Novels Now

Burn by Ted Dekker & Erin Healy

Pages: 368 +reader’s guide material
First Published: Jan. 12, 2010
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Salazar Sanso raised his binoculars and looked out over the edge of the steep drop into the rosy New Mexican desert.

Reason for Reading: I’ve become a fan of Dekker’s new mainstream thrillers and wanted to try one of his books from a Christian publisher.

Summary: Janeal lives in a Gypsy community but is not altogether accepted. Her father is the leader but she is half white. She has always felt the need to leave, do her own thing and knew that one day she would. Then Salazar Sanso, a powerful and dangerous man, comes to her with a way to help her father get out of a terrible life/death “business” deal and offers her a life of everything she’s dreamed. Janeal has her own life and death choices and consequences to deal with, that leave few of her Gypsy community alive.

Comments: My summery is quite brief, I think the publisher’s jacket summary gives away too much information and I hate knowing something that happens halfway through the book so I’ve tried to keep the mystery remaining in my own summary.

I loved this book! It was a fantastic read. The plotting of the book was superb. Part One takes place when the characters are teenagers and is itself a complete story. Then Part Two picks up fifteen years later and slowly reveals who is left and what is happening now. Then at a certain point we are hit with an absolutely shocking and surreal twist. From that point on it is a fast paced roller coaster ride to the end.

The characters are great. Janeal, the main character, is the one the reader most feels for, though she isn’t necessarily someone you will like. She is shown from both sides of her personality, the teenager she used to be and the adult she has become. The book is very well written and while the Parts are quite distinct from each other and the pace goes from slow to fast, it never drags, and it always holds together seamlessly. The shocker was cleverly placed and became a “Holy Wow!” moment for the book, totally shaking things up and moving the book to another level. I really, really enjoyed the plot, the suspense and the thrill of this book.

To speak of the Christian Fiction aspect of this book, I think it’s a long shot to be labeled with that genre. The book is clean (ie. no swearing, so s*x). There is one Christian character who is quietly so and could be found in any mainstream book. The real CF part of this book comes, if one looks at it that way, from the theme, which does have a character announcing Biblical prophecy to set it up. I don’t want to give anything away so this is a bit difficult to go into. However, I did not buy the Christian theme, it did not correspond with my beliefs, it may with yours, but I felt it could just as easily be interpreted as a supernatural (a la Stephen King) theme.

This all leads to say that it doesn’t matter, didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book and don’t be afraid to pick up the book because it’s by a Christian publisher. Christians and non alike who enjoy a good suspense story with a bit of the unexplained thrown in for good measure are sure to enjoy. I surely did!

My Word is My Bond, The Autobiography by Roger Moore, with Gareth Owen

Pages: 330 +index
First Published: Nov. 2008
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

For years, people have said to me ‘Write your book,’ and for years I said, ‘No, there are too many people I’d have to write about, and eve if they’re dead, what I might say would be an intrusion on their privacy. And apart from that, I’m too lazy.’

Acquired: Borrowed a copy from my local library.

Reason for Reading: Roger Moore is the Bond I grew up with, the one I went to the movies to see as a teenager.

Comments: Right from the introduction Mr. Moore states that he will not be ‘dirt-dishing’ nor telling ‘tittle tattle’; he wants to write a fun book filled with memories the way he saw them and the wonderful people he met in his life but he promises that does not mean it will be a ‘fluffy book’ either. Roger Moore lives up to this statement giving the reader a very enjoyable look inside his life without trashing anyone. He does mention a couple of names that he simply hates with a straightforward reason why, he tells stories leaving the irritating one unnamed and he mentions names and follows the “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all rule” frequently. But Roger Moore is a charming fellow, very easy going, loves a prank or two, and can take a joke on himself as well so his book is filled with people he adored and those who adored him back.

Moore spends a good part of the book on his early life in England; his childhood, days in the army, acting on stage, becoming an actor in British movies. This was all very interesting and it’s hard to believe that Roger Moore is really that old to have been in WWII! Even when acting in Britain the famous names start knocking about such as David Niven (a lifetime friend) and Michael Caine. Then he comes to America and makes a name for himself on the small screen starring in Maverick (replacing James Garner as his British cousin), then his famous Simon Templar as The Saint and finally The Persuaders with Tony Curtis. Not until we are closing in on page 200 does Roger Moore get to James Bond and the book has been so interesting up to this point that Bond is not the vital part of the book. Even if you started to read the because of the Bond connection. I won’t go into any more details but from their Moore continues on with Bond, his wives, his other movies and work, ending finally with his long association with UNICEF.

Moore comes across just as I had expected him too. He keeps his debonair, suave, gentlemanly air about him but he also has his tongue firmly planted in cheek at the same time. Even as a child he behaved this way, he calls himself on it frequently saying “ever the poseur”. He tells some wonderful memories and anecdotes as he’s been with all the greats throughout his career: Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Noel Coward, Stewart Granger, Richard Burton and countless others.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about the book was the last few chapters which mostly focused pretty heavily on his UNICEF activities that it began to feel like an infomercial. I will state I don’t support UNICEF for conscience reasons but I did enjoy hearing of the travel and good work he accomplished. But then it just seriously devolved into three chapters about UNICEF with Roger as the emcee. Otherwise, I had a very enjoyable read and certainly learned a lot more about the man who I previously only knew as The Saint and James Bond.

Calamity Jack by Shannon and Dean Hale. Illustrated by Nathan Hale

sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge

Pages: 144
Ages: 10+
First Published: Jan. 5, 2010
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

I think of myself as a criminal mastermind … with an unfortunate amount of bad luck.

