The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James

Summary and review:

This "secret diary" of Charlotte Bronte follows her romance with Arthur Bell Nicholls. Nicholls was the Brontes' next door neighbor. He worked under her father as the curate of tiny Haworth village for eight years before expressing his love to Charlotte and giving her an offer of marriage. The near-decade that spanned the time between Charlotte's first meeting with Mr. Nicholls and his proposal saw Charlotte evolve from an imaginative spinster to a celebrated writer.

I thought the book started roughly. I didn't buy the idea that these characters were living in a tiny parish in Victorian England. The language seemed stilted and overly formal, yet it was peppered at times with modern-sounding phrases that were completely out-of-place in the dialog. For example, in one scene, Charlotte and Emily are angry with one another. "You cannot stay angry with me for ever," says Charlotte, to which Emily replies, "Watch me."

"Watch me?" Umm, I'm sorry, but I just don't think that Charlotte and Emily Bronte spoke like 21st Century eight-year-olds. So that bothered me. I also didn't like the fact that the "diaries" weren't written in a diary format. The style is more of a narrative than a diary. Charlotte begins the novel by addressing "Diary," but there aren't individual entries; it's as if she's recounting the entire story in two or three sittings.

I did, however, think that the story, if not riveting, was interesting. Syrie James based the plot around letters written by and about Charlotte Bronte and the other characters mentioned. Although the dialog was fabricated and much is conjecture, from what I can tell the story is relatively true to history. It was interesting to learn about the sources of inspiration for the Bronte novels. The lives of the Brontes were tragic, and while reading I realized that I knew very little about Charlotte or her sisters. I admit that formerly I had a difficult time keeping track of the three sisters and remembering which one was which. Having read this book, I feel like I know them better; I doubt I will be confusing them in the future.

Charlotte's romance with Mr. Nicholls is unusual; it was definitely not the sweeping, passionate love affair found in Jane Eyre or Wurthering Heights. It was different from what I expect in a romance and interesting because of it.

I would have liked to know more about Charlotte's early life; actually, I would have liked to know more about the life of all three sisters, Emily in particular. Although her life seems to lack the romance which Charlotte experienced, Emily Bronte is perhaps the most fascinating of the sisters. I've read Wurthering Heights twice times, and each time I was more disturbed by it. What were the circumstances that produced a woman who, coming from the strict, sternly religious upbringing in the rigid Victorian age, could write such a sordid, passionate and disturbing story full of horror, violence, and illicit love?

I also would have liked more more description of the village and the moors. The moors played such a huge part in the Bronte novels, but I never really felt their presence in this book. Haworth as portrayed by Syrie James felt like a bland one-size-fits-all English village.

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books, and I approached this novel hesitantly. I didn't want to read something silly or talentless that merely coasted off of the popularity of Jane Eyre (Aside: I feel that most of the modern novels based on Jane Austen and her writing fall under this description). I wasn't expecting a true biography, and I didn't get it. I thought that most if not all of the romantic scenes were silly and would have been embarrassing for Charlotte Bronte to have read. However, I did end up liking this book much more than I expected, much more than I did when I first began to read. I imagined that Charlotte Bronte lived a cloistered life akin to that of Emily Dickinson; however her experiences were much more far-reaching than I knew. I'm looking forward to reading Jane Eyre again, and I'm also planning to venture out to Charlotte Bronte's other works and will be looking up some actual biographies written about her. ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (5/10)

Content:

Blood and gore: N/A

Sex: Very mild innuendos

Language: N/A

Sanditon by Jane Austen and "Another Lady" (Marie Dobbs)

Summary and Review:

I love Jane Austen and have read each of her novels multiple times, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard about Sanditon, Austen's last-attempted, unfinished novel, which was begun less than six months before she died. Austen only finished 11 chapters of Sanditon, which she originally titled, "The Brothers," before she passed away. She bequeathed the manuscript to her niece, and work on it has been completed by several different authors. The version I read was originally credited only to Jane Austen and "Another Lady," but subsequent editions revealed the author's name to be Marie Dobbs. The author bio on the back of the book claims that "Another Lady" is a "pseudonym for a novelist who lives in England;" however, I was unable to find any other works written by Dobbs. She is however, obviously an Austen aficionado, with a clear understanding of Austen's writing style. I believe she finished the novel beautifully.

