Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Random House for the book.

First impression 
 
I've always been interested on the lives of women that had somehow (for good or for bad) changed the course of history. Coco Chanel is one of these women. I've already read The Gospel according to Coco Chanel and loved it, so given the opportunity to get to know more of her life beyond the pearls I couldn't let it pass. As I finished reading Mademoiselle I have for certain learn more about the person she was and how she got to the position she ended up, however I was not expecting so much information on the lovers she had and other people around her.

Final thoughts

I really enjoyed the first chapters, where we learn about her childhood, shedding a lot of light on her character as well as her perseverance to become a success. However, as the she grew older and hence started having men in her life, at times it felt like this was the only subject. I understand that being who she was it is hard to separate her life from that of her companions but since I was expecting a bit more of the world around her and no the men around her this came as extra information that, while well researched and interesting at times, would not help me know the character of Chanel better. And then again, when it came to Igor Stravinsky it almost felt like a brushing by for him. All other men got almost full chapters and him? He felt like an extra thought.

With a title such as "The Pulse of History" I was expecting to learn (or re learn at times) about her role during the wars, and in this I was not disappointed. The book shows a whole different Chanel than the elegant, always poised woman I've had in my head for long time. Reading about her being ruthless not only with herself, but everyone around her, particularly with her own family made me see her on a completely different light. I assumed that rising to as much as she did was not easy, and I assumed she had to step on a lot of toes...but man, she was so cruel at times.

The book, as I mentioned, it is very well researched. Unfortunately, since this was only a uncorrected proof the footnotes were not already inserted on the corresponding page, but they are all there, along with a complete bibliography. It also includes a fair amount of graphic information, not only with pictures but documents and other.

The other reason why I gave this book only 3 out of 5 is because several times it felt repetitive and even redundant on its views and anecdotes about Chanel. While I understand that with a nonfiction book is not an option to have plot twists, repeating the same story in several chapters gets boring. 

Sunday Salon: Getting ready for September

Ok, ok, so September is already here but I was away on vacation so bear with me. This is going to be a very busy month, both in my reading life and my personal life, so I figured I will tell you a bit about it.

First off, we have the Readers Imbibing Peril IX. You can check my sing post here and there you will also find the titles I plan to read. This gives me my first September read: The Haunting of Hill House. My dearest Andi from Estella Society is hosting the readalong. I will also have to at least tackle on of the books from my list. Since the R.I.P Challenge coincided with the Read-a-Thon in October I am not überly nervous about managing my reading for this challenge, but still, I cannot leave the 4 books for October only.

Now, September is also NetGalley Month, an event hosted by Tay at Chicks that Read. For this event I want to read and review the following books: Sudden Light, Mademoiselle both coming out on September 30 and maybe The French Executioner, but this is a maybe, since I have a bit more time for it. Right now my NG ratio is 62.5% and that's with Sudden Light already reviewed. I would love to increase my ratio, but since I am certainly not lacking books to read, I won't be asking anymore books from NG until October probably.

This is also the month for A More Diverse Universe or Diversiverse, an event organized by Aarti from Booklust.

For those who have not heard about #Diversiverse before, it's a very simple challenge. For those of you who have participated in the past, it's even easier this year. The criteria are as follows:

Read and review one book

Written by a person of color

During the last two weeks of September (September 14th - 27th)

I have two candidates for this being: Stories of your life and Others by Ted Chiang, which incidentally is the month's pick for the Sword and Laser book club and Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler, but once again, the second one is a maybe IF I manage to get to it.

That takes us to at least 4 books this month doesn't it? Well, the thing is I've been a bit behind with all my reviews, and this off course affects future reviews. So after trying it 2 times I've decided to start doing some Mini reviews. I believe there is always something to say about a book, but sometimes since I have very little to say (for example with certain sequels) I postpone the review in hopes I will get more to say later...but I don't. I don't think I will go back to write mini reviews for some of the books I've finished but haven't reviewed but you never know.

In the matter of my 2 year long challenges "Where in the world are you Reading" and "Sequel and Prequel Challenge" I think I am doing well. You can see my general progress in their respective tabs.

So that's it for the Blog life. Now for the personal part. This month A and I will celebrate 5 years together. I am so very lucky to have him, he is sweet and supportive and a big geek. It is also the first month that he is officially out of the lab. He still has to finish writing up his thesis and we are waiting for news on a job he interviewed for before we left for a week.

It will also be (hopefully) the month when I finally get my driver's license...well, I have mine from Colombia, but it took me a while to do the process to change it for a Canadian one because...I really don't like driving, guys. But with A no longer going to the lab with me, and the winter coming, we both agreed it will be who might be needing the car more often and so, here I am, getting ready for my driver's exam.

Now I am off to read. Happy September everybody!

A Sudden Light: A Novel by Garth Stein

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. The book is expected to be published on September 30, 2014

 

First Impressions

"When a boy tries to save his parents’ marriage, he uncovers a legacy of family secrets in a coming-of-age ghost story" These are the opening line of the description of the book at NetGalley. I like coming of age stories, and throwing a bit of ghost stories seemed like an interesting mix.

However, by the time I finished the book I ended up with a bitter taste in my mouth. The book tried to go a bit all over the place but it never took me away. I was sadly never engaged by the characters pr the story.

Final thoughts

The book is told in the voice of Trevor, a 14 year old that is now on the old family house, with his dad in a quest to try to convince his senile grandpa to sell the family's property. Living with the grandfather is his aunt Serena, whom he has never met before. His mother is in England in the meantime, taking a bit of time off since his parents are having some relationship problems.

If the book would've concentrated on one or maybe two things I think the potential of the story would've been achieved. However, in my opinion, the author tried to merge too many elements. The coming of age of Trevor is clouded by the psychological mystery going on with the aunt, plus the ghost of his grandmother AND his great great-uncle and the issues of his father and the aunt's boyfriend, and the grandfather's illness and...So much things going on! At a certain point it is mentioned that apparently Trevor is gifted, but this information is thrown there like extra information without giving the story any extra flavor. 

Ironically for a story that takes so many twists and turns, these end up being predictable and hence a lot of times I would find my mind drifting off the story.

While the story was definitely not my cup of tea I have to say that it was well written; the prose and the cadence of the work were very well structured. For me was just a problem of engaging with the story and the characters.