By Pablo Neruda
Why search in vain
in every door in which we will not exist
because we have not arrived yet?
That is how I found out
that I was exactly like you
and like everybody.
The Name of the Star
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.
Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn’t notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.
Maureen Johnson is an author I’d enjoyed in the past, but kind of forgot I liked. I saw The Name of the Star mentioned on another book blog some time ago and purchased it on my Kindle. I started it when I found in need of some distraction during my lunch break.
Johnson has a very engaging style that is every bit in evidence here. I really enjoyed the character of Rory… From her first chapter, I loved her stories about her eccentric family in the south. She was overall a great lead.
The storyline was intriguing and great… Someone is repeating the Jack the Ripper murders. I loved the mix of history in this YA, set in an old city, at a boarding school (honestly, she had me at boarding school). The time period of the history is also one of my favorites… Victorian.
Rory has some great and unique associates in this book… Jazza, Jerome, Boo, and Alistair. Though the relationship between Rory and Jerome seems a little underdeveloped.
Supernatural twist: Did not see that coming/ was not prepared for it. But it totally made the book great.
I’m stoked to read the next books in this new series. The Name of the Star was pretty addicting and I’m sure the others in the trilogy will be as well, knowing Johnson’s writing.
300+ Followers
I officially passed 300 distinct blog followers earlier this week and I just want to say thank you! Thank you to those of you have been reading Isle of Books since the very beginning and those who’ve just found my little corner of the internet and those in between. It’s gotten harder to keep up with this blog, so I appreciate all of you who still drop by and read what I have to say and leave me comments. Thank you!
Featured Poem: A New War
a new war by Charles Bukowski
a different fight now, warding off the weariness of
age,
retreating to your room, stretching out upon the bed,
there’s not much will to move,
it’s near midnight now.
not so long ago your night would be just
beginning, but don’t lament lost youth:
youth was no wonder
either.
but now it’s the waiting on death.
it’s not death that’s the problem, it’s the waiting.
you should have been dead decades ago.
the abuse you wreaked upon yourself was
enormous and non-ending.
a different fight now, yes, but nothing to
mourn, only to
note.
frankly, it’s even a bit dull waiting on the
blade.
and to think, after I’m gone,
there will be more days for others, other days,
other nights,.
dogs walking, trees shaking in
the wind.
I won’t be leaving much.
something to read, maybe.
a wild onion in the gutted
road.
Paris in the dark.
The History of Love
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Leo Gursky taps his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he’s still alive. But it wasn’t always like this: in the Polish village of his youth, he fell in love and wrote a book. . . . Sixty years later and half a world away, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in that book, undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With virtuosic skill and soaring imaginative power, Nicole Krauss gradually draws these stories together toward a climax of “extraordinary depth and beauty”.
This book is definitely in the running for my favorite book of 2013. Just a beautiful, beautiful novel.
Exactly the kind of thing you don’t want to be reading when you’re trying to edit your own novel. But I digress.
This is a novel I can see myself reading over and over. I’m actually itching to read it again because the storyline is a little confusing. It’s told from multiple viewpoints, in different styles, during different points of history, and all scrambled together.
But somehow, it just works.
Without giving much away (because really, you should just go read this book) I liked all of the characters, all of their individual stories, and how they pull together into a whole. I especially love the chapters that were dedicated to Alma Singer. I like the style of tiny vignettes. And the sections that were purported to come from The History of Love were also amazing. I wish it was a real book I could go off and read and die happy reading.
But most of all, I loved how quotable this book was. You could drop it open to any page and find something worth underlining. Truly. Nicole Krauss is an amazing writer and I look forward to reading more of her work.
I also think I just found a new literary hero.
Side note: Someone recommended this to me and I have no idea who. If you think it was you, please let me know!!
Featured Poem: Streets closed
By Adrienne Rich (from Eastern War Time)
Streets closed, emptied by force Guns at corners
with open mouths and eyes Memory speaks:
You cannot live on me alone
you cannot live without me
I’m nothing if I’m just a roll of film
stills from a vanished world
fixed lightstreaked mute
left for another generation’s
restoration and framing I can’t be restored or framed
I can’t be still I’m here
in your mirror pressed leg to leg beside you
intrusive inappropriate bitter flashing
with what makes me unkillable though killed