Reason for Reading: Sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge.

Summary: This is very much Jack’s story. Jack tells us of his childhood and his schemes as he grew up, later with his pixie cohort Prudence. Then comes the fateful day that he grows the beanstalk, steals a giant’s magic goose and as he chops the beanstalk down he kills one of the giants, plus the building his mother lived in and ran her bakery from. Now the giants are after him and he leaves town. In one frame we’re shown that this where the events of Rapunzel’s Revenge fit in Jack’s own timeline. Now that the time is right Jack returns to the city with Rapunzel where they meet up with Prudence and a strange young man with many gadgets and the foursome must save Jack’s mother who has been captured by the giants and enslaved as their cook, but they must also end the oppressive giant rule and the current war with the ant people.

Comments: An adventure filled plot from start to finish that doesn’t let go. As well as all the action we have a bit of a romance going on as well as the new guy likes Rapunzel and charms her with his smooth talking. Jack realizes he doesn’t like this and a little love triangle is at work with some humorous moments involved. Rapunzel, again, is ever the hero. In fact, it is assumed that she is the fighter of the team and she takes that roll with grace and authority. Her part in the story is relegated to a secondary character though with Jack and Prudence being the main central characters. Quite an intricate plot that includes a couple of shocking twists, this is sure to please the intended audience and fans of the first book. However, this book stands alone very well and I’d say it is not necessary to have read Rapunzel’s Revenge first to understand this book. Though I always do like to recommend reading books in order, if possible. The illustrations are just as gorgeous as one would expect them to be from Nathan Hale. A riproaring adventure with steampunk elements that will have readers begging for more from this trio.

Leaving Gee’s Bend by Irene Latham

Pages: 263
Ages: 8+
First Published: Jan. 7, 2010
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Mama pulled a chicken egg from behind the azalea bush in our front yard and narrowed her eyes.

Reason for Reading: I love books set in 1930s Southern USA.

Summary: Ludelphia Bennett is ten years old, her family is part of a sharecropping community. Ludelphia wears a patch over one eye as she accidentally went blind in it when a tiny sliver of wood flew into it when she was younger. She has a passion for quilting and is working on a special quilt now for her Mama that will tell Ludelphia’s story to her. Mama is ill with a terrible cough and large with a baby on the way but when Mama goes into labour early and the baby is born healthy after 3 previous stillborn, Mama’s health turns worse. She can hardly breathe and now she’s coughing up blood. Ludelphia decides she must do more for Mama and embarks on a 40 mile journey to get the nearest doctor and medicine to save Mama’s life. It’s a dangerous journey for one-eyed, ten year old Ludelphia, who has never been out of Gee’s Bend, and never seen a white person before but she takes her quilting with her to keep her hands busy and on the way comes across scraps of cloth to add to the quilt and her story.

Comments: This is a sweet, touching story. I fell in love with Ludelphia from the first page. She is a feisty girl, full of questions, not one to accept an answer without fully understanding and agreeing with it. She has a fine heart, loving all those around her and giving all the benefit of the doubt, she has a way with animals and is the only one who can get along with the stubborn mule they own. A very enjoyable character to read about.

The book takes the reader inside the daily life of a struggling sharecropper family during the depression. How the small rows of houses form a community and everyone looks after each other. They share the good times and they weather the strife and hardship together. I read this book quickly and really enjoyed it. It is a heart touching story and one roots for Ludelphia as she works her way through each challenge ultimately not only to save Mama but to save Gee’s Bend itself. The story presented here is fictional but the author has woven a real life event from Gee’s Bend’s history into the novel.

The only thing that I felt book needed was an illustration at the end of Ludelphia’s finished quilt. It’s making is so integral to the book’s plot, I felt a bit let down not being able to see the finished product and search within it for some of the pieces of cloth she found along the way.

This was not an ordinary pandemic: it wouldn’t be contained after a few hundred thousand deaths, then obliterated with biotools and bleach. This was the Waterless Flood the Gardeners so often had warned about. It had all the signs: it traveled through the air as if on wings, it burned through cities like fire, spreading germ-ridden mobs of terror and butchery. The lights were going out everywhere, and now the news was fading away; systems were failing as their keepers died. It spelled total breakdown which was why she’d needed the rifle. Rifles had been illegal for years, but laws were no longer a factor. – from The Year of the Flood, page 18 of the ARC -

The year is far in the future, a time when animals are becoming extinct at a rate faster than people can document, and the level of pollution requires individuals to don nose cones in order to go outside. The government is horribly corrupt – creating weird animals like liobams (part lamb, part lion) and embedding diseases into vitamin supplements. Criminals are either executed or sent to serve months “playing” Painball, a deadly form of today’s paintball.

Welcome to Margaret Atwood’s latest dystopian novel which serves as a prequel to her previous work Oryx and Crake. The Year of the Flood takes place roughly during the same time period as Oryx and Crake, but jumps back and forth from the post-pandemic months and the years leading up to the disaster. Jimmy (Snowman) makes a reappearance in The Year of the Flood, but the main characters are two women – Toby and Ren. The novel is narrated first in Toby’s voice then in Ren’s, alternating chapters to provide significant background on not only the state of the world, but each woman’s personal story as well.

The heroes of the novel are members of a (mostly) pacifist, eco-friendly group called the Gardeners. Headed up by a Christ-like man called Adam One, the Gardeners rescue people off the streets (and from morally reprehensible lives), prohibit meat eating of any kind, document the animals being lost to extinction, and work underground to gain information about the various corrupt practices of the government. Both Toby and Ren become members of the Gardeners – Toby as a healer and eventually one of the Eves (female members who take on a leadership role in the group), and Ren who joins the group as a child.

