Review: The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok

Title The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok
Publisher: Free Press
Published: August 9, 2011
ISBN: 9781439183328
Pages: 336                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The Memory Palace is Mira Bartok's haunting memoir of the profound affect her mother's schizophrenia had on her life.  The title refers to a mnemonic device of creating a palace and populating it with facts and events one wishes to remember.  Ms. Bartok uses this method to reinforce her memory after sustaining a head injury that lead to cognitive deficits in her memory, language processing, and other executive functions of the brain.  In the book, she lays the foundation for her palace and builds several rooms using her mother's diaries to supplement information about her mother.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        As she sifts through memories, she begins to understand her mother's plight - frustrated by the limits of society in a time of rigid standards of proper behavior and struggling with her disease in a time of relatively primitive methods of treating the mentally ill.  Her mother muses in her diaries of what could have been if she didn't have schizophrenia.                                                                                                                             How best to manage a parent with severe mental illness who due to the very nature of her disease is unable to seek assistance herself  After surviving her childhood and her mother's increasingly paranoid and aggressive schizophrenia, Mira thinks by moving to another city she can simply rid herself of her mother.  When plans to get guardianship of their mother fails, both she and her sister resort to changing their names.  Mira keeps a special Post Office box to keep in contact with her mother.  Finally the sisters can find some peace of mind after years of impromptu visits and  police visits due to their mother's paranoia.  For a long time Mira struggles with her choice to essentially abandon her mother but feels its the only way to maintain her artistic life and her own sanity.  Vacillating between avoidance of her mother and worry over her mother's state, Mira eventually realizes that there is only so much she can do.    Sharing her mother's last days and interacting with the women from the shelter, reaffirm to her that her mother despite the schizophrenia was loving, kind, and still capable of bringing light into others lives.                                                                                                                                    A memoir of schizophrenia, this book could have become a jumbled mess but Ms. Bartok's writing is fluid enough to keep one from getting overwhelmed.   She weaves a tale using fragments of her memory and excerpts from her mother's diaries finding several parallels between her urge to be an artist and her mother's abbreviated artistic life.  This book is beautifully illustrated to match the theme of every chapter.  All in all the book is a difficult read but well worth it. *This book was provided by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.*

Review: The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill

 
Title The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill
Publisher: Free Press
Published: July 26, 2011
ISBN: 9781451611595
Pages: 240

Ripped from the headlines (the late 19th century ones), The Butterfly Cabinet is based on the death by suffocation of young girl. We learn the background story via the maid Maddie and the lady of the house's narration.  Maddie narrates from her entry in to service of the family and the lady of the house Harriet Ormond narrates from her prison.  As the story unfolds, the web of secrets that cloaked this family tragedy is unwound. In addition, we get an idea of the political turmoil and pandering that contributed to Mrs. Ormond's conviction.


Based on the "facts" as they stand, Mrs. Ormond is irrefutably guilty of excessive cruelty to her children and by extension the death of Charlotte.  In her prison diaries, she details her difficult relationship with her parents and her resultant difficulties with the rearing of her own children.  Harriet details how she bristles at the attitude and actions expected from a woman such as herself.  Striving for self-control, she expects the utmost discipline from every one - servants and her children alike.  Unfortunately, her inability to be flexible leads to her downfall.

Maddie finally has a chance to unburden herself of the secrets that have plagued her for nearly eight decades.  Her story allows us to see the story from the angle of the working class and servants, who are viewed looked down on yet necessary for the class system to continue.  Her seemingly unimportant presence belies the significant part she plays in this family's history for several generations.

The book was a great peek into a past era that still informs the present.  The seemingly unnecessary elements are all wound up at the end to complete the story.  Politics, religion, class system, and culture all collide to create the perfect storm to ring in the end of an era.  Bernie McGill manages to create a suspenseful and detailed story from a mysterious true event from an age gone by.

