Blog Archives - BC Reads!

"The Needle in the Blood" by Sarah Bower

11/23/2013

Title: The Needle in the Blood
Author: Sarah Bower
Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance
#Pages: 576
Date Published: 2007
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Recommended?: Yes

The year is 1067. Bishop Odo of Bayeux commissions an unimaginably large tapestry to commemorate the conquest of Britain by his brother, William the Conqueror. One of the women enlisted to work on the tapestry is Gytha, former lady-in-waiting to the fallen Saxon queen. After the war, Gytha’s life had fallen into chaos, and she swears vengeance on Odo, declaring herself his greatest enemy. But despite their best attempts to the contrary, they fall hopelessly in love. Consequently, their lives are thrown into turmoil as friends become enemies and enemies become lovers. Like the stunning and complicated tapestry that has brought them together, all is not as it seems.

The Needle in the Blood is foremost a magnificent love story, epic in its passion and daring in its tales. Overpowering in its ferocity, it proves difficult to find the right words to describe the relationship between Gytha and Odo. Powerful, furious, fierce are the best I can do; if you are looking for a lighthearted romantic novel, look somewhere else.

In spite of these relationships’ passion, I was not completely satisfied with Bower’s definition of love. She uses the term frequently throughout the novel: too frequently in my estimation, and often in place of the word ‘lust.’ Which is unfortunate, since the words obviously have very different meanings. In this novel, then, love became the overarching word that encompasses not only the yearnings of the heart, but of the body as well. This ambiguity distracts from the story at times; I found myself getting angry when characters swore love for another but then acted in a manner contrary to that declaration, choosing to save themselves rather than each other, or too quick to believe rumors rather than talk to his or her partner, all the while still depicted as madly in love.

Bower’s use of the present tense in a historical fiction novel takes some getting used to, but once I did, I fully understood her choice to write in this way. It makes the story come alive and the characters seem relatable and vivacious. Bower’s writing is nothing short of beautiful. Her stunning descriptions grab the reader from the beginning. I felt as if I was right there, in the Battle of Hastings, taking part in the birth of Britain.

I would highly recommend The Needle in the Blood to readers looking for a powerful, intense story, strikingly told by an author with the skills needed to bring the medieval period to life.

Review by Brittany Duncan, A&S '16

"On Writing" by Stephen King

11/18/2013

Title: On Writing
Author: Stephen King
# of pages: 291
Date published: 2000
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Stephen King is arguably one of the most successful and popular writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, best known for his horror/science-fiction/fantasy novels and short stories. But people often forget that in order to land his books on the bestseller list, he knows quite a lot about writing itself. In his book On Writing, King remarks that at talks and signings, although people ask about the stories and the characters and his success, they rarely ask about the language, the writing, the craft.

On Writing is part memoir, part instruction, and part book list, all coming together to create a solid, entertaining, and ultimately very useful book about writing. King opens with a brief story of his life, from childhood to adulthood, and everything that made him the writer he is today. He makes sure to detail his struggles, which encourages us that even the most successful writers received rejection once, or more accurately, multiple times. The storytelling is engaging and funny, then seamlessly transitions into the instructional section. King breaks down different aspects of writing, focusing on writing fiction, his forte (although based on this book, one could argue that his non-fiction skills are just as impressive). King also discusses dialogue, description, back story, symbolism, and countless other writing techniques, in sections full of advice, humor, and encouragement.

Every aspiring writer, as well as those simply hoping to improve their grades in a creative writing class, should read On Writing. In addition to being helpful and inspiring, the book is, like so much of King’s fiction, well written, funny, and most importantly, a good story.

