Frenchiedee - The Book Addict

I’m no expert when it comes to detective novels but when I read a good one I’m really happy about it and I just have to tell you guys about it.  The Case of the Missing Servant ignited some kind of desire to read more detective novels, especially of its kind.  What kind you may ask? Those that contain larger than life characters placed in the modern-day back drop of hustling and bustling India.  All the elements for a captivating intrigue are present; starting with Vish Puri.  He is the managing director of Most Private Investigators Ltd.  He’s a tall big Punjabi man who’s passionate about his work and takes it very seriously.  He’s striking, intelligent, and loves his food.  Looking at the cover one would have a tendency to compare him to a Hercule Poirot type character but that’s farther from the truth.  He’s an original of his own kind – a hands on detective that uses the oldest methods around to solve crimes, mainly disguise.  His talented team uses disguises and their knowledge of where they need to go to get the information they’re seeking.

The highlights of this novel are all the information surrounding India, its regions, different dialects, food, violence, culture, etc.  One major warning is this book will make you hungry for Indian food and I’m in Italy at the moment.  Those are all the things I loved about The Case of the Missing Servant.  When Vish was eating I was too in my mind.  The Case of the Missing Servant will teach you about India and entertain you with a mystery.  As I was reading along I had no problem picturing the scenes or the characters.  Some of the characters aren’t described physically at all but for some reason I quickly imagined what they might look like with no problem.  I could see this book being adapted to television or to the cinema with no problem, i.e. fantastic scenery, characters, plot, and costumes.  This series will bring to mind The No°1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, which I haven’t read yet.  Although, I think the only similarities are that these series are written by Brits who have set their stories in a foreign country where they’ve lived and that they know well. This is what makes The Case of the Missing Servant so real.  It’s clear Hall knows Delhi very well because of the quality of the descriptions and cultural references.  Nothing is forced and everything feels authentic and flows.  The writing style and the extra India facts are like icing on the cake.  The only thing that bugged me was having to flip to the back of the book to the glossary to check the meaning of the different phrases and vocabulary in Hindu (sometimes 3 times on the same page).  I would have preferred having the glossary footnoted at the bottom of the pages.  I would have finished reading it much quicker, and footnotes would have aided in improving my reading flow.  Overall, I love reading fiction set in India, especially when the details seem to be realistic and the plot is engaging.

Tarquin Hall was born in London but has lived abroad most of his life in various countries, including India, Pakistan, Turkey, the United States, and Kenya.  He is a successful journalist and has written over seven books and many articles which have appeared in top British newspapers.  His first book was published in 1994.  From there he continued to write other novels like, To the Elephant Graveyard (2000), which has been deemed a classic and Salaam Brick Lane (2005), which is a non-fiction book written about his return to live and rediscover life in London and in particular Brick Lane with his Indian-born American fiancée.  I’m really interested in checking this one out since I need to read more non-fiction.  I’m also curious to compare it withBrick Lane by Monica Ali.  I would like to see how accurate the setting and feel of Brick Lane was in comparison to Hall’s real account.  Subsequently, Hall then ventured into writing detective novels by creating the dedicated, clever, and proud Punjabi detective Vish Puri, beginning with The Case of the Missing Servant(2008), The Case of the Man who Died Laughing (2010), and The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken(2012).  The fourth novel, The Case of the Love Commandos will be out this year at the beginning of October.  Look forward to more reviews on this series.  I can’t wait until The Case of the Man who Died Laughingshows up in my mailbox.  So, if you’re looking for a detective novel with a special twist check it out.

Warpworld Book Summary:

Good looking.  Fine.  Cute. Hunky.  Sexy.  Hot.  The word sexy can best be defined as being sexually suggestive, stimulating, or appealing.  However equivocal the word, since it can be used to describe how one feels and how one is perceived, that is the main focal point of the Young Adult novel by Joyce Carol Oates.  The novel begins with an intriguing first line which sucked me in immediately.  “Soon as he turned sixteen, put on weight and began to get attention for his looks, things began to turn weird.” (Sexy, p. 1)  That first chapter then continues on with descriptions of how good-looking, shy and sexy Darren Flynn is. Of course these are the opinions of the way he is perceived, spoken by the narrator.  Narrated in the third person with peppered dialogue here and there, we get to the crux of sexy and other issues that are floating around in Darren’s head and the other character’s too.

