Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes: What She Read Review

You can check out Goodreads reviews (it's doing quite well there), or purchase
Sinful Folk via these links:  Amazon, Indiebound, Audible.

When I was a senior in high school, Mr. Rapuano taught us Chaucer in Brit. Lit. class.  He fancied himself an amalgam of J. Alfred Prufrock and King Lear, with a dash of Marlow on the side.  Whenever a set of our essays displeased him, he would strike a pose in front of the class, wrist raised to forehead, chin tilted to the heavens, and moan, "Oh, people. The horror!  The horror!"  

He was an unforgettable character.  And one of the lasting blessings of a year spent in his class - aside from the witty commentary my friends and I wrought in the notes we passed under our desks - was his requirement that we all memorize the opening lines of The Canterbury Tales, pronounced as they were originally penned (or at least as he best could duplicate the speech of the day for us to copy).

Much whining accompanied this assignment, but I can recite those lines to this day, widening the wondering eyes of my students each year with my feats of memorization.  (The fact that I can sing the "Preamble to the Constitution of the United States" thanks to Schoolhouse Rock also delights them, but perhaps doesn't impress them so much.)

With Sinful Folk, I once again find myself thanking Mr. Rap, if only in my imagination.

What's Sinful Folk about?

  This historical mystery offers any and all Brit. Lit. students many a nod to well-known medieval works, and schools us in some particularly dark and dire customs and events of fourteenth century England as well.  It's also a novel of pilgrimage, and Nick Hayes borrows directly from Chaucer (and other period writers), especially toward the close of the book.  

  Our narrator and protagonist is Mear - once Miriam - a mute "man" living with his" ten year old son in the English village of Duns.  When Christian and four other boys are killed in a house fire during a particularly bleak mid-winter, Mear and the other fathers set off with the boys' bodies for Canterbury and London to seek court assistance in determining who has killed them.  On the journey, we learn something of the men's histories and experience the violent, often superstitious forces that appear to dominate popular culture in this time.  And we - with Mear - unearth clues as to who indeed killed the unfortunate young men.  

  Sinful Folk is based on a real mystery and Miriam's personal history loosely parallels that of some consorts to Prince Edward the Black as well.

My Response?

  Fans of historical fiction should absolutely pick this one up, as it is reach in period detail, but the story is never overwhelmed by it, as does happen with some regularity in this genre.  Miriam is a unique character as well, in my experience, and her story - albeit a mash-up of possibilities rather than a direct historical reference - fascinates.  Mr. Hayes does a solid job of conjuring up the settings as well, and of keeping the plot ticking until the last page is turned.

  I do wish that Mr. Hayes's editors and proofreaders had spent a bit more time on this novel, as a few continuity issues and more than a few oddly parsed sentences early in Sinful Folk made the opening quarter of the novel a pretty slow slog for me and almost turned me away from its pages.  Because I had made a commitment to review it here, I persisted, and in the end I was glad that I did, because by the last quarter of the novel I was thoroughly engrossed in both the plot and the prose.  
  It's good to see, once again, how abundantly my home state of Washington is blessed with fine writers.

Many thanks as always to the fine folks at TLC Book Tours for offering me opportunities to sample books I might otherwise not encounter.  You can find out how other book bloggers responded to Sinful Folk via links on its page at TLC too.

   MFB,

   L

FYI:     Mr. Hayes is on Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest, and he also has a website. There's also a separate website and Facebook page for SINFUL FOLK.

House of Miracles : What She Read Review

Find it at your neighborhood bookstore
via indiebound, Ms. Hume's website,
 or Amazon.

House of Miracles, Ulrica Hume's new collection of inter-related short stories, shepherds readers on the life journeys of two women - generations apart - whose paths intersect when they choose to inhabit two flats in the same San Francisco house. Each woman is, in her own way, perplexed by the everyday emptiness of her life and by her own inability to create meaning and satisfaction within her circumstances.  Each experiences moments of fleeting happiness, as when the elder, German-born Mrs.Van Meurs meets Albert Einstein at a hotel in Palm Springs or when the young executive Janet MacDonald shares a subtle gesture of conspiratorial condescension with her boyfriend Jack. And each dreams dreams of true love.

While most of the short stories are told from Janet's perspective or Mrs. Van Meurs', Janet's boyfriend Jack commands a few, as does her sexually abusive and reliably reckless father Jerry.  Through these characters, we readers explore the quotidian cruelties and failures of love that occur behind the closed doors of  neighbors and friends.

These stories are written in a realistic vein, but Hume punctuates her tales with surprising images that conjure a bittersweet, dreamily lyrical beauty.

Recommended for those wishing to explore the fleeting bliss and regular disappointment born of profoundly flawed "love"; to face the realities of old age, dementia, and death from within another person's perspective; or to muse upon how proximity and habit impact the formation of our friendships, familial relationships, and even our romantic partnerships.

MFB, with gratitude to Ms. Hume for sharing her stories with me,
L

A Different Sun : What She Read Review

Find it at your local bookseller,
Indiebound, or Amazon.

Fancy an armchair trip to West Africa in the 1840's with the wife of a charismatic American missionary, do you?

Then do sit down with a warm cup of tea for a long, leisurely read:  A Different Sun by Elaine Neil Orr will more than satisfy your requirements.

And whether or not high interest, high style novels of Yorubaland in the 19th century are your daily fare (and they certainly aren't mine!), I recommend that you give A Different Sun by Elaine Neil Orr a try, especially if you can find the time to read it in one or two sittings. I'm pleased to have done so, as this novel had me recalling both Achebe's classic Things Fall Apart and Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.  

Although I've recently read plenty of non-fiction set in late 20th century Africa, the last historical novel I read set there was probably Kingsolver's, fifteen years ago.  I'm quite certain that A Different Sun will be compared to that worthy work, but I feel that it holds its own against the popular Kingsolver book.  Both feature multiple narrators (although this one's written in third person perspective rather than first person), and both feature females whose fates are tied to charismatic ministers.  In both cases, the culture and landscape the missionaries land in seems to trigger and amplify mental illness in the men, with near-catastrophic repercussions for the women and the native people whom those missionaries intend to "save".

