Archive for 2009
Sweeping up Glass by Carolyn Wall is a remarkable first novel, the story of a long suffering woman named Olivia Harker Cross living during the Depression in rural Kentucky. Although her life has been full of hardship and tragedy, Olivia is a survivor. She has suffered through many things: poverty, hunger, the mental illness of her mother, the early death of her father, and widowhood.
The book starts with wolves being killed on Olivia’s Kentucky mountain property. She keeps finding the dead animals with their ears cut off, and is concerned that the entire population will be wiped out. Olivia and her grandson W’llm attempt a rescue and try to keep two cubs alive. Olivia’s search for the reasons behind the killings force her to relive her past and that of her family and community. Long kept secrets come to light, with many consequences.
Olivia’s story is told through flashbacks; we learn the backstory of her childhood with her cruel, and mentally ill mother, who is still living on Olivia’s property. The one constant positive in Olivia’s life is her grandson, whose care was given to her when he was an infant, by her now absent daughter. In a particularily moving scene, her daughter returns to reclaim her child and Olivia refuses to let him go.
Carolyn Wall is a good writer, and is able to draw the reader quickly into the story and to make her characters come alive. That being said and without giving anything away, I have to say that I disliked the ending, which is complicated and not too credible. I’ll still say that Wall is an author to watch and she should have a good future especially if she doesn’t rely on melodramatic endings.
December 31st, 2009
Mary K. - Central
It’s a rare author who can make a political book read like fiction. Ron Suskind did. In his book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, he deals with tons of politics. Like how the Bush Administration lied to get us into the Iraq War. Like the current and scary threat of terrorists obtaining nuclear materials and constructing a bomb to use somewhere in the US. Suskind writes in depth on these two topics. But he weaves around and through them the tales of individuals who are, in their day to day life, proving in some way that Muslims and Western world can find a way to live together. And it reads like a captivating novel.
Take Usman Khosa. An idealistic Pakistani educated in a Connecticut college and working at an economic consulting firm, Usman is working towards the American dream in Washington DC. Then he gets arrested because of a misunderstanding involving the President’s motorcade and is interrogated for a full day. His faith in democracy is shaken - has he been racially profiled? When he visits to Pakistan for his sister’s wedding and finds that she has taken on the veil of fundamentalist Islam, he struggles to understand both her vision of her world as a faithful Muslim and his own place in the world, somewhere between his sisters and ours.
Then there’s Candace Gorman. She’s a lawyer representing Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, interned at Guantanamo as an enemy combatant. She’s discovered that the evidence against him was first ruled to be too scant to hold him in the prison, only to be reclassified a month later, without additional evidence, as an EC. He’s dying untreated in Guantanamo, from what sounds like liver disease, while Candace tries her hardest to inch her way through our justice system.
Mohammad Ibrahim Frotan is an Afghani high school exchange student who makes his way to a family in Denver. He eventually befriends a fellow student who makes his transition to the US less lonely. Only to find out that she has a child - an offense that would have gotten her stoned to death in Afghanistan.
The section on Wendy Chamberlin made the most impact on me. The head of the Middle East Institute, she also worked as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In contemplating the success of the Marshall Plan she feels it was one thing the US did well - it was “the right thing to do, and when you do the right thing, you don’t ask for anything in return. You do it because it’s right, and because you can.” She wants us to work “People to people. Great waves of us - just regular people…building clinics or digging wells…carrying computers. Something, something big. America’s good at doing things. Let’s do that, something we’re good at. And ask nothing in return.” Isn’t that how most of us see us as Americans? Doing just that?
Suskind uncovers and reports on some scary stuff. He found evidence that the Bush adminstration planned to have a former Iraqi Intelligence chief forge a letter that ‘proved’ Iraq had ties to al-Qaeda. He reports in depth on Rolf Mowatt-Larssen’s attempts to monitor the global black market on nuclear materials in an effort to prevent a terrorist nuclear attack. (Okay, I admit I got a little bogged down in the thick political stuff. ) But with his tapestry of personal accounts, Suskind keeps circling back to the theme of ‘hearts and minds.’ If we can only know each other’s hearts and minds then we will be able to bridge the differences between us.
December 30th, 2009
Lisa - Central
Maggie Stiefvater’s new young adult werewolf romance Shiver is super fun and set in northern Minnesota, which is practically like home. The changing leaves and the descriptions of autumn turning into endless winter - it feels like we were just there a minute ago. Or I guess a month ago. And if you’ve been to northern Wisconsin, you’ve been to northern Minnesota, because they are basically the same, right?
