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 One snowy night, a small girl named Norah appears outside Margaret Quinn’s door. Margaret’s daughter Erica ran away ten years ago to join a cult with her boyfriend, and in the meantime Margaret has lost her husband to illness and now lives alone. Unwilling to lose the girl that God seems to have given to her in response to her prayers, Margaret decides to pass Norah off as her granddaughter. A mysterious and magical child, Norah tells people that she is an angel, and that her mission is about to begin.
Angels of Destruction is not a book that is immediately appealing. The first third or so focuses on Norah, who is very difficult to tack down and label. The following third goes back in time to witness Erica’s viewpoint when she left her parents, and the end constitutes an interweaving of these two narratives, seemingly brought about by Norah’s actions. This is a book that could epitomize winter; whenever I think of it I imagine that cold snowy night when Norah entered Margaret’s life, and the grief that pervades the book easily adds to its slightly melancholy feel.
While I enjoyed the way the book was plotted and I liked its final message of hope, I have to conclude that this isn’t really a book for me. It’s woven through with this concept of angels and faith, but it’s hard to tell whether or not Norah actually is one, or if she’s just a crazy little girl. I’d like to think that it was a message of faith, but I wish the author had been a little more concrete with what she was, rather than having her just up and vanish. I feel like it could have been more powerful that way, if the knowledge was there rather than just the wondering. As it was, however, I was left wanting.
Overall, I’d have to say that Angels of Destruction was mostly fine. I enjoyed reading it, particularly the section about Erica, I wanted to find out what happened at the end, and I was occasionally touched by its beautiful prose and family connections. I was left with questions, though, and I never felt that I really was loving it or was compelled to go back to it. It’s hard to describe why I feel so lukewarm about this book, but unfortunately the fact remains.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 It may not have been too obvious, but I’ve taken somewhat of an unofficial break from blogging these past couple of weeks. First Keith was off work for a week and around, so I wasn’t too inclined to spend all my time on the computer as I normally do, and I just drifted away from it. Then, the exact day he went back to work, I got sick with a nasty cold virus that had me actually unable to focus on reading a couple of days this week (the horror!) and I couldn’t summon the mental energy to write posts or read any of those currently filling up my Google Reader. I also had a job interview that required some preparation, and all my efforts went in that direction for about a week. So my loot has gone unrecorded, but that’s okay because there isn’t all that much of it. This is two weeks’ worth, too. I think I may have more that I missed, but it’s hard to tell, so I’ll just go with the most recent acquisitions.
   
- The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood – I have become very interested in the Canongate Myths series recently, and since I also decided to read more by Margaret Atwood, this seemed an obvious choice. Plus, it’s nice and slim, and I’ve been reading plenty of chunksters lately.
- Painting Mona Lisa, Jeanne Kalogridis – This is called I, Mona Lisa in the US. In response to this selection, you might say, “But Meghan, you haven’t read that other book you have by Jeanne Kalogridis!” And in protesting you’d be totally right, I haven’t, but since I enjoyed The Agony and the Ecstasy, I decided this was related enough to warrant borrowing.
- Agincourt, Juliet Barker – Let’s be honest here. I am hating being unemployed and I want a job. The one thing I do like about it, though, is that generally I have the brainpower and the will to read lots of history. I’ve enjoyed and learned from Juliet Barker’s books and essays on chivalry, so I’m interested to see what she thinks of the Battle of Agincourt.
- Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell – I’m due for my turn on the Classics Circuit next week and so I’m reading this now. I’m so late on it because I really wanted to read Wives and Daughters, but someone has had it taken out of my branch of the library and since it’s available in other branches, I can’t request it. Annoying, but I’m sure Ruth will be enjoyable.
I am an Amazon Associate. If you click on these links and buy a product from Amazon, I will earn a small profit to help maintain my blog at no cost to you.
 Bob Arctor is a spy for the government. In his daily life, he does Substance D with his friends. In his working life, he is called Fred, wears a scramble suit to protect his identity, and reports on those friends, specifically seeking to identify those who are dealers and use them to work up the chain and get higher dealers. Even though he sees the effect of Substance D on his friends and others who need treatment, he has to keep doing it to maintain his cover, and becomes an addict. Eventually he winds up spying on himself at the precise time that the drug starts to destroy his mind. So goes the life of the main character in this introspective look at drug culture and its frightening possibilities.
I have to admit that I was bored by this book. In my defense, I’d already seen the film while it was still in the preview stage at college, and my friends and I spent a good amount of time discussing it and picking it apart. So I already knew everything that was coming, including the ending which I think is very appropriate and somewhat haunting, and as a result I don’t think I liked the book as much as I might have otherwise. As most of us do, though, whenever a movie is based on a book it’s like a compulsion. I just had to read it and finish it and see how it measured up.
