Novels Now

And holding her hands there, as the minister spoke, he realized that love was making him into far more than he ever could have been on his own. He could have sailed around the earth in a hot-air balloon or been a scientist inside a laboratory solving cancer and still those things would have been nothing compared to what she needed him to be, compared to the vessel she was turning him into. - from The Cradle, page 110 -

Matthew and Marissa Bishop are expecting their first baby, and Marissa has decided she must have the old cradle she was once rocked in and which disappeared with her mother six years before. Matthew reluctantly agrees to locate Marissa’s mother and retrieve the cradle…but he has no idea where his search will take him. As Matthew travels first from one small town to the other on his quest, he begins to uncover the secrets of his wife’s family which stir memories of his own childhood he believes he had long ago put to rest. Set in the midwest, The Cradle is a novel about loss, belonging, love, and the tenuous threads that bind us to each other.

The Cradle is actually two parallel stories: that of Matthew and Marissa, and that of an older couple Renee and Bill who are seeing their nineteen year old son off to war in Iraq. Told from these two perspectives, the novel jumps back and forth in time and alludes to connections between the couples. It is not until close to the end that Somerville weaves together the disparate narratives and leaves the reader with a satisfying conclusion.

I was pleasantly surprised by Somerville’s debut novel. My initial reaction is that this would be a “light” read, a bit of romance, more chick lit than anything deeper. I could not have been more wrong. Somerville has a firm grasp of what makes a literary novel throb with life – strong and conflicted characters, internal struggle, and themes which delve deeply into what make us human. I found myself drawn to Matthew, a character who has been damaged and yet elevates himself through the simple act of caring about others.

The Cradle is full of hope and answers the questions: What brings us happiness? What completes us? It is not the material goods we acquire or think we need, rather it is our connection to others which brings us joy. I was deeply moved by this simple, yet compelling novel. I hope that Somerville has many more such stories to share with us.

Highly Recommended.

My interest – okay, obsession – with math is genuine, and has been since the first time I was ripped away from the life I loved. I buried myself in numbers and word problems where an answer was certain (or at least in the back of the book) and I knew I’d found something I could count on. – from The Girl She Used To Be, page 5 -

Melody Grace McCartney has been in the Witness Protection Program since the age of six, along with her parents who have since been murdered by the mob they testified against. Moved by the federal government dozens of times to small towns across America, Melody wishes for only one thing: to have a normal life and her own name. So when one night she meets Jonathon Bovaro, the son of the man who was responsible for killing her parents, she is especially vulnerable to his charms…and his promise to protect her.

And for some reason I feel free, that I have been in touch with both sides, with the light and the dark of my existence, and that I have somehow managed to find peace. Whether there is validity to this notion is irrelevant; right now, it feels valid. I’m not going to destroy it by overanalyzing. – from The Girl She Used To Be, page 48 -

David Cristofano’s debut novel is a fast-paced, compelling look at identity, and our ability to trust and love after tragedy. The Girl She Used To Be is a well-constructed novel with a complex protagonist. Melody’s journey from child victim to rebellious adolescent to independent young adult is painful. The core of the story revolves around the question of how we form our identities, and how early experiences impact our development.

I have to admit that I was not sure how I would like this novel. At times, the story felt a bit contrived – but ultimately I found myself unable to stop turning the pages. I wanted to know how Melody’s life would turn out; I wished for something better for her; I ached for those things missing in her life – a family, a person who loved her for her, a normal life. Melody is not always likable – at times she is whiny and petulant – but as the story unfolds, her behavior becomes understandable.

Cristofano has crafted an unusual novel – one of imagination and depth – which kept me interested from start to finish. Readers who like their literary fiction with a touch of mystery will greatly enjoy The Girl She Used To Be. I will look forward to reading more from this talented new author.

Recommended.

Wonderland by Tommy Kovac. illustrated by Sonny Liew

Pages: 160
Ages: 13+
First Published: Mar. 17, 2009
Genre: graphic novel, ya, children, fantasy
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Mary Ann …

Reason for Reading: Cybils Award nominee. I’ve also been meaning to read this since I first heard about it.

Summary: The book is set in Wonderland sometime not too long after Alice has left. Here we meet Mary Ann, the girl whom the White Rabbit mistakes Alice for when she first arrives. We find out Mary Ann is the White Rabbit’s maid and follow her through an adventurous day where she uncovers the fiendish doings of the Queen of Hearts.

Comments: While the book does have its plot running through, I found the main focus to be on the characters. Kovac explores Wonderland and its famous inhabitants such as the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat in such great detail and in a more up close and personal way than the original book provides. It is great fun watching these characters come to life in this way. (Though I do question why Jabberwocky and Tweedledee & dum from Through the Looking-glass have been placed in Wonderland.) Kovac has done a magnificent job of keeping the essence of Carroll’s witty, off-the-wall sense of humour. Sonny Liew’s illustrations are wonderful and wacky; based on the Disney images (since this book is published by Disney Press) they are instantly recognizable yet he changes them enough to take away the cuteness and there is actually an aura of creepiness to this Wonderland.

To thoroughly enjoy the book, one must know the original Alice in Wonderland story as many references are made to it and it’s assumed you know who all these characters are. I don’t think reading the original book is necessary, any version or the Disney movie would suffice. I’m not really sure why the book is recommended for ages 13+; my only guess would be the maturity to fully comprehend the humour and the underlying tones.