In A Different Sun, we see life not only through the eyes of Emma Davis Bowman, free-spirited and spiritually-seeking daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, but later through those of her husband, the mercenary-cum-Reverend Henry Bowman, and then his local assistant, Jacob.  The narrative "is inspired by the writings of Lurana Davis Bowen and Thomas Jefferson Bowen, the first Southern Baptist missionaries to Africa" and author Orr's research provides cultural and historical context that never feels oppressively detailed or shoe-horned in (as it does in some historical fictions).

Although this novel did not immediately grip me, after I accustomed myself to Emma's unusually associative and somewhat "choppy" internal experience early in the book, I found that I could immerse myself in her perspective - and later in those of the two male characters.  Perhaps not as ambitious as Kingsolver's earlier work, A Different Sun certainly succeeds on its own more modest but worthy terms.

MFB out of Africa,
L

p.s.  I extend my gratitude to the author and to all those at TLC Book Tours for allowing me to participate.  If you'd like to find out what other bloggers thought of A Different Sun, do hop by the tour hub now!

Random Placement : Romantic Beach Read for Armchair Travelers

I enjoyed this novel.  I truly did.  It's light and romantic with a socially conscious twist and a smidgen of mystery thrown in for good measure.  And it absolutely qualifies as a "solid read with a strong female lead" (see my "posts by topic" list in the right-hand column or click on the label at the bottom of this post for more of these), so I'm even more appreciative of Lindsay McFerrin Bates's efforts on her very first novel. 

What's it about?
What do "Untouchables" in India have to do with a single mom in NYC and a beautiful British businessman?  Once you pick up Random Placement, you'll join the rest of us readers in racing through this fluidly-wrought novel to find the answer.  And you'll travel from NYC to Maine to London to Hyderabad in Andrha Pradesh to sleuth out the mystery linking Holly, the Dalit ("Untouchable") Jogini girl Anjali, and Sam.

Can you offer me a sample of her prose style?
Sure.  Sample part of the opener when you "Look Inside":  Random Placement (on Amazon).  I found Bates's prose fluid, the pacing appropriately swift.

Who would particularly enjoy this novel?
Personally, I rarely read romances, and this novel seems fundamentally of that genre, yet I enjoyed this one.  It's a true page-turner, simply flies along.  And, even though most of the main characters are adults, it's definitely PG-rated and so could be read by adolescents and adults alike.  Anyone who enjoys vivid descriptions of some of the world's great cities - in other words, anyone who loves to (armchair) travel - would likely devour this romantic mystery.

How can I get my hands on a copy?
Random Placement is available in Kindle form only, but those Kindle-less souls (like me) who do have computers or tablets can simply download the Kindle app., which worked well on my iPad.  Get Random Placement via this link (no, I am not an Amazon affiliate).  At $2.99 it's a bargain perfect to while away the hours on your next plane flight or to cheer you on one of those 2 a.m. wake-ups.

My ActionReader action:  I did some research on Hyderabad/Andra Pradesh, and hereby vow to include at least two works (probably short stories) by authors from India in my curriculum next year.  And should Ms. McFerrin Bates produce another novel, I'll be sure to pick it up!

My thanks to the author, who read my earlier post on the much grittier recent release Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil, and asked if I might be interested in sampling her first novel.  I was, and I'm happy that I did.

MFB, internationally,
L

The Peaceable Kingdom



Read it now.  Get it at Indiebound or your
local bookseller.


Or, Why I Adore Francine Prose.

There's her short fiction, this blogpost's title tome (and a recent read for me) being a stellar example.  Each story packs its own emotional epiphany or slantwise crack in the chink of our human armor.  Each boasts a core character whose perspective and persona will ring utterly new yet convincingly - if quirkily - real.  And each touches upon some non-human being - in short or at core - so that the collection's through-line is neither too limiting nor too eclectic (as in "Best Short Stories by Francine Prose: 1980-2000" or some such.  A title, by the way, which doesn't exist.).  I recommend these stories highly, and urge anyone who enjoys 'the thrill of the epiphany' - however subtle or quotidian - that characterizes this genre to give the collection a try.  In fact, I'll even mail you my copy if you like.  Just promise me you'll read it and I'll put you in the running.  (Let's make it a tax-day give-away, shall we, and close entries on April 15, 2012.)

And her novels, my favorite of which features a (not so much, really) repentant skinhead trying to make amends by working for an Elie Wiesel-esque humanitarian's international NGO, then falling in love with its fundraising guru.  Is the erstwhile violent racist truly A Changed Man or not?  And has the Holocaust victim-cum-celebrity-Nobel Laureate been a tad corrupted by fame?  To Prose's credit, this darkly comic novel packs suspense and plenty of insight in all those grey areas in which real humans perpetually live.  And she's not afraid to address taboo subjects or to craft fully imperfect characters.  I admire her guts in a world that seems to demand (check out reviews of any books with less-than-admirable protagonists on Goodreads or Amazon if you doubt me) that central characters be charming, attractive, and well-meaning at all times.*

And, last but certainly not least, I commend to you Ms. Prose's non-fiction, her oughta-feature-prominently- on-every-serious-writer's/reader's-shelf volume Reading Like A Writer.  How many times have I turned its pages?  Happily, I've lost count.  If you're looking to shift your perspective on prose, there's no better work to tweak your current habits into open-eyed clarity.  And her list of recommended reading in the appendix is worth the price of the book.

Bottom line:  if you like novels, you'll like Prose; if you like short fiction, you'll double-like Prose; and if you care about writing and reading, well then, if you haven't read Prose you'll be hopping right now to your local bookseller to find yourself Reading Like A Writer at last.

