The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan by Domenico Starnone

October 10, 2024 By Leave a Comment


The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan by Domenico Starnone
Publisher: Europa Editions
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Children can be cruel, and children can love as passionately and obsessively as adults. These two observations combine, igniting the imagination of Italy’s greatest contemporary novelist and producing a seemingly candid novel that belies remarkable psychological depths and infinite degrees of enchantment.

Imagine a child, a daydreamer, one of those boys who is always gazing out windows. His adoring grandmother, busy in the kitchen, keeps an eye on him. The child stares at the building opposite, watching a black-haired girl as she dances recklessly on her balcony. He is in love. And a love like this can push a child to extremes. He can become an explorer or a cabin boy, a cowboy or castaway; he can fight duels to the death, or even master unfamiliar languages. His grandmother has told him about the entrance to the underworld, and he knows the story of Orpheus’s failed rescue mission. He could do better, he thinks; he wouldn’t fail to bring that dark-haired up from the underground if she were dead, and it only he had the chance.

In this short, memorable tale, Domenico Starnone brings readers into the mind of a young boy and his dreams. This child is passionate and creative and is inspired by a girl he sees dancing across the way. He cannot stop thinking about her, and this triggers wild imaginings on his part. Readers see deeply into his psychology, how he is pushed to dream great things.

Themes of friendship and love are intertwined with ponderings of death while the protagonist remembers and analyzes his past and considers his future. His grandparents’ influence contributes greatly to his thinking.

There are surprises along the way. For example, is the “Girl from Milan” who the protagonist thinks she is? Does the girl’s fate truly match what the boy thinks happened to her?

This novel expounds upon themes, sometimes in detail. It is a creative way to express the ideas that are sure to keep readers thinking about them for a long time.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Paradises Lost by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

October 9, 2024 By Leave a Comment


Paradises Lost by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Publisher: Europa Editions
Genre: Historical, Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

The first volume of what promises to be a singular literary adventure: to recount the whole of human history in the form of a single, long novel.

Noam is a young man when the Flood wreaks havoc on the world, destroying the peaceful lakeside village he called home, and turning his life upside down. Destined to live forever as an immortal, Noam travels through the centuries in search of the meaning of life, and the events which shaped who we have become today.

Paradises Lost is the first installment of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s monumental project of recounting the history of humanity, the fruits of more than thirty years of research. The first in a series, and in the form of a stylish novel that blends the narrative nonfiction of Yuval Noah Harari with the adventure novels of Alexandre Dumas. Schmitt combines his scientific, religious and philosophical research to propel readers from one world to another, and from pre-history to today.

This story is the first in a grand series, covering human history. It starts at life before the big flood. Noam is the protagonist, an immortal who describes the world from his point-of-view. Noam lives in a village by a lake, the son of the chief, and the characters around him each have their own unique story.

Noam’s relationship with his family and friends is complex and layered. He and his father have an especially complicated connection. Noam does not know whether to admire or despise his father. There are women in Noam’s life, and he must tread carefully concerning his decisions around them.

When Noam leaves his village to live in the wild, he makes some interesting discoveries and meets people he could never forget. The adventure continues, and it is unpredictable.

There are themes of nature and the earth—caring for it—and family, love, friendship, the future, and many others interwoven throughout this epic tale. Readers also get a glimpse into Noam’s distant future.

Throughout the book, there are footnotes, describing Noam’s thoughts on life and universal topics. These insights are thought-provoking. He refers to different points of history.

Overall, this is a satisfying read, and the next installments are sure to just as engaging.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Love at a Girls’ School and Other Stories by Diana Altman

August 22, 2024 By Leave a Comment


Love at a Girls’ School and Other Stories by Diana Altman
Publisher: Tapley Cove Press
Genre: General Fiction
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

LOVE AT A GIRLS’ SCHOOL, is a funny, touching collection of short stories previously published in the Notre Dame Review, North American Review, The Sea Letter, and other respected literary journals. Using her penetrating eye, wicked sense of humor, and vivid imagination, Diana Altman shares her take on college life in the 1960’s in stories such as, Love at a Girls’ School, in which young lovers struggle to find privacy in an era of prudish college rules. The setting of an all-girls’ school adds an extra layer of intimacy and vulnerability to the stories. The school becomes a microcosm of the world where young hearts learn about the unexpected flaws of the adults whose authority they must obey. In Receptions with the Poet, we meet Theodore Howland, a famous Pulitzer Prize winning poet who was the narrator’s beloved teacher at college. His betrayal of her does not dim the narrator’s loyalty to him and when they meet years after she has graduated, they still have a deep connection. Waiting for Jasmine, is set in recent times and takes the reader inside a shelter for homeless women where life is sometimes violent and often confusing not because of the women who come to the shelter for food and a bed, but because of the eccentric and unbalanced women who work in the shelter. Itty Bitty Betsy is a tiny secretary who works in the narrator’s hobo bag giving her the items she requests so the narrator won’t have to scrounge around in there to find things. The stories are witty, poignant, and often hilarious. A fast-moving, easy to read and entertaining collection by a master of the form.

