Review: The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides
Jeffrey Eugenides

First published: 1993 (my edition 2002)

Bloomsbury, paperback (format B), 249p.
ISBN: 978-0-7475-6059-3

The haunting, humorous and tender story of the brief lives of the five entrancing Lisbon sisters, The Virgin Suicides, is Jeffrey Eugenides' classic debut novel.

The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date in their lives.  Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshiped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters' breathtaking appearance on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family disintegrate and fragile lives disappear.

I read this book over the course of perhaps 3 hours last night, and to say I was left feeling unsettled is an understatement.  In The Virgin Suicides, we span the course of a year as we follow the narrator  as he reflects on the memories he has of those fragile Lisbon sisters some 20 years later, and the implosion of their family as the sisters all commit suicide that year.

Now that sounds a bit trite, but the way this book is written - through the eyes of a man reflecting on his adolescent crush on these girls, and how he - and the other boys who adored them, too - have seemingly spent 20 years gathering evidence and taking witness statements from as many people who knew the sisters as possible, gives you a real insight into this families dramatic decline.

After the first sister, 13 year old Cecilia, tries to take her life, you get a hint of things to come in the way this family is structured.  So when Cecilia finally succeeds in killing herself, it sets in motion a chain of events that still leaves the narrator, and reader, wondering. . . why?

Mrs Lisbon rules her house.  She is not demonstratively affectionate (and seems to carry no sense of blame in later interviews) and does not seem to see the withering of her daughters under the iron fist she uses to keep them under control.  They are not allowed to have boys in the house, no makeup, and she even went so far as to pull them out of school.  But was that for their sake as she claimed, or rather for her own selfish reasons?  You never really see a softer, loving side of this mother.

Then we have their father.  He is just lost.  He wanders around in a fog, escaping the house only to teach at the school, never seeming to see the isolation and ostracism his daughters encounter at school - and how they cleaved together in support of each other (or looking back, was it?).  Even the attitudes of the community were amazingly destructive. 

While reading this book I didn't see this as a story about adolescent teenage boys fantasizing over the sisters in general (i.e., didn't matter which sister, they were all beautiful and fragile), but rather as a window into this families destruction witnessed through the eyes of young observers who were baffled, scared, and angry at the treatment the girls endured at the hands of their parents, friends, and community.

Note: I also found the symbolism of a dying elm tree as well as the house and yard falling into disrepair and decline wonderfully reflective of the decay of the family as the year went on.  From suburban paradise, or at least no different to any other house in the neighbourhood, to an almost abandoned shell of a home when it was eventually sold.  Broken, just like this family.

If you are reading this book in the hopes that you will discover answers as to why they died, then you will be disappointed - but I think that is the point.  There are no answers.  You can't possibly know what is going through someones mind as they contemplate this course of action.  You can try to puzzle it out, try to use logic to fit all the evidence together, but there will still be key pieces missing, and the picture will never be complete.

Now it has been at least 10 years since I've seen the movie adaptation with Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett, but I think I'll try to find a copy as this book is something I wish we had read in high school as it is an amazing piece of social commentary about a very taboo topic.  It invites discussion, which is a wonderful thing, and a great way to broach this subject matter.

Will try another Eugenides in the future I think as I found his writing style easy to get through, and well written.  

I hope you enjoyed my thought on The Virgin Suicides.  I'd love to hear what you thought of the book, or movie, did you like it, hate it.  Let me know ;-D

Until next time,

 

Grumpy reader at the moment

Hello, my lovelies!

I hope you're having a better July than I am.  I have two neighbours (in my unit complex) who seem to think that the only good music is extremely loud heavy metal and techno/dance music!  Earlier this month I even bought some noise cancelling headphones to try and dampen the sound, but it still bleeds through.  Reading is difficult at any time, but especially at night, and I've literally had to plug those headphones into my iPod to watch movies, or listen to a local radio station on my phone, to try and distract myself from going nuts!  Arrrrrgh!

However, you really don't want to hear any more of that, so on to some happy news - my latest bookmail!

Evie Nyxx likes the box most of all!

On Wednesday the courier dropped off a rather large box that only contain five books.  Yes, five smallish books all wrapped up in some amazing bubble wrap and held in place by those air pockets to make sure that my items were not going to move in the slightest.  It's so funny when you rip open the box as you have to make your way through all the protective wrapping to get to the books ;-D

Phrynekinns wouldn't get off the bed (or my pillow!), so she got surrounded by the books ;-D

In this haul I took advantage of Booktopia's free shipping period and bought some long standing items from my wishlist. 

