The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller

Reviewed by Dr. Janice Russell

This is a book of three parts.

Pippa Lee, middle class sophisticate wife, has moved into a retirement village with her 80 year old husband, Herb, a successful American publishing executive. As the youngest person there, Pippa inevitably begins to question whether retirement world is where she wants to be, and begins to find herself experiencing strange sense of disquiets and disturbing symptoms of unrest, such as sleepwalking. Not in a usual sense, but in an extreme sense. Thus begins a journey which leads the reader through the chronicles of Pippa’s past life, revealing depths and experiences that are not immediately apparent within the character.

The second section of the book makes the reader privy as to why this may be, basically summarising Pippa’s life journey, and is written with sensitivity and depth, traversing worlds of bohemia and excess, exploration of sexualities, and addiction to drugs. Themes of mother daughter relationship and guilt are explored with insight and expertise, and the text is eloquent, the themes compelling.

Part Three of the book integrates past and present with an unsurprising dénouement which embraces the themes you might expect – conflict resolution within the family, repeated patterns within the marriage, and Pippa’s exorcism of her ghosts which enable her to move forwards a free woman. In a sense, this is an odyssey, the chronicle of challenges and triumphs

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would from the first chapter, and in a way, this is symptomatic of the structure. Three distinct parts, all written from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, trying to take us inside the heads of Pippa, her mother, her daughter, and Chris, the somewhat erratic son of Pippa’s neighbour up the road. If anything, this structure slightly distracts from what is otherwise a very convincing read – it is compartmentalised rather than threaded, a structure I would have preferred. While we are privy to Pippa’s past life in the second part of the book,, there is no indication that she is remembering the same things, discovering the same insights. Maybe this is deliberate, and just indicates that these evets are conspiring on an unconscious level.

That said, this book is intelligent and bold, courageous enough to suggest the darker aspects of parent child relationships, the complexities of responsibility, the shadow side of the protagonist. It is also frank in its observations of the ageing process, which is a refreshing change from the line that seventy is the new forty, and other such clichés, which, while empowering, can fail to look honestly at the effects of time on our bodies and minds and the real impact that this has for relationships. It is also far from the usual depiction of the all American family, for which I am grateful. Overall, an excellent read and I would recommend persevering beyond the first chapter into the body of the book.

Janice Russell is a life and business coach, and a writer and tutor. She has written Keeping Abreast, a factional, entertaining and provocative story of surviving breast cancer, currently being reprinted. Her latest novel, Rough Diamonds, is being published by Legend Press, and both will be ready to order by Christmas, Janice teaches creative writing online, and offers workshops and critiques in the Algarve.

Visit: www.insightlifeandbusinesssolutions.com
www.algarvecreativewriting.blogspot.com

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

Obama's memoir, written long before his political career began, which is a remarkable story of one man's search for his identity. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama was only 2 when his father walked out. Many years later, he received a phone call from Kenya telling him of his father's death. This set him off on an odyssey to learn the truth of his estranged father's life.

Available from Magna Carta Bookshop in paperback. Price: 12,60€

You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie

This movie came out early this year and it's one of the bestsellers in our shop, as well as the book with the same name. At the time of releasing the video trailer wasn't available but since I just found it, I'll share it now.

Louis Roederer International Wine Book of the Year 2008 for 'The Wine & Food Lover's Guide to Portugal'

A travel guide, The Wine & Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal, has won the Louis Roederer International Wine Book of the Year 2008.

Awarded in London last night, The Wine & Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal is a guidebook for visitors to Portugal who enjoy eating and drinking. ‘This book absolutely makes me want to jump on the next plane to Portugal,’ enthused one of the judges. It’s not only a highly digestible guide to Portugal’s foods and cooking and the brilliant but as yet little-known wines. Authors Charles Metcalfe and Kathryn McWhirter (who wrote their first book on Portugal over 20 years ago) also write about the churches, museums, galleries and other top places of interest, covering the whole of Portugal and its islands, including the spectacular mountains and historic towns and villages of the undiscovered interior.

They also give entirely independent recommendations (no fees for publication have been asked for or accepted) of restaurants, bars, wine and food shops and places to stay. These range from tiny, hole-in-the-wall tascas (the simplest form of Portuguese restaurant) to the finest of modern and traditional eating, and from bed-and-breakfast accommodation and houses to rent to the grandest and most luxurious hotels. Always with an eye out for the best gastronomic experiences in every corner of Portugal. The guide is hardback, with 446 pages, 1 600 colour photographs and 19 specially-commissioned maps.

Press release published here with the authors permission.