MFB,
L

* Quick non-Prose aside:  Another stellar and all too infrequently read novel on similar themes is Dreamer by Charles Johnson, about an MLK look-alike with a seemingly murderous past who becomes the famed preacher/human rights advocate's body double.

So: Cinder.

Wicked stepsister.  Check.
Dead dad.  Check (we think).
Prince Charming.  Check.
Persecuted heroine who just doesn't fit in.  Check.
Wicked stepmother.  Check.  And double-check.

Add:  Moon people terrorizing earthlings with their psychic powers and magicked beauty and ruthlessness. 
Add: Cyborgs and androids and plagues: Oh, my!

This fledgling effort by twenty-something writer Marissa Meyer offers reasonably quick pacing and many not-entirely-expected plot twists, so it kept me interested most of the time.

What it doesn't boast is strong sentence-level writing (translation: not a single beautiful or surprising turn of phrase to be had, so typical of so much Y.A. nowadays - and, yes: back in the day it was better).  I won't quote from the serviceable but mediocre prose - you've seen enough of it by now, I'm sure - but I will share another concern I felt about this novel, even as I closed the cover on its last page:

Cinder's a cypher (in addition to being a cyborg), rather akin to Bella in the Twilight series:  Beyond a certain basic spunkiness, she's defined primarily by how she reacts to others' actions, even though her perspective is the dominant one in this fantasy/sci-fi hybrid.  And she - I suppose, in true teen fashion - often has no idea why she thinks, feels, or acts as she does.  Perhaps this allows more readers to project themselves onto her and thus stay engaged with this plot-driven novel, but I always want to "have it all" where stories are concerned and prefer my protagonists both psychologically dimensional and dynamic.

On the bright side, I think that many young teens will find this futuristic fantasy set in "New Beijing" enjoyable because Ms. Meyer sets up her heroine as the victim on many levels, thus readers will empathize not only with Cinder's lack of self-reflection and self-knowledge but also with her status as "other".  In contrast, equally young Prince Kai seems thoughtful, balanced, dimensional, and deliberate, at least when it counts plausibility-wise.  He's a heartthrob too, and I'm guessing that girls - clearly the audience for Cinder - will dream quite a few little dreams of him as they await the next two installments of this series.

A final gripe, a final grin:
a.  This book in no way stands on its own.  It simply ends only about half way through the Cinderella story plot.  Frustrating when a novel doesn't at least offer closure within one story-arch.

b.  The cover's pretty rad, though, eh?

MFB, as you can't judge a book by...
L

AND I would probably pick up the next installment just to see what happens to poor "between a rock and a hard place" Prince Kai.  So there.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - Review

Get it at betterworldbooks.com or indiebound.org.

It's disappointing, especially for a Libba Bray fan.  Sure, she delivers her usual page-turning, wry-smile-inducing read, but Bray's new young adult novel seems cobbled together and more than a little self-conscious, preachy, after school special-y, and almost B-movie-esque, but not in the ways she intends.

To sum up: A plane-load of teen beauty queens crashes on a tropical island already inhabited by a secret arms-dealing branch of The Corporation.  Giant snakes, hallucinatory berries, and exploding Lady 'Stache-Off hair remover are the least of the young women's worries, but the question is: Will the reality-TV pirates be able to save them or will they save the pirates?

My Opinion:  This parody/social satire seems to have gone to press way too soon: way too many characters that seem pre-cast with Hollywood A-listers just waiting for the screenplay; unsuccessful shifts and lapses in rhetorical stance; attempts at (David Foster Wallace-esque?) footnoting that jar us out of Bray's trademark breezy, forceful plotting; surfacey attempts to address dozens of social issues faced by teens and our society at large; and fantasy elements mixing with a reality-TV concept at way-too-coincidental moments combine to make this novel a true let-down.

I'm sorry, Libba: I still admire your humor and creativity, but you and David L. rushed this too closely on the heels of Going Bovine, I'll warrant. Another draft in which you honed Beauty Queens in every regard would have made this another exceptional effort. As it stands, it's a mixed up, though often entertaining, mess.

MFB,
L

Sold by Patricia McCormick (briefly)

Get it from Indiebound.org.

A young adult issue novel about sexual trafficking between hill towns in the Nepalese Himalayas and Calcutta, India.

To sum up:  Lyrically written as a series of short vignettes voiced by Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl living in a hut on a Himalayan hillside, who is sold into slavery by her stepfather.  She endures many torments in a brothel, including of course daily rapings by her madame's customers, as well as plenty of brutal treatment by her captors and fellow slaves.  Eventually, through acts of kindness by a young, also rural-born tea vendor, friends among her fellow prostitutes, and two American advocates, she is rescued from her awful plight.

Who would benefit from reading this novel?  Teens and adults who are ready for the content (occasional - and thematically, psychologically necessary - descriptions of Lakshmi's rapes are tastefully done but strategically explicit at times) and are comfortable with a quietly lyrical voice and moderate pacing.  Readers who have not encountered this ongoing issue before and are looking for a first-person perspective based on Patricia McCormick's (author of the widely popular Cut and other YA issue novels) research will find it an engaging and thought-provoking introduction to this serious problem.

MFB,
L

Action:  I'm going to request a lit. circle/reading group set for next year's world lit. class, because I've seen quite a few students with this book already, and feel it would be a worthwhile and relatively easy read for students who can handle the content.  This novel was a National Book Award finalist for 2007, so that too will help me justify it as a selection. 
And I will, of course, research the organizations that are working to stop sexual trafficking (and all human trafficking, for that matter), so that I can help students find ways to make a positive difference on this issue.

p.s. The girl on the cover, though lovely, looks about 7 years old.  Lakshmi is 13.  This likely turns some teen readers off as they don't like to carry around books that look like they're meant for elementary school kids.  It's too bad - even if the cover photo is actually of a 13 year old girl, images count in our society and that one isn't helping get this book into the hands of its intended readers.

Thirteen Reasons Why OR A Dark Week in YA Lit., Part II

Gifted Teen Commits Suicide, Tortures Peers From Beyond The Grave.

