Novels Now

Forest Park was pretty in the summer. Portland’s ash sky was barely visible behind a canopy of aspens, hemlock, cedars, and maples that filtered the light to a shimmering pale green. A light breeze tickled the leaves. Morning glories and ivy crept up the mossy tree trunks and strangled the blackberry bushes and ferns, a mass of crawling vines that piled up waist-high on either side of the packed dirt path. The creek hummed and churned, birds chirped. It was all very lovely, very Walden, except for the corpse.

Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival by Owen Matthews

Pages: 287
First Published: Sept. 16, 2008
Genre: memoir/biography
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

On a shelf in a cellar in the former KGB headquarters in Chernigov, in the black earth country in the heart of the Ukraine, lies a thick file with a crumbling brown cardboard cover.

Comments: This is the story of 20th century Russia told through the lives of one family, three generations long. Starting just after the Russian Revolution the author talks of his grandfather who was a good communist and belonged to the Party. Unfortunately, he said something he shouldn’t have at the wrong time and was executed as a dissident against the Party. Then we are told the lives of the author’s mother and father. The mother was a Russian girl and the father was a British man who had a deep interest in Russian literature, language and the people. So he went to Russia on a scholarship and fell in love with the Russian girl. They tried to recruit him into the KGB but he refused to betray his own country and was blacklisted from Russia. The two of them then spend the next 6 years writing letters almost daily to each other as he tries to get through the communist bureaucracy and blackmark on his name so he can marry his sweetheart and take her out of Russia. Meanwhile, the author inserts himself into the story when he is born and speaks of events that happened in the past then returns to his experiences in modern Russia. The author is a journalist and currently works for Newsweek in Russia.

This is a very interesting book if you are interested in modern Russian history. The author manages to combine the new trend of biography/memoir very well. The author never makes the book about himself, even though he does write of himself. He keeps the story of his ancestors in the forefront. By telling his families history he also tells the history of Russia, its transformation to Communism, perestroika and finally to today’s democratic society. I found at times the political parts made me start wool-gathering but, of course, it is necessary to understand the politics to understand the lives these people lived and the book is definitely not heavy-handed with politics. The people always remain in the forefront. Recommended to those with an interest in Russian history.

Red Dog Red Dog by Patrick Lane

Pages: 332
First Published: Sept 30, 2008 (Canada only)
Genre: literary fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

it didn’t take him long to bury me.

Comments: Whoa! This is one of those books that I wonder if I have the skill to put into words all that the book is. But I’ll give it my best shot. Set in the 1950s, mostly in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia (but also into Alberta, Montana and Washington) This is the story of a poor rural family and it’s dark secrets. It is a story of pain and suffering and redemption.

No time frame is ever definitively given in the book. We never know the year or the day and the narrative tells this family’s story from the mid/late 1800s up to the 1950s. We know the present time is the fifties due to clues in the writing, such as a reference to Elvis as a new singer. We can figure out the past dates as the story goes back to the great-grandparents of the modern characters. With no reference to the time, it can be unsettling as the narrative sways back and forth within chapters from an omnipotent narrator of the present to the narrative of a baby girl buried when she was just six months old. Alice, as she was named, was told stories by her father at her graveside his whole life and she has some connection to the spirits of the family from which she hears the family’s story. Also, unsettling, once it dawned upon me (about 1/4 of the way into the book) was the author’s non-use of any quotation marks, as if the narrators are telling you a story from the past, saying what he said and she said without actually having anyone speak. It is definitely a very compelling voice the author has chosen.

Also with no time reference one doesn’t really know the length of time that passes during the story of the modern characters, though the jacket flap tells me it is one week, which seems feasible to me. The main characters are only a part of the story, not really even the most important part. It is the past which developed this family into who it is and created the ones now living. The past is full of dark stories which show how the various characters became sad or violent while suffering and enduring, how the past continues on generation after generation. More of the past is written about than of the main modern characters but it is all relevant to the bitter and redeeming surprise ending.