I really enjoyed the story. It was a quick afternoon read. The eventual ending for Mary Ann is quite unnerving. I’ve never been a fan of the Cheshire Cat and to see his true colours (in my mind) brought to life so well was a delight … and slightly eerie. This is a book that just pulling it off the shelf and looking through it is going to make you want to take it home with you. I say it’s worth it. I suggest the book would make a great gift for a young teen or tween girl who already knows the Alice in Wonderland story.

Nicola

The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl

Pages: 386
First Published: mar. 17, 2009 (paperback coming Oct. 6, 2009)
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery, literary thriller
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

Neither of the young mounted policemen fancied these subdivisions of the Bagirhaut province.

Reason for Reading: I’m always interested in Victorian historical fiction plus I’ve read two other books this year that concerned Charles Dickens: ‘Drood’ by Dan Simmons and ‘Wanting’ by Richard Flanagan. Therefore I thought why not add a third to the mix especially since this concentrated on Dickens last novel as did ‘Drood’.

Comments: Dickens has just died leaving his last book “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” only half-finished. But one of the partners of his American publishing house James Osgood is certain he may be able to find clues to Dickens’ intentions for the story’s ending if he travels to England which leads him into a much deeper, darker and dangerous mystery than he had counted on. The book also flashes back a few years to a plot line that follows Dickens’ final book tour of America and the trials and tribulations that accompanied him on that last trip. And finally, the book follows a third less frequent plot line of Frank Dickens, Charles’ son, who is an officer stationed in India. The time period being consistent with the recent death of his father.

This is a much researched and historically accurate tale as far as Dickens and his family and acquaintances go. Many small real life incidents of his life are included which adds authenticity to the period. I found the characters and the setting to be spot on with regards to Victorian attitudes and ambiance. While the book is populated fiercely with a motley crew of characters, two do stand out as the main characters and I found both James and Rebecca to be both truly believable and completely compelling. Rebecca never stepped out of her place as a woman of her times but as a divorced woman working as a bookkeeper she took no nonsense from anyone as regards her sex. I loved her stinging, yet witty remarks, that kept her completely within her confines as a Victorian woman.

The plot follows many clues and red herrings sending James and (sometimes) Rebecca all over London’s shadier sides and to the East End and finally to the dregs of opium dens and thieves quarters. While certainly an interesting read that did keep me reading, I found the pacing slow. It was a book I could put down and not be in a hurry to pick up again. Not because I wasn’t liking it but just that it didn’t have that certain intensity to it. The ending does increase in pace and there is a typical high energy rush in the final chapters as the mystery is solved, which is all rather cleverly done on the author’s part.

One thing I did find fascinating was the description of the the cut-throat world of American publishing at the time. The underhanded dealings, the nefarious goings on, the blatant disregard for international copyright, and in particular the way in which the Harper Brothers were portrayed. If the beginnings of Harper & Bros. and the characters of the brothers themselves have been portrayed realistically here an historical fiction on their family would be an amazing read.

This book would be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys a good literary mystery but I also think it will satisfy all the people who did not like ‘Drood’ by Dan Simmons very much because of the supernatural elements. Now I loved that other book, but for those of you who didn’t, I think you’ll love ‘The Last Dickens’ more than I did.

I was like a man, shovel in hand, finding himself standing in a freshly dug grave but with no memory of having dug it. I stayed there because at least if you’ve hit bottom you had no farther to fall. - from The Long Fall -

Leonid McGill is a man of contradictions. He has spent much of his life working for criminals as a Private Investigator, immersing himself in the dangerous world of organized crime. But he has a conscience and now wants to live a different life – one where people don’t get killed just because he can locate them. He’s an ex-boxer who appreciates fine art. He’s a no-nonsense, tough guy with a soft spot for his teenage son and a commitment to a marriage that doesn’t work. Sardonic, oddly sensitive, and matter-of-fact, it is Leonid McGill who narrates Walter Mosley’s newest novel The Long Fall.

It becomes clear from the early pages of The Long Fall that McGill has his hands full with his marriage, his errant kids, and a new job which ends up being a little different than he expected.

I still had a family that looked to me for their sustenance. My wife didn’t love me and the two out of three grown and nearly grown children were not of my blood. But none of that mattered. I had a a job to do, and more than one debt to pay. – from The Long Fall -

Mosley writes in a direct way, revealing his protagonist as a man who although willing to do what it takes to get the job done, also struggles with the choices in his life and realizes he must eventually face his demons. I did not love Leonid McGill, but he eventually grew on me. There are few characters in the book who resonated with me – McGill’s children are a mess, his landlady (who wants to be his lover) is superficially drawn, his wife is pathetic, the men who McGill “works” with are cold-blooded killers for the most part, and even his friends are not people with whom I would enjoy an evening. Because of this, I struggled a bit with this novel. I admit, I want to love the characters I spend my time with…and most of Mosley’s characters seem to have been scrapped up from the worst dregs of society.

Despite this flaw (for me) in the novel, the plot itself is interesting enough. Written like a hard-boiled type mystery, Mosley lays out a mess of a plot, and then gradually untangles it. The narrative style – conversational, direct, rapid-fire – works for the novel. The book reminds me of those old 1940s movies which start out with a guy, feet up on the desk and a curl of cigarette smoke wafting to the ceiling, talking about one dark and lonely night.

The Long Fall is the first in a planned series of mysteries featuring McGill so readers who want more will get their wish. Mystery readers who like their books hard-boiled and who want a flawed character who eventually redeems himself, will enjoy The Long Fall.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Pages: 291
First Published: Mar. 16, 2009
Genre: gothic, historical fiction
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

It was bitter cold, the air electric with all that had not happened yet.