Overall, I found that there was far too much rambling done by the addicts. I know that this is probably true-to-life, as this book is dedicated to many of Dick’s friends who were either permanently damaged or killed as a result of their drug abuse, and he includes himself on the list of the damaged. Even so, is it wrong to admit that I found it boring and hard to follow? Perhaps it’s a perspective I needed, but I have no plan to do drugs, and so their ramblings were unfamiliar to me. It’s a rare 200 page book that takes me more than a day to read, but this one did, and I fell asleep twice in the day with it still open.
Perhaps Dick’s greatest accomplishment is that he manages not to condemn any of them for what they do. As he writes in the prologue, they only meant to have fun, and then continued even as they started to suffer the effects. They were addicted, of course, and so are the characters in the book, unable to do anything for themselves and eventually reduced to mindless, forgetful drones. He adds the twist in the end that is really what makes the reader think about society.
A Scanner Darkly is a clever dystopia, but I think I would have appreciated it more without knowing the story beforehand.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 One summer shortly after the end of the war, Dr. Faraday is called to Hundreds, the Ayres family mansion, to tend the family’s maid. Hundreds has faded drastically from when he knew it as a boy. Land is being sold off to pay debts, the house is falling apart, and the family have become largely recluses. Dr. Faraday somehow finds himself entwined with this peculiar family despite their differences in status, and shortly realizes that something more is going on than what he had imagined.
I love Sarah Waters, and went into this book with a great deal of expectations. It proved to be very different from her previous books but no less fascinating. Even without the jacket cover telling me so, I could tell this was a post-war Britain. It feels very much like a society in flux, and there’s always the mention of the forthcoming National Health Service to give a hint. Dr. Faraday is a product of this changing culture, having fairly low origins in Warwickshire but having attended some of the best colleges to attain his profession. Yet he still hides his Warwickshire accent because it’s low class. (Yes, this still happens, my own husband consciously changed his accent because it was “low class” and he was attending schools where he was looked down on for it. In some respects Britain hasn’t changed at all.) The Ayres family is completely unable to keep up their house and their land, and they even sell some of it to the county council for housing nearly on their doorstep. This is a period of change, and that change resonates throughout the book.
Beyond that, this book is absolutely creepy. I know we’re meant to wonder if the family is actually insane or if it’s a ghost story, but it totally felt like a ghost story to me. It creeped me out like one, and as I was reading it and it got dark I almost had to stop because I was sure something was going to start tapping in the wall. I was convinced that Dr. Faraday was just being rational because he had to be as a doctor, not because the family were actually insane, but it’s certainly notable that most of the ghost incidents are told through the Ayres family, and the narrator doesn’t witness them himself. Waters completely pulls off the atmosphere of suspense and even though I was getting steadily more freaked out by the book, I didn’t want to put it down. I read it in just one day.
The Little Stranger has definitely not marred my love for Sarah Waters’ work and now I am more determined than ever to get to the last two books of hers that I have to read. Highly recommended.
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
 Jung Chang’s grandmother, Yu-fang, was a member of the last generation of Chinese women to have her feet bound. Her feet were bound so late, in fact, that her younger sister didn’t have to endure the painful process at all. Moreover, she was beautiful, and her father decided that for her to be a concubine to a rich man was better than for her to be a wife to a poor man, and as a result she hardly knew her first “husband” even though she gave him a daughter. That daughter, born Bao Qin but later named De-hong by Yu-fang’s second husband Dr. Xia, was Jung’s mother, and one of the first to become a communist. Jung herself lived through both the idealization of Chairman Mao and was intelligent enough to eventually realize that Communist China was not the paradise that she had been promised her entire life, and used her study of English to finally leave the country.
This book was absolutely fascinating. I was completely spellbound by it. Chinese society changed so much over this period of years. Just considering the difference between the early life of Jung’s grandmother and her own youth was immeasurably vast. I had never learned about any of this before, and I found the history fascinating. I really want to learn more now and I am definitely planning on seeking out some history on 20th century China.
This is a memoir, though, and it was the story of these women that really cemented my love for the entire book. I was incredibly impressed by how intelligent and strong they all were. From Yu-fang’s ingenuity in kidnapping her daughter away from her first husband’s vindictive wife to Jung’s mother’s struggles with a husband that put communism before his family, these women took the abuse and rolled with it, keeping their integrity and honor and love for one another intact through almost insurmountable hardships. Moreover, Jung’s parents must have been complicit in some of the horrid things that the communist regime supported – we know her father executed people, she says so – yet they too realize what they’ve done is wrong. The second half of the book is mainly Jung’s own memoir, and I found it fascinating that despite all the hardships communism had dealt her family that she still was completely in the thrall of Chairman Mao. She didn’t know about them, of course, but it seems inconceivable to me that anyone could believe his lies. It’s hard to realize that these were the only words she ever heard, and thus she had no choice. It’s amazing that she eventually realized that she wanted to get out of China, let alone that she accomplished it.