Fictional Mercy Falls, MN is about an hour away from Duluth (which means it is about an hour away from Superior) so you could pretend that the story is set in Wisconsin if you wanted to. I’m fine keeping it in Minnesota. The big difference between there and here is that the Mercy Falls woods are teeming with wolves during the cold months of the year. I checked the Wisconsin DNR website and we have between 626-664 wolves living here. The Minnesota DNR site estimates 2,921 wolves living there. Yikes. Now imagine that some of those wolves are actually humans who turn into wolves when the weather gets cold. Double yikes.
Throw in a couple of wolf attacks and some seriously angsty romance and you get the gist of Shiver. But this story is not hokey. And it’s not New Moon redux. It’s not like the human/wolves are flying around or riding motorcycles or doing crazy stuff. The humans who shift into wolves aren’t able to use cell phones or do algebra. When they become wolves, they are really wolves. The curious thing is how and why they become wolves.
The main characters, Grace and Sam, are very practical and more realistically devoted to each other than Bella and Edward in Twilight. They’ve known each other since they were eleven or twelve years old and work as a team to figure out the wolf attacks and science behind the shifting. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a romance, but it is not all “you’re so beautiful, I love you, I love you, I love you.” I enjoyed the Twilight series, but the writing and the romance in Shiver is a lot tighter. The combination of authentic wolf behavior and, in my opinion, more pragmatic characters really bumps this book up a notch.
Shiver is book one of three in the “Wolves of Mercy Falls” series and should satisfy Twilight fans looking for a new series as well as fans of Blood and Chocolate, the sexiest young adult werewolf romance ever.
December 29th, 2009
Molly - Central
Best-selling author Edward Rutherfurd’s latest historical novel, New York, is a biography of the city from its origins as an Indian fishing village, settled by the Dutch in the 17th Century, to the aftermath of 9/11. Even though it’s an 800+ page book and longer than I usually read, I thought I’d give it a try being a fan of historical fiction as well as American history. This saga held my attention right from the beginning and continued throughout the many centuries and events described by the author in his book.
What made this story especially readable to me was the inclusion of several interesting characters and their descendants from the 17th through the 21st centuries and their involvement in many leading events of the time. Occasionally there were almost too many coincidences among the families to be completely believable but for the most part this tactic worked and made an otherwise long novel into an engrossing tale.
Rutherfurd’s story includes New York’s participation in the American Revolutionary war, the draft riots of the Civil War, the excesses of the Gilded Age, New York’s emergence as a leading financial center, several waves of immigration, and the two world wars. Rutherfurd continues his biography with the city’s recovery from its near financial ruin of the 1970’s to a rebirth in the 1990’s and concludes with the events of 9/11.
Beverly Swerling’s excellent series on the history of New York includes similar material and along with this book provides a fascinating view of a truly American City.
December 28th, 2009
Lesley - Central
If I were studying literature, I would have read Toni Morrison’s A Mercy at least one more time to mine all the kernels that most definitely are buried in her small, powerful story. If you’ve ever read Morrison, you know what I’m talking about. Her language is gorgeous, poetic, sparse and dense. There is much to uncover in each paragraph. I read it only once, so I know I’ve missed a lot. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate* this novel.
The story is a collage of the experiences of four women, all abandoned or orphaned, in Pre-Revolutionary America. These women also have in common that they are “owned” in some way by Jacob Vaark, a trader who acquired each of them in a different fashion. Fortunately for the women, Jacob is a decent man.
Lina, an Indian woman, was bought by Jacob after her tribe was decimated by smallpox, and manages the household. Rebekka, he marries; her family fled religious intolerance in England. Sorrow was found alone in a shipwreck. And Florens, poor Florens, was the daughter of a slave whose Portuguese owner owed Jacob a huge debt. In a Sophie’s Choice trade off, her mother begs Jacob to take Florens when her owner offers Florens’ brother in trade. (She knows Florens would soon be raped by the owner.) So Jacob has these four women; they’re not really slaves, more like servants, and they live in a sort of harmony with each other, working side by side and making allowances for each one’s idiosyncracies.
