Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Brooklyn (2009) by Colm TΓ³ibΓ­n #ReadingIrelandMonth24




πŸ”Ά️ Set in the 1950s of Ireland, the main character is Eilis Lacey, an intelligent young girl of 19, living with her mother and sister Rose. She's learning bookkeeping and wishes to work as bookkeeper, but no works available in their small town of Enniscorthy. Unlike her confident and independent sister Rose, Eilis is more obscure, passive, and obedient. She always do what others tell or expect her to do.

πŸ”Ά️ Through Rose, a priest who's coming from New York City promised Eilis a job in a department store in Brooklyn. Obedient as always, out to Brooklyn she move, leaving her beloved home town. Not because she really wants it - in fact, she's a bit reluctant to leave - but more because Rose and her mother subtly push her out. Her mother likes Rose better, and is quite the selfish type of a parent.

πŸ”Ά️ Thanks to Father Flood, Eilis is settled in a respectable boarding house and started her work nicely. She even takes a night classes in bookkeeping, planning to work as accountant later on. But she quickly feels uprooted, lonesome, and doesn't belong anywhere. So, when a young Italian plumber called Tony courts her, Eilis just naturally accepts him in her life. I doubted if she's really in love with him. Tony is head over heels fallen for her, but Eilis is just goes with the flow, so to speak.

πŸ”Ά️ When she begins to feel happy with her new life, a surprising news came from Ireland, that forces her to come home. Tony persuades her to marry him in secret before leaving, as he knows her so well that her hometown might lure her to never come back to Brooklyn. Once again she complies with his suggestion. Tony wasn't wrong. Her mother once again steers her to marry a local beau, in order to make her settle in Ireland. Eilis never told her mother of her secret marriage, and she keeps procrastinating in making decision whether to stay on her own land, or to return to her husband. For an indecisive person like Eilis, it is rather amusing to see what the ending would be. But it's worth the waiting, as we got to enjoy TΓ³ibΓ­n's beautiful writing - warm and engaging.

πŸ”Ά️ I loved to read Eilis' loneliness and grieve; somehow I could relate with her loved one:

"...that was like how she felt when ... died and she watched them closing the coffin, the feeling that ... would never see the world again and she would never be able to talk to ..." or "...an actual pain that...was dead and there were things like this, ordinary things, that ...would never know, that would not matter to...now." - those are what I've been feeling since my father passed away eight months ago. I'm able to let him go; I believe my father "lives" in peace in heaven now, but I still can't move on from feeling a pang of not being able to talk to him or share anything anymore.

πŸ”Ά️ Another thing that I could well relate with:
"...Was it difficult being an only child?"
"It matters more now, I think, when my parents are getting older and there's just me...
" - How true it is! And so, you can imagine how this book got me to think and reflex a lot. Not only these relatable things, but also personalities of the characters and what induced them to act as they did. Eilis and her mother are interesting individuals; Eilis' habit of procrastinating reminded me much of Lily Bart from The House of Mirth. I'm also amused by Eilis' mother's attempt to keep Eilis at home with her. It seems selfish, but I could understand why. Sometimes you just can't help it.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read this book for:

Hosted by: Cathy @ 746 Books


Monday, March 25, 2024

The Mystery of the Spanish Shawl by Agatha Christie #AgathaChristieSS24




🧣 Anthony Eastwoods is a crime writer who is in, what we call "a writer's block". He has come up with a catchy title for his next book: "The Mystery of the Second Cucumber" - one that will interest many readers - but couldn't get on with matching plot. Then, one phone call solved his problem.

🧣 Anthony receives a call from a foreign woman asking for help as she's in great danger, mistaken him for somebody else. She gives him an address, and a password: "cucumber". This single word and the weird coincidence pique Antony's curiosity, so he goes there to meet the girl. I won't tell you what he will face, as it will ruin the whole mystery.

🧣 Suffice to say, that this is the most interesting story I've read so far for #AgathaChristieSS24! The adventure is highly engrossing, and the element of surprises are delightful. Anything that you'll imagine is going on, well... I bet the truth will be far away from that. Guess what title and plot Anthony did eventually decide to write! πŸ˜‰

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Friday, March 22, 2024

Howl's Moving Castle (1986) by Diana Wynne Jones #MarchMagics2024




πŸ’™ Fantasy genre is never my cup of tea. Excepting the Harry Potter series, I rarely enjoy fantasy novels as much as, say, crime or literary fiction. But people have been praising Diana Wynne Jones' classic Howl's Moving Castle, and when Chris @ Calmgrove announced the upcoming of March Magics 2024, I thought this is a good time to try it. It is also my choice for the 1986 entry for A Century of Books. Did it exceed my expectation? Not really...

