Author Archive
Tawni O’Dell returns to the Pennsylvania coal country in her fourth novel, a story of two families at opposite ends of the economic scale.
Fragile Beasts opens with teenage brothers Kyle and Klint Hayes enduring a second tragedy in their short lives when their father is killed while driving drunk. Three years earlier the brothers were abandoned by their mother when she left for Arizona with their younger sister and a “some guy we’d never heard of”. Both brothers deal with these events in different ways. Kyle, the quiet, serious, artistic brother, retreats into his art. Klint becomes angry at everyone which threatens his chances for a sports career during the college recruiting and pro-scouting seasons as well as his standing as the town’s star baseball player.
The third character in O’Dell’s story is Candace (Candy) Jack. At 77, she is known in town as filthy rich “old and mean” and a member of the family who owns the J & P Coal Mine. Featured in other novels by the author, this company is also where the Hayes brother’s father worked before an injury landed him in a dead-end janitorial job. Candy’s remained at the family’s homestead since enduring her own little known tragedy in her youth. While in Spain as a young woman, Candy had a love affair with a famous bullfighter who died in the ring before her eyes. She’s never recovered and has stayed closed off from the world since returning home over forty years ago. As a reminder of this exciting, but tragic time in her life, Candy’s filled her mansion with many bullfighting paintings and has even owned several offspring of the bull that killed her matador lover, Manuel.
These three characters meet and interact throughout the rest of the story when Shelby Jack, Candy’s great-niece and Kyle’s friend, introduces the brothers to her great-aunt and persuades Candy to raise them in her mansion. This unlikely trio are eventually able to communicate effectively with each other and with Candy’s guidance and influence, the brothers are insured a brighter future. In addition Candy finally begins to leave her family estate and once again becomes part of the Centresburg, PA. community.
I found the author’s depiction of the people in this book believable in a story both compelling and entertaining and would also recommend her previous books to readers interested in the lives of those living in our country’s industrial blue-collar communities.
July 1st, 2010
Lesley - Central
Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel in several years, The Lacuna, spans three decades in the life of Harrison Shepard, the son of a United States diplomat and a Mexican mother. Told in the form of diary entries, newspaper articles, letters and a memoir, Harrison’s life unfolds from his teenage years in Mexico to his adulthood in North Carolina.
The novel begins in 1929 when Harrison is thirteen and living in Mexico with his mother who has abandoned America in hopes of finding a better husband. Left on his own, Harrison begins reading adventure novels and books on Mexican history while developing a lifelong habit of journal writing. In Mexico Harrison also discovers a small cave - a lacuna - while living on an island off the coast.
After moving to Mexico City, Harrison is put to work in the kitchen and running errands. His life takes an unexpected turn when he’s hired to make plaster for the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and eventually joins his household. Both Rivera and his wife, artist Frida Kahlo, are committed communists and during Harrison’s years with them open their home to the exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky. Living in constant fear of assassination by Stalins’ death squads, Trotsky’s time in the household provides a different perspective on the early years of the Russian Revolution.
The second half of the novel shifts to North Carolina where Harrison lives after Trotsky’s death. He finds himself in the surprising position of a heartthrob to million of female readers as the author of historical romances and is later investigated as a possible subversive by the House Un-American Activites Committee. It is during his years back in the United States that the reader learns the identity of the person who’s saved his many journals over the years and makes this story possible.
I especially enjoyed the first part of this book with the descriptions of the Mexican countryside with its many vivid colors as well as the interesting background information on the early years of the Russian Revolution. Harrison’s later years in North Carolina were somewhat disappointing in what was otherwise an entertaining novel from this popular author.
February 24th, 2010
Lesley - Central
Betsy Carter’s latest novel, The Puzzle King, is based on her great aunt and uncle’s lives in America in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Simon Phelps and Flora Grossman are both sent to America by their families in hopes of a better life. Simon arrives in 1892 as a young boy from Lithuania to avoid the army and grows up poor in New York’s Lower East Side. Flora leaves Germany as a teenager to join her older sister and lives with relatives north of the city. She eventually meets Simon at a dance and they marry in 1909. Simon’s talent as an artist leads him to a successful career in window dressing and later advertising where he becomes known as the “Puzzle King” for the many jigsaw puzzles he creates as promotional products.
Meanwhile Flora’s older sister Seema renounces her Jewish faith and becomes a mistress to a married non-Jewish man while living in New York City. In 1928 both Flora and Seema return to Europe after their mother dies to be with their sister Margot and reconnect with their young niece Edith. Seema surprises herself and others with an unexpected connection to her homeland and decides to remain in Germany. She falls in love with a journalist and converts to Catholicism. In 1936 Simon and Flora return to Germany, this time with money and documents to help as many people as possible leave the country.
Even though this is the first book by Betsy Carter that I’ve read, I did attend the library’s Book Club Cafe a couple of years ago where she was the featured speaker. She’s successfully combined her family’s history with events in post World War I America and Germany in interesting ways in this historical novel.
