Scrinanbbles

Book Review: The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith

2012-02-01T21:35:00.000-05:00

The Rules of Inheritance is a memoir of grief.

Claire Bidwell Smith found herself without family early in adult life. An only child of older parents, her mother died of colon cancer at 58 when Smith was 18, and her father followed seven years later, suffering from prostate cancer, when Smith was 25.

Just 14 when both her parents received their diagnoses in the span of a few months, Smith’s adult identity was formed amidst illness and death. So it is understandable that she became entangled in grief.

Smith’s grief drove her to drop out of college for a time and into a long-term relationship with an unstable boyfriend. She also drank heavily for many years, until a friend suggested she try AA. Although she did not join, she absorbed enough of the message to try quitting drinking for a while, and in that time, faced her pain. Now a married mother in her early 30s, Smith has found her calling as a hospice grief counselor.

Smith tells her story with unusual style. She uses no quotation marks around dialog, giving the book a free-flowing feel appropriate to memory. The structure is perhaps unique: instead of being a linear retelling, the narrative jumps around in time, always using the present tense, and is organized instead around Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

Using this technique, Smith does not state explicitly but instead demonstrates the circular nature of grief. The stages don’t occur in order, and she revisits them until she finds a way to sit with her pain and then move on.

At times the skewing-nature of grief on Smith’s thought processes wears a little thin. The overall effect, however, is both absorbing and affecting. Now, after finishing, I still recall the plaintive sentences made completely of Smith’s longing for her mother: “Mom mom mom mom.”

I was puzzled by the title, because she does not dwell upon inheritance, either in the Mendelian or legal sense, at all. But then it struck me: what Smith inherited was grief. The rules of dealing with such a bequest are passing through the stages of grief and facing the pain or remaining stuck in its orbit.

Although Claire Bidwell Smith is still young, her memoir packs a lot of hurting and living and holds out the hope of healing. I am glad I had the chance to read it, and I’m confident Smith with achieve the goal she states for the book in her blog: that The Rules of Inheritance might help others dealing with grief feel a little less alone.

Article first published as Book Review: The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith on Blogcritics.

Review: The Lola Quartet

2012-01-20T06:36:00.004-05:00

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel, slated for publication May 15, 2012, is one of the most anticipated books of the year. (Shelf Awareness, The Millions, National Post.) Is it worth the advance praise? It depends on what you’re looking for in a novel.

Gavin Sasaki is a young newspaperman doing fairly well for himself working at the second-largest paper in New York City. When a story takes him to his hometown in Florida, however, he finds out something that unhinges him: there is a ten-year-old girl who looks just like his sister at that age. He becomes obsessed with the idea that his high-school girlfriend had been pregnant, as rumoured, when she disappeared 10 years ago.

Thus begins the story of a strange amalgam. The Lola Quartet of the title was a jazz group that Gavin played at his performing-arts high school. His girlfriend was the younger sister of one of the members. As Gavin tries to discover what happened all those years ago--if he hadn’t become a journalist, he would have become a private detective--he looks up each of the other members of the quartet, who have all trod their own bumpy paths in life.

Gavin’s dogged pursuit of the truth drives the mystery and the narrative of The Lola Quartet, which I found it almost unremittingly depressing. Gavin is a truly interesting character, but we rarely see his strengths, and he rarely spends any time feeling good about anything. The same is true for all the other characters. The initial event all those years ago, a pregnancy that causes Gavin’s girlfriend to run away, went from bad to worse when a drug dealer entered the scene.

St. John Mandel is an excellent writer, tautly painting scenes with her words, but the scenes have barely a breath of air in them. The only time the story got humming was when Gavin really started thinking like a detective. But soon enough he became befuddled again and things went awry once more.

If you don’t require optimism in your reading or like your noir plenty black, then you will enjoy The Lola Quartet. Mystery fans who like loose ends tied up in a way that produces satisfaction should look elsewhere.

Book review: One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com

2011-11-29T07:16:00.001-05:00

For anyone born after 1990, Amazon.com is one of the givens of life. But when the company was started in 1994 there was no Internet commerce yet, and there was no guarantee CEO Jeff Beezos’ vision for an Internet bookstore would succeed. One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com seeks to answer the question of how Bezos not only succeeded but has come to dominate — and fundamentally change — the book business and shopping itself.

Author Richard L. Brandt begins by discussing the "1-Click" ordering method available on Amazon, which illustrates both Bezos’ genius and his competitive drive. The idea that the customer experience on Amazon should be as seamless as possible is Bezos’ brilliant motivating idea. The easiest way to buy would be to do so with one click of the mouse. Hence, 1-Click.

Bezos patented 1-Click, even though to many of his competitors it seemed obvious, and patents are not supposed to be granted for obvious processes. They tried to get the patent reversed, but Bezos won and used it to sue others, Barnes & Noble among them, to keep any other online retailer from allowing buying with just one click.

One Click visits Bezos’ childhood to find some answers about how he came by his success. Although he learned self-reliance on his grandfather’s ranch in Texas, Bezos was a nonetheless a geek. He took computer science early on and honed his skills at Princeton. His first jobs were in computerizing Wall Street processes in the late 1980s, where he succeeded fantastically, more due to his intellect rather than his people skills. Bezos always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, however; he was just gaining experience and waiting for the right opportunity.

The opportunity arrived with the Internet. What follows in One Click is a fascinating look at how Amazon got started and grew making use of the money available during the Internet bubble, pursuing Bezos’ early watchwords: “get big fast.” In doing so, he correctly predicted that Amazon would be too far ahead for competitors to catch up.

Bezos and Amazon are still doing their thing, now trying to dominate the market for e-books and e-readers. Naturally, One Click is out of date on this and other aspects of the story that have changed recently (think Borders going out of business). Given the topic, there’s no way the book could have kept up.

The book is a slight 191 pages and short in stature, making it a quick read. While footnoted and indexed, it may not cover much new ground to those who have followed Amazon from the start. Brandt, who comes off as a Bezos admirer if not a fan, gives little attention to what it can be like to work for the guy (he drives his employees and isn’t always nice). Brandt allows that Amazon’s phenomenal success may be based in part on timing, but he clearly thinks luck played a small part.

As someone who didn’t follow Amazon except as a customer, I found the book both entertaining and interesting. I enjoyed learning about Bezos’ personal history, and the book serves as a fine introduction to the era of the dot.com boom.

Article first published as Book Review: One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com by Richard L. Brandt on Blogcritics.

Library Journal review: The Gillly Salt Sisters

2011-11-09T19:51:00.000-05:00

The Gilly Salt Sisters

by Tiffany Baker

November 2011

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/book/892263-421/fiction_reviews_november_1_2011.html.csp

Book Review: The Postmortal

2011-10-03T11:41:00.001-04:00

The year is 2019, and a cure for aging has been discovered. With three injections, the genes for aging are turned off. You can still die of anything else that can kill a person, but not old age. As yet, “the cure” is not legal, but if you know someone and have enough money, you can get it. Which is exactly what New York City lawyer John Farrell does. His “cure age” is 29.

John is our guide through the “postmortal” world. A conventional sort, he sees his values change when no longer faced with the standard life trajectory. He also finds his practice of divorce law evolving because “til death do us part” has taken on new meaning.

John is not alone in seeing changes as a postmortal; all of society is changing with him, and not in positive ways. As the planet is strained to support ever more people, the very structure of human society frays and begins to break down. And John finds that having a 29-year-old body is not the same as being 29 forever.

As Drew Magery paints it, life after the end of death from old age is scary. The Postmortal is anything but a dire read, however. It is filled with touches of humor, elements of warmth, and a great deal of wisdom about the human condition.

Everything that happens makes sense; you think, “of course people would do that if there were a cure for aging.” Magery also includes many technical details that are science fiction right now but completely believable extensions of today’s technology.

The central conceit of the book is that John Farrell used a hand-held device to record much of his life for a blog, and that this device is found much later and turned into a book. This is explained in the prologue, which brings up my one small beef.

The prologue is almost unintelligible before you read the story and would have served better as an epilogue. It is well-constructed, however, and I recommend you re-read it when you’re done with the book.

Magery is a very good writer; although this is his first novel, he has written professional for many years and it shows. The Postmortal is science fiction at its best, portraying a realistic potential future while plumbing the depth of human nature. And in this case, providing a truly a cautionary fairy tale.

Article first published as Book Review: The Postmortal by Drew Magary on Blogcritics.

Book Review: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

2011-09-11T15:52:00.001-04:00

The Magician King is Lev Grossman’s terrific follow-up to his 2009 hit fantasy book, The Magicians. If you enjoyed The Magicians, you're sure to love The Magician King as well.

In The Magicians, Quentin Coldwater went from dorky kid to a master of magic and one of the kings of Fillory, the land depicted in his favorite fantasy books from childhood that most people take for fiction.

As The Magician King opens, two years have passed with Quentin and his friends Eliot, Janet, and Julia serving as kings and queens in Fillory. It turns out being king of a magical land is not terribly challenging, however, so Quentin is restless. He longs for an adventure, a quest even.

Not sure he’s ready for real trouble, Quentin decides to go on a tax-collecting mission instead. During the not-at-all dangerous trip, he hears about an intriguing golden key. Unable to resist temptation, he decides to find it instead of returning home. Quentin has found his quest, but it may be more than he bargained for.

Interspersed with chapters from Quentin’s point of view are chapters from Julia’s. Julia was Quentin’s friend and crush in high school. She took the entry test for the school of magic Brakebill’s College at the same time as Quentin, but unlike him, she failed to get in. In The Magician King, we get her full back story. After Quentin declined to help her learn magic, she had to go to great lengths to study in a seedy magic underworld. She eventually finds her “tribe,” an equally brilliant and committed group living in France. What Quentin faces is nothing compared to what Julia and her friends confront.

The Magician King is fanciful, smart, and fun. As in his first book, Grossman takes a hip, almost cynical approach to magic. Yes, magic is real, but it’s not for children, and things don’t always turn out for the good as Quentin expects. But it’s quite the ride on this quest, and it’s worth every minute.

Article first published as Book Review: The Magician King by Lev Grossman on Blogcritics.

The Coffins of Little Hope

2011-08-28T08:36:00.003-04:00

The Coffins of Little Hope is Timothy Schaffert’s deceptively titled latest book. Evoking the macabre, it is anything but. Instead, it is a small-town delight, with both a lightness and a richness that will fly by while you savor every moment.

Essie Myles is an 83-year-old obituary writer from a dying town in rural Nebraska. She lives across the street from her grandson Doc, who runs the local paper where her obits are published. With Doc lives Tiff, Essie’s 13-year-old great-granddaughter, issue of Doc’s sister Ivy, who ran off to Paris when Tiff was seven.

Doc’s paper was one of several small-town publications that had been selected to print, in secret, the eleventh and last of the dark-but-wildly-popular book series about two sisters who live in an asylum, but manage to get up to a myriad of twisted adventures. (Think Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events crossed with Harry Potter.)

That very same summer, a local woman named Daisy claims an itinerant aerial photographer stole her daughter Lenore. Even though no one has heard of Lenore and Daisy can provide no good picture of her or even a birth certificate, her story captures imaginations.

The next six months are a time of turbulence for the town and Essie. The world becomes obsessed with the story of Lenore (in no small way thanks to Doc’s relentless coverage), pages of the secret book may have been leaked, and Ivy returns to Essie’s family, turning the town and Essie’s life upside down.

The Coffins of Little Hope is charming and filled to the brim with eccentricities. Essie, an octogenarian narrator who is in full control of her faculties, narrates in a no-nonsense way that is refreshing and encouraging. The chapters are short and contain many a chuckle-worthy moment, while the whole arc of the story provides low-key commentary on many of the foibles in modern American culture. I have great hope for The Coffins of Little Hope and see many a reader and book group joining the search for the elusive Lenore.

