Bklyn Reads!

The Marriage Plot

2011-12-10T08:58:00.009-05:00

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
adult literature

I marvel at the construction of this novel. To be so knowledgeable about theology, deconstruction, semiotics and manic depression is one thing, but to be able to seamlessly incorporate such knowledge into a work of fiction complete with believable dialogue is quite a feat. Did I like this as much as Middlesex, Eugenides' Pulitzer Prize winning epic novel? No, I didn't. But I did like it and I chugged along, curious to find out what happened to these characters who were such a product of their time and the education they received at Brown University.

The story centers around three main characters, Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell. The novel is written in the third person, but changes its focus from character to character in alternating chapters. It begins on graduation day at Brown in the early 1980s with Madeleine. It then meanders back through the college experience for all of the characters and eventually progresses, moving forward with the lives of the three characters the year after graduation. It is Madeleine's senior thesis which gives the novel its title. She writes about the idea of the marriage plot as framework for the Victorian novel. Leonard is a gifted student who suffers from manic depression and Mitchell, whose interest lies in theology, has been smitten with Madeleine since the day he met her. Sounds like a marriage plot waiting to happen. Indeed it is, but maybe not as the Victorians would have written it, however, immensely satisfying at the end nonetheless.

Paper Towns

2011-12-10T08:58:00.007-05:00

Paper Towns by John Green
young adult literature

Quentin Jacobsen lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman in hot, steamy Florida. He is a well-adjusted smart kid, while Margo runs more with the wild crowd. Quentin takes a big risk one night when Margo appears at his window in the middle of the night and they go on a mad escapade to right wrongs, like getting revenge on Margo's ex-boyfriend for cheating on her. Quentin is hopeful that this is the rekindling of his friendship with Margo. But when morning comes, it turns out she has run away again--just weeks before graduation. Quentin is determined to find her, following the clues he is convinced she left behind.

I love the dialogue and cleverness of this coming-of-age, mystery novel. Quentin is a great character--but at times one does question why he would spend so much time looking for Margo who is not a particularly likable character. But I guess in some ways, that's the point. Quentin, during the course of searching for Margo, comes to learn who she really is, not who he thinks she is. Recommended.

Wired

2011-11-05T07:56:00.004-04:00

Wired by Robin Wasserman
Young Adult science fiction

This is the third in the series.

Lia has decided to listen to her father and return home. She is working for BioMax as their poster girl, trying to repair the image the orgs have of the mechs. In that capacity, she is starring in a two week vidlife--kind of like a reality show where you are filmed 24/7 and the viewers get to decide the action. It is Lia's job to convince the orgs that mechs are just like them.

Lia pretty much has nothing to do with her old mech friends, except for Riley. She and Riley are still a couple, but things aren't going so great because Lia hasn't been exactly honest about what happened at the close of Crashed, when Riley stopped Jude from committing a devastating act of destruction. Riley knows nothing about his actions and when Jude comes back into their lives and he learns the truth--he doesn't take it well.

The Brotherhood has never had the best interests of the mechs in mind, but it turns out that neither does BioMax. When the mechs discover a deadly plot to destroy them, it is is up to them to figure out a way to stop it.

There are a few holes in the plot, and an awful lot of characters turn out to be not what they seemed to be at first, but I have to say I really loved this series. It begs the question, what makes us human? Is it our consciousness and our minds? Our bodies? Is a copy just as good as the original? It is fun to explore these ideas over three books with interesting characters and an exciting plot-line.

Beautiful Creatures

2011-11-05T07:55:00.007-04:00

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Young adult literature

Ethan Wate, who lives in a small Southern town he can't wait to leave, has been having the same odd dream every night. He wakes up from this dream desperately trying to hang onto the wrist of a girl, sometimes with dirt under his fingernails or even sopping wet from a rain storm. Weird. It gets even weirder when Lena Duchannes comes to town and it turns out she is the girl from his dreams. She is an outsider and outsiders don't do well in Gatlin, a town filled with small-minded inhabitants who are obsessed with the status quo and Civil War reenactments. Ethan and Lena are inseparable and soon Ethan's life becomes intertwined with Lena's--so much so that he learns that she and her family are Casters who posses supernatural powers. Some in her family are Light--using their powers for good while others are Dark. Family members are Claimed on their 16th birthday and have no say in the matter due to an old curse. Ethan is determined to find a way to save Lena.

A pretty fun read!

Hidden

2011-10-12T20:50:00.003-04:00

Hidden by Helen Frost
Children's Literature

Wren is eight years old and waiting in the car while her mother runs in to a convenience shop. Wren hears a gun shot and then a strange man runs out of the shop, gets in her car and drives away--with her still in the car. Wren is terrified. What happened to her mom? She stays hidden in the back of the car and eventually finds herself trapped in her kidnapper's garage. It turns out that he, too, has an eight-year-old daughter.

Fast forward many years when the girls find themselves at the same summer camp. Talk about awkward. But maybe the time has come to heal old wounds and figure out what happened all those years ago.

This is an enjoyable, quick read--written in verse. At times, the verse left me wanting a little more.

Slaughterhouse-Five

2011-10-11T07:09:00.004-04:00

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Adult fiction

I have finally read something by Kurt Vonnegut. I made it to adulthood, through college and various graduate schools, plus 14 years of being a librarian without ever having read any Vonnegut. I once weeded a few of the myriad copies we had of Vonnegut classics in the library and he promptly died a few days later. I have been wary of approaching his work ever since.

Slaughterhouse-Five seemed like a good place to start since it is about the bombing of Dresden (of definite interest) and one of his most read novels. I liked it--but it isn't what I expected.

Vonnegut inserts himself as narrator at various times, explaining how difficult it is to write a book about the war, or making sure, we as readers, knew he was there as a soldier too. The main character, however, is Chaplain's Assistant Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier, who becomes a prisoner-of-war and survives the bombing of Dresden. Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time which makes for interesting reading. As readers, we travel with Billy as he is abducted by the alien Tralfamadorians and is held captive as a zoo specimen on their planet. They have a distinct view of time and explain it to Billy--the past, present and future already are and always will be. Hence Billy is able to travel around and visit different times during his life. We learn about his time in Dresden, his marriage, his death, his childhood, his friendship with science fiction author Kilgore Trout, among other events.

Often characterized as absurdest and funny, I would agree with the absurdest part, but funny--no.

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

2011-10-02T08:14:00.004-04:00

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
by Candace Fleming
Children's Nonfiction

Beginning with Earhart's disappearance over the Pacific Ocean during her equatorial trip around the world in 1937, Fleming tells the story of Earhart's fateful last trip and the rescue efforts, along with alternating chapters depicting the chronological story of Earhart's life.

I didn't know much about Amelia Earhart before I read this biography, except that she was a female pilot who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. Fleming has written a very informative biography of Earhart-- an attractive, spunky girl with a yen to fly who happened to be at the right place at the right time. Her fame was largely due to her husband's efforts to capitalize on her exploits. Earhart was a willing co-conspirator, doing many lecture circuits and gamely taking every publicity offer available. It was, after all, how she funded her desire to fly.

A well-researched, entertaining read. Yes, this uncovers the more human and pedestrian aspects of Amelia Earhart's life, but the legend of Earhart as aviatrix extraordinaire remains intact.

Okay For Now

2011-09-30T08:48:00.005-04:00

Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Children's Literature

What a brilliant book. Perfection in a children's book. This is a companion novel to The Wednesday Wars--which was also brilliant.

Doug Swieteck, a character in The Wednesday Wars, has moved to Marysville, New York because his dad got a job. Doug is the youngest of three boys. Their father is horrible and abusive and his long-suffering mother has a smile that makes you want to melt. On one of his first days in the new town, Doug happens upon the library. On the second floor he finds a big book of Audubon's bird drawings in a glass display case. Every Saturday from then on out he goes to the library and Mr. Powell, the librarian, gives him drawing lessons. It is his growing love of Audubon's birds and his emerging drawing skills which frame the novel and give it structure. Things are not easy for Doug-- Christopher, his next older brother is pretty mean and well on his way to becoming a thug like their dad, because that's what everyone seems to expect of him. Lucas comes home from Vietnam without any legs, but with plenty of despair. And then, of course, there is his dad. But Doug is not a quitter and with the help of some pretty great adults, he triumphs.

A beautiful book. It is, however, the kind of book that might appeal more to adult readers of children's literature than to children. Well--some children will love it.

Cosmic

2011-09-24T12:54:00.005-04:00

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Children's Literature

It is hard being so tall. Not only tall, but tall with facial hair--that's right, a beard. Liam discovers that it is not so hard to pretend to be an adult if you already look like one. It is, however, a bit problematic when you are sitting behind a Ferrari, supposedly going for a test drive, when you can't even drive. Being tall gets Liam into trouble--a lot of trouble.

Probably the most trouble Liam gets into in Cosmic, is when he finds himself on a rocket ship lost in space. He has entered the Greatest Dad Ever contest and won. Now he is the DAD on a crazy journey, escorting 4 kids on a space mission that has gone awry. He could sure use his own dad now! Funnily enough, he uses his video gaming skills perfected playing World of Warcraft to help him navigate many of the difficult situations he finds himself in.

This is a lovely and charming story which reminded me vaguely at times of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Specifically, a contest is advertised and four kids and their dads win. The person running the contest is a bit loony and the kids and their dads are a bit all maladjusted. That, however, is where the similarities end.

A delightful read and a bit of a homage to dads everywhere.

I Think I Love You

2011-08-28T11:38:00.004-04:00

I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
Adult Fiction

The first half of this novel mostly takes place in the 1970s in Wales. It features Petra, a cello-playing 13-year-old girl who is obsessed with David Cassidy. She and her friend Sharon spend hours pouring over a fan magazine about David Cassidy, fantasize about becoming Mrs David Cassidy and smooch with the posters of their idol that Sharon has on her wall. In addition, there is the usual angst and social awkwardness that accompanies growing up. The fan magazine that the girls read is actually written, for the most part, by William Finn, a young English major graduate, desperate for a job, any job--the magazine has little, if any, actual relationship with the actual David Cassidy.

Jump ahead 25 years and Petra is cleaning out her mother's closet after her death. She finds a letter addressed to herself from the 1970s. It turns out that Petra had won a chance to meet with David Cassidy all those years ago, but her mother had hid the letter from her. Not thinking clearly, after all, her husband just left her and her mother just died, she phones the now defunct fan magazine and demands to meet with David Casssidy. Dreams, in fact, do come true--but not always in the manner in which one originally dreamed them.

At first, I didn't really care for this title. As a child I liked certain celebrities, but I never never ever had an obsession like Petra's. I found it very difficult to relate to her obsession, and quite frankly, I really just didn't care. I found the book thoroughly enjoyable, however, when we picked up Petra's life as an adult. Throughout the book, Petra was a likable character, but as an adult I found her interesting.

Half the Sky

2011-08-26T22:07:00.017-04:00

Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Adult Nonfiction

This is the kind of book that makes you stop every few sentences and turn to the nearest person and say, "Did you know that...?"

An incredibly informative and easy-to-read book about three broad areas integral to women's well-being. These topics include sex trafficking, women's health and women's education--discussed on a global scale.

Kristof and WuDunn take every opportunity to tell personal stories, an effective strategy which serves to sustain interest in the topic being discussed and also to elicit a reaction in the reader. Kristof and WuDunn select personal stories which are primarily stories of women changing their situations, either independently or with help, and thus empowering others around them. The reader in turn is inspired and hopefully called to action.

A powerful read--I highly recommend this title. It is simultaneously a written record of women overcoming incredible obstacles to effect lasting change and also a global wake-up call--we have so far to go.

One thing that I really appreciate is that Kristof and WuDunn don't shy away from difficult topics. They write about various foreign aid disasters and discuss why certain programs are successful and others aren't. They have a chapter titled, "Is Islam Misogynistic?" This is certainly a thorny topic that many would shy away from. But in the hands of Kristof and WuDunn, it is discussed openly and thoughtfully. Additionally, the title of their book "Half the Sky" is taken from quote by Mao. He stated, "Women hold up half the sky." Indeed they do, but it is certainly an interesting choice to use a quote from Mao, a controversial historical figure to say the least, as a title for a best-selling book. Again, with Kristof and WuDunn's trademark tact and honesty, they discuss the brutality of the Cultural Revolution in China, without throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I will leave you with a few, "Did you know that...?"