**This book was provided by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Review: Angela Sloan by James Whorton

 
Title Angela Sloan by James Whorton
Publisher: Free Press
Published: August 2, 2011
ISBN: 9781451624403
Pages: 224

For Angela Sloan, life is a never-ending CIA mission.  Rescued by CIA agent Ray Sloan after her parents' murder during a rebellion in Congo, Angela learns from day one how to start crafting a new identity.  Ray gets assigned to teach at the CIA training academy and spend his spare time training Angela on how to maintain one's cover and how to use others to supply information and goods that further the mission.  Other than Ray's drinking himself into a stupor and refusing to discuss the past, life is going swimmingly until Ray gets involved the Watergate break-in.  First they hide out under new identities at a hotel hoping to avoid repercussions of the event.  When it becomes clear that the situation is even more volatile than he planned for, Ray leaves Angela to the next phase of their mission which is rendezvousing when the coast is clear.
    Angela is left to fend for herself and figure out the rendezvous point while avoiding any agents sent to look for her.  She gets the first kink in her plan when the waitress from the Chinese restaurant she bought her fake ids from sneaks into her car for a free ride.  Starting to feel comradery and responsibility for Betty, Angela circles to reconnect when they part ways.  This leads to her bumping into Marilyn, a CIA agent sent to recover her and Ray.  While running away from Marilyn, the two girls fall in with some hippies who are about everything except peace, love, and sunshine.  Angela has to use all her lessons in spying to reach the rendezvous point while worrying constantly about Ray.
  Having read books from the 70s, the book seemed really 70s with all the agitating and mysterious movements in the background.  This book was somewhat confusing to follow.  There were so many twists regarding every body's identity and Angela's suspicion of every one's intention toward her.  Add in all the confusion about Ray's past and Angela's origin and it can get a bit crowded.  Even though Angela tried to come across as an agent on a mission, a good portion of the book is spent exposing her naivete and the preposterous situation Ray leaves her in.  Once you read the book and see where he's coming from, you understand what he did even if you don't agree with the method.  Some of the characters are really wacky, but I guess it wouldn't be an interesting book if everyone was normal.  Having read books from the 70s, the book seemed really jam packed with the zany characters that always fill stories from the 70s.

**This book was provided by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Review: I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl: A Memoir by Kelle Groom

Title: I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl: A Memoir by Kelle Groom
Publisher: Free Press
Published: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 9781451616682
Pages: 256

I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl is Kelle Groom's harrowing account of the despair of her struggle with alcoholism and the emotional aftershocks of the birth, adoption and death of her only child.  Alternating between past and present, Groom details her journey to sobriety and her journey to come to terms with her son's brief life.

From the onset, I Wore the Ocean is a very difficult book to get through.  There are multiple accounts of violence towards herself, the birth of her son, her self loathing, accounts of anonymous sex and rape, and the many blackouts that she suffered.  To see the depths she put herself and her loved ones through, saddens one and at times causes her to be a very difficult person to like.  Luckily, her willingness to tell the whole story, even the parts that make her seem deplorable, makes her story compelling.  You want her to win her battle with alcoholism and are glad when she starts making concrete steps to sobriety.  The hardest part of the book is knowing she is intelligent enough to do better but seeing her addiction pulls her to rock bottom.

Groom is devastated by the death of her son that she gave up for adoption.  She knows intellectually that she cannot care for him as a full blown alcoholic.  Yet, she is unable to stop thinking about him.  Hearing about his death, just drives her further into alcoholism.  It isn't until she is emerging from alcoholism that she is able to think about who he was and might have been.  Over two decades, after his death she is able to talk openly about him and ask the relatives who adopted him about his life.  Groom is relieved to be able to share in his life

Groom's book is full of ocean and water imagery.  Her nickname as a child is "ocean girl".  When she is away from the coast, she feels unsettled and out of place.  Someone who saw me reading the book pondered whether  title is an allusion to the way the ocean wears away all in its path to sand.  Groom's accounts can be like a current - calm at times, violent and stormy in others, buoying one in lighter moments or brutally battering.