That's the headline, and that's the premise of Jay Asher's novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, as many of you probably know:

Hannah Baker kills herself, but creates a set of audiotapes beforehand detailing how thirteen different people contributed to her death.  Then she blackmails the people on the tapes into sending the set along to the rest of the incriminated group by duplicating the set and leaving it with an anonymous "watcher" tasked with ensuring all Hannah's intended listeners indeed pass the tapes along.  If the chain breaks, the watcher will release the tapes to the public.

A rather creepy premise indeed but, like Stolen (reviewed here earlier this week), one that holds a distinct appeal to teens.  Thirteen Reasons Why sizzled like wildfire through the ranks of young women nationwide last year, and I watched it fly from hand to hand in my own school, so I can verify its popularity. 

And like Stolen, it plays on the misapprehensions and emotional confusion so prominent in teenage life.  But unlike Stolen, this novel realistically and grippingly explores the cruelties that teens deal out to each other on a regular basis and serves as a clear cautionary tale for all those who trade on rumor-mongering and bullying.  Its heroine, unlike Gemma in Stolen, is reasonably self-aware and understands her own participation in her demise, though she feels powerless to control her emotions or to stop her downward spiral into depression, isolation, and death.

Despite the harrowing subject matter, I found this to be a worthwhile listening experience, both in substance and in form.  The story here is tautly woven and uncomfortably addictive.  And the audio CDs I listened to featured two engaging actors (Debra Wiseman and Joel Johnstone), perfectly cast as the dual protagonists Hannah herself and Clay, the entirely decent young man who's listening to the tapes and waiting for the moment when she reveals what he has done to deserve inclusion on her list.

If you're going to try Thirteen Reasons Why - and if you're a parent, friend, or mentor of young teens, I suggest you do - the audio version is well worth your time. 

But do be prepared:  This is a trying experience, even though it's quite well paced and well done in every respect.  Even if we're not on the list, we feel the same horror, frustration, and powerlessness that Hannah's listeners do, all thirteen steps of the way.

MFB,
L

p.s.  Is anyone else having trouble viewing the Google 'Followers' app. in Explorer?  If so, are they working on it at Blogger or is there a fix?

Started Early, Took My Dog: What She Read Review

Test drive Atkinson's skillful prose at Amazon.
Buy it at Indiebound.org or BetterWorldBooks.com

Uncommonly clever, funny, and thought-provoking, from first page to last.  I jest not: 'Tis passing strange and passing marvelous, this most recent of Kate Atkinson's novels, and my first encounter with Jackson Brodie, her multi-book ex-cop P.I.

In this story of chance meetings, instant adoptions, cover-ups, Rippers, found treasures, and families lost, the interwoven tales of Tracy Waterhouse, 50-something ex-detective in search of the love of her life; always-second-best veteran stage actress cum Magnum PI's mum Tilly;long-murdered crack whore Carole Braithwaite and her orphaned child; and the divorced, confused, and somewhat cynical Jackson, happenstance and swift, instinctive choices propel us as we leap from the '70's to the present and back again on a mystery tour rife with laughter, profundity, and - most notably - quickly and expertly drawn characters who are the center of this novel, even when the centers of their worlds cannot hold.

Unlike other mystery-suspense-crime novels of my recent acquaintance, Started Early, Took My Dog is a book I will recommend to one and all, whether or not such genres are normally within their customary reading.  And that's because the plot, although swift-moving and intriguing in itself, is really not what this book is about.  It's the characters:  Tracy, the big, butch ex-police officer whose instant choice to buy a kid propels her into the love she's always wanted and Tilly, the slightly-less-than-grande dame tilting under the constellations of her own dementia and Courtney, the stoic four-year-old whose smallest gesture could break a cold man's heart and Barry, the dissolute cop drowning in layer upon layer of guilt for his own compromising acts and of course Brodie, he of the title 5:30 a.m. rising and the accidental canine companion.

You'll want to know what becomes of them, what they'll think and feel next, what they'll say, and how they'll react to what fate and their own chance choices deal them.

And if you're like me, you'll slap sticky after sticky into this book for passage after passage marking stellar turns of phrase, quick and penetrating insights, and perfectly apt applications of beautiful quotes borrowed from the greats of Western literature.

It's a true reader's delight, and I suggest you buy it for yourself and your friends and your book group today.

My highest marks, and my appreciation to Kate Atkinson and to Hatchette Books for bringing this book into my wee sphere.  I won't happen upon such a lively and gratifying read any time soon, I'll wager, and I'm grateful.

MFB,
L

Transform-My-Life Action:  First, I'm ready to start organizing my favorite quotations and slapping them on the table whenever chance allows.  This novel sports characters who naturally and believably weave telling snippets from Dickenson and Shakespeare and Pope and many more into their thoughts and speech.  And it's about time I owned up to doing the same in my head, but rarely aloud.  So:  here's to memorizing not just poems - as I'm wont to do from time to time - but also a smattering of quotations to trot out on appropriate occasions. Hold me accountable, local pals and friends from the far corners of the interwebs:  In May, ask me to recite a few via IMing on the new ActionReaders website.

Change-The-World Action:  I will be passing this book along to many of my friends and colleagues and family members.  Look out Mom:  Mothers' Day's coming up!  And I'll be raving on Amazon and Goodreads too. 

p.s. Regular readers will note that I am not a fan of recent crime and suspense novels, at least not the ones I've been reading lately.  This book breaks the mold, because it's all about the characters, the themes of loss and life history taking their toll and attempts at redemption and wholeness, and the language itself that cradles all the people and ideas.  This is a 4-5 star read disguised as the fourth in a series of crime novels about the character Jackson Brodie.  But since I haven't read any of the earlier books I can attest to the fact that it stands alone entirely, and offers readerly satisfaction in and of itself.

The Ice Princess: "What She Read" Review

Get it at betterworldbooks or indiebound...

