Disclaimer (Book Review)

Title: Disclaimer
Author: Renée Knight

Publication: Harper Collins, Hardcover, 2015

Genre: Suspense

Plot: What if you realized the terrifying book you were reading was all about you?

Catherine Ravenscroft is a successful documentary producer with a secret she has kept for twenty years.  For reasons of her own Catherine never revealed what took place to her husband or son but now she has read a book called The Perfect Stranger – hand delivered to her home – she realizes is about what happened on that long-ago trip to Spain, depicting her as the villainess and plunging her into a nightmare.  On the disclaimer page, a red line is drawn through the “Any resemblance to persons living or dead...” statement.  Catherine thought the one other person who knew her secret is dead so who wrote the book and gave “Charlotte” a violent death?  And is it too late to tell her husband, before she ends up like the protagonist of the book?

Audience: Fans of suspense fiction; readers who enjoyed books like Before I Go to Sleep and Into the Darkest Corner.

My reaction: This was like two different books.  Told in flashbacks by two different narrators with different perspectives on the past, it started very slowly and it was hard to keep the characters and time frames straight.  About halfway through, it finally accelerated and caught my interest, becoming hard to put down, although I never warmed to anyone in the book.  Fast-paced and deftly written, this is a great summer read. The strength of the book was its unpredictability and the way it kept making me reassess my opinion of different characters. As readers, we are conditioned to recognize that a secret is likely to be revealed, sooner or later, and that will cause or add to the drama or tension of the story.  I was struck while reading Disclaimer by how it nudged at my professional responsibility - as an attorney I wanted to counsel Catherine to control the narrative by being the one to reveal her secret in her own way. The irony of her being a documentary filmmaker who is filmed instead of directing the film was not lost on me.

Interestingly, although the book is set in London, it doesn’t have a strong sense of place and I suspect this is on purpose.  Probably editor or agent, aiming for the next Gone Girl, believe that to appeal to an American audience the background should be generic (don’t they realize there are many Anglophile readers like me?).  However, I look forward to sharing this with my sisters, also big fans of thrillers.

Source: I received Disclaimer from the TLC Book Tours and invite you to visit the tour to read other reviews of this book:

Tuesday, May 19th: Booksie’s Blog
Thursday, May 21st: Kissin Blue Karen
Friday, May 22nd: A Bookworm’s World
Monday, May 25th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Tuesday, May 26th: Man of La Book
Wednesday, May 27th: Booked on a Feeling
Friday, May 29th: JulzReads
Monday, June 1st: Book Hooked Blog
Tuesday, June 2nd: Kritters Ramblings
Wednesday, June 3rd: Ace and Hoser Blook
Thursday, June 4th: Ms.Bookish.com
Friday, June 5th:From the TBR Pile
Tuesday, June 9th: Bibliotica
Wednesday, June 10th: Novel Escapes
Thursday, June 11th: Doing Dewey
Friday, June 12th: The Well-Read Redhead
Monday, June 15th: Mockingbird Hill Cottage

The Lark Shall Sing (Book Review of my favorite Elizabeth Cadell)

Title: The Lark Shall Sing
Author: Elizabeth Cadell

Publication: William Morrow, Hardcover, 1955 (previously published in England)

Genre: Fiction

Setting: 20th century England

Plot: First in a trilogy about the Wayne family, The Lark Shall Sing is a lively, humorous story about six orphaned siblings trying to find their way as a family in a small English village.  After their mother died, eldest sister Lucille rented their home, Wood Mount, for a year.  Now she says the best thing for everyone is to sell the house, but the rest of the Waynes react violently to that suggestion. 

A Fine Dessert (Book Review)

Title: A Fine Dessert
Author: Emily Jenkins

Illustrator: Sophie Blackall

Publication: Schwartz & Wade Books, hardcover, 2015

Genre: Historical fiction/picture book

Plot: The subtitle of this book is “Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat,” and that was enough to make me want to read a story about Blackberry Fool.  It follows four unconnected families enjoying a dessert that takes a little work to prepare, beginning with a girl and her mother in 18th century England who pick blackberries together, skim the cream and beat it with a bundle of twigs to make whipped cream, strain the berries through muslin to get rid of the seeds, chill the concoction in an ice pit, and enjoy it with gusto.  The second family is in 19th century South Carolina: the meal is prepared by their slaves, who only get to lick the bowl clean. The third family is in 1910 Boston! They buy their blackberries at an “open-air market” and the mother has a recipe book, a rotary beater for the cream, and a practically modern wooden ice box .