The writing is beautiful. One could read passages aloud for pure enjoyment, and I did do this myself, which is a rare occurrence for me. The story unfolds slowly, and at times one may feel it is meandering away from a cohesive plot, but it always gets back on track and the reader realizes at certain points the meaning of those wayward sub-plots. I really enjoyed the book. It is very deep and certainly depressing but the characterization is portrayed brilliantly and the reader suddenly realizes they care for these people. If you are looking for a page-turning, linear, plot driven book this one is not for you. However, if you like to get inside the heads of people who live a tormented life (in one way or another) you will find this story very satisfying. In fact, I think this is the type of book that one would enjoy even more the second time around as hidden meanings would make one nod in recognition of where the story is going. I most likely will re-read this book again some day.

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner

Pages: 305
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

I’ve heard the story countless times, how I grasped the delivering doctor’s scrubs as he guided me into the Durrough family universe of opportunity and duty.

Comments: Lauren, a college student from a rich family, takes on a job as literary assistant to a lonely old woman, Abigail, who has a family heirloom, a 17th century diary written during the Salem witch trials. This has been in her family for centuries and Lauren is hired to make a translation in everyday language. As Lauren translates the diary she becomes emotionally attached to the young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was tried and convicted as a witch.

The narrative switches between the present timeline and lives of the characters to entries from the journal as they are transcribed. On one level this is the story of Mercy (a fictional person) and the almost unbelievable true events that she dealt with in Salem 1692 and on another level it is the story of Lauren and Abigail as they come to terms with their own very difference prejudices that they have laid upon loves ones in their respective lives.

As I found the link to this book on the publisher’s website I saw it listed as Christian Fiction. Don’t let that make you have your own prejudice against whether you would read the book. As a Christian myself, I honestly didn’t realize it was Christian Fiction until I saw it called so. The only religious aspect to the book, aside from the Salem witch trials, is that the characters believe in God and in passing the author mentions that they pray or go to church. While the theme of the book is a Christian one of not judging others that theme transcends Christianity to all walks of life.

I loved this book. It was a page-turner. I was enthralled with the diary entry parts of the books and the characters of Lauren and Abigail were full of depth and all the characters felt real to me including the minor ones. A well-written, absorbing, and heart-felt book. Recommended.

American Widow by Alissa Torres
Art by Choi

Pages: 209
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

The World Trade Center was just hit by a plane! Turn on your TV!

Comments: This is the author’s memoir of the tragedy of her life, becoming a widow on 9/11. Her husband was on his second day at his new job above the 85th floor and she was pregnant with their first child. The book jumps from moment to moment as she learns of his death, hopes that he is alive and missing, finding out he was a jumper, joins victim groups, goes through the bureaucracy of the charity help organizations and remembers past moment with her husband.

The book lacks a cohesive narrative jumping from one event to another and sometimes just showing the author’s grief and emotions rather than telling a story. Of course, this is a depressing and sad story and it is hard to ‘review’ the story of someone’s grief. The author’s emotion and pain is clearly at the centre of this book rather than a story with a plot or characterization. For those interested in the after effects of 9/11 on the families left behind by those who were killed this sad, tragic tale of a woman who survives her grief and starts a new life for her baby, this book will certainly appeal.

We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever by Benjamin Mee

Pages: 261
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: memoir
Rating: 2.5/5

First sentence:

Mum and I arrived as the new owners of Dartmoor Wildlife Park in Devon for the first time at around six o’clock on the evening of 20 October 2006, and stepped out of the car to the sound of wolves howling in the misty darkness.

Comments: Benjamin Mee is a journalist living in Southern France with his wife and 2 children, writing DIY articles for a British magazine. One day his sister calls to say she’s found the perfect thing for him, a zoo is for sale in England. Why doesn’t the family by it with the money from their recently deceased father. Ben’s mum, brother and sister all jump on board and so begins the journey of buying a dilapidated zoo full of animals.

