Shadow of Night (A Discovery of Witches, book 2)

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every so often, a book comes along. It’s everything you imagine a great fiction to be. It evokes the tremendous joy of just being able to read, to immerse yourself in a book so fully, to jump into a journey where every sense in your body is heightened, and your mind stimulated. Then the last page is turned, you sigh with sadness since you know you will not be able to find another book like this for a long, long time.

Shadow of Night is such a book.

I wrote these in my review of the first book of the trilogy:

“The author has in depth knowledge not only about history, but also science, architecture, Europe, culinary delights and wine… The book immediately reminded me of "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova, since both story took me to places in Europe that I've never been and historical periods that were so enlightening…..The story will be a delight for people who actually enjoy accurate scientific, historical, culinary and geographical information. The author has a wealth of knowledge and a unique style of writing and she's willing to share.”

The review still rings true for the second installment, and more so. For readers who disliked the first installment of the series due to the slowness of the beginning, you’ll be delighted to hear that this book started right at the part where the first book dropped off, and is a thrill ride all the way to the end. You can also find satisfactory answers to most, if not all the burning questions that you had after reading A Discovery of Witches. I know it’s a gruesome wait for the second book in the series, but the wait is well worth it…this book surpassed everything I had imagined it to be.

The story begins right where the first book left off, Matthew and Diana landed in Elizabethan England, 1590, hoping to find the enchanted Ashmole 782, as well as someone to help the spellbound Diana to learn her abilities. You’ll be surprised to encounter real historical characters that came alive under Harkness’ pen. Harkness’ take on Christopher Marlowe, Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh and others were unique and creative, yet totally believable. I wrote in my review of ADoW how I fell in love with all the characters in the first book, yet I’m equally invested in all the new characters in Shadow of Night, both historical and fictional. It’s heartbroken to realize that these characters live in another space and time, and the only way I could reconnect with them is through the re-reading of this book.

If you loved A Discovery of Witches because of Harkness’ extensive and detailed descriptions of everything, you’re in for another treat. Harkness bought Elizabethan England to life using her professional knowledge and her unique writing voice: fashion, writing, architecture, food, music, writing, cooking, art, jewelries, home decors, smell of spices, and even the sound of church bells…. Be prepared to be immersed into 1600 Europe, from England to France and Prague, whether if you’re prepared or not. I recommend you to drop or finish every other book in your list to get ready for the most sensual ride in your life.

I also love how Harkness incorporated a short chapter of the present after each part of the book. It shows how Diana and Matthew’s interference with the past affects the future. Everything that we do or not do has an impact in future, especially in our loved one and family’s life. Hopefully, history is valued and lessons learned. These chapters showed us how important it is to seize the moment and live your life, because there’s no going back. A few tender moments bought tears to my eyes. Compared to ADoW, the second book is much more emotional.

Romance. Matthew and Diana in the 1600s were not without their problems. Matthew in Elizabethan era was a much more complex and dark character. The society was also less friendly for females, especially a witch with a weird accent. However, fans looking forward to more romance between them will not be disappointed. There are lots and lots of tender moments and love. It made up for what was lacking in A Discovery of Witches.

If I write anymore here, this review will become a book! I do have a few recommendations before you jump in for the journey of your life: 1) Read A Discovery of Witches first. There’s no way you could understand the plot and all the complexity of this book if you don’t know the history of the characters. 2) Many new characters are introduced in this book. Use the appendix/Guide at the end of the book to familiar yourself with them. They are divided by location, quite clever. 3) If you are going to look for a simple, easy read for entertainment, this book is not for you; but if you love history, science, Europe, art, literature, geography, religion, philosophy, (food and wine for ADoW)…then, get this book (and the first).

(Thanks for Penguin Group for allowing me to access an advance ebook for review through NetGalley. This book will be published on July 10, 2012)

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The Charisma Myth

The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“To know others is knowledge; to know oneself is wisdom.” ~Lao Tsu

Steve Jobs, Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey….What do these people have that you and I don’t? Charisma. They seem to have some special power or personality traits that attract people to them effortlessly. They attract all the attentions when they walk into a room, even without speaking. Somehow, we were taught that either we have this trait, or we don’t; so I was immediately drawn to this title once I spot it in a bookstore, and…

Yes, charisma can be learned.

Presence, warmth and power.

According to this wonderful book written by Olivia Cabane, charisma is a matter of presence, warmth and power. Presence is constantly paying attention to what’s going on when you’re interacting with people. If you are 100% involved, they feel valued and respected. One of these important skills is listening skill.

