Setting Fires

Rating:
Summary: Kate Wenner has written a beautiful book!
Review: Annie Waldmas balances the needs of two children, a husband, a career and a dying father as she struggles with the shame of deception, a passion for the truth and the meaning of family. Setting Fires beautifully draws you into the life of a very real family, then sends you off on their journey like a thriller.

Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Read
Review: I read this book the way one eats an exquisite meal at a fine restaurant, in courses, sitting back in between each one to enjoy the fine delivery of information, the detail, pace and meaning. It is a great story.

Setting Fires is provocative of deep thought and discussion and would be a good candidate for book club pleasure and scrutiny.

Participating with one's parent in the chapters of dying is a near-to-hand prospect for our bulging generation. Wenner has provided us with a moving map of the territory.

I recommend this book highly: good writing, easy to get into, and fascinating.

Other books I have enjoyed are: Corelli's Mandolin, Cold Sassy Tree, Cold Mountain, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, and The Poisonwood Bible

Rating:
Summary: Too much telling, not enough showing
Review: Kate Wenner has written a book with many layers. Family tragedies and travails intertwine with religion, ethics and morality, justice, perserverance, and relationships. The gripping story hooks you in while she loads you with her own family history, lessons learned in life, how to deal with tragedy. Her story is so very believable and so easy to identify with. It was a book I could not put down, each chapter coaxing me to the next. It is also a book that, like fine food or wine, one does not forget the taste of. It is memorable and inspiring.

Rating:
Summary: Many layers to Setting Fires
Review: Kate Wenner has written a book with many layers. Family tragedies and travails intertwine with religion, ethics and morality, justice, perserverance, and relationships. The gripping story hooks you in while she loads you with her own family history, lessons learned in life, how to deal with tragedy. Her story is so very believable and so easy to identify with. It was a book I could not put down, each chapter coaxing me to the next. It is also a book that, like fine food or wine, one does not forget the taste of. It is memorable and inspiring.

Rating:
Summary: Deep, moving, and gripping: what more can you ask for?
Review: Kate Wenner's "Setting Fires" is one of the best books I've read in years. Compulsively readable, it is also a deeply moving story of a relationship between a father and daughter (which encouraged me to reconnect with my own elderly father); between a husband and wife; between a mother and her children; between a sister and her siblings; and between a human being and her spirit. This is a story of real relationships; real pain; real depth--both spiritual and emotional; and even real suspense. A magnificent accomplishment.

Rating:
Summary: Too much telling, not enough showing
Review: There's a good, rich story here, but it doesn't make for the absorbing novel it should. Wenner, a fine journalist, hasn't quite made the leap to a successful fiction style. There's too much summary narration, and much too much explaining of themes, ideas, and characters' motivations; I wish she'd trusted the story itself to carry more of that weight. I feel sure it could.

Rating:
Summary: Burning Bright
Review: This is a compelling book from the opening sentence: 'Two fires taught me lessons about my life, two fires separated by nearly six decades.' From beginning to end, the story of the Waldemas family sparks thought and inspires the imagination. Vivid characters-- Annie, her father Abe, her children and siblings-- people a narrative laced with ideas. This is a book about real, engaging people, to be sure, but it is also a meditation on family bonds and family secrets, the impact of anti-Semitism and the search for modern Jewish identity, not to mention reconciliation to the death of a loved parent. This is a novel worth reading. It provokes and it satisfies

Rating:
Summary: Deep, moving, and gripping: what more can you ask for?
Review: This is a wonderful novel, made amazing by the fact that it is the author's first novel. That fact is hard to believe, as it is wirtten with the confidence and skill of a seasoned pro. What I especially love about this book is the combination of a great plot with a really uplifiting theme. You feel stronger and better as a human being after you finish this book than you did before you started it. I can't say that about many modern novels, but I can sure say it about this one. This would be a perfect book for book groups to pick up and use as one of their selections. I hope it will gather the wide, wide audience it deserves. Read this book. I promise you, you will be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: A gripping story, great page-turner, full of life and depth
Review: This is a wonderful novel, made amazing by the fact that it is the author's first novel. That fact is hard to believe, as it is wirtten with the confidence and skill of a seasoned pro. What I especially love about this book is the combination of a great plot with a really uplifiting theme. You feel stronger and better as a human being after you finish this book than you did before you started it. I can't say that about many modern novels, but I can sure say it about this one. This would be a perfect book for book groups to pick up and use as one of their selections. I hope it will gather the wide, wide audience it deserves. Read this book. I promise you, you will be glad you did.