Review by Caitlin Mason, A&S '16

"This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Diaz

11/18/2013

Title: This Is How You Lose Her
Author: Junot Diaz
# pages: 240
Date published: 2012
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it? Yes

Simply put, Junot Diaz is incredible. Thrust into the spotlight by his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz has only confirmed with his most recent work, This Is How You Lose Her, that he writes more beautifully than any author I have encountered in quite some time. The novel is composed of a series of vignettes centered around his main character, Yunior, who seeks only to love and be loved in return. Through the often shockingly honest and raw narrative, challenging in a way a lot of contemporary fiction doesn’t dare, Diaz captures the human spirit. Despite his characters’ mistakes and flaws, you find yourself root for their success anyway.

Love holds together the many and varied vignettes of This Is How You Lose Her: a mother’s love, a father’s love for the son that he hasn’t claimed, the wrong kind of love, true love, the love you lose, complicated love, and love that keeps you coming back for more, even when it tears you to pieces in the process. There is something so irrevocably human about these stories that you can’t possibly pull yourself away. This is the best kind of fiction, fascinating without feeling overly constructed.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. Despite its 240 pages, it flies by. Diaz has found the perfect combination of pulling at your heartstrings while remaining entirely relatable with his flawed, but tough and real protagonist, Yunior. If you want a book that will sweep you away into a world that is entirely different—yet eerily similar—to your own, then This Is How You Lose Her is for you.

Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15

"Francona: The Red Sox Years" by Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy

11/18/2013

Title: Francona: The Red Sox Years
Author: Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy
# pages: 368
Date published: 2013
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it? Yes

Because of my family’s background with the Boston Red Sox (read: obsessed), I couldn’t have been more excited to read Francona: The Red Sox Years, which details the career of Terry “Tito” Francona as manager of the Boston Red Sox. The highlights of Francona’s career include the World Series that broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, followed by another win in 2007.

When I first started reading, I worried that his would be a stereotypical memoir—a little mundane and a little too long. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a perfect glimpse into the life of Manager Francona, written with enough personal touch to feel like I was sitting in a room hearing his stories firsthand. Tito is hilarious—he tells it like it is, and he really cares about his players. With a perfect balance of insight into the inner workings of the franchise alongside contributions from players, managers, and others, this memoir proved easy to read, and it helped me understand the ups and downs of Red Sox fandom. Francona comes across as witty, grounded, and talented, and Dan Shaughnessy, his co-author, demonstrates a gift for highlighting these qualities while moving the story forward at a reasonable pace.

I highly recommend Francona: The Red Sox Years to any Red Sox fan, baseball fan, or anyone trying to better understand the culture of Boston—the Sox are undoubtedly a large part of the city. Getting a look into the real Red Sox, not just their games on TV, made me love them more despite their faults and their quirky (and sometimes difficult) personalities. The memoir is great look into what it takes to be a good manager and the debate between winning games and making money, and I learned that baseball is as much about the people who make it possible as it is about pitching and hitting a baseball. Ultimately, I finished both informed and entertained.

Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15

"Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt

11/11/2013

Title: Angela's Ashes
Author: Frank McCourt
Pages: 368
Publication: 1999 (1st edition, 1996)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Recommendation: Yes

Frank McCourt offers no pretentions about his youth, which he describes as “the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.” Born in Brooklyn during the Depression, he and his family struggle economically and decide to move back to the home of his father in Limerick. But back in Ireland, things go from bad to worse as Frank’s alcoholic father, Malachy, has trouble finding work, and even when he does, tends drink away whatever wages he earns. Frank and his family are left to apply for charity, beg, and even steal just to put bread on the table.

I read Angela’s Ashes at the recommendation of my mother, who loved and read it so many times that her copy of the book was falling apart. Like her, I found that I couldn’t put it down. The memoir tells of a childhood filled with poverty and hardships; but despite his wretched situation, McCourt manages to tell his story with humor and lightheartedness. It is a wonder that McCourt survived his youth and made it out as hopeful and optimistic as he did. Filled with Irish wit that left me both sad and hopeful at the same time, Angela’s Ashes is a great book for anyone looking for an inspiring and honest read.

