Book Review: Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield

Book: Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating:★★★★☆
For:  Review and my one RIP read!
From: NetGalley (Release date: November 5, 2013)

Wow, has this book been highly anticipated or what?! We all loved her other book, The Thirteenth Tale way back when (before I started blogging actually!) But let me just say really quick here... this one is very very different, so be warned.

The best way I can think of to describe this book is that it's sinister, dark and really quite weird. It had the feeling of an Edgar Allen Poe story.... or an Alfred Hitchcock movie (especially The Birds!) But, I'm not quite sure I "got" it. And I know there was SOMETHING that needed getting there at the end, but I just scratched my head and thought... now...wait....what?

I mean, I understood that there was this dude who starts out as a nice and fairly normal guy. He is very motivated and ambitious and smart and his life is all lovely and happy. But then tragedy strikes and he basically sells his soul... or something. And then he his driven for the whole rest of the book to build a big huge store for the selling of funeral arrangements and mourning clothes.

The book takes place in Victorian (ish) England during the time when people wore black forever after someone they love dies. He becomes totally and completely obsessed with this store (which he names Belllman and Black) and making it all perfect and such.

Which he does, but at a pretty great cost.

Interwoven between his story we get some hint at another presence in his life, but I'm not sure who or what that being is (the ghost referred to in the subtitle... I think! But I'm not convinced it was a ghost at all.) Bellman (our main character) is also obsessed with this presence and feels accountable to him/it.

Then there are the birds, the rooks, that are a running theme throughout the story... referring back to an incident that happened in Bellman's childhood. And everything seems to hinge on this incident. And those birds. (cue Twilight Zone music here!)

Ah... it's weird stuff. Creepy too, in a strange subtle simple way. Which basically means....

Bottom Line:.... I totally enjoyed it! Even if I'm not sure I understood that ending! Please, if/when you read this, let's talk openly in the comments. Deal? I really need to know what you think!

Other Reviews:

If you are looking for a classic ghost story this fall, this is not it. From Book Chatter

The haunting is in the message, in the issues that Setterfield tackles – the meaning of life and death, of what’s important and what isn’t, of dealing with love, with loss, with work, with rest. From Modern Gypsy

I found this to be a very slow read with lots of details and some repetition in the descriptions of William's daily routines. From Cherie Reads

I found this a dark, atmospheric and unusual Victorian tale depicting a man’s glorious rise and tragic fall; cleverly written and structured, it made me think about the joy and sadness of life. From The Little Reader Library

Book Review: Turning This Thing Around by Keith Maginn

Book: Turning This Thing Around by Keith Maginn
Genre: Memoir/Self Help
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Review
From: ebook from the author

It seems I've been a little magnet for small and simple memoirs this year. I've enjoyed getting these little glimpses into other people's lives... real people's lives. Maybe I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with my own life problems, but it's nice to read how other people have overcome their issues and what helped them along the way.

This particular book is about the author who, as a young man, realized that he'd been suffering from several mental health issues all his growing up years which in turn caused some pretty painful physical side affects. As a teenager, he just covered it all up, but later on during his twenties, and after a painful end to a relationship, he finally understood that things were pretty serious and he needed help.

The first thing he did was to reach out to friends and family. Three cheers for this step! It makes me crazy when people suffering from such issues tend to turn away from those who want to help them the most.

Then, he got a therapist. And he mentions,and I tend to agree, that we should probably all have one!

And then he learned how to meditate and do yoga. This is the bit that fascinates me. It seems like such a simple way to "fix" your brain and emotions, and yet the author said this was the biggest thing that helped him. It's something we can all do, right? I'm thinking I just might give it a try, because calming my brain would be really nice right about now!

There were many other things he did and as he says, he is still in the process of figuring things out but he feels like, compared to where he was just a short time ago, life is looking very very up!

Bottom line: I enjoyed this short, sweet and simple tale of one person's road to emotional healthiness.

Top Ten Tuesday: Scary Covers

I wasn't going to do this one because I have a hard time thinking or remembering covers, but then a few came to mind so here you go:

I think I'll stick with just five today! Can you think of more really obvious ones that I forgot? 

See what everyone else came up with over at The Broke and the Bookish today!

Book Review: Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Book: Just One Year by Gayle Forman
Genre: YA Romance
Rating:★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
For: Fun
From: bought from Amazon

So, I was a little disappointed in this book, sadly. While I understood that its a companion novel and not a sequel, I didn't quite comprehend what that meant. Let's just say it does not start where the other book, Just One Day, left off. And if you remember that one, it ended with quite the cliff hanger! Well, this book does not help out that situation much!