Most of the time, finding an angle for my reviews takes little effort. Almost always.

This one is different.

The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg, a crime novel set in contemporary Sweden, has stumped me. And perhaps it shoudn't.  In this story of two violent deaths fueled by the simmering resentments and psychopathologies of similarly violent childhoods, Lackberg skillfully weaves multiple perspectives and characterizations to keep the reader guessing up until the bitter end.  So what's the issue?

Is it the scores of characters who weave their way in and out of this 400ish page tale of an amatuer writer-detective whose childhood friend is brutally murdered, then left to bleed out and freeze over in her own bathtub?  (I counted at least a dozen different perspectives in the first chapter alone...)

Is it the brief descriptions of myriad Swedish exteriors and interiors for which I have no visual reference points?  (I'll look them up now.)

Is it that I was expecting an action thriller but got a highly psychological and moderately paced mystery instead?  (Possibly.)

I don't know.

I do know that if this is considered a suspense novel, as it was described by its publishers, then my previous generalizations about the state of the genre (based on a current bestseller) must be seriously amended.  In fact, The Ice Princess stacks up quite favorably against the current bestseller by a famously prolific author from which I drew my conclusions.  Does this bode well for Lackberg's career and her future novels?  One hopes it does.

Did this novel pass the time pleasantly?  Absolutely.  Was the 'Bridget Jones without the humor' heroine reasonably believable and sympathetic?  Indeed.  Did the plot move forward at a steady pace with occasional twists and turns and blind alleyways for good measure?  Yes.  Subplots in which the protagonist's personal life repeatedly intersects with her sleuthing?  Check.  Satisfying romantic developments?  Check.

So if you're looking for those qualities in your next light read, and especially if you've ever held a fascination for Swedish culture and scenery, Lackberg's debut on the North American scene will suit the bill nicely.

MFB with a fresh perspective on a popular genre,
L

Transform-My-Life Action:
I'm going to research Sweden and then find out what it might cost to travel there.  Lately, I've met quite a few new Swedish pals, so I do believe that this novel has propelled me toward making more lasting acquaintances out of them.  I will FB and email two today.

Change-The-World Action:
I'll post this review to Amazon and Goodreads and open a reviewer account on Betterworldbooks.com so I can post there too.  (FYI: I don't reliably post reviews so this book will help me make a habit of sharing honest information with more people.)

For my "What I Learned About Thrillers" premises, and how The Ice Princess stacks up:

"What She Read" Review: Briar Rose (briefly)

It was kismet:  First, I noticed as I was commenting on a Facebook post that a Jane Yolen had also participated in that thread, and thought:  Is that the same Jane Yolen whose writing I've read about but never sampled?  It was.

Then I saw her Briar Rose recommended by a blogger on Sarcastic Female Literary Circle as a YA read with a strong female lead.

And I had $20 to trade at the used bookstore when I looked down at a pile in the current Young Adult Fiction section to see this cover.  Done deal.

So what is Briar Rose?  The myth of Sleeping Beauty translated into a fiction about the Holocaust.  Surprising.  And beautiful.

Jane Yolen's modern take on a classic tale offers a depth not often found in many current day remixes of old myths. 

She chose to go this genre one better, offering up her formidable skills as a storyteller - you're in the palm of her hand from page one - to shed new light on a rarely-viewed aspect of Polish history during World War II.  In so doing, Yolen honors people who might otherwise have been forgotten and reclaims the Sleeping Beauty tale for a new generation of men and women.

It's the story of Becca Berlin who makes a promise to her dying Gemma that she will seek out Gemma's murky history and bring it back to her family.  Really, that's it.  Except: There are actually two settings (Massachusetts in the 90's & Poland in the '30's and '40's) and three layered stories here:  Gemma's retelling of Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty, Becca's modern hero's journey to discover Gemma's true history, and then Josef's story of survival in Poland during the Holocaust that reveals his version of that history. 

They're woven together naturally and skillfully: any reader growing up today or familiar with a variety of fictional forms will have no problem moving among these tales, all told with confidence by a master. 

I highly recommend it.  And I think it might be my first five star YA book of this blog.

What'll I do:
1. Friend Yolen on FB and take a look at her other YA works. I'd like to keep in touch with her, esp. with regard to supporting young women in their personal development.
2. Recommend this book to my teacher-friends & book group.
3. Research and read the "real" version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, which is one I missed growing up.  Perhaps check out some feminist perspectives on it too...

MFB, wide awake,
L

And it wins a perfect score for the Bechtel Test:
1. Two or more women?  Yes, a grandma (Gemma), three sisters (Shana-Sylvia-and-Becca constitute a Regin-Goneril-Cordelia-ish triad, lite version as the older two sisters are merely obnoxious rather than deadly), and a best female friend, plus a number of ancillary male and female characters.
2. Do they converse for more than a minute or two?  Yes.  They talk a lot about history, friendship, family.
3. Do they converse about subjects other than men?  Absolutely.  They are seeking to understand Becca's family history, so little of the story focuses on romance. (OK, a little, but it's in the backdrop, not a central issue.)

A caution:  Do know that even though the book is considered young adult fiction, Yolen does not evade or avoid sexuality - a trend now typical in YA lit..  In fact, one character's sexual acts are described pretty specifically.  Just a heads-up for younger readers.

Jellicoe Road: Out On A Limb at the Corner of Fate & History



click here to "look inside"

The search for a truly great young adult read continues. 

This 2009 Prinz Award winner (for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction) by Australian author Melina Marchetta provided diversion and certainly offers more than your average YA read, but right now that's as far out on a high limb as I will climb in praise of the novel.  (It's dangerous out there: read this book and see...)

And yet.  Imagine its teen appeal:

* Townies meet Cadets meet Academy students for war games.
* Violent death meets little girls in boarding school.
* Kidnapping meets cow manure.
* Innocent flirtation meets intense sex.
* The redemptive power of telling our stories meets a puzzle-piece mystery and a book within a book.

