Adult Fiction

BEST OF 2014: Adult Fiction & Nonfiction

Once again, the entire BCPL staff was asked to submit their picks for the best books of the year for adults. From ambitious literary triumphs to crowd-pleasing bestsellers, here are our collective picks for 2014’s best:

Adult Fiction

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This beautiful, sprawling story told from multiple viewpoints centers mostly on Mare-Laure, a 16-year-old blind girl, and Warner, a young German soldier, whose paths are destined to cross.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Mystery, humor, and family drama collide in this brilliantly paced page-turner involving a suspicious death during a parent-night fundraiser at a small-town public school and the months leading up to the tragedy. Readers are left guessing until the very end who was was killed and why, but the authentic personalities and situations are what truly make this book shine.

Blood Magick by Nora Roberts
In this final installment of the Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy, Roberts delivers another supernatural-spiced romance with a vivid Irish setting and likable characters.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
As a fifteen-year-old runaway, Holly Sykes has no idea of the integral role she will play in a secret war between two groups of near-immortals. Spanning decades and continents, this novel tells the intricate story of that war, weaving in and out of Holly’s life even as she remains mostly oblivious—until the day that the pieces finally come together in time for a final epic battle.

Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett
The epic multigenerational saga of five families whose live intersect through the 20th century comes to a head in this final episode full of family drama, political intrigue, and societal upheaval.

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
A multi-layered story told through many voices, Leaving Time is at its heart a story about motherhood. The novel centers on a precocious 13-year-old girl determined to unravel the mystery of her mother’s disappearance ten years ago, with the help of a disgraced former police detective and an infamous psychic.

The Martian by Any Weir
Originally an underground self-published hit and now destined for the big screen, this novel is a quiet but captivating thriller about an astronaut stranded on Mars with limited supplies and no rescue on the horizon.

Shadow Spell by Nora Roberts
Full of Irish lore and compelling characters, this second installment of the Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy features an impending battle against a magical sorcerer and a romance between childhood friends enmeshed in the struggle,

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
On the eve of a pandemic that will wipe out 99% of the global population, a celebrated actor dies on stage during a performance of King Lear. Twenty years later, a group of traveling musicians and actors and a few others struggle to keep art, culture, and history relevant in a world where the struggle for survival has wiped out hope for many. An elegiac and thought-provoking dystopian novel with substance.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
A cantankerous young widower finds new purpose when he finds an abandoned two-year-old in his bookstore.

The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott
When a young teen lays hands on her injured friend, it is discovered that she has the power of healing. Unfortunately, with each attempt to heal someone else, Ava finds she herself grows weaker.

Adult Nonfiction

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
In this witty graphic memoir about the last years of her elderly parents’ lives, Chast honestly and often humorously depicts the mental and physical struggles of both the dying and their caregivers. 

Deep Down Dark by Héctor Tobar
Through an empathetic and vivid account, an award-winning journalist brings to life the unfathomable experience of the 33 men who were trapped 2,000 feet underground at a Chilean mine for 10 weeks in 2010. A riveting account of disaster, survival, and coming to terms with the experience in the midst of a media frenzy.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow
This funny, whimsical guide to like is sure to appeal to nostalgic bibliophiles.
The Mockingbird Next Door by Harper Lee
In this intimate biography of Harper Lee, a journalist offers insights into the reclusive author’s life and thoughts based on their conversations in the latter part of Lee’s life.
UnPHILtered by Phil Robertson
The Duck Dynasty star offers his opinions on life and faith as well as other controversial topics.

GUEST REVIEW: The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls

Tonight we have a special guest review from a new library employee! But Donna isn’t new to Book News & Reviews; in 2012, when we Donna was simply a library patron, she contributed reviews of Home at Last by Bonnie Leon and Siobhan Fallon’s linked short story collection You Know When the Men Are Gone. Glad to have you back, Donna!

Donna’s Rating:4/5 Stars
Genre: Mainstream Fiction/Love Story
Audience: Adult

Summary: Thirty-something Bess Gray despairs of ever finding “the one.” Then she meets a charming Irish musician and becomes instantly smitten. After a couple of months of dating he proposes. The problem? Rory has already been married EIGHT times before. Before deciding whether to follow her heart and leap all in, Bess embarks on a journey to meet each of the past wives and learn where Rory’s past marriages went wrong.

Donna’s Review:
It took a little bit to get used to the jumping back and forth from the his and her viewpoints during the reading of this book. Once I got past that, the story did stick its fangs into me. It kept me coming back for more. I wanted to know all about the hows and whys of Rory’s eight wives. How in the world did he end up being married that many times? More than one is not that uncommon in modern times, but eight?