Reason for Reading: The description of the book intrigued me: the time period, the small town, gothic atmosphere and I always take a second look at “mail order bride” stories from the 19th cent. and this was close enough.
Comments: Ralph Truitt, 54, is a wealthy owner of the manufacturing business that employs most of the population of a small town in Midwestern Wisconsin. A widower of twenty years he places an Ad for “a reliable wife” and after a certain amount of correspondence a ticket is sent and Catherine arrives to become his wife. Both parties have deep dark secrets and alternative reasons for embarking on this marriage of convenience. Mr. Truitt soon comes clean and spills his soul to Catherine, before the wedding, telling the tale of his past and his ultimate purpose for her to perform as his wife. Catherine, on the otherhand, keeps her own past a carefully hidden secret and goes to great lengths not to have her devious intentions become known.

This is a hard review for me to write because as I was reading the book I started off not liking it, then I would be ok with it, then I did not like it and back and forth until the ending chapters which were tense and hard to put down. Whether I liked it or not, the plot kept me reading and at no point after “Part One” did I think of putting the book down.

“Part One” had me thinking I’d made a big mistake with this book and that it was just going to be romantic drivel. I do not read pure romance books and found myself rolling my eyes and hoping something more than two people hating each other, having constant conflict, then secretly falling in love and finally admitting they love each other was going to happen. Fortunately, that was not this book and much more did happen.

The plot is intriguing; it goes places one doesn’t expect. Both Catherine and Ralph are very complex characters though their personalities and actions did not leave me caring much about either of them. I had no concern as to whether either of them had a happy ending though I was intrigued as to what happened to them, if that makes sense. The greatest theme running through the book is that of Ralph who has confessed and is now accepting and living his life as penance for his past life of lust, violence and lack of family commitment. Catherine’s life is similar, though she is at a different stage.

One thing that bothered me was the s*x. There was lots of it. Not graphic, but what I would call descriptive and it really wasn’t that, that bothered me but the constant presence of it. If the main characters were not having s*x, they were thinking about past encounters or fantasizing about present encounters and future encounters. When not doing any of those they would imagine the s*x lives of the people they passed on the street or drive by houses and wonder what s*x took place within those buildings. Not that this was a past time they did together, it was simply something within each of them that they naturally thought about all the time when they were alone. It was really overkill for me.

As I’ve said, even though there are certain parts of the book that I did not like or that annoyed me, the plot is intriguing and meaningful. Characters are not likeable but are compelling. I’m glad to have read it. I would also most likely read another book by the author if the subject matter interested me. He does recommend a photographic book to read in his note at the end which I have put in an ILL request for which he based his atmosphere on in this book: the long, seemingly non-ending Wisconsin winters that seemed to drive people at the end of the nineteenth century to a certain kind of madness.

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister by Nonna Bannister with Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin

Pages: 299
First Published: March 24, 2009
Genre: non-fiction, memoir
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

I have now decided that the time has come when I must share my life story — not only with my loving family, but perhaps with all those who are interested to know about what life was like for many of us on the other side of the world before and during World War II.

Reason for Reading: I am always interested in reading survivors’ memoirs of the Holocaust.
Comments: Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a Russian girl, lived through the Holocaust caught when the Germans invaded her city. She kept diaries from her childhood through the war up until the time she arrived in America in 1950 to start a new life. She never told a soul, not ever her husband or children, what happened to her during those war years. Then one day about 10 years before she died in her eighties she told her husband it was time and she took him up to the attic and showed him all the letters, memorabilia, photos and diaries (which she had written in several languages). She also showed him that she had been spending her time over the years transcribing her diaries into English and was finished as she pulled out stacks of yellow legal sized writing pads for him to read. She wanted her story told to the rest of the family and perhaps published but not until her death. And now that she has passed … here is her story.

Nonna was born and raised Russian Orthodox. She was a believer her entire life and became a Baptist later on in her new American life. She occasionally writes of her religion but no more so than anyone else’s memoir might. However, the book is published by a Christian publisher, Tyndale, and does contain Christian content in the editorial comments.

Nonna goes right back to her childhood years and spends a great portion of the book describing life in Russia during the 1930s. Her father’s main goal in life was to get them out of Russia to a better place but he was never able to obtain permission through any channels he tried. Once the Germans invade her city it doesn’t take long for various reasons that her brother and father are gone leaving her and her mother alone to fend for themselves. They spend their time going from one Nazi prison work camp to another until they end up working in a Catholic hospital because of Nonna’s language skills. This at first seems a God-send but tragedy is not far behind. During this whole time they experience the brutality of the Nazis firsthand but even worse than that, they see with their own eyes the unimaginable horrors inflicted upon the Jewish people. When Nonna finally arrives in America in 1950, as far as she knows, she is the only living survivor of her entire family on both her maternal and paternal sides.

When Nonna transcribed her diaries she didn’t just translate them word for word. Instead she, now being an elderly woman having lived the majority of her life in America, has mostly used the past tense to tell her story though she does occasionally tell a few stories in first person. The story is also in many places obviously being told through the eyes of her present mature self, reflecting upon the past rather than translating her childhood words as they appear on paper. Finally, we can tell that her American self has taken over the little Russian girl as she interjects American slang or American phrases quite frequently into her transcriptions.

The book contains a frequent editorial commentary running through the book. Some of this is used as reference points, historical explanations, background information, cultural explanations, etc and make for interesting reading. One thing that bugged me quite a bit though were the Christian comments. I myself am Christian but these comments felt very patronizing. Whenever Nonna or her mother, Anna, did a kind or brave deed, the comment would tell us how this act showed their Christian character shining through. Well, yes, it does. But I don’t need someone telling me that every time, it felt rather grade school-ish.