Article first published as Book review: The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert on Blogcritics.

Library Journal Reviews: Mike Tyson Slept Here, The Talk Funny Girl

2011-08-15T16:05:00.003-04:00

These reviews appeared in April and July, 2011, respectively. When you follow the link, scroll down.

Huntington, Chris. Mike Tyson Slept Here. Boaz, dist. by New Harbinger. May 2011. c.224p.ISBN 9781893448100.pap. $14.95. F

Review page:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/book/889718-421/fiction_reviews_april_15_2011.html.csp

Merullo, Roland. The Talk Funny Girl. Crown. Jul. 2011. c.320p. ISBN 9780307452924. $23. F

Review page:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/891181-289/xpress_reviewsfirst_look_at_new.html.csp

The Compass of Pleasure

2011-08-03T07:06:00.004-04:00

I loved The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden. It's about the "pleasure circuit" in the brain: the anatomy and physiology of brain cells that result in our experiencing pleasure.

If that sounds a geeky, it's absolutely not. Linden's book is a delight (his occasional efforts to teach the reader a little brain science not withstanding), unfolding like a mystery in easy prose with touches of humor. First, he shows us that there is, in fact, a particular area deep in the brain that is responsible for pleasurable feelings, and when it is possible to stimulate it directly (as in animal experiments and one unfortunate and unethical human one), the individual would stimulate it until they die, it is so compelling.

Linden then explores how the pleasure circuit is involved in addiction, love and sex, memory and learning, each chapter adding clues to the puzzle of pleasure. He looks to evolution for the reasons we each (and just about every other organism on earth) have one. His observations are both refreshing (pleasure is just as important with virtue as vice) and disturbing (his view of the future of pleasure would make on scary sci-fi novel).

I was a psych major in college (I'm not saying how long ago), so have a good basic understanding of neurons, neurotransmitters, and the like. I therefore did not spend the time to read all the extra detail on neurobiology put in the book. I think Linden could have left it out completely, but with my basic understanding of the brain already at hand, I'm a not a good judge of how a novice would fair. And Linden is a good professor and thinks his readers will benefit from understanding some of how the brain works under the hood, bless him.

Still not sure if this book is for you? Hear what the author himself has to say when he was a guest on NPR's Fresh Air in June 2011 talking about the book.

2011-07-08T16:31:00.000-04:00

New Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

Christine awakes each morning not knowing where she is. She suffered a traumatic brain injury at age 29 and has a strange form of amnesia that erases her current memories every night when she goes to sleep. The age she believes herself to be varies when she awakes, but she always expects herself to be no older than her late 20’s and is shocked to find herself in a middle-aged body.

Her husband Ben cares for her at home, but she discovers each day that she has been seeing a neurologist who believes he can help her and has encouraged her to keep a diary without her husband’s knowledge.

As Christine pieces together her past through keeping and reading her diary, she comes to realize things may not be quite as her husband has told her. But how can she solve the mystery when she has no memory?

Absorbing and thrilling, S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep is an amazing debut novel. It not only pieces together a story inspired by true amnesiacs but also raises the question of how much of who we are depends on our memories. A great read for this summer and any time afterward.

Article first published as Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson on Blogcritics.

New review posted 6/28/11

2011-06-30T06:55:00.001-04:00

Graveminder

by Melissa Marr

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-graveminder-by-melissa-marr/

New Review 6/17/11: The Mindfulness Revolution

2011-06-18T07:06:00.000-04:00

Do you know what mindfulness is? Do you want to? A great place to start is a new book called The Mindfulness Revolution: Leading Psychologists, Scientists, Artists, and Meditation Teachers on the Power of Mindfulness in Daily Life. Compiled by the editors of the magazine Shambhala Sun, this book could also serve as a reference for anyone who already knows something about this meditative technique.

For those who ask what mindfulness is, the first part of the book, “How to Practice Mindfulness,” answers the question in spades, beginning with the first chapter by Zen teacher Jan Chozen Bays, “What is Mindfulness?” Here’s her answer: “Mindfulness means deliberately paying attention, being fully aware of what is happening both inside yourself — in your body, heart, and mind — and outside yourself in your environment.” Sounds simple. Want to give it a try? Keep reading the section, where there is plenty of instruction, to find out how.

The book has three more parts rounding it out. “Mindfulness in Daily Life,” discusses how mindfulness can make us happy and can be applied to every activity from raking leaves to making music. “Mindfulness, Health, and Healing” discusses one of the hottest topics in mind-body research: how mindfulness can be beneficial to both physical and mental well-being, relieving pain, lowering blood pressure, and the like. “Interpersonal Mindfulness,” discusses how mindfulness can benefit every relationship, from spouses to parents to children and society as a whole.

Another reason this volume is a great resource is that the contributors are well-known Buddhist leaders and mindfulness writers.Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trungpa, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield,and even the Dalai Lama contributed chapters to this book. Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn, pyschologist Daniel Goleman, and physician Daniel Siegel are also among the authors.

The chapters could easily stand alone, and there is much overlap among them, so if a particular topic appeals, it is quite easy to dip in wherever a reader’s interest most lies. The end pages include not only short biographies of the contributors but five pages of resources: where to find guided audio instruction, free online audio and video mindfulness instruction, online courses in mindfulness, media (websites and publications), and organizations and centers that offer classes, workshops, personal training, etc., in mindfulness.

For anyone who has heard of mindfulness but doesn’t know where to start, this book is a great resource. If you know about mindfulness and want to refresh your basic understanding or get ideas from many Western perspectives, again, this volume serves. It is a highly-accessible account that stresses how mindfulness can benefit just about anyone. Reading this book can, too.

Article first published as Book Review: The Mindfulness Revolution, Compiled by the Editors of Shambhala Sun on Blogcritics.

New review posted 4/9/11

2011-04-10T19:58:00.001-04:00

Warm Bodies

by Isaac Marion

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-warm-bodies-by-isaac/

New review posted 3/27/11

2011-03-28T17:58:00.000-04:00

The Terror of Living

by Urban Waite

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-terror-of-living/

Library Journal Review: the latest by Maine author Paul Doiron

2011-03-25T07:31:00.000-04:00

Trespasser

by Paul Doiron

Scroll down to the "Last-Minute Mystery" section:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/ljinprintcurrentissue/889239-403/fiction_reviews_march_15_2011.html.csp

The Illumination

2011-03-24T06:48:00.000-04:00

I was so looking forward to reading Kevin Brockmeier’s The Illumination. I loved his last novel, The Brief History of the Dead, and I could not imagine not liking the new one. The unthinkable has happened, however.

The Illumination begins on a day when, for no apparent reason, pain becomes visible. Pain in the body--from injury or illness--begins to emit light. There is no more hiding medical conditions like cancer; they glow unmistakably. Psychic pain also glows, although in a more diffuse way, from the head.

The book also begins with an accident. Carol Ann Page cuts her thumb trying to open a box her ex-husband sent her and wrapped with packing tape as if it contained the golf of Fort Knox. When she goes into surgery to have it repaired, she can see the light.

When she goes back to her room, a roommate arrives, another woman. She has a bound journal with her that contains all the love notes her husband has left her since they married. Every morning on the fridge, he left a note about something he loved about her. They had been in the car together when they had a horrible accident; since the hospital staff will not answer her questions about him, she assumes he has died, and offers the book to Carol Ann.

Carol Ann Page declines, but when the woman dies in the night (her abdomen lighting up so brightly it shines right through the covers on the bed), Carol Ann decides to take it. It is only a week later she discovers that the husband survived and was frantic to find the book. Carol Ann, who seemed to be on the rebound from her divorce, is devastated by having made the man suffer.

The most interesting thing to me about this chapter was Carol Ann noticing that the woman’s body continued to glow after she was pronounced dead, which seemed to indicate pain survives death, at least for a little while.

The next chapter moves to the man, Jason Williford, who is barely able to function after his wife’s death. A freelance photographer, when he has recovered enough, he goes out and starts taking pictures, documenting The Illumination. He comes across some teenagers who cut themselves, which makes for some interesting images. He falls in with the group when he discovers that creating physical pain blots out the pain of his wife's death.

The descriptions of Jason self-inflicting pain were just too painful for me to read; my head would have been glowing, had The Illumination been real. While the writing is superb and the interlinked stories interesting, after reading this review in Salon, I feel I don’t need to finish the book.

I’m sorry Mr. Brockmeier, but I’m just not up to taking on your elegant examination of pain. And if you’re squeamish, I wouldn’t recommend it to you either. But if any of this intrigues you, I urge you to go for it, because Kevin Brockmeier has got to be one of the most thoughtful, interesting, and talented writers working today.

New LJ review: The King of Diamonds

2011-02-27T17:14:00.000-05:00

The King of Diamonds

by Simon Tolkien

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviewsbook/888567-421/fiction_reviews_february_1_2011.html.csp

(scroll down; they are alpha by author)

Review: Mr. Hooligan

2011-02-27T17:07:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when I start a book, the opening grabs me, and I think, “This is good writing!” I have found, however, that such books usually disappoint me. They do not live up to that initial draw.

Mr. Hooligan by Ian Vasquez is such a book for me. Chapter one dangled a hope a fabulous tale to come. On the Caribbean island of Belize, a woman is speaking with a dying man, and she says she will tell him the story of a certain young man, who was in trouble years ago. No names, no hints, just the promise of a story worth the wait.

Immediately we move to Riley James and his friend Harvey, drinking, driving and getting into trouble. Thus begins the long story, told in real time, of how Riley became indebted to the Monsanto crime family; how he wants to get out, to marry the beautiful American woman living next door; how all is not what it seems.

I had hoped for somebody more sympathetic than a small-time crook for a protagonist, after that opening. I put down the book. I picked it up again, put it down again. The story just never gained any momentum for me, so I gave up.

I looked it up on Amazon and found six people had given it 5 stars. Booklist called it “classic noir” and said it “plays all the notes with feeling.” Could I be wrong? Absolutely. I may never have given the book sufficient chance. Or I might just not care for drug runners and their seamy world.

So if you are a noir fan, you like drug stories, or those set in the Caribbean, don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. In 2009, Ian Vasquez’ last book, Lonesome Point, won a Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America. As I said, the man knows how to put words together. Whether you find what he has written a winning combination may depend on your tastes.

New BC review: The Radleys

2011-02-05T17:44:00.000-05:00

The Radleys

by Matt Haig

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-radleys-by-matt/

New BC review: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

2011-01-14T16:05:00.000-05:00

Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-unbroken-a-world-war/

New LJ review: Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

2011-01-14T15:58:00.000-05:00

Started Early, Took My Dog

by Kate Atkinson

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviewsbook/888385-421/fiction_reviews_january_2011.html.csp

(2nd one down)

Review: The Wolves of Andover

2011-01-03T06:52:00.000-05:00

The Wolves of Andover, the prequel to Kathleen Kent's 2008 best seller The Heretic's Daughter, tells the back story of Kent's ancestor Martha Carrier, who was burned as witch during the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century.

Martha is on her way to becoming an old maid—over 20 and not yet married—when she arrives to help at her cousin Patience's house. Patience is pregnant with her third child and feeling quite ill. There are two men to help with the farm, one of whom, Thomas, is very tall and who grows on Martha. It turns out the Thomas is more than he appears, however, as he is wanted by the King of England, who sends men to the Colonies to find him.

I'm afraid I can't recommend The Wolves of Andover generally. I found it predictable and tiresome, and I was unable to finish. I have not read The Heretic's Daughter, so I have no intrinsic interest in Martha Carrier; perhaps those who want to know more about her would like the book.

For an excellent review of both the book's strengths and weaknesses, I recommend the review by Liz Raftery that appeared in The Boston Globe.

