The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

I just...no.  This entire book takes place within a 24 hour time span, in a house about to be "foreclosed" in 1912 England.  While the home, Sterne, is preparing for the birthday party of Emerald, a ragged bunch of strangers appears per the direct orders of the local railway station.   A train derailed nearby and there were no other places to put the non-critically injured passengers.  Um, what?  And since when does a railway company demand that homes accept survivors for an undisclosed amount of time??  Emerald, her vain and slightly narcissistic mother Charlotte, brother Clovis, who might be either bipolar or just a moody twenty-something, younger sister Smudge who suffers from borderline neglect, friends John, Patience, and her brother Ernst, all have a dinner planned when the strangers arrive at the doorstep. 
Eventually, another passenger arrives, Charlie, who coincidentally was once friends with Charlotte, and the housekeeper Florence.  The group puts the ill-fated railway passengers into the morning room, essentially locking them in with no food, water, toilets, and no one to check over their wounds.  Eventually, the group is fed, hours later, using most of the fancy dinner planned for Emerald's birthday, who eat the leftovers.  That must have been a very fancy dinner that food for 8-10 people can also serve 20+, then the original dinner party could still have some left to eat.  Anyway, after dinner, Charlie, proposes to play a game in which everyone goes around in a circle and says brutally honest things about one person.  First everyone picks on Patience, then Charlie goes after Charlotte.  He calls her a whore, telling her family that she was a prostitute before her respectable marriage.  Once the dust settles, Charlie corners Charlotte in her bedroom, and tells her her family will now abandon her.  He also implies he's supernatural and the railway party is no coincidence.  (what?).  He's dying and needed to see her one last time.  When she yells, her entire family comes to her rescue, against the prophecy of Charlie who then disappears. 

And that's the book.

Side stories:  Smudge sneaks her pet pony upstairs at one point to trace her shape onto her bedroom wall.  And of course can't get her back down the stairs because stairs + horse hooves = disaster. 

Charlotte's husband, Edward, away during all this to try to save the house, was mysteriously given a letter saying that a dead benefactor of Smudge's left her large amounts of money that will save Sterne. 

Okay then. 

I want the (few) hours of my life back that I spent reading this book.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Devil in the White City: Turns out in 1893, Chicago hosted a much celebrated and acclaimed World’s Fair. The book tells two parallel story lines; that of the construction, development, and execution of the World’s Fair, and the serial killer who preyed on the young women flocking to Chicago during the same time period. I’ve had a bit of a history with this actual book before I just read it. My friend Elizabeth lent me this book; she brought it to me on a girl date at a Mexican place. I didn’t finish my enchiladas, so I through her book into my to-go bag. We walked around shopping (and drinking) for awhile afterwards. By the time I got home and went to retrieve the book, my enchilada juice had leaked everywhere and the book was ruined. I bought a replacement book for E, and another copy for myself to keep, since I obviously can’t be trusted to borrow books. I put my copy on my shelf and never got around to reading it. Then Lovey’s roommate’s girlfriend brought it over to their place and RAVED about it. Remembering I owned it, I told her I’d read it and started it promptly once I got home.
Eh, not such a fan. The concept was awesome, but the mundane details about the background of the fair was tedious. Not being an architectural guru, I cared a lot less about building plans and construction than the author probably would have liked. I’m always up for a good serial killer novel, but this mystery contained very few details. There were a lot of cool points about the book: 1. Englewood at the time was a fancy, happening neighborhood. It is now a very rough, poverty stricken, gang and drug infested neighborhood. Anyone other than blacks need not enter. 2. The first Ferris wheel debuted at the fair. 3. Walt Disney’s father worked on construction at the fair, and people say the White City established at the fair inspired construction at DisneyLand, namely Cinderella’s castle. 4. One fair building still standing is now the Museum of Science & Industry, which is an awesome building. 5. The fair also inspired architectural geniuses Frank Lloyd Wright (who was fired by the Fair architect), and Mies van der Rohe. 6. Apparently the fair changed America’s viewpoints on electricity, transportation, and architecture. People began to realize Europe did not have to have a monopoly on architecture, and American cities could, and would, benefit from architectural advances. Some architects for the fair went on the design Central Park and the Flatiron building in New York, the Washington Monument and the Mall in DC.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See:

This book was really popular a few years ago, but the description on the back never seemed interesting to me so I never read it despite the hype.  A few weeks ago Lovey and I were perusing a used book store and I saw it.  Not only was it cheap, it was also 50% off.  I read this book in 24 hours; the old adage of not judging a book by its cover definitely stands true with this book.  Old world China is really interesting to me, despite the mess that modern China has become.  Not women friendly and life was brutal, but the Chinese culture was so unique.  I guess as the world's oldest continuous civilization, unique facets would emerge to keep it going. 
This book follows the story of Lily and Snow Flower; two young Chinese girls living in separate small villages.  They are linked by a matchmaker to become 'same olds,' which doesn't have a good translation, but its like life-long best friends that sign a contract as children.  Lily moves up in the world, financially, through the arrange, but Lily also has perfect feet for binding that made her very marriageable.  The book tracks the girls, who undergo the brutal feet-binding process, through girlhood, adolescence, and marriage in their small villages.  Along the way, they learn the womanly arts in the women's only chamber upstairs; knitting, embroidering, cooking, gardening, the women's secret language, as undergo the heartbreak of marrying someone they've never met, leaving their natal families, learning to cope being at the bottom of the social ladder in their new homes, with their mothers-in-law being in charge and their sole purpose to produce sons. 
As a reader, we learn about political instability, the consequences of opium addiction, cholera, feet-binding, family structure, expectations and roles of women, the importance of birth signs and Chinese festivals.  It's a really interesting read.  Lily is grounded, pragmatic, and naive;  Snow Flower is exotic, intelligent, and a dreamer.  They remain friends through all of it.  At the end the author has an afterward that explains the existence of a women's secret language (the language reserved for men is, I'm assuming, either Mandarin or Cantonese, but women wrote letters, poems, and stories in nu shu), that was discovered during the Cultural Revolution.  For thousands of years women utilized a language men couldn't read, although now its fallen by the wayside and is seldom used and rarely passed down to girls.  Fascinating home women find ways to survive in cultures that value them only for their uterus. 

recents read.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  I enjoyed this one, although did not experience the total all-consuming awesomeness that many experienced while reading it.  Some parts of it dragged for me, but I thought the POV idea was amazing and creative.  It was one of those books in which I finished and felt like nothing really happened in the book.  I think Zusak was moderately successful in pulling that off.  Liesel was likeable and endearing, but I thought Max was the highlight of the book for me.  It's a shame he didn't stick around for the entire time.

Pack up the Moon by Anna McPartlin.  I picked this up for a couple of dollars at my parents' library's used book sale.   The book takes place in either Dublin or the area right outside of it.  Emma's boyfriend dies in a vehicular crash, and she is 'forced' to continue living her life with the help of her close friends.  It's a cute story, but nothing I would read again.  I also found the Irish component rather flat.  Although obviously not a travel book, I despise it when I read books taking place in other parts of the world and it doesn't make me want to go there.  Having been to Dublin, I couldn't even conjure up enough memories to make me feel like I was there, or gain inspiration to make me want to go back.  Until she mentioned Dublin, I never would have known where the book was set.

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. This was my favorite of the three.  Multiple story lines all take place simultaneously, all interwoven together.  The concept reminds me of six degrees of separation, in which everyone is somehow connected to others, even in different geographic locales.  My favorite part was actually the end, in which the reader is told how certain events impacted the life of the characters and took them on a different path.  For instance, a young girl hit by a car would have been a tennis star had she not lost her arm, and that split second mistake irrevocably changed her life course.  It's a throw to the idea of wondering where life would lead had you chosen option B, or had 'that' not happened, and a slap to the concept of everything happens for a reason.  I may not believe that, but I appreciated and enjoyed the author's attempt.