Darren Flynn is tallish light-haired and built like a swimmer/diver – broad shoulders, slim waist.  We are introduced to the two most import parts of his world, which are his home and school life.  These are the two places that an adolescent has to fit.  It seems that fitting in at home can prove to be just as difficult as fitting in at school.  Once these worlds are constructed for us along with the important characters the story takes off into directions you won’t believe.  Oates took the word sexy and exploited it to the max and that’s what I admired about the writing and the plot.  Sexy is not a typical Young Adult novel.  It has typical physical characteristics of a Young Adult novel because the chapters are fairly short, the typography is large, and the pages have wide margins.  However, Sexy has a literary style of writing and isn’t just a plot with typical characters that you’ve seen before and the plot is not predictable.  Some of the main themes of Sexy are coming of age, budding sexuality, friendship and trust, loyalty and its importance, how rumours get spread and can poison the innocent.  It’s worth the read and the 4 stars I gave it on Goodreads.

 Joyce Carol Oates is known for having written over 40 novels, plays, short stories, poetry, novellas, and non-fiction work.   Sexy is her fourth Young Adult novel published in 2005.  Some school libraries have attempted to ban Sexy because of its mature themes and strong language, although I don’t think it’s any worse than what adolescents hear and see daily on television or the internet. It’s for that reason I’d love to hear what adolescents have to say about it.  Some of her other Young Adult novels are Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002),Small Avalanches and Other Stories (2003), After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (2006), Two or Three Things I forgot to Tell You (2012) and Freaky Green Eyes, which was critically acclaimed while being designated as one of the best children’s books of 2003. If you’ve read Sexyplease comment below and tell me what you thought of it, especially if you’re an adolescent.

This summer I plunged into One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.  Its attractive cover will definitelyentice Middle Grade readers, as well as Young Adult readers to discover a crazy summer in Oakland, California in 1968.  The novel begins with Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern, threes sisters on their way to Oakland in pursuit of their mother that left them behind.  Their meeting with Cecile, their mother, alias Nzila, will lead the girls to more than who their mother is but to a better understanding of the fight for Civil Rights.

One Crazy Summer explores everyday life in the sixties, while depicting another aspect of the Black Panthers’ movement.  It’s a touching and informative lesson in Black History.  The story means even more since it’s being told through the eyes of Delphine, the oldest sister who is eleven years old and responsible for everything.  She is terribly veracious in recounting the story and her personal feelings.  You will feel attached and supportive of her.  Vonetta is the middle sister and she loves to be seen, while Fern is the youngest and follows her two big sisters and looks to them for solace.

Rita Williams-Garcia won four major awards – the Scott O’Dell Awards for Historical Fiction, the Newberry Honor Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and was a National Book Award Finalist for One Crazy Summeralong with many other literary distinctions.  The book is a lovely edition which contains Williams-Garcia’s acceptance speech for the Coretta Scott King award, a deleted chapter, and activities that could be used in schools to study this novel more in-depth.  Well worth the read and full of wonderful ideas for teachers that want to teach more African-American history. I rated One Crazy Summer 4 stars on Goodreads.  I’m very interested in discovering more of Rita Williams-Garcia’s work.  Some of her other titles include Blue Tights,Every Time a Rainbow Dies, Fast talk on a Slow Track, Jumped, Like sisters on the Homefront, and No Laughter Here.  This book seems to be a tribute to the children who lived through the vociferous times of the sixties.  …” “I had enjoyed my childhood.”  In spite of the necessary upheaval going on in the country and the world,….in spite of being reminded that tomorrow was not promised, I enjoyed my childhood.  My siblings and I indulged in now-vanishing pastimes.  We played hard.  Read books. Colored with crayons.  Rode bikes.  Spoke as children spoke.  Dreamed our childish dreams.  If our parents did anything for us at all, they gave us a place to be children and kept the adult world in its place-as best as they could.  But curious eyes and ears always latch on to something.” (One Crazy Summer, p.3 of Extras – An excerpt from Rita Williams-Garcia’s Acceptance Speech for the Coretta Scott King Author Award for One Crazy Summer)