Review: Man in the Woods

2010-12-03T12:19:00.000-05:00

When Paul Phillips was young, he spent time in Alaska and worked his way east to upstate New York, to follow a girl. Along the way he forgot about the girl but learned how to build things, and it seemed to suit him, and now he makes his living as a carpenter. He never wants to concern himself with money, so he always takes twice as long to do his work and never charges enough for his labor, which he pours into his creations. He loves wood, and it shows. Eventually he is hired by author Kate Ellis to work on her house. She falls in love with him, and Paul obligingly loves her back, along with her daughter Ruby.

One day, in his meandering way, Paul stops in a park in Tarrytown on his way back from the city, and comes across a man with a dog. The man inexplicably begins to beat the dog, and Paul intervenes. The man will not stop coming at Paul, who snaps, and ferociously pummels the guy until he is dead. Stunned, Paul scoops up the dog and brings him home.

What follows is the story of Paul and Kate and how their spiritual paths criss-cross. Kate has written a best-selling autobiography of overcoming alcohol AA-style, by finding Jesus, but when Paul tells her what he has done, Kate decides to protect him, and Jesus leaves her. Paul, having never thought much about religion, starts to do good works to atone for his sin and starts to feel God's plan in how it is turning out.

This turn of philosophy is the most interesting part of the book and gave me plenty to contemplate after I had finished. I found it hard to get into reading it, however. The first few chapters talk about the man whom Paul kills, from his point of view. Starting from that point of view felt like a false start to me. The same can be said for some other chapters taking place "off-screen" to Paul. While it might have helped the narrative along to know someone was actually trying to solve the murder of the man in the woods, it was not necessary to adopt the point of view of many of those involved.

In the end, therefore, I'm just a bit frustrated that the book's structure wasn't tighter, because it could have been fantastic instead of simply interesting. Kate Ellis is a wonderful, if stereotypical, character of the turn of the millennium (the book is set in late 1999 and early 2000), when 12-step groups were still big. She is smart and foul-mouthed all the while spouting folksy spiritual wisdom. How can you dislike someone who makes you laugh like that?

Kate Ellis made her first appearance in Spencer's Ship Made of Paper. This book finishing by answering the basic question of the book: will Paul get caught? But it does not supply an ending to the story, so perhaps we will see Kate, Ruby, and Paul again in the future.

Review: The Language of Trees by Ilie Ruby

2010-11-14T07:11:00.000-05:00

Three young children, two girls and a boy, get in a canoe unsupervised one evening on Canadaigua Lake, one of the finger lakes in upstate New York. The weather worsens, the wind kicks up waves, the paddle is lost, and only two of the children return. The youngest, the boy, is not to seen again for a year, when his body finally surfaces.

Thus begins The Language of Trees by Ilie Ruby, set around Canadaigua Lake and some of its long-time residents. There is Grant Shongo, returning to his family's cabin for the first time in years in order to recover from his wife's leaving him after three miscarriages. Also returning is Echo O'connell, who was brought up on the lake by her distant cousin Joseph O'Connell, owner of the local general store, after her parents were killed in a car crash. They return to confront the wreckage left by the canoe accident long ago—Grant's cabin haunted by the boy's ghost; the boy's mother and sisters, all struggling and haunted in their own ways—and each other. They had been inseparable as teenagers but had not spoken in years. Through it all runs the legacy and lore of the Seneca Indians, who once lived around the lake and whose spirit wields its influence still.

The Language of Trees has some wonderful moments and some suspenseful ones as well. Overall, it is a lovely story of love, loss, and redemption. Most of the characters are very human and lovable; only one is truly evil and turns out to be the source of much of pain in the book. While I enjoyed it, I often found the beautiful language it is written in getting in the way of the story; it is so pretty at times, it is distracting. (Ilie Ruby is also a painter.) The lake is given too many colors, the natural world takes too many actions (trees draw the dew across the grass one moment and are breathless the next). Call me a philistine, but I believe literary images should be rock-hard, draw crisp pictures in the mind, and above all serve the story, rather than be impressionistic, drawing attention to themselves.

Once again I find myself wishing for an editor who would be a task master, one who can see the story as a sculptor envisions his creation in the block of granite and is willing to chip away at some beautiful stuff to bring out what's hidden. I found The Language of Trees to be just too fuzzy to get a rave review from me, and for that I am sorry, because it is truely a lovely story.

Review: So Cold the River by Michael Koryta

2010-11-01T07:17:00.000-04:00

Eric Shaw is a washed-up filmmaker who has returned to Chicago from LA and has been relegated to making memorial videos for funerals for a living. The fact that he sometimes picks up on things no one else does -- strong feelings about the past that seem to be messages from the dead -- helps him in his current line of work, but otherwise is just embarrassing. After a client is struck by one of his observations, however, he is offered a video job that takes him to new psychic heights and incredible danger.

The job involves digging up the past of Campbell Bradford, a dying nonagenarian who quietly amassed a tremendous fortune. Eric is to go to the adjacent towns of French Lick and West Badan, Indiana, where Bradford grew up, and is handed a bottle of mineral water from the area, a curio that Bradford had with him his whole life but would say nothing about. The bottle is oddly cold regardless of the room temperature. Eric decides to taste it, and it make him violently ill. He takes the bottle with him when he goes south, and it becomes downright frosty. He also decides to taste it again and this time finds it sweet, drinking much of it. Each time he drinks, he has visions of a man in a bowler hat who appears to be from the late 1920's.

In between swigs, Eric has withdrawl symptoms from the water, but he finds that if he drinks mineral water from the 1920's from a different bottle, the symptoms are contained. While dealing with his reactions to the water and researching Bradford, he runs in to some interesting characters: the brother of a famous basketball player who is researching the Black history of the area; an elderly woman who is a tornado spotter; and Bradford's good-for-nothing grandson. It soon becomes clear that the story of Campbell Bradford from Chicago is not quite the same as the Campbell Bradford from French Lick, the weather is getting worse, and the man in the bowler hat becomes more than a vision; he is a ghost trying to manipulate the present. And in the midst of all this is the newly-restored historic West Baden Hotel. It is, itself, a character in the book, lovingly described and the center of much of the action.

So Cold the River is an unusual ghost story. Haunted mineral water? Now that's different. The characters were more-or-less likable and believable (although Eric is whiney and pretty stupid to drink the mineral water a second time after it makes his ill the first), but the book was just too long, and the fascinating denouement was marred by inconsistencies. At one point on character is so injured he can hardly move and within an hour be rushes to help Eric, who is within sight but a distance away over difficult terrain. Sorry, adrenaline can only do so much, in my opinion.

I just didn't quite get how the haunted mineral water worked, either. OK, a guy with psychic leanings drinks the stuff and has very realistic visions of a ghost. But why does he have horrible physical symptoms that are only cured by drinking more of the stuff? Why does drinking other water from that era hold the symptoms off and lessen the visions? Unnecessary.

And that is exactly my beef with this 500+ page book; so much of it seemed unnecessary. Koryta confesses it started out as a novela and just kept going. There's nothing inherently wrong with starting that way, but finishing as well? Where was the editor? This narrative has too many characters, plot devices, and repetitive foreshadowing in the form of weather.

I bet if I were from Indiana and knew of the real West Badan Hotel, which sounds amazing, I would have been much more interested in this story. As it is, I am just a bit confounded and not in all interested should the haunted mineral water threaten the town of French Lick again.

See what The New York Times had to say about the book: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/books/01book.html

Latest BC review: Room by Emma Donoghue

2010-10-31T16:17:00.000-04:00

Room

by Emma Donoghue

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-room-by-emma-donoghue/

New review up

2010-10-05T11:10:00.000-04:00

...at Blogcritics:

Pretty Little Things

by Jilliane Hoffman

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-pretty-little-things-by/

Dogfight, a Love Story review up on Library Journal website

2010-09-21T15:56:00.000-04:00

It was published in the fiction section of the September 15, 2010 issue. (It's the 2nd one down).

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/ljinprint/currentissue/886443-403/fiction_reviews_sep_15_2010.html.csp

Book Review: City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris

2010-09-17T15:37:00.000-04:00

You know a book is good when you ache to get back to it because the characters demand your attention and you need to know what's going to happen next. That's how I felt about City of Veils, Zoe Ferraris' novel about love and murder set in Saudi Arabia. Written in taught, seamless prose, City of Veils is a first-rate mystery, but it is also so much more.

As the story opens, a young woman's mutilated body washes up on a beach outside Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At first the police think she must be another housemaid; the foreign workers are the women the most found murdered in the area. It soon becomes clear such is not the case.

Meanwhile, Miriam Walker is returning to Jeddah from a month-long visit to her family in the United States. She and her husband Eric came to Saudi Arabia for a year for his work as a security guard. Miriam is not looking forward to her return, because she and Eric do not live in one of the compounds where most Americans live; he insisted it was safer and more authentic to live among city natives. Instead, they live in an apartment in town where Miriam is a virtual prisoner, because she knows no one and women going out unaccompanied risk stares from men and being stopped, perhaps jailed, by the religious police. Minutes after bringing Miriam home from the airport, Eric goes out for takeout…and doesn’t return. One of Miriam's worst nightmares becomes a reality.

Back at police headquarters, Katya, a lab technician, and one of the few women who work for the police, searches the evidence for clues about the unidentified female murder victim. Katya is good at her job, but looking for more. When she decides to investigate the murder on the side, she asks her friend Nayir, who shows up unexpectedly, for help. Katya and Nayir have not seen each other since solving the mystery in Ferraris’s first novel, Finding Nouf.

And here’s where the various strands of the narrative start to merge and pick up speed and intensity. Ferraris does an excellent job integrating cultural issues into her who-done-it. She creates empathy for her Muslim characters while realistically depicting their lives. As a reader, I first found the restraints imposed by Muslim religious law quite frustrating, but somewhere in the middle of the book I began to accept them for what they are: the social milieu of the characters. Their concerns became real to me, and their actions more understandable.

At the same time, Ferraris shows that hiding women’s bodies from men will fend off temptation or prevent serious crimes against them. She also depicts the characters who choose humane action as opposed to strictly adhering to custom with the greatest sympathy and allows some religious characters come to question the role of law in their lives.

I highly recommend City of Veils for readers looking for a book that is both sensitive and entertaining. In fact, it should be required reading because it opens up a world that Americans need to understand.

First published by Writers News Weekly

Book Review: I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

2010-09-12T09:53:00.000-04:00

A serial killer who abducts and rapes teenage girls chooses not to murder one of his victims. Why not? What is like for her to be the one who survived? These are the questions that sparked Laura Lippman's writing in latest novel.

I'd Know You Anywhere is the story of Elizabeth Lerner, a 37-year-old woman who had been abducted at age 15. Not only was she the victim who survived, but Walter Bowman, her abductor, also took her on the run with him for six weeks.

The book opens when Elizabeth, now Eliza Benedict, moves back to the Washington, D.C. area after 20 years away, living first in Texas, then in England. She's a married, stay-at-home mother of two children who believes she's left the past behind her. At the same time, Walter Bowman is finally going to be put to death in nearby Virginia, and he contacts her, saying he wants to see her to make amends before he dies. Understandably, this rocks Eliza's world.

What follows is a thoughtful and thorough tour of both the abduction—told in real-time chapters alternating with the present—and its aftermath. The narrating voice moves among Eliza, Walter, a creepy death-row advocate helping him, and the mother of the last girl killed. Eliza is forced to revisit memories she had long kept at bay and examine her own motives for her actions when she was taken. Her sister tells Eliza the effect of the abduction on the Lerner family, and Walter explains and makes excuses the whole way.