At the beginning of the story Ben’s wife has recently been given the all clear after struggling with brain cancer but we soon know that she is not going to make it very far into the book when she has a very bad recurrence.

When I first was interested in reading this book I had sort of imagined a modern day Gerald Durrell and possibly set expectations too high. The book was readable and at time humorous but really didn’t have much substance to it. We’re taken through the whole process from trying to find finances, rebuilding to the first few opening months of the running zoo. There were fun antidotes about the animals and the employees but nowhere near as many as I had expected. Instead there were pages of evolutionary musings which were tedious and Ben’s frequent use of “DIY” irritated me to no end. Didn’t that expression go out with the nineties?

Ben comes across as having a bit of an ego and his observations are always from how they affected him, while I would have enjoyed more of an objective view which brought the other zoo keepers to deeper light as characters. While the book’s title notes “200 Wild Animals” most of the antidotes were about wolves, tigers, pumas and peacocks, with only a few other animals briefly thrown in for variety. I expected a wider variety of animal discussion and more about their characteristics and habits than about there evolution. Just not what I expected, perhaps others will get more out of it than me.

“But if I’m not to be a priestess,” I asked him, “where will my place be in Thebes?” I held my breath, waiting for the right answer to come, willing it into his heart. Then he took me in his arms and brushed his lips against mine.  “With me,” he said firmly. “As my queen.” -from The Heretic Queen, page 126-

Nefartari grows up within in the royal court, a favorite to Pharoah Seti and playmate to his son Ramesses. Her family history has tainted her - her mother, Queen Mutnodjmet, was sister to the Heretic Queen Nefertiti - so it is not a surprise when Ramesses chooses to first marry Iset, a beautiful young woman who carries no controversy in her past and has been befriended by the High Priestess of Isis (who is also the daughter of Pharaoh Seti). It is not long, however, before a plot is hatched by Seti’s other daughter, Woserit, to make Nefertari into the next Queen of Egypt.

The Heretic Queen is Michelle Moran’s sequel to her best-selling novel Nefertiti. In this second book, the reader comes to know Nefertari (who narrates the story) and Ramesses The Great (one of the most well-known ancient Egyptian kings). As Moran points out in her historical notes at the back of the book, The Heretic Queen is ‘first and foremost, a work of fiction.‘ But it is also rich with the history and atmosphere of ancient Egypt. Set amid the towering temples of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the novel is filled with political scheming, the horror of war, the extravagance of royalty, and breathtaking romance.

Moran writes in her historical notes:

What is known for certain about Nefertari, however, is that she and Ramesses were a love match. Buildings and poetry remain today as testaments to this, and in one of Ramesses’s more famous poems he calls Nefertari “the one for whom the sun shines.” His poetry to her can be found from Luxor to Abu Simbel.” -page 373-

AND

On a wall of her burial chamber, Ramesses summed up his love for her as such: “My love is unique and none can rival her … Just by passing, she has stolen away my heart.” -page 374-

Moran captures this love beautifully and it is the romance between these two characters that drives the novel. The tension between Nefertari and her rival Isis never wavers, and although the reader knows the final outcome from the beginning it is this conflict that kept me compulsively turning the pages.

The Heretic Queen is captivating, full of suspense and intrigue, and a must read for historical fiction lovers.

Highly recommended.

Click for info

There are times in life — not many — when you can see, with dizzying clarity, the fatal fork in the road represented by one small act, the catastrophe that lurks behind a trivial decision.

A few weeks ago I posted about the literature in translation I had read so far this year and was surprised to note that I hadn’t read any titles translated from Spanish. Even though I should have saved this book for the Latin American Challenge in 2009, I decided to go ahead and read it because I really wanted a Spanish title on my list for this year.

