Coconut Library

Little House in the Big Woods

I may have been the only little girl to never have read the Little House on the Prairie series. They just didn't interest me. I loved The Babysitter's Club and The Boxcar Children. I was partial to Sweet Valley High, and adored the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. I lived in the children's section of the bookstore, but I didn't ever gravitate towards Laura Ingalls Wilder. I saw her on the shelf, I may have even owned one of the books, but I never read her. At least not that I can remember. 

So, for part of the reading challenge that I am doing, I chose Little House in the Big Woods (the first book of the series) to read for one of the tasks. 

I flew through it. The easy language and the big font definitely helped with that, but there was also something comforting about it. I would read it before bed and fall asleep easily imagining this little quaint house in the woods with such sweet things happening inside. Of course, reading about pioneer life is romantic in the form of a children's book, and I imagine there was more not romantic about it than this book portrays. However, Wilder does describe some of what they had to do in the way of hunting animals, and cooking them and using their parts. A few paragraphs here and there had me making faces... I was not expecting them in this otherwise light, fluffy book. I tried to imagine what I would have thought reading those same passages as a child in the 1980's and I'm pretty sure I would have been a little upset with some serious questions for my mom. But I realize that this was first published in the early 1930's, and their way of life back then, albeit more modern than the woods, was not as far removed as we are today. This was a story of their grandparents (and possibly even parents). For me this was a story of a woman who was born over a 100 years before me and living in a time and situation that can almost not be replicated today. 

I imagine I will finish this series, challenge or not. It will have to wait, but I do plan on putting these books on my to-read list. Because I really can't think of anything out there today that is such a wholesome and natural series for children. While it's antiquated, it is also unique and charming. And maybe my future daughters will not be interested in what it was like to live in a desolate area with only your family to rely on and nature to entertain you, and that's ok. Maybe it's a book they will have to wait until they're thirty and living in a city and a time where there are too many things happening all at once with everyone living on top of each other to appreciate the legacy this book holds.  
Four Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

Roses: Final Review

 Roses had potential, it could have been a contender! Ah, such hope I had at the beginning. While I was not aching to get back to the story, when I had the book open I was involved. Then came the section titled Percy. Pages soared, I could not read fast enough! I figured I must not have loved the first section as much because I didn't like the character of Mary as much as Percy. Unfortunately, the last third of the book was called Rachel... it should have been called Mary: The Sequel, at least then I would have had more warning of what was to come. In fact, Rachel's story was not just Mary's story but rather the entire book rehashed. I had to make myself sit down and read the end of this book so I could cross it off of my to-read section and add it to the list for Reading for a Cure. In my opinion, it was too long, too repetative, and too obvious. 

In other words, it just wasn't my cup of tea. But it might be yours. There are plenty of people who love this book. Reviews on GoodReads have plenty of people raving about this story. So, I have chosen to give my copy away. Because while I don't need it on my bookshelf, someone else might find their favorite story in these pages. 
Two Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

Wolf Hall

 I have finally finished this book. It has taken me three weeks, which may not sound like a long time, but for someone who finishes books in a few days at most, this one was a comittment for me. In fact, I took a short break once I reached 100 pages to read another, lighter book, then came back to finish the next 400+ pages of this one. Boy am I glad I did. And while I am utterly sick of looking at this book -- I also have a strange sense of loss (mixed with accomplishment) since I have spent so much time holding this book in my hands and lugging it around with me. I feel as though I have completed and passed my AP History course. 

This is one of my favorite passages from the book as it explains the whole,

"The fate of people is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes: a counter pushed across a table, a pen stroke that alters the force of a phrase, a woman's sigh as passes and leaves on the air a trail of orange flower or rose water; her hand pulling close the bed curtain, the discreet sigh of flesh against flesh." (from page 499).

One thing that many people are saying is how much this book compels you to do research. Not boring-homework-research, but the type that you get lost in looking through resources (like Wikipedia) because you want to know more not because you have to. Because of this book I am now immersed in "The Tudors" (from Showtime) and from that, along with Wolf Hall, I am now feeling quite different about these infamous real-life characters than I did previously. After seeing several sides of these people (the book and the tv series often portray quite opposite views of most of the characters) I am reminded that these were legitimate people and that all of us have more than one side to our outward character. It's curious how when it comes to history we try to make heads or tales of people just because we know the way their stories ended. In reality, they were only mortals who were not necessarily villains nor saints rather just people -- trying to make it through life to the best of their abilities with the knowledge they possessed. Some did it poorly and some did it well... isn't that the struggle of the human existence? It is hard to remember, while still in the midst of it, that someday it will be over -- that we won't be remembered for our thoughts or intentions (however noble they might be) but for our actions. 

