Bunner Sisters – Edith Wharton

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Book #735

Reviewer: Kerryanne

To be honest, this is quite possibly the most depressing book I have ever read.  Set in the early 1900’s in New York, it follows two sisters, Ann Eliza and Evelina who own a small sewing shop.  Both sisters are single.  Then comes along Mr Ramy the clock maker with whom they both fall in love.  Ann Eliza is the sister that wins his heart but turns down his marriage proposal because she is “simply not the marrying type”.

So Mr Ramy then decides second best will have to do and proposes to Evelina who readily accepts his offer.  She is then swept away by Mr Ramy to far off St Louis leaving Ann Eliza to tend to the shop herself.

Basically from there on, everything goes from bad to worse (but I’ll leave that for you to read about yourself)!  For anyone that is thinking of reading this, if you like happy endings then let me warn you that this book is definitely not for you.  As disheartening as this book was, I did find that Edith Wharton’s style of writing did not let me put the book down often.  She has a unique style that will easily keep you intrigued until the last page.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.


Morvern Callar – Alan Warner

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Book #111

Reviewer: carriebee

Morvern Callar is living a pretty dead-end life in a Scottish seaside town. One morning she wakes to discover her boyfriend has committed suicide by cutting his own throat. She cries over his body for a while, but rather than calling an ambulance, or the police, she has a bath, opens her Christmas presents from him, and heads off to work. She later disposes of his body by cutting it into pieces and disposing of it bit by bit in the woods. She then empties his bank account and takes credit for a novel he’s written. She goes to Spain on a clubbing holiday with the money, and does tonnes of drugs while her boyfriend lies dead.
Morvern’s character is pretty hard to understand. The book is written from her perspective, as if she was talking to the reader, but you still have no idea what is going on in her head. Is she in shock? Is she cold and amoral? My take on it is that she feels her life is so meaningless and she has no prospects, then why not take opportunities when they arise?

I quite enjoyed this book, and the writing style was really interesting. I’d definitely read another book from this author.


Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

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Book #93

Reviewer: Bronwyn

Publication Date: 1997
Publisher: Random House
# of pages: 428

Summary/Inside cover of book:
This story is a rare and utterly engaging experience. It tells the extraordinary tale of a geisha – summoning up a quarter century, from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan’s dramatic history, and opening a window onto a half-hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation.

‘Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha with such gentle courtesy and determination that you are quickly brought under the spell of her character. She takes you by the hand and leads you into a world that is both formal and intimate, a world that I had only before glimpsed in the fleeting and beautiful images of traditional Japanese ink paintings…Memoirs of a Geisha is a wonderful achievement.’
Julia Blackburn

Reviews:
goodreads.com 3.92/5 average rating (293,366 ratings)
amazon.com 4.4/5 average rating (2,543 ratings)

I have read this book a dozen times, at least. It sits in my bookshelf, and is one I often pull out and re-read, because I love it so much. So, I guess that means that this is going to be a slightly biased review. Or do I love it because it truly is a good book? On Amazon, 1679 people (66%) gave it a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. On Goodreads, 99043 people (33%) gave it 5 out of 5. So perhaps I’m not the only one that loved it, after all.

The story is written in the first person, from the perspective of a retired geisha, known in her childhood at Chiyo, and later by her geisha name of Sayuri. It follows her training years as a geisha in intimate detail, and gives us an insight into what has traditionally been a very private and secret world. How much of it is true to what actually happened back in the 1930’s and 40’s that the novel is set, I don’t know, but it reads very well. The story basically follows Sayuri’s struggle to accept that a geisha has to take the life and men given to her, while she has her heart set on one particular man, known as the Chairman. For a full synopsis of the book, have a read here.

If you’re interested in Japanese culture, I definitely recommend this book to you. It is easy to read – it’s as though Sayuri is having a conversation with the reader. And, in fact, that’s exactly the way it is supposed to have been written, as there is a “translator’s note” at the start that tells us that Sayuri spoke to him and her voice was recorded on a Dictaphone, rather than Sayuri writing any of the book herself.

It took me by surprise that the end of the book reminds us that this is a novel, not true memoirs, because I had completely forgotten that as I read the story!

Overall, I’m going to have this book a rating of 5 out of 5 as well – it’s very well written, and is one of those books that I will continue to read over and over. And over. I love it.


The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood

Ms Oh Waily1 Comment

Book #63

Reviewer: Inspirational Reads

This sprawling novel is one I have checked out of the library a number of times and never gotten around to reading. I think the size of it coupled with it being widely heralded as a modern classic put me off a little. Boy, was I foolish.

So where to start in summarising this novel. Set over nearly 8 decades, the tale centres around two sisters, Iris and Laura Chase and is told mostly from Iris’s perspective. The story opens with 25 year old Laura’s suicide and unfolds through an elderly Iris’s memories reaching back to childhood, various news articles and even a novel-within-the novel. All this sounds like it should be confusing, but Atwood never allows this multi-thread narrative to overwhelm what is essentially a novel about remorse, guilt and family secrets that have far-reaching consequences.

This has a little of something that will appeal to nearly everyone – romance, mystery, tragedy even science fiction. My selecting this novel just days before joining this book challenge has also paid off with one of my favourite websites doing a free-for-all discussion of it which can be found here.

I highly recommend The Blind Assassin. I’ve given it one of the highest marks that I’ve ever given outside of the Harry Potter series :P; A-


Welcome!

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I have to admit… I’ve totally stolen this idea from Live Journal – but it’s such a fantastic idea, I really have to spread the word. So feel free to go and join up over there too, but I thought I’d start this blog to have a place to put reviews from people that sign up with me.

So… this is how it works:

Basically, the idea is that the members are assigned a book to read and review, and the aim is to get all 1001 books reviewed by the end of 2011. Simple enough?! They have a lot more members than us though, so will get that done a lot easier, but I thought maybe we could give it a go, too, if anyone’s keen!!

How it works… let me know if you want a book to be assigned to you (you don’t get to choose, I’ll be getting www.random.org to choose your book for you). You then find the book, read it, and post your review on here. You may have read the book before, you may find it utterly unbearable to read, but that’s part of the fun! The only way to get out of reading a book is if you genuinely have trouble locating a copy of it. DH is about to start reading Captain Correlli’s Mandolin, which is definitely not his style book, but he’s gonna do it anyway! I haven’t been assigned my book yet, but will assign myself one in this list too (so will have two books on the go).

So… who’s keen?? I’ll also accept hubbies, partners, sisters, neighbours, anyone who wants to sign up – only one book per person to start off with, but when you’ve posted a review for that book, I can assign you another book to keep you going, if you think this is worth carrying on with!

I’ll put a list of the books in a separate page at the top of this blog, and will update it with who is reading what, as books are assigned. When you’ve written your review, I will put it up here, so others can see what you have to say about your assigned book. Reviews can be whatever length you like – email your reviews through to me at 1001bookreviews@gmail.com

Happy reading!!