I liked getting to see Rory mature with each of his wives, what could have been just relationships if not for his very giving and romantic nature. I also liked seeing how Bess came to terms with each of them, as she definitely wanted to know about each of them. As we women all do, she wanted to see if each one was prettier than her, smarter than her, etc. Bess’s grandparents and gay friend, Cricket, liven up the main story line.They show the  reader there are always different shades of gray in relationships.

I think the end could have gone either way, or any way, and I don’t want to spoil it for you! The whole story, and for me, Bess’s thoughts, were something that any woman would want to think about. Every woman wants to know about her predecessors and sometimes ends up finding out too much about them. This book might change the way some women think about finding out too much information. In my opinion, this book is a 4-star read. It is funny, sad, and has much romance to offer while showing the loneliness and vulnerability of people, whether single or in a relationship.

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2-for-1 REVIEW: The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden and The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

So, lately I’ve been on a New Adult reading kick. A patron request for college-age romances prompted me to create a new board on our Pinterest site all about New Adult fiction (and a handful of memoirs), and then I decided to see what all the fuss was about for myself. I had already read Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster and Tammara Webber’s Easy, all key titles in the newly popular category and all books that I enjoyed. But there were lots of other notable New Adult authors that I hadn’t read, and I felt it would be a good idea to expand my knowledge a bit. Hence the recent reading spree. Jessica Sorensen’s Coincidence series is just one of my new finds, but be assured I have more to share about New Adult fiction in another upcoming post.

Tracy’s Rating: 3/5 Stars
Genre: New Adult/Realistic Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Audience: New Adults (older YAs/twentysomethings)
Series: Coincidence #1

First Lines: “Life is full of luck, like getting dealt a good hand or simply being in the right place at the right time. Some people get luck handed to them, a second chance, a save. It can happen heroically, or by a simple coincidence, but there are those who don’t get luck on a shiny platter, who end up at the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.”

Tracy’s Rating: 3/5 Stars
Genre: New Adult/Realistic Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Audience: New Adults (older YAs/twentysomethings)
Series: Coincidence #1

First Lines: “I want to breathe.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
First off, these books are in desperate need of the services of a good copyeditor. Initially, I thought the punctuation errors and unfortunate uses of “one’s” in place of what should be a simple plural construction “ones” would drive me to tear my hair out. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg, as the saying goes. But despite the flaws, Jessica Sorensen’s saga of Callie and Kayden is compulsively readable.

Callie is a loner with a dark secret and a fear of being touched by others. When she was younger, she suddenly chopped off all her hair and started wearing baggy clothes. At least her family found the transformation sudden and inexplicable, and now, years later, they continue to be puzzled by her “difficult” behavior and social isolation. To outsiders, Kayden is the all-American boy, a football jock with decent grades, a tendency to party, and a hot cheerleader girlfriend. But, like Callie, he has secrets.

When Callie accidentally witnesses Kayden at his lowest and steps out of her self-imposed isolation to save him, Kayden realizes there is more to the high-school “freak” than he imagined. And Callie sees that Kayden apparently has his own demons, though at that point she has only the barest hint of the full truth. In the moment that Callie saves Kayden and in those that follow immediately after, they forge a a strange connection, though neither chooses to pursue it. But when they meet again on their new college campus, Kayden is determined to discover more about the girl who saved him and—perhaps—changed him forever. For her part, Callie remains skittish, although a recent friendship has given her the courage to take chances (for Callie, even small things like wearing the color red and growing out her hair are a hurdle) that would have seemed impossible before.

There is little mystery for the reader about Callie’s and Kayden’s secrets, but it was fascinating to see how these two damaged characters were able to build the trust necessary to confide in one another. That isn’t to say that everything is neatly wrapped up and tied with a pretty bow. Love doesn’t suddenly make all of Callie and Kayden’s problems go away; it simply makes them more confident and thus more able to cope with their respective troubles. But even then, there are setbacks. In fact, the cliffhanger ending of the first book may mangle the expectations of more than one happily-ever-after romantic.

This is an angsty, emotional read that may veer too close to melodrama for some readers, but for those who like love stories with LOTS of baggage (even Callie and Kayden’s friends have some serious baggage of their own, though it remains in the background through both of these novels), this series may be perfect. That is, if the reader can overlook the comma splices, typos, and grammatical errors on every other page or so. I’m a bit of a grammar stickler, but the emotional intensity and occasionally striking imagery went a long way toward calming my irritation. For example, something about the description of one character’s fight-bruised face as a “lumpy blueberry” struck me as absolutely perfect.