*Did you know that approximately 600,00 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international boarders each year--with 80 % of them being women or girls for sexual exploitation? (This doesn't include millions of other sexual victims who are exploited within their own country's borders.) During the peak of the transatlantic slave trade (1780s) the yearly average was just under 80,000. (p.10)

*Did you know that 536,000 women perished in childbirth in 2005? Ireland is the safest place in the world to give birth--the MMR (maternal mortality rate) is 1 per 100,000 live births. In the United States the MMR is 11. Sierra Leone has the highest MMR in the world--2,100." (p.98)

*Did you know that 1/3 of the reported rapes in South Africa are girls, under the age of 15, by their teachers? (p.182)

While this book could be interpreted as a really depressing account of how far we have to go to improve the lives of women and girls throughout the world, it also manages to be positive and hopeful. Good work is being done by good people.

Norwegian Wood

2011-08-26T22:07:00.006-04:00

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Adult Fiction

An odd but readable novel taking place in Japan in the late 60's. Toro Watanabe is at university, living a solitary and lonely life. He is a private, self-sufficient kind of guy. His desire for privacy is partly his personality, and it is also partly due to the fact that his best friend committed suicide when they were both in high school without any warning or indication that something was wrong. Needless to say--this has a profound effect on Toro--on his self of self-esteem, motivation, goals in life and most importantly on his ability to connect to the people around him. Toro, who is ultimately quite a sane individual, seems to attract individuals who are emotionally damaged. This is Toro's bumpy coming-of-age.

Born Round

2011-08-26T22:04:00.004-04:00

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater by Frank Bruni
Adult memoir

A lot of my friends have read this book and really loved it. They are all foodies, however. I love memoirs and I eat food (but am by NO means a foodie), but I thought I'd give it a go.

This is Frank's memoir told through the lens of food and body image. Food was always an important part of Frank's Italian heritage and he was always a voracious eater--the combination proved to be less than ideal for his body. He has struggled his entire life with his self-esteem and body image. This is the story of that struggle, from chubby, to fit, to fat and ultimately to healthy. Frank writes with humor, modesty and honesty about his crazy diets, his stint with bulimia, his binge eating, his exercise routines--all the while giving us marvelous descriptions of the meals consumed as well as the steady and impressive trajectory of his writing career. By the time he becomes a restaurant critic at the New York Times, Frank is ready to put his love of food, his determination to remain fit and healthy, as well as his superior writing skills all together in one bag. A lovely memoir.

School's Out Forever

2011-08-26T22:03:00.005-04:00

School's Out Forever by James Patterson
Maximum Ride Series, Book 2
Young Adult science fiction

Max and her flock are on the run again. The erasures are after them and seem to be able to pinpoint their location with alarming accuracy. In one battle, Fang gets injured and the flock are forced to bring him to a hospital to tend to his injuries. It is a dangerous move, but necessary. At the hospital, they are convinced to go home and recuperate at the home of FBI agent Anne. The flock welcomes the opportunity to relax, eat well and basically act like a normal family for while. But as usual, Max is wary--who can she trust? Anyone? Apparently not.

An exciting and for the most part successful sequel. But a talking dog? Come on. Although, one does grow quite fond of him throughout the course of the book.

You must read the first in the series, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, before reading this title.

The Scorch Trials

2011-08-06T09:14:00.005-04:00

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
young adult science fiction

This is the second in the series, and it is better than the first. The Maze Runner was good, but The Scorch Trials is a really gripping, action-packed thriller. Thomas and his fellow Gladers wake up after being rescued from their horrible trials and tribulations in the maze. They have survived the tests designed by WICKED. No one really know who or what WICKED is yet, or even if they are ultimately good or bad. Expecting to be safe and secure, Thomas is totally surprised when it turns out WICKED has more in store for him and his friends. Once again Thomas and the other boys are fighting for their lives--only this time they don't have Teresa with them. In fact, in their race to complete their latest challenge and reach the base of the mountain in two weeks time, not only do they have to face scorching heat, crazy lightning storms and deranged cranks, it turns out Thomas also has a group of girls who want to kill him.

Exciting!

Those That Wake

2011-08-06T09:13:00.006-04:00

Those That Wake by Jesse Karp
Young adult literature

I really wanted to like this book--at first glance it has such a good plot. Mal and Laura, two teenagers who live in disparate worlds (Mal in foster care and Laura with loving parents), both wake up one day and things start going wrong. On top of the little things, like mirrors cracking and a favorite cup breaking, Mal finds out his brother has disappeared and Laura finds out her parents have completely forgotten her. Mal and Laura would never have met under normal circumstances--their lives are too different--but these are not normal circumstances. Add a few more characters whose lives have gone off track and you have what should be a suspenseful fantasy--everyone trying to figure out what has happened and who or what is behind the mysterious forces causing havoc with the once predictable world.

Unfortunately what happens is that this perfectly great plot gets bogged down with a didactic exploration into the ramifications of technology gone awry, consumer society and corporate greed out-of-control and the fear and helplessness that overcomes a society comprised of individuals incapable of thinking or doing for themselves.

Crashed

2011-08-06T09:12:00.003-04:00

Crashed by Robin Wasserman
Young adult fantasy

This is the second in the "Skinned" series by Wasserman. While I liked Skinned, the first in the series, this was so much better! Start with Skinned, otherwise you will most likely be confused.

Spoiler alert: If you haven't read Skinned, don't read below!

In Skinned, we met Lia Kahn who is a mech, otherwise known as a skinner. She was in a terrible accident and her brain was downloaded into a computerized body. Needless to say, the adjustment from normal, poular teenager to girl with a computer/brain residing in a mechanical body wasn't all that smooth. After she was partly responsible for the near fatal accident of her best friend, she decides to leave her family. This is where Crashed picks up.

Life as a mech takes some time getting used to. You don't need to sleep or eat and you never get older. Time stretches out into the future with a mind-numbing similarity. On top of that, as a mech you don't really feel sensations the same as you used to as a regular old mortal. Lia is always looking for the next wild sensation, the daring adventure that will let her feel something, if only for a few minutes. Skydiving, cliff jumping she does it all to feel something.

Lia lives with Jude and Riley and a bunch of other mechs in a mansion, funded by a wealthy mech. Life changes for Lia when she and Riley find themselves in the middle of a terrorist attack in a corp town. They are blamed for the attack, or more specifically, Lia is blamed. Slowly, public sentiment is turning against mechs, their very existence is under threat--primarily due to a political crusader named Savona, the leader of the Brotherhood, who claims that the very existence of mechs goes against the will of God. As Lia, Riley and Jude delve deeper into the mystery of what happened at the corp town, it turns out that the Brotherhood won't stop at anything to destroy mechs, including innocent people. Just how far will the mechs go?

Skinned

2011-07-22T14:48:00.002-04:00

Skinned by Robin Wasserman
Young Adult science fiction

Lia Kahn is a mech, otherwise known as a skinner. She wasn't always a mech, in fact, she was a flesh and blood org just a little while ago, until she got in a terrible car crash. A car that she wasn't even supposed to be in--she was doing a favor for her sister. Not much of Lia survived the crash except her brain which was copied and downloaded into a computerized body which responds, much like a human body, to the signals her brain sends out. Well, not exactly the same because she doesn't feel much, she doesn't have to eat and when she goes to bed at night she uploads her memories for safekeeping and simply shuts down. It is hard enough for Lia to get used to her new existence--add to that the fact that no one treats her the same anymore. Her classmates think she's a freak, her boyfriend is totally at a loss and her sister has become an absolute witch. Then she meets Auden and life seems somewhat bearable. But luck isn't Lia's strong suit and this, too, doesn't exactly work out as planned.

This is a pretty dark dystopian world that Wasserman has painted--not a lot of good happening in this society. But there are a lot of questions raised about what makes us human and how far are we, as a society, willing to go to preserve a life?

Divergent

2011-07-21T20:55:00.004-04:00

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Young Adult science fiction

When Beatrice Prior turns 16 she has to choose a faction. Society, in this dystopian futuristic world, is divided into five factions. There is Abnegation, whose members value selflessness above all other qualities; Candor, whose people value honesty; Dauntless, whose members pride themselves on their bravery; Erudite, whose members value intelligence and Amity, whose people value peace. Children live with their parents, receiving a general education, but on choosing day they must decide which quality they value above all others--which quality they want to devote their lives to. After choosing day their education is determined by the faction they have chosen. Faction before blood is the motto all residents of this society live by; unfortunately this often means leaving one's family forever.

Which faction will Beatrice decide to join? Her choice is heartbreaking and brave, filled with challenges and seemingly impossible obstacles she needs to overcome. Her choice is made all the more difficult because during the aptitude test, which all teens receive in order to determine which faction they are most suited for, Beatrice discovers that she is divergent--she doesn't really belong in any faction. This information could cost her her life, or it could save it.

This was a fantastic page-turner that I simply couldn't put down. I was raving about it to everyone I bumped into as I was reading it. Unfortunately, the last few chapters were very disappointing and, in my opinion, the author destroyed what was a very thoughtful and well-drawn out situation by falling back on over-the-top violence. The action in the last few chapters simply happened too fast and was not necessary to move the plot forward--I was going to return to read the sequel! As a reader I didn't need the disaster she had rain down upon the society to sustain my interest.

But still--a very entertaining read.

Virals

2011-07-08T16:10:00.006-04:00

Virals by Kathy Reichs
Young adult fiction

Tory lives on an island off the coast of South Carolina with her marine-biologist father. She and three science geek friends discover a supposedly deserted lab. In turns out the lab isn't deserted and is, in fact, the site of some undocumented, clearly shady experimentation. In their attempt to rescue a sick wolf/dog puppy undergoing experimentation, they get exposed to mutated strain of Parvovirus, stumble upon an unsolved murder mystery and generally get into a lot of trouble.

This is quite an exciting page-turner! For the majority of the novel the plot holds together (it gets a little too outlandish at the end--but, oh well). Additionally, one quickly adjusts to the slightly snarky language of the main character (a bit like misplaced Dashiell Hammett lingo). Written by the creator of the television hit series, Bones, this is pretty entertaining.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2011-07-05T11:33:00.006-04:00

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Adult fiction

This has been on my list for a long time--especially after it won the Pulitzer Prize! I am happy to report that I really enjoyed it. The novel follows the lives of several characters who are all tangentially related via music and the music industry. The novel opens with Sasha, kleptomaniac and personal secretary to Bennie Salazar, a music producer. The novel also ends far in the future with thoughts of Sasha. It is Alex, a music promoter, now working for Bennie himself, who is thinking of Sasha, a strange girl he once slept with years ago. In between, Egan takes us on a wild journey, jumping back and forth through time, focusing on different characters, loosely connecting their stories. There is even a section written in the form of a PowerPoint by Sasha's daughter which, odd as it is, is incredibly poignant. In some ways, this novel is profoundly depressing. Rebellion and youth, potently colliding in the form of fringe music, ultimately ages and becomes tempered with time. Individual stories are lost and ultimately don't really even matter, but maybe, just maybe, the music lives on.

The Gardener

2011-07-05T11:32:00.004-04:00

The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen
Young adult fiction

Mason’s mom works at a nursing home. He discovers that her job does not involve caring for the elderly patients as he imagined, but rather for several teenagers who sit in a catatonic state. On a visit to the nursing home, one of the teens awakens and begs Mason to help her escape. It turns out the girl is being used for scientific research and Mason finds himself on the run from TroDyn Industries, the scientific corporation that owns most of his town.

I was really looking forward to reading this book--it has such a great plot line. However, similar to Bodeen's previous novel, The Compound, this novel fell short of my expectations. The writing is just not up to snuff, plain and simple. Characters are not believable, motivations are not flushed out, dialog is stilted,and the plot, which sounds good in the book jacket blurb, is just too unbelievable. Disappointing.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

2011-06-16T12:22:00.007-04:00

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Adult fiction

"Yes, life does rather get in the way of one's reading, " was Major Pettigrew's response to Abdul Wahid when Abdul was lamenting the fact that he did not have time to read and contemplate life in peace. This is just one of the many lovely quips which pops out of Major Pettigrew's mouth with charming frequency. He is truly a riot. The Major's wife died six years ago and he is managing just fine, thank you very much. Thus, it is all the more surprising when he is suddenly taken aback by the presence of Mrs. Ali at his door who is collecting money on behalf of the paper boy who is ill. Mrs. Ali is beautiful, and fortuitously, a widow. She and Major Pettigrew embark on a friendship that is destined to face many challenges, including, but not limited to class and economical differences as well as cultural and religious differences, not to mention familial pressures. This, however, is Major Pettigrew's last stand and it is lovely to watch his character emerge and engage fully in the world around him.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

2011-06-16T12:21:00.008-04:00

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Adult fiction

What an incredibly compelling and disturbing page-turner! The novel takes the form of letters from Eva to her husband, Franklin, after their son Kevin commits mass murder at his high school. She retells the story of her life, trying to get it straight, trying to figure out what happened. She begins by writing about her courtship with Franklin, their early life, her reluctant decision to have a child. The letters follow the progression of Eva and Franklin's life, through her first pregnancy, the birth of Kevin, and their move to the suburbs and beyond.