Nonna has an interesting, powerful story to tell and it’s a shame she kept it secret from her family. I think she would have found great solace in sharing it with her husband earlier and with her children when they had grown. Thankfully, she choose not to keep her secret forever and to share with the world so that her story would not be forgotten. For that I thank you, Nonna.

In this bright and intelligent book, we follow Edward Meopian from the age of 14 to 45 years old (1968-1999). His mother died when he was young and his father did his best to raise him. They live in Minnesota where his father is an encyclopedia salesman.

Edward’s father decides to enrol Edward in private school which Edward is very unhappy about. There are a bunch or rich snobby kids there and he finds it hard to fit in. One of the rich kids asks him what his father does and he lies and says, my father “is in publishing.” Of course his lie is found out when his father shows up at the school library to deliver new encyclopedias.

Later Edward gets a stepmother and younger stepbrother and then gets accepted into a university in Denver. He is anxious to start this new chapter in his life and to meet girls. He does get his first girlfriend there but it doesn’t last long. He graduates from university and wants to make it as a film director so moves to L.A. Reality hits him hard and he ends up having to work in a camera store to pay his rent.

When he ends up quitting his dead end job and has no money, his father suggests that he move to rural Alabama to set up a convenience store in the trailer park that his father bought. Edward agrees and enlists his friend Sagebrush to go with him. The two could not be more opposite but somehow they work together.

I could go on but I don’t want to give away too much. This is a hilarious and intelligently written book. The funniest part for me was the summer in the trailer park but I loved the whole book. Meeks hits all the right cords. His writing is fresh, intelligent and very witty! Also, being born and raised in Minnesota myself, it was fun to see all the references to cities and landmarks that I recognized.

This is Christopher Meeks first novel but he has written two short story collections that have been highly recommend by Wendy of Caribousmom. I plan to read these and can hardly wait for his next novel. The Brightest Moon of the Century is such a treat and I cannot recommend it high enough!

5/5

Thanks so much to Christopher Meeks and sending me his book and to Wendy of Caribousmom for sending him my way!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Historical Fiction
2009 Amy Einhorn Books
Finished on 3/25/09
Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding)

Product Description

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

About the Author

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. This is her first novel.

I was first drawn to the attractive cover art of this book and it quickly found its way to my stack of ARCs, but it wasn’t until I’d readKay and Tara’s lovely reviews that I decided the time was right to begin reading The Help. I’d been on quite a roll, reading winner after winner, and I trusted both recommendations, feeling confident I was in for another enjoyable book. And what a great book it turned out to be! The characters are fleshed out and memorable, the dialogue is convincingly believable, and I fell in love with Aibileen and Minny, often forgetting that they were characters in a novel.

Stockett is a terrific storyteller and should be very proud of her debut novel. Coming in at just under 450 pages, I almost wish it had been longer; I hated to leave these characters and longed to see what the future held in store for Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter after I turned that final page. I’ve been saying this a lot these past three months, but I simply couldn’t put this book down and often found myself thinking about the characters when I wasn’t reading. They invaded my mind and left a permanent mark on my soul. The setting and time period is one with which I am only vaguely familiar, having spent that portion of my very early childhood in Canada. We did not have maids, nor did we experience the ugly prejudices so rampant in the United States in the early sixties, and thus I cringed as I read passages such as this:

In a rare breeze, my copy of Life magazine flutters. Audrey Hepburn smiles on the cover, no sweat beading on her upper lip. I pick it up and finger the wrinkled pages, flip to the story on the Soviet Space Girl. I already know what’s on the next page. Behind her face is a picture of Carl Roberts, a colored schoolteacher from Pelahatchie, forty miles from here. “In April, Carl Roberts told Washington reporters what it means to be a black man in Mississippi, calling the governor ‘a pathetic man with the morals of a streetwalker.’ Roberts was found cattle-branded and hung from a pecan tree.”

It’s difficult to write about this book without giving too much away. It’s also very difficult — painful, in fact — to write about the terrible attitudes of that time and place. I often found myself full of shame for some of the characters represented in this story, many of whom were ignorant and closed-minded. I will say that I enjoyed all the historical references (Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., the March in Washington, D.C. etc.). I especially appreciated the manner in which Stockett dropped little bits of history into the narrative without it feeling like she was going down a list, checking off each historical tidbit as she incorporated it into her story. For example, Chapter 19 begins with the following:

It was 1963. The Space Age they’re calling it. A man has circled the earth in a rocketship. They’ve invented a pill so married women don’t have to get pregnant. A can of beer opens with a single finger instead of a can opener. Yet my parents’ house is still as hot as it was in 1899, the year Great-grandfather built it.

and

The summer rolls behind us like a hot tar spreader. Ever colored person in Jackson gets in front a whatever tee-vee set they can find, watches Martin Luther King stand in our nation’s capital and tell us he’s got a dream. I’m in the church basement watching. Our own Reverend Johnson went up there to march and I find myself scanning the crowd for his face. I can’t believe so many peoples is there–two-hundred-fifty thousand. And the ringer is, sixty thousand a them iswhite. “Mississippi and the word is two very different places,” the Deacon say and we all nod cause ain’t it the truth.

and

On the news, now Roger Sticker is reporting in front of the Jackson post office with the same stupid grin as the war reporter. “…this modern postal addressing system is called a Z-Z-ZIP code, that’s right, I said Z-Z-ZIP code, that’s five numbers to be written along the bottom of your envelope…”

Funny how you can take things for granted, believing they’ve been around forever and not just 45 years! I’d never not used a ZIP code when addressing a letter and had never stopped to think that there was in fact a time, not all that long ago, in which they didn’t exist.