Finally, a modern day family in San Diego appears – a father and son – who find the recipe online and use an electric mixer to make the cream.  They serve it to a group of multiethnic guests of all ages.

The constant is the simple dessert with steps that endure over the years (basically unchanged despite advancing technology), performed companionably by an adult and child together, and a child who licks the bowl at the end. Families enjoying dessert for centuries - the universality of this topic seems to have delighted every person who came across this delightful book.

Audience: Precocious children and their relatives, cookbook and social history fans, families who enjoy cooking together.

What I liked: What a charming book!  The text is understated, yet fully tells the story of each family.  The illustrations are perfect: showing historical detail and revealing humor.  See my favorite above where you can tell how delicious the last bite was.  Your mouth will be watering as you read along.

Historical detail: The author acknowledges that the book raises issues of slavery the person reading the book might want to explore.  She did not want to ignore the issue of slavery in 1810 but contrasts it to the more inclusive community shown in the contemporary family. I didn’t realize until I Googled Emily Jenkins that she is also bestselling author E. Lockhart, of whose YA books I am a big fan.  I once tweeted her to say I couldn’t wait for a new book – it was, of course, a figure of speech, but she very kindly responded by offering to mail me an advance reading copy.  I declined but was very grateful.* This book gives me new appreciation of her skill.

Adult readers will particularly enjoy the illustrator’s notes where she describes, among other things, trying out a bundle of twigs and researching what clothes the characters would have worn.  Her affectionate and painstaking attention to detail is what makes this book extraordinary.  She also shares the process on her blog and when I visited, I realized I have already enjoyed several books she illustrated. 

Source: I read about this book online and received it from a library in the Minuteman System. I plan to buy a copy for my niece.

*I am still a little annoyed with Books of Wonder: I couldn't attend E. Lockhart's booksigning for We Were Liars last May so went in person to order/request a signed copy.  My salesperson was abysmal: she hadn't heard of any of the books I wanted to buy.  She refused to leave instructions for the author to personalize We Were Liars (they did mail an autographed copy in time for my sister's birthday).  Sad you can't even do a favor for your former sales rep!  Porter Square Books and my friend Daniel at Boswell Book Company are always happy to oblige in this way.

Photos copyright to Random House.

Under the Same Blue Sky (Book Review)

Title: Under the Same Blue Sky
Author: Pamela Schoenewaldt

Publication: William Morrow trade paperback, 2015

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot:  From the USA Today bestselling author of When We Were Strangers and Swimming in the Moon comes an intricately drawn novel set against the turmoil of the Great War, as a young German-American woman explores the secrets of her past.

Anne Pecheux Lang

Today would have been my grandmother’s 100th birthday.  Sadly, she died on March 9, 2015, a little more than six weeks short of that milestone. 

Anne in Kent, Connecticut, around 1995

As many of you have heard, Anne Pollard Pecheux was an attractive and headstrong young woman from Newburgh, New York.  Her father was married twice, and Anne was the fourth of seven children, and the first child of his second wife.   Her siblings were Justine, Ruth, John, Helene (her religious name was Sister Mary Christopher, OSU), Henry, and Joan.  My great-grandfather, Henry Pecheux, was born in 1872, and played baseball at Notre Dame for one year (probably about 1890 – the sport obtained official varsity status in 1892) before family finances forced him to return home.  Providing for a large family during the Depression was incredibly stressful.  My grandmother has told me how her father's accounting business went under and he worked a variety of part-time jobs to stay afloat.  His love of history and of books was something he shared with his children and grandchildren, bringing home the Oz books which he read aloud and everyone enjoyed.  Granny loved book 3 in the series, Ozma of Oz, and had a jeweled belt she pretended had belonged to the Nome King – nothing like bossing your younger sister around with a magic belt.