Sanditon begins when Mr. and Mrs. Parker, a young married couple traveling home from London, overturn their coach. The Parker's are thus compelled to accept the hospitality of the Heywood family for two weeks while their coach is repaired and Mr. Parker's ankle, which was sprained in the accident, heals.

Mr. Heywood is a gentleman farmer with fourteen children. He and Mrs. Heywood live comfortably but frugally, and rarely travel outside the bounds of their parish, Willingden. Despite Mr. Parker's best efforts, they cannot be convinced to accompany the Parkers back to Sanditon, an emerging resort town in which Mr. Parker has invested, and which has become his new obsession. With her characteristic humor, Austen informs the reader that "Sanditon was a second wife and four children to [Mr. Parker], hardly less dear, and certainly more engrossing." The easygoing Heywoods, however, agree to allow their eldest daughter, Charlotte, to accompany the Parker's to Sanditon for the rest of the summer, which is where the real Austen-action begins. In Sanditon, Charlotte is introduced to the polite society of the seaside resort and, away from her family for the first time, she meets new sides to her own personality which she never before knew. Charlotte prides herself on being level-headed and and sensible; however when she is introduced to Sidney Parker, Mr. Parker's charming and good-naturedly manipulative younger brother, she meets her match. Despite her best efforts, it seems that Charlotte will find romance on her summer holiday.

The characters in Sanditon will be familiar: although the population of Sanditon is small (much to Mr. Parker's chagrin), all of our favorite Austen archetypes are on the scene. Charlotte is reminiscent of Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. She is charming, sensible, witty, and high-principled. She is also attractive, although certainly not the most beautiful girl to grace Sanditon's social scene. Like Elizabeth, she tends to sit back and survey those around her with an amused, and at times self-satisfied, air. The hero, Sidney, reminds me of Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey, educated, sarcastic, charming and flirtatious, albeit extremely confusing at times for the heroine. Clara Brereton seems an easy match for Jane Fairfax, the beautiful, mysterious, sometimes-foil of the heroine. And of course all of our other Austen favorites are there as well--Lord Edward is Mr. Collins meets Henry Crawford, and his sister, Miss Denham, channels Caroline Bingley. We have the kind but bumbling Mr. and Mrs. Parker, the frivolous Miss Beauforts, the hypochondriac Miss Parkers, and the haughty Lady Denham. Of course none of the characters is a carbon copy of anyone from Austen's other works. Each is delightfully unique, with his or her own quirks, yet they all fit seamlessly into the world that Austen's readers know and love. The biggest departure character-wise, in my mind, is Miss Lambe. She is a sickly heiress from the West Indies who is mulatto, to my knowledge the only character of color in any of Austen's works. Although I don't know how Austen originally intended this character to be used, the storyline created for her by Dobbs is probably my very favorite in the entire book.

I loved Sanditon. I could not have identified the spot where Austen's manuscript ended and Dobbs picked up the narrative without the "Apology from the Collaborator," which Dobbs included at the end of the book. In the apology, Dobbs humbly excuses herself, explaining that she is no Austen. However she comes much closer than I expected. I haven't read any other continuations of this novel, but I can't think they'd get much better than this. Although the plot twists at the end of the novel were a little less subtle than what one would expect from Austen, the book still sparkles with her humor, sarcasm, delightfully biting wit, and flair for the perfect romance. I think that any Austen fan would love Sanditon. ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (8/10)

Content:

Blood and Gore: N/A
Sex: N/A, although one of the female characters is abducted by a male character with dubious motives
Offensive Language: N/A

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

Summary and review:

Hennie Comfort is an eighty-six-year-old woman who has lived in Middle Swan, Colorado, a mining town situated high in the Rocky Mountains, since leaving Tennessee over 70 years ago. Hennie is, in many ways, the glue that holds the rough mining town together. Befriending everyone from the wife of the president of the mining company to the various "sorry girls" who entertain the men of Middle Swan. This story is about Hennie's friendship with Nit Spindle, a seventeen-year-old newlywed girl who has recently arrived in Middle Swan with her husband. Lonely in her new town and grieving over the loss of her baby, Nit is drawn to the sign hanging over Hennie's home, "Prayers for Sale." When she approaches Hennie to ask for a prayer, a deep friendship is born between the two women. Despite their differences in years, Nit and Hennie are drawn to each other by their love of quilting, their need for friendship, and the tragedies that they have each experienced. Throughout the book, Hennie unfolds the stories of Middle Swan to Nit, by doing so, she is able to confront the darkness of her past and embrace the future.

Sometimes I felt like I was looking at an early draft of the book. The stories that Hennie told seemed unfinished, since they were told without dialog and through the point of view of the third-person narrator. One of the themes in the book is Hennie's story-telling ability, but I never heard her voice in the stories. There were also a number of repetitions: we are reminded constantly that Hennie does not want to leave Middle Swan to live in Iowa with her daughter and that she has some unfinished business to take care of before she leaves. It is clear that Sandra Dallas knows quite a bit about both quilting and life in mining towns, but at times it seems like a little too much. There were places in the narrative that seemed to be trying to educate the reader, rather than telling a story and letting little facts about life in a mining town be gleaned along the way. For instance, on page 74, Hennie is perusing the shelves in the town's general store:

"Another shelf held the tin bins of spices and sultanas. The lettering identified them as sultanas yet, but most everybody called them raisins now, and they no longer had to be stoned."

I read these sentences and thought, "Hmm. I guess raisins used to be called sultanas. Now I know." Instead of fleshing out the atmosphere of the old store, the passage totally pulled me out of the story.

Hennie was maybe just a little bit too perfect, she didn't seem to have a single weakness. Giving Hennie a few more flaws would have made it easier to relate to her, but I didn't mind all that much. Instead, I just really wished that I were her neighbor. Although some of Hennie's stories were sad and dwelt on the darker side of human nature, this was a happy, comfortable book. It reminded me of being young and sitting in a spot of sunshine in the kitchen while watching my mom make cookies on a Saturday afternoon. This book won't change the course of literature, but it doesn't need to. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (7/10)

Content:

Blood and gore: The book talks about awful mining accidents and mentions several other deaths, mostly from natural causes. However there are a few murders, including murders of children.

Sex: Despite the presence of the town's "sorry women," there is very little in the way of sex.

Offensive Language: blasphemy and a few "minor" curse words

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneger

Summary and Review:

Okay here, in a nutshell is the plot of Her Fearful Symmetry: A woman dies, leaving her inexplicably large estate, including a large furnished apartment in London, to her twin nieces. The only catch: the girls must live in the apartment for a year before inheriting it, and their mother, who is the dead aunt's long-estranged twin sister, and their father are not allowed to step foot in the place. Oh, and the dead aunt has also become a ghost who is trapped in her former residence and is becoming increasingly obnoxious. And her creepy cemetery-obsessed younger lover is going to stalk the girls when they show up and then seduce one of them, either because he has some pedophilic tendencies (there are constant references to the 21-year-old twins looking like they are 12 or 16) or because the niece looks just like her dead aunt, his former lover with whom he is still obsessed.