Anyway, this one is all from Willem's point of view. He's the one, if you remember, that was present during some of the first book but then just disappeared. So now, we find out what happened to him and the journey and changes and lessons he learned during the year that follows.

For those of you who haven't read the first book, Willem is a Dutch guy who is a bit lost after his father's death a few years before. To combat that, he's been travelling the world. On his travels, he meets a girl he calls Lulu and they make a pretty intense connection in Just One Day. But then something happens. It turns into quite the tragic story.

So we found out more details on what happens, and we follow him around for more travels during this book. Mexico and India are the star countries. He patches the relationship with his mom and seems to find himself and his purppose. But the big question, does he find Lulu? If you've read the first book, you'll pretty much know the ending of this one, which was kind of a weird thing actually.

Bottom line: So, I enjoyed the writing and the characters, just as I did in the first one, but the story wasn't what I expected necessarily. Or wanted. Or needed! It was a little frustrating for me.

Have you read it yet? What did you think?

Other Reviews:

I liked that so much of the book was about pining and searching. It was about free will versus destiny and whether you should be active or just let things happen to you. From Good Books and Good Wine

The first story – which I loved – has taken on so much more meaning after book two. From Anna Reads

Told in Willem’s brave, tender, tragic voice, this extremely satisfying sequel to the beautifully wrought Just One Day will satiate salivating fans who have been dying to find out what happened to Lulu’s mysterious Dutch crush. From Reading Rants

I was excited that Willem isn't the typical YA book boy, who's typically a popular kid or a broody loner. Willem felt like a fresh type of character. From YA Romantics

To NaNoWriMo or Not To NaNoWriMo?

I was reading a book this morning (I know, it's hard to believe) and it said something about the conflict between our right and left brains. This is EXACTLY what I've been experiencing the past couple of days.

So what does that conversation between my brain halves look like? Take a peek:

RIGHT BRAIN: You know, you really should try this NaNoWriMo thing. I think you'd love it.

LEFT BRAIN: Are you KIDDING me? Where in the heck would you find time for THAT right now?

RB: Um well, I could do it. I could. I mean, there are moments all through the day that I waste. So I could fill them up with writing.

LB: Yeah, right. Something will have to give. Are you ready to give something? And besides, what makes you think you can write a book. That's like, HARD!

RB: Well, I, you know, write every single FREAKING day! (Almost.) I have tons... thousands... of blog posts you know....

LB: A blog post is different than a book. There's this thing called PLOT. What do you know about plot? Nothing!

RB: Well... what better way to learn then to try. You know, I can TRY at least!

LB: Well, I guess so, but still, it's going to be hard to write something if you have no idea of the direction it's going.

RB: I sort of have a direction. I wrote those four chapters years ago, remember? Back when I thought I could do this? And I just re-read them and, guess what? They aren't half bad!!

LB: They're pretty bad.

RB: It's got some awesome dialogue, you have to admit.

LB: Dialogue is no plot.

RB: You have to start somewhere. Seriously, you KNOW it would be fun to try. You know it! Who cares if we don't know how. And it's not like I'll try to get published or anything. Sheesh.

LB: Well then, why waste all that time if you don't have a goal like that? How can you even justify the amount of time this will take?

RB: It's on my bucket lists... that's how! Those lists (both the bookish one and the whole life one!) justify ANYTHING!

LB: You can't do it.

RB: Yes, I can.

LB: Seriously, you can't.

RB: Oh yes, I so can.

LB: Nope.

RB: Yep

LB: You are not going to do this.

RB: I am. I am so going to.

....and on and on and on it goes.

I'm not kidding this is totally what's been going on in my head for the past few days. One morning I was totally excited about the idea. By the evening, I was thinking, no way. Can anyone relate? How do you overcome this conflict?

And... you ARE doing NaNoWriMo this year? Please, if I do this I need lots and lots of cheering friends, as you can see. We need to fight that dumb left brain!

EDITED TO ADD:

I've just signed up! Now, help me find all you other writers there! :)

Book Review: Tinkers by Paul Harding

Book: Tinkers by Paul Harding
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Community Read event
From: Free from the library

I can see why this book won the Pulitzer. It's very artistic. It's kind of like all the movies that win the Oscar, you know? Artsy and... kinda confusing. But who cares, because it's so pretty!

This book is a very poetic look at the thoughts of a dying man. As he lays there with his family around him, his thoughts go back to his own father who was a Fuller Brush man (do you know of which I speak?) and thus known as a tinker. He remembers several stories his father told, and he remembers how his father suffered from epilepsy and how is mom could not deal with it very well, and he remembers what happens in the end.

Then, his thoughts turn to his grandfather, someone he wishes his father had told him more about. After they die is not the time to think this! You know what I'm saying? Talk to your old people now! I have a very strong passion about this subject!