Be wary of the language of the book, as it can be discouraging at the beginning. Give it 100 pages or so to get used to it, and you will. I might have given this four coconuts because it was so difficult to read and (often) to understand, but I will give it five because I am sure that the author meant for it to be difficult and it is rare that we come across a book that is simultaneously difficult to read yet absorbing and educational. 
Five Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

The Help

 I've wanted to read The Help by Kathryn Stockett since the moment I saw it on the shelf about a year ago. I put it on my wishlist, but kept reading other books. As the months went by I heard people say how much they loved it while it rose on bestseller lists. I finally bought it in October (because the hold list at the library was a mile long), and though my book club read it in November, I still procrastinated. I knew this was going to be a good book; too many people loved it for it to be a flop. However, I (wrongly) thought it was going to be a large commitment. A thick hardback about segregation in early 1960's Mississippi? That to me was a no brainer... get ready to have some heavy reading in a book you should be reading, even if you don't thoroughly enjoy it. Wrong. Incorrect, mistaken, false; if I could remember how to say it in another language I would. 

This novel, that I thought was going to be more of an education than an escape, was nothing like what I expected it to be. It reads smoothly, like you are sitting at a kitchen table sipping sweet tea with the very characters themselves while they are filling you in on the gossip of their town. The narration switches between Miss Skeeter (a white aspiring writer and new college graduate in her early 20's), Minny (a black maid and sassy mother of five in her 30's), and Aibileen (a black maid, sought after baby nurse, and talented writer in her 50's). Skeeter returns home to Mississippi after graduating from college in 1962 only to find that she no longer quite fits in with her lifelong friends. While they left college after one or two years to marry and start having babies, Skeeter finished her education and came home with plans for a career. Once home, the town's views about segregation and the roles of black and white people as citizen classes do not bode as well with her as they do with her friends (one of whom is the Junior League president, and staunch segregation supporter). And, to top it all off, her beloved maid and nurse, Constantine, has been fired and nobody will tell her why or where she's gone. Skeeter, wanting so much to be a writer, begins a project that has the potential to bring light to the circumstances in Jackson, Mississippi (one of the most notoriously racist cities of the time) but she will need the assistance of Aibileen, Minny and other Help even at the risking of their own lives. 

Though Stockett includes tragic events in the story, they are not the crux of the novel. They add to the setting because they explain the time. This is not a hard book to swallow, however, and you will not be wading through pages of history to get to the heart of the story. This book is actually the opposite. It wears it's heart on it's sleeve and adds history as relish to give the story depth and authenticity. The chapters narrated by Aibileen and Minny are especially beloved by many readers, me included, for the tone, rhythm, and flavor that they add to the story. 

I can't make you read this book, but I can tell you that you will be missing out if you don't. There are not very many books that pull you into them in such a way that you enter a different world while you are reading. This is one of those. I envy those of you who will be opening it and reading it for the first time. Don't pass it up.
Five Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

The Postmistress

I really wanted to like this book, and sometimes I did, but unfortunately it did not grab me how I had hoped. The idea was an interesting one; what would happen if an important letter wasn't delivered (this, of course, being in a time period when letters were the means of communication)?  However, the letter that went undelivered was not an important letter at all. In fact, it was more of a note that didn't give any relevant information. And while the title makes you think the book will be about the postmistress, Iris, she is instead rather more of a side character. There is not, actually, a fully formed main character, though I suppose Frankie (a radio journalist) would be the closest. She is the only reason the book makes sense as she kind of ties the fragmented stories together at the very end. 

There are several story lines in this book, and although I don't usually mind that, these stories did not tie together very well. I've seen this kind of story telling done beautifully, in the way that you, as the reader, get so absorbed in someone's story and are appreciative of the crafty ways the author connects the characters and ideas. This book did not do that for me. It was the glimpses into World War II and the stories that were portrayed of Jewish refugees that were heartbreaking and engaging. These were the only characters that I actually cared about, and at the most they each had about a page of story time. 