πŸ’™ The story is told from the perspective of Sophie Hatter, a 18-year-old eldest girl of three sisters in a magical kingdom of Ingary. Accustomed to the "rule" that an eldest will never succeed, Sophie accepts her dull existence as a hatter in the family shop, with no bright future ahead. Until the Witch of Waste finds her and turns her into an old woman, apparently with no reasonable motive - but that will be part of the mystery.

πŸ’™ Ashamed of her condition, Sophie runs away from home, and finds herself in Howl's Castle. Howl is a wizard with notorious reputation as young girls' heartbreaker. He lives in a "castle" which constantly moves, and has several doors which are portals opening to various places. They are bewitched by Howl's fire demon Calcifer. The latter was bound to a contract with Howl, and longs to break it.

πŸ’™ Enter poor Sophie, who needs someone to lift the Witch of the Waste's curse, and thinks that Calcifer might do that if she helps him break his contract. She pretends to be a cleaning lady to get to stay in the castle. And thus, the unsophisticated Sophie, who doesn't realize her own magical power, becomes member of the household, which, besides Howl and the fire demon, also consists of an apprentice boy called Michael. A lot of hilarious adventures spring up from these unlikely gang, as the mystery around themselves is slowly unfolding, and the need to conquer their enemies grows.

πŸ’™ I wonder whether I'd enjoy this more had I read it as a child - maybe. But I felt like wanting to know a lot more about the character's struggle than the writer permitted. I might have compared this to Harry Potter. The latter swept me to its universe so easily, but I felt none about this one. It is a nice fantasy story, but not as impressive as I would've expected.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Read this book for:

hosted by Chris @ Calmgrove



Wednesday, March 20, 2024

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1966) by Dorothy Gilman




πŸƒ Emily Pollifax is a 60ish years old widow who lives in New Jersey in the 1966s, bored with her life to the extent of having a flitting thought of committing suicide (luckily she dismissed it immediately!) Her doctor orders her to find something that she has been desiring to do, but couldn't, and do it now. Well, her childhood dream has been to become a spy, but surely she can't be a spy in her sixties? Or can she?

πŸƒ Mrs. Pollifax decided that she can at least try. So, she went to the headquarters of CIA in Langley to volunteer as a spy. If only becoming a spt is that simple! But, through a combination of coincidences and misunderstandings, Mrs. Pollifax is found by a Mr. Carstair, who, at the moment is looking for a spy who looks like ordinary tourist. And so, Mrs. Pollifax is a spy now, and her first task is to disguise as a tourist in Mexico, and retrieve a package from a bookstore while on "holiday".

πŸƒ Can you imagine a combination of Paul Gallico's Mrs. Harris (Mrs. 'Arris) series and John Le Carre's spy book? That's what this book feels like. Mrs. Pollifax is as funny, feisty, and warmhearted as Mrs. Harris, but she can be as resourceful and brave as any other spy. And Mrs. Pollifax turns out to be quite a brilliant one, despite of her seemingly fickle old woman.

πŸƒ As is with Mrs. Pollifax, the story itself is as unexpected. The uprising political tension during the Cold War seems real enough, though not as bleak as the reality might have been. I love Mrs. Pollifax's relationship with Farrell, the real spy who's been captured and imprisoned together with her in Albania. I like how he calls her Duchess, and his amusement of Mrs. Pollifax's clever thinking, and of her obsession with solitaire (the card game). I also love the Albanian soldiers who's kind to Mrs. Pollifax - that was too implausible maybe, but added a humanity touch to the story nonetheless; and also source of a few hilarious scenes. But the runaway scenes are the most brilliant and hilarious ones!

πŸƒ All in all, it's a charming, funny, and sweet story with spy-adventures - rather than thriller. It's also a good way of learning a little about the Cold War and Albanian culture in the 1950s.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Monday, March 18, 2024

The Unbreakable Alibi by Agatha Christie: A Short Story #AgathaChristieSS24




πŸ”·️ The story must have been set during earlier days of the newly married couple Tommy and Tuppence's new detective agency business. A client came one day with unusual "problem" to be solved. A stuttering young man, who's in love with an intelligent girl who likes to play games, is presented with a challenge from the girl. He sees that solving the challenge would be the only way to win her love, so now he prepares to pay whatever expenses needed to solve it.