Guillermo Martinez is a writer I’ve been meaning to read for awhile now because he’s from Argentina (which I visited earlier this year) and he’s also a professor of mathematics (and I’m a geeky former engineer). I had known about his book The Oxford Murders and I plan on reading it in 2009. I really want to know how he combines math with murder in that one!

The Book of Murder isn’t about math, but it does take place in Argentina. It begins with the narrator (who is a novelist) receiving a desperate call from Luciana, a girl who had worked for him previously as a transcriptionist. She has had several tragedies in her life, but she doesn’t believe any of them are accidents. She believes another novelist, Kloster, is the one responsible, and she needs the narrator’s help to prove it. But is Luciana even sane? She has spent time in a mental hospital, after all…

I really enjoyed this book and Martinez’ writing. I’ll definitely be looking forward to The Oxford Murders in 2009.

2008, 224 pp.
(4/5)

Regina’s Closet: finding my grandmother’s secret journal by Diana M. Raab

Pages: 166
First Published: Sept. 30, 2008
Genre: memoir
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

I was ten years old the morning I found my grandmother dead.

Comments: This is the author’s fascinating memoir of her beloved grandmother who killed herself in 1964. Her own mother comes to visit her and each time she brings some nostalgic memento from the past to pass on to her daughter. One year, she brings a portfolio of typewritten pages which turn out to be the grandmother’s retrospective memoir written some years before the author’s birth. Regina Klein, Jewish, was born in 1903 in Poland and lived through the first world war. Subsequently her family moved to Vienna, then Paris and lived there until the very early days of WWII. They were then fortunate enough to decide to emigrate to the United States before France could be invaded by the Germans.

Actual entries from the journal are used in the book with the author’s comments interspersed throughout adding more detail and information for the reader. Thus aiding in a deeper understanding of this woman. After the journal ends Ms. Raab continues the story of her own birth and the life of Regina, both through the eyes of her childhood self and with the deeper insight of her adult self.

This is a short book, which is a very fast read that includes both photographs and copies of documents as well as a map of the pre-WWI area. This book isn’t about anyone famous or heroic but about a normal, yet very determined, woman and her family and the events of history that lead to that woman taking her own life at the age of sixty-seven for no apparent reason.

This is a truly wonderfully well-written book. The author inserts just enough of herself into the book that it does not overshadow the main story of the grandmother. A beautiful book full of life, death, chaos and how both war and suicide effect families many years after the events themselves. Recommended.

The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson

Pages: 420
First Published: Nov, 2008 (Sept. in US)
Genre: crime thriller
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:

“Dispatch this is Agent Vail.”

Comments: FBI Profiler Karen Vail is on the case of a serial killer who follows a ritualistic routine in his violent and gruesome murders of young brunettes. Karen also has some personality clashes with members of the squad and troubles in her personal life. She is recently divorced from a bitter, angry man and her son does not want to visit at his father’s home anymore. She also must finally deal with the fact that her mother’s Alzheimer’s has reached the point where she needs constant supervision.

This murder case is taught and tense. The writing is gripping and it is evident the author has done his research. The characters are incredibly real and the plot is intense. Jacobson pulls no punches and twists and turns the plot until the reader is shocked with the ending results. Plus the author stuns the reader by solving the mystery just a little too far away from the end of the book making the reader wonder what could possibly happen next but this is where he then throws in his penultimate twist. I dare any reader to figure out “whodunit” before the final reveal.

One of the best stand-alones in this genre that I’ve read in quite some time. If you enjoy psychological suspense thrillers I can’t recommend this book more highly. I am certainly intrigued enough by Jacobson’s work here to go back and read his two previous books, False Accusations and The Hunted, and look forward to his next book.

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen
Book 7 Jane Rizzoli series

Pages: 509 (large-print edition)
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: crime thriller
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

He is coming for me.