January 21st, 2010
Lesley - 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
John Grisham returns to fictional Clanton Mississippi - the setting of his novel, A Time to Kill - in Ford County, his first collection of short stories. Clanton, the county seat, is a town of 10,000 with 51 practicing lawyers and a place where there are more than enough characters to fill these seven stories.
Town residents found in this collection include Sidney, who perfects his blackjack skills and manages to break Clanton’s only casino and Raymond, an inmate who’s been on death row for eleven years. A couple of lawyers are also featured in the book. Mack, a middle aged divorce attorney, receives a miracle phone call and manages to make a substanial amount of money off a long forgotten case while Stanley, a litigator for many years, is kidnapped from a town parking lot and forced to revisit a family from a previous malpractice suit. Other characters include Gilbert, who arrives in Clanton on a mission to expose the mistreatment found in the town’s nursing home and befriend it’s residents and Adrian, the gay son of a prominent town family, who comes home to die.
Even though I don’t usually read short stories, I was curious about this one since it’s written by an author whose novels I’ve enjoyed for years and was included in my recent “don’t miss” list. I’m glad I picked it up. Each of these short stories include the occasional surprises and humor found in Grisham’s novels while describing rural southern life in an entertaining way.
December 12th, 2009
Lesley - Central
Bestselling author Anita Shreve’s latest novel, A Change in Altitude, uses the tragedy of a mountain climbing accident as the central event in her new book. 28-year-old Bostonians Patrick and Margaret relocate to Kenya shortly after their marriage. Patrick is a physician researching equatorial diseases at the Nairobi Hospital while offering free clinics throughout the country. Margaret, a photographer employed by an alternative Boston weekly, hopes to find meaningful assignments as a freelancer with the Kenya Morning Tribune.
Within three months of their arrival, Patrick informs his wife that they are to join a mountain climbing expedition with their landlords and another couple to Mount Kenya. Margaret is unprepared for the harsh conditions of the climb which include scaling a glacier, climbing a vertical bog, rats, fire ants as well as acute mountain sickness. When a member of their group becomes disoriented, the climb ends in disaster and death. Patrick and Margaret, once happily married newlyweds return from the mountain in a state of mistrust and deadly silence. Due to a series of unintentionally hurtful actions, Margaret feels responsible for the tragedy. Her marriage to Patrick suffers as they continue to drift apart .
The author’s experience working for three years as a journalist at an African magazine in Nairobi adds depth to her descriptions of the people and countryside. Anita Shreve has been one of my favorite authors for many years and even though this story is quite different then her novels set in New Hampshire, I’m glad I included it in my recent “don’t miss” list.
November 23rd, 2009
Lesley - Central
E.L. Doctorow returns to New York City in his latest book Homer and Langley. The title characters are based on New York’s eccentric siblings Homer and Langley Collyer who lived in their parent’s Fifth Avenue mansion for years while collecting and storing enough items to fill the several floors of the building.
Doctorow’s Homer and Langley started life as the privileged children of a physician and his socialite wife. However several profound events occurred in both brother’s lives as young men. Langley, a Columbia University student, joined the military during World War I and became a victim of mustard gas and shell shock. Meanwhile Homer, who had been gradually losing his sight for years, eventually became completely blind. Adding to the brothers’ misfortune, was the death of both their parents during the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918.
Soon after returning to his Fifth Avenue residence following the war, Langley began roaming the city streets daily looking for items to collect. In the meantime Homer, the narrator of the story, spent most of his time playing the family piano. Eventually their home contained a Model T Ford set up in the dining room, a Chinese bronze horse, machinery of all types and sizes as well as stacks of the many daily newspapers published in New York City. All that hoarding aside, Homer and Langley become witnesses to the changes in American society over the course of their lives.
While I enjoyed reading this book that was on my “don’t miss” list for the fall, I had problems with its basic structure. Homer (1881-1947) and Langley Collyer (1885-1947) were real brothers who did live in a Fifth Avenue mansion and became known as eccentric hoarders by the time of their deaths. While Doctorow’s novel used their real names and several basic facts, he moved their lives ahead almost 15 years and made other changes which I found distracting and difficult to reconcile with the real lives of his characters.
As a reader of historical novels, I would have preferred different names for the brothers while still following the general outline of their lives. That way, the author could have told the story and describe events during the 20th century without confusing the reader. In Doctorow’s book this confusion distracted from what was otherwise an interesting and entertaining view of two unique characters in history.
October 16th, 2009
Lesley - Central
A while ago Jane posted news about some hot titles coming out in the near future, which got me thinking. I find that as the summer season winds down in Madison, not only do I look forward to the many activities of a university town but also to the rush of books that come out in the fall by some of my favorites.
I’m looking forward to reading these new titles this fall and winter:
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow
Ford County: Stories by John Grisham
No Time to Wave Goodbye by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Hardball by Sara Paretsky
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
Encore Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler
Are there authors you follow from book to book no matter what? Any authors you’ve given up on?