I received this book from the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review: What Did I Do Wrong by Liz Pryor

 

Title: What Did I Do Wrong?: What to Do When You Don't Know Why the Friendship is Over by Liz Pryor
Publisher: Free Press
Published: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 9781451649659
Pages: 208

    Friendships between women are the thing of lore: bosom buddies, summer sisters, sisterhood of the traveling pants, and so forth.  But what happens when the fun is over?
    There are tons of books of that celebrate the greatness of the bond between two women, but none about how to fix the friendship once it starts going south.  It's relatively easy to find books or societal validation of the heartbreak caused by the end of a relationship, but none specifically about female friendships.  If your spouse/lover/partner walked out on you, everyone would understand your need for a grieving period, why should a breakup with your bff be any different?  Liz Pryor set out to find out the reasons for the failure of friendships and ways to fix or end them in a way that gives both parties closure. 
   The book is full of tips on how to recuperate from being dumped by your bff.  There are also several chapters about how to dump bffs, particularly with crazy, emotional, or otherwise unpredictable people. She has a couple situations where the friendship doesn't end, it just changes.  With a little help from her husband, she even gets reunited with one of her own former bffs.
   This is a great book from someone that just lost a friendship and is trying to come to terms with the loss.  Believe me there are some stories in the book that are so petty or so terrible, you will definitely feel better or get some guidance about your situation.  She encourages letter writing, which isn't always a good thing.  Know yourself: if you're scared you're coming across like a stalker, you probably are being stalkerish.  Also watch those emails and voicemails.  The last friendship explosion I had resulted in some really crazy emails and voicemails.  If your friend, sends you a letter, open it.  You do not want to regret what could have been.  The main thing I got is to treat your friendships like all the other major relationships in your life.  Don't negate the value of the friendship because it is a platonic, female friendship.

* This book was provided by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion. *

Review & Giveaway: The Long Drive Home by Will Allison

 
Title: The Long Drive Home by Will Allison
Publisher: Free Press
Published: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 9781416543039
Pages: 224

From the jacket:
Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen's placid suburban existence begins to unravel. When Glen realizes no one else saw the accident, he impulsively lies about what happened--to the police, to his wife, even to his six-year-old daughter, Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. But a tenacious detective thinks Sara might have seen more than she knows, or more than her parents will let her tell. And when Glen tries to prevent the detective from interrogating Sara, he finds himself in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that could end in a lawsuit or prison. What he doesn't see coming is the reaction of his wife, Liz--a panicked plan that threatens to tear their family apart in the name of saving it. But what if the accident wasn't really Glen's fault? What if someone else were to blame for the turn his life has taken? It's a question Glen can't let go of. And as he struggles to understand the extent of his own guilt, he finds himself on yet another collision course, different in kind but with the potential to be equally devastating.


  O, what a tangled web we weave, when we first practice to deceive! 


    For a small book, Long Drive Home packs quite a wallop.  Two hundred plus pages of emotional turmoil.  Glen Bauer, our protagonists, deals with all the stages of grief -- guilt, anger, denial, bargaining,and  acceptance.


   While I understand that Glen was probably traumatized by the accident, some of his actions made no sense.  He lied to cover his actions but seemed unable to fully complete the ruse of his innocence.  He claims to want to protect his daughter and his family from harm yet seems utterly unable to follow through on these intentions.  He constantly seems to either blame everyone else or put himself in precarious situations.  He performs a heroic action and an equally reckless action as if to "good" deeds to contract his "bad" deed.


   As someone from the Tri-State area (New York/New Jersey/ Connecticut), I can totally understand how road rage works.  I can totally understand Glen's "not on my lawn" reaction to the reckless driving of the teenager in the car.  Most times I encourage the person who is driving to ignore bad driving unless one is put in physical danger.  The fact that Glen essentially played chicken with another driver, particularly a reckless one, gives an idea of his personality.