Suffice it to say, this is a fabulous read. I think it has incredible depth and would be a great book club choice. There’s plenty to discuss and it could easily carry a meeting well into its second hour. And I love what the author says in her final words (Too Little, Too Late):

Like my feelings for Mississippi, my feelings for The Help conflict greatly. Regarding the lines between black and white women, I am afraid I have told too much. I was taught not to talk about such uncomfortable things, that it was tacky, impolite, they might hear us.

I am afraid I have told too little. Not just that life was so much worse for many black women working in the homes in Mississippi, but also that there was so much more love between white families and black domestics than I had the ink or time to portray.

What I am sure about is this: I don’t presume to think that I know what it really felt like to be a black woman in Mississippi, especially in the 1960s. I don’t think it is something any white woman on the other end of a black woman’s paycheck could ever truly understand. But trying to understand is vital to our humanity. In The Help there is one line that I truly prize:

This isn’t simply a great book for fans of historical fiction and book clubs; it’s an important work of literature that should be taught in history classes in high schools across America. Just as we should never forget the Holocaust, we should also never forget the despicable treatment of our fellow citizens.

Kudos, Kathryn! This is a superb story and one I’ll be anxious to recommend to friends and customers alike. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next!

As faithful followers of my blog, you all know my love of both YA and Vampires. So it will come as no surprise that the next book I review is Hunted: A House of Night Novel (Book 5) by PC Cast and Kristin Cast (336 pgs, St. Martin’s Press, 2009). Not only is it a selection for the YA Challenge 2009, but also for the Once Upon a Time III Challenge.

WARNING: There may be spoilers if you haven’t read Book 4!

The dream began with the sound of wings. In retrospect, I realize I should have known that was a bad sign, what with the Raven Mockers begin set loose and all, but in my dream it was just background noise, kinda like a fan or the TV turned on to the QVC.

Immediately taking off where Untamed left us hanging, Zoey and her circle have fled to the tunnels to escape the demon Kalona, that Neferet has released to be her consort. Putting her faith in Stevie Rae and the new red fledglings, Zoey and the gang needed to regroup and decide what they were going to do. The Raven Mockers have started on a quest to massacre the humans; Neferet has turned away from Nyx and joined the Dark Side, increasing her powers along the way; Kalona has a strange hold on all the other residents of the House of Night. Trying to come up with a plan, they realize that one of the red fledglings’ poetry seems to hold clues as to how they can stop Kalona.

But when Zoey’s human ex-boyfriend, Heath shows up to try to help, he brings trouble to the tunnels. And Zoey is almost killed in the process. Weak and seriously injured, the only chance for her survival is to return to the House of Night to heal, among the adult vampyres. Leaving Heath and Erik to stay with Stevie Rae and the red fledglings, the rest of the gang heads right back into the fire of the House of Night.

Hunted, in it’s entirety takes place in only 2 days. The action is fast-paced and immediate. But if I’m going to be honest, I was disappointed with this book. As readable as it is, it is not nearly as good (or well-written) as the previous book, Untamed. Why was I disappointed? Zoey never seems to learn her lesson. As a High Priestess in training, she should be more focused on the tasks at hand. But she keeps falling back into the same trap with the men in her life. She can’t break with ANY of them, and now she has even added a new one to her entourage!!

More unanswered questions leave us hanging at the end: Most importantly….what is really up with the red fledglings?? Can they truly be trusted?? Which, of course, is a nice way of getting us prepared for the NEXT book. I really need to quit reading series books that have no endings because now I have no closure!

But my main disappointment with this book is the editing!! I’ve read a lot of ARC’s that are considered uncorrected proofs. And that’s fine. But for me to go out and BUY a new NOVEL to find blatant errors really bothers me. There are at least three major typos (including a name switch : Damian’s name in place of Darius) that really irked me. It made the whole book seem like it was rushed to the shelf. There seems to be an inconsistency between the books in the series - an up and down in quality to them. Note to anyone at St. Martin’s Press: If you need a new copy editor, I AM available!

All of that said, I still enjoyed the book. I still need to finish the series because I MUST know how it all ends! If you have read the rest of the series, you should definitely read this one. Just don’t expect a lot of answers and don’t expect to be ‘wowed’ like before! 3.75/5

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Contemporary Fiction
2009 Atria Books
Finished on 2/16/09
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)
ARC - Due out on March 3, 2009

Synopsis (from author’s website):

When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend.

Handle With Care explores the knotty tangle of medical ethics and personal morality. When faced with the reality of a fetus who will be disabled, at which point should an OB counsel termination? Should a parent have the right to make that choice? How disabled is TOO disabled? And as a parent, how far would you go to take care of someone you love? Would you alienate the rest of your family? Would you be willing to lie to your friends, to your spouse, to a court? And perhaps most difficult of all – would you admit to yourself that you might not actually be lying?

Jodi Picoult fans are in for a treat. This Tuesday, Handle With Carewill be available for purchase and I know it will be yet another winner for so many readers. I also know it will be an easy book to recommend to friends and customers (and even my father, with whom I spoke the other night; he mentioned that he was reading—and enjoying—Picoult’s previous release, Change of Heart!).