After her father was discharged from the army, Williams-Garcia and her family moved back to New York where there was a strong presence of the Black Panther Party.  The image that she saw of them in her neighborhood didn’t at all equate to the image that was being delineated in the media.  She admits openly to members of her family being former Black Panthers and Black Nationalists.  Subsequently, this beautifully written story about the Black Panther Party’s handiwork in the black community and three little black girls discovering their mother and their civic duty is one you shouldn’t miss, not to mention it’s perfect for young readers. Click the link below to hear Rita Williams-Garcia speaking sprightly about One Crazy Summer and go to http://www.ritawg.com for more information about her work and her future upcoming events.

After reading Warpworld, the science-fiction novel that happily surprised me, I just couldn’t decide what to pick up next.  So after having a quick look over a few of my shelves,French Milk seemed to be calling my name.  French Milk was written by Lucy Knisley and published in 2007.  Earlier this year I read Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, which was the first novel I read from Knisley, which I reviewed favourably.

What I loved about Relish I also loved about French Milk too.  French Milk recounts Lucy and her mother’s six-week stay in Paris in 2006 to highlight her mother turning 50 and Lucy turning 23.  The book is a mixture of illustration and photography.  Knisley has a brilliant style of illustrating that appeals to many.  It’s really an excellent idea to talk about Paris in this way.  She is very candid and seems to have left nothing out of her six weeks in Paris.  She talks about all of their visits, what they eat, the oddities of their 5th arrondissement apartment, and the particularities of the French.

If you live in France and/or know a bit about Paris, it will make you laugh, smile and surely nod your head in agreement on quite a lot of things.  Knisley has a very keen sense of observation during her brief stay in Paris.  Her book definitely makes for an excellent publicity praising how scrumptious French food can be too. The entire book was making we want to go out and get some foie gras and it’s not even the moment to eat foie gras. It’s too darn hot!

Needless to say, check out French Milk it’s got the list of what to do, see, and eat when you finally get to Paris for a visit.  If you already live in France it’ll make you want to re-visit some places.  The only thing I disagreed with Knisley on was the milk.  She made it sound as if there was no low-fat milk in France, when actually there is full-fat, half-fat, and low-fat.  I guess she never saw the others, but I strongly agree that the milk tastes delicious here.  It doesn’t taste a thing like what I grew up drinking in the States.  Be that as it may, this is a book that is well worth the time and not bad for lounging on the beach on holiday either.

I can’t say I’ve read lots of books by Bernice L. McFadden.  Actually I’ve only read two, Glorious andGathering of Waters.  Glorious was a story about a Harlem renaissance writer, which I enjoyed until it ended abruptly and left me searching for more.  I embarked on Gathering of Waters for three reasons; 1. because it was written by Bernice L. McFadden, 2. because it was the 2013 Clutch Reading group on Goodreads title choice for the month of May, and 3.  after I read the inside flap of the book with this stunning cover, I was immediately sold and knew I had to read it.

The story basically follows three generations of women from 1900 to 2005.  So, it covers life leading up to the week before Emmett Till is murdered and goes on beyond that.  I found this story beautifully recounted and that dash of magical realism that makes the entire story come to life unexpectedly.  There are a range of engrossing characters who are defined and developed perfectly.  The book isn’t very long so McFadden was successful in depicting the characters in particular situations and with rich, moving, and sassy dialogue.  Gathering of Waters, has that bold, direct storytelling style that makes African-American literature so thought-provoking.  It’s stuffed full of excellent one liners that mean so much.

