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Maybe you've noticed how obsessed I am with Bridgerton??? Once I learned Season 3 was skipping ahead to Penelope & Colin's story, reading this was a no brainer. I had to know what the potential storyline might be ~ potential because it's obvious the Netflix series is quickly diverging away from the books. I'm not mad about the changes either.
The one word that comes to mind with this book is "sweet." A light "cozy" mystery that won't deprive even the most faint hearted of a minute of sleep.
The protagonist "Molly" is not your ordinary young woman ~ she's definitely on the spectrum even tho that term is never mentioned. Her literal translation & interpretations of her co-workers words, an instant tip off. It's almost cringe the way she trusts everyone and takes their conversations to heart. Thinking the meeting with Rodney was a "date," = painful. She was definitely an easy target to set up.
It was problematic then (for me) reconciling her simple view of the world with her sudden astute observations of the murdered guest and who she decided to "help" or give a "pass" at the end of the book. It just didn't fit her character??
Easy read, 200+ pages, and happy ending. Not out much even if you don't love it. I can almost see this book as the first in a series...
Clive Nichols is my virtual photography mentor. His photos are the "Chef's Kiss" of the flower loving world. He uses light in the garden in a masterful way ~ I dream of capturing my garden in a similar manner.
So of course, any book with a compilation of his photographs is a "want-to-read" for me or should I say "want-to-ogle?!" I wish I'd noticed the publication date of this book tho before I ordered ~ it's 2007. As is true with any professional, Mr. Nichols has honed his craft in the subsequent years and the photos he produces today are far superior to the ones featured in this book. At least in my opinion.
I did not buy as a "how to" or for photography tips and don't expect to find those within these pages. There are some lovely photos but I'd personally recommend searching out a more current collection of his work. That's what I intend to do.
I must have been reading a different version of this book than everyone else?? It's been so wildly popular, I started questioning my own feelings & wondered what I was missing that everyone else was raving about. Where is my copy of that riveting, enthralling page turner with all the 5 stars????!!!
In all fairness, I've never been a fan of autobiographies. I'm not sure why reading about other peoples perceptions of their lives doesn't thrill/interest me?? Turns out I feel the same about fictional autobiographies too...
Note to self: refrain from picking up anymore!
TJR definitely takes inspiration from real life celebrities (thinking about Daisy Jones & the Six) and now this one which I could actually believe was based on Elizabeth Taylors life.
There are things to admire and find realistic and truthful about Eve and how she craftily & calculatedly rose to fame. I also agree if she were a man, no one would think twice about most of her actions. I've never understood why the "gilded age of Hollywood" was/is still revered as such tho?? Wasn't it only gilded for the studios & executives in charge of them? The studios "owned" the actors & actresses and dictated everything about their lives. Looking back, there's a question about what was real and what was not about any of the stars from that time period. This book just added another layer of concrete (in my mind) about how faux the personas were that the studio heads created and what they actually had to do to achieve that fame. Mostly I feel sympathy for the real stars (like Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, etc.) who were insanely famous and beloved but unhappy in their personal lives. That's how I ended up feeling about the fictitious Eve too.
Monique (the "ordinary" person & dual storyline in the book) wasn't very compelling for me either. I wanted to connect with her (there was plenty to work with there ~ child of divorce, mixed race parentage, left fatherless, etc.) but call me cold, the only thing I could eek out was apathy.
I got within 80 pages of the ending, put it down and then took 3 days to come back and finish. Never a good sign! To anyone reading this, please don't let my opinion be off-putting. It's obviously a best seller and my thoughts are definitely in the minority... I just can't muster any enthusiasm for it.
This has been on my wtr list for awhile. I had the thought (off and on while reading) that maybe it should have stayed there??
Not that it's a bad book, I just found it utterly sad. If you're feeling sorry for yourself, maybe pick this up and see (but for the hands of fate) what your life could be. It's an "in-your-face" accounting of the ways ordinary people are forced to cope with the "cards" life dealt them. How they rise to the challenge, how it requires selfless sacrifice from others to make it possible & how it can be a thankless task.
Anna Christina Olson, the woman in the famous painting, thru no fault of her own, was born with a debilitating genetic disease. She's an unlikeable protagonist despite the compassion she elicits because of her condition. One is simultaneously awed by her determination to live her life (crawling around the property using her forearms is the very definition of fortitude) and yet angry at the hateful way she treated those who tried to help her. I felt the most sympathy for her brother who sacrificed his entire life to make sure she could live hers.
***You know I googled how their story ended ~ turns out Alvaro died in 1967 then Christina followed him to the grave a month later. Her life could not exist without his. Is that fair?? Is it love that compelled him to devote his existence to hers?? or a sense of duty?? Her other siblings went on to life "normal" lives, but he made a choice, or felt an obligation, to stay behind. There is a story there too.
As far as the painting, I'm not a student of art. I know if something appeals to me & hands down this painting would never hang in my home. I feel bleakness and despair when I view it. I guess that's why art is subjective?? I can't help but feel life is full of tragedy, why would one voluntarily hang more of it on their walls...
This woman Christina, of very limited mobility, thru art (& now literature) has transcended the boundaries of the property she was born and died on. The perfect demonstration of the power of art. There are many such stories around the world without an Andrew Wyeth to memorialize them tho. Maybe that's another takeaway from the book.
3.5 stars
Soooo, it turns out that Emily St. John Mandel has the capacity to scare the sh*t out of me.
Does she have an overactive imagination, a crystal ball that lets her look into the future or is she just generally pessimistic about the future of the human race?? I honestly could believe any or all three of the above!
If you have a phenomenal memory, you might recall I read 'Station Eleven' right before the Covid 19 pandemic erupted. That in itself twisted my brain into an undulating, anxious knot that I still haven't quite unraveled. 'Sea of Tranquility' spans a couple of timelines (past, present and future) but the future one (mentioning all the additional subsequent pandemics) has me reeling. Not to mention the whole idea that everything about our existence could really just be a simulation, or so the theory goes... How crazy would that be????
Those inexplicable moments ~ a glitch in programming??? Whatever your thoughts about the book, it can't be said it won't make you think. About the future (near & distant), colonization in space, pandemics, effects of climate change, life on the whole, etc., etc.
The book also reacquaints us with some of the characters we met in 'The Glass Hotel' but for the life of me, I'm not sure why?? There's enough material to contemplate between these covers, I can't spare the mental energy for them or the importance of their presence in two books. Am I overlooking something??
There's also the title. I have a strange compulsion to want to correlate book titles with stories. It takes me a hot second to do that here because at first it seems it might be alluding to a peacefulness or state of mind but the cover should have tipped me off (& I don't generally see those reading from a kindle, definite downside!) I finally got that it's a reference to the crater on the moon near to where the first astronauts landed and subsequently where Mandel has located the first moon colony. Ah ha.
There sure is a LOT packed into this smallish size novel...
It just occurred to me that Ms St John Mandel could possibly be one of those time travelers from the Time Institute ~ writing books and going rogue to warn us of our future??? If so, it's not particularly rosy and we're in for a tumultuous time.
I feel my brain twisting back up into a knot....