The Pearl That Broke It's Shell - Nadia Hashimi - Guest Book Review

Published by William Morrow

Guest book review by Sue Knight

I enjoyed reading this story so much I find it difficult to believe it’s a debut novel, and really hope that Nadia Hashimi has more ‘in her’.

This is a story of two generations of the same Afghan family Rahima, the story teller and her great great grandmother Shekiba whose stories are a reflection of each other a century apart.

At first I found all the names, some of which are so similar, confusing, but I soon settled into the rhythm of the changing stories (which are clearly indicated in each chapter) and got to know the characters within each story.

The story is gripping and insightful, the prose very descriptive and the subject matter engrossing, educational, emotional, and at times, painful.  I’m not sure I could stand to watch a film adaptation if it were true to the book.  There are many stories within the story but the writing is so good that you absorb these almost without realising as you get to understand the differing relationships.

I’m sure that most of us have some understanding of the male/female hierarchy in the Muslim world but I’m sure that this book will reveal more to most readers – the custom of bacha posh for instance, which allows a young girl to be dressed and treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age (this is no spoiler as it is on the back cover!)

I like a book that makes me want to go off and look something up – this book did that – I had not previously heard of Queen Soraya and now know she is considered the most eminent and revolutionary woman in Afghan and Oriental history.  Sadly although she no doubt changed some things, not enough to avoid the fate of Rahima and her sisters.

As the book covers says this is reminiscent of Khaled Hosseini and others, but I would recommend that you read this book even if you have not read and/or enjoyed these authors as this is a story that deserves to be heard – if only to remind all of us in the ‘western world’ how lucky we are.  When things are getting you down I suggest you recall Shekiba’s words “I have no reason to complain, though.  I am married to a man with a respectable position ……… he keeps us fed and clothed in an esteemed neighbourhood …. He provides for his children and does not beat me.  What more could I have asked of Allah?"

All in all I give this book 10/10 and very much look forward to reading more from Ms Hashimi.

Many thanks to Sue for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library!

The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd - Guest Book Review

Published by Headline

Guest book review by Susan Maclean

You may have come new to this author, or you may have read The Secret Life of Bees or The Mermaid Chair already.  Or you may have noticed a blurb from either inside or outside the cover of this novel which says “A powerful, sweeping novel inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century”.  However Sue Monk Kidd crossed your radar, you will pick a winner if you read this. 

A fictional account of  the real lives of two sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke of Charleston, South Carolina; it contains a devastating portrayal of slavery in the Southern States of America, and it also brings to our attention the story of these two sisters who fought for the abolition of slavery and more.  And only fictional in that it is told as a story, rather than as a block of information.  It’s well written, and it had me just wanting “another chapter” before I laid the book down. 

It’s told in alternate chapters by Sarah Grimke and by Hetty Handful,  the slave who is given to Sarah on the morning of her eleventh birthday as her handmaid.  Racked with guilt about the way slaves are treated, Sarah wishes this gift be taken back; she does not want her – only to be laughed at by her family.  Sarah would like to be a lawyer, like her father, but as “just a girl” this dream will never come to fruition either.  In both cases, her wishes are ignored,  so Hetty becomes her companion, who she teaches, secretly, to read and write (against the law).  For Sarah, there is a great and devastating punishment for this crime; she is never allowed to read a book from her father’s library again – so this means no more reading, ever.  She must therefore forgo any dream of entering a man’s profession, since women of her class should marry well and run a good home.  As she grows to adulthood, and is shown off in society to seek a husband, something happens that will change her life.

The book is divided easily into chunks headed either Sarah or Hetty, so that you know immediately whose  voice you are listening to.  It’s  fascinating to note how these two different women view the same occurrences and how neither are free in the way we would understand freedom now.

The Invention of Wings covers a period prior to the American Civil War, from 1803 to 1938, and will, perhaps, open your eyes to how it was for house slaves then, the ill-treatment doled out to them as a matter of course, and, interestingly the real thoughts of those slaves, whilst bobbing the knee and repeating “yes’m”.  The abject cruelty towards fellow humans rather takes the breath away until we remember that slavery is not yet dead, and goes on all over the world.  You can read this either as a ripping novel, or as an account of the truth.  Either way, I think you may enjoy the journey.

