Lavender Road: London at War by Helen Carey

Lavender Road. Helen Carey. TSAP Books. Sold by all e-book retailers.  November 2011. 384 pp. E-book: 712 kb. 

Most war stories hit on a major love story and major battle scenes.  Helen Carey has tapped into the very fiber of English life in the days preceding the bombing of England during WWII and during the actual bombing.  The story centers on several families who have all the ups and downs of real life but who forge on with that gritty, strong English attitude.  They appear together but bleed internally like every human being.

We begin with Jen Carter who wants to be an actress but has no training, just a high school drama at which the audience clearly connected to her very special acting and singing skills.  Plus she's a great mimic.  But home life is far from serene and she spends most of her time at home fighting with her mother, that is until she meets an Irish hunk of guy, Sean.  Jen needs to be needed so does anything to make Sean happy, including sleeping with him anywhere and everywhere.  But after numerous rejections and one very dangerous scene, opportunities open for Jen and she begins to find herself and think more of others unlike before.  The hardships of war and pulling together in everyone's need cannot help but change Jen! And her mother breaks out of a very narrow world to become an actually very pleasant and interesting woman!

There's a rich girl who wants to meet a guy and be loved but finds only teases or nice guys who don't want to mar her "virgin" status. Or her father, who is so stuck in tradition that he drives away everyone he encounters.  Perhaps you'd better like the man who can't fight in the war because of a weak physical condition but who does something so heroic it makes others look like cowards.  There are also two elderly sisters who have trained and costumed famous actors and are far from stereotypical "little ol' ladies."  Another handsome guy in the Royal Air Force tells everyone he's a pilot when in fact he's a spy for England undertaking highly dangerous missions, ones that make him grow old before his time.

Lavender Road is rich in so many diverse ways.  It's a bit slow at times in the beginning but picks up a pace like wild fire about a quarter-way through and absolutely delightful. We read how women sought roles in the war that changed their images of themselves and made them better people for it, although it shook up the home territory.  We see prejudice rear its ugly head against those who had escaped the slaughter of Hitler.  There's so much more than what is contained in this review.  Lavender Road is great historical fiction - a lovely slice of life in the East End of London during a very, very dangerous time! Kudos to Helen Carey for a job so well-done!

P. S. This reviewer's mother lived through the bombing of England in another city and so knows how very accurate the history is herein!  Brought back memories of Mom's stories, funny and harrowing!

In The Pleasure Groove by John Taylor

In The Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran. John Taylor. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. October 2012. 304 pages, hardback. ISBN #: 978052598000.

John Taylor covers a large span of music evolution in this autobiography of his life and that of Duran Duran, the rock group in which he still performs.  It is that diverse, evolving story that speaks volumes for the success he has achieved.  Yes, the audience may change, but the "real" audience has evolved with his talent and musical styles over the years.

Taylor knows how to grab an audience. Right from the beginning, the reader is charged from the opening account of a concert performance in which the song "Tel Aviv" was played and Taylor confesses to being scared out of his mind at the almost animal atmosphere of the screaming, violent crowd.  How does one play and what is it about the music that creates such a wild response to the group's music?

We are then led back even further to the very start of his life, through his education, interest in music at first without any thought about actually becoming a rock star, and more.  The terrific part of this next section is that he chronicles how the music evolved from simple chord music on acoustic guitar through the time of the Beatles through to rock music...to punk rock...., etc. For those who are older, it will bring back some great memories; for those who are younger, it might make them curious to check out the "older" music.

Then comes the beginning Duran, Duran, playing as introductory music for other more famous singers and bands....then comes evolving success.  Plenty of unknown and fascinating details follow about different and better instruments that were used, as well as how the other band members adapted, left, and joined, leading up to the present band members.  There's a very riveting section on how drugs and booze almost blew the whole success chance out the window and a very painful part of how it broke him down. Fortunately, it didn't end there...

Absolutely great biography about a singer, composer, producer and band leader who clearly is "passionate" beyond belief about his art.  Read it and enjoy the music you will hear and the interesting guy you will come to know so much better as you read!

Sweet Tooth: A Novel by Ian McEwan

Sweet Tooth: A Novel. Ian McEwan. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. November 2012. 320 pp. hardback. ISBN #: 9780385536820.

In 1972 the Cold War was still making British government and citizens very nervous. Communists were the enemy and subversion of their message was the job of the British Secret Service.  This part of the war, however, would not be carried out with killing machines of guns and bombs but through the fiction and non-fiction messages that famous and not so famous authors would pen and circulate widely in professional and non-professional places. No limitation would be placed on their literary efforts and published works.  Propaganda need not be overt!

