What's in a Name ? 3 Challenge

What's in a Name? 3 Challenge
January 1 - December 3, 2010

Between January 1 and December 31, 2010, I will read one book in each of the following categories:

1. A book with a food in the title: Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris -- finished 3/6/2010
   
2. A book with a body of water in the title: Cane River by Lalita Tademy -- finished 10/25/2010
   
3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title: The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin -- finished 2/26/2010
   
4. A book with a plant in the title: The Wood Wife by Terri Windling -- finished 3/2/2010
   
5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title: The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad -- finished 2/16/2010
   
6. A book with a music term in the title: The Mapmaker's Opera by Béa Gonzalez -- finished 1/17/2010
   

Cane River by Lalilta Tademy

First sentence:

"On the morning of her ninth birthday, the day after Madame Francoise Derbanne slapped her, Suzette peed on the rosebushes."

Description:

"Ladita Tademy had always been intensely interested in her family's stories, especially ones about her great-grandmother Emily, a formidable figure who died with her life's savings hidden in her mattress. Probing deeper for her family's roots, Tademy soon found herself swept up in an obsessive two-year odyssey--and leaving her corporate career for the little Louisiana farming community of...Cane River. It was here, on a medium-sized Creole plantation owned by a family named Derbanne, that author Lalita Tademy found her family's roots--and the stories of four astonishing women whose lives began in slavery, who weathered the Civil War, and who grappled with the contradictions of emancipation through the turbulent early years of the twentieth century. Through it all, they fought to unite their family and forge success on their own terms.

Here amid small farmhouses and a tightly knit community of French-speaking slaves, free people of color, and whites, Tademy's great-great-great-great-grandmother Elisabeth would bear both a proud heritage and the yoke of slavery. Her youngest daughter, Suzette, would be the first to discover the promise--and heartbreak--of freedom. Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene would use determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard of economic independence. And Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, would fight to secure her children's just due and preserve their future against dangerous odds.

In a novel that combines painstaking historical reconstruction with unforgettable storytelling, Lalita Tademy presents an all too rarely seen part of American history, complete with a provocative portrayal of the complex, unspoken bonds between slaves and slave owners.Most of all, she gives us the saga of real, flesh-and-blood women, making hard choices in the face of unimaginable loss, securing their identity and independence in order to face any obstacle, and inspiring all the generations to come.' -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I liked this book about Tademy's ancestors and their struggles in the 19th and early 20th century. I especially liked the way she inserted images of newspaper accounts, slave auction lists, and census records. I would read these documents just after reading the fictional account and would connect the names to the characters, making them more "alive." I look forward to reading the sequel, Red River.

Date read: 10/25/2010
Book #: 48
Challenge: What's in a Name? 3 Challenge
Series: Tademy Family Chronicles, #1
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0446530522
ISBN-13: 978044653952?
Publisher: Warner Books
Year: 2001
# of pages: 416
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

First sentence:

"When my mother died, she left the farm to my brother, Cassis, the fortune in the wine cellar to my sister, Reine-Claude, and to me the youngest, her album, and a two-liter jar containing a single black Perigord truffle, large as a tennis ball, suspended in sunflower oil, that, when uncorked, still releases the rich dank perfume of the forest floor."

Description:

"The novels of Joanne Harris are a literary feast for the senses. Five Quarters of the Orange represents Harris's most complex and sophisticated work yet -- a novel in which darkness and fierce joy come together to create an unforgettable story.

When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous Mirabelle Dartigen -- the woman they still hold responsible for a terrible tragedy that, look place during the German occupation decades before. Although Framboise hopes for a new beginning, she quickly discovers that past and present are inextricably intertwined. Nowhere is this truth more apparent than in the scrapbook of recipes site has inherited from her dead mother.

With this book, Framboise re-creates her mother's dishes, which she serves in her small creperie. And yet as she studies the scrapbook -- searching for clues to unlock the contradiction between her mother's sensuous love of food and often cruel demeanor -- she begins to recognize a deeper meaning behind Mirabelle's cryptic scribbles. Within the journal's tattered pages lies the key to what actually transpired the summer Framboise was nine years old.

Rich and dark. Fire Quarters of the Orange is a novel of mothers and daughters of the past and the present, of resisting, and succumbing, and an extraordinary work by a masterful writer." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a good book about family and secrets. I liked how Framboise learned about her mother through the diary/recipe book and how she and others came to understand what happened years ago.


Date read: 3/5/2010
Book #: 19
Challenges: What's in a Name 3 Challenge
Series: Food Trilogy #3
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0060198133
ISBN-13: 9780060198138
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2001
# of pages: 307
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

The Wood Wife by Terri Windling

First sentence:

"On the night that Davis Cooper died, coyotes cam down from the hills to the town in the desert valley below."

