Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
I'm enjoying this book. There is a "mystery" component that makes it a fun summery read.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting book with a crazy twist at the end. I liked this book but some serious mental illness going on.
The concept of women who can read the future in lace work is a promising concept. Furthermore, the author discusses how one can see "lace work" in nature such as in tree branches, hair, clouds, etc. which is a wonderful concept. I was disappointed that this promising concept was not fulfilled with a richly realized story. The plot and characters were mediocre. Furthermore, the author's fact checking was weak. She refers to a character as a member of the modern day Unitarian Church as well versed in Scripture. Modern Unitarians aren't even well versed in God. At one point she refers to a house as having an acre size garden and at another point she refers to the garden being removed by a prospective buyer to put in a 2nd parking space. A parking space takes up a fraction of an acre! Maybe some fan can have a go at realizing this fertile concept of lace reading.
Wow. Good. Enough said. I really enjoyed it and was even surprised by the end.
I liked the story very much. I sorta want to give it 4.5 stars, but that's not an option. I think perhaps it went on a bit too long, and then had to tie up a lot of loose ends, rather quickly. But mostly, it was beautifully written, with a cast of appealing and believable characters. It had magic and realism and they mixed well together. Fans of Alice Hoffman will enjoy it.
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry begins:
"Every gift has a price . . .
Every piece of lace has a secret . . .
My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time. . . . "
When I flipped through this book at the library, this beginning caught my attention. I finally had time to participate in a book club monthly discussion and I was excited to read this book.
Towner (as most everyone calls her) has an interesting story to tell. She comes from an eccentric family from Salem where the women can tell fortunes in pieces of lace handcrafted by generations of women. Towner flees Salem after the suicide of her twin sister and a stay in a mental hospital but is called back when the mysterious death of her aunt and the disappearance of another woman happen. We quickly learn of the mental instability of Towner but I personally forgot about it until the end when I was shocked to learn what was really going on.
The story weaves around 5 women of the Whitney family. Obviously there is Towner which you learn to sympathize with immediately. Towner’s mother May is a recluse that lives on an island and refuses to leave. May tends to abused women and children who come to her to escape the abuse. She teaches the women to spin thread and make lace. Aunt Emma lives on the island but is even more mysterious then May. Emma came to the island after escaping from her abusive husband Cal. Cal goes to jail for a number of years but returns to Salem and forms a cult of Calvinists. They terrorize Salem with their wild Christian views of Witchcraft and promise people a better life if they are saved. We learn about Aunt Eva and her gift of healing for the town. We eventually get into the life of Towner’s twin, Lyndley, before she killed herself. I actually let out a gasp when the back story of what led up to the reason for the suicide!
While The Lace Reader is a good example of great literature, there were times the story seemed to carry on and I found myself asking what the point of this story was. The jumping around of point of views tends to be distracting and tiresome near the middle of the story but the ending was well worth the wait!
"Every gift has a price . . .
Every piece of lace has a secret . . .
My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time. . . . "
When I flipped through this book at the library, this beginning caught my attention. I finally had time to participate in a book club monthly discussion and I was excited to read this book.
Towner (as most everyone calls her) has an interesting story to tell. She comes from an eccentric family from Salem where the women can tell fortunes in pieces of lace handcrafted by generations of women. Towner flees Salem after the suicide of her twin sister and a stay in a mental hospital but is called back when the mysterious death of her aunt and the disappearance of another woman happen. We quickly learn of the mental instability of Towner but I personally forgot about it until the end when I was shocked to learn what was really going on.
The story weaves around 5 women of the Whitney family. Obviously there is Towner which you learn to sympathize with immediately. Towner’s mother May is a recluse that lives on an island and refuses to leave. May tends to abused women and children who come to her to escape the abuse. She teaches the women to spin thread and make lace. Aunt Emma lives on the island but is even more mysterious then May. Emma came to the island after escaping from her abusive husband Cal. Cal goes to jail for a number of years but returns to Salem and forms a cult of Calvinists. They terrorize Salem with their wild Christian views of Witchcraft and promise people a better life if they are saved. We learn about Aunt Eva and her gift of healing for the town. We eventually get into the life of Towner’s twin, Lyndley, before she killed herself. I actually let out a gasp when the back story of what led up to the reason for the suicide!
While The Lace Reader is a good example of great literature, there were times the story seemed to carry on and I found myself asking what the point of this story was. The jumping around of point of views tends to be distracting and tiresome near the middle of the story but the ending was well worth the wait!
From the beginning, I found the protagonist's tone flat and simply not engaging. While without a doubt it was clear that Barry hoped the tone would help the reader see through her disturbed character's eyes, the tool was most effective at creating a distance between narrator and reader that became hard to bridge throughout the novel.
The gift for reading lace is a muted and insignificant part of the plot, though the entire novel reads like one is trying to read a piece of lace---staring dumbly through the plot trying to focus on the "still point" and find the threads of subtext. It did not surprise me at all that this book was written by a writing teacher, as it was heavy on obvious and overdone subtext which the Brunonia Barry felt it necessary to almost completely interpret in the final chapters of the book.
The most redeeming theme in the novel is the truth that people are always more than what they seem. Unfortunately, my favorite and the most colorful character in the novel, Towner's great aunt Eva, is dead for the entire length of the narrative and presents only in the memories of the protagonist and a few clues that Eva leaves behind.
Heavy, heavy support for Wicca and other secularly spiritual beliefs abounds in this book, and the only faith cast in starkly negative views is Christianity. I found this largely ironic, since it appeared that Brunonia Barry set out to dispel what she deems to be unfair stereotypes about various belief systems, especially modern witchery.
The plot itself has some fairly intriguing twists, as well as some mystery and suspense, but all in all, it's not a book that I would recommend.
The gift for reading lace is a muted and insignificant part of the plot, though the entire novel reads like one is trying to read a piece of lace---staring dumbly through the plot trying to focus on the "still point" and find the threads of subtext. It did not surprise me at all that this book was written by a writing teacher, as it was heavy on obvious and overdone subtext which the Brunonia Barry felt it necessary to almost completely interpret in the final chapters of the book.
The most redeeming theme in the novel is the truth that people are always more than what they seem. Unfortunately, my favorite and the most colorful character in the novel, Towner's great aunt Eva, is dead for the entire length of the narrative and presents only in the memories of the protagonist and a few clues that Eva leaves behind.
Heavy, heavy support for Wicca and other secularly spiritual beliefs abounds in this book, and the only faith cast in starkly negative views is Christianity. I found this largely ironic, since it appeared that Brunonia Barry set out to dispel what she deems to be unfair stereotypes about various belief systems, especially modern witchery.
The plot itself has some fairly intriguing twists, as well as some mystery and suspense, but all in all, it's not a book that I would recommend.