The Promised World – Lisa Tucker

Lila, who is an English Lit professor at a prestigious school, is married to a man who thinks he doesn’t deserve to have married her.  Lila is a twin who  talks about her brother incessantly just as much as she reads books.  One day her life as she knows it will be changed forever one day when her brother Billy commits suicide by police.

This not only shocks Lila, but his wife, children, and other members of the family.  Both Lila and her brother have been on their own since they were teenagers, trusting one another living on their own until they married and separated.

Lila devastation  in turn brings her into the depths of depression that no one would have thought would happen.  She starts doing undeniable weird behaviour – not sleeping, undressing and hiding under her desk at work, acting as if the world doesn’t hold anything for her at it once did.  As things unravel and secrets are uncovered, will Lila be the same person that everyone once loved and adored along with her love of books?

Things that were once thought of as truths, aren’t;  the situation for her is all too much.  She is admitted to hospital, with images and feelings that she never knew or thinks she imagined.  With all of this bombarding her,  she is destined to find out the truth, and what she finds is something that is not only odd but frees her as a new person.

Along with all of the stories made to cover up acts,  accidents that were thought once to hinder or hurt her, she begins to uncover them piece by piece like a puzzle.  Where one twin is favoured more than the other, her feelings were diminished as nonsense.

For me, there were so many underlying aspects of the book that had me gripping the edge of my seat as one by one the secrets and pathologies of her mother and father were presented.

I liked the book, it was something of a closely guarded secret, slowly and with some pain along the way being slowly opened so that the pain could be healed with the knowledge and life could begin again.  Such a dark and expressive topic that surely someone may have all experienced at one time or another, that we need to learn from.

We need to be able to overcome and begin our lives once again.

Daughter of Kura – Debra Austin

When I first received this book, I wasn’t really quite sure that I would like it or it would hold any interest for me, until I started to read it.

Daughter of Kura is based on a time period of 500,000 years ago.  Based on paleoanthropology, it is set in primitive Africa where tribes and the people of these tribes are as interesting as the time period itself.

Snap is the daughter of Kura which is a matriorical tribe, meaning that a female head of the original founder, and then the oldest daughter will resume the hierarchy when the present leader dies or retires. They have certain occurrences during the year, which coincide with the seasons, such as bonding rituals, harvesting food, etc, until a male who comes for the bonding ritual starts to plan his own reign, to pass his own views and brainwash the people of the tribe.

Snap doesn’t argue with the newcomers ways, just the way he is going about spreading his word, and mating with her mother as a means to do that, which later on Snap is cast out  because she no longer agrees with what he is saying along changing the ways of the tribe.

Snap who is pregnant, alone, hungry, not to mention afraid starts her own tribe made up of many that she has come in contact with others that have traveled to her old tribe not far away.  Her mate is off traveling, scrounging for food, spreading news that he knows of, and interacting with new tribes.

It was a quite interesting read.  With all of the research that was done from what we know about the time period,  what they had or accomplished in that period was amazing.  They were able to make a fire and keep it lit, store food to be kept over a period of time, mate and bear children.  Primitive, but yet introspective as to where we have come from.

I had taken anthropology in university, which opened a whole new world to me along with a new way of thinking.  We had never gone quite that far back, but was still interesting.

This is the first book in a new series by the author.  The second book is due to be published sometime in 2010.

Simon and Schuster

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A Disobedient Girl – Ru Freeman

Latha has been a servant since she was 5 years old to the Vinthange’s.  But she has this thing telling her that she was meant to be more then that.  Living in a part of town known as Columbia 7, and her best friend Thara, she feels as though she will be her best friend forever and they have made plans to marry the boys a few streets over.

Biso, who is married to a fisherman who also is an alcoholic, is planning to take herself and her three children away from her abusive husband.  She cannot take it anymore, the drunkenness, the abuse, the way he controls her and their money.  She had her one true love killed in front of her, and wants the best for her children.  She wants to travel to her aunt’s house further north where the tea fields are, the mountains, and safety.

You won’t know it right away, but these 2 women are connected.  Through their lives, experiences, and personal feelings they are the same, but, in another they are different.

It is a somewhat tragic story of how they lived their lives and how they navigate through India’s caste system which is a hard thing to do in itself.  Being placed in a certain class, and being “labelled” as being in that section, with little or no hope to be “classed” so to speak in a higher one, or respected more then she is now.

In this age of being polite, and respectful of everyone, the culture in this book was a eye opener for me at least at how these things can still be going on in the world.

Another thought I had was what is it about these 2 women who were trying to become better people, seen in a higher class struggle to be better or to be seen in a better light.  I feel and this is my honest opinion, that it is how you feel inside that counts.  But then again, people see you in a different light on the outside,  we all need to take a bit of a deeper look to be able to see what is truly on the inside. Instead of just being a “servant” or anything else, we all have talents and dreams that we want to come true.

Harrowing, poignant, and heartbreaking, this author takes something and transforms it into not just a sad or terrible story, but one that we all can learn from.

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Simon and Schuster / Atria Books

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