Warmth is expressed through kindness, actions and even body language. Do you think your body language has more power over the words you speak, or vice versa? You’re extremely wrong if you say “words.” Your physical comfort and mental state affect your words and body language, and people pick up messages from our body language and words that you don’t even realize yourself. Through out the author described multiple ways and exercises to get over or control your mental and physical discomfort, which will help increase personal charisma, the image that your body language and words projected.

Power is the most important and influential charisma. You do not have be an actual world leader like Colin Powell to impress people with your authority. The way you carry yourself, your body language and the way you dress and act can increase your impression and influence in others.

Not all charismatic people attract people the same way. There are all different kinds of charisma like the different kinds of personality. They can be achieved with different exercised and mind tricks and can be used on different situations. There's only one "first impression" in each event, and it's important to make it count. There are lots of exercises through out the book to help you learn the skills. Although I think they are a bit time consuming, they are actually useful.

Get the book. The wait is over. It's your turn to shine. .

The Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Anita Barrows
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First of all, I have to clarify: I'm not a student of the English language or poetry, so my feelings for these poems, like most of us, are truly from my personal perspective. From the those poems that we all had to read in school, and the few that I occasional encounter here or there, I have never been affected as deeply as the writing of Rainer Maria Rilke. Since Rilke wrote in German, it's a wonder how English translations of his works still affect me so deeply and effortlessly.

This edition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the release of this 135 poems by Rilke to the public, by the Insel Verlag of Leipzig. These poems Rilke viewed as private and as intimate as his prayers to God, and they also represent his true poetic legacy. Rilke was only 23 years old when he started writing the poems in this collection. He had already published three volumes of other poems prior. Although I do not know German, the translation of these poems by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy seemed and sounded perfect to me when I read each and all poems, over and over again. A truly 5-star collection. Also, do not let the title deter you...These poems do have the same resonance on your heart and soul whether if you are religious or not.

"You, my own deep soul,
trust me. I will not betray you.
My blood is alive with many voices
telling me I am made of longing.

What mystery breaks over me now?
In its shadow I come into life.
For the first time I am alone with you-

You, my power to feel."

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Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What is it like to be a Mother, a woman, a working woman, a feminist, a baby boomer...or someone who's aging, who is at the end of their life with little options? What is faith, motherhood, marriage, work, being a woman, friendship, love, life, or God forbid, death? What in our life are absolutely not necessary or important?

I used to read Anna Quindlen's column religiously, not because we have a similar life as other readers claimed (her kids are older, her career is more successful, she's happily married...), it's because no one can analyze a complex situation or phenomenon, then is also able to explain it simply yet eloquently with a dash of humor. She can see everyday situation that we encounter in a deeper sense, in which she contributed to the loss of her Mom at a tender age of 19. She explained why mortality is always on her mind:

"But the gift that some of us have been given, in exchange for terrible loss, is the gift of that knowledge."

Being able to see and feel things deeply enables her to write in a language unlike all others. Her word choices are simple although carefully chosen and perfectly arranged. Yet they strike the perfect chord in my heart. Her advices are insightful, brilliant and sad in a way. The life that all of us women have to go through...We thought we had it so perfectly planned, not to avoid mistakes, not to delay anything or miss opportunities...We wanted the perfect job, the perfect husband, kids at the right age, yet the outcome is usually unpredictable. We go through exactly the same cycle, the generation before us, and the generation after us, although many circumstances have changed, most for the better.

"I would tell my twenty-two-year-old self that what lasts are things so ordinary she may not even see them: family dinners, fair fights, phone calls, friends. But of course the young woman I once was cannot hear me, not just because of time and space but because of the language, and the lessons, she has yet to learn. It's a miracle: somehow over time she learned them all just the same, by trial and error."

The whole book is full of insightful and poignant writings like the above, I highlighted all of them so I could go back and re-read them, think about them, ponder about her words, and how similar they are to my own, and many other women in the same stage of their life.

"There comes that moment when we finally know what matters and, perhaps more important, what doesn't, when we see that all the life lessons came not form what we had but from who we loved, and from the failures perhaps more than the successes..."

She also talked about our affinity to possessions, our refusal to retire or acknowledge mortality. She explained what a longer life expectancy and better healthcare has changed our expectation of life...for both better or worse. She explained the wonder of having girlfriends, although they might be different ones in different stages of our life. She indicated that women's movement has bought us great changes, thanks to all the women before us, but we are not yet there...Everything that we encounter or to be encountered in our life as a woman is in this gem of a book. I highly recommend it to all "finely aged" women out there. However, I do think that younger women will find this book useful, if they don't see it as preachy due to their age. Finally, Quindlen said since we don't have an absolute definition of "old", she was going to give it one:

"...OLD is wherever you haven't gotten to yet."