So if you are a fan of college-age stories like A Beautiful Disaster and don’t mind iffy proofreading and heavy doses of angst, then I suggest you give Callie and Kayden’s story a try. A third book focusing on the duo, The Resolution of Callie & Kayden, is expected to be released on September 30th.

REVIEW: Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Suspense/Crime Fiction
Audience: Adult

Summary: Recently widowed and still haunted by the death of his son decades ago in Vietnam, Sheldon Horowitz is an impatient and crotchety old man. He’s a little depressed and feels alone now that all of his friends and family are dead except for his granddaughter Rhea. Believing her grandfather suffers from dementia, Rhea has convinced Sheldon to move to Oslo to live with her and her Norwegian husband. Sheldon finds the laid-back attitude of the Norwegian people incomprehensible and persists in sharing his oddball philosophical musings, thus calling his mental state into further question. Then he witnesses the murder of his Serbian neighbor and goes on the lam with her young son, believing it is the only way to protect the boy from Kosovar gangsters. Rhea and the police inspector, Sigrid Ødegård, think Sheldon has suffered a mental break, but could Sheldon’s unusual actions be more wily than anyone could guess?

First Lines:
“It is summer and luminous. Sheldon Horowitz sits on a folding director’s chair, high above the picnic and out of reach of the food, in a shaded enclave in Oslo’s Frogner Park.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
In his debut novel, Miller offers a completely different take on the Scandinavian crime fiction wave popularized by authors like Larsson, Mankell, Nesbø, Fossum, and Läckberg. Critically acclaimed but under the radar of most readers, Norwegian by Night was named by both Kirkus Reviews and The Guardian as one of the best crime novels of 2013. It’s not your typically plot-centered crime novel—though there are some definite machinations and exciting bits. Instead, its focus is on Sheldon’s inner thoughts and his path to redemption. Now that he has taken responsibility for this young boy, Sheldon is reminded more than ever of his son and sees this “final mission” as a way to do something that matters again and to atone for what he sees as his own culpability in his son’s death.

You see, Sheldon was a marine sniper in Korea and has felt useless ever since. That is, if you believe Sheldon’s latest story. On previous occasions, he always told his late wife and granddaughter a different story of his time in Korea. Sheldon, with his visions and inconsistent stories, is a bit of an unreliable narrator. Both reader and the characters in the book are left to wonder whether Sheldon is
truly senile or if he’s just crazy sharp, with a unique way of looking at the world. In a way, despite the fact that the protagonist is 82 years old, Norwegian by Night could be considered a coming of age novel—or perhaps a coming to terms with age novel.

Sheldon is a fascinating and insightful character, with plenty of foibles and flaws to add interest. And his journey is incredibly relatable despite the unusual circumstances. Though some of the other characters—Rhea and her husband Lars, for example—could do with some fleshing out, some of the secondary characters are also quite intriguing. Sigrid serves as a wonderful contrast to Sheldon, and some of her conversations also provide unexpected humor to the largely reflective narrative. Take this dryly comical phone conversation with her father:

     “Have you met a nice man yet?”
     Sigrid nods. “I’d been meaning to tell you. I got married and had three sons.”
    “That’s wonderful news.”
    “Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They’re delightful, but have speech impediments and very short legs.”

Some of the scenes with Sigrid were my absolute favorites in the novel, particularly the Psycho bit (saying anything more could prove too much of a spoiler). And although the crime plot was somewhat understated, I was fascinated (and appalled) by some of the insight into Serbian/Kosovar hostilities and the cycle of violence. The contrast of different nationalities and ethnicities—Norwegian, American, Jewish, Serbian, Kosovar—and their effects on various characters’ way of life and way of thinking elevate a simple plot into something far more.

Norwegian by Night is a a quiet thriller with literary bones. Despite a few lengthy expositions and a somewhat ambiguous ending, it offers something different and interesting to the crime fiction genre as it addresses a number of important issues—war, personal and ethnic identity, and aging—with compassion, insight, and humor.

GUEST REVIEW: The Boleyn Deceit by Laura Anderson

Allison, our Outreach/Programs Supervisor here at BCPL is back with another guest review! This time, she’s got me hooked. I think I’m going to have to read this book (and its prequel) for myself!  –Tracy

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Genre: Alternatie History/Speculative Fiction
Audience: Adult/Young Adult Crossover
Series: Boleyn Trilogy #2

Summary: What if Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII had a son who’d grown up to be king? With his regency period over, King Henry IX is sitting the throne of England trying to maneuver palace intrigue, war on the horizon, passion, and secrecy. His legitimacy still doubted, tensions are at a heightened state with the Catholics, and he is betrothed to the young princess of France. But he is still enchanted with his childhood love, Minuette, and the court is beginning to take note. Even more scandalous is the fact that Minuette is in love with another—Henry IX’s best friend. Will the secrets of the court change the course of an empire?