I couldn't resist trying one of the graphic novel adaptations of Agatha Christie books.  I've seen them hauled and review quite a bit on BookTube recently, but the titles I would have loved to get (The Man in the Brown Suit, Death on the Nile, And Then There Were None, and Murder on the Orient Express) were all unavailable, or worse still - out of print!  So, I bought Hallowe'en Party, and I was very happy with it.  I read it that afternoon and it took no time at all as it's only 45 pages long.  Liked the art style, it was interesting but without being so odd or weird that it was distracting.  However I adore the cover art.  So good! 😸

Then I read Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones.  This is the seventh book in the Charlie Davidson series, and while it is still okay, I'm not sure that I will be continuing to buy these in hardcover - unless I come across some amazing bargins (books 1-3 for $1.49 each on Book Outlet, but the p&h was just highway robbery!).  Thankfully, this book was only $10, so I'm okay with that.  Will try and get a mini-review up at some point in the future.

The last three books are on my TBR pile.  Unseemly Science sounds amazing, but I don't know if I have to read The Bullet Catcher's Daughter first, or if I can just jump straight in?  So that's why it's on the back-burner at the moment.  Next is Shakespeare Undead, which sounds like a hoot and a half - and an odd coincidence as I reread Shadow of Night on Tuesday, and I love that books as we see Kit Marlowe as a daemon, and young Will Shakespeare as a wannabe playwright hanging around with the members of the School of Night - and eventually stealing Marlowe's work (given to young Annie).

Finally there is Stray Souls by Kate Griffin.  This sounded amazing when I read the synopsis online, and I love this style of contemporary urban fantasy that mixes element of mythology.  Since the Dark Heavens series finished earlier this year, I have been on the lookout for a new series (or stand alone) that can fill the void.  Hopefully, this may be it.

And that my lovely ladies and gentlemen, is what came in the mail for me this week.  Next week I am expecting the new release of the illustrated edition of Neverwhere.  I nearly bought the previous release of the author's preferred text edition (I love that cover!), but when I found out from an IG account I follow that this was on it's way - I had to pre-order it as I love Chris Riddell's illustrations!  So look out for a pic of that when it arrives ;-D

Until next time,

 

Winter reading has cometh

A chilly Phrynekinns curious about the water on the INSIDE of the window!

Yes, my lovelies, Winter has certainly made itself known.  But in case I was in doubt the negative temperatures, freezing winds and excruciatingly blue skies were a bit of a clue.  On the plus side this has meant more time spent indoors - to escape the cold - snuggled up somewhere reading a book {at them moment I'm rereading the Guild Hunter series}.

In the past 4 weeks I have purchased a few items from Book Depository, but in small lots - none of those huge splurges I made last year, fun as they were.

Recently I bought two more titles from Susanna Kearsley's bibliography, The Shadowy Horses and Mariana.  Enjoyed both thoroughly.  While not action packed and full of adventure, they are a slow steady romance that always seems to comprise of a time travelling element.  Still quick to read as I need to know what happened, but not as exciting as my Urban Fantasy books.

Also added two new (to me) authors to my shelves.  Alice Thompson's The Book Collector, which sounds amazing, yet is rather on the shorter side, and Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers.  I have already started this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery as Sayers was a contemporary of Agatha Christies, whose Miss Marple books I'm reading this year.  Only a fraction of the way through this tiny book, but I'm cerainly getting my dose of snooty entitled upper-class attitudes with this little number.

Bought one pre-order this month, Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan.  Although I enjoy the way her books are written, they are all starting to sound the same - same alpha male, same in distress female... I don't know whether or not I will continue with this new series.  I'd like to read something different from her after all these years of same ol' same ol'.

Book Depository was full of good deals for me this month.  Found a heavily discounted edition of Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs.  I love the Mercy Thompson world.  The books are amazing, and full of the mystery, humor and romantic moments that I love.  However, this anthology of short stories was a little disappointing in that it only included one story from Mercy!  Yes, just the one - and it was tiny.  However, it is nice to have all the short stories from the associated series all in one bind up, so there's that at least.