"When I think of that future, I know that my choices will narrow, have been narrowing as surely as a perspective drawing leading the eye to the focal point. I won't be going to medical school and becoming a surgeon. I'm not going to live in Italy or learn Chinese. I may have to become more thrifty and less spontaneous, may be lonelier and needier than I'd like..."

But, as she wrote, drawing is okay, sitting in a big chair with a long book is okay, spending long hours pulling together ingredients for a stew and staying inside all day while its aroma seeps into every corner of the house is okay, eating alone while reading a book is also okay. Life is....to be continued.


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Another cute book from Kinsella

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A 5-star chick lit.

I have to confess, I always retain a soft spot in my heart for chick- and Mom-lits. Over the years, they carry me through so many life's obstacles, bumps on the road, sleepless nights, boring days and of course, book slumps. I can always count on one of these to get me out of a book slump; when reading started to become a job; when nothing on the shelf seems to be interesting...where I just want to open a book, read and occasionally laugh without thinking too much, yet still come out of the other end happier. This book did just that.

Poppy Wyatt, engaged to the most perfect guy in the world, lost her emerald engagement ring. It's not just an engagement ring, but her fiancé' family heirloom. His whole Tavish family are geniuses, intelligent and poised, and also professors with published works. To make matters worse, she also lost her phone while frantically looking of her ring in a hotel. Lucky her, she found an abandoned cell phone in a trash bin, with a name tag of someone who evidently quit her job on the spot. Hopeless and needed a phone to contact people, Poppy claimed the phone.

It turned out that the phone belonged to the assistant of a guy named Sam, an important person of an important company. Since most company emails were still forwarded to this phone. Poppy and Sam decided to temporally share the phone so she could forward him all the important stuff. The next day, out of boredom, Poppy snooped on the messages...which begins the interesting exchanges between them...To not to ruin the story for the rest of you, let just say that the book ended with Poppy's wedding, as planned.

The fun part about reading this book includes a game of Scrabble with average words of 70 points, a little mystery in between about a planted fake email, as well as lots of witty conversations (and texts) that were fun to read. I'd recommend this book to people who love "Good in Bed", "Bridget Jone's Diary", "Shopaholic" as well as books by Green, Cook and Giffin.


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She knows Paris

Paris in Love: A Memoir by Eloisa James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had such a fun time reading this book that I wished it went on forever…

I have no idea Eloisa James was a famous writer before I read the book. Evidently she is a wildly famous historical romance author and an English professor in a University. However, I’m glad that I didn’t know her before I read the book, since I felt like reading the journal entries of a dear friend or the advice giving by another Mother friend with children of the same age. There is no way I could have the same experience if I had known how popular she was.

After recovering from breast cancer, Eloisa took a year off from teaching and her American life, sold her house and car, and moved to Paris for a year. She moved there with her Italian husband, who is also a professor, her teen son and her 10-year old daughter. This book is a collection from her blog and Facebook posts that she had written during that journey. What made this book so fun to read was Eloisa’s wit and humor, and her ability to make every minor detail of her Parisian life interesting.

Here’s one of her passage about skinny Paris women:

“I have discovered at least one secret of thin French women. We were in a restaurant last night, with a chic family seated at the next table. The bread arrived, and a skinny adolescent girl reached for it. Without missing a beat, maman picked up the basket and stowed it on the bookshelf next to the table. I ate more of my bread in sympathy.”

A regular street scene in Paris:

“Archetypal French scene: two boys playing in the street with baguettes were pretending not that they were swords, as I first assumed, but giant penises.”

She also wrote about museums, shops, churches, schools, statues, bridges, parks, French women and men, fashion, people, sights, wonderful Parisian food as well as not-to-miss paintings and pastries. Since I’ve been to Paris before and her detailed and accurate descriptions made me miss the city terribly. Her comparisons of French and American parenting were interesting to read, and quite similar to what Pamela Druckerman wrote about in Bringing up Bebe, another book about France. Her facts about Paris were reliable and accurate; her observations of subtle differences were fun to ponder over. Reading it was like experiencing everything Parisian first hand. Overall, I think it’s a book worth reading, for both people who had been to Paris or not, although it’s kind of short due to the format.


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