Book Spotlight: The Bones of Grace by Tahmima Anam

The Bones of Grace by Tahmima Anam, published June 28, 2016 by Harper
Genre: literary novel, romance
Source: publisher

Prelude/Opening sentence:
The first words I ever said to you were: 'When I was nine years old, I found out I was adopted.'

Book description: 

From the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of A Golden Age and The Good Muslim comes a lyrical, deeply moving modern love story about belonging, migration, tragedy, survival, and the mysteries of origins.

On the eve of her departure to find the bones of the walking whale—the fossil that provides a missing link in our evolution—Zubaida Haque falls in love with Elijah Strong, a man she meets in a darkened concert hall in Boston. Their connection is immediate and intense, despite their differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family; Zubaida is the adopted daughter of a wealthy Bangladeshi family in Dhaka. When a twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of society compels her to take a very different path: she marries her childhood best friend and settles into a traditional Bangladeshi life.

While her family is pleased by her obedience, Zubaida seethes with discontent. Desperate to finally free herself from her familial constraints, she moves to Chittagong to work on a documentary film about the infamous beaches where ships are destroyed, and their remains salvaged by locals who depend on the goods for their survival. Among them is Anwar, a shipbreaker whose story holds a key that will unlock the mysteries of Zubaida’s past—and the possibilities of a new life. As she witnesses a ship being torn down to its bones, this woman torn between the social mores of her two homes—Bangladesh and America—will be forced to strip away the vestiges of her own life . . . and make a choice from which she can never turn back. (amazon)

A wonderful love story about cultural clashes, family responsibility and duty, and a woman finding her own way. I gave this five stars!

Book Review: I REGRET EVERYTHING by Seth Greenland

Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

I Regret Everything: A Love Story by Seth Greenland, Europa Editions (February 3, 2015)
Genre: contemporary romance, literary fiction
Objective rating: 5/5

Book beginning: Jeremy

It would be easy to say my troubles began when a mysterious woman walked into the office but that would ignore the time freshman year in college when Aunt Bren called to let me know my mother had removed all of her clothes in the furniture department at Macy's and been taken to Bellevue...

Jeremy Best, 33, would rather be a poet than a cautious and prudent lawyer. His boss's uncautious 19-year-old daughter, Spaulding, comes from a wealthy but broken home, with an unloving mother and a overly busy father. When she becomes a summer intern at the Manhattan law office, she maneuvers herself into Jeremy's life, an admirer of his poetry. The two become slowly involved through Jeremy's literary bent and interest in books outside of his law practice.

How does Jeremy feel about the non poets he works with in the corporate world of trusts and estates? He shows his poetic frame of mind:

Were they alive to the possibilities of the universe? Had they ever known what it was like to burn incandescently? To exist in a larger, all-encompassing way that would allow them to transcend their flavorless days spent in the pursuit of an ersatz happiness and exist in a more vibrant reality, alert to the lamentations of the cosmos and their brief time as vessels of consciousness? (p. 203)

A foreshadowing of the "brief time" that he and Spaulding may have as friends?

Recommendation: I loved this story showing that similar sensibilities and interests may be more important than age in any relationship. The language of the novel becomes poetic in parts, with some stream of consciousness mixed in with lines of poetry. The story line itself is engaging, two people in an unlikely relationship, helping each other in spite of the odds. The narrative is in the first person, alternating with Spaulding's and Jeremy's points of view.  I rated this novel a 5 out of five, and highly recommend it for poets and non-poets alike.


Seth Greenland is a novelist, playwright, and a screenwriter. He was a writer-producer on the Emmy-nominated HBO series Big Love, is an award-winning playwright, and the author of the novels The Angry Buddhist, The Bones, and Shining City, which was named a Best Book of 2008 by the Washington Post. Greenland lives in Los Angeles with his family.Visit his website, SethGreenland.com

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Visit TLC Book Tours for more reviews.
Thanks to the author and TLC for a review copy of this book. 

Two Different Reads: Tahoe Blowup by Todd Borg and What Maisie Knew by Henry James

What I've been reading: a thriller and a novel of manners and psychology.

Tahoe Blowup (Owen McKenna #2) by Todd Borg, published September 1, 2001 by Thriller Press. A thriller set in Tahoe - from it I learned a lot about preventing and causing forest fires, besides arson, and the controversy over controlled or non controlled burning. I also learned about rescue dogs, the anthropomorphic qualities attributed to them that may not be so anthropomorphic after all. Dogs do have emotions similar to ours. A good thriller, the second in the series, the books only get better as they progress. There are now about 12 or so.

What Maisie Knew by Henry James, a free ebook on Kindle. I recently witnessed a divorce case and the effects on children, so this novel about a young girl being used as a pawn between two disagreeing parents was particularly interesting to me. Daisy is bandied back and forth not only by her separated and then divorced parents but later on by her stepparents as well. She comes out of it okay, had to pretend sometimes to be more obtuse then she really was, and in the process learns a lot just by observing the behavior of the adults around her. James is a master in the psychological novel. I discovered him later in life (after college, that is) and am a great fan of his.

What books have you finished this week?

The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The Steady Running of the Hour:A Novel by Justin Go
To be published April 15, 2014; Simon and Schuster
Genre: "part love story and part historical", quest novel

Opening sentences:

The letter came by courier last week.
I knew when I touched the envelope that it was fine stationery. I knew from the paper, the porous surface of pure cotton rag; the watermark that shone through as I held it to the light. 

Goodreads description:
"A young American discovers he may be heir to the unclaimed estate of an English World War I officer, which launches him on a quest across Europe to uncover the elusive truth.

Just after graduating college, Tristan Campbell receives a letter delivered by special courier to his apartment in San Francisco. It contains the phone number of a Mr. J.F. Prichard of Twyning Hooper, Solicitors, in London and news that could change Tristan's life forever.

In 1924, Prichard explains, an English alpinist named Ashley Walsingham died attempting to summit Mt. Everest, leaving his fortune to his former lover, Imogen Soames-Andersson. But the estate was never claimed. Information has recently surfaced suggesting Tristan may be the rightful heir, but unless he can find documented evidence, the fortune will be divided among charitable beneficiaries in less than two months.

In a breathless race from London archives to Somme battlefields to the Eastfjords of Iceland, Tristan pieces together the story of a forbidden affair set against the tumult of the First World War and the pioneer British expeditions to Mt. Everest. Following his instincts through a maze of frenzied research, Tristan soon becomes obsessed with the tragic lovers, and he crosses paths with a mysterious French girl named Mireille who suggests there is more to his quest than he realizes. Tristan must prove that he is related to Imogen to inherit Ashley's fortune but the more he learns about the couple, the stranger his journey becomes."

What new book are you waiting for?