What's so interesting about this novel is that as a reader you are reading to find out, "Why? Why did he do it?" Shriver plays with this idea of "why" throughout the novel and as a reader your allegiance to the main character shifts and changes and your thoughts about"why" shift as well. The urge to lay blame, to pinpoint a cause for such a tragedy is great and hard to resist. In turns, as a reader, you blame Eva for not fully wanting to have a baby and not completely loving her son who rejected her from the moment he was born. Then, you think, perhaps it is Kevin, he was just born missing the genetic material necessary to form attachments--to care about anything. Then perhaps, as a reader, you think it is all Franklin's fault--with his inability to see the truth about his son and his poor parenting tactics which undermined his wife at every turn.

Wherever one ends up laying the blame, or not, this novel stays with you long after the last page.

Across the Universe

2011-06-13T17:42:00.004-04:00

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Young Adult fiction

This was wildly popular this year at my school. I was dying to read it and I'm glad I did!
The novel opens with Amy and her parents choosing to be being cryogenetically frozen. They are to be part of a mission seeking to explore the possibility of life on another distant planet. A planet that can support life has been discovered and the mission planned, only it will take 300 years to get there. Thus Amy (non-essential cargo) and 99 other important people, like her parents who are experts in genetic splicing and warfare, are selected to go on the mission. When the spaceship arrives at the destination, they will be unfrozen. The only problem is, Amy is unfrozen 50 years before schedule. Someone tried to murder her. Why? Her only friend seems to be Elder, a young boy her age who is being groomed to become the leader of the ship when Eldest, the current leader, retires. Can she trust Elder? Does she really have any choice if she wants to save herself and her parents?

Black Hole Sun

2011-05-29T16:45:00.005-04:00

Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill
Young Adult fiction
Jacob Durango is a Regulator living on Mars. Regulators live by a code of Tenets, one of which states that they have a duty to protect. That’s why, when Durango is asked to protect a group of miners and their children from the cannibalistic Draeu, he feels obligated to accept the hopeless job. Part of Durango’s crew includes the beautiful and skillful Vienne, his second in command, as well as Mimi, his Artificial Intelligence brain implant. A page-turner from beginning to end.

The Memory Palace

2011-05-12T15:55:00.006-04:00

The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok
Adult memoir

Mira and her sister had a harrowing childhood--they grew up under the shadow of their mother's schizophrenia. While their mother cycled in and out of sanity, the two girls struggled to survive. After countless hospitalizations, suicide attempts and just sheer unpredictability, the two girls, as adults, decided to change their names and cut all ties with their mother who continued to struggle with mental illness and homelessness. This memoir is Mira's memory palace, a place where she tries to reconstruct her life with her mother and her life without her mother, in part because her own life is forever altered after she suffers from a traumatic brain injury in a car accident--altering her own memory and sense of reality. This memoir is an exercise in remembrance, understanding and acceptance. Although a bit slow at times, it is a marvel.

A Gate at the Stairs

2011-04-25T08:30:00.007-04:00

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Tassie Keltjin, daughter of an heirloom potato farmer, is off at college getting a standard liberal arts education at a large Midwestern college. Searching for a job, she interviews for many nanny positions. She gets hired by Sarah and Edward, a sophisticated couple who are planning to adopt a baby. It seems that Tassie is hired largely because Sarah, who runs an upscale restaurant in town, is a fan of the Keltjin potatoes. We spend the next year with Tassie as she babysits for Sarah and Edward's biracial almost-adopted daughter, falls in love, navigates her college courses and watches her younger brother go off to war in Afghanistan.

In many ways, this novel reads like an extended collection of short stories. There is just so much content jam-packed in here and it goes on and on. It is entertaining, but at times a bit exhausting to read, as sentence after sentence is laced with snarky, caustic comments, almost too clever to absorb as they relentlessly bombard the reader. However, interspersed throughout are glorious gems of sentences which remind the reader of Moore's enormous talent.

Before I Fall

2011-04-07T18:44:00.003-04:00

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Young Adult literature

Sam Kingston is a relatively normal teenager. She is finishing off her senior year as one of the popular girls in her high school, planning on going off to a good college. She wasn't always popular, in fact she was pretty much a loser until Lindsay decided to be her friend. Life changed for Sam when Lindsay chose her. As one of the popular girls, Sam hasn't completely forgotten what it's like to be on the outside, but this doesn't stop her from being superior and less than kind to some of her less popular, struggling classmates.

When driving home after a party, it all changes when Sam is in a car accident. Instead of dying right away, she wakes up the next day and relives her day. This continues for seven days, during which Sam tries to figure out how to save herself or at least make her last day meaningful.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

2011-04-07T18:32:00.004-04:00

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
Young Adult literature

Cammie Morgan goes to the Gallagher Academy for Girls, an elite private boarding school. Yes, it is elite and it is private, but not in the way you might think. Gallagher Academy is a school for girls who have been selected to train as spies. The training is rigorous and includes classes in covert operations, among other subjects. Cammie is a sophomore in high school and also the daughter of the Head of School--she knows no life other than that of the spy and spy school. So when she meets Josh, who lives in the local town and is completely "normal," she is absolutely smitten. Using their spy skills, Cammie and her friends" spy" on him and Cammie begins a friendship with him which is sure to end in disaster--or is it?
Totally fun.

Freedom

2011-02-25T23:06:00.006-05:00

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Adult Fiction

This was so popular last summer--what with Obama reading it and all. I just couldn't bring myself to read it during all of the hoopla. Recently I saw it sitting on the display shelf in my library and thought, "Why not?" I was expecting not to like it because I had heard so many conflicting reviews, but, in fact, I really enjoyed it and I am still thinking about it more than a week after finishing it. I had actually read the first chapter in The New Yorker before it was published, so the characters were familiar.

The novel opens with the two main characters, Patty and Walter Berglund, already married with two small children and living in suburban Minnesota. The novel then goes back in time and follows the childhood and coming-of-age of Patty. In consecutive sections, the narrative spends time with Patty, Walter, Richard (Walter's best friend in college), and Joey (Patty and Walter's son). The lives come together, diverge and ultimately pass the point in time where the novel first began. At times the characters are incredibly annoying and down-right unlikeable, but then they do something that is so real and human that once again, as a reader, you are drawn back into the story and care again.

The novel deals with some universal themes like adolescence, sexuality, marriage, parenting, and infidelity, but really what is so interesting is that the characters, who try so desperately to escape their upbringing and differentiate their adult personas from that of their biological families, really end up mimicking what they so scorned. Surprisingly entertaining.

Presumed Innocent

2011-02-25T23:05:00.012-05:00

Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
Adult Fiction

I found this on the bookshelf at the house I stayed in over vacation. I was all out of books and there was no bookstore anywhere near, so I was very relieved to discover this great beach read. Gritty, brutal and packed with courtroom drama, this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rusty Sabich is a prosecuting attorney who gets chosen to lead the investigation of a colleague who has been brutally raped and murdered. Although married, Rusty was involved in an affair with the murdered women. One might think that this would pose an ethical problem for him, but apparently no one is squeaky clean in any part of the DA's office or the police department for that matter. Rusty's work life and personal life merge when he is accused of the murder. The question is, is Rusty innocent?

The Piano Teacher

2011-02-25T23:05:00.009-05:00

The Piano Teacher by Janice K.Y. Lee
Adult Fiction

Two stories, both taking place in Hong Kong, are told simultaneously--one features Will Truesdale, a British ex-patriot and his romance with Trudy Liang, a Chinese/Portuguese wealthy beauty. The two meet in pre-World War II Hong Kong where their love emerges amidst the wealth and privileged set of Hong Kong. The other story is about Claire Pendleton, a twenty-eight year-old British woman who follows her new husband to Hong Kong in 1952 where he has gotten a job as an engineer in the water department. We follow Will and Trudy through World War II when Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese were brutal to the residents of Hong Kong, Will and Trudy being no exception. We also follow the story of Claire as she settles in Hong Kong and begins to give piano lessons. Eventually the two stories collide and neither Will nor Claire will ever be the same.

A compelling page-turner filled with new historical knowledge for me about Hong Kong during the war.

Main Street

2011-02-21T16:39:00.009-05:00

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Adult fiction

I was unable to attend my last book group and in my absence this is what they chose! Originally published in 1920, the copy we have in the library is not much younger than that original pub date. It is a long book, almost 500 pages of small print. I ignored it for awhile, but then took it on vacation with me. I read it and I'm glad I did.

Carol is a young woman who is capable, contained, attractive and accomplished. She was raised in a cultured household, but now is an orphan who must make her way in the world. She is comfortable, but has to make a living unless she gets married right away. Since no one has captured her attention, she goes to St. Paul and attends library school. Upon graduation she becomes a public librarian. For a few years she goes about her quiet life until she meets Will Kennicott, a country doctor from Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. They fall for each other and before she knows it, Carol finds herself living in Gopher Prairie, filled with high aspirations about how she is going to beautify and reform the town. The problem, however, is that no one likes her ideas and she spends years fighting what she views as small town pettiness, gossip and narrow-mindedness. Carol is a roller coaster of emotions, ricocheting between loving the simple good-hearted folks she encounters one day and seeing only their mean-spirited jealousies the next day.

This is the story of Carol, but interspersed are some really profound messages about the rights of women, the romanticizing of small town America, greedy Capitalistic entrepeneurialism versus good 'ole American individualism, culture versus provincialism and last but not least, the rights of the new immigrants and the working poor.

Reading Carol's descriptions of her Gopher Prairie neighbors who lambast anything different as un-American, one is reminded of the contemporary language of some more right-wing conservative Americans who are quick these days to label anything "other" as un-American. The similarities are uncanny.

An old fashioned tale with surprisingly current ramifications.

Alabama Moon

2011-02-10T22:02:00.004-05:00

Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Children's Literature

Moon has lived his entire life in rural Alabama. An anti-government Vietnman vet, Moon's dad has kept Moon away from civilization. The two live in a shelter and hunt for their food. In fact, Moon has only ever met one other person, a storekeeper many miles away who they see infrequently when selling fur pelts. When his father dies he leaves Moon with the instructions to head to Alaska where he is sure to meet like-minded people. That is precisely Moon's plan until he comes into contact with folks who think he should be cared for and educated. This proves exceedingly difficult! Moon gets on the wrong side of a small-minded sadistic cop, spends some time in jail, breaks out of reform school and makes some amazing friends.
An entertaining adventure story, readers will love the quirky characters and learn a lot about survivalism and rural Alabama.

Trash

2011-02-06T13:30:00.002-05:00

Trash by Andy Mulligan
Children's Literature

Raphael, Gardo and Rat are trash pickers--every day they comb through the massive city dump looking for items to scavenge, re-purpose or sell. One day Raphael finds a small leather bag. When the police come around looking for it, Raphael and Gardo know that it must be important. With their friend Rat, they attempt to solve the mystery of the bag-- Who threw it away? Why? As they try to answer these questions they come across a series of clues and find themselves running for their lives and embroiled in the mystery of a dead man and his fight to right a terrible injustice.

Told from many points of view, this is a gripping story filled with intrigue and excitement as well as a larger commentary about the devastating dichotomy between rich and poor in some countries. Slumdog Millionaire for the younger crowd.

Twin

2011-01-27T16:11:00.008-05:00

Twin by Allen Shawn
Adult memoir

"This deeply affecting book, like the author’s music, is both a love letter to his twin sister and an intimate reconstruction of the toppling emotional dominoes that her institutionalization set in play in their family more than half a century ago." This was the last line of a book review by Michiko Kakutani published on January 9, 2011 in the New York Times Book Review. In fact, Kakutani wrote, "It’s a book that combines the sympathetic insight of Oliver Sack's writings with Joan Didion's autobiographical candor and Mary Karr's sense of familial dynamics — a book that leaves the reader with a haunting sense of how relationships between brothers and sisters, and parents and children, can irrevocably bend the arc of an individual’s life, how childhood dynamics can shape one’s apprehension of the world. As he did in “Wish I Could Be There,” Mr. Shawn grounds his story in scientific and medical research, in this case giving the reader an overview of scholarship on autism and how disparate theories may illuminate its causes and manifestations."

