Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

ROOM

By Emma Donoghue

Quote: "We're like people in a book, and he won't let anybody else read it."~ "Ma" pg. 90

started on Oct. 18

ended on Oct.25,2011

From the cover:

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the world. It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where Jack is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

 Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside Ma's own desperation- and she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer. 

 Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating- a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.

Visit these websites to read more about the book and author

Author: Emma Donoghue

Room The Book

Room~ movie trailer

Sorry all, this book is too hard to really review without giving too much away! It is one that will get under your skin and be stuck in your head. For me, My opinions are too strong not to spill my guts and ruin it for everyone! It is a must read!!

5 stars for overall

4 for writing

******SPOILERS******


This book was a love/hate book. I loved that it was told through Jack's mind, but I did have trouble grasping some of the adult characters. i didn't like grandma. she seems so distant and nonchalant about the whole situation and I understand everyone deals with tragedy and stress differently but after all that "Ma" had been through she just seemed distant with her and made light of the whole ordeal.
Grandpa was just a... not sure on this one. He didn't play a major role and maybe that's why I can't find the words to describe him. Other than the same distance I felt with the grandma.
There were a few times I found unconsistancies in the characters.
1. Jack seemed to use "big" words or even at times have an adult dialect then would revert back to the toddler gibbering. If it was only Jack, ma, and the T.V., would he really say things like.." May you go us to the kid place, where the kids and Bronwyn my cousin are."
2. When Ma is "Gone" and the nurse takes him out of the room and he leaves with Paul and the aunt. I was just waiting for "Ma" to wake up and go freaking crazy over him being away from her. Instead we learn she has OD'd and the book gives us no details about her reaction to that(I understand Jack wasn't there, therefore he can't tell that part). Even after that while he is at Grandma's she seems too detatched for a mom that hasn't been away from him even 1hr his whole life.(Not realistic) to me.

Review: The Blind In Darkness

The Blind In Darkness

by Stephen Lewis

Quote: "I do not think it. But that is why I send you to Master Woolsey. In the event I am wrong. Go. There is no time now for your stubborn disobedience." ~ Mistress Catherine Williams pg.41

started: Oct.11, 2011

finished: Oct.18, 2011

From the cover:

One the newly settled coast of New England lay the town of Newbury. In a harsh land, its people lived a difficult life, where the truth was often clouded by suspicion and superstition. But when trouble struck, one woman would have the strength and courage to separate truth from lies...

An Old New England Mystery

Midwife Catherine Williams goes out one snowy afternoon to administer first aid to the eccentric owner of a neighboring farm. Days later, old man Powell is found dead-not from the wound Catherine tended, but from a killer's brutal work. and his young apprentice has disappeared.

Review: This is going to be a tough one for me. First of all, to me this book started really slow. Now it could be the actual book or it could have been my busy schedule and lack of time. (having to read only 20-25 pages every couple of days). Anyway, it does get more interesting around chapter 4. This book is a mixture of colonial/history, murder/mystery, and what I call risque, in the sense of taboo subjects. It seems to jump around with a lot of characters intertwined. There is also some getting used to the name changes due to Native Americans being given "English" names.  Depending on who is conversing with the Indian determines which name is used, thus you have to keep track of the who's who.

The book is a good inside look at things that "could" actually be true during this time period. The things you wouldn't read about in your HS history text books.

I would recommend this book to anyone into the "whodunnits?", anyone that, like me, wants a deeper look into the not sugar coated history. I would have to rate this book R- for sexual content and violence.

I would give it 3 stars

Review: Dear America

Dear America: 

The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce

Like The Willow Tree

Portland, Maine, 1918

By 

Lois Lowry

Quote:

 " They'll seem strange to you at first. They have some strange customs. It's their religion." ~ Uncle Henry

started reading: 10/4/11

ended 10/6/11

From the cover:

In 1918, as the Great War rages in Europe, the Spanish influenza tears a brutal path across the United Stats, leaving devastation in its wake. Suddenly, eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce and her brother, Daniel, find themselves orphans of the flu, and are taken by their grieving uncle to be raised int he shaker community at Sabbathday Lake. Thrust into Shakers' unfamiliar way of life, Lydia, a fiercely independent girl, must grapple with a new world that is nothing like the one she used to know.

