Saturday, March 01, 2008
Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Read for The Canadian Challenge
A baby girl is found on an iceberg floating in the ocean east of Newfoundland. The family who takes her in, names her Aurora and raises her as their own child. The book follows her life from that point to old age. Having been born in Newfoundland myself, I was so interested in the history and character of the island that was captured in this story. Joan Clark writes beautifully. Her descriptions of the landscape and the ocean are quite breathtaking. However, the story of Aurora herself didn't touch me very much. The book covers a period of over eighty years, including the sinking of the Titanic, and the birth of Aurora's children and their lives. The beginning of Aurora's story seemed a little magical and the rest of the book was quite prosaic. But Clark weaved the story of Newfoundland into Aurora's story wonderfully, and I really liked how she did that. I do recommend the book as it was interesting and well written.
Rating: 4
Posted by Framed at 8:53 PM
6 comments:
Literary Feline said...
This does sound like it would be good. Thanks for the great review, Framed.
12/05/2007 10:11 PM
Carrie K said...
Nice review! I'd probably have been really disappointed at the magical beginnings being dropped.
12/07/2007 1:41 PM
Booklogged said...
Clark does give a good feeling for Newfoundland. I read somewhere that there really was a baby from the Titanic found alive on an ice pan.
12/07/2007 6:53 PM
Laura said...
I read this book a few years ago when it first came out. I checked it out of the library, and liked it so much I bought a copy. I agree with your assessment, but one of the things I liked about Aurora was that she read an entire set of The Book of Knowledge, and that's something I've always wanted to do!Anyway, I thought Latitudes of Melt was worth recommending to my daughters, and so far three of them have read it, too. Thanks for the concise review!
12/08/2007 10:45 AM
John Mutford said...
This post has been removed by the author.
12/10/2007 10:23 PM
John Mutford said...
It's been a while since I read this, but your summary seems pretty accurate to what I remember. Her Audience of Chairs is supposedly pretty good, too, but I haven't read that yet.
Read for The Canadian Challenge
A baby girl is found on an iceberg floating in the ocean east of Newfoundland. The family who takes her in, names her Aurora and raises her as their own child. The book follows her life from that point to old age. Having been born in Newfoundland myself, I was so interested in the history and character of the island that was captured in this story. Joan Clark writes beautifully. Her descriptions of the landscape and the ocean are quite breathtaking. However, the story of Aurora herself didn't touch me very much. The book covers a period of over eighty years, including the sinking of the Titanic, and the birth of Aurora's children and their lives. The beginning of Aurora's story seemed a little magical and the rest of the book was quite prosaic. But Clark weaved the story of Newfoundland into Aurora's story wonderfully, and I really liked how she did that. I do recommend the book as it was interesting and well written.
Rating: 4
Posted by Framed at 8:53 PM
6 comments:
Literary Feline said...
This does sound like it would be good. Thanks for the great review, Framed.
12/05/2007 10:11 PM
Carrie K said...
Nice review! I'd probably have been really disappointed at the magical beginnings being dropped.
12/07/2007 1:41 PM
Booklogged said...
Clark does give a good feeling for Newfoundland. I read somewhere that there really was a baby from the Titanic found alive on an ice pan.
12/07/2007 6:53 PM
Laura said...
I read this book a few years ago when it first came out. I checked it out of the library, and liked it so much I bought a copy. I agree with your assessment, but one of the things I liked about Aurora was that she read an entire set of The Book of Knowledge, and that's something I've always wanted to do!Anyway, I thought Latitudes of Melt was worth recommending to my daughters, and so far three of them have read it, too. Thanks for the concise review!
12/08/2007 10:45 AM
John Mutford said...
This post has been removed by the author.
12/10/2007 10:23 PM
John Mutford said...
It's been a while since I read this, but your summary seems pretty accurate to what I remember. Her Audience of Chairs is supposedly pretty good, too, but I haven't read that yet.
# posted by Framed @ 7:01 PM 
