The Magician's Lie

The Magician's Lie Greer Macallister 3.5/5	Published 2015 First Sentence "Tonight, I will do the impossible."
Publisher's Description: Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in The Magician’s Lie, a debut novel in which the country’s most notorious female illusionist stands accused of her husband's murder --and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence. The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear. But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless—and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.
Dear Reader, The Magician's Lie has a little bit of mystery, a little bit of historical fiction and lots of character plot. I liked this book, it held my interest but didn't completely overwhelm me enough to consider it four stars. The story goes back and forth in time, present day consisting of officer interrogating the alleged killer (the magician), past consisting of the magician telling her "story" in order to clear her name. The plot is slightly more complex since the officer is doing this in order to gain back his reputation after an accident in the field caused turmoil, as well as the magician having some kind of "magical" healing powers. This is all told to you in the first chapter or so (not considered a spoiler in my book). The greater mystery lies with, who killed the magician's husband? She claims it wasn't her, but she also fled the scene with a suitcase only to be caught by the officer. The officer wants her to be guilty and get her confession in order to redeem himself. I was definitely more interested in the past (story-telling) aspect of this book over the present interrogation, thankfully those parts are smaller in scale to the other part. I found the story surrounding the officer and the incident in the field to be blasé and without flare. I honestly can't remember that side story and I enjoyed the story without putting much focus on it. I think the Author could have taken it out completely and the book wouldn't have suffered at all. Who cares about him when the main characters story is so fascinating!? Talk about living a life on the road, creating new illusions for shows, having a crazy special ability to heal oneself, and on and on... Yes, her story is fireworks compared to his. I'd love to see what others thought of this book, the timing for me was a little off since I was reading this around the same time as reading "The Barefoot Queen", which I adored. I know I shouldn't compare the two (different time periods and histories BUT they both deal with strong female characters undergoing hardship). I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good historical fiction crime novel, it definitely hits all those notes. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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The Invention of Wings

The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd 4.5/5	Published January 2014 First Sentence "There was a time in Africa the people could fly."
Publisher's Description: Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty "Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.
Dear Reader, Sue Monk Kidd really knows how to tell a beautiful and tragic story filled historical elements. The Invention of Wings is about so many things, mostly slavery and the abolition movement. The main characters are Sarah Grimke, who is born from a well-off family with many slaves, and Handful, the slave given to Sarah on her eleventh birthday. Sarah is a little different from her siblings because she has aspirations of becoming a Lawyer like her father and also has a distaste for owning slaves. When she is given a slave for her birthday, Handful, you start to notice how different she really is when she tries to free her slave but then is forced to hand her back when freeing her fails. The book goes back and forth between Sarah and Handful, giving the reader a view into both eyes. Sarah ends up going North to join the Quakers because of their abolitionist views of slavery. Handful gets left behind with Sarah's tough mother and her sister, Angelina, who also ends up siding with her sister and the abolition movement. Kidd really knows how to bring you back in time and gives you a glimpse into how it must feel to be a slave or to have lived with slaves. For example, she has this line that compares the sound of whipping sails on a ship to a slave being beaten, "The Sails would go off like whips cracking and all us would listen to see was it some slave getting flogged in a neighbor-yard or was it ships making ready to leave. You found out when the screams started up or not." How terrible is that, but eye opening. Sometimes you need to read terrible things, especially when they hold the key to changing things in the future. We can't run away from the past, we must embrace it so we learn how to keep it from happening again. I'm sure this is a quote from somewhere that I've regurgitated, but it tells the truth. Another part of the book I thought Kidd nailed was the idea that God and religion wanted people to own slaves. This brings up quite a large argument of how many people construe the bible to mean what they want. If something isn't clear and can have more than one meaning, should we take it to our hearts so quickly? I don't want to get into anything too much, because I have my own opinions on this but I thought it was important to bring up. We also get to see into the life of a slave because Kidd writes Handful's part with such thoughtfulness. Little but big details, like when Handful looks at the books left in Sarah's room and has this reaction, "I sat at her desk and turned one page after another, staring at what looked like bits and pieces of black lace laid cross the paper." How fantastic is that detail! I'm sure that's exactly what words on paper looks to some who's illiterate. I even like how words on paper look beautiful, even without the connotation, very mysterious and tempting to uncover the secrets hidden within. It's small details like this that make Sue Monk Kidd a great writer, and one to seek out. You might be thinking, this is another book on slavery and abolition... but this one is unique because Kidd did her research. She has taken two sisters from history, they actually existed, and plopped them into this beautifully written book. Sarah and Angelina were actual abolitionists who not only sparked the movement with pamphlets and talks, but also sparked the debate for equality among the sexes. What courage these two women had! What amazing people this Author picked to include in her story. I'll conclude this review with a picture of the Grimke girls and some of their famous quotes. Happy Reading, AmberBug P.S. - The one on the left is Sarah, the one on the right is Angelina.