I'd Know You Anywhere is compelling reading, its socially-conscious topic putting me in mind of Jodi Picoult's books. It also struck me as honest, in that there are no easy answers for any character. Ms. Lippman appears to inhabit her characters with ease, switching voices—and in the case of Eliza, ages—convincingly. She channels serial-killer Walter with aplomb, an ability she talked about when she appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson:

Ms. Lippman's writing is eminently readable. The action is unpacked slowly, suspensefully, in tightly-constructed chapters that are real page-turners. I found the ending slightly anticlimactic after the drama coming before it, but it is satisfying none-the-less. Loosely based on a real crime (I do so wish Ms. Lippman had told us which one!), I'd Know You Anywhere should make any lover of contemporary crime fiction happy.

Article first published as Book Review: I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman on Blogcritics.

New review, review to come, and now reading

2010-09-01T14:26:00.000-04:00

My review of Johannes Cabal the Detective was posted today on Blogcritics: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-johannes-cabal-the-detective/

I just finished I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman and presently working on a reivew. Check out the author's interview with Craig Ferguson (courtesy of Library Love Fest): http://harperlibrary.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/09/laura-lippman-on-craig-ferguson.html

And I've taken a break from reviewing duties to read Catching Fire, the second book in the fabulous YA series "The Hunger Games." Loving it!!

Just finished

2010-08-23T09:26:00.000-04:00

I just read Faithful Place: A Novel by Tana French. Fabulous! I agree with my friends who said it's her best yet.

I'm reading! Honest!

2010-08-12T12:51:00.000-04:00

Boy I have been bad about posting. Mea culpa! After the Steinhour book, which I really enjoyed, I read Big Machine by Victor LaValle. I thought I would love it but I found it frustrating. Much too modern for me (read "not enough action"; I like novels that tell stories you can follow....).

Next I read a book to review for Library Journal: Dogfight, A Love Story by Matt Burgess (Dartmouth '06). I loved it a lot and look forward to posting a link to my review when it is published.

And now I'm working on Johannes Cabal the Detective by Jonathan L. Howard. I reviewed his first Johannes Cabal novel for LJ (republished here by B&N), and so I was excited to read this one. I have been having a hard time finding the time to concentrate on it, but it is fun.

Up on deck: the new Tana French novel, Faithful Place: A Novel. Yay!

Reading The Tourist

2010-07-16T16:07:00.000-04:00

I'm currently reading The Tourist by Olen Steinhouer (Minotaur, 2009). I had read a great review of the follow-up (The Nearest Exit) and wanted to start at the beginning. I'm glad I did; The Tourist is fabulous so far, with a nail-biting action sequence for a prologue, an intriguing protagonist, and an insider-look at the culture of "the Company" that rings true to at least an educated-only-through-popular-media CIA watcher like myself. The narrative is tight, and the twists just keep coming. I feel like I need to pay attention, but not too much for vacation. Really looking forward to following this one through...on vacation. (Yay!)

The Starlet by Mary McNamara

2010-07-06T07:22:00.000-04:00

Juliette Greyson is the kind of can-do person who makes Hollywood run behind the scenes. An expert at smoothing out the ruffles of the stars when they stay at LA's swank Pinnacle hotel, Juliette just had to get away for a while. So, she headed for Tuscany, where her cousin runs the villa/farm they jointly inherited when their parents were killed in a car accident years ago.

Enjoying a coffee in town, Juliette is abashed to see Mercy Talbot, child star turned gifted and troubled femme fatale, climb a statue in the central square and prepare to dive into its fountain. Unable to keep from helping, Juliette scoops up Mercy and whisks her away from the papa razzi to the villa. Mercy is in the area making a film which has just retained aging-but-still-devestatingly-handsome Michael O'Connor, with whom Juliette had an affair in LA.

Thus author Mary McNamara sets the stage for her heroine's next adventure (Oscar Season was her first). Not many thoughts outside the Hollywood bubble occur to anyone involved, but The Starlet is fine summer entertainment.There's a little something for everyone in this one: love, gossip, murder. More of Juliette's troubled back story is revealed. Even if the rest of us can't relate to some of it (coming from a family with enough money to own a villa in Italy), there are elements that are understandable (drug addiction hits all social strata).

I was interested in this book because I love to look behind the curtain at movies being made. While not as revealing as a good "making of" DVD extra, The Starlet dishes up plenty in that department too. If any of these topics interest you and you're looking for a way to get away to Italy this summer without the airfare, I recommend The Starlet.

Currently reading

2010-06-11T16:30:00.000-04:00

I am currently reading, and have been reading, for the last six weeks since I last posted. I have just been very busy with work (what's up with that, my day job cutting into my reading?!). I was at work until 4 a.m. last night, as a matter of fact, and now I am running on 3 hours of sleep, with a few miles more to go before I get to sleep again.

All that is to explain why I cannot remember the title of the book I'm reading. I have promised to review it so I will report on it. And by then I will be able to supply the title.

Since I last wrote, I thought I would read purely for entertainment (not for review, not for book group) and was interested in the latest Scott Turrow, Innocent. Since it was a sequel to Presumed Innocent, I read that first. I may have read it when it came out 20+ years ago, but if so, I didn't remember it. I enjoyed it, but I think it lessened my enjoyment of the sequel. My reaction to the plot was, "what, again?" It wasn't bad, but I wish I hadn't paid for it, especially when I realized I could have gotten a review copy from the publisher. Sigh.

Well that's all the news I have the energy to type. Until next time, happy perusing!

Reading - The Dream of Perpetual Motion

2010-05-09T15:51:00.000-04:00

I am reading The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer. It's an alternative history of the early 20th century, where machines with gears and vacuum tubes dominate the landscape. In the time before the machines, just a generation before, real angels would appear and magically intervene, but no more. Harold, an unlikely hero (perhaps he's an antihero; I haven't gotten that far), tells the story of his life and interaction with the mega-mogul responsible for the man-machines and most other mechanical wonders in his city-state Xeroville: Prospero Taligent.

Dream is a very strange book. The writing is not of the read-lightly-get-sucked-in variety. The whole thing is rather byzantine, like the cover illustration:

All that's not to say I don't like it; on the contrary, I find it quite interesting. It's just not the kind of light read I could use at the moment.

Book review posted

2010-05-09T15:41:00.000-04:00

My review of The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi is up on Blogcritics: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-messenger-of-athens/

Reading - Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

2010-04-27T04:05:00.000-04:00

I have had this book for probably 3 years, I am ashamed to admit. I finally picked it up this week, and I am so glad I did! I have always been interested this topic, but it's even more timely than I realized. Why do irrational ideas, with no basis in fact (like many promoted by certain political groups) take hold, while the truth languishes? I am going to find out! Actually, I've already read the 6 principles of sticky ideas in the introduction, but now I will steep myself in them and hopefully come out the other side with an understanding of how to be more persuasive with my ideas.

Have read: Broken Glass Park

2010-04-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

Read and really liked Broken Glass Park. Read my review here.

Reading: The Help

2010-04-05T11:04:00.000-04:00

Yes, finally, reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, for book group. A best seller, 4+ stars on Amazon, starred review from Publisher's Weekly, so, probably not surprising that I am enjoying it. It's the engrossing story of a group of women from Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960's -- some of them young, white women and others their African-American maids. I'm only a quarter of the way through it, so I can't say how it will ultimately seem to me, but I am liking it SO much better than the last book I read.

Still reading

2010-04-01T07:45:00.000-04:00

I'm still reading Dear Money, or rather, I'm reading it again. I got so frustrated with the poor little successful author who wanted to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous in New York I had to put it down. I care just barely enough about some of the characters (although not the author protagonist) to see it through. I think.

In the meantime, I read Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay, the one Dexter book I still had left. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as the others. It could have been that I was distracted a lot while reading; I was visiting my mother and was repeatedly interrupted. But that's not really it. In Dexter in the Dark, Lindsay explains Dexter in an otherworldly fashion -- his suffering has called to him an evil spirit that drives him to kill.

Why, why, why? Why mess with Dexter-as-sociopath? He's much more interesting when he is merely human. Now we know that his evil acts actually stem from evil, as an entity separate from humanity, that has inhabited him. Most unsatisfactory. Perhaps I should seek out an author interview to see if he explains himself. Humph.

Coming...in about 3 months

2010-03-25T08:21:00.000-04:00

What to do about reading pre-press books? I love being on the cutting edge, but the downside is nobody will know what I'm talking about until the book is published, in this case: June.

Oh well, I will say something anyway. I'm reading Dear Money by Martha McPhee. It's about an award-winning woman novelist married to a sculptor. They are living and raising their two daughters in Manhattan, where they cannot afford the lifestyle to which she aspires. My first reactions were, "pretentious" and "who cares?" Yes, the writing is gorgeous, but I find it hard to get worked up about desire in the not-quite-rich and the almost-famous.

Happily, the plot has thickened and has caught my interest. It's clear things cannot end well, and that sets my teeth a bit on edge, but I will plow on none-the-less.

In case you're interested, I finished the Dexter book of last post quickly and happily. My "OMG" reaction to the crime melted away. I became inured to it and enjoyed Dexter's wordplay on it. A blurb on the cover called the book a "macabre masterpiece." I heartily agree. One more to go!

Reading: Dearly Devoted Dexter

2010-03-22T09:34:00.000-04:00

Finally back to my favorite serial killer, Jeff Lindsay's Dexter Morgan. I'm reading Dearly Devoted Dexter, the second book in the series. I love the Showtime series based on the novels, but the books give you a much better look at what is going on in Dexter's head. (I was delighted with the fourth and the first, when I read them, in that order.) The descriptions of the Dexter's double life are fascinating, and much of the rest is just fun -- Miami's homicidal roadway traffic, Dexter' beautiful and foul-mouthed sister, Deb.

All that being said, the books are darker. The TV Dexter is a killer, but he's just so darn handsome and likable. In some ways he comes off as innocent who is naive about what makes the world go 'round: gossip and politics. The book Dexter is colder, more detached, less human. He seems to enjoy his "little hobby" of killing bad people more in the books.

Even so, I was a little surprised as the handiwork of the first crime depicted in this second book. It is sick and truly disturbing. It makes me feel a bit bad for raving about how much I love Dexter. It also makes me wonder about Jeff Lindsay. How did he come up with this? Never mind. Might as well ask how Stephen King comes up with his ideas.

I am enjoying the book; don't get me wrong. I just wonder if I am in for more than I realized.

That rare commodity

2010-03-18T11:25:00.000-04:00

I'm a rare commodity. Actually, I'm not rare at all, but I still seem to be valued by publishers for my status as a blogger. I believe this explains why I got a copy of Angelology so quickly. (I'm almost done with my review, honest! These things can't be rushed.)

Just the other day, I got an email out of the blue from a publisher offering me a book because I'm a blogger. I just have to say, how cool is that?

Reading My Stroke of Insight

2010-03-17T11:50:00.000-04:00

My Stroke of Insight was a whim purchase (actually, one of those get-me-up-to-$25-so-I-can-get-free-shipping-from-Amazon" purchases). I thought I didn't need to read it because I had seen a video of Jill Bolte Taylor talking about her stroke, but I figured, what the heck. It is engaging and easy to read (although I might not feel that way if I didn't know the ending). I've gotten past the actual event; now up to her surgery. I'm waiting to hear her spiritual insights after her experience in Nirvana.

Reading: Angelology

2010-03-14T13:37:00.000-04:00

I am really liking Agnelology, which is a long (pushing-500-pages) book. Perhaps it speaks to my ability to suspend disbelief that I reacted with, "Oh come on," only a couple of times. In this book, angels are real, and further, some really bad angels mixed with mankind, and their evil descendants kind of rule the earth. It requires the literal reading of at least parts of Genesis (like the story of the flood). Author Danielle Trussoni does a good job of making all this seem plausible (enough for me). It's a dense book -- you don't want to be skimming -- but it's also a page-turner. How many writers pull that off? Iif you like conspiracy theories and/or thrillers, you could definitely do worse.

