The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
My Thoughts:
Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver has my vote for one of the best reads of the year. As soon as I finished reading it, I ordered Uprooted, hoping for more of her vivid, spellbinding storytelling magic. I was not disappointed. Uprooted is just as brilliant – I tore through it in a single sitting, unable to put the book down. This is just how I love my fantasy – wondrous, intelligent, compulsive, and rooted deeply into the real (in this case, Polish folklore).
It’s impossible to explain the plot without spoiling it, so I’ll just let you know its about a young woman named Agnieszka who thinks she is very ordinary … until the day she is chosen by the local wizard to go and serve him in his isolated tower at the edge of the malevolent and sentient Wood.
Agnieszka is clumsy and shy, but also fiercely loyal and loving. She wants only to protect her friends and family, but finds herself drawn into a life-or-death struggle with the Wood itself, one which will leave her utterly changed.
Her work reminds me of some of my favourite fantasy writers – Robin McKinley, Juliet Marillier, Katherine Arden, Kim Wilkins and Lois McMaster Bujold. Utterly enchanting!
You might also love my last review of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-spinning-silver-by-naomi-novik
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.
My Thoughts:
Educated is a powerful memoir about growing up in a religious Mormon family in the mountains of Idaho. Tara Westover’s father was a paranoid survivalist who buried guns and food in preparation for the end of the world. Her mother made home remedies from herbs, and used them to try and cure catastrophic injuries and illnesses in her family. Tara never went to school, or to a doctor, and her birth was not registered. She grew up believing her father was the Lord’s instrument on earth – her gradual disillusionment is heart-breaking to witness.
The early chapters of the book are both the most poetic and the most powerful. Tara Westover’s love for her mountain home shines through every line she writes about it. Slowly her childlike faith in her father and family is eroded. Scenes of violence and emotional abuse are hard to read (or, in my case, listen to as I had bought the audio book).
Eventually Tara begins to educate herself. She borrows books from the library and studies hard enough to be admitted to university. But unsurprisingly she finds it hard to adapt. Her long life of indoctrination is difficult to cast off. The tension between the world she is only just discovering and the skewed beliefs of her family almost break her. Only the kindness of friends and the loyalty of one of her brothers sustain her, as she slowly finds a place in the world for herself.
Memoir is always a slippery thing. The writer carefully selects what to reveal and what to hide, and the reader is privy only to their interpretation of events. In that way, memoir is as close to fiction as it is to non-fiction. This does not trouble me at all; I note it only because there are times when Tara’s voice becomes quite cool and detached, and it is clear she is struggling to find the way to express her sense of hurt and betrayal. I’d have liked a little more depth of emotion, to help me understand just how difficult it was for her to cut herself off from home and family, and I’d have liked a stronger celebration of those who helped her along the way, to give me a better sense of how she managed to survive. But these are minor quibbles. In all, a very poignant and sobering life story.
You might also like to read my review of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls:
BOOK REVIEW: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
BUY EDUCATED NOWThe Blurb (from Goodreads):
Set again in the Alaskan landscape that she brought to stunningly vivid life in The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey's second novel is a breathtaking story of discovery and adventure, set at the end of the nineteenth century, and of a marriage tested by a closely held secret.
Colonel Allen Forrester receives the commission of a lifetime when he is charged to navigate Alaska's hitherto impassable Wolverine River, with only a small group of men. The Wolverine is the key to opening up Alaska and its huge reserves of gold to the outside world, but previous attempts have ended in tragedy.
For Forrester, the decision to accept this mission is even more difficult, as he is only recently married to Sophie, the wife he had perhaps never expected to find. Sophie is pregnant with their first child, and does not relish the prospect of a year in a military barracks while her husband embarks upon the journey of a lifetime. She has genuine cause to worry about her pregnancy, and it is with deep uncertainty about what their future holds that she and her husband part.
A story shot through with a darker but potent strand of the magic that illuminated The Snow Child, and with the sweep and insight that characterizes Rose Tremain's The Colour, this novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Eowyn Ivey singles her out as a major literary talent.
My Thoughts:
I absolutely loved Eowyn Ivey’s first book The Snow Child and so I was very eager to see what she came up with next.
The Bright Edge of the World is set in Alaska, Eowyn Ivey’s homeland. It was inspired by the true story of Lieutenant Henry T. Allen who, in 1885, set out with a small group of fellow explorers to follow the Copper River deep into the Alaskan hinterland. Such expeditions had been tried before, but all had failed, thanks to the cold, the snow and ice, the wolves, and the hostile natives. Allen succeeded where everyone else had failed.