Now I have to mention the debate I’ve been hearing about the usage of Emmett Till in the story.  There are people out there who think McFadden is using the Emmett Till murder to plug her book.  I can see how people would think that but it’s not the case.  If you read the inside flap of the book, that is basically a short synopsis of the story that you will be reading.  What McFadden does is set Emmett Till in a real space of life so that he becomes more than just a murdered young black man.  There was a before, a now, and an after and McFadden explores all that.  The fact that she decided to write this book is also edifying.  There are people out there who don’t even know who Emmett Till was and I’m not just talking about white people.  This incident was one of  many stains on American history that hasn’t made it in the history books.  How did I learn about that tragic night for Emmett Till?  - Of course from my mother and my grand-mother.  Oral discourse, the oldest way to pass on family traditions, history, and cultural habits.  Gathering of Waters is a perfect example of that.

Money, Mississippi is the narrator.  It lets you in on all the workings and secrets of this microcosm.  The ‘gathering of waters’ is more than a place that’s squashed between bodies of water, a place called Mississippi.  It is also symbolic of that fine line that separates blacks from whites.  It is the place where they meet like bouncing molecules off one another.  They come together for a moment only to separate soon there after.

Bernice L. McFadden has been writing since she was eight years old.  Her first novel, Sugar, which is part of a duo, was published in 2000.  She’s written other compelling novels like Glorious, This Bitter Earth (second part of Sugar), Nowhere is a Place, Loving Donovan, and others.  She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Warmest December.  She is strongly influenced by authors like Toni Morrison, Ann Petry, Alice Walker,  J. California Cooper, and Rita Dove.  McFadden describes writing as something that comes to her and a necessity.  McFadden says, “I write to breathe life back into memory.”

This year is starting with a big bang with and excellent five-star YA novel.  I finally chose one that is living up to my expectations and isn’t a long puffed up series.  The story is about Melinda Sordino.  She’s starting her first year of high school and no one is speaking to her, including her best friends.  An incident from summer has plunged her into silence and it seems she is doomed to speak no more.  Even though she is silent, she is screaming inside.  It’s just nobody hears her, not her parents or her friends.  Speak took me back to high school and made think of those days when you only seemed to befriend those that were just like oneself.  Clicks were the way students got from one year to another.  You had to fit in and fit in is what most students do or at least attempt to.  However, there are those who are total outcasts for one reason or another.  Melinda is not really an outcast.  She just feels like one and is perceived as one in her surroundings.  She feels as if she’s disappearing, crumbling like an abandoned home.

Speak takes us on Melinda’s journey to express her pain and not speaking is the way she survives, literally hanging off the edge of a cliff, and hoping to be caught by a suspended net below if she falls, which doesn’t seem to come.  In spite of her pain, she is very lucid about the people and the things happening around her.  Her descriptions are blunt but absolutely correct.  As a reader you’ll love her, want to protect her, and root for her right from the start to the end.

The writing in this novel is clever, witty, and cutting at times.  The sentence structure is short, direct, very humorous and sometimes makes you want to shed a tear.  The chapters are never longer than about 3 to 3,5 pages and the shortest ones are about half a page.  At no point will this book bore you.  Actually you could read it in one sitting because it’s not very long.

At the beginning of the book Laurie Halse Anderson writes a letter to her friends.  She says, “Speak is the book I wasn’t going to write.  Why would I want to revisit the agonies of adolescence?  Wasn’t that the point of surviving to adulthood—-so I could block out the traumas of being a teenager?…..So I tried.  I wrote the book.  I never thought anyone would publish it.  I never dreamed it would earn any awards.  I never imagined it would be taught in schools,…This has all been an unexpected, remarkable ride.” (Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak)  This is a really wonderful book and everybody should read it.  It will make you think.  It will make you see. It will make you cry, but most of all it will make you listen.

