46. Book Review: Station Eleven (2014)

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Synopsis

An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. 

 One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them. 

 Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm is a line from Star Trek: “Because survival is insufficient.” But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave. 

 Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

Review

My goodness, everyone is talking about this book it seems!  I was lucky to find it recently at the library and was happy to join in on the conversation.  I find post-apocalypse novels just fascinating and what I love about them is how they seem to re-invent the wheel each time - each post-apocalypse novel does it differently.  This one was stunning.  And scary.

One thing about this book was that I found the characters really hard to keep track of (maybe just me?) but the story was fascinating.  I love to read these books and then think what I would've done or how I would've handled the situation.  Books like these are definite eye-openers.  I always think post-apocalypse books would make great book-club reads too.  So much to discuss!

Other books you may like…

California

The Giver

39. Book Review: The Winter Sea (2014)

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

Synopsis

History has all but forgotten...In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown. 

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write. But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…

Review

I originally picked this book up a few years ago to read and just couldn't get into it - I have no idea why! I started again from the beginning and just flew through this book this time around. I loved every single page!  I could feel the sea air on my face, picture Carrie's cozy little cottage and loved the gentle unfolding of the two love stories as well.  This is historical fiction at it's best.  This is a great fall or winter read when you can snuggle up with a cup of tea by the fire and devour a great book.  I would be curious if Kearsley's other books are this delicious.  Have you read any others by this author?

Other books you may like…

The Secret Keeper: A Novel

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

32. Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind (2014)

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Synopsis

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

Review

Let's start with the bad and get to the good about this book… this book took me forever to read and as a "quick reader" it caught me off guard a bit. The first half of the book was slow moving and with a lot of names and characters to keep straight (a character chart would have been very helpful!).  But that is the only bad about this book.  The mystery was well played out and parts of it were fun to guess. The writing is absolutely stunning, creating gorgeous dialogue and inner dialogue with the characters and a rich setting in which the mystery took place.  I would recommend this book, but with the caveat that the beginning is slow so you have to be able to stick to it.  

I love books about books… so in that regard this story did not let me down.  Mysterious libraries, old abandoned mansions, love letters, plenty of twists and turns and unrequited love make for a great read.  This would be a great winter or fall read… curl up on a cold and cloudy day and become absorbed into Daniel's world.

Other books you may like…

The Book Thief  

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel

23. Book Review: Under the Wide and Starry Sky (2014)

Under the Wide and Starry Sky: A Novel by Nancy Horan

Synopsis

From Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank, comes her much-anticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny. 

 At the age of thirty-five, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium—with her three children and nanny in tow—to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.” 

 Fanny does not immediately take to the slender young lawyer who longs to devote his life to writing—and who would eventually pen such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In time, though, she succumbs to Stevenson’s charms, and the two begin a fierce love affair—marked by intense joy and harrowing darkness—that spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two strong-willed individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and unpredictable as any of Stevenson’s own unforgettable tales.

Review

These days I am almost scared to read authors' 'much anticipated second novels' as a lot of them have fallen flat for me lately.  It's hard to know exactly how to review this book, to be honest.

I absolutely LOVED this author's first book Loving Frank and so I was excited to be taken on another one of Horan's literary adventures into the story and history of a bright man.

This book was long and pro-longed at times, going on and on about his sickness, his inability to have the life he wanted and the struggles of his wife.  I feel like this book could have been half as long with an extra dose of drama added in.  Even when Robert Louis Stevenson was well and successful the book glossed over those parts and tended to focus on his sickness and 'starving artist' life.  

With all that being said I will say that there was a slow meandering and depth to this book that made it very likable.  The reader is on an adventure to be sure… just one that moves quite slow at times.  Portions of the end of the book I just skipped because it felt so repetitive.  But this book left a lasting legacy in my mind at least.  Days after finishing this book I find myself wondering what Fanny and Louis are up to or replaying scenes in my head over and over.  For that I think the book is a success.  If you were/are a fan of RLS this book would likely be even more of a success.  So this book gets a mixed review from me.

Other books you may like…

Loving Frank: A Novel

Hemingway's Girl

The Paris Wife: A Novel

15. Book Review: End of Your Life Book Club (2014)

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Synopsis

During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time—and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne—and we, their fellow readers—are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us. A profoundly moving memoir of caregiving, mourning, and love—The End of Your Life Book Club is also about the joy of reading, and the ways that joy is multiplied when we share it with others.

Review

 I started this book skeptically wondering if it was going to be sappy or super sad only to discover it was neither of those. The author is one part chronicling the life and last years of his mother's life and one part reviewing and discussing books. It's a book about mothers and sons and about books and about family. The relationship between the author and his mother was extremely moving and inspiring. I love to read about books and this book talks about books in a deep and meaningful way - that is, how books because entwined in our lives and our own personal stories.  Most of the books that the author read with his mother were not books I had read already.  I found this book to be a delight to read and finished it quickly… by the end I had a warm feeling about familial love and specifically mother and son relationships - not too mention a few new books on my "to read" list!

Other books you may like…
A Happy Marriage: A Novel
The Fault in Our Stars