The Island of Missing Trees

A fellow book club member recently highly recommended I read Elif Shafak's novel A River In The Sky, but I haven't been able to get it from my library yet, so I started by reading an earlier novel by this Turkish/British author, The Island of Missing Trees (#1,293).  I must say, I've never read anything like it before.

In many ways, it's a Romeo & Juliet story, featuring a Greek and Turkish couple from Cyprus in the early 1970s, when such a pairing was not allowed as the island was divided in a fierce civil war.  It begins in a more recent London, however, with the couple's daughter acting out in her British classroom, scaring herself and her schoolmates.  Her mother Defne had died less than a year ago, and Ada is feeling increasingly isolated from her botanist father.  Kostas is absorbed by caring for a fig tree he is burying in their garden to preserve it, when someone from the past arrives to upset the household.

Told from a number of perspectives, including the fig tree itself, Kostas and Defne's story gradually unfolds from the 1970s to the recent past in fascinating glimpses of a lost Cyprus.  Not just the human aspects, but the effect war has on nature as well.

I know I will be thinking about this powerfully written book for a long time.  Highly recommended.

Christmas With The Queen

Christmas With The Queen (#1,292) cleverly weaves together the threads of Queen Elizabeth II's early Christmas speeches with those of two people involved in her household: Jack Devereux, a chef in the royal kitchens and Olive Carter, an ambitious reporter with the BBC assigned to cover the Queen's speeches.  It turns out that Jack and Olive have a history together.  Although they only see each other for a brief time each year as their duties separate them, there is a spark between them which plays out over the years.

The novel provided some unique perspectives on life in a royal household as Elizabeth sought to find her own voice as monarch, wife and mother.  Tradition was important but so was establishing a new order to suit her own style.  Jack and Olive each contribute to Queen's progress in their unique ways.  Jack through introducing some spice into the royal menu with his New Orleans-based cuisine, and Olive through her knowledge of what works to enhance radio, and later TV, presentations to bring out the best aspects of the Queen's speech. 

Jack and Olive eventually do come together, but it takes an excruciatingly long time to get there. Much as I liked the overall book, co-written by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, I did feel that it bogged down about three quarters of the way through.  I could feel myself mentally shouting "Get on with it, already!"  And much as they include Jack's concentration on recipes from his grandfather, and putting together new and unique recipes to suit the royal household and later, Jack's restaurant in book format, there isn't a single recipe included for the reader!  That might have been a nice addition at the end of the book.  Just saying...

The Life Impossible

Matthew Haig's latest book, The Life Impossible (#1,291), has gotten mixed reviews from the critics.  If I remember correctly, their objections had to do with the fantastical turn his novel took.  Have they read his previous best-seller, The Midnight Library?  The fantastical is Haig's thing.

I enjoyed this story set on the island of Ibiza, a place I have never been to, but have now added to my list of places to see before I die.  The premise is that the protagonist writes to his former teacher about how miserably his life seems to be going, and in return, gets a lengthy letter from her, telling how an act of kindness many years previously led to her being left a house on Ibiza.  Recently widowed, she decides to explore her inheritance on the island.  Things do not turn out as she expected!

I won't spoil things for you, but there is definitely a woo-woo aspect to her encounters as she meets friend and foe alike and her rather ordinary life is changed forever.  If you liked The Midnight Library, you won't have any trouble suspending disbelief to immerse yourself in The Life Impossible. 

Twelve Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, it's appropriate that I review Debbie Macomber's Twelve Days of Christmas (#1,290).  I must say, it was a bit of a letdown for me.  I normally enjoy her writing enormously, especially her holiday books, but this one didn't quite do it for me.

Julia is caught up in her job and volunteer activities as Christmas approaches in Seattle.  But she is seriously annoyed by Cain, the rude and grumpy neighbor across the hall.  The day he steals her newspaper in the lobby right in front of her is the last straw.  Her best friend suggests that "killing him with kindness" could be her best revenge.  If she blogs about it, it could help her achieve her ambition of landing a job in social media.  The Twelve Days of Christmas blog becomes an overnight sensation, of course.  Her kindness campaign is also working, though...

I guess my main problem with this book is the character of Cain.  He is so aloof and unpleasant that I could not buy the speed at which Julia won him over, or that she fell so hard for someone who so obviously wants to be alone.  Just something about his chauvinistic character never appealed to me in the least.  And if you can't root for the protagonists, who are you going to root for?

The book includes the first few pages of the next holiday book by Ms. Macomber, Dashing Through the Snow, and reading those few pages of a book I do remember fondly was enough to carry on with a Christmas tradition.  There's always next year!

Nosy Neighbors

The tenants of historic Shelly House have all received eviction notices; their landlord intends to tear down the building and replace it with a luxury high rise apartment house.  Not all the tenants are taking this lying down.  Freya Sampson's novel Nosy Neighbors (#1,289) does a wonderful job pulling together an unlikely cast of characters to bond for a single cause.

Dorothy Darling has been there in Flat 2 for over thirty years, and nothing is going to budge her.  Across the hall, her nemesis, Joseph Chambers, has yet another illegal subtenant - one with neon pink hair!  Then there's the unsocial tenant above her, the big man with the pugnacious and smelly dog, and Gloria with a constant parade of unsuitable men in and out of her apartment.  The Siddiqs, father and daughter, are about the only other tenants Dorothy is willing to tolerate, but even she misses the wonderful food odors which used to waft from their apartment while Mrs. Siddiq was still alive.  It takes a body being carried from Shelly House to begin to unite these reluctant neighbors with a little help from Joseph's Jack Russell terrier, Reggie.

I think I enjoyed this book so much because it reminded me of Clare Pooley's books about community-building from unlikely sources.  The book doesn't have a fairy tale ending, but Ms. Sampson does write a satisfactory open-ended conclusion.  Can't ask more than that!

One Big Happy Family

Still gorging on Christmas books with Susan Mallery's One Big Happy Family (#1,288)!  Got to admit, though, that this one was a bit overstuffed for my taste.  

With one family and its fringes, there were a few too many subplots going on.  Was the cougar mom who was afraid to admit to her family she was dating a much younger man the main element?  Or was it her son and daughter-in-law dealing with a broken relationship with her mother?  Or was it the daughter who has been dumped time and again by her ex-boyfriend?  And what about cougar mom's boyfriend's kids and pathetic ex?  Dump them all in one enormous "cabin" in the Washington mountains and bring to a boil.  That's the plot in a nutshell, with happy endings guaranteed all the way around.

While I did read it all the way through to the end, I think a bit less would have resulted in a lot more satisfaction on my end.  Cute dog, though!

The Love of My After Life

Delphie Bookham has to choke to death on a beef burger before she finds out from her After Life Therapist that she hasn't really been living at all when she finally meets her soul mate in the Waiting Room of the After Life.  She's only twenty-seven, but she knows it's too soon for her to die.  When sparks fly between Delphie and Jonah, who's only unconscious before he's sent back to Earth, Merritt sees an opportunity to have some fun by giving Delphie ten days to find Jonah in London and have him kiss her to stay among the living.  That's the premise of Kirsty Greenwood's novel The Love of My After Life (#1,287).

All she knows is his first name, so how is she supposed to find him?  Delphie manages to cram a lifetime's worth of experiences into the ten days she has, while learning just how much she's missed along the way.

It's a wonderful life, to coin a phrase, and a wonderful read as well.

Delphie has some powerful lessons to teach the reader about a life well-lived.