First Line: “You will not tell me what I can and cannot do with my own son!”

Allison’s Review:
Rarely do I find a book that I read cover to cover in basically one sitting. Rarely do I find a book that while completely fiction, mirrors actual historical events in a way to keep me interested. Rarely do a find a quick-paced storyline that is also detailed. And rarely do I find a book in which the author has been able to take such artistic license with history in order to write their fiction yet stay so true to many aspects of real-world historical events. This book—and in fact both books in this series published thus far—have managed to accomplish all of this!

If we were to imagine a living male heir of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, William Tudor (King Henry IX) is that heir. Watching him come of age, with a mixture of the personalities and characteristics of both his parents, is mesmerizing. And the political intrigue (of which I am not usually a fan) is captivating. The love triangle surrounding Minuette is thought-provoking. Sinister plots abound. Henry IX’s sister Elizabeth is a beloved royal princess who’s to be married off in a diplomatic bargain, yet the character we know as Elizabeth I is evident.

Most enjoyable for me in this storyline is the constant mystery and intrigue that sends you catapulting between one imagined outcome and another. And, the teaser chapter from the next installment in the trilogy, The Boleyn Reckoning, leaves me asking the question: Can the release date of July 15th get here already?

BEST OF 2013: Adult Fiction & Nonfiction

There are a lot of potentially great 2013 books that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and  Charles Graeber’s The Good Nurse are next up in my towering to-read pile!), but
after surveying our entire library staff, here are our picks for 2013’s
Best Books for Adults:

Fiction

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
Weaving back and forth through time and across characters, this compelling first novel begins with an eight-year-old girl who watched as her father was “disappeared” by Russian soldiers in the middle of the night.  Akhmed, the not-so-good physician of the local Chechen village and a family friend, is determined to rescue Haava from a similar fate and seeks the assistance of a cynical, tough-minded surgeon at a nearby hospital. The story centers on just five days of the lives of Haava, Akhmed, and Sonja, and yet it provides an almost magical look at the myriad connections—both discovered and never realized—that shape peoples lives, especially in a time of war.

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
Even before it was discovered that Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym for author J.K. Rowling, this compelling mystery  about a P.I. and his new office temp teaming up to investigate the suspicious death of a young model had the attention of critics. Describes by one reviewer for Library Journal as “a mash-up of Charles Dickens and Penny Vincenzi.”

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
In this mesmerizing story of love, loss, obsession, and the haunting power of art, a young man who lost his mother in an tragic accident grows to adulthood, only to become entangled in the art underworld of New York City

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
In this stunning, thought-provoking novel, Ursula Todd goes through a series of  lives and deaths, experiencing wars and epidemics in ever-changing circumstances. Every time she hits a bad end—done in by Spanish flu, murdered by an abusive husband, killed in a bombing raid—it all begins again. Often, she has a nagging sense of déjà vu, but she can never put her finger on why. Reading Life After Life is like reading a sophisticated Choose Your Own novel for grown-ups, one that resets itself. Atkinson weaves an intricate web of parallel paths, detours, and intersections which is utterly fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking, and frequently startling with  unanticipated moments of sharp humor.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

This emotionally powerful story of two brothers born in a quiet village outside Calcutta spans decades and continents. In an era of political turmoil, the brothers choose divergent paths—Subhash retreating to a quiet university in New England while Udayan becomes increasingly involved in a Mao-inspired rebellion against India’s social iniquities—and yet their lives remain almost fatalistically entwined despite their estrangement. Perceptive and universal in theme, the story explores the myriad nuances of guilt, marriage, parenthood, moral conviction, loyalty, and betrayal through day-to-day events against the more expansive backdrop of world affairs. The Lowland unfolds slowly, but Lahiri’s elegant prose and full characterizations make for a riveting tale.

 

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Interpreter of Maladies.

The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood
A woman stuck in a loveless marriage and an obituary writer looking for her lost love discover a surprising connection. Part literary mystery and part love story, this novel is full of grief, shame, and hope.

The Returned by Jason Mott
The world is turned upside down in this emotional novel in which people inexplicably begin returning from the dead. At the heart of the story is an elderly couple whose 8-year-old son suddenly reappears nearly 50 years after his death.

Six Years by Harlan Coben
Six years after the love of his life left him to marry another man, Professor Jake Sanders learns that this rival is dead and that the woman of his dreams is not who she claimed to be. Betrayals and secrets are unearthed as Jake then races against the clock to track down the real woman he once loved and lost.