Nobody does dystopian literature better than Atwood – and in The Year of the Flood she provides complex female characters who are faced with futuristic horrors which involve women as sexual tools for men, plenty of violence, and lots of cynicism. There is also Atwood’s signature sense of humor embedded in the story which is often graphic while exploring serious subjects such as pandemics, government corruption, and loss of our natural resources.

I love Margaret Atwood’s writing. I am always astonished by the brilliance of her prose and her ability to tell an engrossing story. But The Year of the Flood is not without its faults. I could have lived without the insertion of Adam One’s sermons and song lyrics from the Gardener’s “hymn” book. I also felt the ending was rather abrupt and left the reader wondering what the future held for the characters (in this way, it was a lot like Oryx and Crake).In some ways, I felt Atwood wrote the ending to connect the novel to Oryx and Crake – it felt a bit contrived.

Despite its faults, The Year of the Flood will appeal to readers who enjoy an engaging dystopian tale and who have read and liked Atwood’s previous work. I would be interested to see if Atwood is planning a third book in the series…and if so, where she might take her characters next.

The Silver Anklet by Mahtab Narsimhan

Tara Trilogy, Book Two

Pages: 263
Ages: 10+
First Published: Dec. 12, 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

The patch of sunlight at the edge of the forest had an odd look; dirty yellow and striped.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Summary: Tara and her brother, Suraj, along with his friend, have gone to the local fair. There they befriend the Ferris wheel operator, an overweight yet very friendly boy and a performer who can dislocate all his joints to fit inside small containers along with his little sister helper, Sadia. While there, a scream rips through the fairgrounds and the girl, a fair person who can see as day in the night, who was looking after Sadia screams that Sadia was taken from her by a hyena into the jungle. Tara herself had earlier thought she had seen a hyena but shrugged it off as a trick of the sun as hyenas do not live in these parts. Men quickly start organizing a search party when Tara realizes that her brother and his friend are missing too and when a scrap of his shirt is found on a bush they know he was taken too. Thus the story is set up as Tara and her new found friends, along with a familiar face from book one take matters into their own hands and set off into the jungle to find the missing children only to find out that it is all a carefully orchestrated plan to lure Tara herself into the clutches of her evil nemesis, Zarku. Only this time her brother’s life may be the sacrifice to rid the world of this evil once and for all.

Comments: The second book in this trilogy jumps right into the action and does not let go until the very end. A very fast-paced plot-driven novel that kept me reading well into the night. The book is not quite so dark as the first in the series but is, even so, still dark with death and imagery. After the brief beginning in the fairgrounds, the entire story takes place within the jungle which serves to add a heavy, broody, stifling atmosphere throughout as the teens deal with the heat and humidity, mosquitoes and thirst. The plot itself is what I call the “race against time” theme where the characters set off to save someone and event after event happens until the final climax. Thus, there is not a lot of character development in the new characters introduced in this book. The heavy set boy and the night seeing girl were the most fully realized and I developed feelings for them. On the other hand the boy who’s sister was taken plays a more important role in the story, yet he felt flat to me and I didn’t connect with him. But otherwise, I really enjoyed the band of teens and the various personalities make for great dynamics within the group.

Tara, herself, is given the most powerful characteristics. Along with how we’ve come to know her from book one, she is a strong girl, with family loyalty and honour high in her values along with responsibility, fairness and a willingness to believe in others. Tara is faced with many dilemnas such as choosing between: the one or the many, a life of evil or death and sacrificing herself or losing time by going for help. Choosing the right thing is not easy nor is it always obvious.

One can’t help but write about a sequel and not compare it to the first and here I found that while “The Third Eye” was steeped in Hindu mythology, this book does not follow through with that though it is still present, just in a smaller degree. There is no mistaking though that the story takes place within a Hindu society as the culture is ever present throughout and this is one of the exciting things about this series, making it so different from the usual YA fantasy fare being written at the moment. There is even a glossary at the back for all the Hindi words used in the book. I wonder if I can get my sister to start calling me Didi?

The cover is also quite intriguing. I think it reflects the ethnic flavour of the story well and the picture reminds me of a simple henna drawing. While being the second in a series the story can hold up on its own. References are made to events in the first book but the story here is complete within itself having a beginning and an ending. I always appreciate when authors can make the second book of a trilogy a complete story of its own while continuing to be a part of the whole (no cliffhangers please!). Ms. Narsimhan does this very well by bringing this story to a conclusion and then giving readers a taste by setting up the direction the next book will take. The last few lines of the book left me with a gleeful chuckle and shiver as I look forward to the final ’showdown’ in the last book.

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
Shades of Grey, Book 1

Pages: 389
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

It began with my father’s not wanting to see the Last Rabbit, and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant.

Reason for Reading: I haven’t read Jasper Fforde before. I really want to but just never find the time to start his Thursday Next series so I jumped at the chance to get in at the beginning with a new series.

Summary: I don’t really feel capable of doing this justice but I’ll make an attempt. This is a satirical dystopian novel. Set 500 years in the future after Something Happened, this new world is ruled by a Colortocracy. People are born being able to see only one colour or perhaps a mixture of primary colours thus making greens, oranges, etc. Those at the top of the class system are Purples and those at the bottom are Greys, the working class who are colourless. Increasing one’s family’s colour heritage is of utmost importance and marriages are arranged to produce children who will climb further up the class system. It is here we find Eddie Russet, half promised to marry into the Oxblood family, who finds himself wearing a humility badge, sent to the Outer Fringes, a town called East Carmine, to conduct a chair census supposedly because of a prank he pulled but in reality because he asks too many questions and shows too much curiosity, a dangerous quality in this society. But it is in East Carmine that he realizes the banality of the heavily rule dependent government and the oppressiveness that is wrought upon society. He meets Jane, a Grey revolutionary, who he loves at first sight and while her ideas seem fanatical at first, the more he experiences the more he starts to agree with her.