This is a collection of imaginative stories that is sure to include something for many different literary tastes. These are not sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat tales but rather slices of life of everyday people that readers could possibly relate to.

The insights gleaned will come upon pondering the stories during and after having read them. Different types of people are represented here as well as a variety of settings and even time frames.

The author does well in capturing human nature, and her stories have their share of surprises in them. You might think the story is heading in a certain direction than discover something new and unexpected by the end.

Love at a Girls’ School and Other Stories is a short collection, and readers are bound to remember their favorites for a long time.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Mademoiselle Eiffel by Aimie K. Runyan

August 12, 2024 By Leave a Comment


Mademoiselle Eiffel by Aimie K. Runyan
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Historical, Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Claire Eiffel, the beautiful, brilliant eldest daughter of the illustrious architect Gustave Eiffel, is doted upon with an education envied by many sons of the upper classes, and entirely out of the reach of most daughters. Claire’s idyllic childhood ends abruptly when, at fourteen, her mother passes away. It’s soon made clear that Gustave expects Claire to fill her mother’s place as caregiver to the younger children and as manager of their home.

As she proves her competence, Claire’s importance to her father grows. She accompanies him on his travels and becomes his confidante and private secretary. She learns her father’s architectural trade and becomes indispensable to his work. But when his bright young protégé, Adolphe Salles, takes up more of Gustave’s time, Claire resents being pushed aside.

Slowly, the animosity between Claire and Adolphe turns to friendship…and then to something more. After their marriage in 1885 preserves the Eiffel legacy, they are privileged by the biggest commission of Eiffel’s career: a great iron tower dominating the 1889 World’s Fair to demonstrate the leading role of Paris in the world of art and architecture. Now hostess to the scientific elite, such as Thomas Edison, Claire is under the watchful eye not only of her family and father’s circle, but also the world.

When Gustave Eiffel’s involvement in a disastrous endeavor to build a canal in Panama ends in his imprisonment, it is up to Claire to secure her father’s freedom but also preserve the hard-won family legacy.

Claire Eiffel’s story of love, devotion, and the frantic pursuit to preserve her family’s legacy is not only an inspired reflection of real personages and historical events, but a hymn to the iconic tower that dominates the City of Lights.

Who was Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who developed the Eiffel Tower? We get to see what kind of man he was through the eyes of his daughter, Claire. In this well-written historical novel, these characters come to life in the context of family tradition. We, the readers, are treated to nineteenth century French life and get an inside look into a private household.

The setting is filled with sense details that make it feel as if we are watching a movie. It is easy to picture where and when we are. The vivid dialogue puts one there as well, complementing what we can picture.

Claire is a great character, and we see the tenderness shared between her and her family members, especially her famous father. We see her strength when people make great demands of her and when bad things happen. Claire is the silent force behind a great project.

This novel is not only entertaining, flows well, and we learn something while enjoying it.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Daughter of Fire by Sofia Robleda

July 24, 2024 By Leave a Comment


Daughter of Fire by Sofia Robleda
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Genre: Historical, Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

For a young woman coming of age in sixteenth-century Guatemala, safeguarding her people’s legacy is a dangerous pursuit in a mystical, empowering, and richly imagined historical novel.

Catalina de Cerrato is being raised by her widowed father, Don Alonso, in 1551 Guatemala, scarcely thirty years since the Spanish invasion. A ruling member of the oppressive Spanish hierarchy, Don Alonso holds sway over the newly relegated lower class of Indigenous communities. Fiercely independent, Catalina struggles to honor her father and her late mother, a Maya noblewoman to whom Catalina made a vow that only she can keep: preserve the lost sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the treasured and now forbidden history of the K’iche’ people.

Urged on by her mother’s spirit voice, and possessing the gift of committing the invaluable stories to memory, Catalina embarks on a secret and transcendent quest to rewrite them. Through ancient pyramids, Spanish villas, and caves of masked devils, she finds an ally in the captivating Juan de Rojas, a lord whose rule was compromised by the invasion. But as their love and trust unfold, and Don Alonso’s tyranny escalates, Catalina must confront her conflicted blood heritage—and its secrets—once and for all if she’s to follow her dangerous quest to its historic end.

