Paper Love will be the book I give to my two daughters, 26 and 23 for the holidays. Though it is not their family story- it is about family stories loPaper Love will be the book I give to my two daughters, 26 and 23 for the holidays. Though it is not their family story- it is about family stories lost to time. It tells of a search by this writer to understand a grandfather's past, and his past love, through letters found hidden in a file after his death. But that search involves the brutality of the past, the loss of innocence around her grandfather, and her own reconstruction and growth in the thought of their family-it involves opening secrets and peering at the bones of the dead. How brave is the writer to keep going, to search.
My own son sought to know more of the death of my uncle in Korea, killed at 19, and brought the truth of it all to my mother a few years ago. And she could not read it. Though she feared it and had already faced his death. She could not read that he was literally thrown at the Chinese in a futile attempt to hold a hill in a battle until a retreat was ordered and the most soldiers killed there lying dead including her baby brother largely for absolutely nothing. And still we searched and I contacted the sister of a friend of his said to be present immediately after his death, a medic who went on to be a top public service doctor in Oregon now deceased, who could tell me that his reaching my uncle and his declaring him shot in the head-executed (over captured) by the Chinese was indeed a truthful account. And my Mom- I could not tell that piece.
In this book what I noticed was the things that didn't get passed along much like that moment in my digging up bones, how much people could not say. How many could not bear it, or who didn't find a way to knowing. That exists I think as a key component of our family and I suspect as I age perhaps it is the real truth of our lives. What happened to the Jews during these times recounted here is a horror that has to be told, read, preserved. Yet this exemplifies how that really works. And I still think of those capable of such cruelty. Imagine that is the family story their family will uncover as they press to understand the past-those descendant of Nazi killers and collaborators. Wildman has written a book to make us think about where we come from, about the history that is inescapably all of our story.
I want my kids to read this book, I think it's a story we all share-from a war that spanned a globe. From it we could look to the reality of actions taken through governmental power, where compassion and care are subjugated by hate. And it also is a love story, a telling of how life was lived in a time now fading to history.
Finding letters my mother sent to a first husband, who served in this war and I never knew about, it brought forward for me the feelings of needing to understand how my Mom was left broken hearted by his leaving to Europe to study after the war. Which led to divorce and her not living the life she was meant to live. For a book to touch me so personally-it is a testament to her real writing ability and the compelling nature of her focus in this work....more
I'm just reading this, so far a terrific read. I'm nostalgic for days that are gone.I'm just reading this, so far a terrific read. I'm nostalgic for days that are gone....more
Every once in awhile I run into a romance that hits close to home. It's probably not hard to figure out how to achieve that if you sit and watch who iEvery once in awhile I run into a romance that hits close to home. It's probably not hard to figure out how to achieve that if you sit and watch who is buying them at the bookstore-I've seen myself there-older, plump, so clearly eating and cooking, could use desperately a week at an art themed bed and breakfast in a sea side island setting, taking care of elderly family members, dealing with those that are emotionally unavailable, ghosts of the past in their heads. Facing a few more years. For me this was a morning read, a long cry and just a really strange place to put together a lot of my own admittedly far more pathetic current themes. (including saying out loud-"compared to the people he knows and grew up with you were a poor, pathetic, uninteresting rube-as if speaking into my past) I take care of my mother, I cook, I wish I could renovate a place with a gorgeous carpenter, certainly a love of Victorians, my mother losing daily to TIA's, my feelings of struggles with ghosts of the past-like knowing what her death will be like after sacrificing 5 years from 19 on to help my grandmother pass alone/poor, but to review the book. This is the story of the third brother (liked all the books) in an alcoholic family where to cope he had no expectations and basically was invisible.Grew up hard. For reasons I don't understand, but accept as the plot, Alex is drinking heavily after a divorce because he married someone he has no feelings for-as a kind of object-but it certainly went poorly because he's lost everything in the divorce. So he's drinking himself into oblivion.He doesn't want to feel. I never understand that-I suppose I don't really understand alcohol. Zoe is so perfectly formed no man can resist seeing her as other than a kitten. I suppose that should offend but I was thinking about her grandmother-the story has a grandmother who is coping with the last days in dementia and Zoe in the story will take on her care. (not like the rest of us with no dollars but like we would if we could with a house Alex restores). Food that Zoe makes is magic and described in a lovely way. She's terrific in a kitchen. Alex is good in the sack. We all have our demons so Alex has a friendly ghost not named Casper. That ghost will unravel his story with Alex's help and eventually the story comes to a very nice conclusion.