(Having read this book and The Time Traveler's Wife, I think that Audrey Niffenegger may have a thing for old men romancing younger women (Henry and Claire, Robert and Valentina, and Julia and Martin. Which is creepy. And no, I don't feel like I'm giving away any plot spoilers because, come on, it was SO obvious what was going to happen.)

Okay, now for my thoughts on Her Fearful Symmetry (I think you can tell where this is going, can't you?). No, it really wasn't that bad. Well, okay the plot actually was that bad. But Audrey Niffenegger writes well. Has it ever happened to you that you're reading, just cruising along, lost in the plot, when suddenly you come to a clunky, poorly-written phrase or a tired cliche, and the narrative just comes to a halt, like you've hit a huge pothole while driving along on the freeway? That never happens in this book. Audrey Niffenegger is a great writer; the writing itself is enjoyable to read. I also enjoyed the little tidbits about the "residents" of Highgate Cemetery. However, the plot is kind of a mess.

It started out promisingly. The mysterious feud between the aunt and the twins' mother, the prospect of the girls alone in London, and in a haunted apartment next to a graveyard, no less, obviously lent a lot of suspense and anticipation. However, it the intensity never really picked up. There was never a moment when I felt concerned about the fate of the characters. I mean, I knew that bad stuff was about to happen, but...I just didn't really care all that much.

It's hard to overly sympathize with characters that seem to have absolutely no point in life--the twins were obnoxious. They didn't have jobs, didn't have any real interests or connections...I don't know. I think that if I were Elspeth watching these two girls loll around my apartment watching reruns on TV without any occupation or purpose would have really gotten on my nerves.

Furthermore, I wasn't sure who the protagonist was supposed to be. Was I supposed to be rooting for Julia, the 6-minute-older, pushy, bossy, manipulative twin? Or were my loyalties supposed to be with Valentina, the meek, shy, sickly sister. Valentina supposedly had talent, interests, and a way of attracting people to her (although how she managed to do that was never fully explained) but she let herself be dragged around by Julia until she just kind of exploded in fury. She went from "I'd like to order my own sandwich, thank you very much" to "death is better than living with you" in like three pages. Why didn't she ever speak up for herself before? If the girls knew each other so well, how is it likely that in 21 years Julia never clued in on the way Valentina was feeling. And let's just talk about the name Valentina for a minute. It was so incompatible with the rest of the book, I felt. Every time I read it I was like, "Valentina? Really? You name one twin Julia and the other one gets Valentina?" Looking back, I wonder if it was actually more appropriate, in a symbolic way, than I originally thought. I would be surprised if it weren't an homage to Valentine from Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. The name seemed to fit a character who very much acted the gothic/romantic heroine, pushed and pulled about and helpless in the face of tragedy. Except that she wasn't really helpless. She could have just told Julia to back off and everything would have been fine.

And the book never really explained why the girls were this way. They were so bizarre--dressing the same, never leaving the house without the other, finishing each other's sentences, even sleeping in the same bed and spooning all night long (there were some way creepy undertones), and the only explanation the book seemed to give for this behavior was that they were twins. This idea was reinforced by the fact that their mother and aunt had apparently behaved similarly at one time. I'm sorry, but I've known a lot of twins, and none of them have ever acted like this. There was some weird and unhealthy stuff going on, and sharing the same womb for nine months was not enough to explain it. In fact I kept waiting for a reason, something a la "House of Usher" preferably, but it never happened.

The same with the reason for Edie and Elspeth's estrangement. After a few pages, I kind of forgot/didn't care about the reason they separated, which greatly contributed to the lack of suspense in the book, and when the reason was finally revealed it was just...unbelievable. And I mean unbelievable not in an "Oh my gosh I can't believe that happened!" sense, but in a "yeah right, there is no way that would have happened" sense.

Finally, I just thought that the ending was really unsatisfying. I think Audrey Niffenegger was going for some kind of poetic justice, but it didn't feel right. Furthermore, it felt like the plot dragged for about 80% of the book and then all of a sudden was on fast-forward for the last 10 pages.