Comments: Dr. Maura Isles is invited to a CAT scan of an Egyptian mummy recently found in the basement storage of a museum. During the scan a bullet appears in the “ancient” mummy’s leg. Rizzoli and her partner are called in for the autopsy and the case begins when it is confirmed that the mummy is from modern times. More bodies are found in the form of various ancient burial preservations and Rizzoli and her partner discover they are on the path of a serial killer who has been at it for quite some time.

After my disappointment in Gerritsen’s last book in this series The Mephisto Society, I am glad to say she is back to form in this fabulous crime thriller. Not only are the murders and the serial killer very unique, the plot is full of twists and turns and while I figured out part of the solution there was more to it that surprised me in the end. Not particularly gory (or perhaps I am becoming jaded) but certainly taught and tense. A page-turner and one of those books that you tell people “Be quiet, I’m at a good part!” quite frequently. As usual I look forward to Tess Gerritsen’s next installment in this series.

Takeover by Lisa Black

Pages: 340
First Published: Sept. 2008
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

The sun had barely come up, and already it was too hot.

Comments: Theresa MacLean, forensic scientist, and her fiance, police detective Paul Cleary, are working the same case of a man found dead in the bushes in front of his home, while his wife and two-year old are nowhere to be found. Theresa goes off to take forensic details of the body at the hospital while Patrick goes to the Federal Reserve bank, where the man worked, to interview his coworkers. Patrick hardly steps foot in the place when two armed robbers takeover the bank and hold the people on the first floor hostage, including Patrick who pretends to be a bank worker while covering his gun so as not to alert the robbers to his police status.

What ensues is a page-turning, thrilling story of hostages, bank robbers with a plan bigger than anyone can imagine, professional negotiations and the terror involved in dealing with ones loved one in a hostage situation.

Very well written in a face-paced narrative with an unpredictable and not necessarily happy ending. Though I did guess one of the major twists fairly early on it didn’t hamper my enjoyment of watching the plot unfold. A quick read, I read it in 24 hours, and a satisfying book for fans of suspense novels.

Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay

Pages: 404
First Published: Sept. 2008
Genre: thriller
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

Derek figured, when the time came, the crawlspace would be the best place to hide.

Comments: The Cutters live in a small community in upstate New York; they live far back from the road and share the first part of the driveway with their neighbours, the Langleys. Teenage Adam Langley and Derek Cutter are best friends. One evening the Langleys are cold bloodedly shot and killed in their own home. Derek is the last known person to have seen them alive and the police start to question the validity of his story. The Cutters soon start to realize that the answer to the murder is much closer to home than they thought.

Canadian writer, Linwood Barclay, has written several novels but this is my first time reading him. This is one of those few page-turning, read while you eat, stay up late into the night books. A very quick read for me that had plenty of suspense, twists and reveals along the way. Don’t be too sure of yourself if you think you have it figured out, I kept changing my mind till near the end and the secrets that keep outing themselves will keep you guessing too. I most certainly will look into Barclay’s backlist. If they are anything like this one, I’m sure to have found a new favourite author.

The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson

Pages: 484
First Published: Sept. 2008
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

The Concorde stagecoach had been a tarry, shining black when they left the train station in Calgary.

Comments: This is a tale of the Boer War and the Canadians who fought in it. The story focuses on the First Canadian Mounted Rifles and also briefly concerns the Royal Dragoons and the Lord Strathcona Horse (of which I was an army wife many years ago). These are all Canadian Mounted troops. While the book is about the war it mainly focuses on Frank Adams, an Albertan ranch hand, and the friends he goes to war with and the people he meets on the front line. The main focus is on the people and relationships and their reactions to the events around them but there is also a lot of background on the war and military politics.

This is a tough book for me to review as it really didn’t do it for me, whatever “it” may be. A lot of characters are introduced right away; some are major characters, other minor and yet others who fleet in and out of the book. Typically I enjoy a large cast of characters in my books but I found it hard to identify with anyone and with two characters called Frank and Fred I frequently got mixed up and had to keep looking at the jacket flap to see which one was the main character. (Frank). The middle part of the book focuses on the military aspects of the war, the battles, the politics and I found that when characters starting dying (this is a war after all) it really didn’t affect me as I’d never developed a relationship with them at this point and also up to this point I found the book a slow read. Though I never lost interest enough to put it down.