Serena Frome is a former Cambridge student who briefly carries on an affair with a professor who once worked for the British intelligence agency - M5.  That agency was often at odds with its sister group M6.  In a stunning series of planned events, Serena's lover drops her but guarantees her a job in M5.  While there, she is slowly eased into a job of getting a "new" author to write a novel. The story could be about anything and will be funded by the government.  As he becomes more well-known, more will happen.  Little does Serena realizes her reaction to this writer will be so passionate and little does she realize how jealous her immediate boss will be by her vehement connection. What her new friend pens is far more harrowing and upsetting to Serena.

Sweet Tooth is quite simply an amazing novel about the multiple ways in which smart people maintain an innocent, blind attitude toward what so obviously lacks credibility.  Every single character in this story shares that naive mental and emotional stance.  Patriotism and passion are stunningly manifest in flagrant stupidity.  Upon finishing this novel, should the reader say, "Oh, I wouldn't think like that; I wouldn't miss those clues. I don't hold beliefs like these characters?"  Probably not because we are so inundated with our own contemporary propaganda that few truly analyze, critique, and speak out against what is really quite harmful distortion.

Sweet Tooth is a well-written novel that should be read by as many people as possible.  Its satiric message is so necessary.  This tendency to become star-struck by intelligence and "shared secrets" should be a warning bell if we would see government shaped by the people and not the reverse.  Congratulations, Ian McEwan, for a vital novel, a must read for people of all nations!

Daughters of Fire by Tom Peek

Daughters of Fire. Tom Peek. Koa Books. October 2012. 496 pp. Available in paperback and e-book formats. ISBN #: 9780982165621.

Contemporary Hawaii has been taken over by politicians and businessmen seeking profit at any cost.  Native Hawaiians have been marginalized and cast aside, sometimes by omission or ignoring and sometimes by commission of violent crimes. But there is a magic, mysticism, and beauty of this state that elicits wonder, awe, and passionate defense.  Maile is a such a Hawaiian, an educated anthropologist who keeps in touch with everything going on. She quietly notes and at times assists those native Hawaiians who will demonstrate and do whatever they can to keep their land pure and true to its spiritual identity and destiny!

So the reader watches with fascination as she meets a non-Hawaiian white Australian astronomer doing research.  He is at first a detached observer here for his scientific exploratory job but slowly is entranced with Maile and with her land.  His initial attitude is representative of those who live for a material world and are blind to the awesome ambience of this gorgeous island.  Even the volcanic craters that have a temperament of their own, believed to indicate the support or punitive anger of the divine Pele.

Add to that a super resort is being built on what is believed to be sacred native land that was stolen from true Hawaiians. It's worth millions and its growth is supported by politicians all the way to Washington.  However, it is also built on a volcano that recently has been predicted to be slowly rising.  It poses a major financial crisis for the builders, owners, and even the Hawaiian rebels who will demonstrate to try to stop this abomination from opening.

A young man accidentally happens upon a strange murder, several Hawaiian men hurling a desperate, screaming, crying man into a volcanic crater.  On and on the violence goes, a symbol of betrayal, and a symbol of the immense power of the Hawaiian "mafia."  

There is so much more in this vivid, panoramic view of so many disparate sides vying for power and ownership, all with different motives and all using acceptable and illegal means to attain their goal.

Daughters of Fire in a way takes of where Hawaii by James Michener ended.  It's an emotional, terrifying, and inspiring look at this land that has moved so many to its paradise atmosphere and possibilities.  Notable fiction!

What Are You Looking At? by Will Gompertz

What Are You Looking At? The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art. Will Gompertz. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. October 2012. 432 pp. hardcover. ISBN #: 9780525952671.

Here is a comprehensive, readable book for those ranging from art lovers who those looking at modern art and thinking, "I don't have a clue to what this is!"  

Beginning with a short overview of how art as investment increases for both living and dead artists, the author begins with the story of how Marcel Duchamp rocked the art world with his "Fountain," a urinal turned upside down with some drilled holes.  The point?  What do you see?  The artist would say to keep looking and then the layers of meaning may unfold for the viewer - or - perhaps it's just a urinal which elicits a variety of responses from the viewer.  Is Gustave Courbet's "The Origin of the World" pornography or much more than its surface physicality? These flagrantly different  conceptions are comic yet also a window into the world of contemplation and artistic creation that spans 150 years, that which is called "modern art."

The text then covers multiple schools of art, beginning with pre-Impressionism and Impressionism which is much more than many viewers perceive of as "just dots" and really convey the first time artists wanted to paint outdoors, carefully watching how light and shade created beauty in nature's everyday scenes.  It also describes how the artists of this period risked so much and even started their own schools to rival the prevailing "Academy" system, speaking for the passion of creativity that they felt deserved a larger, appreciative audience.

So this story continues with coverage of Cezanne, Primitivism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Neo-Plasticism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Conceptualism, Minimalism, Post-Modernism, and Art Now.  Making art three-dimensional on a flat surface, variations of color expressing how one views reality with more vivid colors creating emotional appeal, art with two simple colors that viewed long enough brought the viewer's unconscious into the perception, and so much more.