Comments: This was a fabulous book. Fforde has created an utterly unique and fascinating dystopian society that is believable but is full of satirical comments that reflect upon our own society that one can take the story seriously and with tongue in cheek at the same time. I became immersed in this world from the first page, and while I’d never want to live there, I enjoyed every detail of it from government policies to recreation requirements. The characters are wonderful. Eddie and his group of friends each are distinctly real and flawed persons. The entire cast of characters is enormous and entirely eccentric from the librarian Mrs. Lapus Lazuli who has memorized the barcode of every book that has been removed from the library to the Apocryphal man, a 400 year old historian who everyone must pretend does not exist. The plot itself is a slow unraveling of Eddie coming to terms with the hidden reality of his society and the unsettling realization that the few must be sacrificed for the many. The story is quite dark and while I haven’t read any other Fforde books, from what I’ve read about the Thursday Next series, it would appear that this is a different move for the author. The themes and atmosphere are dark, there is a lot of satire making for plenty of humour but even the humour is dry and biting at times. There is so much going on within the pages of this book that I could simply go on and on about it. Suffice to say, I am utterly enamored with this world and its mythos and can’t wait for the next book.

The Jungle Vampire by David Sinden, Matthew Morgan & Guy Macdonald; illustrated by Jonny Duddle

An Awfully Beastly Business, Book 4

Pages: 204
Ages: 8+
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

Late one night, on the outskirts of a grimy town, a man in a long fur coat hurried through the rain.

Reason for Reading: My son loves this series and this was the next one out. I read it aloud to him.

Summary: All the members of the RSPCB are off to the jungle and this time Ulf is invited along as he is in training to become an official member and his mission takes him in search of a legendary vampire. Unbeknownst to all, Baron Marackai is after the same treasure only he wants to kill the fabled beast and he is following them to take advantage of their smarts on finding this creature’s den.

Comments: Everything one has come to expect from this series is present in this latest addition. The authors keep the story fresh even though Baron Marackai is after Ulf and his friends in every book, Sinden, et al. find different ways of bringing the two parties together and we’ve come to enjoy waiting for that moment that the RSPCB finds out that Baron Marackai is behind their troubles. This particular book is an action packed story. Briefly starting at home they are off to the jungle very quickly, where they meet adventure after adventure. The whole team is included equally this time around with Ulf, Tiana, Orson and Dr. Fielding all sharing equal page time. Once the Baron reveals himself the pace is very quick and the exciting adventure turns into a wild race to the end. The only thing we missed was since the whole book took place away from Farraway Hall, our favourite character, Druce the gargoyle, only made a cameo appearance at the beginning and the end.

Lots of laughs were had by both of us and we are sad to have come to the last book in print to date. My son says he’d like to start from the beginning and read them all over again so maybe I’ll pass them on Dad, for bedtime reading. After doing a bit of research I see book 5 “Battle of the Zombies” will be released in June of this year (2010) in the UK, so according to the schedule that’s been established so far, I think we can expect it out here in North America in December. We will anxiously be waiting!

Graphic Classics: Louisa May Alcott edited by Tom Pomplun
Graphic Classics, Vol. 18

Pages: 144
Ages: 13+
First Published: Nov. 2009
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

It’s so dreadful to be poor.

Reason for Reading: I love this series and will eventually read them all.

Comments: I’ll start with my immediate response to finishing this volume, “Fantastic!”. This is the second full colour offering in the Graphic Classics series and it is a beautiful book. The artwork is absolutely stunning and each artist has worked in a style and palette perfectly suited for each individual story. Usually, in these collection there will be at least one illustrator’s rendition I’m not too fond of but I loved them all. The book includes 2 poems, an adaptation of the novel Little Women and 5 short stories. It’s been ages since I’ve read Little Women and, of course, this is a quick run through of the story but the essence of the story is there; the individual personalities of the girls shine through and this graphic adaption pays homage to the novel well, especially with the wonderful artwork by Anne Timmons.

The highlight of this volume, though, is the short stories. I have not read any of Louisa May Alcott’s stories before and was wondrously surprised at this ghastly Gothic collection. Four of them are fabulous 19th century sensationalist stories full of corpses, murder and madness while the other is a strange, yet delightful, morality tale for children. My favourite story out of the whole book was the last one, A Whisper in the Dark, which at a full 41 pages is a perfect example of the era’s Gothic story with romance, long dark corridors, strange noises in the night and madness, all wonderfully illustrated by Arnold Arre using a palette mostly of browns, going to greys and black to suit the mood.

Yet another fine volume in the series and a must read for fans of the series or Louisa May Alcott. And further research tells me we don’t have long to wait for Vol. 19 which is shooting for a May release date entitled “Western Classics”. I can hardly wait!

Fallen by Lauren Kate
Fallen series, Book 1

Pages: 452
Ages: 13+
First Published: Dec. 8, 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape.

This review contains one obvious spoiler. If you intend to read this book and know absolutely nothing about it don’t continue but if you do know a bit about it, my one little spoiler is obvious even from the title of the book.

Reason for Reading: I love stories about angels.