The last third of the book is when things seem to pick up. The characters are familiar enough to have some meaning to the reader and I found the story more interesting from this point on and found the ending satisfying. In summary, I found the book contained too much describing and telling rather than characterization and personally I’m all about the characters when it comes to books I love. The writing is good and while I wasn’t thrilled with it; it did manage to keep me reading for close to 500 pages. It simply just didn’t do “it” for me, for whatever reason. Your mileage may vary.

The caw! caw! cawing! of one stupid crow kept me up all night. (Well, more accurately all day — ’cause , you know, I’m a vampyre fledgling and we have that whole issue of day and night being turned around.) Anyway, I got zero sleep last night/day. But my crappy nonsleep is currently the easiest thing to deal with since life really sucks when your friends are pissed at you. I should know. I’m Zoey Redbird, currently the undisputed Queen of Making My Friends Pissed Land.

Zoey isn’t having the best of weeks. All her friends are mad at her. They felt betrayed by the fact that Zoey was keeping secrets from them. They just didn’t understand she was trying to keep them safe. She didn’t have a boyfriend anymore. Last week, she had 3! But Loren Blake, the adult Vampyre Poet Laureate, seduced Zoey into thinking he was in love with her. Neferet, the evil High Priestess, had set up Zoey. And when she was with Loren, the imprint she had with her human boyfriend, Heath, was broken. In addition, Erik Night, the gorgeous fledgling that had just made his transformation to adult Vamp, walked in on them. Heath isn’t speaking to Zoey and now, neither is Erik. This was all before Loren was killed in a bizarre ritual that was causing Neferet to wage a war against the humans. So, yes. Zoey’s life sucks alot right now.

In addition to all that stress, Zoey is also dealing with the Stevie Rae/Aphrodite issue. By casting her circle for Stevie Rae, she is no longer undead, but has transformed into some kind of other vampyre. Her mark is now colored in just like the adult vamps, but it is red. But with Stevie Rae gaining her humanity back, it caused Aphrodite to lose her mark. Now she is no longer a vampyre, although only Zoey and Stevie Rae know. But she is still having visions. And now her visions include Zoey’s death and an all out war between the vampyres and the humans. And it looks like it is up to Zoey to stop it.

Book 4 starts a few days after Book 3 ended. And it is way darker and more sinister than any of the preceding books. Zoey is way less whiny in this book. And it looks like she is stepping up her game. It’s going to come down to a battle between good vs. evil, and Zoey is finally becoming the Priestess she was chosen to be. She has firmly taken control of who she is, and gathering around her those that want to fight the evil that has come to the House of Night.

PC and Kristin have certainly brought their A-game with Untamed. They wrote an excellent novel, which was an extremely fast read for me, because I just couldn’t put it down! The series just keeps getting better and better. And I can’t wait to see how things shake out in the next installment!!

4.5/5

Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman

I didn’t even know who Chuck Klosterman was when I picked up this book, but after listening to just a few minutes of Downtown Owl, I had to check to see who he was and if he went to high school with me. He didn’t — as he’s from North Dakota — but Downtown Owl was so jarringly and surprisingly familiar to me that I had to make sure. Set in 1983 and 1984 in the cold, flat plains of fictional Owl, ND, this book captures small town plains life almost perfectly. At least it does for that time frame.

The residents of Owl converse and care deeply about the weather, crops, the high school sports teams, the bars, and the fact that the local movie theatre is closing down. (Check, check, check, double check.) The day doesn’t seem complete if the farmers don’t get together and talk about all these important events over coffee every day. (Triple check.) And last but not least, the English teacher is having the high school classes read 1984 in 1984. (Quadruple check.) Klosterman could have been telling this story about my own hometown in the very year of 1984 when I, too, was reading 1984 as a high school sophomore. Eerily familiar, I tell you! Oh, and the music, too. All the popular music of the day gets a mention, and that was a nice blast from the past as well.