Laurie Halse Anderson is an American author known for writing about difficult topics like dysfunctional families, body image, rape, etc.  She tackles these topics originally and honestly.  She writes primarily for young adults and children.  Her first novel Speak was published in 1999 and led her to win the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults selection, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize,the Printz Honor Book Award, and a  National Book Award nomination among others.  Some of the other young adult novels she has written areCatalyst, Prom, Twisted and Chains.  Her first children’s novel, Ndito Runs, was published in 1996.  Turkey Pox, No Time for Mother’s Day, The Big Cheese of Third Street and many others have followed.  I’m definitely going to try to read some of her other YA novels because she really is a brilliant writer who knows how to capture the emotions of a situation.  Great read!!  

At the moment on You Tube in booktubia everybody seems to be reading something Japanese whether it be manga or Kazuo Ishiguro or Haruki Murakami.  I haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of their works butRemains of the Day and 1Q84 (Books 1-3) stare me down every time I pass my bookshelf.  So in honour of all this love for Japanese literature I decided to read something from long ago, something that I’d read in high school my senior year.  It’s Patriotism by Yukio Mishima.

Patriotism is a novelette packed with poignant and intense images.  Disguised in simple packaging, with its stark white cover splattered with a few drops of blood, it looks as if someone really did bleed on it.  The purity and straightforwardness of the cover echoes the story.  A lieutenant in the Japanese army, Shinji Takeyama decides to commit suicide, seppuku after learning that his friends have become mutineers.  Since he knows his duty will be to hunt them down and to kill them, he is torn between his duty as lieutenant and friendship.  Reiko, his wife, follows him in this sudden tragic act, for loyalty and devotion are the roles of Japanese women who are married to soldiers.  Shinji and Reiko end their lives together in a ritual that evokes passion, devotion, and patriotism.

“ON THE TWENTY-EIGHTH of February 1936 (on the third day, that is, of the February 26 incident), Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama of the Kanoe Transport Battalion-profoundly disturbed by the knowledge that his closest colleagues had been with the mutineers in the beginning, and indignant at the imminent prospect of Imperial troops attacking Imperial troops-took his officer’s sword ceremonially disemboweled himself in the eight-mat room of his private resident in the sixth block of Aoba-cho, Yotsuya Ward.  His wife, Reiko, followed him, stabbing herself to death.”(Patriotism, p. 3) 

The scene is set and we are read about the few hours that pass before Shinji and Reiko’s tragic end.  We start hearing about their wedding day.  The descriptions depict their differences and how they complete each other. “Shinji is described as strong, severe looking, wide-eyed, standing protectively next to his bride.  Whereas, Reiko is described as round soft eyes, beautiful, sensuous, and refined.” (Patriotism, p. 5)  They complete each other perfectly.  The narrator contemplates that people will look at their wedding picture when they are found after their suicide and think that maybe they were cursed; that their union was too good to be true.

The suicide is an orchestrated ritual that will mesmerize you and shock you.  They seem to be acting as methodical robots toward their death but it’s clear that their love for each other is deep and passionate.  They perform simple everyday tasks before the end trying to kindle the bit of life they have left.  Not once does Reiko question her husband’s decision but soldiers on steadfast, while adding last-minute touches to the dramatic finale.

The images in this novel are striking and symbolic, all on a back drop of white and red like the cover of the book.  Mishima takes the reader through this horrid ritual but makes it appear to be art at its perfection.  Disturbing.  The attention to detail is consistent with Japanese art and culture.  The images of red pouring over the pages will invade your serenity.  The color red symbolises hardiness, bravery, strength, like in the Japanese flag.  The color white in the Japanese flag stands for  peace and honesty, which Shinji and Reiko both find in patriotism.  In essence, that is nothing more than being loyal.

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), born Kimitake Hiraoka, was one of the most prolific Japanese writers of the 20th century.  He was a short story writer, novelist,  playwright, poet, essayist, and critic.  Some of the principal themes he wrote about were sexuality, political change, and death.  Having been nominated three times for the Nobel Prize for literature, it is believed he lost in 1968 because of his right-wing activities.  Mishima was a jack-of-all-trades because he was a body builder and model as well.  His death is probably just as well-known as some of his great work because he committed suicide, seppuku, after a failed coup d’état.  Patriotismcontains a lot of who Mishima was and what he believed in.