  Lydia must work hard, and all the while she worries about her headstrong brother, who has run away. In time, and with her courageous spirit, Lydia learns to find joy in living with the Shakers- yet she cannot stop wondering, will Daniel ever return?

Review: 

I really liked this spunky little girl from the beginning. She seems so typical and reminds me that no matter what century they are from  or where they are born,  little girls pretty much think the same. The story begins on Lydia's 11th birthday and she is learning that you can't always get what you want. even on your own birthday. Due to the spreading of the Spanish influenza all public buildings are being asked to close up and that includes the theatre where Lydia had planned on visiting today.

This will be the first of many unexpected changes young Lydia will have to experience. She learns to not only be more conservative but also more productive. Nothing will be easy and there is much that will change.

When tragedy strikes her own household she finds there is change all around. What is normal anymore? Where does she belong?

The epilogue is nicely written also. I love when a story gives you a little something to see farther done the road how things turn out.

Overall this was a very good JR. It teaches lessons in giving, unselfishness, heartache, loyalty and learning to adapt in unforseen circumstances. 

I would fit this into the ages 9-14 age group. Depending on maturity of course. Some may find it dull.

Tuesday Teaser

Teaser Tuesday: A Night to Surrender

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two "teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

I just started this book yesterday, so it really will be a teaser for myself. I'm taking a little break and just doing a quick book. 
My teaser is from:




Dear America: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce(Like the Willow Tree)
Portland, Maine, 1918
 by Lois Lowry
pg. 111
" Snow makes me think about Christmas. At home, before the epidemic that changed everything, we would be busy making gifts and cookies for the holidays."

Review: Uprising

Uprising

by 

Margaret Peterson Haddix

Quote: 

“I will go back to Triangle. I'm not done fighting there. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'm sure -- I can still do something to change that place.” Yetta

started reading Sept. 24, 2011
ended Oct. 2, 2011 


Synopsis:Three girls become unlikely friends during troubled times in early 1900s New York City. Bella, newly arrived from Italy, gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. There, along with hundreds of others, she works long hours at a guieling job under terrible conditions. Yetta, a coworker from Russia, has been crusading for a union, and when conditions worsen, she joins a historic strike. Wealthy Jane learns of the plight of the workers and becomes involved in their cause. And all three girls are at the Triangle factory on March 26, 1911, when a spark ignites some cloth and the building is engulfed in fire. Can any of them survive?(taken from Haddix webpage)

This book is very well researched. It is one of the best historical fiction books I have read in a long time. Haddix does a wonderful job of keeping facts in an accurate timeline and capturing the very likely feelings and situations of each of the three girls involved. Each girl is different in many ways.
 Bella is a 15 year old immigrant from Italy. She was sent to America to help support her family back home.Yetta is a Jewish girl from Russia who has come to America to reunite with her older sister.

Jane is a 16 year old wealthy girl from New York who lives with her father and governess/chaperon 

I love that each girl has her own trials to deal with, yet they are somehow always there for each other. Each girl has her own agenda and dreams and they soon realize that it can all change too quickly.

The Triangle shirtwaist factory fires was an actual event that took place on March 25, 1911 due to many problems inside and outside of the factory. 

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in historical events or a great bittersweet novel. 

Here are a few websites you can get more information on either the book or facts about the events.

http://www.shelfari.com/books/685171/Uprising

http://www.haddixbooks.com/books/uprise.html

http://www.historybuff.com/library/refshirtwaist.html

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/triangle-shirtwaist-fire-in-new-york-city