Have been trying to stay away from the book section of Big W lately, but when you go through the checkout you have to pass a bin of bargain books.  So, while I was waiting in line, I caved and just started looking through it.  And, of course I spied a name I recognised.  Sarah Pinborough.  Luckily the title they had, Mayhem, looks to be the first in this series, trilogy?, and it sounded amazing, so for the princely sum of $5 it came home with me.

Oh, I did happen to win a book as well!  Yes, I seem to have had a little bit of luck with IG giveaways from Allen & Unwin ;-D This is only an ARC copy of The House Between Tides, and it's now on the shelves at my local Big W, but it looks, and sounds, so interesting that it's jumped up my TBR list and I'm hoping to get to it sometime this winter.

And finally, I picked up The Fireman by Joe Hill from Big W about two weeks ago.  This massive chunker of a book clocks in at 752 pages and has to be at least 2 inches thick!  A monster to be sure, but I am looking forward to reading it at some point in the future.

Which leads me onto my biggest disappointment on the book front.  It concerns the condition my AbeBook's items arrived in.  The first two to arrive, The Stand and Misery, were in fairly good condition, some tears to the cover, and yellowing pages.   However, I'd ordered the 'very good' condition copies so while I was annoyed, it was okay.

Then arrived Bag of Bones and Carrie.  This was the book that started me on the quest to get the six editions of the King Classics that Hodder released in these interesting covers.   Ah, Carrie... you weren't in 'very good' condition, and you reeked of cigarette smoke to boot!  Seriously, my whole unit smelled of disgusting smoke for days - and nothing I tried seemed to take the pong out of it.  Finally had to leave it outside for about 48 hours (sunny days and freezing nights!) but at least the smell came down to a barely detectable level.  Still not impressed as I am allergic to the smoke, so I had itchy eyes, scratchy throat and a stuffed up snoot.

So, that's what's been happening in my neck of the woods on the bookish front.  Making a new Book Depository order in the next few day - have my eyes on so many new stories.

Until next time,

Hot Water Bottle Makeover

Sorry about the poor quality of this pic.  Taken with old phone 📷

So, after over 12 months of not being able to get out the sewing machine and create, I have done just that over the last few days.  I've decided not to let my bum wrists stop me from doing some of the things I want to do - and sewing/quilting is right up there, creative wise.

finally getting back to last April's project

On Sunday I tentively set up the sewing machine on my large coffee table, in front of the Miss Marple episodes I was watching on DVD, and thought I'd just get one or two little items finished off so that I could pack them away properly.  However, by the end of the hour I had put together another couple of the basic blocks... and I was hooked all over again!

and so the sashing begins

So, I sashed the basic blocks (and ironed them, but that's another story) and was wondering what to do when we got hit with some more freezing cold mornings.  That meant that the hot water bottle became the target of my attention as I don't have a nice cover for it.  Thus began my plans...

sorry about the poor quality pic, taken with old phone

Yesterday, after I got home from the hospital physio, I sorted through some fat ¼'s, made a template from my own bottle, and after I got all the other bits and bobs I'd need (batting, backing fabric, sissors, ruler, cup of tea) I started designing.

yep, another pic taken with old phone.  wish I could adjust the photo quality, but there you go.

It took nearly all of yesterday - as I have to take regular breaks for my wrist and back - but I finally put together a cover that I was mostly happy with.  I love the fabrics, and while I might alter one or two things the next time 'round, I gave it a test run last night (while reading Hot Six, and half listening to Season 4 of Fringe) and it kept my trusty old hot water bottle warm all night!

So happy!

Until next time,

May wrap-up

Some of my pics from this months IG book challenge by @commasandampersands

May was actually a pretty good reading month for me.  Read a lot of good books, bought more, and generally spent the month reading, and trying to figure out what photo to take for the #ampersandmay16 challenge over on IG 😸

Last month also saw the final book in the Dark Heavens series by Kylie Chan.  Black Jade was a bittersweet read as I didn't want the series to end, but yet I was ready for the Demon King to eat dirt and die!

Finished my personal book challenges for the month.  They Do It With Mirrors was okay.  It's not my favourite adaptation, but it was nice to read a book where Miss Marple is present from day one.  And then there was Emma.... oh, Emma, you vexed me so.  I was ready to strangle her for the first chunk of the book, but once we started to get more of Mr. Knightley, it turned into a better read.  Still love the adaptations, but I will give this another read at some point to see if I can improve the rating I gave it.