The setting is sixteenth-century Guatemala, and the story is told from the point of view of a young woman named Catalina. Catalina is living between two worlds: that of her Spanish father, and that of her late Mayan mother. Her dad’s colleagues have conquered and suppressed her mother’s, leaving Catalina in a desperately uncomfortable situation. Much drama is written into the story as it unfolds. We get to know and love Catalina as she maneuvers her way through a lot of danger and intrigue.

The novel comes across almost as a diary, with real emotion to help us not only understand, but feel what’s happening to Catalina. Her supporting characters are richly drawn and unpredictable. The world around her is easy to picture due to the author’s skill in weaving in time and place details.

This is a moving, suspenseful tale of a young woman living in fretful times. Readers will surely enjoy getting a feel for the history of the era as well. Recommended.

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Kent and Katcha by Larry and Rosemary Mild

June 18, 2024 By Leave a Comment


Kent and Katcha by Larry and Rosemary Mild
Publisher: Magic Island Literary Works
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Historical, Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Larry and Rosemary Mild breach the deeper cover and higher intrigue to bring you a fictional novel full of spy-craft, espionage, and adventure drawn from Larry’s former association with real agents and their spook agencies.

The year is 1992. The Soviet Union has collapsed, but danger persists. Young Kent Brukner, a freshly trained American spy, arrives in Moscow for a high-risk mission: to infiltrate and compromise a Russian Federation Army facility. Under an alias, in a military uniform, he plies his skills—unprepared for the brutal confrontations and irrational consequences.

Kent meets the innocent and passionate Katcha, daughter of a British expatriate and a Russian dissident. Together the lovers embark on a near-impossible journey, beginning in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Stalked by the evil Major Dmitri Federov, they must escape from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, Finland, or face life in a Russian prison.

This novel is a marvelous throwback to the early nineteen nineties, shortly after the end of the Cold War. Kent is an engaging character, an American spy, whose background is fleshed out enough for us to understand who he is and what his motivations are. The Russians capture him and throw him in prison. The situation seems hopeless.

Then, in a surprising turn of events, he manages to escape. Every step of his hopeful journey towards freedom is filled with tension. One thing after another threatens him along the path, and readers will worry for his safety. He meets an interesting lady during this time, Katcha, whose mother proposes an intriguing possibility for the young couple. It is so dangerous, so filled with a likely tragic end, and Kent only agrees with hesitation. Now, his risk has doubled. Can he and Katcha possibly survive the scrutiny and perseverance of the Russians going after him?

This book is a page-turner. The pace moves quickly but not too quickly. There is time for emotional introspection. The setting is convincingly drawn, taking readers into the era and place with ease.

This is an entertaining vintage novel readers of espionage tales with a bit of romance thrown in are sure to enjoy.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

May 22, 2024 By Leave a Comment


The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Publisher: Europa Editions
Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Seventy-two men arrive in the middle of the Sicilian countryside. They are “immigrants,” “refugees” or “migrants.” But in Altino, they’re called the ragazzi, the “guys” that the Santa Marta Association have taken responsibility for. In this small Sicilian town, their arrival changes life for everybody.

While they wait to know their fate, the ragazzi encounter all kinds of people: a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to ensuring them asylum, a man determined to fight against it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes.

Each character in this moving and important saga is forced to reflect on what it means to encounter people they know nothing about. They watch as a situation unfolds over which they have little control or insight. A story told through a growing symphony of voices that ends only when one final voice brings silence to the choir.

Can you imagine what life would be like for immigrants? You don’t know the language or culture, and you are a stranger in a new land. Mohamed Mbougar Sarr immerses us into this situation with skill and sensitivity.

“The Ragazzi” show up at the doorstep of a cast of characters in a small Sicilian town based in the countryside. These people are unique, as are their new neighbors. They interact differently with them.

The Ragazzi are trying to start a new life, but things aren’t so simple. Problems come up, and readers could be moved emotionally by their plight. There are issues one may not even consider. Will the conflicts ever find resolution?

As the story unfolds, we feel tension for those involved. We are also treated to the personality quirks of those who make this tale come alive. This is an interesting book that many are sure to enjoy.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Excitements by CJ Wray

April 3, 2024 By 1 Comment


The Excitements by CJ Wray
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Historical, Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain’s most treasured World War II veterans. Now in their late nineties, Josephine and Penny are in huge demand, popping up at commemorative events and history festivals all over the country. Despite their age, they’re still in great form—perfectly put together, sprightly and sparky, and always in search of their next “excitement.”

