Book Feature: A Good Home: A Memoir by Cynthia Reyes

Title: A Good Home: A Memoir by Cynthia Reyes
Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: BPS Books (May 6, 2013)

Publisher description: "A Good Home is a profoundly emotional book about the author’s early life in rural Jamaica, her move to urban North America, and her trips back home, all told through vivid descriptions of the unique homes she has lived in — from a tiny pink house in Jamaica and a mountainside cabin near Vancouver to the historic Victorian farmhouse she lives in today, surrounded by neighbors who share spicy Malaysian noodles and seafood, Greek pastries and roast lamb, and Italian tomato sauce and wine (really strong wine).

 Full of lovingly drawn characters and vividly described places, A Good Home takes the reader through deeply moving stories of marriage, children, the death of parents, and an accident that takes its high-flying author down a humbling notch. Its pages sparkle with stories and reflections on home as: A foundation on which to build connections with children, relatives, and friends A place to celebrate the joys of elegant design, overflowing gardens (except for the wisteria vine, which cannot be coaxed into blooming), and the sharing of good food.

A wise teacher, showing us who we really were — and who we really are. When this brave, clear-eyed, and honest book returns, full circle, to the way it began, readers will want to read it all over again." (from amazon)

About the author: Cynthia Reyes has published non-fiction stories in Arabella Magazine, one of the fastest-growing magazines in the United States and Canada, as well as in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Life. Reyes is a former journalist and executive producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. More than a hundred episodes of her programs have appeared on network television. She is the winner of national and international awards and acclaim for her work as a television producer, project leader, and public speaker, including the Children’s Broadcast Institute Award and the Crystal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film and Television.

Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth

Friday 56 Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.

Title: Ocar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth
Publication date: May 14, 2013; Touchstone
Genre: historical mystery

"I'm a friend of the man who invented Sherlock Holmes," I said with some dignity. "Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes?"(p. 57)

In this next excerpt, an imprisoned Oscar talks with the prison surgeon, Dr. Maurice, and we learn a little about Oscar Wilde's friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer.

"... And you, I've been led to believe, are Conan Doyle's model for Holmes's older brother - the brilliant but indolent Mycroft Holmes." (ch. 6)

Book description:  In this new installment in the engaging mystery series—currently in development as a BBC television series—the incomparable playwright, novelist, raconteur, and now ex-convict Oscar Wilde faces his most fiendishly puzzling case yet.

It is 1897, France. Oscar Wilde has fled the country after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. Oscar has endured a harsh regime: the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, his astonishing detective powers remain undiminished—and when first a brutal warder and then the prison chaplain are found murdered, who else should the Governor turn to for help other than Reading Gaol’s most celebrated inmate? (goodreads)

This is the fifth in the Oscar Wilde mysteries.
Thanks to Touchstone for a review copy of this book.

Memoir: THE COOKED SEED by Anchee Min

Title: The Cooked Seed: A Memoir by Anchee Min
Published: May 7, 2013; Bloombury USA hardcover

The date was August 3, 1984. It was China's midnight and America's morning. I was about to drop out of the sky and land in Chicago. What made me scared and nervous was that I didn't speak English and had no money. The five hundred dollars I had folded in my wallet was borrowed. But I could not let myself be frightened. I was twenty-seven years old and life had ended for me in China. I was Madame Mao's trash, ..., which meant that I wasn't worth spit. For eight years, I had worked menial jobs at the Shanghai Film Studio. I was considered a "cooked seed" - no chance to sprout. (opening paragraph from the Advance Reading Copy)

Publisher's description:
In 1994, Anchee Min made her literary debut with a memoir of growing up in China during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Red Azalea became an international bestseller and propelled her career as a critically acclaimed author. Twenty years later, Min returns to the story of her own life to give us the next chapter, an immigrant story that takes her from the shocking deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the promised land of America, without language, money, or a clear path.

It is a hard and lonely road. She teaches herself English by watching Sesame Street, keeps herself afloat working five jobs at once, lives in unheated rooms, suffers rape, collapses from exhaustion, marries poorly and divorces.But she also gives birth to her daughter, Lauryann, who will inspire her and finally root her in her new country. Min's eventual successes- her writing career, a daughter at Stanford, a second husband she loves- are remarkable, but it is her struggle throughout toward genuine selfhood that elevates this dramatic, classic immigrant story to something powerfully universal.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers. First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. Opening sentences in a book can help readers decide if the book is one they would continue reading. 

