charlottehart

This requires fortitude

Revisado: 01-13-25

Thank goodness the author reads it. And also, I needed to take breaks of days at a time bc her life is a relentless pounding. Oof. Cannot wait to hear her speak at Festival of the Authors in Long Beach in April 2025.

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Revealing. Details about something different.

Revisado: 12-07-24

Read it. It’s v good. Moves fast. Not perfect - what i? But truly engaging and revelatory. Also heart breaking at times.

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An unusual story - imaginative

Revisado: 01-03-24

Characters, places and events painted thoroughly and richly. Not quite sure where it was going at first and maybe the ending reflects that some, but I really enjoyed the journey and am grateful for the deft performance.

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Frequent Lolls.

Revisado: 12-06-23

Surprised by delight in the tale even if predictable and maybe even cliche. Fast read and excellent narrator.

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Enjoyable in a “good tale” kind of way

Revisado: 11-14-23

Rounding down from 3,45. Starts out strong, but post- *big moment* gets a bit self indulgent and even loses some of the strength of the beautiful turns of phrase in the earliest chapters. Thankful it’s a linear tale and may forecast the end of the time hop trend.

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A series of essays telling a life story.

Revisado: 02-28-23

Rounding down from 3.25. I don’t really focus on celebrity stories. I read this one because I saw some Sarah Polley interviewed. I found it marginally interesting. Its well written. I thought that I would get more about her recovery from her concussion. Turned out to be a lot about her life. I don’t want to seem like a compassionate person. I just didn’t really care as much about her life as I did about her concussion recovery. For anybody who is interested in the Canadian actresses life, this will not be disappointing.

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Editor needed. Apply within.

Revisado: 12-19-22

Not saying it was unbearable- but it stumbles and I expect more. Now that I know more about her from research outside the book, I feel more warmly toward the memoir, but I don’t think that’s how it should go.

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Good mystery with historical event

Revisado: 09-18-22

Rounding down from 4.2. Rating it highly as good chick lit and fun page turner. Enjoyable tale if a bit dramatic - not my usual fare - and I’m forgiving the lack of literary prowess in favor of the effect of my curiosity about how she’d wrap the tale up.

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An editor would have helped

Revisado: 06-15-22

Two or three of these concepts would be a good book. The lack of discipline to reign it in is evocative of the general immaturity that one encounters all through the Caroline chapters. I hated it walking into book club; after our discussion I merely don’t like it … so I’m glad for a conversation to help clear away some of my judgements which were rooted in the teeth itch of the overwriting of Caroline and helped me further appreciate the creativity of the idea of following 18th century women trying to help each other.

But I think this book yearns for a skilled editor and I think the publisher might have helped Penner move the book toward the good potential of the core story.

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Hashimi (unwittingly) strikes (at my privilege) again.

Revisado: 10-14-21

I met Nadia Hashimi at the Festival of Authors (sponsored by Literary Women in Long Beach, CA) after she published “When the Moon is Low.” I had not yet fallen in love with her, as I’d arrived at the event unaware of how helpful it is to have read the authors’ works prior to hearing them speak. So it was wide-eyed admiration for her that propelled me into her work after that presentation about her life as a person of Afghan descent who can help people with both her M.D. and her word processor.

Ultimately, I’ve come to see that Hashimi-the-writer is as interesting as Hashimi-the-speaker and also as approachable. I took a photo of her talking with some teenagers that day - she was as engaged with them as she would have been with any dear friend, i observed. And her novels, works of historical fiction about a place and a culture far from American life, feel warm and familiar because she taps into the similarities and draws us to the commonness of family bonds, child-like appreciation for the wonders of memories and even the power of foods.

This tale of a woman flung into the void at a young age drops us into not so distant history and pops us into even more recent history and helps us know a little more than we could easily learn on our own. I appreciate all the poetic turns of phrase and the ruminating on beauty and the chance to grasp bits of the importance of events outside my tiny world view. But even more, I am grateful for the way the story is told because I know I am silly lucky. I’m accidentally fortunate in ways that have little to do with my own effort and I appreciate that these books of Hashimi’s never impose any judgement nor linger on the sordid, but rather feel like a friend telling a story over a cup of tea.

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