This memoir sounded right up my alley! I love a memoir with a bit of science thrown in--add a little Oliver Sacks, Joan Didion and Mary Karr--who could ask for more? I went out and immediately purchased it for my library. Of course, I was the first to check it out and all I can say is....BORING. I am so disappointed. As it turns out, he doesn't really even know Mary, his autistic, institutionalized sister and the science about autism included is minimal at best. What Shawn really has is a lot of guilt that he doesn't know her, and has spent very little time with her over the years. Because of her autism, he will never "know" her, at least not in the way he would like to in order to appease his guilt. Shawn is a talented composer and writes A LOT about his composing and musical growth, which is fine if one is interested in that, but I wasn't. To be honest, the most interesting thing was the 40-year-long affair his father, once editor of The New Yorker, carried out (with his wife's knowledge) which is mentioned briefly. That I would have been curious to know more about.

Cutting for Stone

2011-01-22T18:29:00.006-05:00

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Adult fiction

Sister Mary Joseph Praise is a 19-year-old nun from India on her way to Africa to make a difference in the world when she meets Thomas Stone, a young British surgeon (born in India) who is also en route to Africa. They meet on a ship where disease runs rampant and it is only due to Sister Mary Joseph's cursory nursing training that any of the crew or passengers survive at all. Eventually Thomas Stone and Sister Mary end up at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia . This, however, is only the beginning of this epic novel. The twins of an illicit union between Thomas Stone and Sister Mary grow and flourish; we come to love the amazing doctors who end up raising the twins, we learn about revolution in Ethiopia, and along the way we read with fascination countless descriptions of disease and surgery. The medical aspect of this novel is present throughout, but it never intrudes and is always accessible. Verghese is a master at writing about medical conditions and surgery so that the reader's interest is always engaged and never wanders. This is a great book, I highly recommend it. Slightly tighter editing might have helped a bit in places and some of the coincidences are a bit much, but overall this was thoroughly enjoyable.

The Windup Girl

2011-01-05T16:06:00.006-05:00

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Adult Science Fiction

I read Bacigalupi's young adult novel called Ship Breaker, which I loved. The Windup Girl, his adult novel, was not as successful in my opinion. He worked hard to create a futuristic post-oil world in Thailand where the land is constantly under seige by the encrouching water and the inhabitants of the main city live and work under challenging conditions, deaperately fearing the next plague. Disease is inevitable, a result of the genetically altered food being contaminated and attacked by killer viruses. Calories are a highly sought after commodity and big international companies send "generippers" abroad to scour the earth for old seed banks to exploit in order to create new kinds of food impervious to disease for at least awhile.

In my opinion, Bacigalupi spends so much time setting the stage of his futuristic world that it is difficult to sustain interest long enough to get to the plot and characters. There are many characters; chapters are told from different points of view. There is Anderson who is in Bankok obstensibly to oversee the running of his company which manufactures spring gears, but really he is a "calorie-man" who is in search of new food sources. Hock Seng, the manager of Anderson's company, is a Chinese refugee, despised by the people of Thailand. Jaidee and Kanya are both officers in the Environmental Ministry whose job is to maintain the safety of Bankok. Their division is rampant with officers willing to take bribes. Emiko, perhaps the most likeable character in the novel is known as a windup, which means she has been genetically altered to please. After being discarded in Bankok, she is terribly abused by her new patron.

If you love science fiction, this will most likely appeal to you. If not, this is a lot of novel to wade through. The plot is complicated and none of the characters are particularly likeable.

Sick Girl

2010-12-21T15:52:00.007-05:00

Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein
Adult memoir

I've been revisiting memoirs that I have previously read, like Mary Karr's The Liar's Club and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray. Sick Girl was recommended to me by my colleague a few years ago, but I was afraid to read it as I felt the descriptions of the cardiac problems would hit me too close to home since I have a child with a heart defect. Somehow, though, I felt ready to read Sick Girl now and I'm very glad I did. Amy Silverstein is a great storyteller and she relates her harrowing and life-changing experience as a heart transplant patient at the age of twenty five with amazing honesty and detail. This is a page-turner of a memoir. She exhibits amazing courage, stamina and grace as she tells her story which takes the reader from 42-year old tired, heart transplant patient, mother and wife, back to her early days before she was a "sick girl" and through her long medical-oriented life journey. Her story is unique and compelling, yet she comes across as an honest and eminently real person. As readers we ache for her, but can't help being annoyed at times with her self-destructive obstinacy when dealing with medical personalities and challenges as well as her inability to put herself in anyone else's shoes. Amy got a bum roll of the die when it comes to medical problems, but she is not the only one. That, however, is why memoirs are so perfect. They tell one person's particular story--they don't speak for all people or even tell the entire story. A worthwhile read.

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have

2010-12-03T09:00:00.008-05:00

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff
Young Adult Literature

Andy is a 306.4 lbs sophomore. He carries it well, or so he is told, but he is undeniably large. It's hard being large--clothes never fit and he worries about squeezing into the new small desks at school. To top it off the school bully makes fun of him, because, despite being large, Andy is kind of wimpy. But then he meets April and for some bizarre reason he tells her he is a jock. He is so not a jock. But why not? Football, anyone? Thus begins Andy's journey. He makes the team, gains some friends, loses some friends, and most of all realizes who he is. This is not your typical story, but then again Andy is not your typical main character.

My colleague went to an ALA (American Library Association) YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) symposium about diversity. She brought back a lot of great books, including this one from the blossoming "fat" genre.

The Maze Runner

2010-11-28T09:57:00.005-05:00

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Young Adult Science fiction

Thomas awakes to find himself in a box with no memory of who is and where he came from, other than his name. When the box is opened he finds himself in the Glade with a bunch of other boys who know little more than he does. The Glade is an open expanse surrounded by high stone walls which close at night, protecting the boys from the Grievers--murderous stinging creatures who come out mostly at night. The Glade is surrounded by a maze of stone walls which shift nightly. The boys have, however, crafted a life for themselves with everyone performing jobs that they are best suited for, such as gardening, animal care and maze running. It is the maze running that calls to Thomas--he somehow knows that is the job he was meant to do. Every day for two years the maze runners have gone out and tried to figure out the secret of the maze. They are convinced that the answer to escaping the Glade lies in discovering a way out of the maze. With Thomas' arrival they get closer to discovering a way out, but still it is just beyond their grasp. Then a girl arrives in the Box and all hell breaks loose.

A compelling story that leaves you wanting more--the sequel is called The Scorch Trials. This is not quite as well-crafted as other dystopian young adult science fiction such as Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series or Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker, but it is a page-turner none-the-less.

Lit

2010-11-17T22:42:00.006-05:00

Lit by Mary Karr
Adult Memoir

There is something so universal about memoir. As a kid I always wondered if everyone felt the same as me. When my foot fell asleep I was positive that no one had ever felt that exact sensation of pins and needles vibrating throughout my foot. As it turns out, the physical sensations that I felt were unique to my body were in fact very common. So, too, is the fact that while the circumstances that people experience are different, the feelings are largely similar. I just finished reading Lit by Mary Carr. Although I am not an alcoholic, a single mother or a published writer, I could identify with a lot of her experiences. She is a brilliant writer--I loved The Liar's Club, her first memoir which I consider to be the ideal memoir form.

This memoir, the story of her descent into alcoholism and her rocky climb out, is at once heart-breaking and courageous, She does ultimately find solace in religion, something which has the potential to make readers feel uncomfortable. She writes about her religious awakening with humility and skepticism, ensuring that her readers are there with her on her journey as opposed to viewing her experience as foreign or "other."

The House of Mirth

2010-11-13T10:51:00.004-05:00

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Adult fiction

I have only ever read Wharton's The Age of Innocence--which I loved. I am also familiar with Ethan Frome, but The House of Mirth was new to me. I was totally surprised by the ending, which I will not give away!

Lily Bart is a young woman who is essentially on her own, trying to navigate the world of wealthy society in New York of the late 19th century. Her parents are both dead and she lives with an aunt who has taken her in. Lily has been raised, for the most part, as an ornamental accessory. Her greatest assets are her beauty and her social charms. It is expected that she will marry, probably for money, in a transaction that would undoubtedly be beneficial to her and her future husband in that she would be monetarily provided for and his social standings would be enhanced by her charms. Love doesn't really come into the equation. There is, however, a moral and rebellious streak running through the soul of Lily Bart. She struggles with her heart, with societal expectations, with her high aspirations and inability to realize her goals. Wharton writes about New York society with a light touch and ultimately searing results.

Monsters of Men

2010-10-31T13:35:00.001-04:00

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
Young adult literature

I was eagerly awaiting the publication of Monsters of Men, the third book in the Chaos Walking series. It is supposed to be a trilogy, but I don't know--the window was left open for another in the series. We'll see. If you haven't read the first two in the series, stop reading this!

This book picked up exactly where The Ask and the Answer left off. It started at a fast clip and it never really let up. Yes, I was dying to know how it all turned out, but I was exhausted reading it because the plot never really had any down time. It was pretty much action all the time, which is impressive in a 608 page book. The theme is war. There is Mayor Prentiss and his army of men, largely controlled by the power of Prentiss' mind. Then there is the terrorist rebel, Mistress Coyle, whose original goals were far more just and worthy than those of Mayor Prentiss, but in the quest to attain her goal, has lost sight of morality and humanity as well. A third party joins the fray; the Spackle attack all humans in retaliation for the brutal murder of the hundreds of Spackle who slaved under the rule of the humans. It is Todd and Viola who strive for peace, luckily they have Simone and Bradley, two new arrivals from another scout ship to help them navigate the warring factions. This novel is told from three points of view: Todd, Viola and 1017 (a Spackle). Information, Noise and the idea of communication play an integral role in the satisfying conclusion to this exciting series. Oh, and the horses are amazing.

Ship Breaker

2010-09-09T16:20:00.000-04:00

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Young adult fiction

I've been into dystopian young adult science fiction lately. Ship Breaker is the latest, written by first time young adult novelist, Paolo Bacigalupi. It's a pretty compelling read--I hope Bacigalupi keeps on writing!

Nailer works the light crew, scavenging copper wire and other bits of metal from the carcasses of old abandoned tanker ships off the coast of what was once Louisiana. It's a harsh world where survival is far from guaranteed. It's every man for himself, your family and your crew are the only people watching your back. Nailer's only family is his dad, and he certainly doesn't watch Nailer's back. In fact, he regularly beats Nailer, especially when he's high. But Nailer has Pima, who is on his crew, and Pima's mom. Everyone is waiting for a "Lucky Strike", the scavenge that will make them a little money to get ahead. When Pima and Nailer stumble across a wrecked clipper ship belonging to a swank girl, it seems he just might have hit his "Lucky Strike." But can he trust the swank girl whose life he saves? Equally important, can she trust Nailer?
In this future world, much of Earth as we currently know it has dramatically changed due to massive global warming. Cities are under water, trading routes now cut through the Poles, ice caps are a thing of the past. The disparity between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, is even wider. What remains the same is the struggle for love, acceptance and a life with meaning. A good read.

The Ask and the Answer

2010-08-30T20:29:00.001-04:00

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
Young Adult fiction

If you haven't read The Knife of Never Letting Go, STOP! Spoiler alert!

This is a very compelling series. I can't wait to read the third installation: Monsters of Men. Viola and Todd have arrived in what they thought was Haven, only now it is called New Prentisstown and the former Mayor Prentiss is now calling himself President Prentiss. Viola, who was shot at the end of The Knife of Never Letting Go, is separated from Todd and sent to a woman's healing house. Todd and Viola spend the entire book trying to reach each other and sort out the truth from the lies they are being told. President Prentiss is in control of the inhabitants of the town and he rules with an iron fist-- the Spackle and the women suffer the most under his rule. Prentiss is determined to break Todd, but his love for Viola keeps him focused. Viola, with a rebel band of women, known as the Answer are waging a war of their own, only their tactics don't turn out to be that much better than those of President Prentiss. Nothing is black and white in The Ask and the Answer, it is all shades of grey, except for perhaps the love and trust between Todd and Viola.