Throw in 80's pop references and the occasional nod to To Kill a Mockingbird and you've got yourself a YA novel.

If you're drawn to strong yet mercurial protagonists, teens battling to-the-pain using strategic military maneuvers, and family drama doused in a heavy dose of fate, then this just might be your next great read.

Action Jump-Starts
* Online Inquiry & Action:  Find out more about Australia, especially Jellicoe Road and the Australian bush.  Let me know if you sleuth out just where this road is. Me? Tried. MFB. OR:  
Reach out to kids whose parents have died or must be absent.  Try Friends of Orphans or maybe National Foster Parent Association.  Offer to help.
* Creative Spark: Take an episode from your childhood and tell it like a fiction.  Offer suspense and challenge and intense emotion. Let it become a new story rather than history.
* Connection: Look up a long lost childhood friend or revisit a childhood memory, especially one that involved your friends and play out in nature. 

My action:  Connection.  In search of Gregory Shumeister.  My childhood pal from Jones Road. Wonder where that kid is now?  Anybody seen him?

Just the Jist List
Title: Jellicoe Road
Author: Melina Marchetta
Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction (Prinz Award winner)
Year Published: 2008
Pages: 432
Author's Website: http://www.melinamarchetta.com.au/
Overall rating: ***+

Get it at:

or

MFB,
me



Esperanza Rising (Briefly)

This modern classic of children's lit/middle readers somehow escaped me for years.  Pam Munoz Ryan's Depression-era tale of an affluent young Mexican girl whose family must move to the Central Valley in CA to become field workers - modeled in part on her own grandmother's experiences - offers us solid third person narration, clear and age-appropriate prose, a realistic look at farm workers' conditions at that time, and a pleasant coming-of-age story as well.  I enjoyed reviewing the Spanish words for vegetables and fruits, which serve as chapter titles, and overall I'm glad that I've got this one under my belt.  Yay for books on CD: They make errands and commutes so much more edifying and entertaining!

Action:
1.  Renew my membership in Southern Poverty Law Center, a wonderful organization that not only prosecutes hate crimes - often risking their lives to do so - but defends the rights of migrant and not-so-migrant farm workers.  They also publish a Teach Tolerance magazine resource for teachers.
2.  Use the Coalition of Immolakee Workers site to email Fred Meyer's (a local grocery/general merchandise chain) about supporting farm workers by allowing produce prices to rise slightly in order to offer humane wages.  I'll also print out a letter to bring to the TJ's store manager about it as well.  Materials for other stores and a map of what's in your area are available here too.  (Thanks, Mom, for forwarding me info. from this site a couple of weeks ago:  I did email TJ's, but recently found out that Fred Meyer offers Kroger's products...)

Just the Jist List
Title: Esperanza Rising
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Genre(s): historical fiction for young adults or middle readers
Book's Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanza%20Rising
Author's Website: http://www.pammunozryan.com/
Year Published: 2000
Pages: 262
When was it read? January 25, 2011
Perfect Matches: young people interested in the Depression era, migrant workers, Mexican and CA history, coming-of-age stories
Perfect Timing: quick read w/period details, unique companion piece for Of Mice and Men or The Grapes of Wrath
Perfect NOT: not interested in US history, not interested issues of race and class in America
Content Fab Scale (1-5): ***
Why? Interesting details re: the customs of the time period, straightforward story, likable protagonist and supporting characters
Action Fab Scale (1-5): ***
Why? Plenty could be researched here, from time period to contemporary issues to current migrant workers' issues
# Yellow Stickies: 0
Why? Listened to it in the car: no stickies to hand. 
Get it:  (again, I'm not an affiliate - just making it easy to purchase)

MFB,

L

Barefoot, One Eye

That's Ludephia Bennett, the dirt-poor 10-year-old protagonist of Leaving Gee's Bend, poet/novelist Irene Latham's middle reader book based - in part - on the true story of a 1932 raid on the tiny Alabama sharecroppers' community by the local landowner's mad widow.  This book feels confidently wrought from page one, and boasts both gentle vocal rhythms and a steady, forthright narrative pace. And it's a local adventure story threaded through with quilting references, the craft for which Gee's Bend has become notable across the nation. 

I didn't think I'd be reading this book so soon after it arrived on my doorstep, but once I picked it up, perused the beautifully crafted business card inside, and visited Ms. Latham's engaging blog, I knew I'd give it a go immediately.  I must say, it was a terrific treadmill read:  the hour flew by!  (Although I jogged more or less lethargically along.)  Latham captures Ludelphia's earnestness and genuine naivete, and that's what engaged me.  And I suspect it will hook and hold young people as well.

Teacher-flag:  For those who - like me - are perenially on the lookout for books that might complement or supplement To Kill A Mockingbird, this one offers a similar setting and a narrator of like age to Scout, with some related themes as well, so it's fair game for our classroom bookshelves, I think.

Actions:
1.  Offer it to my fellow English teachers to read for themselves.
2.  Spend one day going barefoot in my house, and try some of it with one eye patched. (channeling Lu)
3.  Clean out my quilting stuff and give it to someone who will use it.  (I admire quilters and their useful-artful creations but have tried to get interested in actually constructing them many times, to no avail.  It's tediously precise work, at least the way I've been taught, and I simply haven't the sustained interest. Crafters who live near me:  Call it!)