Anyway, so then we get a bit of the story from the dad's point of view.

In between are excerpts from several books that I'm assuming meant something to this guy, George, the one who is dying. And then, there's lots and lots of beautiful poetic stream of conscious passages that are actually pretty amazing. And so true to real life experiences. Nice when a book does that... tells the truth and all.

I'm sure a ton of it went right over my head, but I enjoyed most of it. And being such a small and tiny book, the bits I didn't get were fast and quickly over!

Bottom line: A beautiful ode to the end of a life.

P.S. If you missed it, I posted about hearing the author speak at the library last week. Come and see what I thought! His second book, Enon, has just been released and tells the story of Charlie, one of the grandsons who was watching over George in Tinkers.

Other Reviews:

Three stars for plot, but five stars for prose – for an average of four stars. From The Bluestocking Society

Tinkers is a language lover's novel. Harding wowed me with his words. From Nomadreader

This beautiful, spare novel should find its way into the hands of every reader of literary fiction. From The Boston Bibliophile

A few reviewers have said the book should be read as poetry rather than prose. Fair or not, when I hear that, I always tend to assume they mean it just doesn't work as a novel. And in this case, I think my assumption is right. From A Little Reading

Tons of TV Talk

In the TV watching front, things have picked up tremendously! How's a person to keep up?

Well, one way is to list all the shows on their blog and then get really depressed about it! Seriously, do I have time for this?

Most of these shows I watch later, online or on demand, and Netflix where available. We don't even have a DVR but really, who needs one these days, right? The way we watch TV now is so different from just a few years ago. It's crazy.

Anyway, here's the list....

Shows I'm Watching 

Sunday

What a big TV night this is! What's up with that?

Amazing Race: A show that I often do make the time to watch live. For me, it is still as fun as always, and makes me want to travel the world. It's especially cool when they do go somewhere that I've been. I love it!

Once Upon a Time: The plot for this show is so complicated that it makes my head spin, but I love it and I love the twists and turns on all the fairy tales. So so creative. Anxious to see the what's going to happen with Hook and Emma. And I still need to watch last week's show!

Revenge: This one seems to be waning lately. We heard it was going to pick up this season, so we are giving it a chance. Often though, I end up tuning out the details of the plot and just look for the character interaction. Nolan continues to fascinate me, but I have cringe at him sometimes too.

Some in my family watch (or have watched) Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. I haven't dared try either one of those yet.

Of course, Downton Abbey will soon join the list here! Last year I watched it online when it was currently showing Britain, and in fact I have watched one episode of the new season. But then something happened and it's not available, at least where I was finding it, so now I guess I'll just wait and watch it later with everyone else.

Monday

Sleepy Hollow: I've watched several episodes of this one and they just seem to be getting better and better. That dude, Crane, is growing on my big time. I love his old fashioned character thrown into modern times. It makes for some pretty fun dialogue. The stuff that happens though, is pretty creepy scary.

Tuesday

Currently, I have no Tuesday shows!

Wednesday

Survivor: Can you believe how long this show has been on TV? Its crazy! This season they are pitting family against each other and it's been really fun and turns everyone's strategy on its head. Totally enjoying it so far.

Thursday

The Vampire Diaries: Another show that it still pretty good after all these years. Things are so different!

Parenthood: I think this one is pretty much my favorite show of all. It's so real and so ordinary and so true and so good. I do miss Mr. Cyr though! Bring him back!

Friday and Saturday

Currently no shows on these nights either! Am I missing something?

Shows I'm Pondering

Reign looks very intriguing, but I haven't sat down to watch that first episode yet. It may be added to my Thursday night line up soon!

Also, that Alice in Wonderland show looks fun too, but I haven't decided if I should really give it a shot or not.

And what about The Originals? The spin off from Vampire Diaries? I want to watch it just for Elijah!

Speaking of vampires, what about Dracula? Has that started yet? Does it look good?

I tried Agents of SHEILD, but it was boring to me.


Shows on Netflix

Buffy: I finished season three finally have started the first episode of season four. You know, this show still does not totally grab me! It seems surface-y to me, I need it to be deeper.

Dr. Who: We actually rented the DVDs from the library of the latest season... still trying to get through those, even though there's not very many. I'm enjoying Clara though. I need to catch up to be read for the big 50 anniversary "Day of the Doctor" episode. It would be fun to watch that live, but you know, I don't even know where or when to find it! Gah!

Other shows on Netflix that will be an ongoing project for me including Supernatural and Teen Wolf and I can't remember what else!

So, what shows are you watching with me? Let's discuss! What shows do you think I should add to the list? You can probably tell from this list which sorts I like, so tell me! What am I missing??