In a way it's a very simple story. Not sure why but to me very touching. I felt better about taking care of mom after I read it. Better about drunks, better about ghosts, better about stain glass windows, unwanted pregnancies, miscarriages, dying, existentialism, aprons,the past, car wrecks, the soul, foolish mistakes, muffins and eating cobbler. If you like romances, you might like this one, but I'd read the series....more
At some point this series turned into explaining this series from every possible myth story and angle, then having former characters appear, and a couAt some point this series turned into explaining this series from every possible myth story and angle, then having former characters appear, and a couple of scenes of smart @ss comments, and end of the world as we know it refrains. Personally I like less of that explaining. This one was a day's read. I'm glad the world as we know it is still turning. The two main character names were too close to other character names from other works and that seemed really odd. But I do enjoy her books. Maybe one day we won't need the tome to explain and it'll just be fun again. ...more
This was a short retelling of a very serious health issue-that struck out of the blue for the writer- that probably deserves a book. I don't know BoroThis was a short retelling of a very serious health issue-that struck out of the blue for the writer- that probably deserves a book. I don't know Borowitz writing, just funny fb remarks, until this piece, but I do know what intestinal cancers, surgeries and a long ten year struggle with multiple episodes of peritonitis is like. I know what it's like not to be "allowed" to talk about it all, by the perception you are somehow whining or at least trying to explain some of that to people that wish you'd shut up or that have no time for it, this stance I know.( As if telling any of it was somehow looking for someone to care or give empathy you don't deserve. I don't see him affected as I was except maybe that this is so short....when I'm sure it deserves a book...that he realized he could only have a very short moment to be serious about this) I know how being mocked over being ill and vulnerable is. Anyway it was a good read because three times I've been told I was going to be put through a temporary colostomy and in all three cases my husband refused the surgery-this put me at great risk but he wasn't going to have THAT in HIS life. This really made me think about those experiences and took me to a several day silence. I did survive cancers, so far, but what I went through was very tough. Borowitz had no cancer, but a sudden awareness of what a very dangerous thing peritonitis and the intestine are, and from that reflects on what an amazing gift life is. He has learned a great and amazing lesson about what we waste time doing rather than living loving one another. He got right to the one thing I've learned.
I can barely rerun those 6 or 7 times I had peritonitis without wondering how I'm still here-or recalling the most intense pain I think you can have. And how I buried all of that, which no one allows me to really share without giving me advise-and they don't know what they are speaking about-, that's tough. A part of me is rejected completely in this world that refuses compassion for the sick or an understanding of shared humanity. That eventually it hits us all-deny all you like. Or that turns in the face of your bravely sharing this vulnerability, to say "you take yourself too seriously." Ok.
It was interesting to read a far more loving experience,because he is supported and loved and doesn't speak of what defined my experiences-the being alone.Makes it a far more joyful read. He took stock in a very positive way. This is basically a retelling of a twisted colon, complications from surgery in one of the best hospitals around for a guy that got pretty good care and had his life go ok finally. For me, because my issues lasted 15 years, involved incredible pain and are ongoing, in crappy hospitals, it's a bit like knowing someone out there has a tiny bit of insight but really has no idea what it can be like. It made me tear up for a second. He's a quick read and a good writer.