Handle With Care is classic Picoult. The conflict around which the plot revolves is revealed through multiple points of view, with each chapter divided among five main characters, giving voice to their perspectives on an emotionally charged situation. I can’t recall the last time I so enjoyed a book in which one of the main characters was so unlikeable. I even considered tossing the book aside for something more uplifting, but after reading a few more pages I was hooked. I tried to put myself in Charlotte’s position, wondering what I would do in her situation, but never once found myself in agreement with her decision to go forward with the lawsuit. I can’t begin to imagine the life of a parent of a child afflicted with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Every day, every hour, every single moment poses a potentially dangerous situation. The constant worry about each new break, the emotional drain and exhaustion, not to mention the incredible financial burden imposed on a family (even one with insurance coverage), must test even the strongest of parents. From beginning to end, I was angry about the choices Charlotte made, unable to understand what still I believe was a selfish act of greed and betrayal. I was much more sympathetic toward Sean and Willow’s older sister, Amelia, oftentimes wanting to reach through the pages and shake some sense into Charlotte.

In classic Picoult style, the novel raises an ethical question—that of wrongful birth:

A wrongful birth lawsuit implies that, if the mother had known during her pregnancy that her child was going to be significantly impaired, she would have chosen to abort the fetus. It places the onus of responsibility for the child’s subsequent disability on the ob-gyn. From a plaintiff’s standpoint, it’s a medical malpractice suit. For the defense, it becomes a morality question: who has the right to decide what kind of life is too limited to be worth living?

Many states had banned wrongful birth suits. New Hampshire wasn’t one of them. There had been several settlements for the parents of children who’d been born with spina bifida or cystic fibrosis or, in one case, a boy who was profoundly retarded and wheelchair-bound due to a genetic abnormality—even though the illness had never been diagnosed before, much less noticed in utero. In New Hampshire, parents were responsible for the care of disabled children their whole lives–not just till age eighteen—which was as good a reason as any to seek damages.

and

If you chose to stop a loved one’s suffering—either before it began or during the process—was that murder, or mercy?

I enjoy reading books in which the characters are represented in alternating chapters. My only quibble this time, however, is that the characters sounded like they were talking to Willow, not in dialogue, but as if the story itself were being retold to her at a later date. I generally don’t care for a character speaking directly to the reader and that’s what this felt like. It became a distraction early on and it wasn’t until the closing chapters, when I was so intent on the final outcome of the courtroom drama, that I was able to ignore this minor annoyance.

Handle With Care is a powerful book, one that will remain with me for a long, long while. I highly recommend it!

For more information about osteogenesis imperfecta, go here.

Visit Picoult’s website to watch a trailer for the novel, read an excerpt, or listen to a podcast about the story behind Handle With Care.

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Pages: 194
First Published: Mar. 24, 2009
Genre: YA, realistic fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Most people like to talk in their own language.

Reason for Reading: I don’t usually read this type of teen fiction but since the theme was autism I was interested. I myself have Asperger’s and my 9yo is on the Autistic Spectrum.

Comments: Jason Blake is 12 years old and is on the Autistic Spectrum, commonly referred to as ASD. He was diagnosed when he was 8 and has many typical symptoms of autism: swaying, flapping, zoning out, meltdowns, social dysfunctions plus he also shows signs of Aspergers: having conversations running continuously in his head, rambling from one topic to another, obsessions and an above average intelligence in creative writing. He finds a “friend” on an online creative writing forum for teens and they start pm-ing each other when he realizes both that they are speaking to each other the way that friends would and that she is a girl. He begins to think of her as a girlfriend. Then one day his parents surprise him with the news that one of them will be taking him to the website’s yearly convention and just as he is about to tell his girlfriend, she tells him she is going because it is happening where she lives. This puts an end to Jason’s excitement. What will she think when she meets him?

This is a story of self-acceptance. Jason seems to be pretty much self-accepted of himself throughout the book but he perceives the worst opinion of others upon himself all the time. This is the lesson he re-learns to accept about himself. It is also a story of the mother’s final acceptance that Jason is not a burden to be shouldered but an example of strength and love that she should try to live up to.

While one could say Jason’s autistic symptoms are overexagerated, that would not be fair, as no two autistic people have exactly the same symptoms and a case such as Jason’s may very well exist. The author has the inside feelings of an autistic person down to a “T”. She has either researched very well or lived with someone on the spectrum herself. While I have not experienced the extremes that her character has neither myself nor with my son, there were parts that hit terribly hard. The point when Jason hears that his friend will be at the convention also. I felt the same thing he did before reading the words that came next. That exact same feeling has happened to me so many times in my life I cannot count.

I definitely recommend this book though not for the publisher’s recommended ages. I’m not sure what ten year olds would get out of the book besides just reading about someone different. It would be a great read for teens on the Autism Spectrum so they can relate to what the main character has gone through and for other teens interested in the subject matter. I also recommend the book to adults with any interest in the field of autism as I can personally vouch for the validity of the feelings and inner turmoil portrayed by one with ASD. A rather bittersweet ending but then such is life. Recommended.

Carrie Ryan
320 pages

I’m not usually a fan of zombies but I have seen this one pop up on a few of the blogs that I read frequently. The zombies weren’t what reeled me in initially. It was the fact that this is dystopian fiction.

I often wonder why I enjoy dystopian fiction so much. I think it has to do with the fact that it makes this world look a lot less crazy to me once I have wrapped up a novel such as The Hunger Games or The Forest of Hands and Teeth where their world is just a nightmare. Makes my world tame by comparison.

Even though this story doesn’t unfold quickly, I was drawn in from the beginning. Mary’s world is dark and scary because of the zombies but for some reason The Sisterhood and the life in the village are what really captured my interest. It kept me hooked until it started to be more about what Mary wanted and less about the society. Then I started to have a hard time relating. I was really rooting for Mary to follow her dreams…until she stopped caring about what it cost the people around her. Then Mary went from losing my interest to getting on my nerves.