This book had potential, but I'm afraid that's where it left me... with potential. I would have liked the author to have picked one main story line and went with it. Or, if she wanted multiple stories, then to try to correlate them in a more meaningful way. Instead (unfortunately) each story could have been a novel (or short story) in itself, but there was not enough time to explore these ideas and make them meaningful in this one short novel.
Two Coconuts

xo,

The Coconut Librarian

One Thousand White Women

We all know the atrocities that people have faced in our country. Whether it be from race, gender, or age, we have seen it all. One Thousand White Women brings it home by expanding on a particular group and a partial truth. (The following is a general summary of the Author's Note.) In 1854, a prominent Northern Cheyenne chief approached the U.S. Army authorities asking for one thousand white women as brides for his tribesmen. The Cheyenne are matrilineal and believe that a person belongs to the tribe of their mother. In this case, if a white woman and a Native American man procreated, the child would belong in white society. This was their hope for the future, their hope for peace. Of course, the Army refused. In the authors' words, "the Cheyennes' request was not well received by the white authorities - the peace conference collapsed, the Cheyennes went home, and, of course, the white women did not come. In this novel they do."

What follows the author's note, is a story not only about Native Americans and the white women that marry into the Cheyenne tribe but a story about humans; how different we all are, and how cruel we can be. 

You will not be convinced that this experiment was a good idea, you will also not be convinced that this is a story (either the fiction aspect or the reality of what happened in our nation's history) that could be changed, but you will know the story better. You will be more aware of how cruelty comes with ignorance, and how cruelty comes with the quest for survival. My education about native Americans ended around 8th grade, as it does for most of us in this country. However, it is one of the saddest stories in our country. It is much different than the story of the slave, but - in many aspects - it is just as bad because, ultimately, it continues today. 

If you can, for a moment, close your eyes and imagine men from a foreign country (pick whichever one you are most frightened of) coming into your home, taking the title of your house and your cars, your birth certificates and social security cards, and then handcuffing you and taking you to the projects and telling you that you may not leave. You may, however, enjoy your new surroundings and your new "home" for the rest of your days. There is no one coming to rescue you, there is no one who thinks what happened to you is wrong. And guess what... the generations who come after you will live there too and will see nothing of the life you built and had before when you were free. They will know nothing of who you were except for the stories they hear that become myths and fiction through the years. Of course, I will not have you imagine what else would happen, including what often happens to women when invading men have free reign and what happens to the men who try to stop the intruders, or what happens to children and babies in these situations, because you can guess that on your own.

This book opened my eyes, in a new way, to the horrors that humans can, do, and will inflict on one another. May Dodd, the narrator of this story, says it most simply, yet profoundly. "God forgive us all... God forgive mankind...". Lest you think you will leave this book hating all humans, you won't. There are some very beautiful moments, funny ones too. The characters will become real and you will care for them. You will learn, and your perspective will grow... not just about this situation, but about our current world as well. You will want to know what happens and the story will draw you in. 

I recommend you read this. Not only for entertainment value (because you will be entertained), but for the expansion of your mind. Most of us will never know what it's like to be displaced from our homes, or have our lives taken from us yet have to live to see what happens after. The next time you see an ad on television, or a politician's campaign about Indian Reservations, or you see a casino on native American land, you will think about this book and how we, mankind, create and change the course of history thinking we are doing what is right. Because isn't that when we make the most damage? When we are sure that we are right?
Five Coconuts

Stay Tuned: Coming Up Next Week...
* November Book Club Selection Announcement
* The Postmistress (review)
* Dracula (review) -- this was our October Book Club Selection. 

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls was the September Book Club pick and it did not disappoint. The book is set in fairly modern times compared to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love, and is about two sisters, Pearl and May, who leave Shanghai, China for California at the brink of World War II. To experience the start of the war through their eyes, living in Shanghai, was a perspective that I have never been privy to before. The horrors that they face before they are able to leave China are extreme, and there is one particular scene that is very difficult to read. Once the girls get to America, life is safer but not necessarily happier. 

Much of the novel builds the characters and their relationships with each other. It also teaches us about the setting in which the story is taking place; Chinatown in Los Angeles, California. Gaining understanding about this neighborhood (and other cultural neighborhoods like it), and why they exist in the first place, was eye opening and humbling. See throws her readers a curve ball, towards the end, that caused me to choke up, and she leaves us with a cliffhanger. We do not find out exactly what happens to the characters, but we understand where they are headed. 