  All that being said, Will Allison writes marvelously and is willing to go "there".  Glen is able to evaluate whether the victim's race and expensive car played some part in his actions. Did  his earlier altercation carry into the accident?  We feel every ounce of turmoil Glen suffers for the year depicted in the novel.  This book was like a contemporary version of Edgar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart.  The novel includes an excerpt of his previous book What You Have Left.  I will definitely be looking for the full novel.

*This book was offered by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.                  *


Would you like to win this book?  Leave your name and email address in the comments below.  Nothing else required.  Winner will be picked at random and announced on June 1st.  Any information supplied will be destroyed once the contest is done.

Blog Tour: The 17 Day Diet: A Doctor's Plan Designed for Rapid Results

 

Title: The 17 Day Diet: A Doctor's Plan Designed for Rapid Results by Dr. Mike Moreno
Publisher: Free Press
Published: March  2011
ISBN: 9780615419176
Pages: 256

     The 17 Day Diet by Dr. Mike Moreno promises to help you lose weight fast by changing your metabolism so you are constantly burning fat.  The diet is divided into four 17 day cycles: accelerate, activate, achieve, and arrive. Dr. Moreno includes a handy weight chart to give a general idea weights for each height.
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     The cycles are mainly to change the way you eat and to get your metabolism on track. 

• Accelerate -- Improves digestion, gets rid of excess sugar in blood, teaches you to recognizes the signs of hunger and fullness, and reduces body's storage of fat
• Activate -- Resetting metabolism by changing calorie intakes and further cementing changes made during the accelerate cycle
• Achieve -- Cementing diet and weight loss by adding more foods to diet and increasing exercise (particularly aerobic), and add more good foods to diet
• Arrive -- Maintaining weight loss but still allowing free days for where you can eat anything 

    There are only 17 minutes of required exercise every day and it can be any form you choose. The doctor also lists the effects diet on the body for a time frame from 15 minutes after breakfast to 6 months after the main part of the diet.

    During each cycle, you are encouraged to eat lean proteins like chicken, fish, and other foods.  You are allotted different vegetables and fruits for each phase of the diet and told which fruits and vegetables actually slow your metabolism.  The doctor outlines which carbs are acceptable for consumption during each cycle, which fats to indulge in, foods rich in various minerals, the benefits of probiotics, and the benefits of water, coffee, and green tea while on the plan.

   Dr. Moreno also includes tips for following this diet while still enjoying your cultural foods.  Tips include reducing portion size, boiling or steaming or sauteing in a little oil rather than frying, avoiding butter sauces, using whole grains, etc.   He includes tips for women with PMS that can foster weight loss or maintenance of weight loss while providing relief from some PMS symptoms.  There are tips for enjoying a restaurant meal without falling off the wagon.  Another chapter details how to avoid saboteurs (intentional and unintentional), survive holidays, shift work, and travel situations.

   I'm actually on the activate portion of the diet and have actually seen some weight loss (about 3 lbs).  I've started eating breakfast or at least a small meal before leaving the house and have added some fruits while giving up others.  I waited until after Easter to start since there is about a month before another holiday loaded with food.  As far as weight loss goes, my Achilles heel is soda (especially Coca-Cola). I've been gradually weaning myself from soda; I'm down to about a liter every two weeks.  I like this diet plan and have had pretty good results in the week or so I've been doing it.    I appreciate that he included a section for different cultural diets and doesn't assume that everyone is "meat and potatoes" American.  For me, the section on family and potential sabotage will likely be most helpful.  I'll keep updating.


*This book was provided by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.*

An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy

Title: An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
Publisher: Free Press
Published: April 2011
ISBN: 9781451608625
Pages: 336

An Atlas of Impossible Longing follows three generations of men in India from post World War I postcolonial period to after the Partition of India and Pakistan.  The book is divided into the story of Amulya, his son Nirmal, and an orphan Mukunda.  The title comes from a palm reading that Mukunda receives on a whim.