This time it’s a trip to Paris to receive the Légion d’honneur for their part in the liberation of France. And as always, they will be accompanied by their devoted great-nephew, Archie.

Keen historian Archie has always been given to understand that his great aunts had relatively minor roles in the Women’s Royal Navy and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but that’s only half the story. Both sisters are hiding far more than the usual “official secrets”. There’s a reason sweet Auntie Penny can dispatch a would-be mugger with an umbrella.

This trip to Paris is not what it seems either. Scandal and crime have always quietly trailed the Williamson sisters, even in the decades after the war. Now armed with new information about an old adversary, these much decorated (but admittedly ancient) veterans variously intend to settle scores, avenge lost friends, and pull off one last, daring heist before the curtain finally comes down on their illustrious careers.

The Williamson sisters, Josephine and Penny are quite a pair. In this novel, these two elderly World War II veterans are to be honored at an event in Paris. Their grandnephew looks out for them, and they keep him busy with their adventures.

Penny and Josephine may be in their nineties, but they are not done yet. They have more adventure ahead.

The book covers two timelines, past and present. In the past, readers get to know this fascinating duo as they play out their lives during the war. The sisters think they are ordinary, but they are anything but. The secondary characters are written in a way to help us get to know Penny and Josephine. The setting paints a vivid chronological picture, putting readers there in their mind’s eye.

Themes of family, friendship, and aging underscore the story. This is a tale that is well-written and entertaining. Recommended.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret, audiobook read by Ira Glass

March 26, 2024 By Leave a Comment


Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret, audiobook read by Ira Glass
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Read by an all-star cast and featuring a bonus story special to the audio edition, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door is a one-of-a-kind audiobook.

Bringing up a child, lying to the boss, placing an order in a fast-food restaurant: in Etgar Keret’s new collection, daily life is complicated, dangerous, and full of yearning. In his most playful and most mature work yet, the living and the dead, silent children and talking animals, dreams and waking life coexist in an uneasy world. Overflowing with absurdity, humor, sadness, and compassion, the tales in Suddenly, a Knock on the Door establish Etgar Keret—declared a “genius” by The New York Times—as one of the most original writers of his generation.

This is an interesting collection of short stories written by Etgar Keret about daily life. Daily life, as we all know, can be complex. Many tricky situations can occur.

Keret delves into various emotions and goes from the normal to the playful, wild, or mature. The themes vary throughout this collection, but there is an underlying knowledge of universal yearning to enhance the stories.

Each piece varies in length—some quite short, and some a bit longer. It is a unique set of tales, sure to touch many readers.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy

February 26, 2024 By 1 Comment


The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: Historical, Fiction, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices.

Missouri, 1955. Loretta Davenport has led an isolated life as a young mother and a wife to Pete, an ambitious assistant professor at a Bible college. They’re the picture of domestic tranquility—until a local girl is murdered and Loretta begins receiving messages from beyond. Pete dismisses them as delusions of a fevered female imagination. Loretta knows they’re real—and frightening.

Defying Pete’s demands, Loretta finds an encouraging supporter in parapsychologist Dr. Curtis Hansen. He sees a woman with a rare gift, more blessing than curse. With Dr. Hansen’s help, Loretta’s life opens up to an empowering new purpose. But for Pete, the God-fearing image he’s worked so hard to cultivate is under threat. No longer in control of his dutiful wife, he sees the Devil at work.

As Loretta’s powers grow stronger and the pleading spirits beckon, Pete is determined to deliver his wife from evil. To solve the mysteries of the dead, Loretta must first save herself.

Set in 1955, Missouri, this story tells the tale of a housewife, Loretta Davenport, with gifts and the serious problems that come with it. Her husband Pete teaches at a Bible college. He is a traditional guy but is a bit unreasonable when it comes to his wife and his expectations.

When a girl is murdered, Loretta gets messages from the other side of the veil. Pete thinks she just has an overexcited imagination. When Loretta befriends Dr. Curtis Hansen, Pete is not happy about this. He becomes more and more difficult.

The pace picks up in this mystery as the danger unfolds for Loretta and a friend of the murdered girl who is also threatened. Can Loretta help her before it is too late? Things might be too late for herself as Pete becomes abusive and wants to lock her up.

Themes of mental health, family, friends, abuse, and forgiveness are weaved within the pages of this mystery. The characterization is done well, and this book has complexity and depth. It is also respectful of the times, being true to the setting.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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