This book is long, but I found the entire thing completely enthralling. The writing is plain and there is a lot of history info-dumping, but it’s such a compelling story that I managed to read half of it (350 pages) in a single day. I can’t recommend Wild Swans enough. I highly recommend this, and it would be a great choice for the Women Unbound challenge, which is what I read it for. I also have to thank Eva, because without her recommendation I might never have discovered it!
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
 This is book eight in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I am reading these books in part for the challenge hosted over at Beth Fish Reads.
After the explosive disaster that was the vampire summit, Sookie needs some time to recover. But she’s still worried about her missing boyfriend, Quinn, and fretting over the many changes in the vampire world. Now that Sophie-Anne is seriously injured and has lost her closest bodyguard, the vampire state of Louisiana is virtually up for grabs. The were world isn’t easy, either, with someone pitting the two factions against one another. Sookie’s going to be dealing with a lot of changes and very soon.
This installment of the Sookie series possibly has the least amount of cohesive plot ever. A lot of things are happening, but there isn’t necessarily one overarching point to it all. A lot of this book is Sookie going about her life and coping with what’s happened. I didn’t mind as much, but it was definitely a slower read than previous Sookie books because I wasn’t necessarily racing to find out what happened next. The end, however, has made me really want to pick up the current last book in the series, the ninth one, to see what happens there.
My favorite part of this one was definitely the relationship between Sookie and Eric. Like most people who read these books, I have a huge soft spot for Eric. Ever since he and Sookie were together in the fourth book, I have decided that I want him and Sookie to give it a shot, even if it wouldn’t work. I liked that he had something of a presence here and that he’s remembering what happened between them. I also thought their blood bond was interesting, and I am wondering if Sookie’s new-found ability to feel his emotions will have repercussions for the rest of the series.
Even though From Dead to Worse was somewhat lacking in the solid plot department, it still had a lot of action and was a fun read. So far, I can still recommend the series all the way.
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
 This is book seven in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I’m reading these in part for the challenge hosted over at Beth Fish Reads.
Sookie’s telepathic skills are about to come in handy for the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne. The vampires are having a summit and Sophie-Anne wants to know what the humans are thinking. Sookie mostly wants time to get over her traitorous ex, Bill, and get used to her new relationship with were-tiger Quinn, but she accepts Sophie-Anne’s offer. She’ll be generously paid and she’s curious. Vampire politics are complicated, though, and soon Sookie finds herself in a far bigger mess than she’d ever expected.
I’m still very much enjoying this series. Quite a bit happens in All Together Dead, keeping my attention very effectively. At the beginning, there is quite a bit of happening in Sookie’s normal life – her brother gets married to were-panther Crystal, for example, and Sookie has a new roommate in Amelia Broadway, witch. Her former friend Arlene bonds with the Fellowship of the Sun and Sookie finally gets a little closer to Quinn and develops some hope for their relationship. Her world is certainly never boring, but the vampire summit is clearly the high point of this book. As it should be, because this is really what develops the events in the entire supernatural world.
I really liked Sookie’s developing relationships. In the last book I thought I was fond of Quinn, but I’m not sure here. He’s been hiding things from Sookie and I’m not sure I like that. I am really enjoying the way her relationship is going with Eric though. It’s always interesting to see where each book goes. As always, Sookie herself is definitely the attraction for this series. She’s a sweet, honest, and genuinely interesting character and it’s nice to have a main character that feels so familiar over the course of the series.
As I’ve said in possibly every review so far, I’m recommending this series and looking forward to reading more.
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
 When young novice Serafina enters the convent at Santa Caterina, she is desperately unhappy and makes sure all the other nuns and novices know about it. Dowry prices for Italian aristocrats have risen so high that families with more than one daughter were forced to send the others to a convent. The convents were not as strict as they could be and girls were allowed to see their families, receive gifts, and make their lives easier, but there was no question that they were wed to God, and Serafina wants to be wed to someone else. Madonna Chiara sends the dispensary sister, Suora Zuana, to Serafina to calm her with her medical skills. The women form a friendship, but Serafina’s determination and zeal will not be quenched.