I spent most of today reading the book, and the one thing I have to say is it didn't pass the Harry Potter test. Harry Potter test = I can spend a whole day reading and doing laundry and nothing else and feel satisfied. I'm afraid I went a bit stir crazy reading all day. I did do laundry, and I also took a short nap and a short trip to the grocery store to pick up stuff I forgot yesterday. Still, by 4 p.m., I had cabin fever. I'm not sure what this says; I've never been good at staying home all day, which is confirmed. But then, there are worse ways to spend a rainy Sunday, that's for sure!

UPDATE: I finished it and here's my review.

Recent reads

2010-03-10T02:14:00.000-05:00

I finished The Blue Orchard and published my review (here). On Amazon, people have been gushing about this book as if its the next great literary thing, but I was not that impressed. I liked it quite a bit but there was just too much of it, IMHO.

I got Angelology right away from the publisher (in 2 days); were they hoping I could read and the review this 400+ page book in time for its release on March 9? There was no way I could do that.

So, it was with only mild guilt I picked up The Hunger Games first. The children's librarian at Norwich Public Library told me I should read it because I liked Harry Potter so much. And I did like it, more than I realized at first. It's such a different story, and amazingly, the author kept me guessing even though it was clear in some respects what the plot had to be.

The action takes place at an indefinite time in the future, after global warming has reduced the livable surface area of the earth. The action takes place in what used to be the United States, where The Capital is in the Denver area, and the outlying areas are separated into districts based on what they can produce. The heroine, Katniss, is from District 12, where they mine coal.

The districts are hardscrabble places with limited resources, the Capital is technologically advanced. In order to keep the districts in line, the Capital is brutal. One of their worst techniques is the Hunger Games, where 2 teenagers from each district are chosen to fight to the death. Naturally Katniss is chosen.

What made me realize how much I liked the book is how much I've been thinking about it since I finished. It doesn't have the addictive power the Dexter series does, soI don't feel I need to read the next book in the trilogy immediately. But I'm sure I will read it, and probably see the movie when it is made.

I've now started Angelology and really liking it. (This link about becoming an angelologist looks cool: http://www.angelologist.com/) It's not a face read, though; I'll be at it for at least another week.

So much for nothing waiting!

2010-03-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

I was very proud to publish 3 reviews in 7 days over the last week (review/author interview for The Bricklayer published yesterday) and to only have the book I'm reading, The Blue Orchard, on my plate. BUT, this morning, I saw a review for Angelology in the New York Times, and I just had to read it! I requested it, and now it's on its way! Can't wait!

"I'm still thinking"

2010-02-26T12:12:00.000-05:00

In It's a Wonderful Life, when George is a kid and working the soda fountain at Mr. Gower's drug store, Mary and Violet come in. George says, "Made up your mind yet?" Violet tells George what she wants, licorice or something, but Mary says, "I'm still thinking," in a sort of pouty way. That's how the title of this post should be read.

What I'm thinking about is what to do with this blog. I'm not giving up book reviews, far from it. But it must be annoying just to see links to another site here instead of genuine content. I admit, this blog exists purely for my purposes -- to have a destination blog for Blogcritics, and to get to know WordPress.

It's a pain to posts reviews in two places doesn't seem worth it when its essentially the same stuff. I've been messing around with Twitter, too, and it occurred to me maybe I should tweet what I'm reading, and also my reviews. Then it occurred to me: why don't I write about reading?

I have had a really productive week, I am pleased to report. I finished a book last weekend -- now it's Friday and I don't remember which it was! Oh yeah, No Mercy by Lori Armstrong. Anyway, I got that review posted, as well as a review of The Hidden Brain. Right now I'm reading The Blue Orchard for review in Blogcritics. I'm liking it, but when I'm done -- I HAVE NO BOOKS WAITING FOR REVIEW! Whoo-hoo!!

I love getting books to review, but they gang up on me. It is so freeing to look at the book pile and know I'm not obligated to read them. Or write about them. I can read in whatever order I like! I can even drop everything and read another Dexter, which I'm dying to do.

Well, signing off for now. Time to go home and READ! :-)

Review: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

2010-02-12T11:48:00.000-05:00

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

by Heidi W. Durrow

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-girl-who-fell/

:-) :-)

LJ Reivew

2010-02-01T07:14:00.000-05:00

The Inheritence

by Simon Tolkien

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6716045.html

:-/

Review: Personal Effects: Dark Art

2010-01-05T09:22:00.000-05:00

Personal Effects: Dark Art

by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-personal-effects-dark-art/

:-)

2009 Extras

2010-01-03T06:45:00.000-05:00

Below are links to reviews that were published in 2009 but I hadn't posted to this blog.

The Poacher's Son

by Paul Doiron

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6710018.html

:-) :-)

The Long Division

by Derek Nikitis

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6678656.html

:-)

Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer

by Jonathan L. Howard

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6660941.html

:-)

The Brain Trust Program

by Larry McCleary

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-brain-trust-program/

:-p

Little Bird of Heaven

by Joyce Carol Oates

http://www.bookpage.com/books-10012270-Little+Bird+of+Heaven

:-)

Erased

by Jim Krusoe

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-erased-by-jim-krusoe/

:-)

The Magicians

by Lev Grossman

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-magicians-by-lev/

:-)

The Angel's Game

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-angels-game-by2/

:-)

Not available online:

"On the Shelf Summer Reads," Woodstock Magazine, Summer 2009
Books reviewed in this article: American Cream by Catherine Tudish, Still as Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor, The Animal Lovers' Bedtime Reader by Anne Greenall, and Weekending in New England by Betsy Wittemann.

"On the Shelf," Woodstock Magazine, Fall 2009
Books reviewed for this article: Young Woman and the Sea by Glenn Stout, All That I Have by Castle Freeman Jr., The Lamoille Stories by Bill Schubart, Have the Time of Your Life in Retirement by Dave Brazier, and Hiking the Green Mountains by Lisa Densmore.

Review: The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks

2009-12-14T02:58:00.000-05:00

A trilogy is a single narrative spread over three books. This can be a very satisfying way to read a long, complicated story like The Lord of Rings. Continuity is key, however, and I can't imagine how hard it was to read those books as they were being published.

The Golden City, the last book in the Fourth Realm Trilogy by John Twelve Hawks, fell prey to this problem for me. The narrative picks up exactly where the second book, The Dark River, ends. Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, "Travelers" who can leave their bodies behind and travel among the six realms of existence, are taking separate and opposing paths. Gabriel is searching for his father among the realms, wondering what to say to his supporters, and, most urgently, planning to rescue Maya, his protector and lover. Gabriel's brother Michael is plotting to take over the Evergreen Foundation, public face of the Brethren or Tabula, who plan to control the world and its citizens using the Vast Machine -- the network of surveillance cameras and computers that track one's every move.

The book follows Gabriel and Michael through the fifth and sixth realms, unexplored in earlier books. It also follows Maya, who is having second thoughts about the rigors of her calling as a member of the Harlequin, protector of Travelers; citizen-turned-Harlequin Hollis; and evil-doer Nathan Boone as the Brethren moved to exert full control and the Resistance organizes to stop them.

It took me quite a while to regain the feeling for the story, with which I was quite taken when I read the first two books in quick succession. The urgency of the cliff hangers had left me, and I couldn't quite remember what the deal was with some of the minor characters. I had lost the story arc.

Consequently, The Golden City fell flat for me. The inventiveness and drive of the earlier books was not there. Instead, it felt like an ordinary finding-yourself kind of tale. There's the good brother who has to recognize his greatness, the bad brother who must be stopped, the turncoat bad guy driven by a tragedy, and a sinister cabal scheming to take over the world. It was all very predictable, and the Vast Machine seemed like an empty threat.

I can't say if I would have felt differently had a re-read The Traveler and The Dark River before reading The Golden City; I suspect I would have enjoyed it a bit more. I also suspect the stereotypical nature of the story, it's lack of nuance and character development, would also have shown up in the end.

Review: The Body in the Sleigh

2009-12-13T13:54:00.000-05:00

Body in the Sleigh is Katherine Hall Page's latest entry her Faith Fairchild mystery series. It is actually two mysteries, that of a baby boy, named Christopher, left for a single woman named Mary to find in her goat barn (and lay in a manger) on Christmas Eve, and that of a murdered young woman left in an antique sleigh used as a holiday display. The story moves back and forth between Mary, Faith, and the mother of the baby for the first half of the book. The young woman's story is taken up in the second half, and the baby story picks up speed and moves to a satisfying conclusion.

That's not to say Body in the Sleigh is necessarily worth a read. The mystery of the baby is fully explored, but the young woman's story feels a bit like it was slapped on top to keep with "The body in the..." titles of the series. If you like your fictional world filled with well-behaved children, caring neighbors, and people who do wrong only because of some deprivation in their backgrounds, you will love this book. Those who appreciate a Christian focus on the Christmas holiday will also fall for this one this one. In addition, recipes for many of the delicious-sounding dishes discussed are included. If it all that sounds a little too neat and upbeat -- if you like your mysteries realistic and gritty -- than skip this entry in the minister's-wife-protagonist Faith Fairchild series. Librarians take note: the afterward is a love-letter to libraries and librarians.

Short take: Lying With the Dead

2009-12-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

Wow! If you like dysfunctional family stories (a la Jonathan Frazen's The Corrections), Lying with the Dead by Michael Mewshaw will knock your socks off. Told alternately from the points of view of three adult children with emotional scars worse than the physical ones left by their mother's beatings, this story will get to you. Far from being sad, however, it's often funny, and it draws you in, making you fond of the three misfits and wondering if the truth can ever be discerned through their controlling mother's lies.

An edited version of this review was published in the December 2009 Indie Next List <http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781590513187/Michael-Mewshaw/Lying-Dead>.

Short take: Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales

2009-11-05T05:06:00.000-05:00

Big Man tells the story of Clarence Clemons, saxophonist in the E Street band and one of Bruce Springsteen's oldest friends. Not a straightforward biography, the book is a compilation of short anecdotes and "legends" by Clemons and his good friend, television producer Don Reo. There's plenty of sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, and name-dropping, but the tone is light, with plenty of humor and unique insights into one of the world's great rock bands. Easy to pick and put down; a must-read for Springsteen and Clemons fans.

Review: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

2009-09-28T03:19:00.000-04:00

Twins. Cemeteries. Ghosts. Lovely and engaging writing. If any of these things sound interesting, you should pick up Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife. It's being published on Tuesday, September 29th.

Elspeth Noblin, aged 44, dies of cancer in London, leaving her downstairs neighbor and lover, Robert, bereft. Elspeth had an identical twin sister, Edie, whom she had not seen since shortly after Edie ran off to America with Elspeth's fiance, Jack Poole.

Edie and Jack themselves have a set of twin daughters, Julia and Valentina. Elspeth leaves her apartment to them in her will, with the stipulations that the girls live there for a year and that Jack and Edie never set foot in it. The twins, as they are often called — they are identical mirror twins and exceptionally close — accept. They are smart but without direction, have already dropped out of college twice, so it seems like a fine idea to leave their native Chicago to move to London for a year.

When they arrive, they do not immediately meet their neighbors in the other two apartments. Martin, who lives upstairs, is a brilliant man with a grown son and a wife who is exasperated with his unchecked obsessive-compulsive disorder. Having added agoraphobia to his list, he naturally does not venture out to greet the girls. Robert lives on the first floor and is both a shy person and daunted at finally meeting Elspeth's nieces. It is weeks before he speaks to them, and then only when they attend his tour at Highgate, a Victorian cemetery next door to their apartment building, where he is a guide.

Secrets abound among this group. Elspeth never told Robert about her parting from Edie. Edie doesn't confide in Jack. The twins know something happened but can't get anyone to tell them about it.

There is also something strange about Elspeth's flat. There are weird temperature variations, and objects appear to move around by themselves when no one is watching. Could it be Elspeth is not entirely out of the picture?