But then Jacob dies. He worked himself hard chasing the early American dream, accumulating enough money to build himself an estate much like the Portuguese’s. And then he dies of smallpox before he could move in. Soon Rebekka has the disease. Ensuing events upset the harmony of the household.
Morrison takes on so much in this novel: the role of women in a patriarchal society, slavery and racial understanding in its inception in America, social roles in a society and country in its infancy. It’s not an easy read either. Each character has her/his own chapter, and for the first few pages of each, I wasn’t sure who is doing the talking. I had to re-read many paragraphs to figure out what was going on. But at the end of it all, I couldn’t help feel that I had read a rich extraordinary story.
*Enjoy is just not the right word for a TM novel.
December 23rd, 2009
Lisa - Central
When I think of the best time of the year, I am not talking about the upcoming holidays, but instead the various lists of best books that come from multiple sources. Katharine’s review of Little Bee a few days ago brought Library Journal’s list of the Best Audiobooks of 2009 to my mind. All LJ audiobook reviewers contributed to this list and I concur with the choices. And for my own contribution to the list I would include Farm City, my personal favorite audiobook of this year.
This has been a banner year for audiobooks. It seems that there have been a lot of good choices. The Overdrive downloadable program also has really taken off and has made it a lot easier to listen to books on various devices - now including iPods!
Take a look at the Library Journal list and let me know what you think. Is one of your favorites missing?
December 22nd, 2009
Mary K. - Central
As I told you in my last post, I’d been in a bit of a reading slump. That slump has now passed (I hope) and I have two first time authors to thank. Both novels start with the discovery of a murdered young women - one found buried in a peat bog of the Shetland Islands and the other in her bedroom in the historical setting of Dobson, NY in 1905.
In Sacrifice, S. J. Bolton writes of the lonely Shetland Islands of Scotland where obstetrician Tora Hamilton has recently settled with her husband. Tora is a newcomer to the islands so when she discovers the body of a young woman and is told to leave the investigation alone, she initially complies. But the questions keep piling up and Tora, with the aid of another recent transplant - the detective on the case, can’t help but be drawn into an investigation. Why did the murder victim have her heart cut out and runic figures carved into her back? Why do the Shetland Islands seem to have a spike in the deaths of young women every few years? Why are there ore babies available for adoption in the Shetlands then elsewhere? All are questions Tora is determined to answer in Bolton’s moody, gothic mystery.
Equally atmospheric is In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff. Simon Ziele, like Tora, is a transplant. After his fiancee was killed in the General Slocum ferry disaster of 1904 Simon left his job with the New York City Police and moved to nearby town of Dobson. There he expects to live a quiet life as a small-town detective in a two-man department. His expectations are short-lived when the body of Sarah Wingate is discovered. Sarah, a graduate student of mathematics at Columbia University, has been stabbed and bludgeoned to death while visiting her aunt in Dobson. Suspects are thin on the ground until Simon is visited by Professor Alistair Sinclair. Alistair is studying the new science of criminology at Columbia University and he’s convinced that the subject of his study, a budding psychopath, is responsible for Miss Wingate’s death. Though Simon is skeptical, he follows the investigation back to New York and finds the case ever more twisty.
Both debuts are notable for their sense of time and place. As I read Bolton’s book I kept thinking of those old gothic suspense novels of the seventies (in a very good way!). Outsider finds herself caught up in mysterious events in a claustrophobic setting and doesn’t know who to trust. Combining that gothic sensibility with a more modern forensic investigation works to surprising effect. Equally effective is Pintoff’s use of the history of the science of crime within her mystery to set the stage. So if the next round of winter weather (snow, sleet, rain!) is going to keep you housebound, I would suggest being prepared with Bolton and Pintoff.
December 21st, 2009
Jane J. - Central Library
I may be able to squeeze in one more novel before the holiday madness begins, but if I don’t I’m so glad Little Bee by Chris Cleave was my last of ‘09. Even though the jacket implores the reader to not give away what the book is about, some of Little Bee’s story must be told to make sure you don’t miss this British treasure.
Little Bee is a story of a Nigerian orphan who finds her life entangled with that of a vacationing British couple (Sarah and Andrew) on a beach after escaping with her sister from their village that was being pillaged by oil hungry soldiers. Two years after the fateful incident on the Nigerian beach, Little Bee finds herself in a British Immigration Centre and unexpectedly released. Where to go in a country where she knows no one? She travels to the Andrew and Sarah’s home and finds their lives in complete turmoil. Cleave writes the book from the two females perspectives and paints a tragic picture of what it means to be forced out of your home and into a foreign world as in immigrant when there is no support system.