Eowyn Ivey takes this story of an intrepid explorer and spins out of it an enthralling tale of love, grief, adventure and magic. The story is told in letters and diary entries from multiple different points-of-view, a risky creative choice that she pulls off adroitly. The primary narrators are Colonel Allen Forrester, who accepts a commission to explore the Wolverine River into the Alaskan wilderness, and his pregnant wife, Sophie, who is reluctantly left behind. But other voices include a soldier broken by war, a modern-day descendant of the Forresters who has inherited the cache of letters, diaries, postcards and photographs, and a museum curator interested in putting on an exhibition. The voices of each of the many different characters each ring true, an astounding feat of ventriloquism.
The Alaska of this novel is a vast place of cold, implacable beauty, mystery and strangeness. Only ‘a thin line separates animal and man,’ and ghosts and shapeshifters move amongst humankind. There is an old crippled Indian man who may also be a raven, and a child that died only to be impossibly reborn elsewhere.
Once again, Eowyn Ivey’s language is just exquisite. I cannot wait to see what she writes next.
You might also like to read my review of Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge:
BOOK REVIEW: Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
A thrilling historical novel and the sequel to the critically acclaimed Skin, perfect for fans of Outlander and Game of Thrones.
One woman’s quest to defend her culture.
Haunted by the Roman attack that destroyed her home, Ailia flees to the remote Welsh mountains in search of the charismatic war king, Caradog, who is leading a guerrilla campaign against the encroaching army.
Ailia proves herself an indispensable advisor to the war king, but as the bond between them deepens, she realises the terrible role she must play to save the soul of her country.
Set in Iron-Age Britain, Songwoman is a powerful exploration of the ties between people and their land and what happens when they are broken.
My Thoughts:
I’ve had this book on my to-be-read shelf for quite a long time, but at last picked it up because I was sharing a stage with Ilka Tampke at the Bendigo Writers’ Festival. I’m so glad I did! I loved it.
It’s the sequel to Ilka Tampke’s earlier debut, entitled Skin in Australia and Daughter of Albion in the US, which sold international rights around the world, was shortlisted for the 2015 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and longlisted for the 2016 Voss. I have not read Skin but I intend to very soon – it did not matter, as the author did a brilliant job of interweaving back story with the current narrative thread.
The book is set in Wales during the Iron Age, during the rebellion of the Celtic tribes against the invading Romans. It tells the story of Ailia, the Kendra of the Albion people (a title that seems to mean some kind of spiritual leader or prophetess). She has been living wild for a year, grieving over the destruction of her village by the Romans, but decides to go and join the rebels, who are lead by a charismatic chieftain named Caradog. It is not long before she falls in love with him, but he is already married and all his focus is on his war with the invaders. Ailia feels adrift, her role as Kendra undermined by the chieftain’s advisor and Druid journeyman, Prydd, who does not trust her. She meets a Songman, and comes to believe that her role is to learn to sing as he does, to instruct and inspire and bear witness to history.
Anyone who knows anything about Iron Age Britain will know that the valiant resistance of the local Celtic tribes ended in tragedy. This adds poignancy to the tale, as does Ailia’s doomed love for Caradog. The writing is deft and assured, and life in ancient Wales is brought vividly to life. I loved the mix of history and fantasy and folklore, and was reminded of the work of Rosemary Sutcliffe and Marion Zimmer Bradley – a wonderful read!
You might also like my review on The Girl In The Tower by Elizabeth Arden:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-the-girl-in-the-tower-by-katherine-arden
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.
My Thoughts:
The Poisonwood Bible is one of my favourite books, but I have never read this debut novel by Barbara Kingsolver. I found it on the shelves of the yacht in which we were sailing around the Greek islands this summer (I know! Lucky me!)
It tells the story of a young woman named Marietta Greer who grows up poor in rural Kentucky. She works hard and buys herself a car so she can escape, then decides to rename herself: ‘I wasn't crazy about anything I had been called up to that point in life, and this seemed like the time to make a clean break. I didn't have any special name in mind, but just wanted a change.’ Marietta decides she will call herself after the first place she has to stop i.e. wherever she may be when her petrol tank runs dry.