Summary: Lucinda is sent to a reform school because of a terrible incident in which she was involved and her date was killed. Lucinda isn’t exactly a regular girl though; ever since she was little she has seen dark shadows that interact with her and scare her. She quickly learned as a child that she was the only one who saw them and has kept them secret but Lucinda wonders whether the shadows may have been responsible for her date’s death. Once she arrives at the school she immediately finds herself drawn to the darkly handsome Daniel. While he is attractive it’s not that which initially draws her to him, she feels as if they’ve met before, she has quirky deja vu moments when she’s with him. At first Daniel is aloof, downright rude even, but her persistence in following her feelings for him draws them together but Daniel is hiding a secret from her, something immense that will forever change her world.

Comments: I really enjoyed this book. Daniel and Lucinda are both enjoyable characters and their relationship makes a great romance. I’m the type of person who rolls my eyes through all the romance parts of these type of books but the author handles this aspect very well. The romance comes up in short paragraphs here and there and while Lucinda daydreams for a sentence or two, there is thankfully *no* over the top yearning drivel. I appreciate seeing a teen romance written at this level of quality.

My main problem with the story is that there is a prologue in which the reader is basically given the mystery surrounding Daniel and Lucinda’s life. If you haven’t guessed from the title, hints are frequently dropped and it doesn’t take much to realize that (here’s my little spoiler) Daniel is an angel. The reader is given more information than Lucinda and it does make her seem to be a bit of a dope that it takes her practically the whole book to figure out this “secret” along with the mystery the reader already knows from the prologue. However, there are other side stories and surprises left to be revealed that leave the story with an exciting plot.

I loved the angel mythos the author has worked into this book. It is fascinating and a very intriguing plotline. Much of her world is based on Biblical angelology, though Ms Kate has taken the more fantastical interpretations to run with and added her own spin on things as well. The pace of the book was a bit weak in parts with the excitements ebbing and flowing until the final rush towards a very exciting climax. Being book one in a series, the book does have a complete plot which is concluded, yet ends with the stage set for the next book.

Innocent War by Susan Violante
Nino Series No. 1

Pages: 183
First Published: Apr. 17, 2009
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

“Nino, wake up! You’re going to be late,” hollered Papa from the hallway outside of my room.

Acquired: I received a review copy from the book’s publicist.

Reason for Reading: The plot and point of view intrigued me.

Summary: The author received five cassette tapes from her father recording his life story and she has started to turn them into a fictionalized biography of her father’s life with this first volume covering young Nino’s life from age 10 to 15, years 1940 to 1945. Nino is born in Italy but soon moves with his family to Tripoli in the Italian Colony of Libya. His father is a construction worker and the Italians in the Colony are indoctrinated by Mussolini via the radio and propaganda, children must attend weekly youth meetings. But these people are far removed from Europe, they have no proper understanding of the war, nor how it affects them until the day the radio announces that Italy is at war with France and Britain and simultaneously the town of Tripoli is attacked by French bombers, leaving dead, injured and rubble behind them. This then is the story of an Italian family living in Libya trying to survive in the war torn country told through the eyes of a child.

Comments: Before commenting on the story I must quickly say this first. The book is self-published (not necessarily a bad thing) but really needs editing. There are some typos, many awkward sentences and quite a number of grammatical errors, such as the one that annoyed me the most: the use of the word “on” instead of “in” throughout the book and quite often the reverse as well. ‘Nuff said.

The story itself was delightful. Nino and his mother Maria are wonderful, full characters with many layers. This is a very unusual point of view for a World War II story and I really appreciated experiencing it, especially knowing that it is based on fact. The Italians in Libya have no idea why they are suddenly being bombed, then the Italian and Nazi soldiers arrive. The Nazi’s immediately intimidate the people and Nino and his family watch in horror as Sarah, their Jewish babysitter’s, family is taken away in the night. Having made a prior promise to the mother, Sarah has become their cousin, Rita, from Naples as they keep her in their house. Told through a child’s eyes we see the horror, the hardships, the death of war but as a child we also see the adventures a boy can have, the escapades and ideas he comes up with that sometimes benefit the family and sometimes get him in trouble. He is an innocent child living the life he has been given and yet this is also a coming of age story as the boy becomes a man and can discern the truth behind what he sees. As a little boy he sees the Italian soldiers as heroes but when he sees up close and personal on a train how a soldier abuses a man, Nino knows he never wants to be a soldier.

A delightful read which can be harrowing and humourous, heart-wrenching and heart-warming.

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

Pages: 274
First Published: Oct. 1 2008
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

Yeah, so things have fallen apart.

Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away.

Summary: Hattie in Paris, who has just been dumped by her boyfriend, receives an urgent message from her niece in Manitoba to come home quickly. Hattie’s sister Min is in a deep depression and needs to go into the hospital again and when Hattie arrives she finds the kids in a state. Teenage Logan retreats into his hoodie all the time, rarely speaks and the neighbors have a backyard full of hatchets. Thebes, on the other hand, does not stop talking, ever, and looks as if she hasn’t changed clothes in a few weeks nor combed, let alone washed her hair in months. Hattie is totally not up to the job of looking after two children so she takes the children in the van on a road trip to the States to find their father whom Min chased out of their lives when they Logan was a toddler and Thebes newly born. With only the name of a place of where he was ten years ago they set off.

Comments: What a wonderful, brilliant book! A humourous, heart-felt, sometimes poignant story of a family of the most quirky characters. This family is both dysfunctional and each member is suffering their own mental health problems but they are also lovable, unique and become accepted to the reader just the way they are. The only character I didn’t connect with nor grow to like was Hattie, who was quite negligent with looking after the children and as a 32yo woman had no excuse for her behaviour except that she daydreamed about her ex-boyfriend back in Paris and hadn’t looked after children before. I didn’t buy it. However, the children and Min (who we get to know through Hattie’s memories) were extremely outlandish yet totally believable characters.

