Rachel´s Random Resources: The One Where They Fall in Love by Cristina Wolf

Elle is a romantic editor who keep believing in love. Only that mostly there are other people love stories. She happens to have a neighbour down to earth and very well organised who got to keep a dog entertained, a dog who mostly misbehaves when left alone for long hours. His name is Thor. Elle is trying to find a solution to the permanent bothering Thor suddenly brought into her life, and offers to babysit when Oliver is out for work. And, as maybe expected from a sweet romance novel, there is something building up between the two, a bridge created by their time spent together before or after the dog sitting episodes.

The One Where They Fall in Love by romance writer Cristina Wolf is a book built around destinies of imperfect New Yorkers, young people looking for connection and genuine love. Although in realitiy, love may follow different pathways as in Elle´s dreams, it is always worth the try. 

What I really loved in this story was the dynamic created between Elle and Oliver through their chats and discussions. It is such a sweet way to create connection and those two are all about slowly connecting, despite the (barking) circumstances. 

I´ve read this book in a weekend and made me smile more than once.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own  

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman

Set in the 17th century Venice, The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman is a very well researched book of resilience and siblings´ love. 

Two siblings - Elizabeth and Richard - separated by a fate where the historical weight of the ongoing events is dramatically influencing the fate of individuals. The book starts with a slow introduction into the spirit of the time, allowing the individual destinies of the characters to project on the historical canva. Although it may look a bit slow, this beginning is setting a clear base for creating the right context for the next encounters and events about to be told.

The alternations between the particular and individual histories is very important for understanding the story, as well as the characters. Gilman, an author I got to know through this book only, is an empathic storyteller, sharing with the readers stories that cross centuries through the genuine humanity of the characters.

The Knife Maker of Venice challenged me to show more interest in discovering and thinking more about the history of Venice and their people. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel

Once I fell for an author, I´m unable to resist reading in a row all their works. The Ensemble by Aja Gabel was one of my highlights of the extremely tormented year of 2020. Six years after, I grabbed her latest, Lightbreakers from a library´s shelf, hungry for a new literary encounter. With a cover like this, no matter the author and the title, I would have anyway stop more than a couple of seconds to think about a book.

Maya is an artist and Noah a quantum physicist. As he accepted a mysterious offer from an excentric investor to test a time travel machine in Marfa, Texas, their relationship is being shattered by the persistence of memories of his deceased daughter and the life he had before they met. As he slowly realized he is part of a wider experiment, Noah acknowledgingly accepts the escape from a past - alongside with his ex-wife, also a scientist by vocation, Eileen - and leaves the secret lab to continue his life in the present where Maya exists.

There are few genres that do leave me completely cold, and one of them is time travel-related. I do travel, I love history - or historical facts to be more precise - but I have no feelings for this type of escapism facilitated by science. And Lightbreakers is mostly built around the time travel story, as Noah is repeatedly returning to his life before, when his daughter was alive, saving scraps of memory, more or less processed by his present self. 

From the scientific point of view, this time travel solution - chemically induced - doesn´t sound very strong and spectacular either. But forgive the high expectations of an apprentice of time travel adventures.

But besides those parts - which slowed my reading pace, because just felt stuck, unable to utter any credible judgement of value - the writing is beautiful, immersive and deeply empathic. It´s like in some parts, the author herself is bearing with us, the non-professional readers, offering some slice of beauty despite the aversity to the main pretext of the story. 

I will hurry up anyway to read anything Gabel writes, but maybe will check twice if some SF/dystopic-related topics are addressed, just to lower the expectations.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Berlinoise by Wilfried N'Sondé

Book set in Berlin must definitely have a story of two with before and after - the Wall, end of WWII, both. It is a literary stereotype that does not necessarily reflects nowadays what people, especially young people see their own histories and present life. In the end, it depends on the ratio of the books set in Berlin you may read. Maybe my ratio is too high, hence the ennui...

Berlinoise by Wilfriend N'Sondé - alongside another book that will hopefully review soon - was chosen for the language, not the topic. I am longing for more French-ness in my literary life - and not only - therefore the irresistible desire to read more in this language - especially after spending most of my summer vacation time improving my Italian. 