Mockingjay

2010-08-30T20:28:00.003-04:00

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Young Adult literature

It took me a few days to recover after reading this book, the third and final book in the Hunger Games series. I was not disappointed. I think Suzanne Collins had a monstrously hard task ahead of her in writing a satisfactory conclusion to the series--and she accomplished that admirably.

If you haven't read the first two books in the series, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, you might not want to read further.....

Mockingjay opens with Katniss in District 13, she has been rescued by the Rebels in District 13 at the close of the Quarter Quell. Many of her fellow competitors in the arena were in on the plan, only Katniss and Peeta were in the dark. Now Katniss has been rescued, Peeta and many of the other competitors are captured and Katniss is furious. Furious that she knew nothing about the rebels' plan and furious that they rescued her and not Peeta. She and approximately 800 other residents from District 12 are getting acclimated to their new lives in District 13 after the Capitol bombed District 12. Many of the residents were killed, including Peeta's entire family. Gale, Prim and Katniss' mother are safe.

What follows is warfare. District 13 is determined to bring down the Capitol and they are enlisting Katniss' help to do so. District 13 is not immune to the power of image and they use the symbol of the Mockingjay (Katniss) as a rallying point to unify the other districts against the Capitol. Katniss has little choice in the matter. Ultimately, she is a pawn, played by both sides--first by the Capitol in their evil hunger games and later by the Rebels in their war. She comforts herself in the knowledge that the rebels are the lesser of two evils. They are not perfect, but their goals are more honorable than those of President Snow and the Capitol, until Coin, leader of the Rebels crosses a line. Katniss then follows her heart and does what she thinks is right. But nothing will ever truly be right again; the wounds of Panem and those that Katniss has endured run too deep. Life, as fragile and precious as it is, does endure, however, and Katniss begins again.

The House on Mango Street

2010-08-30T20:28:00.001-04:00

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Adult fiction

I just reread this lovely book. Cisneros paints a marvelously rich world, full of varied and complex characters, in a series of short vignettes. With each little story, our understanding of Esperanza's world on Mango Street in Chicago during the 1980s grows. Esperanza becomes a young woman, her longing to be a writer blossoming before our eyes. A lovely, short and imminently accessible read.

Karma Bites

2010-08-30T20:27:00.005-04:00

Karma Bites by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas
Children's literature

It all starts when Franny decides to dye her hair orange. Needless to say, the results are disastrous. Franny's Granny, who has recently moved in after her parent's divorce, comes to the rescue. We're not talking about an ordinary rescue where the hair is dyed back to its original color. Instead, Granny is the possessor of a magical box which she picked up during her travels. The box spits out a customized recipe sure to fix whatever problem it is presented with. Sure enough, it fixes Franny's hair. Franny sees potential--potential to use the box to make a lot of changes in her world. Changes which she thinks will be for the better, like making her two best friends get along and breaking up some of the ridiculous cliques at her middle school. Franny's karma does indeed bite and she finds herself in a whole mess of trouble. Luckily she has an understanding Granny who is acquainted with a monk named Lama as well as Justin Timberlake. A slightly ridiculous and totally fun read.

Alphonse Bertillon: The Father of Forensic Science

2010-08-15T21:58:00.000-04:00

Alphonse Bertillon: The Father of Forensic Science by Henry T.F. Rhodes
Adult Biography

I would not recommend this to everyone! I read this 1956 biography about Alphonse Bertillon because I became interested in him after visiting the police museum in New York. Bertillon is credited with devising a method of identification for criminals, originally called Anthropometry, then later named Bertillonage after him. Alphonse, born in 1853, was a ne'er-do well academic disaster who finally landed an entry-level job in 1879 as a copyist at the Prefecture of Police in Paris. This was the beginning of his police career. His job was to copy out identification cards and file them. He was frustrated with the haphazard manner information on criminals was collected and stored, so he came up with his own system which was eventually widely adopted in France in 1882 and then later in Britain and even parts of America.

For every criminal who passed through the police department, eleven measurements were taken which included things like the person’s height, span of the arms, the length of the head, the length of the right ear, the width of the right ear, the length of the left foot, and the left middle finger, among other things. The most important part of the system was organizing the cards on which the information was written. The cards of men, women and children were all kept separately. Within each group the cards were divided up into three height categories: tall medium and short. Each category was further divided into three other categories, and so on. At the time, this was a revolutionary way of organizing information; the police department was able to wade through thousands of cards and narrow a search down to just a few suspects and thereby identify criminals much faster and effectively. In order to house all these cards in an orderly fashion, Bertillon had special giant cabinets built which contained many compartments with subdivisions to hold each category.

One of the things that I found most interesting about this book was how dated the writing style seemed. Although the book was written in English, Rhodes would quote passages in French from correspondence or dialogue, or even include lengthy police reports with no translation! I was also struck by the assumption that everyone reading the book would have a knowledge of certain historical events. For example, Bertillon was an important figure in the Dreyfus case. I know about the Dreyfus case, but the details are a bit vague. Rhodes stated that the details of the case were so well-known that it wasn't necessary to go into detail. What!!!! It is almost impossible to imagine anyone writing that in a contemporary non-fiction title today.

The Girl Who PLayed with Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

2010-07-31T19:50:00.000-04:00

The Girl Who Played with Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Adult fiction

I must admit, I was totally hooked on these books. I couldn't put them down! I read in the car while my husband drove, even though I get carsick. I read late into the night; I wanted to find out how it all turned out, while simultaneously hoping they wouldn't end.

I think that these two books are actually better than the first one: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was quite disgusted by all the graphic violence towards women in the first of the series, but these two books are exciting without being over the top violent (however there is still plenty of violence).

The Girl Who Played with Fire returns to the characters of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander. Happily, it focuses primarily on Lisbeth Salander who is an interesting and fairly complex character--at times incredibly infuriating due to her absent social skills. Dag Svensson is a freelance journalist who is working for Blomkvist's magazine, the Millennium. With his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a PhD candidate, the two are about to expose the sordid world of sex trafficking in Sweden. Before the expose can be published, the two are shot and, as it turns out, Salander becomes the main suspect due to circumstantial evidence. What ensues is a manhunt which has Salander running for her life. Blomkvist, Salander and the police are all feverishly trying to figure out what happened. Salander figures it out first-- with disastrous consequences.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest picks up where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off--which I won't give away here. Suffice it to say that this third instalment is every bit as exciting as the first two. Again, Salander is fighting for her life, her freedom and justice. On her side are Mikael Blomkvist, Blomkvist's sister who happens to be a lawyer and has agreed to represent Salander in court, as well as a host of other characters who include a doctor, Salander's hacker friends and a few good police officers. However, the corruption runs deep within the Special Section of the Police force and the government. The disaster which has been Salander's life is simply the byproduct of one secret branch of the police force gone wild.

Very satisfying. Perfect for an entertaining summer read.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

2010-07-29T09:20:00.000-04:00

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment The Fugitives, Book 1
by James Patterson

Young adult fiction

This is actually pretty good! I was pleasantly surprised by the entertainment factor packed in this young adult novel. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel are six kids on the run. Max is the self-designated leader of the flock; she works tirelessly to make sure everyone is fed and safe. They call themselves the flock because they are, in fact, part bird. These six kids are the successful outcome of a bizarre genetic experiment. They are 98% human and 2 % avian. Yes, they can fly! In fact, they lived the first years of their lives in cages in a lab where "whitecoats" performed experiments on them. Then Jeb, one of the scientists, a "whitecoat" himself, rescued them and took them away. He spent four years with them, feeding them, teaching them and taking care of them. But then he disappeared and the flock all assumed that he was dead. But is he? Now the Erasures, another genetic experiment the "whitecoats" dreamed up, are after the flock The Erasures are deadly man/wolf combinations whose sole purpose is to kill Max and her flock. Pretty exciting. Of course, to find out how it all turns out you have to read the next in the series.

The Invisible Bridge

2010-07-26T07:56:00.000-04:00

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

Recommended by several people, I decided I had to read this book. To be honest, I wasn't sure I had the energy to tackle a 600 page book dealing primarily with World War II. I have read many books about this painful chapter in world history; I wasn't sure I wanted to visit this subject again right now. However, this was from a completely different point of view--that of the Jews in Hungary. I knew nothing about Hungary during the war prior to reading this marvelous novel.

Andras Levi is a young man in the late 1930's when he wins a scholarship to study architecture in Paris at the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture. He is granted the scholarship on the basis of some drawings he has done for the cover of a magazine he worked for. He is the middle son of a hard working close-knit family. His father runs a lumber mill and while they never lacked for anything, there would certainly never have been any money to pursue a higher education. Heartbroken, but excited, he leaves for Paris. Prior to his departure he bumps into a woman at the bank while he is exchanging money. She ascertains that he is going to Paris and asks him to carry a letter to Paris and mail it once he gets there.

Life in Paris is hard at first, but Andras soon gets his bearings. He has a professor who acts as a mentor and teaches him French, he makes friends with several young Jewish architecture students from various countries, and he gets a job. Life is not easy for Jews anywhere and Paris is no exception; Andras looses his scholarship and he and his friends are sometimes persecuted by other anti-Semitic students. But he is hard-working and genuinely talented and, in addition, there are enough people in Paris who are not anti-Semitic and who are willing to stand up for what is right to make his time in Paris quite fruitful and happy. He also meets Klara, the love of his life--who just so happens to be the recipient of the letter that Andras was asked to post when he first arrived.

After two years in Paris, his visa isn't renewed and he is forced to return to Hungary. What follows is the unraveling of his family as they are forced to endure the tortures visited upon them by the war. Hungary sided with Germany in the war and interestingly enough, Hungarian Jews fared slightly better for slightly longer than most other European Jews, although this isn't saying much. All Hungarian Jewish men were conscripted into the Labor Service. This was essentially slave labor; the men would be assigned to brigades and would do tasks such as building roads, clearing landmines, mining coal, loading supplies, etc. They were starved, often beaten and generally abused. At first it was just young men, but then all Jewish men were expected to serve, regardless of age, health or position within society. A painful story to be sure, but ultimately one of survival and throughout it all, love.

Based on Orringer's own family history, this is a powerful story. It is readable, compelling, informative and meticulously researched. It is a marvel.

Fire

2010-07-07T09:26:00.000-04:00

Fire by Kristen Cashore
Young Adult Literature

I've been meaning to read this for awhile because I absolutely loved Cashore's first novel, Graceling. Fire is a companion novel to Graceling, only one character is the same--and not a very likable character at that. The two novels share many similarities in that they take place in a world inhabited by people with special powers, monsters and characters with very real human passions and emotions. Both novels feature very strong and powerful female characters. Fire is perhaps intended for a bit more of a mature audience; Cashore's characters do resist their sexual desire, but often as not give into their desires, although all descriptions are very subtle with nothing graphic at all. There are herbs to prevent unwanted pregnancy and lots of infidelities!

Fire is a young human monster, the only one of her kind. She has the ability to enter minds, read thoughts and change the thoughts and actions of the person whose mind she is inhabiting. She lives in a remote outpost on her father's estate next to Lord Brocker and his son, her friend Archer. Her father is dead, but he, too, was a human monster with extraordinary powers which he used to wreck havoc in the kingdom. His manipulations of the late king and his penchant for pleasure are the primary reasons the kingdom is currently on the brink of war, with warring factions vying for power. The new young King Nash is in need of Fire's help. He desperately wants to unite the kingdom. Fire is more than capable of helping, but she fears her powers, she doesn't want to turn into her father.

Unbeknownst to the young king and his royal siblings, there is also a young Graceling boy who fell through the mountains from the neighboring land. He, too, has amazing power and his intentions are not so honorable. Battles, special powers, passions, heartbreak and drama--this novel has it all.

The Irresistible Henry House

2010-07-07T09:25:00.000-04:00

The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald
Adult Fiction

Henry House starts his life as a practice baby in the home economics program at Wilton College in 1946. Programs really existed where orphan babies lived in practice houses, being raised by a group of women practicing their mothering and housewifery skills! Martha Grimes, a stern, rigid woman, runs the practice house at Wilton College. The difference between Henry and all the other babies (Hazel, Helen, Hubert, Harriet, etc.) is that Henry is the baby that Martha keeps. Being raised by a different woman each week due to the rotating practice schedule creates certain problems for Henry--namely he is a charmer of women, but has trouble forming lasting attachments and bonds. Henry happens to be a talented comic artist, although he is constantly searching for his own style. His wandering nature leads him to New York, out to L.A to work for Disney and even to London to work on The Yellow Submarine Beatles movie.