So, I guess it's time to get on to the book stats...

Bought: 28 - including a lot of secondhand books

Read: 15

Pages: 5,827

First buy: School Ship Tobermory by Alexander McCall Smith

Last buy: Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

Okay, it seems bad when I look at that and realize that I bought 28 freaking books!  I need an intervention 🍷

And on that note, I'll say cheerio for now.  My blogging will be a little haphazard over the next couple of weeks - as it was through May, sorry - as I'm having physiotherapy from the hospital {my wrist is still not up to scratch} so typing may be off the cards at times.

I hope you had a great reading month in May, and since it's starting to get cold and into the winter spirit down here in Australia I'd love to hear if you have any recommendations for me for great winter reads.  I need something to fit the frosty atmosphere (no snow in QLD).

Until next time,

Book Review || White Tiger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

White Tiger 

Dark Heavens #1

Kylie Chan

Published: 24th July, 2006

HarperVoyager, mass market, 546p.
ISBN: 9780732282967

When 28-year-old Emma Donahoe becomes a nanny to John Chen’s daughter, Simone, she does not expect to be drawn into a world of martial arts, magic, and extreme danger, where both gods and demons can exist in the mortal world.

Emma gradually realises that John Chen is no ordinary businessman and that nearly all the demons in hell would like to see him dead. John and his American bodyguard, Leo, begin to teach Emma their particular brand of martial arts and special defensive techniques … they also begin to realise that there is something that is different about Emma but exactly what it is, nobody can say.

I have loved this book ever since I first read it way back in 2006. I was drawn to the cover while perusing my local bookstore one day. I picked it up, read the back, and told myself if it was there next time I'd buy it. Well, weeks later it was still there, so I bought it - and had finished it by the time I went to bed that night. It's amazing how we can remember some books so clearly. That first reading, how we felt, the excitement, the highs and lows as we follow the characters through their story. White Tiger is one of those books for me.

The protagonist Emma was an Australian. How many of those do you get? She was loyal, fierce, loving and intelligent. I could hear her voice in my head - no accent adjustment required ;-D I have lived on the Gold Coast, where her character finds herself at one stage, I know the beach, I could smell the sea, feel the beautiful white gold sand under my feet - even felt twinges when Leo got the sunburn of all sunburns. I've been there, done that.

Mixing a modern Aussie girl's adventures in Hong Kong with the Eastern Mythology was just the icing on the cake for me. It opened up so much more than just a contemporary romance could have managed - and made a richer palette from which to draw from. Xuan Wu is wonderful, and his daughter Simone is just so adorable. Leo is a mountain of a man with whom Emma has an almost brotherly relationship with, and don't get me started on Kitty Kwok.

White Tiger is a great first book (in what I originally thought was just a trilogy!), and it is so easy to let yourself just get swept away in the story.

Only negative I have is that none of the books in the series are available on audiobook, but hopefully that will change in the future.

View all my reviews

I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the first book in the series, White Tiger.  I just finished Black Jade and I will hopefully have a review up sometime soon.  It was the final book in the Dark Heavens/Journey to Wudang/Celestial Battle trilogies/series.  

I'd love to hear if you have read any of the books in the series, and what you thought of them ;-D

Until next time,

Autumn is finally here

{as you can tell from the photo above, it's later when I finished this post.  Sky was so lovely to photograph against}

Good morning, my lovelies!  Today is a beautiful chilly autumn day, you know the kind - with painfully blue skies and not a cloud to be seen.  Been quite a while since we've had any autumn-worthy weather, so I thought I'd take advantage of it and try some outdoor book photo's later ;-D

On the plus side, my wrist is getting better slowly.  There is still a hard part under the scar, but I can now type more comfortably - but it means that I've had to spend the morning trying to update my Goodreads book challenge as I've been M.I.A there for the past 4 and a bit weeks!  Oops ;-D

I've read a few more titles since my last update, including Boyfriend from Hell by Jamie Quaid {review to come}, and discovering that the book I bought the other day from the Big W bargain bin is the same book that was delivered about 2 weeks ago - only with a better cover!  Oh well, such are the problems of a bookaholic.

