Friday, June 29, 2018

Falling Home by Karen White

This was a good summer read. This was one of Karen White's early novels (first published in 2002) and then revised and published again in 2010. I think it would be interesting to read the original novel, simply to see what revisions she made.

What is unique is that the catalyst for the sisters' 15 year long separation - Harriet's elopement with Joe - is never fully explained. We know that Cassie was in love with Joe, and I think dating him, but it's hard to know the timeline of events. Her younger sister, Harriet, also falls in love with Joe - and then they elope. The details are not included surrounding these events. All we know is that Cassie leaves home after the elopement and moves to New York.

Flash ahead 15 years and their father is dying. Cassie returns home for the first time to say goodbye to her father. Even though Cassie is engaged to someone (Andrew), she really only realizes that she no longer loves Joe when she sees him again and there is no "spark". Fifteen years is a long time to hold on to something like that! Yikes. Besides the fact that Harriet and Joe truly love each other and have a strong connection - and 5 kids!

Then enter Dr. Sam Parker - and an instant sexual attraction for Cassie - and the story moves along in a predictable manner. The story being predictable didn't detract from my enjoyment of reading it though. That's what summer reads are all about! As with most Karen White novels, the ending is a mixture of sadness and happiness. What I liked though is that Cassie did not give up her passion for her job - she doesn't sacrifice herself and her interests - for the people that she loves. Sometimes you just have to work harder to find a solution when there doesn't seem to be one. There are lots of shades between black and white. You have to think outside the box, which Cassie did in the end. 

Wendy's Rating: ****

Sunday, June 10, 2018

The Six : The Lives of the Mitford Sisters by Laura Thompson

It's astonishing to me that I have never heard of any of the Mitfords! I realize that they were British, but they were connected to Winston Churchill, Hitler, the Kennedys - and Deborah even attended the wedding of Prince Charles & Diana. In addition to those connections, a few of the Mitfords were accomplished and successful authors. They were obviously talented, intelligent, beautiful and highly controversial. Yet, this is the first I heard about them. I was shocked that Unity spent so much time with Hitler and also that a Mitford relation married a Kennedy.

This was a family of extremists. I certainly believe that highly intelligent people think outside the box - and they don't really care about what others think of them. I can also understand why the seven children in this family would have some difficulties in their relationships with each other and their parents. The most interesting thing - and maybe it was simply due to the time and their social class - but it astounds me that these Mitford women, as strong as they were, would allow the men in the lives to treat them so horribly. They seemed to gravitate toward men who were blatantly unfaithful. I thought that was odd.

In the end I had a good idea of who each of these women were, but I thought the way it was written was confusing. Several things are mentioned several times, but not necessarily in order. For example, the author references the books that Nancy and Diana wrote - and compared the characters in the books to family members so many times, that each time I thought the book was written about the same time as the reference. But no. This book jumps around a lot in time - which means it jumps around a lot when talking about the conflicts between the sisters, as well as the conflicts between Sydney and her daughters.
After awhile I stopped trying to connect the dots. It jumps back and forth and all around when explaining each of the daughters, each of their relationships, each of their political beliefs, connections, hardships, successes, marriages, miscarriages, births, deaths, etc. I would be hard-put to assemble a timeline of all of these events!

Being an American who was not alive during WWII, I have no idea what I would have thought if I lived in Britain in the 1930s. I thought all of the different political beliefs of this one family was interesting though. Fascism, Communism, support of Germany as a country, support of Hitler as a anti-Semitic..... Crazy.

This was an interesting book, but like I previously said, confusing.

Wendy's Rating: ***