Author Archive
Tom Perrotta has proven himself a keen observer of small town life and the intricacies of sustaining relationships when everybody knows your business. His latest novel, The Abstinence Teacher, is another great study of life in the fish bowl. Ruth Ramsay, the health teacher makes an off-hand comment in sex ed class one day regarding oral sex (”Some people actually enjoy it.”) This sets off a storm of complaint from parents belonging to the new Evangelical church in town, Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth and Ruth’s job may be on the line. Adding to Ruth’s stress is her daughter’s soccer coach, Tim Mason, a newly drug-free church member who leads the team in prayer one day and JoAnn Marlowe, the abstinence curriculum director brought in to reform Ruth’s teachings.
All of the characters in this novel go through a test of their beliefs, whether it be Ruth’s daughter’s trip to church, Tim’s resistance of the temptation of drinking, or Ruth’s gay friend’s boyfriend who won’t propose. Perrotta strikes gold with this novel by leading readers through the complex relationships between the characters and even throws in Ruth’s high school love affair for good measure. This book included witty dialogue and tackles issues relevant to society today. I’d venture to say we can expect this one, like other Perrotta novels, in theatres some time in the future.
November 17th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Nancy Horan’s first novel is titled Loving Frank and it details architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s affair with mother, writer and translator Mamah Borthwick. Although this is a work of fiction, it is based on historical facts and much of the novel takes place in Spring Green, Wisconsin as Taliesin was built as a home for Mamah and Frank. The novel spans many years starting with Mamah’s husband Edward Cheney hiring Wright to design a new house for his family. It is during this time that Mamah becomes a close confidant for Frank and they start their affair. Beautifully written and heartbreaking, this novel is a great read that presents the main characters as people who are in love despite the societal pressures to keep them apart. Descriptions of Mamah’s conflict between her life as a married woman who is devoted to her children and and a life with Frank working as a translator of great feminist works are well written and complex. Mamah sees her life as having to choose between a life of domesticity and a career. This is complex enough to make the reader also question the best path. As has been detailed in many works, Wright was not well liked in Wisconsin (Isthmus article) and this novel does not sugarcoat the facts that Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t pay his bills and was not well received in Spring Green, especially by the local newspapers who hounded Mamah and Frank at Taliesin. If you’re looking for a beautifully written Wisconsin-themed historical novel with a strong main character, this one’s for you.
September 4th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Emily Giffin’s book Something Borrowed explores the ups and downs of a twenty-five year 
long friendship that sees the main characters Rachel and Darcy fall in and out of love. This book falls into the category of chick lit so it’s a fairly fast read, but that doesn’t mean anything is lacking. The characters are well developed and the plots are substantial.
When the novel begins Rachel, the nice shy lawyer is thrown a birthday party by her best friend Darcy, the outgoing self-centered public relations executive. That night everything changes between the two friends as Darcy’s fiance Dex and Rachel begin an affair. Something Borrowed is the story of Rachel and Dex’s blossoming relationship that threatens to ruin a lifelong friendship and the decisions the couple has to make. This book found me mostly rooting for Rachel, who in a sense is the bad guy and that fact kept me intrigued. Darcy’s charcter is completely infuriating at times and even more so in the sequel which centers around her called Something Blue. Despite these minor problems, this was an enjoyable book that would be a perfect beach read during the coming summer.
May 26th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
As an actor for most of his life, Anthony Rapp has 
experienced highs and lows both on stage and in his life. His first book is Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical RENT which is well written and at times heartwrenching. Rapp chronicles the show from the beginning stages at the New York Theatre Workshop to its blockbuster success on Broadway and finally to the RENT feature film. In addition to his theatre tales, Rapp candidly discusses his mother’s battle with cancer and the shocking loss of RENT director Jonathan Larson the night of the first show. The author holds nothing back in this memoir including battles with his sexuality and his journey through the grieving process. Although aimed at RENT fans with interesting behind the scenes information, this book ultimately offers much more with an unequivocal and thoughtful story.
May 8th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Best known for the novel Bad Girl Creek, JoAnn Mapson is a master of writing novels that should be known as “curl-up-with-a-good-book” books. Most of her stories feature a multitude of female characters and her newest is no different. The Owl and Moon Cafe follows the lives of four generations of women working and living at a charming small town eatery. Third generation Mariah loses her university teaching job and is forced to move back home with her daughter Lindsay just as Mariah’s mother Allegra is diagnosed with leukemia. Thirteen-year-old Lindsay spends much of the book struggling to get through a difficult and potentially illegal science project in order to win a scholarship while Lindsay’s great-grandmother Gammy is busy running the cafe and praying. Mapson inserts love interests for both Mariah, in the form of a Scottish cafe customer and Allegra, in the form of her oncologist and these men help to ease the pain of the womens’ misfortunes.
This story presents an honest portrayal of the ravages of cancer on a family while keeping the characters well developed, the story moving along and the characters optimistic. The author makes the struggles of each woman appropriate to her age and situation while crafting a great story.
