volleyball, baseball, and...wait for it...football. My beloved Huskers have already won as many regular season games as they did all of last year so we're pretty happy here.

Reading: I've got two books to finish for review this week, Linda Lafferty's The Girl Who Fought Napoleon (very much enjoying spending time in Russia!) and Ann Patchett's Commonwealth, which I'm also enjoying a lot.

Making: Steak salad, black bean enchiladas, BLT's, lasagna, and chocolate chip cookies (we even actually baked some cookies before we finished off the dough!).

Planning: On more work in my office. I've been going through stuff in there, trying to make some decisions on just how much crafting stuff/sewing stuff I need to keep given that I don't do much of either any more.

Thinking About: Going off Facebook for a while. It's my page and I feel like I should be able to post what I want and if you'd like to have a discussion with me about it, I'm more than willing to do that. But only if you have an interest in doing so respectfully. Which has been a problem with a couple of people, including my brother-in-law, resulting in my unfriending him yesterday. There may be differences of opinions but there is no need to be insulting.

Enjoying: Working with my mom yesterday on a project in one of their gardens. They wanted rock in this area so we weeded and raked, poured in red rock, moved and arranged some bigger rocks and pulled my grandpa's grinding wheel up front. My muscles enjoyed the workout!

Mini-me's under that beard
somewhere!

Feeling: Very proud of Mini-me! He had three poems published this month in Foliate Oak Literary Magazine. Check his stuff out here! Iambic pentameter it is not. Also, he got a job which he started this week so it's been a good week in a particular house in Milwaukee.

Looking forward to: My niece's wedding! She is marrying a really great guy so we are very happy for her. The wedding means a road trip so you know that means that, besides fancy wedding clothes, I'm also planning what to pack for reading.

Question of the week: What's your poison for the fall - caramel or pumpkin?