Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon and/or The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

October 2013

Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon 

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century - and a lover in another.

In 1945, Claire Randall is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland. Innocently she walks through a stone circle in the Highlands, and finds herself in a violent skirmish taking place in 1743. Suddenly she is a Sassenach, an outlander, in a country torn by war and by clan feuds.

A wartime nurse, Claire can deal with the bloody wounds that face her. But it is harder to deal with the knowledge that she is in Jacobite Scotland and the carnage of Culloden is looming. Marooned amid the passion and violence, the superstition, the shifting allegiances and the fervent loyalties, Claire is in danger from Jacobites and Redcoats - and from the shock of her own desire for James Fraser, a gallant and courageous young Scots warrior. Jamie shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire, and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Buy from Amazon

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

The Garden of Evening Mists is the second novel by Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng, published in January 2012. The protagonist of the novel is the judge Yun Ling Teoh, who was a Japanese prisoner during World War II, and later served as an apprentice of a Japanese gardener. As the story begins, she is trying to make sense of her life and experiences. The novel takes place during three different time periods: the late 1980s, when the main character writes down her story, the early 1950s, when the main action takes place, and World War II, which provides the backdrop for the story.

Critical reception for the novel was generally favourable. It was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize (2012)and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Synopsis

Newly retired Supreme Court Judge Yun Ling Teoh returns to the Cameron Highlands of Malaya, where she spent a few months several years earlier. Oncoming aphasia is forcing her to deal with unsettled business from her youth while she is still able to remember. She starts writing her memoires, and agrees to meet with Japanese professor Yoshikawa Tatsuji. Tatsuji is interested in the life and works of artist Nakamura Aritomo, who used to be the gardener of the Japanese Emperor, but moved to this area to build his own garden.

During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Yun Ling was in a Japanese civilian internment camp with her sister, Yun Hong. Yun Hong did not make it out alive, and after the war was over, Yun Ling decided to fulfil a promise made to her sister: to build a Japanese garden in their home in Kuala Lumpur. She travelled to the highlands to visit family friend Magnus Pretorius, an ex-patriate South African tea farmer who knew Aritomo. Aritomo refused to work for Yun Ling, but agreed to take her on as an apprentice, so she could later build her own garden. In spite of her resentment against the Japanese, she agreed to work for Aritomo, and later became his lover.

During the conversations with Tatsuji, it comes out that Aritomo was involved in a covert Japanese program during the war, to hide looted treasures from occupied territories. The rumours of this so-called "Golden Lily" program were widespread, and Magnus was killed trying to save his family from the Communist guerilla, who came looking for the gold. Aritomo never talked about the treasure to Yun Ling, but gradually it becomes clear that he might have left a clue to its location. Before he disappeared into the jungle, he made a horimono tattoo on her back. It now appears this tattoo might contain a map to the location of the treasure. Yun Ling decides that, before she dies, she must make sure that no-one will be able to get their hand on her body, and the map. In the meantime, she sets out to restore Aritomo's dilapidated garden.

Verdict

I personally loved this book.  The language was beautiful and even the most harrowing moments almost seemed serene.  The descriptions are precise and make the imagination take you right into the book.  So poetic.

Buy from Amazon

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks and Island Wife by Judy Fairbairns

June/July  2013

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks

London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Seven wintry days to track the lives of seven characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book-reviewer; a schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV; and a Tube driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop.

With daring skill, the novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life, and the group is forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit. Sweeping, satirical, Dickensian in scope, A Week in December is a thrilling state of the nation novel from a master of literary fiction.

Overall Opinion:

Buy from Amazon

Island Wife by Judy Fairbairns

My childhood socks were always white, my frocks ironed. Each day predictable, safe. I escaped. Aged 19, I was swept off my feet by a wild adventurer and married within months. Two small children later (with three more to come) complete with Labradors, cats, a heavy horse and hearts full of dreams, we arrived on a remote Hebridean island to begin our life on the Tapsalteerie Estate. Nothing was ever predictable again.