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Les Misérables

Les Misérables Victor Hugo, Norman Denny (Translator) 5/5	Published 1862 First Sentence (Preface from Original Publisher) "So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century - the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light - are unsolved: so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world; - in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use." HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, 1862
Publisher's Description: ‘He was no longer Jean Valjean, but No. 24601’ Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty. A compelling and compassionate view of the victims of early nineteenth-century French society, Les Misérablesis a novel on an epic scale, moving inexorably from the eve of the battle of Waterloo to the July Revolution of 1830. Norman Denny’s introduction to his lively English translation discusses Hugo’s political and artistic aims in writing Les Misérables.
Dear Reader, This epic novel by Victor Hugo was quite surprising a treat. I think the enchantment felt was partially due to the lack of knowledge I had of this popular story. I've never seem any of the films or ventured out to see the play. Anyone who has ever read this will know Hugo tends to digress into many topics which stray from the story itself. Not knowing this, the first digression choked me like swallowing on a huge pill. But slowly, after each one... I started to enjoy his digressions and actually wanted more. Hugo has a wonderful mind and really delves into some thought provoking ideas. All this stimulating writing has me highlighting like crazy. For example, I loved the way Hugo compared a prison to a monastery and a convict to a nun, never would I have even thought to compare the two, but what a comparison it is!! I also loved the entire rant on slang; this topic is still being debated today. The slang of long ago is proper speech today which strengthens the argument even more. He brings a refreshing look at what slang really is and how it should be treated. Progress... we must be open to it. One of my favorite characters in the book was actually a very minor character but one which brought about Hugo's rant of slang. Gavroche, the street urchin who creates a nest in an elephant sculpture, has such cheer and resourcefulness for a child with nothing. This is admirable but Gavroche's true charm lies with his slangy speech. He speaks chock full of cute world for ordinary things and he always corrects others when they use "proper" speech. His part is short but his character is so heartwarming and odd that it stuck with me. Okay, so... this story is aptly names, "The Miserable Wretches", be warned! EVERYONE has horrible things happen to them! However, I think a happy ending is quite overrated and usually enjoy the nitty gritty truth better. I'll leave you with this quote straight out of the ending of the book: "It is a terrible thing to be happy! how content one is! How all-sufficient one finds it! How, being in possession of the false object of life, happiness, one forgets the true object, duty!" It was Hugo's duty to deliver us a story with depth and feeling (not one of those dull, heard it all before stories). With this, he has success... END of story. Happy Reading, AmberBug

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Burial Rites

Burial Rites Hannah Kent 4/5	First Sentence "They said I must die."
Publisher's Description: Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?
Dear Reader, Before I go into my review, I wanted to share with you how I came across this book. I don't think I've mentioned my subscription to a local bookstore by me, every month they send me a book (selected carefully) that has been signed by the Author... all for the price of only the hardcover. You don't pick the book, which can make this a wonderful surprise or somewhat disappointing. I look forward to that time every month when the package comes in. I slowly open the carefully shipped parcel to reveal this months selection, hoping it'll be something I'll like. Most of the time the book sounds vaguely familiar, sometimes the title is completely unknown to me but every now and then I receive a book that is one on my "to-read" list that I've been anticipating greatly. This was one of those and it didn't disappoint. The story is loosely based on an actual account of a woman sent to death in Iceland around the early 1800's. The woman was real, the setting is real but the Author took justices with the story since she had only small stories and documentation to go on. She did a wonderful job coming up with a believable tale and you can tell she really did her research on Icelandic tradition and landscape. This book even included a map, any book that includes a map gets an automatic star for me! As I was reading, I felt the cold temperate climate of Iceland, the lack of warmth even under my own covers in bed. She really brought you right into this book with her descriptions. I think that might have been the biggest plus to the book. The story itself was extremely sad but understandably, the topic of death or waiting for death can't be anything but depressing. However, I was charmed by the book so much that I kept forgetting it was such a somber story. When I did turn back to the sadness, it was deep and thoughtful and also very heartbreaking. At first, you don't really quite know what to think of Agnes... is she guilty? Is she innocent? As the story unfolds you get a deeper understanding and you start to empathize with her situation. What would it be like to know death is coming? Even worse... to not know the date of your own execution? To live out your days under a roof of strangers who don't trust you. The reality is extremely harsh. The Author brings many things to think about with this book. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if she didn't bring a little philosophy and religion into it. If you hate novels with sadness that can make you cry, I would say READ it anyways but grab the box of tissues. I'm very curious to see what others thought about this book, any comments... please leave them! Happy Reading, AmberBug