Even though I was having a hard time, I wanted to finish the story for several reasons. I wanted to find out how it was resolved(It wasn’t. At least not the way I was hoping it would be.) I think the author is a talented writer and I enjoyed her writing very much. I just didn’t like the direction Mary’s character took. However, that’s a personal preference sort of thing and I would definitely try something else by Carrie Ryan.

If you like zombies and dystopia….you should give The Forest of Hands and Teeth a shot. (2.5/5)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Pages: 310
First Published: Mar. 10, 2009
Genre: YA, post apocalyptic fiction, horror
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

My mother used to tell me about the ocean.

Comments: Mary’s world is very small and quite simple. Her village is large enough to roam around in and grow crops but it is completely enclosed by heavy-duty wire fencing. Her world is run by the Sisterhood who guide their laws and lives through religion and the Guardians who take orders from the Sisterhood and guard the village with force. Day to day life is quaint and simple but on the other side of the fencing are the Unconsecrated and one bite from them will turn you into one yourself, so you must never get too close to the fence ….

This was a fabulous book! Initially it reminds me of the society portrayed in the movie The Village, while not exactly the same their are many parallels. Mary is a wonderful character. She has a mother who has told her stories, carried down through the generations of women in her family, of the world before and Mary especially dreams of the mysterious place called the ocean. The stories have given Mary something to hold onto and a passion not to accept her world as it is. She is a powerful, strong character. Another thing I especially like is that once we find out the reason for the apocalypse at the end of the book I found the reason so plausible that it really was scary, unlike so many books of today which use the controversial “global warming” theme that I must take with a grain of salt. The book is very well-written, the plot tense and the individual outcomes along the way not always happy. In fact, there are many quite shockingly intense scenes. The zombies are fantastic, I mean who doesn’t love a great zombie book!

There are intense relationships: mother/daughter, husband/wife, friends, and blossoming new found love all in a world in which one may die at any moment. The author has shown the deepness of these relationships with a deft sweep of her pen. The one thing that bothered me about the book was that near the beginning Mary blatantly (and for no reason) states, out of the blue, that she does not believe in God. Then later on in the book she tells us the moment she stopped believing in God. This felt as if it was important and yet the subject was never voiced again. No other character’s belief or non-belief was mentioned and other than making me feel sorry for Mary, it made me wonder why the author stopped short of making her point. However….

Highly recommended! I’ve never given two books a tie as favourite book of the month but this time I just can’t not say this was my favourite although I’ve already said so of another book. I hate to compare to the Twilight books as this book is in a league so much higher than those but I think teachers/librarians should use the comparison to promote this book as it will appeal to the same teen audience, as well as the boys. One could call this a horror book, and it is, but it goes so much deeper into relationships between people, that anyone who can stand the gore that comes with zombies is going to be itching for next year’s (2010) parallel novel. Read this book!

Nicola

Hand of Isis by Jo Graham

Pages: 508
First Published: Mar. 23, 2009
Genre: historical fantasy
Rating: 2.5/5

First sentence:

In twilight I approached the doors, and in twilight they stood open for me.

Comments: This is the story of Cleopatra told through the eyes of her sisterly handmaiden. Born just months apart, it is the story of three sisters, all of whom have the same Pharaoh as a father. One of them, had the first Queen as her mother while the other two were born from the Pharaoh’s harem. The two sisters of the harem are given to Cleopatra as handmaidens when they are five years old to be playmates for her and to attend studies with the princess who is a forgotten third daughter of the dead first Queen. The girls spend their childhood banished to a Temple Island and when they come back Cleopatra is the new Pharaoh. The book continues through the period of Julius Caesar, then Mark Anthony and finally the fateful death of Cleopatra and her two handmaidens by snakebite.

The book is told through the eyes of the youngest sister, Charmian, as she describes her life in relation to Cleopatra’s. The first part of the book when the sister’s are children growing up on the island together was good reading and a great start to the book. One got to know each of the three girls quite well, though of course Charmian’s character stood out the most. As the girl’s became adults and moved back to Alexandria, Charmain’s secondhand view of Cleopatra really filtered down her character and the third sister all but disappeared from the main plot making the story revolve around Charmain. This is unfortunate because at this time Charmain’s life becomes graphically s*xual and from this point on there are many elements of the book that didn’t appeal to me at all.

Jo Graham’s first book Black Ships was stellar (you can read my review here) and I was disappointed not to have enjoyed this one very much. The fantasy element of the book, while not being much in the way of fantasy was quite intriguing. The book starts with Charmain being dead as she enters the Egyptian Underworld to have her heart weighed on the scales against a feather. Here she meets Thoth and Isis and other Egyptians gods. Essentially the book is her telling her life story to the gods to see whether the goodness in her heart outweighs the evil. Every so often during the novel we would switch back to these interludes of Charmian in the Underworld.

Unfortunately, the graphic s*xual nature of the book and the elements therein were too much for my own conservative nature and I can not recommend the book. However others have enjoyed the book and you can find some positive reviews at these blogs:

Fyrefly’s Book Blog
Holley’s House
Tanzanite’s Shelf and Stuff

Near mid-century when Edward was born, the full moon was years from being the brightest. That would happen - in terms of luminosity and size - in the last month of the century. [Opening of The Brightest Moon of the Century]

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Pages: 344
First Published: Mar. 10, 2009
Genre: fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

“Well,” the bookstore manager said, “it is Valentine’s Day.”