Cleave says on his website that his goal was to write an accessible novel about a serious subject and he does it superbly in Little Bee. There are scenes about death that will break your heart; a fellow refugee taking her own life in hopes of reaching a dead daughter, a young boy throwing himself on his dead father’s grave screaming for him to return. But along with these very powerfully sad parts are true moments of clarity, often in Little Bee’s voice where she sees the truth and beauty in the simplicity of life. In one scene as she describes the numerous little white scars on a girl’s leg, Little Bee pleads with the reader to see the scars as beauty, like stars and moons on a dress. Because as she puts it, “a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.” Little Bee’s story of survival will stay with you long after the last page of this book is done. So even if you can’t find time during this busy holiday season for fiction, make sure to put this on next year’s list, you won’t regret it.
December 20th, 2009
Katharine - Sequoya
OK, that’s not really fair. More specifically, beware of twins in Audrey Niffenegger’s new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry. I was really looking forward to this book and was prepared to love it. It’s a spooky story of death and ghosts in and around Highgate Cemetery in London, which is very cool, steeped in history and appropriately eerie. The setting is perfect, the plot is inventive, the supporting characters are complex and the writing is sublime. But the twins are totally pathological. And there are two, count ‘em, two sets of twins.
The story begins with estranged twins Edie and Elspeth. Edie moves to America from Great Britain some twenty years before the start of the novel and has been raising a family with twin daughters, Julia and Valentina, in a Chicago suburb. Elspeth is still living in London and dies of cancer on the first page of the book. She leaves her considerable estate to her twin nieces with a couple of considerable stipulations. They must live in her flat for one year and their parents are not allowed to visit. The slight, ethereal twins are less than worldly but are up for an adventure and decide to move to London. They initially wander about dazed and confused in their matching outfits and then things start to heat up. It appears as though the deceased Aunt Elspeth is still living in the flat and desperately trying to make contact.
As the twins settle in, unaware of the presence of their aunt, they strike up relationships with some interesting characters from their building. Mousy, shy Valentina takes to Robert, Elspeth’s former lover and Highgate Cemetery tour guide and dissertator. Bossy Julia befriends Martin, the upstairs neighbor with debilitating OCD. Now, I’m all for spooky ghost stories set near amazing cemeteries. But I was more interested in the stories of the supporting characters in this novel than the two sets of twins or the ghosts. Reading about the twins became sorta tedious for me. And reading about the ghosts and their spirit wrangling, kinda tedious, too. Robert and Martin? Not nearly enough.
Audrey Niffenegger is a fantastic writer and many parts of this book are perfect, but the main characters and ultimately, the ending, did not do it for me. I am a fan of all types of ghost stories but this one fell flat for me. I wasn’t sure if I was investing my time in Aunt Elspeth and her ghostly hijinks or the idea of two sets of twins with some seriously scary psychological issues. And I really just wanted to read more about the neighbors and the Egyptian Avenue of Highgate Cemetery.
So what to do? It’s still a fun book to read, but if you are looking for a novel that more seamlessly combines the spirit world with some straight up psychological terror, Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box is hard to beat. And I am still planning to read Stephen King’s top pick of the year The Little Stranger, which has gotten tons of raves and was on the short list for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
December 19th, 2009
Molly - Central
There are a number of long-lived and continually excellent mystery series, too many to list here. One of the best known is Sue Grafton who’s latest well-reviewed book in her alphabet series has just been published - she’s made it to U. And Grafton’s literary contemporary Sara Paretsky has just published Hardball, the thirteenth in her long running series featuring V.I. Warshawski. On a side note, can you believe they both published their firsts in 1982! (what a great year for mysteries that was).
V.I. is the classic detective, one who works alone and takes on difficult cases which often put her into danger. She has had relationships, but has few family ties since both of her much beloved and respected parents are dead. Her closest companions are her neighbor Mr. Contreras, a spry older man with whom she shares dogs, meals and some sleuthing, and Lotty, an old friend who is also a doctor.