ISLAND WIFE tells the story of Judy, who, at 19, met her Wild Pioneer. He whisked her off into an adventure, a marriage of forty years, and a life on a remote Hebridean island. Along the way she bears five children, learns how to run a rocky hill farm, a hotel, a recording studio and the first whale watching business in the UK - all the while inventively making fraying ends meet. When her children start to leave home, things fall apart and there is sadness and joy in how she puts things back together. Judy tells her story in a clear and unique voice, in turns funny, unforgettable and intensely moving.

--------------------
This is an autobiography by Judy Fairbairns who, at the age of nineteen, marries a man ten years her senior and settles on the isle of Mull.  When they first arrive on the island they have no money and live in a large old house without any modern conveniences, often cold, damp and miserable.  Her husband turns out to be a workaholic who can turn his hand to anything and make a success of it.  After some years as a
farmer he ends up setting up whalewatching trips on Mull which becomes a lucrative business.  In the years that follow Judy organises the family (they have five children), looks after sheep, horses, dogs, runs a guesthouse and does numerous other tasks.  Life is really hard for her and she gets very little support from her husband.  This leads to increasing levels of frustration and unhappiness, culminating in a nervous breakdown
and Judy leaving the family and the island.
It takes several months before she gets the energy back to face life on Mull again and even longer for the family to settle back to normal life.
I enjoyed this book because it is not so much a story about the hardships experienced by family members but mainly an intensely personal account  by a woman surviving  emotional turmoil, misunderstandings and loneliness over a period of three decades.
It is very well written.  You can just imagine all the upsets she describes in the book.  I’m sure most women will recognise some aspects in their own lives and for that reason it will probably appeal especially to them. On August 25th 2013 Judy Fairbairns appeared at the Bridge of Lochay Hotel in front of an audience of the combined book clubs in Killin to discuss this book, which had just been published.  She talked openly
about all her trials and tribulations in the book and most of the audience were very surprised to see her husband  there as well! After so
many negative comments about him in the book it was brave of him to appear, especially because the audience was all female! It did prove, though, how the couple have overcome many of their difficulties and their communication has improved.
Both of them stayed on until well after Judy’s talk and enjoyed a glass of wine with the audience.  It was altogether a very enjoyable evening.
Judy’s book is highly recommended!

Anneke Mayo

Buy from Amazon

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

August 2013

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

About the author

Adeline Yen Mah was born in 1937. In August 1952 she left her family in Hong Kong and went to England to study. At University College in London, she studied medicine and became a doctor. She has written two other books: Chinese Cinderella and Watching the Tree. She lives with her husband in California and has two children. 

Summary

Falling Leaves is the true story of Adeline Yen Mah, who was born in north-east China in 1937 – her parents’ fifth child. Her mother died as a result of her birth, which left her father a sad man feeling in need of a new life. Adeline’s father seemed never to fully forgive her for his wife’s death. He married again soon after and Adeline’s new stepmother, a beautiful young woman they called Niang (a Chinese word meaning mother), strongly disliked her. Father and Niang had two other children together: Franklin (who Niang loved) and Susan (who Niang did 
not love). Adeline and her brothers and sisters suffered emotionally and physically from their cruel stepmother’s words and actions – but Adeline suffered more than the others. Her story is full of the pain and heartbreak of a young girl always hoping that her father will be proud of 
her. But it is also a story of hope. Adeline works very hard in school and wins prizes. When she wins a play-writing competition, her life changes. She goes to England and studies medicine and becomes a doctor. After a failed marriage, in which she has a child, she finds real happiness with her second husband. The lives of all the members of her family, as seen through the troubles of twentieth century China, make this an unforgettable and very interesting story, which begins and ends with the reading of Adeline’s father’s will. Niang has left him penniless. 
She has taken all of his money and property. When Niang dies, she leaves nothing to Adeline. The relationship between Adeline and Niang is painful and shocking, but the Chinese tradition of obedience makes it impossible for Adeline to be anything other than dutiful towards this 
woman. 

Buy from Amazon