September 18th, 2009
Lesley - Central
Los Angeles Times reporter Jack McEvoy, featured in Michael Connelly’s earlier novel The Poet, returns in his latest thriller, The Scarecrow. When Jack is laid off from the newspaper with only 14 days notice, he decides to go out with a bang with one final high profile story. What starts out as an investigation into the wrongful arrest of a young gangbanger for the brutal rape of an exotic dancer turns into a case involving the sinister nature of computer technology.
The actual villain in the story is an MIT graduate Wesley Carver known as the Scarecrow. Wesley overseas security at a top-secret data storage facility in Arizona used by many law firms and businesses. His below-the-radar existence gives Carver the ability to mine for victims which he has been doing successfully for years. The reader is introduced to the Scarecrow early in the story as the action switches between his secret work at the facility and McEvoy’s hunt for the killer during his final days as a reporter. Helping Jack in his investigation is the FBI agent featured in Connelly’s previous book, Rachel Walling. As Jack and Rachel uncover information about the killer, they realize that they are also among the hunted.
Michael Connelly, a former Los Angeles Times crime reporter, delves into the state of the newspaper industry while telling a thrilling story. And while not up to the level of his ever popular Harry Bosch series, I found The Scarecrow to be an entertaining summer read.
June 30th, 2009
Lesley - Central
C. Alan Bradley’s debut novel, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, introduces readers to a charming new sleuth, Flavia de Luce, a precocious 11-year-old living in the English village of Bishop’s Lacey in the 1950s. Up until recently Flavia was preoccupied with retaliating against her two older sisters by using her interest and knowledge of chemistry.
Her life goals change when Flavia overhears her father and another man in a heated discussion. She learns that her father, a philatelic devote, may have been involved in the suicide of his schoolmaster many years ago and may have also had something to do with the theft of a rare stamp. When the stranger’s body is found a few hours later, dead in a cucumber bed on the property, Flavia is on the case. Her investigations turn up a rare snipe found on the back doorstep with a stamp embedded on its beak as well as a poisonous custard pie. In her quest, the indefatigable Flavia visits the library and interviews the village’s colorful inhabitants about her father’s mysterious past and how it ties to the victim.
Flavia’s is the type of one-of-a-kind character who charms and disarms at the same time. This well-drawn mystery is a tasty surprise from the 70-year-old, first time novelist Alan Bradley. Readers will be glad to hear that Bradley, winner of the British Crime Writer’s Association’s Debut Dagger Award based on a 15 page excerpt from this book, is busy with new adventures for the wickedly funny junior detective.
June 12th, 2009
Lesley - Central
Paulette Jiles‘ (Enemy Women) latest novel, Color of Lightning, is based on the life of a true figure in Texas history and legend. Freed slave Britt Johnson, his family and former master leave Kentucky toward the end of the Civil War. They move to North Texas and establish a small community at the edge of the Great Plains.
One morning in October of 1864, while Britt travels to a nearby town for supplies, a combined force of 700 Comanche and Kiowa Indians from their reservation north of the Red River travel south and attack the small village of Elm Creek, killing Britt’s oldest son and kidnapping his wife and two young children as well as another woman and child. The Plains Indians, instructed by a U.S. government treaty to stay north of the Red River, conduct several raids throughout Texas during this time returning with their captives to a life of hardship on their desolate land in North Texas.
In a parallel story line Quaker Samuel Hammond is sent to the reservation’s Indian Agency as the representative from the Office of Indian Affairs. His assignment is to “improve” the lives of the Indians by giving them farming tools and other equipment to establish houses and farms on the Plains. Samuel’s biggest battle (often a losing one) is his attempt to stop the Indian raids and the taking of captives. The Plains Indian’s culture has included raids in neighboring lands for generations and illustrates the failure of the two cultures to understand each other.
Both Britt and Samuel struggle to understand the impact each side has on the other. This story, one of many little known events during the settling of the West, is brought to life by an excellent storyteller and researcher of the history of north Texas.
June 1st, 2009
Lesley - Central
Laura Lippman’s latest novel, Life Sentences, is a standalone story of growing up in 1960’s Baltimore. Writer Cassandra Fallows has achieved critical and financial success with her account of a Baltimore childhood and a follow-up covering her adult marriages and affairs. For her next book Cassandra sets out to write about a former grade school classmate, Calliope Jenkins. Jenkins was accused of murdering her son and spent seven years in prison, refusing to answer any questions about the child’s disappearance and presumed death.
Fallows, who is white, tries to reconnect with three former classmates, who are black, to compare memories of Calliope Jenkins. What Cassandra quickly discovers is that these childhood friends Donna, Tisha and Fatima no longer feel friendly toward her and often have radically different memories of those years. Cassandra’s research also includes information from a detective and two lawyers who worked the case. One of them was Reg Barr who is the younger brother of Tisha and is now married to Donna. This intertwining of life stories makes for a complicated mystery, but eventually the reader learns what happened to Callie’s son and gets a glimpse of her life after the jail term.
Lippman was inspired by a true story of the disappearance of the young boy whose mother also refused to make any statements and therefore spent seven years in jail for contempt of court. With that as a backdrop Life Sentences portrays a writer driven by ego and memories which often differ from her friends and family in this powerful novel.
April 10th, 2009
Lesley - Central
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