"I came pretty close to being named after Homer, Illinois, but kept pushing it. I kept my fingers crossed through Sidney, Sadorus, Cerro Gordo, Decatur, and Blue Mound, and coasted into Taylorville on the fumes. And so I am Taylor Greer. I suppose you could say I had some part in choosing this name, but there was enough of destiny in it to satisfy me."
Taylor’s voice is tough and pragmatic, yet still clearly that of a naïve young woman. It is richly coloured with homespun Kentucky wisecracks and wisdoms, and rings very true to my uneducated ears.
‘You got anything to eat that costs less than a dollar?' I asked the old guy behind the counter. . . .
‘Ketchup,' the grey-hat cowboy said. ‘Earl serves up a mean bottle of ketchup, don't you, Earl?’ He slid the ketchup bottle down the counter so hard it rammed my cup and spilled out probably five cents' worth of coffee.
‘You think being busted is a joke?’ I asked him. I slid the bottle back and hit his beer mug dead centre, although it did not spill.
At first, I thought The Bean Trees was going to be a classic road trip novel with romance and redemption found along the way. Much of the early parts of the book are comic, with a range of different colourful and eccentric characters.
However, the story takes a darker tone when Taylor is given a mute and clinging child. It soon becomes clear the child has been badly abused, and Taylor finds herself a reluctant foster mother, struggling to support them both. The introduction of a pair of illegal Guatemalan refugees, Estevan and Esperanza, darkens the story even further. This juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy sits a little uneasily together, as if Barbara Kingsolver set out to write one kind of book then found herself writing something very different.
The crisis and resolution of the story also feels a little forced and unrealistic, as if the author could not see her way out of her plot tangle and so contrived a false adoption so that the little girl – named Turtle – could stay with Taylor. I am no expert on adoption laws, but it seemed highly illegal to me. Though I was so glad that the two weren’t separated, I was willing to forgive the implausibility.
The Bean Trees has such a big heart, I’m willing to forgive these minor flaws. And, yes, there is a hint of a very sweet, very sad unfulfilled romance along with the final redemption.
You might also like to read my review of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-eleanor-oliphant-is-completely-fine-by-gail-honeyman
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? That is the question that Robert Macfarlane poses to himself as he embarks on a series of breathtaking journeys through some of the archipelago's most remarkable landscapes. He climbs, walks, and swims by day and spends his nights sleeping on cliff-tops and in ancient meadows and wildwoods. With elegance and passion he entwines history, memory, and landscape in a bewitching evocation of wildness and its vital importance. A unique travelogue that will intrigue readers of natural history and adventure, The Wild Places solidifies Macfarlane's reputation as a young writer to watch
My Thoughts:
Robert Macfarlane was one of my great discoveries in the past couple of years (meaning that I discovered his books, not him!) I’ve been slowly reading my way through his oeuvre and have loved everything he has written so far.
The Wild Places was his second book, and established his style – beautiful, poetic writing that twines together landscape, nature, history, literature, and his own personal journey. Robert sets out to see if there are any genuinely wild places left in Britain, and then writes about what he discovers. One of the chapters – ‘Holloway’ – I had read before as it was expanded and published as an exquisite illustrated book about the lost greenways of Dorset. The other chapters have equally evocative names – ‘Beechwood’, ‘Moor’, ‘Summit’, ‘Grave’, ‘Storm-beach’ and ‘Tor’, for example. It’s the kind of book that you can pick up, read a few chapters, then put down for a while, as each chapter is an essay on a particular place. His writing is sublime. It feels so effortless, but has all the quick-fire surprise of the perfect metaphor. Just wonderful.
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
The Greek myths are the greatest stories ever told, passed down through millennia and inspiring writers and artists as varied as Shakespeare, Michelangelo, James Joyce and Walt Disney.
They are embedded deeply in the traditions, tales and cultural DNA of the West. In Stephen Fry's hands the stories of the titans and gods become a brilliantly entertaining account of ribaldry and revelry, warfare and worship, debauchery, love affairs and life lessons, slayings and suicides, triumphs and tragedies.
You'll fall in love with Zeus, marvel at the birth of Athena, wince at Cronus and Gaia's revenge on Ouranos, weep with King Midas and hunt with the beautiful and ferocious Artemis.
Thoroughly spellbinding, informative and moving, Stephen Fry's Mythos perfectly captures these stories for the modern age - in all their rich and deeply human relevance.