Again, I don't think that this was the worst book I've ever read. Far from it. Audrey Niffenegger writes well and the plot had potential. It just wasn't pulled off well, especially after the incredibly tightly-woven plot in The Time Traveler's Wife; in all it was just a bit of a letdown. ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ (4/10)

Content:

Blood and gore: N/A, although the plot does kind of revolve around death

Sex: No explicit sex scenes, although there are numerous references to sex.

Offensive Language: Three uses of the F-word, which come of out nowhere. Much, much cleaner than The Time Traveler's Wife, thank goodness, but still more than necessary.

Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

*Note: spoilers follow. Not any specific details, more like "meta"-spoilers that might give away the overall attitude of the book, I guess you could say. So if you're worried about that, you might not want to continue reading. Honestly though, I wouldn't suggest reading this book, so my recommendation is to read on!

Summary and review:

Private schools are the new nannying positions in this sequel to The Nanny Diaries. Nan has returned to New York City after a ten-year hiatus, in which she and her husband, "Harvard Hottie" Ryan Hutchinson, have been globe trotting in pursuit of Ryan's career with the UN. In the meantime, Nan earned a master's degree in organizational development. Back in the city, Nan is attempting to juggle the renovation of a crumbling Harlem brownstone with starting a consulting business, while dealing with an absentee husband, run-ins with old high school "friends," and her decade-old guilt over the way she left Grayer and the Xs. Oh, and her husband wants to start a family.

Only a few days back in the city, a very drunk 16-year-old Grayer shows up on Nan's doorstep. His parents have finally split, leaving him alone with a 7-year-old brother, an incapacitated mother, and a need to know why Nan left 10 years ago. Just like that, Nan is thrown back into the bizarro world of the Xs and their Upper-East-Side insanity.

From there, the plot shatters and splits off in about a thousand different directions. There's just too much going on for any one of plot lines to be fully developed, or to arrest the reader's attention and sympathy. The plot line involving Nan's self-absorbed high school acquaintances doesn't seem to add anything to the story other than providing settings for some of the action to play out. The same is true of the story line about Nan's parents possible eviction. The home remodel story fits better, but just goes way too far, until it becomes a little bit ridiculous.

The main plot lines in the story [seem] to be the Xs and Nan's position with a consultant for Jarndyce, an exclusive private school run by an absolutely toxic parental board, which puts the Xs' exploits from the first book to shame. Oh, and Nan having a baby. That's supposed to be one of the main parts of the story, but it's completely overshadowed by everything else going on. Anyway, while working for Jarndyce, Nan is put in a variety of situations that go against her beliefs, providing the perfect opportunity for Nan to stand up stick it to the scum of the East side, but instead, and here come the spoilers, she totally and completely folds in the name of remodeling her new house. The authors tried to excuse Nan's behavior by establishing that she knew the actions she was enabling were morally reprehensible. The thing is, however, that knowing right from wrong and choosing wrong anyway does not make a person any less culpable. It makes you a hypocrite and a coward.

While Nan does her best to help out the X boys, there is no "nanny-cam" moment like the one readers cheered at the conclusion of Nanny Diaries. With the exception of a short outburst to Grayer, Nan never stands up for herself or her supposedly-high morals; in fact, she is complicit in some of the worst goings-on at Jarndyce.

Equally offensive is the barrage of F-words that the reader is pelted with in this book. There are 305 pages in the copy I read, and without going back over the book in its entirety, I feel comfortable saying that the F-word is found on half of those pages, often multiple times.

All in all, I would advise most readers, even those who loved Nanny Diaries, to skip this installment in the life of Nan. ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (2/10)

Content:

Blood and gore: N/A
Sex: multiple references to adultery, an explicit "sexting" episode, use of the F-word in a sexual context, and reference to a sexual encounter à la The Graduate. Gross.
Language: abhorrent