This is a short yet passionate novel, a kind of Education sentimentale of a young French musician, landing to Berlin in the last day of 1989, getting to know Maya, a tormented East-Germany born artist, with whom he will passionately live the moment until her decision two years after to leave for the county of her father, Cuba - as in real life, literary characters are allowed to make bad decisions as well. 

The passionate story is set on the background of the own political passions shaking the newly reunited Germany, such as the outburst of racial violence and the omnious overpresence of skinheads and Neo-Nazi groups and the frequent deadly attacks against migrants.

I did not know what exactly to expect from this book but besides the literary stereotypes I´ve mentioned before, I enjoyed the reading and the concision of the style, and the story wasn´t that bad after all. I am looking forward to my next book by this author, who returned to France after spending a long time in Berlin working in the field of social assistance.

Rating: 3 stars

Land Where I Flee by Prajwal Parajuly

Four grown-up grandchildren are gathering from London and US on the occasion of chaurasi - the celebration of the 84th birthday - of their strong-willed grandmother Chitralekha in a region in India with a stong Nepalese minority. A hilarious dysfunctional family  with whom we are invited to spend about a week together.

Land Where I Flee by Nepalese-Indian author Prajwal Parajuly has a cast of very unique characters that are into a lot of unexpected, morally doubtful situations - created by them or just casting - while rich in cultural and historical details about this part of India. 

It may be just another book about a dysfunctional family, due to the conflict between ´Westernization´ and local traditions - the grandchildren mostly speak English to each other. Who will buy a read a book about ´normal´ people, anyway? But I´ve personally read about some of the interactions between characters laughing out loud and took note about many of the cultural and traditional remarks I clearly was not familiar about.

I can easily see this book serialized, as it keeps a soap opera glamour and state of permanent crisis. The choice of reading was completely random, but felt like I was right with my choice as now I have some new cultural topics to think about it.

Landd Where I Flee is a recommended read for any curious reader looking to discover some special ideas and traditions of Nepalese in India.

Rating: 3 stars

Random Things Tours: Wasteland Girls by Anna Bailey

 

I love short stories, particularly those powerful enough to evocate world in just few pages. The precision and attention to detail, while building characters and elaborating sometimes complex story structures are particular writing skills in itself. 

Those thoughts were generated by my latest reading of a short story collection, Wasteland Girls by Anna Bailey. Ten stories about relationships, human connection set against the very specific North American context. 

It connects both lives and worlds, particular landscapes and timelines, through the expression of deep, sometimes violent, human feelings. I was particularly drawn by the ambiance of the specific places where the action is taking part, but also about the ways in which it sometimes resonates with the personality and emotional status of the characters.

Each story is a well chiselled world in itself, keeping the reader constantly connected, including through unexpected twists that do surprise, shock or just put you back on the reading track.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Random Things Tours: The Lover by Mary Watson

A bit over a year of reading The Cleaner, South-African bestseller author Mary Watson is back with a mind-wrecking story about dangerous love.

Hallie and Rafe, the main characters in her latest, The Lover, were two people in love, an illicit love though, that they may rekindle. Rafe is Hallie´s boss as well, a charming and intelligent man who gives you reason to dream of happiness. But one day, Hallie wakes up with her murdered lover on the other side of the bed. She is the one to have seen her alive, hence she may be the main suspect? But what dark episodes was he hiding?

I´ve read this book with few breaks in between, unable to get my mind out of this book. It follows the rules of a classical whodunnit, but it builds more suspense and action, and the mystery surrounding the case is hard to decipher. 

There is a high tension that increases towards the end of the story, as more personal details are revealed, displaying, as usually happens, a less perfect lifeframe as expected, especially in the case of Rafe. The details are carefully built building relevance and adding twists that are magnifying the circumstances. 

For me, it was a passionate read that I always appreciate, especially when I have plenty of time to delve into the thriller, betting my horses on different ends - which, in this case, were all wrong. I usually love when a book challenge me to ask question after question, and this was fortunately the case with The Lover. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own