It’s 1940 in Paris and a jazz group is trying to survive playing their music and trying to cut a record as theNazis take Paris.  Its principal characters are Sid, Chip, and Hiero.  Hieronymus Falk is a black German or a “Rhineland bastard” as he and other Afro-Germans were called.  He was the outcome of a liaison between a German woman and a soldier from Senegal who was sent to protect the Rhine border.  These African soldiers were usually French colonial troops. Hiero is an extremely talented trumpet player and accepts his complex condition, despite the fact that he is such a young man of only about nineteen during the war.

One night Hiero and Sid go out in search of milk to calm Hiero’s stomach.  It’s late and most shops are closed.  They’d all been drinking much too much suspect French home-brew and Hiero’s stomach needed calming.  Unfortunately, they find a café open and Hiero is subsequently arrested by the Nazi’s and taken away just as Sid returns from the toilet, who witnesses the scene.  From there, the reader will be taken on a psychological yet musical trip of love, friendship, hate, and betrayal.

The story is recounted in a non-linear fashion, jumping between 1939-1940 and 1992 and is separated into six parts.  The story focuses quite closely on the long-standing and tumultuous friendship between Sid and Chip.  We learn a lot about their back stories through flashbacks from their childhood together.  It is a real love, hate relationship which grows surprisingly close.  These flashbacks tell a lot about the personalities and desires of Sid and Chip.  Though we don’t get much back story on Hiero, the story links the past and present through Sid and Chip and Hiero is the link primarily to the past.  This allows the reader to discover the various themes in the different places(Berlin, Paris, the United States, and Poland) and in the different times(World War II and today) such as racism, nationality, jazz music, and of course African-American entertainers in Europe.  There haven been very few fiction novels written about the Afro-Germans and this is one you shouldn’t miss out on.  It’s beautifully written and Edugyan does a brilliant job expressing herself as a man as well as adopting the language of the thirties and the forties.  It flows naturally and doesn’t seem forced at all.

Of course I have to talk about the bad things and fortunately for this book there was only one thing in particular that irritated me and that was the constant flashbacks and time jumping.  There were just too many for me and I found that it slightly watered down the power of the story.  I really had to keep it together with the details all the way to the end and it distracted me a little.  I understand why she did it that way and you will too when you read it, but a little less of that feature would have been better for my reading enjoyment.  You should definitely check this ‘compelling, personal, and authentic’ (Observer, quoted on the back of the book) story.

Half Blood Blues is Esi Edugyan’s second novel.  Her first novel was published in 2004 called The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, which is the story of a young man from Ghana that emigrates to the New World in 1955 looking to accomplish a better life.  Edugyan is Canadian of immigrant Ghanaian parents.  She was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, but currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia with her husband Steven Price, who is also a novelist and poet.  Half Blood Blues was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2011, as well as being nominated for various other prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.  She did win the Giller Prize for Half Blood Blues, which she talks about in the video that I’ve attached below.  Check it out.  Esi Edugyan is soft-spoken and very interesting to listen to. If you’re interested in learning more about her go to http://www.esiedugyan.com for more information on her novels and what she’s doing.  Another thing that you should look out for are the different covers for this book.  There is one that looks like a vinyl record with HalfBlood Blues written as the song and Edugyan’s name as the singer(Wish I’d gotten that one) and the two others are Paris and Berlin.

This book really took me by surprise.  The last James Baldwin book I read was Go Tell it on the Mountain and that was over 20 years ago.  I just remember liking parts of it and other parts were a bit slow.  If Beale Street Could Talk is the story of Fonny and Clementine alias Tish.  They are deeply in love and are planning to move into a loft flat in Greenwich Village together.  It’s the 1970s and relations between blacks and whites are tense.  They finally find a loft apartment where they can live together and Fonny can do his passion sculpting.  When one day the police come and take Fonny away because he’s being accused of rape.  From there, the story follows the trials and tribulations of Fonny trying to stay positive that he will get out of jail and Fonny and Tish’s families trying to earn enough money to pay the lawyer’s fees and most of all trying to support each other during this difficult time.

