Below Stairs shows girl power before girl power existed

It was mere days after I had finished watching the second season of Downton Abbey when I found Below Stairs by Margaret Powell. The book is Powell’s candid memoirs of being a kitchen maid in the 1920′s – think Daisy from Downton.

Below Stairs is something of a legend. The producers of both Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey consulted it in order to get the details correct. But what really makes this an AMAZING read is Powell’s honesty and humour. She grew up dirt poor but she was happy. Being a kitchen maid meant never being hungry but cooks and employers were tough.

But Powell is no pushover. She’s as tough as nails and feisty as hell. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:

“I remember when we hadn’t anything left to use for warmth and no money to get coal. I said to Mum, “Get all the wood down. Let’s have a fire with wood.” She took ever single shelf there was in the rooms and she even took the banister from the stairs. Things like this make you hard.”

“It was my job to make the mayonnaise sauce. And what a job it was too. I never thought I’d get it right.”

“I used to think how incongruous it was when the Reverend used to say morning prayers and just before they were over he’d say, “Now let us all count our blessings.” I thought, well it would take a lot longer to count yours than it would ours.“

“A lot of inane remarks from the men and a lot of giggles from us, a few kisses and further promises to be sure to meet them at the same time next week, but neither Gladys nor I had any intention of having permanent dates with such ill-paid escorts.“

Below Stairs is a sure hit for any fans of Downton Abbey and hardcore foodies! As a kitchen maid and cook in the 20′s, Powell makes everything from scratch. From mayonnaise to great stories.

Related Penguins: The World of Downton Abbey, The American Heiress is a frivolously good read

Photo credits: dailyrecord.co.uk, pbs.org

Passing Love is all that jazz, love & lies

*A big thank you goes to Hachette Books for sending me Passing Love via the Ontario Blog Squad‘s blogger meet-up. Passing Love by Jacqueline E. Luckett is available today!

Passing Love is a romance from start to finish. Nicole Handy leaves her home in California and against everyone’s wishes, goes to Paris for a month. What she finds there is more than the magnificent architecture in Paris, she finds her own story. But what she ultimately finds out is that history is indeed something to leave in the past.

The best part of Passing Love is when Nicole traces her aunt’s history in Paris, dating all the way back to the post-War jazz scene. The setting is rich, luxurious and scuzzy at the same time. And without the morality policing and discrimination faced by blacks in the Southern U.S., it’s no wonder that so many African-American musicians gathered in Paris during this time. Nicole’s aunt, RubyMae, is glamourous, precocious and well, she makes poor decisions. But she’s also everything that Nicole is not.

Photo credit: Martin Soler (martinsoler.com)

I had a problem with the pace of Passing Love. I wasn’t hooked until about 40 pages in. I fear many readers will give up on the book before it gets really good – and it does get very good. Nicole also runs into a lot of the same people over and over again in random places all over Paris. It’s too much of a coincidence for a city as large of Paris! If I were Nicole, I’d be asking all these random French men why they were stalking me.

Each chapter also starts with vocabulary list from Nicole’s French dictionary. I initially found the lists awkward and reminded me of my elementary school French textbooks. But as the story progresses, I started to see more meaning behind those vocabulary lists.

But Passing Love does a great job of describing the passion behind love – the kind that defies all sense of logic and reason. For some, it’s for a man or a woman but for RubyMae and Nicole that love is for Paris. Luckett tells a convincing doomed love story between people but ultimately makes us all fall in love with a city.

Related Penguins: Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon – a beautiful snapshot, The Sweet Sweeper reminds us how far we’ve come – or have we?

Photo credits: martinsoler.com

The Street Sweeper reminds us how far we’ve come – or have we?

I recently received a fantastic novel called The Street Sweeper via NetGalley! Big thanks to Doubleday Canada for this one. Available January 3, 2012 (Canada).

The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman caught me by surprise. It was both emotional, educational and even eye-opening. Beginning with the plight of African-American Lamont Williams’ accidental journey into prison, Perlman weaves it with the story of a American civil rights historian, Adam Zignelik. The result is an interesting retelling of the history of racism.

The story reminded me of the movie, Crash. But where Crash showed racism through violence and stereotypes, The Street Sweeper does it by retelling historical events in society that mark racism and the heroic tale of those who rise against all odds to stop it. Perlman, a historian himself, reminds us all that one of the main purposes of history is simply to be retold. He does a fantastic job of retelling so much historic detail through dialogue (Sophie’s World style).

The character, Lamont Williams finds himself out of prison but the world seems to work against him at every turn. Whether it’s because he’s poor or black or an ex-convict or just prone to bad luck, Lamont just can’t catch a break. Working as janitor at a cancer care centre, he finds himself speaking to a Jewish patient who wants to him about his experience in Auschwitz.

The details about Auschwitz are gut-wrenching. Perlman may have left details out but I found some passages difficult to read but then again, nothing about Auschwitz is ever light reading. Meanwhile on the other side of town, Zignelik is looking for the truth behind the liberation of Auschwitz and hoping it ill save the remains of his career in academia.

I highly recommend The Street Sweeper for anyone who is looking for a story that is courageous enough to tackle one of the hardest subjects in history and today: hate. Perlman reminds us all that history repeats itself unless we learn from it.

 

 

Photo credits: pixdaus.com, shmoop.com, pinterest.com