The novel, too, has a wandering nature; one is never quite sure where it is going. But it is an enjoyable journey, capturing a seismic societal change--from the home economics/buttoned-up existence of the post-war II world to the free-love, psychedelic reality of the late 1960s.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

2010-06-29T21:22:00.000-04:00

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Young Adult literature

Todd Hewitt lives on a planet where war with the natives has killed all of the women and infected the men with a germ that broadcasts their thoughts aloud for all to hear. These thoughts are known as Noise. With his dog, Manchee, Todd discovers a silence in the noise. There is more to Todd's world than he has been led to believe. He is woefully unprepared when he is forced to flee his settlement; running for his life. This is a gripping page-turner. The ending is a humdinger of a cliff-hanger which is a little frustrating, but luckily the sequel is available: The Ask and the Answer.

In the Heights

2010-06-22T22:32:00.000-04:00

In the Heights by Peter Hedges
Adult fiction

Tim Welch, a history teacher at a fancy private school, and Kate Oliver, a stay-at-home mom, live in Brooklyn Heights in a floor-through brownstone apartment with their two young sons. Brooklyn Heights is an upscale neighborhood where Tim and Kate find it hard to escape the fact that all their neighbors seem to have more material possessions than they do. But they have love, or so they tell themselves. When the wealthy Anna Brody moves to the Heights, everyone wants to get to know her. She, however, seems to have singled only Tim and Kate out for friendship.

As it happens, Kate fortuitously gets offered a relatively lucrative non-profit job, so Tim takes the year off to take care of the boys and work on his dissertation. What ensues is a series of play dates and playground meetings between Anna and Tim. Can you guess where this is going? There are some lovely moments where Hedges captures the essence of life in Brooklyn Heights, or perfectly describes an afternoon spent with two young boys or the intricacies of playground parental dynamics.

Crossroads

2010-06-19T08:52:00.000-04:00

Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein
Children's mystery

This was pretty scary! Zack Jennings is moving with his dad and new stepmother to Connecticut. It's the town that his dad grew up in, and they are moving into a brand new house, built just for them. Zack is still dealing with his mother's death over a year ago from cancer; he feels like the ghost of his mother watches and judges everything he does. Little does he know that in Connecticut he is going to be dealing with ghosts on a whole different level. Luckily, he has Judy, his stepmother, to help him. Very action packed!

Happens Every Day

2010-06-17T07:57:00.001-04:00

Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies
Adult memoir

I happen to love memoirs. They are all so different--and the challenge for the author is to retell a true story. What parts does the author leave out? Expand upon? Skim over? I'm fascinated by these questions. Happens Every Day is written by Gillies, who is not even a writer, she's an actress! (But maybe that's why she knows how to tell a story.) And it is a compelling, very readable story.

Josiah, Isabel's husband, gets a tenure track position teaching poetry at Oberlin College in Ohio; an amazing accomplishment. So Isabel leaves her acting career and moves with him and their two boys to the small, sleepy town of Oberlin. Surprising even herself, she loves it. After a year they buy and restore a beautiful house, she gets an adjunct position teaching acting, her boys are thriving--everything seems perfect. Then abruptly Josiah announces that the marriage is over. Isabel, understandably so, is devastated. She wants to work on their marriage and figure out what's wrong, but Josiah, the poet who is supposed to be in touch with feelings and emotions, won't have anything to do with her. Heartbreaking.

Trouble

2010-05-30T23:15:00.000-04:00

Trouble by Gary Schmidt
Children's literature

Henry is the youngest of three and comes from an upper class New England family. After his brother is hit by a car driven by a Cambodian immigrant, his life is turned upside down. Racial tension in the town escalates and Henry decides to flee, planning to fulfill his dream of climbing Mt. Katahdin in Maine, something he and his brother always planned to do together. Is he up for the challenge?

A wonderful page-turner where things are not always as they appear at first glance. This is another great title by Schmidt, author of The Wednesday Wars, one of my all-time favorite kids' books.

Peeled

2010-05-23T22:20:00.000-04:00

Peeled by Joan Bauer
Young Adult Literature

Joan Bauer is a master!

Hildy Biddle is a high school junior and an editor of her school newspaper. She also lives on an apple farm with her grandmother, father, aunt and cousin. She is no stranger to hard work. So when Banesville, New York is overcome by fear about the strange and spooky happenings in town, Hildly goes to work to uncover the truth.

Bauer plays with words and is oh-so-clever! She also manages to create rich, developed characters who draw the reader in and keep the pages turning.

Big Fat Manifesto

2010-05-12T21:34:00.000-04:00

Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught
Young Adult Literature
Jamie Carcaterra is fat, not just plump, but fat. She is also a senior in high school, has a couple of really good friends, has a boyfriend named Burke, and writes a column called Fat Girl for her school newspaper. She is planning to enter her column in the National Feature Award scholarship program which will enable her to go to a good college. When Burke, who is also overweight, decides to have gastric bypass surgery, Jamie decides to document the experience in her Fat Girl column. Even in the best of circumstances, the surgery is risky and rife with potential complications. Jamie's life is turned upside down and she is forced to face her true feelings, as complicated as they are.

My Mother the Cheerleader

2010-05-04T23:02:00.000-04:00

My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow
Young adult literature

13-year-old Louise Collins never really thought about segregation-- it's just the way things were in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans in 1960. But ever since Ruby Bridges, a young African-American girl, enrolled at her school, things have been different. First of all, Louise's mother won't let her go to school so she spends most of her days making beds and taking care of the elderly border at her mom's boarding house. Her mom, along with a bunch of other ladies, goes to the school every morning and heckles Ruby Bridges and her bodyguards as they enter the building. When Morgan Miller from New York shows up at the boarding house for a visit, Louise gets to thinking-- and things will never be the same.

This book deals with some very tough topics-- but it is incredibly readable. At times it is slightly didactic and the message takes over the story, but for the most part it is a gripping tale of historical fiction.

Losers

2010-05-01T10:28:00.001-04:00

Losers by Mattheu Roth
Young Adult Literature

This books had such potential. The main character, Jupiter Glazer, is a high school freshman who emigrated from Russia when he was seven. He still speaks with an accent. He lives in the "yards," a rough neighborhood comprised of factories, warehouses, and other down and out folks such as homeless people and ne'er-do well gang members. Jupiter and his parents live in the factory where they work, creating a make-shift and truly unique home.

After this initial interesting setup, the novel lost me. It is rather plotless, Jupiter just wants to find his place in the world. The dialogue is unrealistic, the situations the freshmen are placed in are unrealistic. A novel certainly doesn't have to be based in reality to be effective, but this was teetered on the line and I was never sure if it was supposed to be believable and missed the mark or if it was supposed to be this edgy, experimental novel not based in reality and missed the mark there as well.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

2010-04-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Young adult literature

Will Grayson is a quiet, likable, straight teen whose best friend is Tiny Cooper--an enormous, football-playing, openly gay, almost larger-than-life personality. The other Will Grayson suffers from depression and is not open about his homosexuality at all. Tiny is always looking for love and goes through boyfriends faster than you can blink an eye. When he decides his best friend, Will Grayson, needs a little action, he sets him up with the very cool punk-music lover, Jane. Paths cross and the two Will Graysons meet, changing the lives of all involved.

A charming, funny, ultimately uplifting book about friendship, honestly and life. One of my favorite things about this title was the depiction of the parents. The parents of both Will Graysons are real, fleshed-out, likable characters-- a very refreshing change from many young adult titles. There is some mature content here.

Children of Men

2010-04-23T21:38:00.000-04:00

Children of Men by P.D. James
Adult fiction

What an odd book. I have never seen the movie, although I would like to very much. I have read all of P.D. James' books, with the exception of this title, which is not a mystery.

The story was written in 1995 and set slightly in the future--so since I just read it it is not in the future at all. The novel opens with Theo--a middle-aged history professor in Oxford, England who leads a very regimented and predictable life. He doesn't feel, he doesn't have much human compassion, so much so that his wife left him a year ago and he wasn't much surprised. There is not much to live for or care about. It has been 25 years since Omega, the year that the last babies were born on Earth. Society consists of an aging people getting ready to die.

Theo is approached by a young woman, begging for his help, largely because he is the cousin of the Warden of England, the man who is essentially the dictator of England. Although Theo is no longer advisor to his cousin, his opinions still potentially matter to his cousin and the council. What follows is an adventure that Theo never expected.

I expected this book to be exciting and a compelling read. Sadly, it was fairly predictable and not written all that well. I did want to find out how it all turned out, but this was not a memorable title.

Her Fearful Symmetry

2010-04-12T22:08:00.001-04:00

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger?
Adult Fiction

This is quite a good read. When reading titles by Niffenegger, it is necessary to suspend reality (think The Time Traveller's Wife), but if one is capable of doing so, the end result is quite rewarding. This novel takes place both in and around Highgate Cemetery in London--one of the highlights of this quirky novel to be sure. Elspeth Noblin dies and leaves her London flat, which borders the cemetery, to her American twin nieces, daughters of her own estranged twin sister, Edie. The girls, rather lost in life, jump on the opportunity, and go to live in the flat for a year (a condition of the will). They get to know Robert, Elspeth's former lover; Martin, a charming man crippled by his OCD and the ghost of Elspeth herself. In the end it is the ghost of Elspeth who is responsible for the downward spiral of all characters involved (except Martin) and lead this novel from the realm of the entertaining to the realm of the bizarre.

Borderline

2010-04-09T17:27:00.000-04:00

Borderline by Allan Stratton
Young adult literature

Fifteen-year-old Sami Sabiri desperately wants to fit in. He lives in the suburbs of upstate New York and has a close group of neighborhood friends. Things are not so smooth sailing at the elite prep school that his parents send him to. There, Sami's Muslim background marks him as different and he is the victim of ruthless bullying which the school administration chooses to ignore. Caught between his father's seemingly endless rules and the more lenient world of his peers, Sami and his father lock horns. When Sami's father cancels a weekend father-son trip, Sami gets suspicious. What's his father up to? All hell breaks loose when the FBI descends upon the house and arrests Sami's dad as a suspected terrorist.

A suspenseful, satisfying read.

Franny and Zooey

2010-04-07T12:58:00.001-04:00

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Adult literature

I had never read Franny and Zooey, but with Salinger's death, I decided it was high time I did. Knowing very little about the book, I was taken by surprise. It is the story of Franny and Zooey, the two youngest offspring of the Glass family. (Franny is 20 and Zooey is 25). All of the seven Glass children are very precocious intellectually and they all spent a portion of their childhood performing on a radio quiz show called, "It's a Wise Child." The educational upbringing of Franny and Zooey, largely carried out by their older brothers, included a huge emphasis on ecumenical religion.

The novel opens with Zooey traveling up to Yale to visit her boyfriend for the weekend for a football game. Zooey is on the edge of a nervous breakdown, completely baffled by the conventionality and futility of the lives surrounding her. She proceeds to have her nervous breakdown, goes home and finds herself repeating a Jesus prayer non-stop in the hopes of receiving enlightenment, or at least an understanding of what it is all about. The second half of the book consists of Zooey interacting with his mother and Franny-- in the end it is he who provides whatever enlightenment there is to be had.

Interesting, at times a little boring, but always very thoughtful and New Yorky. Glad I read it.

The Private Patient

2010-04-07T12:40:00.000-04:00

The Private Patient by P.D. James
Adult mystery

There are times when a mystery is the perfect antidote for whatever ails you. Like clockwork you meet the victim, meet the supporting characters, witness the murder and the investigation gets underway. The Private Patient, an Adam Dalgliesh mystery doesn't disappoint, although it is not among James' best.

While a patient at Cheverell Manor, a very private facility which caters to high-end plastic surgery patients, Rhoda Gradwyn, a 47-year-old journalist, is murdered soon after having an old disfiguring scar facial scar removed. Dalgliesh and his team explore the complicated potential motives and opportunities of all the characters present at the time of the murder.

Where The Mountain Meets the Moon

2010-04-07T09:10:00.000-04:00

Where The Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Children's Literature

Minli lives with her parents at the foot of Fruitless Mountain. Her family is very poor and struggles to feed themselves. Minli's father loves to tell stories which her mother thinks are a waste of time. When Minli spends her last two pennies to purchase a talking goldfish, her mother despairs and chastises her. Minli decides to take matters into her own hands and find the Old Man in the Moon who can help her change her family's fortune. Along the way Minli makes many new friends while Minli's parents worry about her well-being and wait for the day she will return to them. Woven throughout the story are many fairy tales told by her new friends (created by Lin but based on traditional Chinese folktales) which help Minli on her quest.