Maybe this is the story to recommend to the person that took you at your most vulnerable-coming out of things like this, and took advantage and made a joke out of "being smitten" with you.Maybe this is for that guy. But, maybe, nothing gets through to those folks. ...more
Out of Time was enjoyable as a summer read, but I suspect I'd like it in fall, winter. The premise is that a woman, Kathy Lee (Kathleen, Kitty)-my onlOut of Time was enjoyable as a summer read, but I suspect I'd like it in fall, winter. The premise is that a woman, Kathy Lee (Kathleen, Kitty)-my only real teeth grate was the use of the name Kathy Lee- inherits an old house. When she is escaping her marital issues from a pending divorce and the two children she loves, and her mother, she goes to that house and through a trip in a garden shed it presents her with a portal into another time -not that she travels-through which comes a man from Revolutionary days. This is the story of a man that leaps through a couple hundred years to the same spot where he was once a British officer in the time of the Revolution. What you read story-wise is them sorting this out-Robert learning the present, alternately with interesting allusions to the past, then to his past, his adjusting to modern times and then, surprise, a romance blooms. If you look too hard then you won't accept he could adapt so readily, that the language differences would seem so non-existent, that they might never actually look up his personal history on-line. You might even shake an incredulous head at having such an extreme louse of a husband-an adulterous complication that Robert takes amazingly well. Welcome to modern times I suppose.
Robert is a keeper for sure. But will they be able to survive a private detective, another time traveler with some strange fixation on a piece of paper( I never got this part entirely),a gun with a silencer, and a tumble through the portal backwards? I definitely put in the three hours to find out, happily thinking about the various homes and scenes depicted, and rather glad for a story to travel around in time with enough detail to make me remember a few things I learned once in various history classes.
I like time travel stories, so, yes, I enjoyed this one. ...more
I like this romance writer. And I enjoyed last night reading this story. Sometimes I want to imagine I have a romantic place to go. Last night the book I like this romance writer. And I enjoyed last night reading this story. Sometimes I want to imagine I have a romantic place to go. Last night the book took me to an island. I think an island and a Victorian house are part of my fantasy life. If you like romance books, islands and Victorians you might like this book. But don't look for physics or deep content-this writer I think is a bright cookie, but it's a very "in a genre" kind of book.
The main character Lucy, a glass artist, meets a guy named Sam after her sister Alice takes her boyfriend. Sam has commitment issues and Lucy must have forever in a relationship. Add in an alcoholic brother for Sam (Alex) and another book in the series brother Mark with a niece Holly, and you get a very nice set up for a story. Lucy is fighting the past in the form of a sister Alice who was favored, and Sam is dealing with the demons of two severely alcoholic parents that died. He has his demons, she has hers. What was mildly interesting was an inclusion of "magic" in a very benign form, and a storyline that provided rather good descriptions of being a glass artist (and a grape grower).
I don't want to give the story away except to say that the story definitely supports fairytales. While having a few modern sounding complications as well it's still Cinderellish. It still rests on the ground that an eternal relationship is the goal of life. Will Lucy actually forgive her sister for sleeping with and stealing her boyfriend? Will Sam who has lived adamantly as a commitment phob commit? Will Lucy somehow turn glass into something that does something or is the gift rather like a mildly magical kotche animator?
This was a pleasant read. What I liked: the Victorian house Sam fixes and loves with the vineyards he runs, Lucy's glass art and art driven world, the threads of how childhood shapes later relationships, the island and descriptions of it. The rather low key and fairly under-described sex scenes which were not soft pornish and were just rather mild, and oddly the "accident."
It would have been perfect for an afternoon on a vacation.
I'm a little bit older so I might haggle with ideas that a woman's role is to turn a commitment wary fellow into a forever kind of guy and I also might haggle with a person entering into a NSA relationship after several terrible defeats because they'd given up. It might just be better to go be an artist. But, I'm also not constructing a story in a genre with strict rules about the form.
I'm now reading the first book in the series. Just to de-stress and try to meet some needs vicariously. ...more
"You" start to read the book. Immediately you see why someone recommended it to you.
You like the descriptions of marital boredom. You notice that the st"You" start to read the book. Immediately you see why someone recommended it to you.
You like the descriptions of marital boredom. You notice that the story starts to resemble a montage of everything under the sun and then throw in "the bush." You wonder if at about Lesson 19 the author could have written a book you might recognize as like life, versus like someone throwing in the kitchen sink with a blender making you a cosmo. You start to think that the use of the you is the most amazingly irritating literary device you ever read. You start thinking about when you ever read it before and decide you know why not. You wonder if you can solve your own issues as a middle aged woman by asking your Dad to maim someone and show you he loves you too.
You go make a salad. You choose Thousand Island. You read another romance book. You've had enough.
You think, if "you" wrote the book from chapter 19 on, called "lessons"- it would be a better book. You think of deducting another star....more
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