Currently reading:
Brave New World. I keep picking this up and putting it down.  I just need to finish it already.
Anna Karenina.  I put this down awhile ago after reading about half of it and I'm really enjoying it now that I've picked it back up again.
Water for Elephants.  I'm reading a book with Robert Pattinson on the cover.  It's shameful, but I got tired of hearing the rave reviews about this book even though I didn't particular care about it when it was released.  I found it for $2 somewhere and finally bought it.  It's interesting, although I'm only 1/3 of the way through it and I don't see what all the hype is about.

books lately.

In the past couple of weeks, I've knocked out a few books that I want to hold close and maybe slip under my pillow each night.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green.
Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn
Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty


Currently reading
Brave New World by Aldophus Huxley
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak


I started reading Unbroken but couldn't get into it, so I'm going to place it back on the shelf and attempt it another time.

Born to Run by Chris McDougall

This book speaks to me as a runner and sparks my interest in things previously unknown as a person.  This book has been collecting dust on my shelf for at least a year, and as I progress farther and farther as a runner, I finally felt intrigued enough to pick it up.

It did not disappoint.

The book follows the linear paths of the runners called the Tarahumara in Mexico, running injuries in the US, a mysterious man called Caballo who is a gringo who somehow incorporated himself in the Tarahumara part of the world, and and ultramarathoners everywhere, culminating in the crescendo that everyone is, in, fact, biologically and evolutionarily born to run.

It starts pretty slow, so much so that at one point, I was going to just put it down.  Luckily I kept going and fell in love with it a little before the halfway point.  Since I do not know much about the Tarahumara, the initial chapters of the book were a bit dull to me.  As the book transitioned from Mexico to Coloroado, I was instantly hooked.  I know people who have done the Leadville 100, which made it very relatable. Ultramarathoners are crazy, but in the best way possible!

As a runner with constant knee problems from running , the controversial statements that running shoes are in general crap and the professional aspect of running now as a money making machine as changed the running world not necessarily for the better really stirred something in me.  Is everything a die-hard fact? No.  But some comments like heel striking isn't a natural running behavior made me smack my forehead in an 'oh duh' moment.

I do believe everyone can run, and believed it long before I had even heard of this book.  Is running barefoot for everyone?  No.  Is it something that should be considered by every runner?  Maybe.  I have gotten caught up in the swirl of running shoes, running magazines, and running advice, some of which I knew was utter crap because of the lack of logic behind it.  Everyone knows their body well, we have just been conditioned to listen to "experts" over our own instincts.

It's a shame that running has come down to the bottom line, instead of focusing on the joy of the sport.  Born to Run really brought some of that joy back to me, especially after a really frustrating 10 mile race I ran yesterday.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl was amazing, it is as simple as that. I found it on a list of 'books to read before the movies come out,' and liked the plot synopsis so much that I ordered it from amazon aling with two other books. It was so engrossing I carried the book with me everywhere for two days until I finished it.

Amy and Nick are New York newlyweds, living a perfect, fun existence. They both get fired from their jobs and leave their NY home to move to Missouri to care for Nick's ill parents. Amy hates Missouri, and Nick is frustrated his mother passed away first, leaving him and his twin sister to care for their emotionally abusive, angry father.

When I am reading a book and I come to a part that surprises me, shocks me, or freaks me out, I slam the book shut and keep it closed until I'm ready to deal with what is happening in the book. It keeps those crazy plots and emotionally charged words trapped inside! I shut this book a lot during the 48 hours I read it.

Lessons learned: siblings are awesome, people are crazy, and never commit adultery.

My one gripe was the ending. I do think people are crazy enough that it is plausible, but raising a child with a sociopath to erase daddy issues is probably not the way to go.