When you think of the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of women, the name Grimke does not spring to mind;  and yet, for what they did, Grimke should be a household name in the world biography of women.  Please don’t forget to read the author’s note at the end of the book – how she found out about the Grimkes, how she decided to write about their lives, and how a young slave called Hetty became the other voice of this book.

Many thanks to Susan for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library! Susan blogs at Mac-Adventures (with Books!), do visit her fab blog too!

Walk Me Home - Catherine Ryan Hyde

This moving story had me intrigued and asking questions straight away; who are Carly and Jen, why are they walking such a long way, just the two of them, so young? What has happened? Who is Teddy and why is Carly so determined that he is the one to help them?

Sisters Carly, 16, and Jen, 12, have set off from New Mexico and are trying to get to Teddy in California. They soon become hungry and tired, and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to continue and to stay safe and not risk it being discovered that they are on the run alone together; the threat of being taken in by the authorities and potentially separated keeps them walking and reluctant to reveal the reality of their situation to anyone. 

Then the novel takes a step back further in time, a few months earlier, and we meet Teddy, their mother's ex-boyfriend, and we meet the girls' mother, and their recent past slowly reveals itself. The sisters have had a difficult, unsettled childhood and experienced much disappointment; and now their world has been turned upside down. They travel so many miles, struggling along together, desperate and starving at times, and as I read, I feared for them, but I was also heartened by the kindnesses that they encountered from people too. 

It is primarily Carly whose thoughts we follow, and it's a very emotional as well as physical endurance test that she goes through on her journey. It is very clear that she has lost her trust in others and lost her belief in her self, and her self worth; she has convinced herself that she doesn't matter and that 'everyone likes Jen better'.  As I read, I willed things to change for the better for Carly because she had been so strong, I didn't blame her for having lost trust in people because of her past treatment, but she needed to take the risk of trusting again; the story illustrates how sometimes we have a new, unexpected chance for happiness in life and it is the ability to let go of fear and accept this chance, to take the risk of trusting again, that we need. This was such an important theme running through this story; who can the girls trust and believe in, who has their real interests and welfare at heart, who isn't all that they seem to be, and who cares more than they realise. 

I've really enjoyed novels by Catherine Ryan Hyde in the past and I found in this new book the same warm-hearted and honest portrayal of people who find themselves facing the challenge of coping with huge difficulties and setbacks in their lives that I have admired before. She creates rounded characters, and the relationships they share feel very real; I cared about the sisters. The author has sensitively and thoughtfully incorporated a little of Native American culture into this story, and created two special characters in particular that I would love to meet. The sense of place was well conveyed, and this setting was important too, the intense heat of the desert landscape adding to the struggle as the girls were walking. 

I liked the author’s note at the end of the book that clarified an aspect of the story that I had wondered about whilst reading. I think this novel would be really enjoyed by young adult and adult readers. 

I felt this was an engrossing, well-paced story about being honest with yourself and having to admit to the truth, and learning to accept kindness from unexpected places. It is about loss, loyalty, truth, courage, and the hard decisions people have to make, the strength we have to find sometimes even when we are only a young age.  

Published by Black Swan, July 18th 2013

Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance ebook copy of this novel via netgalley. 

You can visit the author's website here find her on facebook here or follow her on twitter @cryanhyde

The Nightingale Sisters - Donna Douglas - Author Guest Post & Excerpt

I am pleased to welcome author Donna Douglas to my blog today, introducing a guest post from her new novel The Nightingale Sisters!

The Nightingale Sisters by Donna Douglas

I’m really pleased to announce that The Nightingale Sisters, the sequel to my first novel The Nightingale Girls, is out this week!