Just the Jist List
Title: Leaving Gee's Bend
Author: Irene Latham
Genre(s): historical fiction for young adults or middle readers
Book's Website: http://www.irenelatham.com/novels.html
Author's Website: http://irenelatham.blogspot.com/
Year Published: 2010
Pages: 227
When was it read? January 15, 2011
Perfect Matches: young people interested in Alabama history, sharecroppers, issues of race and class; To Kill A Mockingbird teachers and students; quilters who also enjoy fiction; all readers who enjoy a well-told tale
Perfect Timing: quick read w/period details, TKAM overwhelms w/vocabulary & euphemism - looking for a more straightforward read, and from an African American perspective
Perfect NOT: not interested in US history, not interested issues of race and class in America
Content Fab Scale (1-5): ***
Why? Interesting details re: the customs of the time period, straightforward story, likeable protagonist and supporting characters
Action Fab Scale (1-5): ****
Why? Plenty could be researched here, from time period to contemporary issues to quilts and witches
# Yellow Stickies: 0
Why? Read it at the gym: no stickies to hand. 
Get it: 

MFB,
L

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

So fine to stumble upon a great read today.  Well, in fact, I didn't so much stumble as stride there, guided by ShelfAwareness, the daily email about books and bookselling.  I'm a tad addicted to my morning ShelfAwareness now, and the banner ad for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow caught my eye three days running until I investigated reviews and put a copy on hold at the library.  I picked it up at noon, started it around 2:00 this afternoon and finished it by 8:00 this evening.  It's not normal for me to devour a book that quickly, yet, even with quite a few other tasks to tackle this afternoon, it was easily the highlight of my day. 

It's a mystery of sorts: A mom and her three kids fall off a nine-story Chicago rooftop.  All but nine-year-old (??) Rachel die on the pavement below.  Why they fell, whether they leapt or were pushed, persists as a question not only for Rachel, who's soon shipped to Portland, OR to live with her paternal grandmother, but also for Brick, a young neighbor who witnessses the fall.  And for Doug, Mor(the mom)'s boyfriend, for her boss, Laronne, and for Robert, her husband.

And it's a coming of age story about race and place as well: Rachel's mom is from Denmark and her dad is African American.  Rachel's blue eyes and mocha skin raise questions wherever she goes, and she slips and stumbles upon the hard edges of a world where the not-quite-categorizable is often denegrated and where the unusual 'other' is often suspect.  Uprooted, subject to the contrary whims of her grandmother, and terrified to unlock the blue vase inside where her anger and grief dwell, Rachel does things even she doesn't entirely understand.

Structure-wise, the narrative shifts among 6 central characters, yet the plot builds handily toward its climax:  Durrow's deft, not only in creating a protagonist who's utterly believable in a situation we wish we couldn't believe, but also in keeping the tension taught while layering in psychological depth and juggling multiple perspectives.

I'm glad that I spent the afternoon reading this.  High school and middle school English teachers, especially: Try it - I'll bet your students will be reading it...

Action: I am going to recommend this to at least 10 people I otherwise wouldn't contact.  That means in addition to you reading this... I'm going to write my first Amazon review, and put most of this one on Goodreads as well (I often link there, but don't flat-out cut-n-paste), and call a few folks and email a few others and tell the librarians at my local library and offer a review to our local booksellers too.  I might even post a status on FB about it... It's that worth reading.

Just the Jist List
Title: The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
Author: Heidi W. Durrow
Genre(s): realistic contemporary fiction (could be read by young adults, but not a "YA" book per se)
Book's Website: http://heidiwdurrow.com/book/
Author's Website: http://heidiwdurrow.com/book/  (yes, same site)
Year Published: 2010
Pages: 264
When was it read? January 13, 2011
Perfect Matches: Mature young adults looking for a gripping read, anyone who craves a well-crafted contemporary fiction, anyone interested in issues of identity, race, coming of age
Perfect Timing: Great airplane read (well, except for the whole family falling to their deaths part), so maybe great train or car travel read or snow-day read
Perfect NOT: people who don't like women/female protagonists, people who don't like to read realistic fiction, can't handle multiple perspectives, don't like imperfect or complex characters
Content Fab Scale (1-5): ****
Why? These issues will likely never stop being relevant in the USA, and worldwide, for that matter.  And unique and insightful coming-of-age stories are ever welcome.  We're all still coming of age in one way or another, aren't we?  Plus there are quite a few dimensional adult characters here as well.  And did I mention it's keenly crafted too?
Action Fab Scale (1-5): ****
Why? One could attempt any number of actions related to content angles in this book, although I wound up going meta here.
# Yellow Stickies: 1 - It was too gripping to interrupt with stickies.
Why? See above.
Get it:  (again - I'm not currently affiliated w/the stores below, just hoping to make access easy for you - the links below are direct to the book)

MFB with more great reads (fingers crossed),
L

(Mean) Girrrl Power, Victorian-Supernatural Style

About 1/3 of the way into A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, I wondered what in the world I might do to act on this coming-of-age/myth-tinged supernatural fantasy/Victorian historical novel-of-manners.  But by 1/2 way through, I knew.

Any action advancing my own girl power, despite what society might say, will do quite nicely, thank you.  And so much of this novel focuses on young women's attention to and judgment of their appearances, that working with image will factor in strongly.

So:  I'll ponder my own persona to refine it, both in real life and on the interwebs.  AND I'll own up to the fact that most people buying and talking and blogging about books these days are female, so those are the folks I must think of as my primary audience and the first wave of Action Readers.

Let's face it, plenty of research has shown us that when you give $ or education to women, they tend to use these resources to improve their entire communities at far higher rates than men do, who tend to use substantial amounts for their own personal purposes.  AND women tend to make up 85+% of the people in book groups.  So why not begin by focusing primarily on women and youth for our movement to change the world, one book at a time?

Don't get me wrong: I love men.  And they will be welcome at all times.  But this book has helped to convince me - through the mode of story rather than argument - that women who own their power and beauty can change not only this world, but the Realms beyond. 

And, conversely, they can be far crueler than men, not only to advance important purposes in their lives, but sometimes just for sport.  So I want all my endeavors to contain elements that reward behaviors that demonstrate compassion and non-harming, helping to shape young women especially into the decent folks who can save the world.  The 'killer instinct' will survive on its own, I have no doubt.