The supernatural aside, love and identity are a main themes of this story. Julia is the dominant twin, but Valentina resents Julia's bossing. How can Valentina become her own self when Julia won't let her go? Julia, for her part, feels she must protect and care for Valentina, who suffers from asthma and is sickly.

At the same time, each girl feels incomplete without the other, and love is also like that for Robert and Martin, who in their own ways are forced to explore what it is like to be alone.

To what extent should one go to have a separate identity? To what lengths should one go to keep love? I'm not a twin, so I can't say whether the actions either sets of twins take are plausible (which on their surface they don't appear to be). I can say that the non-twin love stories — Robert's and Martin's — speak of love in an idealistic way that is rare in real life.

I don't know if this point should be a cause for criticism, however. Niffenegger's previous and highly successful novel The Time Traveler's Wife was at its heart a love story. It's no surprise that love beyond the normal bounds of existence are at play in Symmetry as well.

Small misgivings aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Her Fearful Symmetry. It is atmospheric — set in and around a London cemetery, how could it not be? Pictures of Highgate grace some pages of the book. They are monochrome and a bit washed out, that is, ghostly. Niffenegger's descriptions of Highgate reveal her knowledge of and affection for the place (she is a volunteer guide herself). London, when the twins venture out into it, is conjured as a bustling and fascinating place. But the apartments of Elspeth and Martin, where much of the action takes place, are almost characters themselves they are so richly imagined.

Although ghosts are reputed to be cold and a ghost story might also be so, Symmetry has great warmth. Audrey Niffenegger draws characters that are sympathetic even when they are being monstrous. Martin is a good example. He is beset by terrible OCD, which makes him nearly impossible to live with. Yet he is terribly charming and it's easy to root for him while being glad his apartment is not real.

What makes this book tick, however, is suspense. Niffenegger skillfully plots her elements, revealing just the right amount to each character. While the reader is in the know about some things, and much of the suspense is created by what the characters will discover and at what point, I found the major plot turns at the end both surprising and satisfying.

So, if you'd like to read an original and imaginative ghost story this Halloween season, you need look no further than Her Fearful Symmetry.

--------------------------

This review was first posted to Blogcritics.org.

Audrey Niffenegger's Latest

2009-09-24T12:37:00.000-04:00

I will post my review of Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel, Audrey Niffenegger's lastest novel, very soon! But in the meantime, her literary agency wants you to know that they’re giving away copies of the book in a lottery to people who join the facebook fan page and email them at hfs@regal-literary.com.

An Indie Next review

2009-09-09T08:39:00.000-04:00

Better late than never. My review of Young Woman and the Sea apparently made it into Indie Next and now is listed on Shelf Awareness.

http://news.shelf-awareness.com/ar/theshelf/2009-09-08/indiebound_other_indie_favorites.html

A delightful border

2009-08-04T12:08:00.000-04:00

Title: Borders Songs

Author: Jim Lynch

Publisher: Knopf

Date published: July 2009

Read?:-) :-) :-)

Jim Lynch's novel Border Songs is wry, observant, and wonderful. Main character Brandon Vanderkool is a larger-than-life hero, anti-hero, and charity case all rolled into one. His work on the Border Patrol in Washington State truly marks a memorable time on the boundary of British Columbia. Brandon is pushed to join the BP by his father Norm, a dairy farmer with a dream of sailing and a wife who seems to be coming down with Alzheimer's. An avid bird-watcher and gifted artist, as well as socially awkward and severely dyslexic, Brandon is bewildered by life. He turns out to be gifted at catching illegals, howver, because he notices things no one else does. Brandon is in love with Madeleine Rouseau, daughter of retried professor and medicinal-pot-smoker Martin Rouseau, who lives across the ditch serving as an international border and delights in taunting the ill-fated Norm. Brandon's powers of perception lead the BP into unexpected highs and lows, all documented a mysterious masseuse who becomes the confessor of the town. This border feels populated by real people caught up in real politics and the economics of marijuana. As funny as it is honest, Border Songs will lift you.

Haunting and obsorbing

2009-07-26T11:10:00.000-04:00

The Little Stranger

by Sarah Waters

Publisher: Riverhead

Date: April 2009

Read? :-)

The Little Stranger is a brooding and evocative tale set in Warwickshire, England, in the late 1940's. World War II is over, but privation continues. Narrator Dr. Faraday, the son of simple, working-class folk, is a country physician, tending to all manner of ailments among the local, mostly working-class or poor, residents.

There had always been estates in Warwickshire, although many have fallen on hard times by this point, their owners unable to keep them up. Hundreds Hall is one such house on the edge of financial ruin. Dr. Faraday visited once as a boy, when his mother worked as a nanny at the grand home of the Colonel and Mrs. Ayres.

Thirty years later, the Colonel is long dead. His son Roderick, who was horribly injured during the war, is trying to manage the remaining farm and house with his scars and limp. His sister Caroline had come back to the Hundreds to nurse Roderick and stayed on to help him and their mother. Together they are holding on, with just enough to live on and afford one daytime housekeeper and one live-in maid.

Dr. Faraday is called to the Hundreds one day to tend to the maid, Betty, a girl of just 14. He finds Betty only pretending to be ill. New to the post, she is unhappy in no small part because she feels there is "something bad" in the house. Dr. Farady chides her for such nonsense.

Dr. Faraday offers to treat Roderick's injuries and begins to make regular trips to the Hundreds, and becomes a friend of the Ayres'. When a new family moves into a nearby estate, Mrs. Ayres decides to have a party to welcome them. The house is readied with great anticipation, but the night ends in tragedy.

From this point on, strange things happen at the hall, affecting one family member after another, becoming spookier as time goes on. Betty is convinced the house is haunted, perhaps by the spirit of the first Ayres child, a daughter who died in childhood of diphtheria; Roderick feels their something in the house that he must keep at bay; and Caroline feels the house itself is capable of mischief.

Dr. Faraday, exasperated with all the superstition, tries to demonstrate there are rational explanations for everything. He thinks, perhaps, it is a kind of hysteria, started by Betty and spread among the Ayres, although even he has seen things even he cannot explain. In despair, he confides the whole scenario in a fellow physician, who postulates a psychic force of those living there. Is the house haunted? If so, by what? These things are left to the reader to decide as the plot drives toward its conclusion.

The Little Stranger is a very English story (author Sarah Waters is a Londoner). It is dense, Dickensian in its description of most of Dr. Faraday's patients, spellbound by class differences and the Ayres fall in fortune. Waters spends a great deal of time detailing both the grandeur and the decline of Hundreds Hall. One could almost find one's way around it, feel the chill of the shut-up rooms, and hear the echoes of footsteps on the marble floor after so many words devoted to it.

If you're the sort of reader who does not enjoy such detail, this book might well drive you to distraction, as it takes its time getting to the plot points. I have to admit some impatience with it, no doubt because I knew it was a ghost story and couldn't wait for the fireworks to begin. I also got a bit frustrated with Dr. Faraday's denseness about the strange occurrences.

Even so, The Little Stranger is absorbing, it's portrait of post-war rural England fascinating, its characters compelling. Hundreds Hall will draw you in just like it did Dr. Faraday. If you've got some time to devote to it, The Little Stranger may just be your cup of tea.

WWII Still Holds Mysteries

2009-06-07T05:47:00.000-04:00

The Arms Maker of Berlin
By Dan Fesperman
Publication: August 4, 2009
Read? :-) :-)

This engrossing thriller has it all: a hunt based on ciphers and clues; WWII and the Third Reich; spies, lies, and cover-ups. Beginning with an intrepid professor who must chase down the legacy of his estranged mentor, the story jumps back to the early 1940's and then back again, weaving a complex tale of love, war, and betrayal. You know a book is good when you miss it afterword; this one has me thinking as well. Highly recommended for lovers of espionage novels and historical mysteries.

Gone to the Dogs

2009-06-07T05:46:00.000-04:00

New Tricks
By David Rosenfelt
Published: August 6, 2009
Read? :-)

Andy Carpenter is back in the dog house. Having once defended a golden retriever, a local judge naturally thinks of the wisecracking lawyer when a Bernese puppy becomes the object of a custody battle. Andy is OK with this, except that he is nearly killed picking up the dog and soon finds himself in the middle of a double-murder defense. Fun and fast, with quirky characters, plot twists, and dialogue to keep you smiling. A great summer whodunnit for mystery lovers and dog lovers alike.

Classic Oates

2009-06-07T05:22:00.000-04:00

A Fair Maiden
By Joyce Carol Oates
Pub date: January 6, 2010
Read? :-) :-)

Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivek, from working-class Vineland in southern New Jersey, is spending the summer at the beach, employed as a nanny in upscale Bayhead. One day she is approached by Marcus Kidder, elderly scion of a prominent local family. Wary Katya is slowly drawn in by Mr. Kidder, who invites her to his opulent home first for tea, then to model for his painting. Mystery, romance and horror mix as the novel moves inexorably toward answering the question: where will this lead? Spell-binding; classic Oates.

New Book Review Blog

2009-05-30T17:10:00.009-04:00

I've created a new blog devoted to book reviews: Booked Up. (The successor to Read This, Not That, which was just too ambitious to keep up with.) It has all my book reviews from 2006 on. This blog will become my "writing" blog -- i.e., the place for stuff other than book reviews.

UPDATE March 4, 2010:

So much for good intentions. I have not touched this blog in a LONG time! I am happily writing things for pay when I'm not writing book reviews, so the fate of this blog remains uncertain.

Two Mysteries for Summer, Sans Private-I

2009-05-15T13:02:00.000-04:00

Title: Try Fear

Author: James Scott Bell
Publisher: Center Street
Release date: July 16, 2009
Read? :-) :-)

Try Fear by former trial lawyer James Scott Bell is fabulous! The third in the series starring Ty Buchanan, high-powered LA attorney brought low by the death of his fiancée. As the book opens, Ty is living in a trailer at a convent in the outskirts of LA, taking on cases of the down-and-out pro bono from a coffee shop. He is assisted by Sister Mary Veritas, a nun who is a crack researcher and whose calling is in question. Ty puts his stellar trial skills to use in his latest case defending a man accused of killing his own brother, and Ty doesn't stop until he's used a little muscle and ju jitsu to find the truth, which has been well-hidden from him and the reader alike. Fast-paced, funny, and surprising; a must-read for mystery lovers.

Title: Get Real
Author: Donald E. Westlake
Publisher: Grand Central
Release date: July 17, 2009
Read? :-)

Thief John Dortmunder and his crew become the cast of a reality television show. While this entails a paycheck - a concept that Dortmunder detests - he and the gang see potential for additional (and unofficial) profit, so they give it a try. Complications galore follow, along with a large helping of behind-the-scenes action at the show. The result is both a fun caper novel and a fine send-up of the reality TV industry. Perfect for summer, and a book to make you smile. Sadly, Donald E. Westlake died on December 31, 2008, so this is the last of the Dortmunder series.

Til Divorce Do Us Part

2009-05-07T16:50:00.000-04:00

Two novels that chronicle the dissolution of marriage.

Title: The Last War: A Novel
Author: Ana Menendez
Publisher: Harper
Published: May 26, 2009
Read? :-/

"Flash" is an American photojournalist spending the summer in Istanbul while her journalist husband is in Iraq. Ostensibly planning to join him, she finds herself procrastinating, and then a letter arrives hinting that he is cheating. Flash's indecision and obsession over the letter is maddening to read at times, and the conclusions she reaches are sometimes grim, but her story is a beautifully written and thoughtful work about marriage, war, and truth, punctuated by amusing observations, keen insights, kaleidoscopic shifts in perspective.

Title: The Idea of Love
Author: Louise Dean
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: July 1, 2009
Read? :-/

English businessman Richard Bird has risen through the ranks in the pharmaceutical industry. Living in France, married to an unhappy French woman, his life unravels when the travel, sleeping around, and drinking take their toll and his wife has an affair with the American next door. The writing is terrific in this perceptive and sometimes troubling story where every character has a theory of what love is but only a few find out what it really means. Recommended for those who like realism in their fiction.