In Hardball, V.I. has been hired to find out what happened to a young man who disappeared 40 years ago; this is the last wish of his elderly aunt. The case pulls V.I. into the past into the civil rights era, which includes Martin Luther King’s time in Chicago, and also into an incident that involved her police officer father. We also get acquainted with more of V.I’s family as her cousin, Petra, has arrived in Chicago to work on a political campaign. Petra’s enthusiasm and high-spirited personality quickly win over both V.I. and Mr. Contreras. But it is those very attributes, plus her naivety, that eventually put Petra in harm’s way.
As is often the case in Paretsky’s mysteries, Chicago politics, both current and historic, play a big part as she skillfully portrays both eras. Not surprising since Paretsky was in Chicago in 1966 doing community service and she says that summer was the defining time in her life. This is a must read for fans of the series. V.I. has aged, but she still will persevere and solve the case, no matter what the personal cost.
December 18th, 2009
Mary K. - Central
Denise Doyen’s debut picture book, Once Upon a Twice is a tale of a mouse whose desire for adventure draws him into a sticky situation with a water snake. This simple tale is remarkable in the telling. It is Doyen’s language, which she frequently invents, combining and creating words like “riskarascal” and “scoutaprowl” which deepens the story, its drama and its meaning, as well as making it a fabulous read-aloud experience. It has been compared by many reviewers to Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. You can listen to children recite the poem on You Tube.
It is a rare picture book which engenders Newbery Medal discussion as the Newbery Award may only be given for distinguished writing and may not take illustrations into account unless they detract from the book. Yet Doyen’s poem is distinguished by both an elegance and sophistication that surpass the usual picture book fare, and it has received at least a bit of discussion on this Mock Newbery blog.
Meanwhile, the illustrations, by award-winning illustrator Barry Moser, enhance the text by setting the mood and tone, and providing their own details. The story takes place at night, under a full moon and Moser’s pallet is appropriately dark. Yet It isn’t the dark of night which is threatening to a mouse, but the light of the moon, which allows predators to see “the furlickt mouse’s sheen,” placing our hero in grave danger.
This is a picture book which can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages. Children as young as four or five can enjoy it for the adventure, and older children can appreciate the twists of language and strong rhyme scheme. Be sure to check out this new book with a classic feel.
December 17th, 2009
Karen - Sequoya
Sure, being a parent is hard work–but it’s not impossible. Like any job, however, it really helps to show up. The parents of Oran Canfield–author of Long Past Stopping—had trouble with that part of the job description. Oran’s dad left home when Oran was one and his mom was pregnant with Oran’s brother. The dad is Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series (I’m choosing not to link this title).
Usually, a kid can withstand having one deadbeat parent–Oran had two. Oran’s mom is a therapist and unable to care for the kids (I’m still unclear why), choosing instead to farm the kids out to 1960s activists and unconventional boarding schools every chance she gets. She’s pretty much absent throughout the book and, when Oran was 9(!!!!), she sent him to join the circus (again–!!!!).
Oran started drinking when he was 8, had his first acid trip at 14 (with Jerry Garcia’s daughter) and became a heroin addict soon after. It’s not surprising that Oran became a drug addict. What’s amazing is that he’s still alive.
Oran writes hilariously and without self-pity about his countless trips in and out of rehab. Here’s Oran’s take on his dad’s books: “I had always thought that his whole self-help schtick was a racket, but his new book exceeded the limits of what I thought was possible in terms of sheer vapidity.” I’m with Oran. One of Jack’s 2007 titles is Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul. Seriously. And, if vapidity’s what you’re after, check out Jack’s website.
I should mention that Oran’s father did pay for much of Oran’s rehab. I guess that’s something, but the way I see it–too little, too late pal.
By the end of the book—great news–Oran is drug free and has begun to have a relationship with his dad. “For the first time,” Oran writes, “I’m actually able to see that they really were doing the best they could . . . I’m sick of hating them.” Good for Oran. I applaud his attitude and truly hope that a revived relationship with his parents helps him stay healthy. Personally, I’ve got no time for Jack Canfield or his books (according to Jack’s Wikipedia entry, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series was among the top 150 best-selling books of the last 15 years–go figure). After reading about Jack’s continued and extensive disregard of his children as he concentrated solely on his own needs, amassing enormous wealth from publishing tripe, I’m even off soup.
My re-cap: Read Long Past Stopping. It’s a touching, funny, and well-written memoir. If your soul requires chicken soup, however, you’d be better served by the variety that comes in a bowl.
December 16th, 2009
Terry - Central
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