I enjoyed this book a surprisingly large amount. I loved the detailed peek into Italian convent life in particular. The pace of the book is occasionally slow, but it seems to match perfectly the pace of convent life, with the hours specifically devoted to work and prayer and not much in between. I was never bored, but actually spellbound by the entire book. The politics in the convent were fascinating; some sisters are in favor of new reforms that threaten to close off all convent life from the outside, even though this violates the understanding by which most women entered the convent in the first place. Others can’t imagine losing close contact with families, friends, and occasional luxuries, much less the prospect of losing the ability to hold concerts and plays. The drama and the manipulation that goes on to swing the convent one way or the other was fascinating to me, and these elements form the basis for part of the plot.
The characters were very interesting too. I’d never wondered much about women who were forced to take the veil. Serafina, however, proves just how frustrating this must be. Her determination and ingenuity make her very attractive as a character even as she complains that she’s been separated from the man she wanted to marry. I found her whole story to be uplifting and very moving. Moreover, Zuana’s interaction with Serafina makes her think about everything that she accepts, and her life is similarly fascinating and saddening. These women are at very different stages in life and as a result Zuana reflects on how she wound up in the convent and what she suffered. It isn’t romance, but these two women combined give a very interesting picture of Italian life.
In the end, I loved Sacred Hearts. I think it’s my favorite novel by Sarah Dunant, and I wasn’t expecting that at all. Highly recommended.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book from the publisher for review here.
 First of all, if you’ve come by my blog first, do go head over and have a look at Patti’s coffee cake over at Patti’s Pen and Picks!
As someone who doesn’t like chocolate all that much, I’m always searching for dessert recipes that don’t need chocolate for everyone else to find them delicious. I have a family full of chocolate lovers, so my efforts don’t always meet with success. This sugar cookie recipe is a winner, though, and even my husband, who complains that he wants chocolate chip cookies, will sneak a cookie when I’m not looking! I like these because not only are they delicious, but I often have the ingredients in my cupboard, and so I can make them at almost any time. They’re also very forgiving and I’ve tried endless variations of this recipe. This is the one that comes out the best, in my opinion.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- colored sugar (optional, for rolling the cookies in)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, or 190 degrees C. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside. Melt the butter and margarine together until very soft and runny, about 30 seconds in the microwave. You can also use just butter, or just margarine, but I prefer the mix. Cream together with the sugar. Once smooth, add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Gradually, add the flour mixture until it all comes together to form a sticky dough. You can refrigerate it to in order to roll it out for shapes, but drop cookies are easier, so normally I just take teaspoonfuls of the dough and roll in the sugar before placing on an ungreased baking sheet. They are also fine plain or rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 8 minutes for a soft cookie, 10 minutes for crispier cookies. If you bake them for 8, they will not be browned and will still be very soft, so leave them for a few minutes before placing on a rack to cool.
Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the colored ones, but here is a recent batch of plain and cinnamon sugar:
 And that’s all from me! If you try these out, please let me know what you think. In the meantime, head over to Beth Fish Reads and check out her recipe for Double Chocolate Layer Cake. That ought to satisfy any of you who might be chocolate lovers! For all today’s recipes, visit the Book Blog Social Club, where this dinner party is hosted.
 This is a collection of short stories and poems that Neil Gaiman has either written for publication elsewhere or had lying around for other reasons and collected in this volume. The stories are extremely varied, many are dark and involve magic (as one might expect), and there are even a few fairy tale retellings. A few of the stories pay homage to other writers and the explanations for these are given in the introduction, which is extremely helpful as one goes on.
I found this collection to be a bit of a mixed bag. I really enjoyed a lot of the stories, but I’m not a huge fan of poetry, and these didn’t strike me as particularly good. This may just be my own personal defect, but I enjoyed the prose short stories much more. I found myself at a disadvantage occasionally because I hadn’t heard of the author Gaiman was imitating or honoring, but for the most part these were interesting selections.
I haven’t read Gaiman in a while and I was surprised by how sexual some of his stories were, too. One was particularly explicit, describing virtually everything that goes on in a bedroom scene, and I hadn’t really expected that at all. Another one is about a man obsessed with finding a girl photographed naked in a magazine, always aged nineteen no matter when the pictures appear. I didn’t remember if this was typical of his work or if he’d just made exceptions here. A lot of the stories were creepy and had dark or ambiguous endings. As I was going along, I thought this would be perfect for the RIP challenge, even though it’s a long time until the next one.
I don’t really have any deep thoughts about this collection, but I think it speaks volumes that while I normally take forever to read short story collections (I’ve had a different one going for a couple of weeks), I finished this one in a couple of days. The stories are often very short, two to three pages, and Gaiman writes well. The stories go oddly well together, often picking up on themes, like magicians’ magic (hence smoke and mirrors) and using various bits of mythology to make his reader think.
Overall, Smoke and Mirrors is recommended, especially if you enjoy short stories and creepier fantasy.
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
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