The Good Soldiers

2010-03-30T12:19:00.000-04:00

The Good Soldiers By David Finkel
Adult non-fiction (but good for older teens)

An unbelievable book. David Finkel, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist with The Washington Post follows the lives of the infantry soldiers of Battalion 2-16 on their 15-month deployment to Ramaliyah, Iraq. This battalion, led by the ever-upbeat and optimistic Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, faced seemingly endless challenges in the form of possible IEDs hidden in every trash pile or under any clump of dirt, local Iraqi corruption, and endless attacks. Many men were killed or seriously wounded. And yet day after day they attempted to fulfill the mission they were commanded to carry out. President George W. Bush, in January of 2007, announced a new strategy for Iraq called "the surge."This battalion was part of that "surge." Finkel did an amazing job documenting their lives, their fears, their laughs, in addition to the challenges their families faced. Finkel was largely a silent observer, never passing judgment, just telling the story from the soldiers point of view.

This joins my small list of favorite books about war (both fiction and non-fiction). The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Killer Angels by Michael Sahaara,and A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah.

Ten Things I Hate About Me

2010-03-14T15:18:00.000-04:00

Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Young Adult Literature

Jamilah or Jamie? At her Australian school she is Jamie, a sophomore girl with dyed blonde hair and blue contact lenses while at home she is Jamilah, a Lebanese-Muslim girl who expertly plays the daraburka at her madrasa. Jamilah is afraid to open up to her Australian school friends and reveal her background, she is afraid of being labeled "ethnic." It doesn't help that her dad is super strict and wary of what he perceives to be the permissive culture which is the norm at her school. Ultimately Jamilah learns that her true friends are not so shallow and her dad is her dad-- but capable of a little compromise.

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

2010-02-27T16:29:00.000-05:00

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk
Young Adult literature

This has all the ingredients for a great book, but it misses the mark slightly. The main character, Will, is unique and pretty funny. He is deaf and he has decided that he wants to go to a hearing school. This is where the novel opens, with Will waiting for the bus. He is a self-deprecating, witty kind of guy. Along the way readers learn a lot about the deaf world, as seen through Will's eyes--which is pretty interesting. The plot, too, holds potential--while on a class trip to a defunct coal mine, a classmate falls to his death. It turns out that it was a murder and Will and his new friend, Smiley, set off to solve the mystery. The problem is that the tone of the novel doesn't quite match the events that occur. Will and Smiley's light-hearted repartee is at odds with murder, governmental bribery, sex scandals and dope growers. (I'm not kidding.)

I think this author has great potential and I really look forward to his next novel. In the meantime, this is fun to read, but is not going to blow your socks off.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2010-02-25T17:22:00.000-05:00

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Adult Non-fiction

A wonderful non-fiction title which tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and her cervical cancer cells. Extracted from her tumor without her knowledge or consent, these cells went on to become one of the most important cell lines, known as HeLa, ever grown. Not only have they been instrumental in countless scientific breakthroughs, but a multi-billion dollar industry emerged based on the sale of these cells to labs around the world. But who was Henrietta Lacks?

In alternating chapters, Rebecca Skloot tells many stories simultaneously. First there is the story of Henrietta Lacks, her family history, her tragic battle with cervical cancer and the cancerous cells which were taken from a biopsy of her tumor when she was a patient in Johns Hopkins Hospital. There is also the story of what happened to those cells, all of the scientific work and experiments conducted with them, as well as the background of the scientists involved who helped to create this "immortal" and incredibly important HeLa cell line which has led to many amazing scientific breakthroughs, including, among many other things, the creation of the polio vaccine. And finally there is the story of Henrietta Lacks's extended family and the challenges Rebecca Skloot faced in her attempts to get to know them and tell Henrietta's story. The lives of Henrietta's husband and five children, as well as her siblings and nieces and nephews, were irreversibly altered, not only by the tragic death of Henrietta, but also by the role these cells played in the scientific world. Simultaneously feeling proud that Henrietta's cells have been so instrumental in so many scientific breakthroughs and also resentful and bitter that the family wasn't told about the experimentation and has never received any monetary compensation, the family was extremely wary of Rebecca, who they initially viewed as yet another white person trying to take advantage of their story. Skloot navigates this territory with grace and patience, never passing judgement, only telling a story that needs to be told--and it's a great story.

Couples

2010-02-25T17:21:00.000-05:00

Couples by John Updike
Adult Fiction

I decided to read this novel after reading an article in the New York Times Book Review on January 3, 2010 called The Naked and the Confused by Katie Roiphe. Basically she wrote about the fact that contemporary male writers don't tackle sex scenes in their novels with the same "aggressive virility of their predecessors." She was writing specifically about old-timers Philip Roth, John Updike, Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow in relation to David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safren Foer and Dave Eggers. Roiphe writes that:

The younger writers are so self-conscious, so steeped in a certain kind of liberal education, that their characters can't condone even their own sexual impulses; they are, in short, too cool for sex. Even the mildest display of male aggression is a sign of being overly hopeful, overly earnest or politically untoward. For a character to feel himself, even fleetingly, a conquering hero is somehow passé. More precisely, for a character to attach too much importance to sex, or aspiration to it, to believe that it might be a force that could change things, and possibly for the better, would be hopelessly retrograde. Passivity, a paralyzed sweetness, a deep ambivalence about sexual appetite, are somehow taken as signs of a complex and admirable inner life. These are writers in love with irony, with the literary possibility of self-consciousness so extreme it almost precludes the minimal abandon necessary for the sexual act itself, and in direct rebellion against the Roth, Updike and Bellow their college girlfriends denounced.

Roiphe picks out many titles from the older generation's work to discuss, but Couples by Updike caught my eye since I read Rabbit, Run by him earlier this year. About Couples Roiphe writes:

When "Couples," John Updike's tour de force of extramarital wanderlust set in a small New England town called Tarbox, came out in 1968, a Time magazine cover article declared that "the sexual scenes, and the language that accompanies them, are remarkably explicit, even for this new age of total freedom of expression."

That sounded enticing so Couples it was. I have to say, Updike managed to make the sordid, small lives of the adulterous Tarbox inhabitants really quite boring and trite. Perhaps this was precisely his point. I did eventually become involved in the lives of these suburban characters and interested in how it would all turn out, but it took quite awhile. I agree with Roiphe in that Updike tackles the issue of sexuality head-on; it is real, fleshy and incredibly sexist. It is a novel written at a particular time historically and is attempting to get across a particular message, which I can appreciate. Roiphe laments that today we often dismiss these virile writers as, "dated, redundant and disgusting." Roiphe asks:

Why don't we look at these older writers, who want to defeat death with sex, with the same fondness as we do the inventors of the first, failed airplanes, who stood on the tarmac with their unwieldy, impossible machines, and looked up at the sky?

I'm willing to go along with her and revel in the unbridled sexist sexuality these writers celebrate, just as we revere those other white men, "the inventors of the first, failed airplanes," as long as we realize that this is but one story from one limited point of view-- and there is a whole big world out there. Perhaps the bigger question is, "Why do we want to only talk about white men in the first place?"

The Housekeeper and the Professor

2010-02-09T10:27:00.000-05:00

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Adult Fiction

A quick read. A sweet, small story taking place in contemporary Japan about a single mom who works as a housekeeper for a former professor of mathematics who was in a car accident in 1975 and suffered a brain injury. The professor's memory resets after 80 minutes--he has no memory after 1975, needless to say this problem has made retaining a housekeeper or caregiver exceedingly difficult. This housekeeper has endless patience and a young son, and this is what makes all the difference as the professor loves children. Expect to encounter lyrical language, and a lot of information about baseball and math.
One could imagine the character of the professor as a patient highlighted in Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

The Help

2010-02-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Adult fiction

What a great book. Written from the point of view of "Skeeter," a white woman of privilege; Aibileen, an older black maid whose only son is dead; and Minny, a slightly younger black maid with five children, The Help tells the story of the relationship between white women and their black maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. The characters are well-developed and richly drawn. The novel tells but one story, it does not attempt to be anything besides a fictitious yarn--it is not preachy or moralistic, nor does it proselytize. Written by a white woman, she is headed into dangerous territory by writing from the point of view of black women, but she acknowledges this in her afterword. In my opinion she handles the issue of race admirably by writing about these particular characters in this particular story. And did I mention it is a page-turner?

Two Parties, One Tux and a Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath

2010-01-10T11:16:00.001-05:00

Two Parties, One Tux and a Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath by Steven Goldman

Young Adult Literature

This book is an absolute gem. What a hilarious visit to teenage guyland. Mitchell is your average nerdy junior in high school--a fairly good student, not particularly athletic, no girl prospects in sight and one best friend named David. David is his best friend because they hang out and go to movies together-- but how well do they really know each other? Not that well, apparently, because it is a bit of a surprise when David comes out to him at lunch one day. This is a charming, funny, honest window into one boy's life--where he and his best friend learn how to actually act like friends, he jeopardizes his school career because he hands in an apparently offensive claymation film in lieu of an English paper, and he gets a little action. Mitchell and David are great characters. The plot is very believable and easy to relate to--even Mitchell's parents are fleshed out, very human characters.

If you loved Totally Joe by James Howe (a hilarious story where a 7th grader comes out to his friends) than Two Parties... is the slightly more mature version that will have you laughing out loud.

Wolf Hall

2010-01-08T18:35:00.000-05:00

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Adult Fiction

This is truly an amazing book. Mantel delves into the character of Thomas Cromwell with passion, insight and clarity. I loved her rendering of Cromwell--she created a character I would have loved to have known. Mantel's research for this book was extraordinary-- I am in awe of her skill. It is set in 16th century England and focuses on the rise of Cromwell, an unlikely person to have become an advisor to the King Henry the VIII, given his lowly birth. Mantel depicts Cromwell as the abused youngest son of a blacksmith. As a young man he fled England, fought for the French, lived in Italy and was well-versed in Latin, French, Italian and Greek--to name but a few languages. He was instrumental in aiding Henry VIII with his desire to divorce his Spanish wife Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn-- and in the process helping England to separate from the Catholic Church and create the Church of England.

A reviewer from the Economist claims that Mantel's "prose is muscular" and I would have to agree with that apt description. Not at all florid or overly intimate, she still manages to paint a detailed picture of the time period. At times, however, her language was frustratingly ambiguous and left me confused, either due to a lack of clarity in her description, an overly ambitious cast of characters, or simply confusion as to who exactly was speaking.

A long, but satisfying read. Winner of the Man Booker Award.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

2009-12-20T17:27:00.000-05:00

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Young Adult Literature

This is Jenny Han's second book. I think her first book, Shug, is one of the sweetest books ever written for middle grade students. I just love it-- it is always on the top of my recommendation list. The Summer I Turned Pretty is for a slightly older audience. Belly, short for Isabel, spends every summer with her mom and brother at the beach house of her mother's best friend and her two sons. The four kids have literally grown up together, but Belly, being the youngest and the only girl, always feels a little bit like an outsider. This summer is different. Belly has grown up and things are changing--does she have the nerve to do anything about the crush she's had on Conrad for as long as she can remember?

The Photograph

2009-12-20T17:26:00.001-05:00

The Photograph by Penelope Lively
Adult Fiction

Glyn finds a photograph of his beautiful wife Kath holding hands with his brother-in-law, years after Kath has died. And thus begins The Photograph, an exploration of a life, the unraveling of the mystery of who Kath was and what was so desperately missing in her life. Kath was breathtakingly beautiful as she flitted through life, never being taken seriously by much of anyone, including her accomplished husband and her high-powered sister. As Glyn tracks down the people in Kath's life who might reveal to him how that photograph came to be, he realizes just how much he has lost. A nice little yarn.

Oxygen

2009-12-20T17:25:00.000-05:00

Oxygen By Carol Cassella
Adult fiction

A student said that I had to read this book-- she just knew I would like it. It has, she explained, all the things that I enjoy including a lot of science and a mystery. I was so flattered that I did, indeed, read it. It was enjoyable, but I probably didn't like it quite as much as she did. In one of the first scenes a child dies on an operating table (I'm not giving anything away) and that is just too painful for me to read about. Although I could predict the trajectory of the plot at the beginning, I was hooked enough to read all the way through and find out if my predictions were correct.