Comments: Cassandra Fallows, author of two memoirs and one novel, travels back to her Baltimore neighbourhood to research her new book. Her first memoir centred around the lives of her middle class white family and that of her three best friends who are black and of mixed financial backgrounds. There was a fifth black girl on the outskirts of her group of friends whom Cassie never really paid any attention to but it has just now been revealed to her that this girl was questioned in the death of her infant son and then spent seven years in jail for contempt for pleading the fifth and has never uttered one word about her missing, presumed murdered son. This is what Cassie wants to base her new book on and as she travels home she finds that no one from the past wants to talk about that incident. It seems she has come to uncover a secret so big that many people have been silenced for what very little they do know and no one wants to open those doors again. But while unraveling other families secrets Cassie finds herself face to face with a secret from her very own family’s past which she has not known of and must face before she can face anyone else’s secrets.

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve read one other Lippman book and it was not a stand-alone as this one is. I had expected this to be a mystery but, in fact, I would not classify it as such, nor would I call it a thriller, crime or even a suspense. It is much more akin to what I think of as Southern Fiction (with the eccentric characters and the race relations) but being set in Baltimore takes that option away. What we have here is really non-genre fiction. A story of people, a select group of people, and how a secret affected their lives.

Lippman is wonderful at characterization. There is a big company of players in this book and the main characters are fleshed out, fully realized with full backgrounds and flawed human beings. The secondary characters are less developed but they certainly consist of an eccentric cast. While the plot mainly focuses on Cassandra and her life and relationship with her parents and friends from the past, often including passages from her published book of memoirs, the tracking down of the girl who grew up to possibly kill her own son forms a cohesive plot that pulls the whole together and gives an enjoyable mystery to solve with a satisfying ending, for this reader. But other readers looking for a traditional mystery may not find the ending quite so satisfying. Not having read many Lippman books I can’t say whether this book is typical or not of her stand-alones but if you are looking for a traditional mystery/thriller/crime book this is not the book you are looking for. However, if you are looking for a compelling read with an intriguing plot that includes a secret to unravel then by all means you’ll have found your book with Life Sentences.

P.S. I can’t help but mention that I just love the cover of my edition!

The Glister by John Burnside

Pages: 228
First Published: March 10, 2009
Genre: horror, thriller
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

In the beginning, John Morrison is working in his garden.

Comments: Innertown, located somewhere on the coast of Britain, has been more like a ghost town since the chemical plant closed down years ago. Since them most people who worked there have either died or are very sick with undetermined illnesses. The plant and the surrounding acres have been shut down and closed off, left to the elements and time. Of course kids being kids, there are some who still like to hang out and wander around the old plant. This is the setting for a sudden disappearance of a local boy, there one minute, gone the next. Now over the years, every so often a boy will disappear, one this year, then one two years later, then one the next year and so on. The local police find no traces, the boys are just old enough, and family circumstances just bad enough for them to say this is a dead end town for these kids, they’ve had enough, they’ve packed up and gone off to face the world on their own. Some believe that line, others don’t.

Each chapter of the book is narrated by a different voice and thus the story is told from many points of view. Some characters only share their view occasionally while others, such as the main character, a local boy called Leonard, come to the front more often. From reading the blurbs and book summary I had presumed this would be a horror story but it is no ordinary horror book, instead I found it much more like what I would call a crime thriller. I found it very engrossing and read the book within a 24 hour period always coming back to it after having had to put it down for some reason or other. A page turner with wonderful characterization especially considering the short number of pages. I was really caught up in the story and found some of the scenes as the case started to unravel quite unnerving. My problem is with the ending, well with the last page exactly. As I was reading along and the case had been solved to the reader’s satisfaction, I came to the last page and came upon a scene which made me exclaim a great big “HUH???” I have no idea why it ended the way it did or what it’s supposed to mean. Remove that last page and I would have enjoyed the book for a higher rating but the ending left me so confuddled, I’m at a loss to say how I feel about the rest of the book now. Read the book and you’ll enjoy a good thriller but do yourself a favour and skip the last page or maybe come back to it and read it a week later.

Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli

Pages: 280
First Published: Mar. 10, 2009
Genre: YA, historical fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

The night is so dark, I can barely see my hands.

Comments: This is a coming of age story of one Italian immigrant boy, Calogero, of uncertain age until the end of the book where we can figure he is about fourteen years old. It is the story of his life with his uncles and cousin, as the only Italian family in a small Louisiana town in 1899. They grow vegetables and are grocers and doing a might fine job at the business. He becomes friends with a small group of black boys and falls in love with one of their sisters, Patricia. The book is filled with their adventures, alligator hunting in the swamp, sneaking a kiss at a church picnic and a meeting with a very old Indian way out in the swamps.

But this story is also set against a very disturbing time in American history. One in which I knew nothing about. The discrimination against Italian immigrants in the south. This was the time of Jim Crow laws which were set up to make sure that the whites had superiority over the blacks but also left certain immigrant groups in a no man’s land. The Italians in the south were not considered white and were not welcome where white society was. They were also given a tough time because economically they were taking business away from the white company stores. On the other hand, Italians were neither considered to be black and an Italian was sure to get himself beat up at the least or lynched at the most for fraternizing with the blacks; the whites certainly didn’t want the Italians giving the blacks any high and mighty ideas. The Italians were also denied an education at this time as they were not allowed in the white schools and the blacks had their schools in their churches, Protestant, and the Italians were Catholic and therefore chose to go without for the time being. It was within this climate that our main character, Calogero, finds himself.

Based on a true story of which little but the barest of facts are known, Ms. Napoli has brought to life a terribly tragic story and a pocket of time back to the future so that we may not forget the hardships and the abuses that went on not so long ago. A beautifully written story with searing truthfulness. The characters are wonderful and the end is too sad to comprehend. This is a quick little read but it’s packed with a lot of punch.