The Nightingale Sisters continues the story of three student nurses, feisty Dora, shy Helen and aristocratic rebel Millie, training at an East End Hospital in the 1930s. It also introduces us to the hospital’s new Night Sister, Violet Tanner, a woman with a secret. Who is she, and what is she hiding? The other Sisters are determined to find out. But their discovery sends shockwaves around the hospital…

Here’s an extract from Chapter One to give you a taste of what to expect. I really hope you enjoy it. If you want to find out more about me and my books, take a look at my website – www.donnadouglas.co.uk.

Happy reading!

Dx

Extract from The Nightingale Sisters – Chapter One

It was a bitterly cold December evening in 1935 when Violet Tanner arrived at the Nightingale Hospital in Bethnal Green.

Fires were lit in every ward, as the biting snow-laden wind howled like a wild beast, flinging fistfuls of sleet at the windows. Babies cried in fear on the Children’s ward, and even the patients in Male Orthopaedics, usually so full of jokes and bravado, stared fearfully at the tree branches swaying close to the glass and agreed they’d never known a night like it.

Outside, nurses on their way to supper clutched their thick navy cloaks around them as they hurried across the courtyard, heads bent, hands clapping on their starched caps as best they could.

Sister Wren saw her first. She usually liked to arrive early to supper, but had stopped to reprimand a student she’d found taking a shortcut down the passageway that was reserved for sisters.

The girl had complained that she couldn’t go outside because she’d forgotten her cloak. But Sister Wren was having none of it.

‘And whose fault is that? It doesn’t give you the right to wander down the sisters’ corridors, does it?’ she had snapped.

‘No, Sister.’ The girl, a second year called Benedict, was just the kind Sister Wren most despised, with that perky blonde prettiness which drew medical students like wasps around a jam jar.

‘No, indeed. Now go back the way you came and cross the courtyard like all the other nurses.’

Benedict glanced apprehensively at the sleet thrashing against the window, then back at Sister Wren. Her round blue eyes were full of appeal. No doubt if Sister Wren had been a man she would be falling over herself by now, offering to carry her across the wind-swept courtyard.

‘No, Sister,’ she sighed.

Sister Wren watched her walk back down the passageway, head bowed in defeat. She smiled to think what a bedrag­gled state the girl would be in when she returned from supper. With any luck, her ward sister would be utterly furious.

She turned, saw the woman standing at the far end of the passageway, and hurried towards her.

‘You there!’ she called out bossily. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘I’m looking for Matron’s office.’ Her voice was low and husky, with the slightest trace of a country accent. Sister Wren had to draw close to hear her.

‘And you are?’

‘My name is Violet Tanner. I’m the new Night Sister.’

‘Oh.’ Sister Wren appraised the woman with a glance. In her early-thirties, very tall – although most people towered over Sister Wren, diminutive as she was – and dark. The hair that curled out from under her hat had the blue-black sheen of a magpie’s wing. Sister Wren always jealously noticed hair because hers was so thin and poor, no matter how many miracle permanent waves she had. The woman’s coat looked expensive, but was not the latest fashion. Sister Wren read Vogue and knew quality when she saw it, even if she couldn’t afford it herself.

In short, someone worth knowing, she decided.

‘You’ve taken a wrong turning, I’m afraid. I’ll walk with you and show you the way,’ she offered.

‘There’s no need. If you just tell me where to go—’

‘It’s no trouble. I’m going that way myself.’

She was actually heading in the opposite direction, but there was no chance she was going to miss being the first to find out everything about the new Night Sister.

‘My name is Miriam Trott, and I’m Sister on Gynae,’ she introduced herself as they set off. ‘You’ll call me Sister Wren, as that is the name of my ward.’

Violet Tanner nodded, but didn’t make any further reply. In fact, she didn’t offer much conversation as Sister Wren led the way through a warren of passageways back to Matron’s office.

‘It’s rather a maze, isn’t it?’ she tried again. ‘So easy to get lost, with all these buildings stuck together in such a higgledy-piggledy fashion. But you’ll get used to it in time.’ She glanced sidelong at the new sister. ‘Was your last hospital a large place, too?’