Basically it is the story of a very capable anesthesiologist who has a child die under her care. Her life falls apart, both professionally and emotionally. I learned a lot about anesthesiology, a very interesting field within the medical community which I previously knew nothing about. The author is a doctor and a writer--clearly a very talented woman!
Not amazing, but certainly enjoyable.

My Life in France

2009-11-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme
Adult memoir
I think the most important thing I learned from this memoir was not to apologize for my cooking. It was something that Julia Child believed in very firmly. It is hard to imagine Julia Child ever cooking anything that she needed to apologize for, but apparently she did. When she first arrived in Paris with her husband in 1948, not only didn't she speak French, but she didn't know anything about French cooking. According to her memoir, the first meal she ate in France was mind-bogglingly amazing. Slowly she came to the realization that she wanted to learn how to cook French food. She learned how to market, how to cook and how to hold her own in a male-dominated profession. Julia Child is nothing short of amazing. This memoir is not quite as amazing as her-- it was written by her nephew with her help just before she died. Her story is told in the form of little vignettes, largely based on her notes and letters. It is not terribly meaty (excuse the pun). It is, however, a pleasant read.

School of Fear

2009-11-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari
Children's literature

Have you ever been afraid of something, I mean so afraid that you can't function and your phobia rules your life? Well, that is the situation with Madeleine, Theo, Lulu and Garrison. Madeleine is afraid of bugs, Theo is afraid of dying, Lulu is claustrophobic and hates being in enclosed spaces and Garrison is petrified of water. Things get so bad that the parents of these kids decide to send them to the School of Fear for the summer, a top-secret exclusive school that claims it will cure them of their fears. The four kids are in for a really frightful summer when they meet the head of the school, Mrs. Wellington and learn about her wacky teaching methods.

Each chapter begins with a description of a different phobia-- the whole structure of the novel is really very clever. Although it dragged a bit at times, I have a feeling this one is going to be really popular with most kids.

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

2009-10-27T22:55:00.001-04:00

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
An adult true-life novel

Like The Glass Castle, Walls' earlier memoir, Half Broke Horses was a great read. Part biography, part novel it doesn't really fit into any exact genre. Walls had intended to write about her mother, but when interviewing her mother found that she had amazing material about her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey. Walls is a natural story teller and felt compelled to give voice to her grandmother's indomitable character, and thus was born her "true-life novel."

Born in West Texas in 1901, Lily came from hardy stock and really exhibited an amazing, no-nonsense plucky spirit from an early age. During her life, Lily lived in a dirt dugout, broke horses, taught school, was a maid, ran a ranch, and flew airplanes, to name but a few stops in her action-packed existence.

Walls writes in Lily voice, imitating her down-to-earth speech and attitude. This is what makes the book so successful, but also what contributes to its limitations. Lily is not one for reflection or introspection, she does not dwell on her circumstances. So while her life makes an exciting story, it doesn't have much of a plot; it runs at one speed from start to finish. It is, however, a great story about an incredible woman.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot

2009-10-27T22:54:00.001-04:00

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
Young adult literature

Beatrice and her family move yet again when her father gets a teaching position at Johns Hopkins University. Beatrice has to spend her senior year of high school at a small private school where everyone has known each other since infancy, or at least it seems that way. A bit of a quirky character herself, Beatrice is drawn to a pale boy who sits next to her in assembly, cruelly nicknamed Ghost Boy by his fellow classmates. She and Ghost Boy become friends, sharing a love of late-night radio programming and art. They also spend a lot of time trying to solve a mystery ...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2009-10-27T22:53:00.001-04:00

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Adult mystery

A page-turning Swedish mystery. The novel opens with Mikael Blomkvist, a Swedish journalist, facing the demise of his career as a journalist. He has been convicted in court of libeling a financier. Prospects seem grim until he is offered a job by the aging industrial titan, Henrik Vanger. Vanger claims he will give Mikael the information he wants on the financier if he spends a year trying to uncover the mystery of what happened to Henrik's niece who disappeared 40 years ago. Mikael reluctantly accepts and what follows is an unpredictable and exciting ride. One of the best parts is the introduction of the character Lisbeth Salander, hacker extraordinaire.

The original Swedish title was Men Who Hate Women--it's not hard to guess that there is some very disturbing content. There were a few moments when I felt uncomfortable-- was I reading about the abuse women suffer from men or was I reading a piece of fiction where the writer enjoyed writing about the abuse of women? What was the intention? Despite these momentary misgivings, I really loved the book and will definitely read the subsequent titles.

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History

2009-10-05T21:08:00.000-04:00

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History by Danzy Senna
Adult Memoir

Danzy Senna's first novel, Caucasia, is one of my all-time favorite books. Drawing on her childhood and her experiences as a biracial child, it is an interesting take on race in America in the 1970's. I didn't care for her second novel, Symptomatic, and didn't even finish reading it. But with Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Senna revisits her personal history. Senna is the daughter of a white mother and a black father. Her parents were young liberal idealists--attempting to make a life together. They made three children, but that's about the extent of their life together. Their marriage ended in a bitter divorce.

In this memoir Senna primarily explores her father's background, which she knew very little about. She and her father go on a journey South looking to fill in some of the gaps about his childhood. Senna is able to look clearly at her father, from whom she received half of her genetic makeup and accept him for what he is: a brilliant man whose best effort sometimes wasn't good enough.

Lark and Termite

2009-10-03T09:16:00.001-04:00

Lark and Termite by Jane Anne Phillips
Adult fiction

What a stunning novel. I'm still revisiting it in my mind, even weeks after I finished reading it. In 1959 Lark and her much-younger disabled brother, Termite, are being raised by their Aunt Nonie, with help from Charlie, Nonie's employer and boyfriend. Lark is a rich, well-developed character who cares, without resentment, for Termite. She knows little about her mother, Lola, or even who her father is.

The novel unfolds in chapters from the point of view of Lark, Nonie, and Termite's father, a young soldier who dies in Korea. Termite also has a few chapters devoted to his thoughts and sensations, however, they are told in the third person as opposed to the first person like the other chapters.

Achingly poignant, big-hearted and profoundly real, this novel is pure pleasure to read.

Monsoon Summer

2009-09-30T18:25:00.000-04:00

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins
Young Adult Literature

Jazz is pretty upset when she finds out that she and her entire family are going to India for the summer. Her mother, a perpetual "do-gooder," won a grant to set up a health clinic at the orphanage where she spent the first four years of her life until she was adopted by an American family. Jazz would rather stay in California for the summer with her best friend Steve, working to grow their entrepreneurial business--not to mention, Jazz is secretly in love with Steve. India, with its different culture and extensive poverty, is not something Jazz wants to deal with.

But the summer turns out to be a growing experience for the entire family and Jazz, in the process of giving, gets a lot in return and confronts some of her own insecurities.

A fun read.

Marcelo in the Real World

2009-09-30T18:20:00.000-04:00

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
Young adult literature

What a lovely, special book this is. It is the summer before Marcelo's senior year and he plans to work training the therapeutic-riding ponies at Paterson, his special education school. Marcelo has an Asperger's-like syndrome and finds the reliable, consistent routine of Paterson's to be reassuring and comforting.

Marcelo's father, however, has other plans for him and insists that Marcelo spend the summer in the real world, working in the mail room of his law firm. If Marcelo successfully navigates the real world he can complete his senior year at Peterson, if not he has to attend the local public high school.

This is a rich book on so many levels. It is a coming-of-age novel that includes a law-firm mystery, a romance and friendship. Marcelo's special "focus," so common with people who have Asperger's, is religion. So as a result, the book is peppered with his thoughts on Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism--the material is never presented in a didactic manner, but simply as an extension of Marcelo's thought process. In fact, one of the greatest characters in the novel is that of a female rabbi, Marcelo's mentor, advisor and friend.

I will say that this novel is not going to appeal to every teen--but I do think it will resonate with some teens as well as with most adults. Don't miss it.

Brooklyn

2009-08-31T13:20:00.000-04:00

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Adult fiction

What a beautiful small story of one young woman's emigration to the United States from Ireland in the 1950s. Eilis Lacey lives with her widowed mother and her older sister, Rose, in Ireland. Eilis' older brothers have already left home to work in England. Although trained as a bookkeeper, Eilis can't find a job due to the poor economy. When Father Flood offers to sponsor her in Brooklyn, Eilis agrees to go. As it turns out, Rose has orchestrated her emigration to America, complete with Father Flood's sponsorship.

Eilis makes a life in Brooklyn, and meets a nice young man. But life is a series of coincidences and happenstance. Eilis' life, probably like that of so many of our relatives and neighbors, is one of circumstance and the fact that it ended up the way it did was in many ways, luck. This is one woman's personal story and yet at the same time an integral part of our collective American history.

Olive Kittredge

2009-08-29T17:56:00.000-04:00

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Adult fiction

I loved this novel--really structured like a series of short stories all taking place in Crosby, a coastal town in Maine. Not all the stories even have Olive Kitteridge in them, yet one gets the sense that she is present in every story, by virtue of it being about the residents of her small town. Olive is a complicated character--crotchety towards her husband, overbearing towards her son and ultimately big-hearted with a lot to give to her community. The stories meander back and forth in time, following the circuitous route of Olive's life. Sometimes mundane, sometimes piercingly compassionate, these stories and the characters that people them will stay with you long after you finish reading.

Trouble

2009-08-24T09:41:00.000-04:00

Trouble by Kate Christensen
Adult Fiction

Many of my friends loved A Great Man, an earlier novel by Kate Christensen. I should have known that I would have trouble with Trouble when I couldn't get into The Great Man. I stopped reading The Great Man--I just didn't care enough about this egocentric "great man" to spend much time reading his story. Trouble is about a NY psychotherapist who realizes her marriage is over and sets off to Mexico with an old college buddy who is having a rough time. (The buddy happens to be a famous aging rock star who has gotten on the wrong side of the tabloids.) This book reads like a 1st grade story-- only without the creativity. "First we did this, then we did that, then we did this..." Throw in a history lesson of Mexico which is presented as if one were sitting in a lecture hall and you've got the gist of the novel.

I See You Everywhere

2009-08-21T16:58:00.000-04:00

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
Adult fiction

I absolutely loved Three Junes, also written by Julia Glass, so I fully expected to love I See You Everywhere. While it wasn't quite as compelling as Three Junes, this novel, nevertheless, did draw me in. Written in alternating chapters from the point of view of Louisa and Clement, two sisters--this story meets up with them at various points in their lives over the course of thirty plus years. The girls have a love/hate relationship, but their stories are intertwined as one would expect the lives of two sisters to be. Clement is younger by four years and is an animal lover with a daring attitude who chooses to spend her life defending, protecting and researching wildlife both in the ocean and on land. Louisa is a more reserved, uptight character who starts of her career as a potter and ends up working for a well-known art magazine. Hopes, dreams, loves, and rivalries are the focus as the two sisters attempt to struggle through life, both together and apart.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2009-08-21T16:57:00.002-04:00

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Adult fiction

My book group selected this New York Times bestseller for one of our three summer reading titles. I confess that I couldn't connect to the characters and didn't get very far. What really turned me off was this sentence on page 24, "It really takes an effort to appear stupider than you are." Yes, it is from the mouth of a 12-year-old girl and, yes, I can imagine a young girl speaking these words--but I didn't want to spend time with the character who spoke them. The book comes off as pompous. It was tedious reading about how erudite and tortured these highly intelligent characters were. I know I am being unfair and should give it a second chance, but not right now.

A Short History of Women

2009-08-21T16:57:00.001-04:00

A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert

A bit disjointed at first, this tells the story of the women in one family over several generations. Beginning with Evie during WWI, alternating chapters go back and forwards in time, ultimately ending with the present day. The stories of the women in this family who include Evie, her mother, her niece and finally her great nieces, chronicle the history of women in the last hundred years or so. From one woman's personal battle in the struggle to obtain the right to vote for women, to another woman's protest against the Iraq war, this novel covers a lot of ground in a very significant and specific manner. An enjoyable read.

Hatchet

2009-08-21T16:56:00.001-04:00

Hatchet by Gary Paulson
Children's literature

I finally read Hatchet! After recommending it to my children and students for years, I decided I had better read it. What a fantastic tale of survival. Brian is in a single-engine airplane, on his way to visit his father who is an engineer working on an oil rig, when the pilot has a heart attack and the plane goes down somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. For fifty-four days thirteen-year-old Brian lives alone, learning through trial and error how to survive. A mesmerizing and thrilling account.