The three main characters in the book are Mitch, a high school student on the football team; Julia, a young, brand new teacher who is the new celebrity in town; and Horace, a 70ish widower whose wife died of insomnia. I really don’t want to say too much about the characters because they each have their own unique voice and slant on living in Owl that is best experienced yourself. If you want to know more about them, read the book!

The book does have quite a bit of bad language in it, one scene of animal cruelty that was graphically described, and an ending I wasn’t sure if I liked or not, BUT… I will definitely be looking into Klosterman’s next novel, particularly if it contains plains people in a plains town.

2008, 288 pp.
Rating: 4/5

Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay, 404 pages

I love a good suspenseful thriller. I started this one yesterday, and since I had today off, I read all day. It was a real page turner, with twists and turns, some I could somewhat see or at least suspect, but still satisfying.

The prologue starts with Derek, the seventeen year old son of the narrator, sneaking into a neighbour’s house in upstate New York, and then being present but hidden while the family is massacred at gunpoint. The ensuing investigation unearths secrets of all the people connected with the family. Murder investigations often leave many people feeling exposed, and as unexpected details get discovered, more than a murderer can be the result.

It’s no fun to read a plot overview of a book that derives its pleasure from suspense, so there will be no incriminating details here. The characters were realistic, facing moral dilemmas and not always making the right choices. But overall, I thought Derek and his family were more like people caught in an unusual situation and making decisions based on protecting their family. There are some comments on politics, academia, and ambition, but mostly it’s a tight thriller that kept me entertained all day.

I just love Neil Gaiman (not to mention that his looks remind me of a close friend I had in college). Well, I love his books, too, and this one was no exception. It’s my third Gaiman, and although I still think I liked Coraline a tiny bit better, I loved The Graveyard Book.

Just like Coraline, I listened to this on audio with my two teenage sons. If you haven’t heard Gaiman narrate his own books, you’re definitely missing out. Most authors should not narrate their own books; Gaiman is one who should never allow someone else to do so. His voice is perfect for it, and of course, no one would ever know his books better than he does.

The Graveyard Book contains a colorful (though some are long dead) cast of characters, some very creepy scenes, and some genuinely heartwarming ones. It’s one of those perfect children’s/YA books in which it was definitely written to also appeal to adults. It was great for the R.I.P. Challenge, and it was great to experience another one of Gaiman’s treasures as a family.

2008, 320 pp.

Neil Gaiman’s website.

Neil Gaiman’s web journal. (I’m a subscriber)

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
By Elizabeth McCracken
Completed November 5, 2008

I think there’s an old saying that you should never have to bury your child. Outliving my kids ranks number one in things “I don’t want to happen,” but sadly, there are parents who face this reality every day.

While some parents lose children days, months or years after their births, some parents lose their child before the baby is born, experiencing a stillborn birth. This happened to popular novelist Elizabeth McCracken and was the subject of her memoir, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination.

I have never read a book like this before. As a mom, I am uncomfortable with the thought of losing a child, so I was not sure if I could read McCracken’s story. But with McCracken’s easy writing style, I finished her memoir in one day. Every page sucked me in. And while it’s filled with sadness, you get equal doses of hope and warm memories. She touched on so many important parts of the grieving process, and her reaction to other people’s reactions taught me a lot about how to support someone experiencing a loss.

There were touching moments too. Her chapters about her husband and best friend’s support made me teary-eyed. What a lovely tribute to them both.