You can buy this book here

Equator by Miguel Sousa Tavares

“It is Lisbon in the year 1905 and our hero, Luis Bernardo Valenca, a 37-year-old bachelor and owner of a small shipping business, is revelling in the luxury of Lisbon's high society. Intellectually curious, he writes about politics in his spare time, believing that Portugal's vast empire is having a civilising effect on the far-off lands it has colonised.

But his life is turned upside down when King Dom Carlos asks him to become governor of Portugal's smallest colony, the tiny island of Sao Tome e Principe, stuck out in the Atlantic off the coast of equatorial West Africa, whose economy rests almost entirely on its cocoa plantations.

However, the English believe that slavery still exists illegally in Sao Tome and intend to send a diplomatic envoy to check it out. (Of course the English, with their rival cocoa plantations in Africa, have their own reasons for trying to prevent the export of cocoa from Sao Tome).As a gentleman used to a softer urban life, Luis Bernardo is ill-prepared for the challenges of plantation life, and he is shocked by the conditions under which the Angolan workers labour - although he is more than willing to engage romantically with the wife of the English consul, one of several candidates for his attentions.

"Equator "is a compelling and constantly surprising novel, casting light on a little-known corner of colonial life. Epic in scope, laced with emotional and moral complexity, "Equator" brings this simmering tropical community to life through the entanglements and betrayals of its cast of unforgettable characters. A best-seller in Portugal, and sold in many languages, "Equator" will also amaze and delights its English readers.”

Price: 23,80€ (hardcover) Buy here

The Gardens of Portugal by Helena Attlee

The gardens of Portugal borrow from every phase of the country’s sea-faring history, bringing together ideas from East and West in a style that is confident, flamboyant, slightly exotic but always distinctly Portuguese.

Helena Attlee’s books opens with a lively introduction outlining the history of Portuguese gardens and their place in the country’s social and economic history. It then features some twenty gardens, covering first the temperate and humid northern parts of the country and then the gardens of Lisbon, Sintra and the hotter and more arid parts of central Portugal.

Glazed tiles are everywhere – on pots, seats, garden walls and the ceilings of pavilions. This is a Moorish style adopted along with the distinctive water tanks fed by ice-cold springs, whose still surfaces mirror pavilions, trees and sky.

The camellia shade house - a striking and substantial structure made from camellias grown over a frame – is often found in the mild and humid parts of the country where exotic plants and trees thrive in great abundance. Further south baroque sculpture and elaborate stonework play a large part in garden schemes.

Thousands of visitors are drawn to Portugal each year but few of them visit its gardens. These are rarely crowded and foreign visitors often receive a particularly enthusiastic welcome. – text from inner cover.

Price: 42€ Buy Here

Rock in Rio - Bon Jovi

I am going a bit off track here by posting this, as it's nothing to do with books, BUT I promise this will be an exception. I am just very excited about the fact that this Saturday my husband and I are off to see Bon Jovi in Rock in Rio. Yes, we've been before in the UK and I'd been twice here in Portugal, the last time being 13 years ago, but this is the first time we get to go together to see them in Lisbon where it all started (or at least progressed to bring us here).

At the age of 18 I won a writing competition that allowed me to be on stage with the band. It was from that dream-come-true that I decided to become a member of their official fan club "Backstage with Jon Bon Jovi". We would get a member card and four newsletters a year in the post. At the back of these newsletters the fan club divulged other fans' addresses, so we could write to each other. I did just that. I loved spending time writing to people from all over the world, getting to know about their lives, exchanging Bon Jovi material, etc.

My husband, Stefan, was one of those many pen pals and we've been now married for 9 years. When we look back at our lives and everything we now have was only made possible because one man we never met one day decided to be a rock star. If Bon Jovi had never happened I wouldn't be here now writing this...so, my husband and I often say when things go either good, or not so well for us ,"it's Jon Bon Jovi's fault"...

Oh, and don't worry. The shop will be open as usual. Someone will be here taking good care of our customers.

Algarve's Plants with Ornamental Interest

The book “Plantas do Algarve com Interesse Ornamental/Algarve’s Plants with Ornamental Interest” by Fernando Santos Pessoa, José Rosa Pinto and José Rocha Alexandre is a bilingual guide for anyone who wants to know more about the Algarve’s unique landscape. It includes a brief description of Algarve’s flora, trees, shrubs, perennial and bulbous herbs, climbers and Algarve’s flora in gardens and parks.

Price: 12,00€ Buy here

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

I knew once I got started on Philippa Gregory's book it'd be hard to stop...

The Boleyn Inheritance is an evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens. This work presents the story of three young women, trying to make their own way through the most volatile court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty.

Have you read any novels by this author?