A great story that will have you chuckling, shaking your head and growing fonder of these two children the more you read. I really enjoyed this, my first foray into Toews, and I will be looking into her other work hoping to find the same quality of story. The book vaguely reminded me of the movie “Little Miss Sunshine” and I pictured Logan just as the teenage son in that movie. If you enjoy an offbeat story populated with eccentric characters this book will certainly fit the bill.

Irredeemable by Mark Waid
Afterward by Grant Morrison
Volume 1

Pages: 128
Ages: 15+
First Published: Oct. 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

SARAH!

Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away.

Comments: One day The Plutonium, a very powerful superhero turns evil and becomes the world’s greatest super villain. He belonged to a group of superheroes, yet none of them came close to Plutonium’s powers. Now The Plutonium is hunting them all down and killing them and their alter ego families. He has destroyed cities and is a heartless, ruthless killer. The story focuses on his remaining teammates as they try to piece together information about the man inside the costume, what made him turn, and how can they stop him, all while staying on the run as he tries to hunt them down.

This is a stunning story! It opens with a shocking sequence and the action never lets up. There are many layers to the story and this is truly a study in character. The Plutonium is presented as ultimate evil but as the reminiscences of the past Plutonium are brought forward we see the powerful superhero proud and good. We also see the little things and some larger things that happen in his life that aren’t so nice, things that can build up and lay heavy on a guy. The old superhero Plutonium becomes a character the reader can relate to and feel for and yet it is gut-wrenchingly unsettling to see the atrocities he is now capable of.

The book does contain a lot of violence, not the blood and gore type but more along the disturbing death kind. The book is definitely not for the young or the squeamish. Since I’m neither I’m eagerly awaiting Vol. 2 which will be out this Spring.

Twisted by Andrea Kane
Sloane Burbank, book 1

Pages: 376 pgs.
First Published: Mar. 2008
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

She was a true warrior.

Reason for Reading: Honestly, the cover put me off this for some reason. So it has taken me a while to get around to reading it.

Summary: Sloane Burbank is a former FBI agent who was injured in the line of duty and instead of taking a desk job decided to leave the Bureau until her therapy made her fit for active duty once more. In the meantime she is working as a private consultant for corporations and the police. She is contacted by the family of a childhood friend as a last resort that their daughter has been missing for close to a year and hired to look into the case for them. This one missing person case takes her into a series of related missing women cases, all having even the remotest link to herself, leading officials to believe Sloane is the ultimate target. At the same time the FBI agent in charge is involved in a case of a series of brutal prostitute murders down in Chinatown which may somehow be related to the missing women.

Comment: Wow! This was a stunner! I wish I hadn’t waited so long to read this as I would have read the sequel by now too. Two things initially put me off, the cover and the description on the back as a “romantic thriller”. I’m not a romance reader and the word had me thinking this might be a bit of fluff, but boy was I wrong!

A very creepy, unusual serial killer is the focus of this book which shifts focus occasionally to the criminal’s first hand point of view and then back to the third person narrative of the main plot. This person is very freaky and the whole story of motive that the author has created is very unique and fantastic. I quickly had my eye on a suspect and played into the author’s hands all along as I followed her red herrings and was joyfully surprised how wrong I was at the reveal.

Usually, in these thrillers with male/female partners we have s*xual tension or a relationship going on, but the ‘romance’ writer in the author comes out in this area of the book and there is quite a bit of descriptive s*x in the book that I would rather have done without. Some people would consider it quite graphic, though in the whole realm of what I’ve read I’d say it gets very close without quite getting to full fledged graphic. For this reason I can’t give the book a full rating. I’ve read a lot of thrillers and this type of ‘romance=sex’ doesn’t sit right with me. Save it for the paranormal romances, I say.

Otherwise, Ms Kane has crafted a taut, unique and very satisfying page turner of a thriller. I will be reading the sequel soon.

Paul McCartney: A Life by Peter Ames Carlin

Pages: 340 pgs. + notes, index
First Published: Nov. 3, 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Paul McCartney is almost home.

Reason for Reading: I like the Beatles but I love Paul.

Comments: Normally, I steer away from biographies, trying to read memoirs instead unless the person in question is dead and never wrote their own auto-biography. Well, Paul is neither, but given his extremely private nature I find it doubtful he’ll ever write a memoir and if he did it would not be in-depth but more like musings of good memories. So I jumped on this book when it came out.

Again, I find when reading these types of biographies one has to be wary as the authors are often out to dig up every piece of dirt they can on the celebrity or they don’t particularly like said person and simply enjoy writing a book that trashes them. This is not what I want. I want to read a respectful, true account of the celebrity’s life and author Peter Ames Carlin delivers on all accounts.

Right from the start one can tell that the author respects his subject and throughout the book when the controversies arise he shows the reader a ‘pro-Paul’ position. But this does not mean that he paints a fake rosy picture. Paul McCartney is exposed here warts and all. He was egocentric during the Beatles days, always being the leader, creating rifts among the other members and yet not realizing it until years much later. The intensely close relationship between him and John Lennon is examined from all sides even during the years they publicly shunned each other and Yoko Ono’s influence over John. George and Ringo are given very little space in the book. The book is about Paul and his relationships with these two do not stand out much more than ‘mates’. Though we do get at inside look at Paul’s brotherly affection to George, which was not always appreciated.