A Sad Song

2009-04-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

Title: Songs for the Missing: A Novel
Author: Stewart O'Nan
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2008
Read? :-(

Songs for the Missing byStewart O'Nan is a novel about a parent's worst nightmare: a child gone missing. As wonderfully written as it is, Songs is still a tough one to read.

Kim Larsen is a normal 18-year-old, spending her last summer at home before college, working at the Conoco station and hanging out. When she fails to show up for the evening shift, her friends — Nina, Elise, and her boyfriend J.P.-- wonder what happened to her. Her parents — Ed, a real-estate agent and Fran, a hospital administrator — worry about her; and Lindsey, her younger sister, doesn't know what to think. The police don't consider Kim's disappearance something to investigate immediately, because she is an adult and can go where she will. As the clock ticks, Ed organizes search parties, stapling fliers to every surface within walking distance, and Fran steels herself to meet with the media. Hours turn to days, and days turn to weeks, and Kim's family and friends must adapt to the knowledge that she is no longer there.
Stewart O'Nan puts himself in the place of every parent's most agonizing fear in this book. Like Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, we follow a family dealing with the loss of a child and also see the effects on her closest friends. Unlike Bones, however, there is no omniscient story teller. The reader knows no more about Kim's fate than those who love her, and it is an uncomfortable place to be. In a familiar pattern (see the television show Dead Like Me, as well as The Lovely Bones) the father must do something, so he searches; the mother, who must also find a way to cope, reaches out beyond the family; the sibling struggles with feelings of jealously and guilt.
Stewart O'Nan is an interesting author, a great imaginer of all things American. His last book, Last Night at the Lobster, portrayed the closing of a Red Lobster restaurant with great affection and understanding and was a phenomenal read for anyone who had ever worked in a fast-food restaurant; and for those who hadn't, they came away knowing (and probably glad of) what they missed. In Songs for the Missing, however, he has chosen a topic with which it is hard to win. He renders it bravely, but without something hopeful or redeeming, and we are left with a chronicle of pain and grief. While sensitive and beautifully drawn, it is still a sad, gray picture.

2008 Extras

2009-01-01T12:27:00.000-05:00

Reviews not already posted:

When Will There Be Good News?
by Kate Atkinson

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6586262.html

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
by Tiffany Baker

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6603020.html

The Book of Non-Electric Lighting
by Tim Madson

http://www.woodstockmagazineonline.com

(Winter 2008/2009 issue)

And a short essay published in Here in Hanover, in the "Perspectives" section on the topic of resolutions:

The door to the Weight Watchers meeting is at the back of the building, hidden from the the road. I step from the darkness of the November night into to a bright set of rooms. To the left, an area with fold-out chairs lined up for a meeting. To the right, a check-in desk reminiscent of an airport with enough computers for three. In front of the desk (cue dire music): the scales. Down the center is a hallway, packed mostly with women queuing up to be weighed.

I run back to the bathroom at the back. I have to pee, and I don't want those ounces counted on my weigh in. As I stand in line, some people chat (some folks have been coming a long time and know each other well). Others, like me, try to ignore the fact that we are standing in line preparing to have our body sizes judged.

As I get closer, I can hear the discussions over the desk. No one but the workers can see the weights, but they say things like, "You lost a pound! Good job!!" and "You're higher than last week. Were you expecting that?"

My turn comes. I take off my shoes and my sweater. (I would have stripped naked if I weren't shy and worried about getting arrested.) I want more than anything to get that pat on the fat that says I'm down even an ounce. When I get the pronouncement, "You lost a half a pound. Good job!" I jump off the scale, grinning ear to ear, relieved that slip-up with that Hershey bar didn't break me.

I'm a bit embarrassed I need someone looking over my shoulder to manage weight loss, but there you have it. If my resolution is to eat carrots, I guess I need a stick to go along with them.

Book Review: The Brass Verdict

2008-12-28T20:26:00.000-05:00

The Brass Verdict
by Michael Connelly

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/12/28/164849.php

Book review: The Man in the Picture

2008-11-28T07:38:00.000-05:00

The Man in the Picture
by Susan Hill

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/11/24/220028.php

Book review: Alive in Necropolis

2008-10-11T12:38:00.000-04:00

Alive In Necropolis
by Doug Dourst

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/10/11/072800.php

Book Review: Feather Man

2008-10-05T15:39:00.000-04:00

Feather Man

by Rhyll McMaster

ForeWord Magazine, September 20008

http://foreword.texterity.com/foreword/200809/

Book review: The Likeness

2008-09-01T09:32:00.003-04:00

The Likeness
by Tana French

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/09/01/092510.php

Book review: Child 44

2008-08-28T06:23:00.005-04:00

Child 44

by Tom Rob Smith

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/08/27/102117.php

Book review: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

2008-08-17T20:18:00.002-04:00

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

by Jasper Fforde

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/08/15/171903.php

Book review: Missing Witness

2008-08-17T20:16:00.003-04:00

Missing Witness

by Gordon Campbell

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/08/06/193106.php

Book review: The Host

2008-07-21T16:26:00.002-04:00

The Host

by Stephenie Meyer

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/07/21/110322.php

Book review: The Whole Truth

2008-07-19T15:33:00.006-04:00

The Whole Truth
by David Baldacci

The Whole Truth by David Baldadcci is a timely summer read. This tale of international intrigue and "perception management" is over-the-top but not entirely implausible, which is what makes it truly scary.

Shaw, a man with no first name, is an off-the-books problem-solver for governments. Strong, smart (he speaks more languages than the U.N.), he's the best at what he does, but he does it grudgingly. He is controlled by a man named Frank, who hands out the assignments. When Shaw meets Anna, everything changes. He has met the love of his life, and he wants out. Frank says there is no out.

Elsewhere, a billionaire defense-contractor businessman has an idea to remake the world order to be more like the Cold War, a period he considered more stable than the current situation, where terrorism fears reign. He begins a media campaign to get the large countries of the world re-arming, and is largely successful. Shaw's Anna gets caught in the middle, however, and this brings Shaw on the case.

Shaw's not alone; enter two-time Pulitzer-prize winner Katie James, who just got fired because of alcoholism. She accidentally enters Shaw's and Anna's world and becomes caught up the action.

Katie and Shaw are the only ones who seem capable of ferreting out the truth, the whole truth, of a dangerous game of image and idea management that brings the world to the brink of the next world war. While clearly preposterous, knowledge of the American government's willful misconstruing evidence before attacking Iraq makes the book both timely and frightening. We must ask ourselves: are we critical enough of what we read on the Internet and hear from the mainstream media? If Baldacci has aims more far-reaching than a bestseller, to do something like educating the American public on how easily we can fall for untruths, he might just have pulled it off. A page-turner with a message; who'd a thunk it?

Book review: Predictably Irrational

2008-07-17T09:48:00.002-04:00

Predictably Irrational

by Dan Ariely

http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=4324&cn=396

Essay: Two Stories to Restore Your Faith in Commerce

2008-06-25T15:55:00.009-04:00

About six years ago, I bought an AlphaSmart 3000. Unless you are an elementary school teacher, you probably have never heard of the AlphaSmart. It's a devilishly simple idea: put a simple word processor in a container smaller than a laptop. That was my AlphaSmart. It had a keyboard and a tiny screen — enough to fit five lines of text — and some very simple utilities (spell check and word count were the only ones I ever used).

I bought the AlphaSmart because I really wanted a laptop for writing but didn't want to spend the money. It turned out to be just the thing. I could take it to the cafe to write, and I brought it on vacations to keep travelogues. Its simplicity was its great strength, because all I could do with it was write - no e-mail and no Internet surfing to distract me. The price was right: just $100 at the time.

My trusty friend served me well and did not even require new batteries for years (three AAs), however, all the traveling took its toll. A couple of keys popped off the keyboard, and then one morning I turned it on and it turned itself off. Its brains were loose.

Okay, time for a new one. I got on the web site Renaissance Learning, which now owns AlphaSmart, and found they no longer sold the 3000. Now they have two models, the Neo, which is pretty much the same as the 3000, or the Dana, which is a 3000 + a Palm Pilot (has the Palm software and works with a stylus, has portable MS docs and Internet capability). Also, it was supposed to be sturdier. Sturdy - that's for me, I thought, so I ordered a Dana.

I immediately took a dislike to it, I'm afraid. Used to simplicity, I was now faced with complexity. Even though I had had a Palm Pilot at one time, I had a hard time navigating the interface. The Dana also has a rechargeable battery that I kept forgetting to charge (and therefore had to plug it in). Worst of all, I had a hard time with the screen. To me, there was a glare that made it hard to see.

Unable to accept my poor decision, I just didn't use the Dana much. After five months of avoiding it, I came to the conclusion that I wished I had bought the Neo. On a lark one Sunday morning, I wrote to Renaissance Learning to see if they'd do a trade. I assumed the answer would be no, but it never hurts to ask.

I went off to work the next day thinking nothing of it, but when I got home there was a message on my answering machine. It was the Renaissance Learning, wanting to discuss my message. The story was that if I had voiced my displeasure with the Dana within 30 days, they could have refunded my money. Since it was past the 30 days, they would accept the Dana back and give me credit if I bought a Neo first.

This is exactly what I did. I happily typed this article on my Neo. Isn't that fabulous? The company was well within its rights to say "sorry," but instead they wanted to make me happy and were willing to accept a deficit out of the deal themselves (the Neo is only 2/3 the price of the Dana, and they refunded the Dana's full price). I liked their products before, but they now have a customer loyal to the company itself.

Another cool thing was that last year Renaissance Learning had a program for used AlphaSmart called AlphaSmarts for Africa. If you sent it back to them, they'd recondition it in order to donate it to a poor community in Africa. I did this with my AlphaSmart, and I'm very pleased it's gone on to better things.

Here's another heart-warming story of commerce gone right:

I came upon the Squishable.com site via a link provided by my 20-something niece. Pictures of fat and adorable stuffed animals abound, including many "in-situ": the animals being held by people or placed in a room, so you can easily see they are rather large (the size of watermelon, only round).

They also had a "Bundle of Bunnies," three little bunnies stuffed into a carrot. At $15, I had a clue that they were not as big as the watermelon variety (which run around $38). On the page describing them, the dimensions are plain to see: seven inches long. My eyes fooled me, however. The close-up of the adorable bunnies had no context, and given the size of the other critters, I assumed they were bigger than they are, despite being told otherwise.

I ordered the bunnies (I didn't want my shopping basket to remain "empty and sad"), received them in good time, but was disappointed at their size. I decided they'd do and just thought I'd live with it. Squishable uses Google Checkout as a payment method, and Google asked me to rate them as a vendor. I'm mostly lazy about such requests, but I did it this time, rating them a 4 out of 5 because of the size of the bunnies.

Within hours I had an e-mail from Squishable saying they were sorry I was disappointed, that if I wanted to return the bunnies they'd pay the shipping, and here's a 20% off coupon on your next purchase. They even promised to put up some pictures that would help others avoid the same problem (when I checked the website recently I did not see any, perhaps because the bunnies are sold out). I was surprised and delighted. That is the way commerce is supposed to be conducted! Making customers happy is the goal of Squishable, and they certainly succeeded here.

Both of these companies are small. Is there a moral in that story? Small companies are more service-conscious than large ones? This may be true, by and large, but I'm not sure there's a one-to-one correlation. Whatever the reason, these are two companies worth doing business with.

Originally posted at Blogcritics.org.