So you may be asking yourself, what in the world is this book about, anyway?  Well, you might remember Libba Bray from Going Bovine, the recent Prinz winner (best YA fiction of the year) and my review What If Holden Caulfield Wrote The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy? (link here). This is her first novel, quite far afield from GB in time period, tone, and focus.  And utterly solid, compulsively readable at that.  It's the first in a trilogy, of which I realized I'd read the last book a year or so ago when one of my students was doing so as well.  Reading A Great and Terrible Beauty has been a bit like watching the ole claymation classic (and best Christmas special EVER), "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town":  "Oh, so that's why he wears a red suit!" and "Oh!  He laughs Ho! Ho! Ho! just like a seal!"  I finally understand much more of the backstory to The Sweet Far Thing and rather wish I'd gone in the order the author intended!

Super-quick Summary/Teaser:  Gemma Doyle, recently of India where her mother was murdered trying to save her from the otherworldly evil-incarnate Circe, arrives at Spence Academy in England only to find a group of uber-catty teens playing some pretty vicious mean-girl smack-down day in, day out.  Gemma keeps having visions of other Realms, including those of a little girl who leads her to a cave in the forest nearby where she discovers a diary of two previous Spence girls who became witches and then died trying to conjure ole Circe.  One thing leads to another and 2 catty girls plus Gemma's poor, ungraceful roommate create their own little cult.  One wants beauty, one love, one power, one to know herself.  Rising action of the plot ensues.

And a rip-snorter of a plot it is.  You will NOT be bored reading A Great and Terrible Beauty, though you might be appalled at the girls' actions, and I wouldn't suggest reading it just before sleep... Although it's not wildly graphic most of the time, creepiness abounds, not to mention some surprisingly steamy dream sequences.

Sample Chapter to test the waters of Bray's style in this novel (oh so different from Going Bovine), try this excerpt:"Chapter One"

Sweet theme-related Bray quote from the bonus author interview: "The thing is that every choice carries with it a sense of personal responsibility and accountability and a degree of insecurity.  You have to live with that and step outside the fear." (11)

Give it a whirl if you're ready to own your girl power, or just want to recall the darker side of growing up.

MFB,
L

Life As We Knew It

What do you do once you've lived through the end of the world? 

You write a book review. 

This one will be short and sweet.  In Susan Beth Pfeffer's belletristic YA novel, sixteen year old diarist Miranda Evans and her family survive volcanoes, blizzards, a deadly flu epidemic, and near-starvation, outliving nearly all their neighbors and presumably their extended family as well.  Premise:  An asteroid hits the moon, knocking it closer to the earth and setting off a series of natural disasters that pretty well wipe out most of the humans on the planet, and presumably most other terrestrial species as well.  It's a survival story, pure and simple, and the interest for readers - especially young ones - will lie in how Miranda and her family deal with an increasingly less "convenient" lifestyle and how they slowly become more resourceful, determined, and cohesive in the face of catastrophe after catastrophe.

Pfeffer's prose moves along smoothly, with evenhanded pacing and short chapters keeping the action at the fore, although one must consciously suspend disbelief that a 16 year old is describing these calamitous events with such seamless clarity, on a series of makeshift diary pages, and on the very day they're happening.  And of course, character development takes a back seat to such a stimulating plot, although events do eventually conspire to force both Miranda and her younger brother, Jonny, to mature while the crisis brings out the best in the relatively static characters of Miranda's mom and her older brother, Matt. 

I think that's almost enough said about the book.  Except to say that I chose it because it was noted over and over again by local teens as a favorite novel and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  AND that as I web-surfed to provide you with links for this post, I discovered that Pfeffer's produced two additional "Moon Crash" books since 2006, one set concurrently but in NYC rather than Pennsylvania, and the other a sequel uniting the protagonists of both novels, to be published in paperback this spring.  Now why'd she have to go and write a series?  Guess I've got two of my January reads lined up, as apparently I have grown fond of this plucky family after all...

Action:  Hoo, dogies.  It's just gotta be about canned goods. 
See, the family here survives mainly due to mom's quick decision to go shopping the day after the moon-shift and buy all the non-perishables she and her kids can get their hands on.  Her insistence on preparedness and frugality keeps them alive for much of the book.

So:  1.  I'll take a load of canned goods/non-perishables to the food bank.  (Baby, it's cold outside, snowing even.)  2.  I'll check our emergency preparedness kits and update them. (And maybe even our fire extinguishers too...)  A little for the world, a little for us.  And practical.

MFB,
L

(MFB was definitely the Evans family's motto too, and it served them well.)  What's MFB?  It's More 'Fail Better'.  See my 'pinecone turkeys' blogpost from 11/24/10.  (With a tip of the ill-fitting hat to Samuel Beckett.)

Maximum Read.

Sweet read too.  Fast, fast, fast first in this YA series about a small flock of genetically engineered kids out there fighting for their freedom.  No big surprise: Patterson's a master plotter.  Not so much depth of character except for Max (first person'll do that for ya), but maybe later?

L'accion du jour:
Draw'ring.  The voice in my head demands:  some sorta super-birdie must drip from my pen.  Mayhaps I'll conjure a token of thanks for Marnie, the Max fanatic who simply shrieked (in her winningly exhuberant way) when she learned that I wasn't yet acquainted with her fave female superhero.  She's an artist herself,  as well as a writer-reader-athlete-dancer, so I know she'll appreciate an unexpected thank you from last year's English teacher. Shriek-worthy?  Stay tuned...

Pushing past my ineptitude toward brilliance: Max-worthy for sure, and sweet.
L

p.s.  Another card in the stack (pebble in the pond?  feather in the cap?) of evidence to prove my theory:  the best YA novels nowadays are penned by folks who cut their teeth on adult novels.  This one's pure page turner, but cunningly so.  So: Patterson, Alice Hoffman, Jane Smiley, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaimon, Terry Pratchett: just a short list of bestselling adult authors who've turned their superior narrative talents to the YA market.  Maybe this trend's resurgence started with Sherman Alexie, no?  Anyone offering additional title suggestions?  I've got a Jane Smiley in my pile...