My Thoughts:
I’ve loved the Greek myths since I read Roger Lancelyn Green’s retellings as a child. I have a beautiful Folio edition of Robert Graves’ classic collection, plus a great many other books on the subject – but I was eager to read this version by Stephen Fry, being a huge fan of his warm, intimate, erudite style (of course!)
I read the book whilst in Greece, and its gorgeous blue cover was almost exactly the same colour as the sea outside my window which added enormously to my pleasure.
The book was just as delightful as I had hoped, and took me on a rollicking rip-snorting journey through these ancient stories of gods and goddesses, and all their lusts and rivalries and jealousies and cruelties. Most of the tales I knew very well; some I had forgotten, and a few I had not encountered before. This would be an excellent introduction to the myths for a teenager, or anyone who would like to know more but does not have the stamina for Robert Graves. In fact, I tossed it to my husband the moment I finished it and he is reading it right now, with the occasional snort of laughter.
You might also like to read my review of Searching for Sappho by Philip Freeman:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-searching-for-sappho-the-lost-songs-world-of-the-first-woman-poet-by-philip-freeman
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
For more than twenty-five centuries, all that the world knew of the poems of Sappho—the first woman writer in literary history—were a few brief quotations preserved by ancient male authors. Yet those meager remains showed such power and genius that they captured the imagination of readers through the ages. But within the last century, dozens of new pieces of her poetry have been found written on crumbling papyrus or carved on broken pottery buried in the sands of Egypt. As recently as 2014, yet another discovery of a missing poem created a media stir around the world.
The poems of Sappho reveal a remarkable woman who lived on the Greek island of Lesbos during the vibrant age of the birth of western science, art, and philosophy. Sappho was the daughter of an aristocratic family, a wife, a devoted mother, a lover of women, and one of the greatest writers of her own or any age. Nonetheless, although most people have heard of Sappho, the story of her lost poems and the lives of the ancient women they celebrate has never been told for a general audience.
Searching for Sappho is the exciting tale of the rediscovery of Sappho’s poetry and of the woman and world they reveal
My Thoughts:
This year I have been endeavouring to read more poetry by women, and as a result have discovered the work of Sappho, the first known woman poet. She lived more than 2,500 years ago, and only a few fragments of her poems remain. She is also well known for her love poems to other women, and Lesbos - the island on which she was born – now provides us with the term ‘lesbian’ to describe homosexual women.
I bought this book at the iconic Atlantis Bookshop on the Greek island of Santorini while holidaying there with my family in July. It was wonderful to read this engaging and informative book about Sappho and her life and work while being in Greece myself. Philip Freeman does a brilliant job of weaving together the little of what is known about Sappho and the life of women in ancient Greece, as well as some of the interesting ways in which her poetry has survived and been re-discovered. I was particularly happy to discover the book contains every known fragment of her poetry. Perfect reading for a sunny holiday in the Greek islands!
You might also enjoy The Odyssey by David Mendelsohn:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-an-odyssey-a-father-a-son-an-epic-by-daniel-mendelsohn
The Blurb (from Goodreads:)
When 25-year-old Bella Michaels is brutally murdered in the small town of Strathdee, the community is stunned and a media storm descends.
Unwillingly thrust into the eye of that storm is Bella's beloved older sister, Chris, a barmaid at the local pub, whose apparent easygoing nature conceals hard-won wisdom and the kind of street-smarts only experience can bring.
As Chris is plunged into despair and searches for answers, reasons, explanation - anything - that could make even the smallest sense of Bella's death, her ex-husband, friends and neighbours do their best to support her. But as the days tick by with no arrest, Chris's suspicion of those around her grows.
My Thoughts:
An Isolated Incident by Australian author Emily Maguire is a contemporary psychological suspense novel set in a small Australian town, with a particular emphasis on the traumatic effects of suspicion, grief and the voyeuristic curiosity of the public.
Bella Michaels is only twenty-five when she is found brutally raped and murdered on the side of the highway. Her sister Chris must find some way to deal with the intense scrutiny that the police and the media bring to every aspect of her and her sister’s lives. Chris works at the local pub, and sometimes takes a truckie home in return for a little extra cash. She has a broken marriage behind her, and drinks too much. She is haunted by her sister’s last moments, and paralysed by her own bleak future.
Intense, powerful and raw, An Isolated Incident is an all-too-real look at the terrible cost of sexual violence in our society, and a profoundly intimate portrait of anguish and rage. It has justly been shortlisted for the Stella award.