DVD Review: Comic Relief

2008-06-25T15:50:00.003-04:00

Comic Relief: The Greatest ... and the Latest

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/06/15/004735.php

Book Review: The Cure Within

2008-06-11T19:11:00.002-04:00

The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine

by Anne Harrington

http://www.curledup.com/curewith.htm

Essay: Idol Thoughts

2008-06-02T07:16:00.003-04:00

David Cook won American Idol! My guy won! Woo-hoo!

Wait a second. Did I just say that?

I used to scoff at American Idol. I didn't much like the style of most of the singers, and I thought the bits in between the songs were often cheesy and tedious. Tuning in for the last five minutes before House was plenty; I could keep up well enough with the recaps to have a conversation about it at the water cooler.

This year, however, I did something I never thought I'd do. Not only did I watch, I voted. For the finale, which I TiVo-ed, I voted over and over (the lines were open by the time I sat down to view it, so I just hit redial as I watched). I did not want that Star Search junior winner David Archuleta to win. His "gee-whiz" persona is sweet and he has a good voice, but he sings like a robot and has an awful stage dad. I genuinely thought David Cook was the best throughout the season, and he has the better story. A bartender who came to the audition to support his brother, good looking and humble, his American Idol journey is the stuff of the American dream.

But how the heck did I get to the point of even thinking about David Cook? Perhaps the biggest reason is the writers' strike. A friend and I always watch House, and when we found our favorite show unavailable, we started watching American Idol.

I guess I wasn't alone; other adults have also been tuning in. The average age of the show's viewers this year was 42, and some pundits attribute Cook's landslide win to the age factor. Forget the screaming thirteen-year-olds who always seemed to be at David Archuleta's feet, we middle-aged viewers wanted to see a rocker win.

Now I even find the idea of going to an Idol concert appealing. When a friend got hooked in season five and rooted for eventual winner, Taylor Hicks, she went to a concert and loved it. I thought it was going a bit overboard. Could I actually go so far as to pay to participate in the franchise?

It'd be a bit much to swallow. After all, the show is as much a commercial as it is a contest. The judges have the Coca-Cola cups on display, every "guest artist" is there to promote a new album, and this year the contestants made Ford commercials that were shown as a part of the show. At least with Star Search you could tell the difference between the program and the commercials.

If the premise weren't compelling, though, American Idol would not be as popular as it is. Not only is it a chance at stardom for the contestants, it has that staple of reality TV fare — competition. Best of all, the audience gets to choose the winner. Aside from the Super Bowl, it's probably the most far-reaching cultural activity in America today. People of all ages watch it, all the major news outlets cover it, the winners are even getting their pictures on postage stamps, for goodness sake.

And people vote, in the millions. One can vote as many times as one wishes, which is a difference from the electoral system the size of Mount Everest. But isn't it interesting that a television show can figure out how to get people involved and leave them feeling like they can make a difference by voting? If the American Idol producers wanted to change to a one person/one vote format, they would find a way to make that work, too. Meanwhile, back in Florida (and the rest of the country), people are still being disenfranchised when it comes to voting for the elected officials.

Like in government, getting elected America's Idol is not a guarantee of success. So good luck, David Cook. I hope your album kicks butt and goes platinum (or whatever metal is best). As for me, I'm going back to watching House. (Unless there is an actors' strike!)

NB: This was posted to Blogcritics on May 25. It garnered 8 comments, two of which were nasty because I dissed David Archuleta. For the record, I think David A. is very talented, he just doesn't appeal to me. Also, I am going to see the American Idol show on August 9th. So much for not participating in the franchise!

Book review: Can't Remember What I Forgot

2008-05-25T08:20:00.002-04:00

Can't Remember What I Forgot:
The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research
by Sue Halpern

http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/BookDetail.aspx?isbn=0307406741

Book Review: Where Did I Leave My Glasses?

2008-04-26T08:46:00.001-04:00

Where Did I Leave My Glasses? The What, When, and Why of Normal Memory Loss

by Martha Weinman Lear

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/04/24/165535.php

Book Review: Another Thing to Fall

2008-04-26T08:20:00.003-04:00

Another Thing to Fall: A Novel (Tess Monaghan Mysteries)
by Laura Lippman

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/04/20/125712.php

Book Review: CIty of the Sun

2008-03-29T16:49:00.004-04:00

City of the Sun
by David Levien

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/29/141152.php

Book Review: American Cream

2008-03-28T06:43:00.005-04:00

American Cream

by Catherine Tudish

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/27/202904.php

Book Review: Immortal

2008-03-10T07:12:00.004-04:00

Immortal
by Traci L. Slatton

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/07/192954.php

Book Review: Now You See Him

2008-02-23T16:05:00.005-05:00

Now You See Him
by Eli Gottlieb

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/09/103230.php

Short Takes, January 2008

2008-01-20T07:34:00.000-05:00

Certainty, by Madeleine Thien
Certainty is a story of love, war, and suffering. Poetic and ethereal, it perfectly captures grief caused by war and loss of a spouse but misses the mark when it comes to the loss of a child.

The novel begins with Ansel, a physician whose wife Gail died of a sudden illness a year ago, but the narrative voice quickly switches to Gail's father, Matthew, and the heart of the story. Matthew had been a boy in Indonesia when the Japanese invaded during World War II. He and his best friend, an orphaned girl named Ani, supported each other through the hunger and the fear. After the war, Matthew had to leave; his father had been a collaborator, and he and his mother were no longer welcome in their village. Matthew sees Ani again when he returns at age 19. They fall in love but again Matthew must leave, because his father's collaboration has not been forgotten.

Ani and Matthew's war experiences profoundly affect their and their families' lives. Their story is compelling, and the changing point of view from which it is told is interesting (we variously hear from Gail, her mother, and Ani's husband as well as Ansel and Matthew). Ansel's story, however, is on the periphery and is ill-fitting, almost unnecessary. Also, Matthew's grief at not being able to stay with Ani is well-rendered, but we hear almost nothing of his grief at the loss of his daughter, and event that should have been just as devastating to him. In the end, Certainty, while beautifully written and well-aimed, misses the mark.

The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Fans of FBI Special Agent Pendergrast rejoice! He's back, and he's as inscrutable as ever. If you've never read a Preston Child novel, you can start your journey with the Holmsian Pendergrast with The Wheel of Darkness, although the back-story details from previous novels add a little depth that you would miss.

The story opens with Agend Pendergrast and his ward, Constance Green, making their way to a remote Tibetan monastery. They've come to rest and meditate, but they soon learn a rare and dangerous treasure, guarded by the monks for a thousand years, has been stolen. Pendergrast and Green follow the trail to the newly-commissioned luxury steam liner Brittania, leaving on her maiden voyage. What follows is murder and panic on the high seas, all with a supernatural twist.

Agent Pedergrast and Constance Green are superheros more than people; they can be fascinating to watch, but don't expect realism from them. Pendergrast is an intellectual investigator extraordinaire, and Green's mysterious past make her more than the young woman of society she appears to be. The action is fast-paced and just an unbelievable, but does that matter in a superhero story? I'm not sure Preston and Child get all the details right about Tibetan Buddhism, but the picture they paint is vivid and exotic and suits the story well. All-in-all, The Wheel of Darkness is a fine yarn to spend some time away from the world with.

A Year in the Life of a Scanner

2008-01-07T06:46:00.000-05:00

Barbara Sher coined the term "Scanner" to describe Renaissance types who like to do and try many things rather than specialize. I decided I must be one after seeing her on a PBS special and then reading her book, Refuse to Choose! A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love. According to Sher, a Scanner is "a very special kind of thinker. Unlike those people who seem to find and be satisfied with one area of interest, [the Scanner is] genetically wired to be interested in many things." I was quite relieved to hear this, because it provided a positive explanation for my less-than-straight-line career path. I'm not "shallow, lazy, eccentric," I'm a Scanner!

So, I thought I would take a look at 2007 to create a record of a year in the life of this Scanner. Below is a list of things I tried, by department.

Physical
Jazzercise (Feb.)
Belly dance (April)
Tai Chi (Aug.)
Pilates (Oct.)

Metaphysical
Episcopal church (Feb.-April)
Buddhist sand mandala ceremony (May)

Artistic
Pottery painting (Oct.)

Educational
"Mood and Food" class, Women's Health Resource Center (April)

Vocational
New job as a Donor Engagement and Stewardship Coordinator (Sept.)

Avocational
Started reviewing books for Library Journal (mid-year) and ForeWord magazine (December). (I don't know if my ForeWord review will be printed; the book wasn't very good.)

Other stuff of note:

Travel
Atlanta (Feb.)
Denver (June)
Bonaire (July)

Reading & Writing
42 books
24 book reviews

Book review: The Body Has a Mind of Its Own

2007-12-11T06:09:00.003-05:00

The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better

by Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/12/10/192200.php

Book Review: Red Moon Rising

2007-11-25T11:20:00.001-05:00

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/11/15/182540.php

The Journey(man) continues

2007-10-31T06:17:00.000-04:00

OK, Journeyman is good, really good, and getting better with each episode. Unfortunately for the show, it's the kind of story that you have to watch from the beginning to be able follow it. Fortunately for anyone with a high-speed internet connection, NBC makes all the episodes available online. (Not a bad way to watch, by the way; there's way fewer commercials.)

What's so cool about Journeyman is the way details are added to the back story while adding plot points and complexity to the story going forward. It doesn't hurt that there are some great actors, delivering lines from clever scripts.

If you gave Journeyman a try with its maiden episode and decided it wasn't worth it, you should give it another try.

Latest book reviews

2007-10-18T06:33:00.000-04:00

New England White by Stephen L. Carter
I Never Saw Paris by Harry I. Freund
Library Journal review

Pushing Daisies is pushing it

2007-10-07T22:00:00.000-04:00

I caught the series premiere of Pushing Daisies last week, and I can't understand why it is the critics' darling. I give it points for being original and having a style: the colors seem preternaturally bright and vibrant, which gives it a fairy tale feel. The voice over (by Jim Dale, famous lately for being the narrator of the U.S. version of the Harry Potter audio books) adds to the feeling. But the show struck me as more dopey than funny and made me wonder if it will fulfill its promises.

The premise is great: a boy named Ned discovers he can bring dead creatures (including people) back to life with a touch. There are two catches, however. First, the deceased can live again for only one minute or else someone else must die in his place. Second, if Ned touches the person again, he will die, for good. He discovers these caveats when his mother dies in front him, in the midst of baking a pie. He touches her, and back to life she springs, but his best friend's father dies instead. (Living across the street, he was in the vicinity -- its a random proximity kind of thing.) Then, later, his mother kisses him goodnight, and she keels over.

Fast forward 15 or 20 years, and we find our hero has become the owner of a pie shop. He still has the dog he brought back to life (although he can only touch him with a back scratcher). A private detective discovers his gift, and they go into the business of reviving the victims of murders to ask them who killed them and collecting the reward. Their latest subject turns out to be none other than his long-lost best friend from across the street (Charlene Charles, know to Ned as "Chuck), who had to move away after her father died. Killed on a cruise arranged by a travel agent, the travel agent posts a reward to find Chuck's killer, so the pie maker and the detective try to find out what happened to her. Ned cannot bring himself to kill Chuck after reviving her, because she's beautiful and he realizes he's always loved her. Boom, the evil funeral home owner drops dead, and Chuck becomes a part of the team.

As unrequited love stories go, this one definitely has a twist: the lovers can't get together, not because they don't want to admit their feelings for each other, but because if he touches her, she will die.

The dialog on the show is kind of convoluted but has promise. The dead-pan delivery of the lines, particularly by Chuck, also have potential. I just was not grabbed by the show. I didn't really care what happened to any of the main characters, and rather than finding the no-touching love interest funny, I just found it painful.

I checked out the ABC web site for the show, and the upcoming shows sound interesting. They apparently get in the business not only of finding out who the killers are but also granting last wishes of the deceased. The contraption Ned installed in his car so he can "touch" Chuck made me chuckle. So, it's worth giving it another shot.