What Are You Looking At?... is a fascinating, intelligently written, very readable look into similarities, differences, and new concepts in the modern artistic world quite frequently seen at the Museum of Modern Art as well as other museums and galleries throughout the world.  It's a must read for every person who wants to understand and appreciate great art!  Superb and highly recommended!!!

Insurgent: Book 2 of America's Future by Charles Sheehan-Miles

Insurgent: Book 2 of America's Future. Charles Sheehan-Miles. Cincinnatus Press. October 2012. 470 pp. paperback and e-book formats. ISBN #: 9780979411496.

Revolution has ripped apart America, continuing the rebellion begun in Republic: A Novel of America's Future. The people have spoken and civil war devastated America's cities. 

Valerie Murphy's father has been executed for his part in promoting violence and seceding from the American government.  She has been imprisoned and brutalized so much she is obviously suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.  Her friend, Al Clark, is now appointed Governor of West Virginia, a monumental job of putting basic services into action and restoring the shattered economy.  But the war isn't over!

An unknown group of warriors in West Virginia is still killing military personnel and shooting down helicopters approaching the area.  Corporal Jim Turville watches his friends die, falls in love, and tries to figure out who can be trusted in this blatantly volatile area.  The violence goes on and on and on!

While the first novel in this series gave ample build-up of the reasons leading to this American demise, Insurgent 2 has little to offer on the reasons and goals of the war.  It's as if death and destruction have been looming for far longer than this particular problem.  Personal freedoms are now forfeit and there seems no end to the madness! It is more potent because of the lack of reason or logic.  It is more devastating than the original Civil War because of the advanced firearm power available in this conflict!

Insurgent is the second of six planned novels.  This novel doesn't pose any "glory" scenes of war; it's hell and the reader should be deeply troubled about the reality that just could happen when people have had enough of poverty, lies, deception, mismanagement of the economy, and more - the same problems that are plaguing far too many people in America at this time.  The reader must decide how much this conflict resembles the random, erratic, and chilling brutality also exhibited in Iran, Afghanistan, and other hot spots throughout the Middle East.

Devastating to read, this is a necessary microscopic canvas of possible outcomes for the future of America! Potent stuff, Charles Sheehan-Miles!!!

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard Von Bingen by Mary Sharratt

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard Von Bingen. Mary Sharratt. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. October 2012. 288 pp. ISBN # 9780547567846.

This is as disturbing a story as it is inspiring!  At the age of 8 years old, in order to win dowries for Hildegard's sisters, her mother "tithes" her to a monk's monastery to become an anchorite.  That means that she and another young girl will be placed in two rooms that are completely walled in except for a small grille through which their spiritual advisor can speak to them and through which food and drink of the coarsest nature will be passed at mealtimes.  Jutta with whom Hildegard is imprisoned is pious beyond what one would ever expect in such a young girl, wearing a hair shirt one-piece garment and ultimately a metal belt with thorn-like prongs that she wears around her waist under her gown that already makes her bleed.  

A young monk, Volmar, befriends Hildegard, supplying her with books on medicinal herbs and providing her with paper and books from which she learns to read and write.  She is comforted by the mystical visions she has of The Blessed Virgin Mary, who appears in different forms but always with holy messages. The visions, however, are always accompanied by a form of illness, be it dizziness or headaches.  Jutta eventually dies and now the real life of Hildegard begins. She has a definite gift of hearing beautiful music and divine verses that will eventually make her famous throughout the world. Life is so so painful with constant conflict from the Abbot and other monks.

Eventually she will win the support of other clergy. Other women will join her and soon she will found her own convent and move through relationships that show her clearly how worldly and sinfully proud she really is!  But then her saintly behavior and words of healing wisdom begin to attract pilgrims.  After her first very tough lessons, Hildegard must grow up and realize that "balance" is mandatory; favoritism and uniqueness is heresy, a sign of a traitor, even a sign perhaps of the devil working in her life!

Mary Sharratt paints a portrait of a woman whose emotions and thoughts are the epitome of saintly behavior and attitude and at the same time frail with undeveloped pride and selfishness.  What else could a woman do who was shut away from the world for thirty years - an inconceivable tortured time, at least to this reviewer.  Every step forward to greater holiness is fraught with temptation and even abuse.  It's not pretty at all and yet Hildegard learns that service to others is more important than her own temporal desires.  Mary Sharratt has fashioned a novel that is riddled with problems that make the reader ask innumerable questions and offers few responses except for those trustworthy souls sharing her journey.  What a remarkable novel. Hildegard is a historical work of fiction that may leave you with more questions than answers.  The line between insanity and saintly behavior, thought, and feeling is thin indeed!  Stunning fiction!