Autoren-Bilder

Carol Windley

Autor von Home Schooling

4 Werke 105 Mitglieder 5 Rezensionen

Werke von Carol Windley

Home Schooling (2006) 61 Exemplare
Breathing Under Water (1998) 4 Exemplare
Visible Light (1993) 3 Exemplare

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Wissenswertes

Geburtstag
1947-06-18
Geschlecht
female
Nationalität
Canada
Geburtsort
Tofino, British Columbia, Canada
Wohnorte
Alberta

Mitglieder

Rezensionen

Exploring history through Natalia's eyes is heartbreaking and emotional - from the time she's a child in the 20's in Berlin to spending WWII in Prague.

The relationships, friendships, and romances she has along the way... and how WWII changes each relationship and devastates a group of people. Taking the train from Berlin to Prague seems like a typical adventure, but it is life changing.

If you're a historical fiction fan like I am, you'll find yourself immersed in a far away time and facing life as Natalia and her friends did. This gripping read will suck you in and leave you emotional at times.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for allowing me to read this and give my honest opinion.
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Jynell | 1 weitere Rezension | Feb 24, 2022 |
So in general WW11 era historical fiction is probably one of my favorite historical timeframes. I have read many, and I have generally loved them. I expected to love this one also, given the subject matter and era, but I did find myself struggling a bit with this one. While the story generally seems to center on either Natalia Faber or Anna Shefferova, there is a lot of bouncing around, and I feel like some major events for the characters are glossed over and summarized later. This style didn’t allow me as a reader to really become involved with what is happening to the characters, and at times had the effect of confusion. I rounded this book up from a 2.5 to a 3 mostly because I hate to tear a writer to shreds in reviews. Perhaps this story may have been better served by expanding the story, and giving more details on our main characters. Some of the best fiction obviously brings the reader into the life of the character and makes us care about that character. In this regard this missed that mark. The writing isn’t poor quality and the story does have some notable moments, but they are not enough to compensate for the lack of development and scattered storyline. Overall, story lacks structure and vital character development, and because of this I can’t recommend it as a shining example of the genre. Thank you to Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)
 
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hana321 | 1 weitere Rezension | Nov 28, 2020 |
Missing people overshadow the lives of young women in Windley’s collection of eight short stories, nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2006. Saffi notices things but thinks it a curse after she spots a missing boy in her neighbour’s basement. Annabel’s father strives to reopen his private school after a student drowns, but Annabel dreams of escaping the island with her math tutor. Nadia tries to please everyone after her mother leaves her father the woodcarver for a logging mogul. Lydia’s grandmother survives the horrible death of her family, but the suffering is passed across generations. Alex secretly wishes for all that her friend Desiree abandons: her husband, her child, and her home. Windley effectively contrasts the complex and often dark inner lives of the characters and their family struggles against the undeveloped and beautiful backdrop of rural Vancouver Island.

http://johnmiedema.ca/2007/09/25/home-schooling-by-carol-windley-book-review/
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jmiedema | 2 weitere Rezensionen | May 15, 2008 |
I found these short stories quite appealing. I liked the Western coast setting she put them in, the unlikeness of many unions and relationships she presented, the unfinished plots, even though some stories, like Reading Elvis, seemed a bit too unfinished to me. Although people who stay together in her stories sometimes seem like strange bedfellows, life is exactly as unpredictable as she shows it to be. Things seem like big tragedies, but then they just prove nothing larger than life, and things somehow work out. I liked the subtlety of style.

My favourite story was The Joy of Life, perhaps because it seemed to me to have been inspired by Matisse painting of the same title. I really like the combination of art and literature, and this story seems a perfect example of it.
Windley says that Sand and Frost was the most difficult for her to write, and I guess I can see why it might have been challenging for her, apart from weaving of two stories- those of Lydia and her grandmother. It’s a complex story. I think that she wanted to say many things- that everyone has some sort of tragedy to grapple with, people in trauma don’t remember the events that they went through; they are too traumatic, so they eliminate or change their memories, people have to come to terms with their own pasts, tragedies, and people with similar pasts and experiences tend to naturally gravitate towards each other.
I suppose she also wanted to show how genes work in nature, and how certain traits run in families. Lydia is obsessive compulsive, depressive and a bit on the weird side like her great grandfather. She takes biology courses, presumably to learn more about herself and about her family.
I think Windley did very well and packed quite a few issues into this short story.
I didn’t especially like Children’s Games. I think that I was put off by a bad case of research- Polish city info and wrong case declension. The city named in the story happens to be the city I was born and raised in, and it definitely is not ‘California of Poland’. It sounded so fake that I couldn’t help feeling that the rest of the story was equally fake, which it necessarily is, of course, but do your research woman before you write something! I usually do a wonderful job of suspending my belief, but I couldn’t in this case, and it just spoiled that story for me.
On the whole, though, I liked the collection, and I may read some more by her.
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Niecierpek | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Dec 27, 2007 |

Auszeichnungen

Statistikseite

Werke
4
Mitglieder
105
Beliebtheit
#183,191
Bewertung
3.1
Rezensionen
5
ISBNs
25

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