Review by Serena Gibbons, A&S '17

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

11/11/2013

Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
# pages: 224
Date published: 1979
5-star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it: Yes

  In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, homebody Arthur Dent is rescued from the planet Earth seconds before it is demolished by a race of vicious, bureaucratic aliens, in order to make space for an inter-galactic freeway. And so the novel begins, with Earth and almost all of humanity destroyed. The two main characters, Arthur and his alien savior Ford Prefect, are sent into outer space where they end up on a spaceship with an eccentric President of the Galaxy, a human girl Arthur once met at a party and a very depressed robot.

            It would be a shaky, even depressing plot if not for Douglas Adams’s writing style. The surrealist humor Adams employs, with its creativity and witticism, reminded me of Monte Python; although everything is turned upside-down, the humor still works. In these pages you can find everything from an infinitely useful translating fish to the answer to the meaning of life; each is treated in the same, ingenious way. While this work is science fiction, the style of writing and the light content sets it apart from most other literature in the genre. You need not necessarily like science fiction to enjoy this book. It’s also a fairly quick read, though at times the author’s habit of going off on mini-tangents about certain topics in his “universe,” to further the humor, can be a little distracting.

            Overall, though, I definitely recommend The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a light, humorous, extremely creative read, and definitely a nice change of pace. It’s also the first book in a series, so if you enjoy the first, definitely check out the later books.

Review by Julia Walker, A&S '16

"Telegraph Avenue" by Michael Chabon

11/6/2013

Title: Telegraph Avenue
Author: Michael Chabon
# pages: 465
Date published: 2012
5-star rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it: Yes

In the half-forgotten world of used vinyl, Brokeland Records is a hub for classic songs, obscure titles, and memorable melodies. The shop is a haven for its owners, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, and has become a staple in the quirky Brokeland community. Not only are Archy and Nat business partners, but good friends as well. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, also work together as well-known midwives in the community. Both couples learn the challenges that come with mixing their personal and professional lives, as each pair realizes the growing disparities in their professional ideals and personal ambitions.

When Brokeland Records faces a possible overthrow by a modern chain store, Archy and Nat are divided by the differing extents to which they want to fight for their retro refuge. Aviva and Gwen also discover tension in their relationship when a doctor directs a racist comment toward Gwen, and the scene quickly escalates to an intense verbal exchange between the hospital doctor and midwife. The confrontation then threatens to ruin Gwen and Aviva’s accreditation as midwives, and Gwen must decide what is more important to her: the practice or her values. Matters intensify when fourteen-year-old Titus arrives in Brokeland to steal Nat’s son’s heart and remind Archy about the past he chose to neglect. Needless to say, Telegraph Avenue does not skimp on complicated life decisions and complex relationships.

While the novel conveys the myriad tensions that arise from love, race, marriage, economic pressure, and life itself, the various plotlines and motifs, at times, feel underdeveloped and unresolved. Furthermore, the abundance of obscure music, comic book, and film references can leave readers who do not share those passions feeling excluded. The sheer number of allusions, when paired with the length of the novel, would sway even the most ambitious reader from looking up every arcane detail, and therefore it is sometimes difficult to find a foothold. Still, there are moments of profundity in Telegraph Avenue, and those moments are especially poignant because they effectively address real, universal concerns. It is for those moments that readers should explore Chabon’s novel and ruminate about the issues he addresses and why it is that, despite the novel’s length, he must leave them unresolved.

Review by Lauren Bly, A&S '15

"Franklin and Lucy" by Joseph E. Persico

11/6/2013

Title: Franklin and Lucy
Author: Joseph E. Persico
Genre: Biography
Page # : 370
Date Published: 2008
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Recommend: Yes

Joseph E. Persico’s biography Franklin & Lucy offers thorough look into the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s relationships with various women over the course of his life. While the book focuses primarily on Lucy Rutherford, FDR’s most famous mistress, Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR’s mother and several other influential women in his life play a role as well.

My strong interest in FDR and his administration drew me to this biography. I had only read textbook accounts and seen museum exhibitions, all only praising FDR and presenting the strictly business side of him, but Franklin and Lucy explores the entirely personal side of his life. It made me understand him more as a person by brushing away the legendary status so as to see the relatable man behind the official pomp.