McCracken took an uneasy subject and made it very human, very real and very approachable. While it will strike a familiar note with women who experienced the loss of a baby, I think all parents can learn from McCracken’s story. Having gotten to know her at this level, I hope to read her fictional books some day. ( )

Imaginary Friends edited by John Marco & Martin H. Greenberg
DAW, 2008
Fiction/Fantasy (SS); 304 pgs

The title was what first captured my eye. I pulled the book off the shelf, and it did not take me long to add it to my purchases that day. My curiosity got the better of me and I began reading the introduction as I waited in line to check out.

Imaginary friends have touched many of our lives. Perhaps even you had one. They were our sidekicks and sometimes our heroes. They got us into trouble just as much as they kept us out of it. They kept us company and understood what we were going through. They were our best friends and our allies when we needed them most.

John Marco, fantasy author, had considered writing a research paper on imaginary friends for a human development class while in college. Unfortunately, he would soon discover, there was not a lot of research out there available, and so he had to put that idea aside for the time being. Years later he was asked to be a part of putting this little collection of stories together. What an interesting idea, I thought. Childhood fantasies and imaginary friends are topics that fascinate me. Perhaps in part because, like John Marco, I once had an imaginary friend too.

Imaginary Friends is an anthology of short stories by a variety of authors, each story taking the concept of the imaginary friend and weaving it into a fantastical tale—some set in far off worlds and others right here in our own. Anne Bishop’s name is the first that popped off the back cover at me when I initially picked up the book. As a fan of her Black Jewels world, I was anxious to read her contribution to the book. The twelve other authors whose stories you will find among the pages of the collection are Rick Hautala, Jean Rabe, Juliet McKenna, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Kristine Britain, Donald J. Bingle, Tim Waggoner, Paul Genesse, Russell Davis, Bill Fawcett, Fiona Patton, and Jim C. Hines.

I jotted notes down for each story as I read, and one concept that repeatedly appeared with nearly every story was a variation of the phrase, “Everything is not always what it appears to be.” Each of the stories in the collection are imaginative and thoughtful. Some are funny while others more serious. There’s the boy and his dragon who slay pirates; a prisoner trapped in a tower who is only able to look out at the world through a reflection in a mirror; a beggar and his dog just looking for their next meal; a young girl with a gift who must endure a difficult trial; a bar bet gone awry; a writer whose lost her way and needs a little help from a friend to get back on the right path; the man who professed his innocence right up until the end; a grieving father’s desperation; a young boy coping with the upheaval in his family; a lonely man’s ramblings and a postal worker caught in his spell; an imaginary friend reunites with his grown child during a tense moment in time; a man whose family is caught up in illusions; and a haunting story about Death and his tie to one boy and his mother.

My favorite of the stories included the first story in the collection, Rick Hautala’s “A Good Day for Dragons.” My initial thought upon finishing the story was what a wonderful bedtime story this would make. It reminded me of my own childhood adventures as I chased down drug dealers and mobsters with my imaginary partner by my side.

I was also quite taken with Anne Bishop’s story, “Stands a God Within the Shadows.” Whenever I read anything by this author, I quickly lose myself in the world she has created and it was no different with this particular story, which, while short, still enthralled me in its spell. A lonely person is trapped in a tower, unable to look out directly on the world outside her window, with only a figure in the shadow for comfort and conversation. The protagonist’s strength and resilience are what especially make this story stand out in an otherwise seemingly hopeless situation.

Paul Genesse’s “Greg and Eli” was a story that touched my heart. It is the story of a young boy who finds his entire life uprooted when his mother and father move to a small town in Nevada after the death of his unborn baby brother. His parents are too wrapped up in their own agony and little Greg finds himself having to face the world outside on his own, including a bunch of bullies.

Another favorite of mine was the story of the young soldier in Iraq who called upon his childhood imaginary friend, Thumper, as gunfire erupted around him in Bill Fawcett’s “The Big Exit.” It was a story of courage and trust. And yes, I did get a little choked up at the end.

The imagination is an amazing thing and Imaginary Friends brings out some of the best of that. Not one story disappointed me.

Rating: (Very Good)