Description:

"Leaving behind her fashionable West Coast life, Maggie Black comes to the Southwestern desert to pursue her passion and her dream. Her mentor, the acclaimed poet Davis Cooper, has mysteriously died in the canyons east of Tucson, bequeathing her his estate and the mystery of his life--and death.

Maggie is astonished by the power of this harsh but beautiful land and captivated by the uncommon people who call it home--especially Fox, a man unlike any she has ever known, who understands the desert's special power.

As she reads Cooper's letters and learns the secrets of his life, Maggie comes face-to-face with the wild, ancient spirits of the desert--and discovers the hidden power at its heart, a power that will take her on a journey like no other."

My thoughts:

This was a good fantasy set in the American Southwest. I liked how Maggie learned about the land and people around her and how she discovers the truth behind Cooper's death.

Date read: 3/2/2010
Book #: 16
Challenges: What's in a Name 3 Challenge, Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0812549295
ISBN-13: 9780812549294
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Year: 1996
# of pages: 292
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin

First sentence:

"On Monday the thirteenth day of May in the years 1876, between the hours of two and three in the afternoon on a day that combined the freshness of spring with the warmth of summer, numerous individuals in Moscow's Alexander Gardens unexpectedly found themselves eyewitnesses to the perpetration of an outrage that flagrantly transgressed the bounds of common decency."

Description:

"Set in 1870s Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London, The Winter Queen introduces to American readers Boris Akunin's internationally celebrated sleuth, Erast Fandorin, who investigates the suicide of a wealthy student in Moscow's Alexander Gardens and discovers that it is not an open-and-shut case but evidence of a vast conspiracy with the deadliest of implications." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this first book in the Erast Fandorin series. I liked how Fandorin noticed inconsistencies and how he interacted with his boss and with the suspects. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Turkish Gambit.

Date read: 2/26/2010
Book #: 14
Series: Boris Akunin, #1
Challenges: What's in a Name 3 Challenge; A-Z Challenge 2010; 1st in a Series Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0812968778
ISBN-13: 9780812968774
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2004
# of pages: 242
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

First sentence:

"When Sultan Khan thought the time had come to find himself a new wife, no one wanted to help him."

Description:

"This mesmerizing portrait of a proud man who, through three decades and successive repressive regimes, heroically braved persecution to bring books to the people of Kabul has elicited extraordinary praise throughout the world and become a phenomenal international bestseller. The Bookseller of Kabul is startling in its intimacy and its details - a revelation of the plight of Afghan women and a window into the surprising realities of daily life in today's Afghanistan." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was an interesting look at the lives of people in Afghanistan during and after the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the Taliban rule in the 1990s. One scene that has stayed with me is when the women in the burqas have to know what shoes each is wearing so they don't lose each other.

Date read: 2/16/2010
Book #: 11
Challenges: What's in a Name 3 Challenge, A-Z Challenge 2010
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0316159417
ISBN-13: 9780316159418
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Year: 2003
# of pages:
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page

The Mapmaker's Opera by Béa Gonzalez

First sentence:

"It begins in a once-upon-a-time land, on a remote plain, far from the place we call home."

Description:

"In a town in the heart of La Mancha, home to Don Quijote and his windmills, to long afternoons and silent, silent nights, the Clemente family lived for centuries, their fortunes tied to those of a plant…

So begins the grand buliéra that is The Mapmaker’s Opera. Born in Seville, Spain to a dishonored governess, Diego Clemente finds solace from the turmoil of his early years in the world of books, in particular, John James Audubon’s Birds of America. Presented with the opportunity to assist the renowned American naturalist Edward Nelson in compiling the first guide to the birds on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, Diego embarks on a journey that will not only hone his artistic talent but will transform his life.

Arriving on the eve of the Mexican Revolution, Diego finds himself in a world of precarious beauty, where opulent henequen plantations are built on the backs of slave labour, and where the social order is on the brink of imploding. There, Diego falls in love with the young Sofia, a woman who longs to be as free as the birds she also loves.

A mesmerizing tale of star-crossed passions, a pair of mysterious birds, and a young man’s quest to honor both his mentor and his father, The Mapmaker’s Opera is a tour de force of lyrical, magical storytelling" -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a beautifully told story about birds, love and people on the eve of revolution. I liked the opera theme throughout as characters entered the scene from stage right or left.

Date read: 1/17/2010
Book #: 3
Challenges: A-Z Challenge 2010, What's in a Name? 3 Challenge, Winter Words Reading Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0002005425
ISBN-13: 9780002005425
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2005
# of pages: 277
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page