‘I was nursing a private patient.’

‘Oh, and where was that?’

‘Suffolk.’ She bit out the word, as if reluctant to allow a single syllable to escape her lips.

‘Really? I have family in Suffolk.’ Sister Wren seized eagerly on the titbit. ‘Where were you?’

‘A small village. Very rural. I doubt you’d know it.’

‘Well, I might—’ Sister Wren took one look at Miss Tanner’s forbidding expression and did not dare go on.

She tried another tack. ‘I suppose you’ll be moving into the sisters’ block, if you haven’t already? Miss Filcher – the old Night Sister, that was – had the room across the hall from mine. Not that she died in that room,’ she added hastily. ‘No, she dropped dead on duty. Can you imagine it? She made sure she gave her report to all the ward sisters first, though. Typical Miss Filcher, always so conscientious.’ She sighed. ‘Anyway, her room is very nice. It’s on the corner, so it’s double aspect. And it looks over the gardens . . .’

‘I won’t be living in.’

Sister Wren stared at her. ‘Why not?’

‘I have made other arrangements.’

‘But all the sisters—’

‘Ah, I see where I am now. Matron’s office is at the end of this corridor, isn’t it?’ Miss Tanner cut her off bluntly. ‘I won’t keep you any longer, I’m sure you have a great deal to do.’

‘But—’

‘Thank you very much for your help, Sister Wren.’

‘Wait . . . ,’ Sister Wren called after her. But Miss Tanner had already gone.

The Nightingale Sisters by Donna Douglas is published April 2013 by Arrow

You can follow the author on twitter @donnahay1

Visit the author's blog - donnadouglasauthor.wordpress.com

and website - http://www.donnadouglas.co.uk/

Amity and Sorrow - Peggy Riley

'She has had to run far and fast to pull herself loose from him, to rip those stitches, but still she can feel how bound she is...'

Amity and Sorrow are sisters, and we meet them as they are on the run with their mother Amaranth, from their home which is now on fire. It was the only place the two of them have ever known; they know nothing of the outside world. Their mother has driven for four days solid in a desperate bid to escape the life she has been living, to take them away from her husband, their father, and the polygamous cult that they have grown up in. When they come to a stop, crashing the car at a gas station in the Oklahoma countryside, feeling scared and hungry, they meet Bradley, a farmer, who is sad and lonely with his own life no longer with him, and although he is initially suspicious of the three women with their unusual clothing, and though he is not overly welcoming at first, he does offer them hope and a place to stay. 

The sisters react in contrasting ways to this dramatic change in their lives; whilst Amity enjoys her newfound freedom and all the things she is discovering, Sorrow wants nothing other than to return home, to her father. 

Interspersed amongst the main narrative recounting what happened to the three women having escaped are several chapters recalling events before they left the cult, so we gradually learn how life was there, Amaranth the first of fifty wives, and we begin to understand her motives as the past slowly unfolds to us and reveals its secrets. 

This is a captivating story that drew me in; I felt compelled to read on and discover what had lain behind Amaranth's choice to be part of the cult, and to find out how the sisters would react to this whole new world that they were suddenly exposed to. The relatively short chapters of episodes in their lives encouraged me to keep reading on and not put the book down. 

I was convinced by the contrast between the sisters; it is only possible to try and imagine their lives in the cult for anyone who has never been part of such a thing, yet I believed in both their reactions - Sorrow wanting to get back there, missing all that she has known and believed in and been a key part of, and yet also Amity embracing the new aspects of life offered to her now, so much that is unknown. 

This felt to me like a highly original story with characters that I grew to understand and care about more deeply as I read on. It's also a story that made me think and ponder the different lifestyles people lead and the difficult choices people make.  I liked the structure and pace of the story and I would very much recommend this fascinating debut novel to others. 

Published by Tinder Press

Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.

You can follow the author on twitter @Peggy_Riley and visit her website here.

Peggy Riley will be stopping here on a blog tour very soon with Amity and Sorrow, so do please come back soon!