April 9th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Everyone has had the experience of watching a film or TV show and being stumped by what else a certain actor has been in. Luckily, the book Hey! It’s that Guy! : The Fametracker.com Guide to Character Actors by Tara Ariano and Adam Sternbergh has come along to save all curious media fans. Ariano, who writes for the website Television Without Pity, and Sternbergh present a great tool for TV and movie lovers. Chock full of pictures, timelines of work and caricatures like hey! it’s that annoying co-worker!, the writers make a reference book charming and useful all at the same time. This book also works well as an alternate IMDb tool. If you’re wondering what else “that guy” has been in, pick up this book and soon you’ll be telling all your friends the answer.
March 3rd, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Simon Morley (called Si), an artist, is approached by a government agent one day and told he has been selected to participate in a new program. The catch is that he has to agree before finding out exactly what he’s agreeing to. Time And Again by Jack Finney revolves around the adventures taken by Si. Although Si resists the program at first, he does quit his job and seek out the agency. Once he signs up he is told that there is a group working on time travel and based on his military exam records, he has been selected. He begins a sort of training and eventually ends up in New York City in 1882.
Much of the novel takes place in that time period and the descriptions by Finney are rich and well done. The novel is illustrated and includes both pictures and illustrations of the past. I both liked and didn’t like this. It was interesting to see photographs of people farming in the middle of New York City, but I also wanted to use my imagination to come up with the scenes being described in the book. That said, the illustrations certainly did not cause the author to skimp on description. I loved the way that Si, who was coming from the 1970s when the novel was written, described how things were different in 1882. For example, the shiny copper arm of the Statue of Liberty is in Madison Square at this time and the author tries to stay true to history.
The character depth was the best part. A lot of the plot is spent by Si trying to figure out what a letter means that his 1970s girlfriend, Kate owns. The letter belonged to Kate’s grandfather who eventually committed suicide. Si lives in a boardinghouse in 1882 for a while and falls in love with Jake Pickering’s fiancée, Julia. Jake is trying to blackmail Andrew Carmody, who is Kate’s grandfather. Si describes Jake to Julia as a true villain and Si is correct in this description. The characterization is very well done and Si’s relationship with the women in this novel is also well written. Check out this classic novel if you’re looking for a bit of historical fiction and a bit of science fiction.
February 22nd, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
In preparing to study abroad a few years ago, I was reading every book about the French that I could get my hands on. Although I came across much of the same information (”They’re only snobs if you don’t make an effort!”), I was delighted to find a memoir that was both informative about the country and a good story in Australian Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French: A Love and a New Life In Paris.
In this memoir, the author falls in love with a Parisian journalist and agrees to move to the city of love with him for a while when she takes a year off from her job. Well, a few months turn out to be much longer and Turnbull has to find a job and make a life in a city where she barely speaks the language, is made fun of by her baker and can’t quite seem to figure out how things are run. Her adventures with making herself learn the French language and the customs and making her dog look French are heart warming and enjoyable. The cultural struggles she faces are interesting and the romance between the author and her French boyfriend is very cute. Overall, this book is a good read for both people who like love stories and travelers.
January 28th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Sarah Vowell’s non-fiction collection of essays, The Partly Cloudy Patriot are an attempt by the author to figure out how she ended up a history buff - a term she considers only applicable to old white men. Her essay on nerds (The Nerd Voice) had me laughing the whole way through as it focuses mostly on Al Gore and how he should have spun his nerdiness in order to win the presidency. Vowell’s answer: take notes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s self-deprecating Willow and use the “nerd voice” to poke fun at how smart you actually are. In another essay (State of the Union) Vowell describes her experiences at the 2001 presidential inauguration ceremony and how there were two camps of people in attendance. It quickly becomes clear which she belonged to as she started bawling when Bush stepped onto the stage. The title of the book is a play on Thomas Paine’s famous quote “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier, and the sunshine patriot, will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” As Vowell, a New Yorker, becomes more sickened by supposed displays of patriotism after the events of 9/11, she realizes that she can’t be a sunshine patriot any more.
I listened to this book on tape and the audio version was lots of fun. Vowell narrates the book herself and having experience on NPR, she does a great job. The musical transitions between chapters and little songs Vowell wrote when she was a kid are all very well done by They Might Be Giants. Vowell also manages to get some great comedians to guest narrate certain parts: David Cross as Theodore Roosevelt, Seth Green, Conan O’Brien and Norman Lear. The best one by far though is Steven Colbert as Al Gore. Vowell’s essays regarding politics in America were thought provoking while managing to be funny and witty.
January 19th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview
Take the classic Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin, bring it to Madison, set it on Willy St. instead of in Mrs. Madrigal’s apartment building and change the decade from the 1970s to the 1980s. Instantly, you’ve created the book Madlands by J. Allen Kirsch. Kirsch’s book follows a group of loosely related characters through academia, sexuality, religion, jobs, drugs, weather and many events you may have experienced if you have ever lived in Madison, Wisconsin. If it’s UW or Madison related it’s probably mentioned in this novel: from the Farmer’s Market, beers at the Union, walking down State Street, shopping at the Willy Street Co-op and the annual summer Art Fair to little things like the view of the lake from the Capitol before the Monona Terrace was built (which is funny to think about now).
I enjoyed this book although there were some story issues - some lagged and others were dropped when the characters were no longer part of another’s story. In the end though, it was really fun to get to read a good fiction book about the city I call home because The Dive from Clausen’s Pier totally doesn’t count.
January 9th, 2007
Emily - Lakeview