What struck me about If Beale Street Could Talk, Baldwin’s thirteenth novel, was that it was direct, realistic, and the impressive in-your-face style of writing.  Baldwin was telling it like it was, as always.  If you’re not ready to listen then abstain.  The language is very 1970s but I found it somehow refreshing.  The story is fiction but it rings as a true one.  Baldwin even adds sexually explicit scenes to accentuate the reality of the story even more.  The families seem to represent two types of families in the black community.  There was Tisha’s family that remains unified and supporting each other no matter what.  They will brave fire and walk to the ends of the Earth for each other.  On the other hand, Fonny’s family is superficial, judgmental, and unreliable.  His mother claims to be a christian although she has the most unchristian  attitude and believes that she is better than everybody else.  His sisters are frivolous and negligent on their quests to find husbands and picking from the most ineligible types.  They don’t seem to care very much about their brother and that goes even before he gets thrown into jail.  Sonny’s father Frank loves him very much but as the story progresses he proves to be unable to keep up the strength needed to help Fonny get out of jail.

Baldwin put a lot of emphasis on character development and less on the story, but that wasn’t a problem at all since the characters are described and put into situations so that we can understand them better.  Even so, the novel reads with ease and the dated expressions conjure up some humour.  My favourite character is Ernestine, Tish’s sister, because of her strong personality and her frankness.  She is a really self-sufficient, strong character who really knows what to do and say.

I really enjoyed reading If Beale Street Could Talk because this was one of the many important classic works of African-American literature.  James Baldwin was a master.  He always managed to tell the most realistic stories about African-Americans and their difficulty to survive and to progress.  If you haven’t had the pleasure of picking up any of his work, I highly recommend If Beale Street Could Talk.  It contains themes of racism, love, and solidarity among the disinherited that are fighting for their rights the best they can with the little they’ve got.  These themes are very universal but are all treated in intricate woven threads around the unfair imprisonment of Fonny.  It is a bittersweet tale and the quote on the back of the Vintage International edition is spot on, “A moving, painful story, so vividly human and so obviously based on reality that it strikes us as timeless.” – Joyce Carol Oates.

 So here they are.  The Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced today at the London Book Fair.  The longlist was competitive and somewhat diversified, but the shortlist competition is even stiffer.  I was happily surprised to see that Where’d You Go, Bernadette made it to the shortlist, after having read so much about it not being serious enough to be nominated or win a literary prize because of its modern epistolary form.  If you read    my review you know I loved it and found it refreshing and well-balanced.  I haven’t read the others but they have all been moved up to the top of my TBR for 2013.  The only real disappointment with the longlist is that it didn’t contain more women writers of colour.  Although I was thrilled to see Zadie Smith’s NWon the shortlist.  I enjoy her “keep it real” writing.  I’m anxious to read this one since the reviews have been mixed.  I’m expecting NW to pull me completely out of my comfort zone.  I probably won’t get to Bring Up the Bodies this year since I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Wolf Hall.  It looks as if Mantel, Smith, and Kingsolver are the top contenders – Hilary Mantel for winning the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and 2012,  Zadie Smith winning the Orange Prize in 2006 for On Beauty, and Barbara Kingsolver winning the Orange Prize in 2010 for The Lacuna.  I imagine people are wondering why the Women’s Prize even exists since it doesn’t seem to be a necessity with all the other literary prizes out there that seem to be dominated by women.  In my opinion, women’s literary work is still by large ignored and not valued enough.  The Women’s Prize will continue to aid in spotlighting some of the best women’s literary work available as well as discovering new writers.  Good luck to all those that made the shortlist and may the best woman win.  So, what do you think of this shortlist?  Are you interested in reading any of them, if so which ones?  The judges are Miranda Richardson, (Chair), Actor, Razia Iqbal, BBC Broadcaster and Journalist, Rachel Johnson, Author, Editor and Journalist, JoJo Moyes, Author, and Natasha Walter, Feminist Writer and Human Rights Activist.  Ah, you can feel the suspense.  Happy reading….