Past the Beatles, the rocky years with Wings are covered in detail, Paul’s true love, once in a lifetime relationship with his beloved Linda, his semi-success in the 80s as a solo singer, his disaster of a marriage with the vengeful Heather Mills and his eventual settlement into simply being Paul McCartney, the last of the Fab Four (as nobody really counts Ringo). We also see Paul’s reactions to nthe deaths of both John and George. A very interesting, funny, informative look inside the life of a brilliant, sensitive, egocentric, perfectionist, caring, simple-life loving man who is one of the 20th century’s most recognizable and influential musicians.

The Levee by Malcolm Shuman

Pages: 211
First Published: Nov. 2008
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

When I was fifteen we used to drive down to the levee to camp.

Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away and being a mystery fan I just had to read this one.

Summary: Colin, now in his sixties, is haunted by dreams of a past event that happened when he was 15 and he can’t remember which of his dreams/memories are really accurate or just from a vivid imagination. He has become the author of True Crime books and just finished a particularly harrowing one where the murderer invited him to interview him on condition he watch his execution. This sends Colin back to his hometown of Baton Rouge to unravel the truth about the night that the Spanish teacher was killed in the cemetery while they were camping near by and Colin and the other boys each knew a little more than they ever told the police, or each other.

Comments: This rather unimposing book, just over 200 pages with a fairly dull cover is hiding a terrific mystery within its pages. Likened on the back to Stephen King’s The Body (Stand By Me) it does capture the same nostalgia of a man looking back at a pivotal moment from his 1950s childhood, a day that changed the boys’ lives forever and the day the innocence of a child left them all.

The book wanders back and forth, often within the same chapter, from the adult Colin’s quest and seeking into his past as he finds only one friend left still living in the hometown to young Collin’s re-telling of the days surrounding the murder. The whole book is told in the first person, there are little breaks between time shifts and I found it flowed nicely. The majority of the book is spent in the past with little forays into Colin’s present until the story nears the end and the final reveal is given.

The quality of the mystery is superb. I didn’t find myself trying to guess the culprit as everyone in the book was doing that, seemingly leaving no person beyond suspicion. When the reveal comes, it is totally out of the blue and unexpected but I wasn’t shocked. It fit so naturally. It was an “Ahaaa” moment. Shuman pulls this off very cleverly and there is nothing I love more than a clever mystery writer. The back of my book tells my Mr. Shuman has written 14 mysteries to date, but a quick look at amazon shows that they mostly seem to be out-of-print. I must track down another of his books through the library system to see if his other work is as clever as this one.

Shadow of Colosus by T.L. Higley
A Seven Wonders Novel, Book 1

Pages: 386 pgs.
First Published: Aug. 1, 2008
Genre: historical fiction, romance, christian fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

Reason for Reading: I had been wanting to read it anyway. The Ancient Greece and Seven Wonders angle appealed to me.

Summary: Set in 227 BC on the Greek island of Rhodes, Tesa was sold into bondage by her mother ten years ago and has been a courtesan ever since. She holds quite a high position in society as the hetaera of a wealthy politician, but still she must meet his every need in the privacy of his home. When her patrician is accidentally killed Tesa comes up with a plan to finally escape this island and its bondage but at this time she also meets a young man different than all the other men whom she has grown cold towards, this man actually seems to care. And all the while brewing deep beneath the earth the tectonic plates are coming together in what will be an immense earthquake that will destroy not only the Greek town and Jew village but also bring the Colossus statue of Helios to it’s knees.

Comment: I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I have to say I wasn’t particularly in an Ancient history mood when I sat down to read it but the book grabbed me from the first chapter onwards. Tesa is a strong character caught in an ugly life of slavery and prostitution from which she is determined to free herself. Though to have survived so long in this lifestyle she has set aside her joy for life and become a cold, unfeeling person, impossible to reach. When she finds love it is extremely hard for her to set aside the control she has placed on her feelings for so long.

The book has an exciting political plot, with people plotting behind one another’s backs to become the most powerful one. With three deaths and a near mass murder, one cannot help but be carried away by the fast-paced, exciting plot. Part love story, part political thriller and part examination of the Old Testament Jewish faith this engaging read was a page-turner for me.

From a Christian publisher I feel the label “Christian fiction” is a bit of a misnomer as the story takes place 227 years before Christ. Yet one can’t quite call it “Biblical fiction” as the events are fictional, not from the Bible. I’m more apt to call this simply “historical fiction” or “historical romance” that mainstream readers would most likely enjoy. There are Jewish characters who believe in God and they introduce Him to a couple of Greek characters. There is one sentence near the end of the book where a Jewish character mentions the coming, one day, of a Messiah. I’d recommend to anyone, regardless of creed, who is interested in the time period. I’m looking forward to reading other books in this series.

Matchless, A Christmas Story: An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen’s Classic The Little Match Girl by Gregory Maguire

Pages: 112 pgs.
Ages: 10+
First Published: Oct. 27, 2009
Genre: fairy tale
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

On an island so far north that it snowed from September to April, a boy named Frederick kept himself warm by keeping a secret.

Reason for Reading: I have several of the author’s books but haven’t read any as of yet plus The Little Match Girl is one of my favourite fairy tales.

Summary: The story of a young boy who lives with his widowed mother. They may be poor, but they have just enough to get by and that is enough for them. Their lives very briefly cross paths with a little match girl who dies in the night cold one evening. Then due to that crossed path they are brought together with her distraught family.