A Touch of Stardust (Book Review)

Title: A Touch of Stardust
Author: Kate Alcott

Publication: Doubleday hardcover, 2015

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: 1930s Hollywood

Plot:  When Julie Crawford arrives in Hollywood, fresh from Smith, she is just in time to witness the “burning of Atlanta” scene staged by David O. Selznick on the Gone with the Wind set – and she is hooked on show business albeit intimidated by the great man.  In a refreshing twist, Julie is not a wannabe actress but an aspiring screenwriter.  And on her first day, she also encounters legendary actress Carole Lombard – like Julie, from Fort Wayne, Indian – who is romantically involved with Clark Gable.  Julie also meets Andy Weinstein, Selznick’s right hand man.  Lombard gives Julie a job as her assistant, which gives Julie a front row seat at the glamorous life of Hollywood stardom.  And as Julie finds her place in the movie world, her friendship with Andy becomes something more.

Audience:  Historical fiction readers, readers who love old movies, GWTW fanatics

What I liked: Alcott does a fabulous job of bringing the reader into the magical world of Gone with the Wind.  Even casual fans know about the search for the perfect actress to play Scarlet but it’s even better when you feel you’re yards away when lovely Vivien Leigh visits the movie set and wills Selznick to choose her so she can be close to Laurence Olivier.  Telling the making of the movie story from the perspective of a bright young woman, new in town, is a clever technique.  We identify sufficiently with Julie to want her to succeed but it’s the glimpses of Lombard and Gable’s romance and of Vivien Leigh and the behind the scenes filming of GWTW that make this book impossible to put down. 

I especially liked how Alcott made Lombard so appealing in this book.  I wonder if she really was helpful to younger women trying to make their mark in Hollywood.  My admittedly limited knowledge of her indicated only that she was bawdy and died young.

I’ve had my eye on this author for a while but hadn’t got around to reading her earlier books.  She credits her husband, descended from Hollywood’s Mankiewicz family, with telling her stories about this era, and she even sets one scene at the home of writer Herman Mankiewicz. 

Readers who want to know more about the making of Gone with the Wind should take a look at The Making of Gone with the Wind by Steve Wilson.

What I disliked: Julie’s and Andy’s romance is not as interesting as Lombard and Gable’s.  It reminded me of something Susanna Kearsley mentioned at a recent reading, which is that when she writes a back and forth novel, she intends for the contemporary couple to be more of a foil for the historical.  Here, while I liked Julie’s character and enjoyed learning about her travails trying to make a living as a screenwriter and persuading her conservative parents not to drag her back to Indiana, I was much more interested what her life revealed about the movie.  Alcott acknowledges this, providing an epilogue describing what happened to the actors and stating that Julie is meant to be the Everywoman “who strikes out with a small arsenal of choices” and uses them to achieve her goals.  I did wonder if a nice girl from Smith would have been so quick to get physically involved even if Andy is strikingly handsome and kind. 

Andy’s depiction of the anti-Semitism in Hollywood seemed authentic and accurate, although it distracted from the movie, which I was more interested in reading about.

Source: I read pre-pub reviews and put this on reserve from the library, and it duly appeared several months later. Highly recommended. 4 1/2 stars.

The Fox From His Lair (book review)

Title: The Fox From His Lair
Author: Elizabeth Cadell

Publication: William Morrow, 1966, hardcover

Genre: Fiction, set in England 

Plot: Annabelle Baird has drifted into an engagement with Philip Ancell, and when she travels to Portugal to be inspected by his employers, their differences become all too evident.  He is annoyed that she brought her nephews, and she is disappointed he does not understand that family comes first with her. 

The Heroes' Welcome (book review)

Title: The Heroes’ Welcome
Author: Louisa Young

Publication: Harper Perennial trade paperback, March 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, set in 1919 England

 

Plot:  Second in a trilogy, The Heroes’ Welcome follows the stories of two couples whose relationships suffered during WWI and are now challenged by post-war adjustment.  In My Dear I Wanted to Tell You, Nadine Waveney became friendly with poor but relatively honest Riley Purefoy through a painter who teaches Nadine and employs Riley when they are both children.  As Nadine reaches adolescence, her mother decides her friendship with not-our-class Riley should not be encouraged but it is too late, they fall in love.