My May title for A Year of Marple arrived today.  Sadly I can now no longer put off reading what is one of my least favourite of the adaptations.  Fingers crossed that I find the book more palateable.  And I have only read the first few pages of my Classic a Month book, Emma by Jane Austen.  It's not looking very good on the book challenge front, is it, if I can't get my butt into gear and read my designated TBR.  See, this is why I don't like setting a TBR for myself as I am a mood reader.  Oh well, at least I can tick them off my list and will be able to confidently say that "yes, I've actually read that" by the end of the year ;-D

Okay, have to quite now as I'm getting more than a few "Stop. . . NOW!" messages from my wrist.  I've learnt the hard way to stop when the aching sets in.  Will update the blog as I can, but will be posting pictures of my reading life on Instagram if you want to know what I'm reading.

Until next time,

Book Review || Fire Bound

Fire Bound

A Sea Haven Novel #5

Christine Feehan

Published: 26 April, 2016

JOVE, mass market pbk, 367p.

ISBN: 978-0-515-15611-9

She possesses the power to inflame the most dangerous desire of all

Flame-haired Lissa Piner is a skilled glassblower whose delicate gift conceals a burning inner strength that can destroy as exquisitely as it can create.  Commissioned to design chandeliers for a string of luxury hotels, her remarkable skills have taken her to Italy.  But Lissa's real mission there is a secret.  For her entire life has been a lie, leading to a chance to avenge a terrible wrong.

Enlisted as her bodyguard is Casimir Prakenskii, a trained assassin living off the grid.  In Lissa, he sees a kindred spirit - something unexpected and wicked, mysterious and sensual.  But something more than desire is about to bring them together, because both of their pasts cry out for revenge.  And for two people with this many secrets, this much passion and this many enemies, someone is bound to get burned.

Well, we've almost reached the end of this series.  Fire Bound is the second last book in the Sea Haven novels that follow the Prakenskii brothers (Lev, Stefan, Maxim, Gavriil, Casimir and Viktor).  I have been eagerly awaiting each brothers story since finding out about Ilya's past in Turbulent Sea, but as the series has progressed I've been finding myself oddly disappointed with most of the books in the Sea Haven series, and Fire Bound was no different.

Now don't get me wrong, there were sections of this book that I did like, but I've reached the stage where I don't just want these characters to hit the sheets within a few days of meeting each other.  In Lissa and Casimir's case, they had only exchanged a handful of words, before they ended up jumping into bed with each other (p.64 and goes on for more than 20 pages!).  This bossy, dominating alpha stereotype is fine if he's a werewolf, but for a paranormal romance I want to see something other than the me-trained-assassin-you-mate-so-let's-have-sex attitude that I've been finding.  A book full of sex scenes does not equate to romance in my opinion.  I'd rather imagine somethings that have it describe in minute, and often very graphic, detail.  Is it just me?  When did author's stop leaving something to the readers imagination?

Okay, sex aside, the other major gripe that I had with Fire Bound was the ending with the Sorbacov's demise.  These two men have been the bane of the Prakenskii brothers life for over 30 years.  They are ruthless, well protected, going after them is a suicide mission and you may not be successful - according to the Prakenskii's themselves - and yet they are dispatched with ease by Lissa.  No help from Casimir, or any of the brothers, they're just set up and snuffed out by one feisty redhead.  Okay, she doesn't escape scott free, but it boggles the mind.  This was one of the places that thumbed its nose at the 'mythology' established in earlier books, and having Lissa basically assassinate two ruthless killers, pulled me out of my reading zone.

*sigh*

So now having bitched about the cons, and while the above problems did bring down my rating, there were one or two moments that held this books head just above the 2 star waterline.  I enjoyed finding out about Lissa's past, and I was just about clapping when her uncle, and his bodyguard, got their just desserts, but by far, my favourite moment would have to be the surprise introduction of Viktor.  OMG, Viktor is one hell of a scary SOB! We find out what he's up to now (bring the series full circle with events from Hidden Currents), and got a few tidbits about his and Blythe's past - which was definitely enough to get my mouth watering for the final book in the series.  And it is for these scenes that I gave Fire Bound 3½ stars.  Major fireworks ahead.

I hope you enjoyed my review of Fire Bound by Christine Feehan.  Let me know if you have read the book - or a planning too - and if you have, what did you think of it?  

I'm hoping to get another quick review up later this week, so until next time...