Comments: A bittersweet, little story that is really much more than a retelling of The Little Match Girl. Macguire uses Andersen’s tale as a starting point to expand upon and from which to create his own tale. Chapter 2 of the book does retell Andersen’s tale pretty much keeping to the original though he does make it clear that the little girl is hallucinating and it is her dead mother she sees at the end instead of her grandmother.

Set in the past, in a time of horse and buggies, there is a sentimental ambiance that floats throughout the story. One feels that things are not going to go particularly well and after the death of the little girl any small act of joy becomes poignant. Macguire shows how the small things in life can (and maybe should) mean so much. As in the original tale there is that heavy feeling in the heart but there are bright moments and humour added by Frederick’s mom. The fairy tale aspect comes into play when Frederick and his mom meet up with the little match girl’s widowed father and two other young daughters and there is a special magical ending on Christmas Eve. At the very ending I think the book went one page too long, for I had just finished reading the end and felt happy with a sweet ending when I turned the page and one more sentence was written that I just didn’t get. Perhaps it’s just me, but I couldn’t make sense of it, I turned back and re-read the second last page and for me that is where the story ends. A charming little story. Not for young children but more for adults and older children who don’t mind a bittersweet story.

BoneMan’s Daughters by Ted Dekker

Pages: 401 pgs.
First Published: Apr. 14, 2009
Genre: thriller, christian fiction?
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

The day that Ryan Evans’ world forever changed began as any other day he’d spent in the hot desert might have done.

Reason for Reading: The publisher’s description of this serial killer thriller was right up my alley.

Summary: The BoneMan kidnapped and brutally murdered six girl’s by breaking every single bone in their body. He was arrested and sent to prison but there was always a feeling by some that the wrong man had been convicted. Two years later on a technicality the prisoner is released and at the same time Ryan Evans, Intelligence Officer, returns home from a gruelling POW capture in the desert. The murder’s start again and when Ryan’s own estranged daughter is kidnapped the FBI start seeing all evidence pointing towards Ryan himself but Ryan has received a message from the real BoneMan and Ryan must do what he says to save his daughter’s life.

Comments: All I can say is wow, wow, WOW! An amazing serial killer thriller. I loved it! A page-turner with gruesome details that never quite goes over into goriness used by some other authors. The back of the book tells me this is Ted Dekker’s 23rd book and I ask myself “Why am I only reading him now?” In fact, I’d never heard of him before this book came out. I feel like I’ve just discovered a treasure chest, if Dekker’s other work is anywhere near as engrossing as this one is I’ve got a lot of reading ahead of me!

The story is fast-paced and never lets up, some of the scenes are a little beyond believability but I chalked it up to an Intelligence Officer being overly intelligent and perhaps overly lucky. There’s no sense picking apart a thriller like this when you are on a wild ride of tension. Ryan’s character is fully fleshed out and we come to understand and feel for him. The secondary characters are less realized though they do not play emotionally integral parts to the plot. The bad guy is bad, pure evil, and this is one thing I particularly like in thrillers. There are no grey areas as to who is evil. The fight of good vs evil is very clear, as in a Dean Koontz novel.

And mentioning Dean Koontz, I’d like to comment on the Christian Fiction aspect of this novel. Never having read anything else by Dekker I can’t comment on him yet, as an author, but on this book alone, if that tag bothers you, don’t let it. Likening this book to Christian Fiction would be the same as likening Dean Koontz to Catholic Fiction. (Koontz is Catholic and his books contain many Catholic themes, if you know to look for them) There is a Biblical theme behind the killer’s motive (very common in thrillers) and the main character believes in God, thus there are some Christian elements/quotes in the story. Of course, I am a Christian and none of this stood out to me but I had no idea I was reading Christian Fiction until I looked up the amazon link and saw all the CF tags and checked out his other books and found that he was a popular CF author!

A fabulous book, thriller readers should not miss out on this one, and you can be sure you will be seeing more Ted Dekker reviews from me in the future.

the road to god knows … by Von Allan
Pages: 141 pgs.
Ages: 15+
First Published: Oct. 2009
Genre: YA, graphic novel, realistic fiction
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

“Has it b-been only a few days..?”

Reason for Reading: A Cybils Award nominee.

Summary: I think the author’s own sub-title pretty much sums up the story: “an Original Graphic Novel about Hope, Friendship, Mental Illness, Schizophrenia, and a Young Teenage Girl Coping with Her Life and Coming of Age in a Broken but Loving Family”.

Comments: This is Canadian Von Allan’s first published book. It is an incredibly powerful story. Marie is a young teenager, 13 or 14, dealing with poverty, being teased at school, having only one friend (though a true best friend), parents who do not live together, and a mother who suffers from schizophrenia and keeps going into the hospital after breakdowns. Von Allen has captured this girl’s immense range of feelings and especially shows it in his detailed b/w drawings. While the speech lacks a certain natural flow, especially between the two girls, it does tell the story well. The mother’s love for her daughter comes through between her very different behaviours and there are two especially frightening scenes that shock the reader into seeing the full extent of this disease. It’s hard to put a suitable age range on the book; there is some foul language and a nude scene plus of course the intense subject matter thus I would say 15+ but the book could be read by mature 13+ or those from similar backgrounds. The language and nude scene are not gratuitous but integral to the story.

The book really has no other plot than the day to day life of Marie coping to live with her mom and then being sent to stay with her dad when her mom is in the hospital. It’s a look at a severe reality. But all is not bad as Marie does have a wonderful, understanding friend and the book explores the role of even just one friendship in such a harsh life. The book does come to a very abrupt ending which is rather jarring but upon reflection one can see why it ends where it does. A worthy read.