Based on the opening paragraph of The Cooked Seed, would you keep reading?

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book. 

Sunday Salon: Gardening and Books

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Also submitted to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey, and  Mailbox Monday hosted by Abi at 4 the LOVE of BOOKS.

I have decided not to plant many veggies this year and so far only a few banana pepper seedlings made it into the ground and into a pot. There are baby bunnies running in and out of the backyard from our neighbors' where they live under a tool shed. A white possum came into the yard for an orange I had left for the birds and was seen again the next morning in the neighbor's yard. A black cat wanders the grounds and gazes into ground cover that hides chipmunks and into the dense euonymus shrub that is the hiding place for a rabbit or two. I don't think veggies would last without wire mesh to protect them, even with a cat on patrol. In any case, we spent the nice, cool and sunny day yesterday pruning bushes and clipping and seeding grass. An uncluttered garden.

New books and ARCs that arrived:

Ten Trees and a Truffle Dog by Jamie Ivey; Skyhorse Publishing
Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijan; Atria Books
A Certain Summer by Patricia Beard; Simon and Schuster
Running with the Enemy by Lloyd Lofthouse; Three Clover Press
Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley Freeman; Simon and Schuster
Gaijin Cowgirl by Jame DiBiasio; Crime Wave Press

Can't wait for summer weather to get out the hammock. What are you reading these days?

Book Review: Roses Have Thorns by Sandra Byrd

Title: Roses Have Thorns: A Novel of Elizabeth I by Sandra Byrd
Published April 9, 2013; Howard Books paperback
Genre: historical novel

Publisher description: In 1565, seventeen-year-old Elin von Snakenborg leaves Sweden on a treacherous journey to England to witness the dizzying heights of Tudor power. Transformed through marriage into Helena, the Marchioness of Northampton, she becomes the highest-ranking woman in Elizabeth’s circle. But in a court surrounded by Catholic enemies who plot the queen’s downfall, Helena is forced to choose between her unyielding monarch and the husband she’s not sure she can trust–a choice that will provoke catastrophic consequences.

My comments: I may have read too many books about the Tudors recently and so was not blown away by this one, though I was entertained by the story of a lady-in-waiting whose loyalty to the queen allows her intimate access to Elizabeth I and her court. Elin, renamed Helena, has unquestioning loyalty to a queen who is temperamental, sometimes brutal and seemingly heartless, but who could also be generous and forgiving to those close to her.

An interesting section of the novel regarding Elizabeth's never marrying - Elin/Helena elicits personal comments from Elizabeth about her love for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

"I have loved Lord Robert since I was a girl," she said. "I am given to him in all manner but one. I had, and have, passion. But I put it under glass, Helena, lest it set my kingdom on fire."
.... "Then what, my lady?"
"Within weeks of my marriage to Robin this kingdom would fracture into factions like a shattered platter, never to be whole again." (ch. 11)

Elizabeth's later remarks to Elin, "Roses have thorns," is a warning to be careful in her actions and words. Elin has to remarry in secret, for instance, being afraid that Elizabeth would not give her permission to marry her second husband, Thomas. The queen retaliates by withdrawing favors, as expected, but then relents.

The stories of the imprisonment and execution of those who plotted against Elizabeth I, including her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, are well known historically and are retold in an interesting way in this novel of Elin's life at court.

I think the novel presents Elizabeth I in an overall flattering light, but I was annoyed with Elin, a Swede, for not questioning more the events going on in the English court and for her unrealistic and wholehearted support of the Tudor politics around her. This is of course from my 21st century point of view.

Overall, an entertaining novel and certainly informational for anyone not familiar with the history of the Tudors.

For more reviews of the book, visit the tour schedule at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
Thanks to HF Virtual Book Tours and the author/publisher for a review copy of this book.

Sandra Byrd has published more than three dozen fiction and nonfiction books, including her Tudor series, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn. and The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr, about the life of Henry’s last wife. She edits, mentors, and coaches and lives in the Seattle, Washington area.

Connect with Sandra Byrd: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

Once Upon a Gypsy Moon by Michael Hurley

Wonder what it's like to take off on a sailboat for two years, alone, sailing from port to port, from the U.S. down to the Caribbean islands? Here is a memoir of a writer's journey, a spiritual quest as well as a physical challenge.