πŸ”·️ The case is about a double alibi. The girl claimed that she had been in two different locations- one in London and the other in Torquay - at the same time. Tommy and Tuppence decide to accept the case, and off they go to restaurant, hotel, and theater, as well as interviewing her friends, to check on the girl's alibi. Surely one of it would prove to be fake.

πŸ”·️ On the whole, it is one of the easiest mysteries to solve. I'm sure almost every Golden Age detective-story writer must have used the same trope. But maybe it's still new when Christie wrote this? Anyway, unexciting as it was as mystery, it's always fun to read another Tommy and Tuppence's adventure, is it not? As well as the appearance of the faithful Albert - who was still an office boy in this story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Friday, March 15, 2024

The Stranger's Companion by Mary Horlock




Thanks to John Murray Press (Baskerville)  and NetGalley for providing me review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


The Stranger's Companion is a historical mystery and gothic thriller which is inspired by real events in Sark, a small island, part of the British Channel Islands, in 1933. The clothes of a man and a woman was found neatly folded on the edge of a cliff, but no one knew whom they belong to. And that's how this story also begins.

⚪ Throughout the story we are brought to two alternate timelines, the past is around the 1923, while the present is in the 1933. The main event, the mysterious two clothes without the owners, is happening in the present. They are first found by Everard Hyde. A girl called Phyllis Carrey is interested in the case, and writes reports for local newspaper.

⚪ Phyllis has just returned to the island after being out of it for some time. From the beginning, we get a feeling of mystery surrounding Phyllis and Everard - who has also just returned from a kind of exile. They seem to be anxious of meeting each other. Little by little the mystery unfolded along the story, as well as the mystery of the missing persons whose clothes were found by Everard.

⚪ As fascinating as the missing person mystery is, the mystery of the past is much darker and more menacing. We are presented with a glimpse of the after war of 1923; of the precocious young Phyllis and the shy and scared boy of Everard. How they amused themselves by playing "ghost" and other mischievous stuffs to the already superstitious islanders, and how they eventually entangled in dark secrets that will change their lives.

⚪ The main attraction of this book is the writing style. I love how the writer put some "excerpts", either from tourist information guide, or from the news containing updates on the investigation, to open the chapters. They provide a refreshing touch to the otherwise rather gloomy story with superstition, ghost hunting, seance, and of course, murder.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

**The Stranger's Companion will be published in June 20th, 2024.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Announcing the 11th Zoladdiction in 2024! #Zoladdiction2024




April is coming soon, which means that Zoladdiction is just around the corner! And this would be the 11th Zoladdiction! For you who are not familiar with it, Zoladdiction is a reading event on April, to celebrate the birthday of Γ‰mile Zola (in 2nd April). It is mainly because we love Zola's writings, and also to get more and more people to appreciate his works. For the whole month we will read, post, and talk about Zola - his life, his works, and his influences.

How It Works

  • Pick any of Zola's works, or Zola's biography, and read them. Any books about Zola by other writers are acceptable too.
  • Post your review/thoughts on your blog/social media (you can use hashtag #Zoladdiction2024).
  • But I also encourage you to go beyond reading
  • Yes, we will still read Zola, but during April we can also share/post/tweet/talk about just any thing that is related to Zola. A book you're reading reminds you of Zola? Share it! Found Zola's quote on Twitter? Retweet it! Or Zola’s picture on Instagram? Share it! Watched movie about Zola? Share it! Anything.
  • Don’t have time to read one book? Worry not, a short story or essay is equally good.
  • To participate, simply leave comment, or mention me on Twitter, using hashtag #Zoladdiction2024, and tell us your plans for Zoladdiction (it might inspire others).
  • If you want, you may grab and put Zoladdiction banner on your blog, so that others might aware about it.
  • If you blog about your participation, leave the link in comment box.
  • Linky will be provided in the Master Post (will be published on April 2nd - on Zola's birthday). You can submit links to your Zola posts there.

 
So, are you in? What's your plan?

Mine would be another re-read of my most favorite book of all time:
Germinal. This would be my third (the second one was 9 years ago), and this time I will be listening to the audiobook. I also plan to read a few short stories from Zola’s three collections (haven’t decided the title). Now, I’m very excited to return to Germinal (psstt… I might even start earlier!), and can’t wait to see what you will read!