The book moves mainly in chronological order, following the course of FDR’s life from young college boy, to married man, to Assistant Secretary of the Navy and eventually president. While Persico mentions important events from his political life, such as the the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and the Yalta conference, it all falls away under the focus on his personal thoughts, emotions and reactions, all described by exhaustively researched accounts of encounters with the president from family, friends and colleagues.

The primary relationship the book explores is that between FDR and Lucy Rutherford, a woman from a formerly high society family, but who had retained the charm, beauty and wit to attract the then-assistant secretary Roosevelt. The discovery of their relationship led to the break in Franklin and Eleanor’s marriage, from which Eleanor would never truly recover. While Lucy always covertly maintains a presence in Franklin’s life, attending his inaugurations, visiting him at the White House and joining him for weekends at Hyde Park, the family estate, Perisco also writes at length about the many other remarkable women in Franklin’s life. Eleanor’s transformation from timid housewife to energetic trailblazer is documented in this book (along with research into her supposed lovers), as well as the formidable bond between FDR and his domineering mother Sara Delano Roosevelt. Along with these principal figures, the work included includes Margaret Suckley and Missy LeHand, two women who joined the long list of those vying for the president’s attention, respect and affection.

Persico is to be lauded for gathering such a mass of accounts. Franklin and Lucy includes material from Roosevelt’s children Anna, Curtis and Franklin Jr, letters between the FDR and Lucy, and choice quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt’s memoirs that cast considerable light on her feelings about FDR and the women he attracted. In addition to his depiction of the president’s affairs, he provides a thorough portrayal of FDR’s struggle with polio, a facet of his life often brushed over in official annals. The intimate accounts of his dependency on others for bathing, speeches or even getting into bed and his lifelong hope to have his mobility restored add so much humanity to FDR’s character. These struggles make me respect him, and perhaps even look at his affairs with a more understanding eye.

My one criticism was that this book wasn’t a page-turner; I put it down frequently. However the subject and detail kept me interested as I ploughed forward, trying to understand this famous man better.

All in all, Joseph Perisco presents a well researched biography that made me feel that I had really learned great deal, not just about the former president but also the whole cast of people that made up the inner circle in his life.

Review by Anne Donnelly, A&S '17

"Fool" by Christopher Moore

11/6/2013

Title: Fool
Author: Christopher Moore
Genre: Comedy/Satire
Page # : 336
Date Published: 2009
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Recommend: Yes!

I first picked up Fool because I so enjoyed the humor of comic fantasy author Christopher Moore’s Lamb last year. Like his last work, this book makes for a quick and easy read – it only took me a week and a half to read.

The premise of the novel is William Shakespeare’s King Lear. In the first scene of the tragedy, Lear proposes to divide his kingdom between his three daughters based on how much they say they love him. Two of the daughters acquiesce and offer overblown professions of love, but the youngest finds the request absurd and refuses. In response, he banishes her and divides the kingdom between the older two, and so the tragedy begins.

Instead of the omniscient third-person point of view in the original play, Fool is told from the perspective of the court jester or fool, Pocket. Though set during the play, Fool is geared toward an American reader with modern British slang and footnotes to explain Shakespearian terms. While I have never read King Lear, I found a knowledge of the play unnecessary to appreciate Moore’s novel.

In contrast to the original tragedy, the new narrator puts a lighter spin on the story. Fool strays from the original King Lear with the over-the-top debauchery by Pocket and his assistant, and the narrator makes his own side comments throughout the novel, some of which actually made me laugh out loud. The humor made this book fly by, catching my attention from the start with its blend of Shakespearian and modern day comedy.

Any person who enjoys a comedy would enjoy this book, especially anyone who enjoys Shakespeare. I would highly recommend Fool to any BC student, or anyone looking for a hilarious, fast-paced twist on a classic play.

Review by Liz Handler, A&S '15