It was not the dreary weather, or being alone, or the sixty-mile stretch of ocean from Beaufort to Masonboro Inlet that concerned me. On the open sea at night, the Gypsy Moon is as cozy as a warm fire and rocks like a baby's cradle as she rises and falls over the waves. It was the unknown that troubled me, and the worry that I was about to do something rather foolish (again) and potentially very expensive (again) that I would regret (again). (ch. 12; quote from an uncorrected proof; final copy may differ)

Publisher's description: Michael Hurley's world unraveled in the wake of divorce and failure. In August 2009, short of money, out of a job and in need of perspective, he took to the open seas in a 32-foot sailboat, Gypsy Moon.

The story of his 2-year outward odyssey, complicated by rough weather and mechanical troubles, combines keen observation and deep introspection with excellent prose. Once Upon a Gypsy Moon presents a unique point of view on this spiritual-journey narrative. It offers a love story inside a rollicking sea tale, but it also has something important to say about relationships, faith and disbelief, life and death, love and marriage, and what really matters.

Title: Once Upon a Gypsy Moon: A Memoir: An Improbable Voyage and One Man's Yearning for Redemption by Michael Hurley
Published April 16, 2013; Center Street
Source: ARC review copy

Book Review: Tiger Babies Strike Back by Kim Wong Keltner

Kim Wong Keltner's memoir describes her life growing up under the thumb of a demanding and stoic Chinese mother. Kim says she suffered from lack of affectionate hugs, outward shows of love, words of praise from her mother, and eventually moved away from their home in San Francisco after her marriage to native Californian, Rolf Keltner, to gain independence and a better perspective. But she says this about her mother:

The Reamer (Irene, her mother) didn't coddle me. But it wasn't for lack of love. She did not coddle me because she loved me. She wanted me to be strong so I could live without her." (ch. 38)

Kim gives this message to Tiger Parents, those parents who push their children to extremes toward success.

Tiger Parents,you may be asking yourselves, "What is the point of this book?"
Love your babies, and show your babies that you love them. Withholding acceptance and praise while pushing your children into achievement might yield certain results, but that kind of pressure stifles other aspects of growing up." (epilogue)

And there are messages for the children of Tiger parents,  for whom she wrote this book:

"Have an emotional life. Please yourself. Second best ain't worth killing yourself over...."

The author cites Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother as an impetus for her book and as a response to Chua's Tiger Mother perspective.

To those who were not born with Tiger Parents, this sort of advice may seem unwarranted, but the author clearly feels everything she puts into the book. And there is a lot of emotion here. The memoir seems to rant at the beginning and even to generalize about who Tiger Mothers are and how they came to be. However, the author soon gets into specifics with examples from her family, acquaintances, and from her own life.

Not all Tiger Children escape unscathed from their parents' upbringing as Kim did. Some are forever stifled, she shows. These Tiger Children include those who never leave home and are brought up with the sole idea of being their parents' caretakers, or the child whose romantic and personal life is squelched by overwhelming family /parental disapproval.

One of the early drawbacks: living in a "Tiger box" made it hard for Kim to develop female friendships while growing up. Other Chinese girls in their own Tiger boxes wanted to show independence or exhibited one-upmanship, which prevented close alliances.

One exception to the Tiger parent rule was Kim's kinder grandmother Lucy, whom she remembers with fondness and brings into mind the difference between the generations in bonding with children.

I understood and felt everything that the author was trying to say, even though my parents are a generation removed from the "old country." A strict culture filters down inexorably though it may dissipate somewhat on the way down. I am anxious to see what others think about Kim's memoir, those who weren't raised within such strict confines. There is a lot in the book for general readers, to understand the interior of a traditional (though what might seem a somewhat stereotypical) Chinese family.

Title: Tiger Babies Strike Back: How I Was Raised By a Tiger Mom But Could Not Be Turned to the Dark Side by Kim Wong Keltner
Published April 30, 2013; William Morrow paperback
Genre: memoir
Objective rating: 4.5/5

For other reviews of the book, visit the TLC Book Tour schedule.

About the author: 
The only thing that keeps Kim Wong Keltner from writing is when she’s trapped under an avalanche of her daughter’s stuffed animals. Kim is the author of The Dim Sum of All Things, Buddha Baby, and I Want Candy. Tiger Babies Strike Back is her first work of non-fiction. You can reach her at kimwongkeltner.com

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for an ARC review copy of the book.

Also submitted to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, and to Cym Lowell's Book Review Link-Up Party.