Amulya is a man before his time.  He moves his family (a wife and two sons, out of Calcutta to a Songarh, a town bordering on the jungle.  Here, he has all the space for his factory where he creates herbal remedies and medicines from plants he cultivates and studies.  Scorned by his relatives and prodded by his wife for moving to the wilds of Songarh, he predicts the town will one day be a important region where everyone clamors to love.  Though he loves the solitude and quiet provided by the slow pace of life, his wife Kananbala is slowly going mad with loneliness.  One morning one of his workers shows up with a local woman and a baby.  The worker begs for help with the baby; the woman claims it's his married son's child.  Amulya sends the child to an orphanage and pays fees for his sustenance.

Nirmal, the second son, studious and hardworking, is a mama's boy who keeps his mother company every evening.  After he gets married, Kananbala realizes he is withdrawing and would rather spend time with his new wife.  Shortly after, she develops fits of profanity and the family shuts her away to avoid talk.  Nirmal's wife Shanti dies in childbirth.  After her death, Nirmal travels and takes work as far from Songarh as possible to not have to deal with her death or their child. 

Mukunda, an orphan supported by Amulya, is adopted into the household after Amulya's death.  He isn't really treated as part of the family, more like an elevated servant.  Nirmal provides a home and education, but is unable to get any of the others, other than Bakul, to treat him as a member of the family.  As he and Bakul grow up with only each other as playmates, they are extremely close.  The family begins to worry about where the relationship will lead.  Nirmal decides to send Mukunda to school in the city to provide some space in the relationship.  Although very bitter about his treatment by Nirmal, Mukunda realizes as a grown man why he was sent away.  He is able to help Bakul and Nirmal several times.


The best novel I have read this year  -- actually in a couple years.  Each section is great with just enough action and pacing to keep the story moving.  With the amount of characters, it could get very confusing.  However, the way Ms. Roy uses each character helps the flow of the story without distracting from the plot.  She manages to make us aware of some of the cultural limitations placed on the characters -- mistreatment of Mukunda due to his unknown caste status, barrier to the development of a relationships Nirmal and Meera, a widowed distant cousin, and the strife between Nirmal & Kamal his brother towards the end.

** This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher. **

The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg

Title: The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
Publisher: Free Press
Published: March 2011
ISBN: 9781451621747
Pages: 416

Fjallbacka, Sweden is an idyllic fishing village.  Rich city folk pay tons of money for summer homes here.  People that live there rarely want to leave.  All is not as it seems though.  Small towns can hold big secrets.  You know the saying, "Two people can share a secret -- if one of them is dead."  Someone has taken that to heart.
Erica Falck returns to her hometown to settle her parents' estate after their death in a car accident.  She didn't expect to find the frozen corpse of her childhood best friend.  Despite all signs pointing to suicide, Erica feels like Alex wouldn't and didn't kill herself.
Patrick Hedstrom is the officer assigned to the case.  Hobbled by an incompetent supervisor,  he tries to uncover why someone would kill, and in Fjallbacka.  With ingenuity and some prompts from Erica, he works slowly but surely to solve the mystery.
The mystery is complicated by the fact that in a small town like Fjallbacka everyone seemingly knows each others business.  Can there be any secrets worth killing for?  Who would have such a secret?  Why murder now?  Horrific deeds come to life despite the best efforts of several people including the murderer to keep them hidden. 
There was lots of extraneous info  in this book.  The characters constantly repeating each others ideas or withholding information from each other.  There are several sections showing either Erica's or Patrick's angst regarding the other.  The multiple viewpoints, one of which isn't revealed until later in the book, can be very distracting.
Overall,  the book was well done.  The main characters were pretty well done and had pretty clearly defined personalities.  The plot was suspenseful and had several interesting twists.  It's a great beach read that keeps you interested but is low maintenance.  I look forward to reading the rest of the series. 

** This review was based on a book provided by the publisher.**