Pick up a copy and see for yourself and be thankful we live in the time period we do, with the freedom we have. 
Three Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Librarian  

The Day the Falls Stood Still

I am  liking what Hyperion/Voice is publishing (and sending out) lately. I just finished The Day the Falls Stood Still and I have to say, I am impressed. This is Cathy Marie Buchanan's debut novel, so I was expecting it to feel like one. Buchanan, in her first attempt, has created an evocative story.  

This novel is set in World War I era Niagra Falls (Canadian side), which is where the author is from. Her familiarity with the area comes across in her writing, as does her reverence for this natural wonder. Although one could say the story is about many things -- the Falls, WWI, the beginning of (and subsequent conflict about) hydroelectric power in this region -- it is truly about Bess. It's a love story of all kinds. Even though Bess and Tom are the most obvious love story in the book, there are other love stories that are just as important adding to the theme of the full story: Tom and the Falls, Bess and Isabel, Isabel's parents, and more. 

This novel has been compared to The Notebook and Atonement, and I think that is a correct comparison. Bess and Tom embody romance, love, companionship, and mutual respect. We know that we want them to be together, and we know that we also dread it, because how many stories (including reality itself) allow us to get what we want without a price? Like other good authors, this one adds in the elements of life. There is no sensationalizing in the prose; Buchanan doesn't go overboard trying to tug our heartstrings, she doesn't have to. She writes the story as it would have happened. 

I found myself looking back to the cover art towards the end of this book. The haunting image on the front is a great introduction to what you'll get inside. Like the picture, the wording is subtle; the elements of the story are presented to but not pushed on you. The author doesn't try to lasso the reader in with big cliffhangers, or unsaid words. She tells you the story; letting it unfold gently until the end. 

The feeling this book gives much resembles a storm. One that starts with light fog and some grey clouds, and gets louder and heavier as the outburst in the weather progresses until the world outside is lashing and the wind is frightening. And when it is over the sun gently beams through soft clouds hardly resembling the tantrum that it threw, or maybe because it is exhausted from it, and the day goes on. Such is life. Such is The Day the Falls Stood Still. We leave Bess while she is still a young woman, though it hardly feels that way, and realize, upon shutting the book, that we have only caught a small glimpse of her life. Her story reminds us that a storm rages and destroys, but the sun shines through again even if ever so faintly, even if just so you know it isn't still night. 
Five Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

(Take a moment to watch the book's trailer here.)

The Forgotten Garden

I knew this book had been on the May 2009 Indie Notables List, and had also seen it displayed in Barnes and Noble, but I didn't know much about this book when I started reading it. My book club on GoodReads, Heartwarmers, decided to read it this month. So, I borrowed it from the library. Though it took me a little while to crack the cover, because I became busy and the length was a bit daunting, I am so glad I finally dove in! 

Kate Morton is a stellar wordsmith and I am so impressed with how she spins a tale. If there were a picture next to "storyteller" in the dictionary, it would be of Kate Morton's face. It's always so delicious to find yourself in a novel that is a bonafide story, where the fibers of plot and syntax connect in such a way that you find yourself in awe of how the author was able to weave it all together so richly. Historical fiction, mystery, light fantasy, and tragedy are all bled together to create a spellbinding story. 

Amazingly you don't even realize that you are in a mystery until you have already connected with the story, and then it is such a quality mystery that the outcome is not even able to be guessed at until the last fourth of the novel (and even then, it is still a watery guestimation). 

I haven't felt this way about a story since I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last year. There is a special sensation that certain books give you; like you have stumbled into something remarkable and though part of you wants to tell everyone so that they can witness it too, the other half of you wants to keep it your own precious secret. These books did that for me. 

So often throughout The Forgotten Garden I wondered how the author was able to articulate ideas that felt like my own. It takes not only work, but concentration, observance, and a generous amount of introspection to be able to translate those universal feelings onto the page (or in this case onto 549 pages) yet keep the ideas fresh. In the conclusion, Morton backstitches the threads of the piece in such a way that the reader steps back in admiration of the final product;  I was taken until the very last punctuation mark. It will be my displeasure to return this to the library -- this is a title that deserves a place in my personal library, and I intend to secure a copy for future re-reading. 
Five Coconuts

xo,
The Coconut Library