The Other Life
by Ellen Meister
Genre: Women’s Literature
Publisher: Putnam
Publish Date: February 17, 2011
Format: Hardcover | 320 pages
Rating: 4 of 5
In quantum physics there is a theory that many universes exist parallel to each other. That the universe we exist in may be just one in an endless multiverse, each with a separate reality. And that every choice we have does happen. And every decision we make in this universe has an opposite reality in another one. If you could travel between these universes, would you?
From the time she was a young child, Quinn Braverman knew about the portal to another life. She was warned to never go there, that it was dangerous. Her mother knew, her brother did too, but no one talked about it. As an adult, she knows she has another life on the other side of that portal, the life where she never left her neurotic boyfriend and was still living a fast paced life with him in New York City instead of her life in this reality where she is married, living in the suburbs and now pregnant with their second child.
Quinn also knows that her mother, who committed suicide in this life, is still alive in that other reality, and Quinn desperately wants to see her mother again. After a particularly stressful week, one in which Quinn learns there are problems with her pregnancy, she makes the decision to go through the portal to the other life. It’s alright, she figures, because she can come right back; but each time the journey gets more difficult and Quinn must make a decision, which life does she want to live in.
The relationships Quinn has with her family and friends is the overriding theme in this book, the primary one being between mother and daughter, but also important is the relationship Quinn has with her own family. Quinn is torn by her indecisiveness and second guesses many of her decisions. She’s not sure if she did the right thing by leaving Eugene, her neurotic boyfriend, all those years ago. She cannot forgive her mother for leaving her and yet she risks doing the same thing to her family every time she passes through the portal to the other life. What if she can’t get back?
Ultimately this is a story about working through grief, learning to forgive and realizing what is truly important in life. Suspend your reality and believe that Quinn could travel between worlds. Then ask yourself what would you do? This book brings to the surface a lot of excellent discussion questions and could be a good choice for book club.
Recommended for those who like women’s fiction and can believe in the fantasy of the unbelievable.
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Source: A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
From the Land of the Moon
by Milena Agus
Translated by Ann Goldstein
Genre: Literature
Publisher: Europa Editions
Publish Date: January 2011
Format: Paperback | 114 pages
Rating: 4½ of 5
In this debut novel by Milena Agus, a young unnamed Italian women pieces together the story of her grandmother’s life, a tale that spans three generations and two families. Translated from Italian, this beautiful book retains it’s lyrical prose. The passion of her grandmother’s bittersweet life and the picturesque descriptions of Italy flowed from the pages.
The story begins begins in Sardinia, Italy near the end World War II. Grandmother had just married at age 30 and was considered a bit of an old maid. Her father had forced her to marry the first man who asked, an older widower who she diden’t love. Her family was convinced she scared away all the other suitors by writing them love poems and her own mother thought she was a little bit crazy, perhaps from the land of the moon.
After 10 years of marriage and several miscarriages grandmother still had no children. Kidney stones were blamed and she was sent to the thermal baths on the mainland for a cure. It was there that she met the Veteran and immediately fell in love with him. Nine months later she gave birth to a son and the spa treatment was considered a success. She never tells anyone about the Veteran but longs for her lost love all her life.
There was always more to grandmother’s life than our narrator knew. After her death the granddaughter finds a book and a letter that had been hidden away. While some questions are now answered, others are raised that made me wonder about what was real and what was imagined. I’m being vague because I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who decides to read the book. I will say that the ending was very haunting and powerful and that families will go to many lengths to protect their secrets.
At a little over 100 pages this is a novella rather than a novel and when I finished it I wanted more. After I had time to fully digest the story and think about it for a few days, I decided that it was the right length even though some of the questions are not fully answered. And that is my point; I was still thinking about it a few days later and wondering. Highly recommended.
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First three chapters are available on google books.
Source: Borrowed copy.
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I participate in Book Review Party Wednesday. Click the link to read more great reviews.
Christine D.
is the winner of
The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and took the time to enter.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. This month’s host is Laura @ Library of Clean Reads.
Last week’s new books were:
The Silver Boat: A Novel by Luanne Rice from the publisher for review.
From the beloved New York Times bestselling Luanne Rice comes a heartwarming yet heart-wrenching portrait of three far-flung sisters who come home to Martha’s Vineyard one last time. Their mother’s beach house is the only place any of them ever found true happiness and they need to begin the difficult process of letting go. Memories of their grandmother, mother, and their Irish father, who sailed away the year Dar turned twelve, rise up and expose the fine cracks in their family myth-especially when a cache of old letters reveals enough truth to send them back to their ancestral homeland.
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan, an autographed copy from the author.
1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating–and harboring a secret.
Chicago Lakefront taken from Navy Pier looking south. (Click for sharper image.)
No more snowy pictures. I saw a lone robin in my yard yesterday, a sure sign that spring is near. Once robins leave their winter flocks they begin scouting for nesting sites. I like to think that was what he was doing and not just stopping by because I have a heated, ice-free bird bath!
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Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Alyce. Head on over to At Home With Books to see more great photos or add your own.
The 14th annual Great Backyard Bird Count takes place next weekend, February 18–21st. This event is organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada. Scientists use these counts to get a picture of our winter birds.
Volunteers are needed across the US and Canada to count birds in your backyard or neighborhood for 15 minutes or more on any day during the count. Total up the highest number of each species seen at any one time and enter it on the birdcount.org website. People of all ages and skill levels can participate. You can watch through your window or use this as a good excuse to get outside and walk over to the local park.
You do not need to be an expert to participate. Even if you can only identify the common birds you can still take part in the count.
How to participate
- Download an instruction sheet.
- Print a checklist of birds for your area.
- Count birds for 15 minutes or more.
- Enter your results on the birdcount webpage.
Need help in identifying a bird? Use Cornell’s All About Birds searchable bird guide. Check out these photos of the top ten birds reported last year. There’s even a special page for the kids. Children love watching birds too.
I’ll be out at a few of the local parks and of course my backyard counting birds. I hope you will join me.
The Book Blogger Hop, a weekly event hosted by Jen at Crazy For Books, is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!
This week’s topic is:
“Tell us about one of your posts from this week and give us a link so we can read it!”
It was a fairly normal week here at Under My Apple Tree. I posted a non-fiction review, a giveaway to win a book, entry open through Sunday the 13th, a photo of a little bird playing in the snow and an annoying but cute squirrel eating some bread. 
And, I now have a facebook fan page which you are all invited to join.
My highlighted post for the week is my relatively new feature, Weekend Birding, a weekly post dedicated to all things birds. Sometimes a book review with the topic of birds but more often photos, a featured bird, stories or factual information; something different every week. 
I have a passion for our feathered friends; they are such amazing and beautiful creatures. If you like birds, be sure to stop by on Saturdays.
Under My Apple Tree 