Sycamore Row by John Grisham
Reader favorite Jack Brigance, the attorney from A Time to Kill, makes a reappearance in Ford County, Mississippi, in this surprisingly suspenseful courtroom drama about wills, racial tension, and family secrets.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
The author of The Jane Austen Book Club creates another unforgettable work in this heartbreaking work about family dysfunction. This is a book best read “blind”; spoilers contained in some reviews and blurbs may ruin the experience otherwise.

Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts
Eli Landon is suffering from the public and police scrutiny after being wrongly impli- cated in the murder of his soon-to-be wife. He then takes refuge in a old family home and falls in love with resident housekeeper Abra Walsh, with whom he is entangled in an old, life-threatening mystery.

Nonfiction

Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.
A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and a distant family member reconstruct the life of a reclusive copper heiress in this fascinating tale of family scandal, privilege, and a surprising path to happiness.

Happy, Happy, Happy by Phil Robertson
The Duck Dynasty star chronicles his unusual life from childhood through the founding of the family business.

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett
Through clear, gorgeous prose and raw honesty, Lindhout recounts the year she spent as a hostage in Somalia for over a year. The harrowing story is balanced by Lindhout’s descriptions of her childhood, her youthful interest in world travel inspired by National Geographic, and her almost-accidental introduction into the world of combat-zone reporting.

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook COO and and top-ranked
businesswoman Sheryl Sandberg shares though-provoking advice for women, urging them to seek professional challenges and take more risks to find work that they can feel passionate about.

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Through the deaths of five young men in her Mississippi community over the course of four years, the National Book Award–winning author explores the realities of poverty and blackness in America. This candid, beautifully wrought account maintains a light, humanistic touch but does not gloss over the gritty details.

REVIEW: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Adult
Format: Audiobook

Summary: Katey Kontent and her roommate meet Tinker Gray by chance on New Year’s Eve 1937 at a jazz bar in Greenwich Village. Both girls are fascinated by the sophisticated yet boyish banker and the trio struck up an immediate if tenuous friendship. That meeting and the resulting friendship leads to far-reaching consequences for each of their lives. The novel focuses on Katey’s life and choices of the following year, as she finds herself forming new relationships and mingling in the upper echelons of New York society.

First Line: “On the night of October 4th, 1966, Val and I, both in late middle age, attended the opening of Many Are Called at the Museum of Modern Art—the first exhibit of the portraits taken by Walker Evans in the 1930s on the New York subway with a hidden camera.”

Tracy’s Thoughts: First, let me say that I adored this book. Amor Towles’s rich language and vivid description bring to life a fully realized world and nuanced characters I did not want to leave behind. I don’t think the setting could have been any better depicted. The dialog, the real-life settings—everything comes together perfectly to recreate the golden ear of Manhattan, reminiscent of classic movies starring the likes of Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, or Katherine Hepburn. Towles creates a lush yet uneasy world of artifice and hidden agendas that intrigues and delights. For its emphasis on betrayals, disappointments, class tensions and iniquities, Rules of Civility has even been compared to works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

But Katey is not your average socialite-wannabe. She is also a bit of an enigma herself, having recreated herself more than once, but she does not put on airs or deny her humble origins. She is a devoted reader (an interest which plays quietly but significantly into her story) and is determined to earn her own way. As a narrator, Katey is sharp-tongued, witty, and just a little vulnerable. As her choices throughout the year reveal their consequences, the reader can’t help but feel her disappointment, uncertainty, and determination. As circumstances shift and new opportunities arise, Katey proves herself a worthy—though far from perfect—heroine.

Instead of huge events, this is a novel full of a series of small
revelations and shifts in circumstance that simultaneously feel both startling and inevitable.
Earlier clues and dropped threads reappear in a way that feels natural
and realistic rather than manipulative. But ultimately, this is a book that will appeal to readers more interested in character development that plot-driven narratives.With its careful, subtle plotting, intriguing characters, and atmospheric setting, it was the perfect book for me. It is a superbly told story of random chance, everyday life-altering decisions, and reinvention. All in all, a perfect read as the New Year approaches.

FLASH REVIEWS: Recent Audio Reads with an International Flavor

As I mentioned in my last post, my pleasure reading of late has been almost entirely limited to audiobooks. It’s been a while since I finished some of these, but here are some quick reviews of international-themed books I’ve been reading/listening to over the past few months:

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Audience: Adult/YA Crossover
Genre: Coming-of-Age Story/Political Fiction/War Story

This stunning coming of age novel tells the story of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a young Rwandan who dreams of running in the Olympics. He is a kindhearted and slightly naive boy, but as he grows older he becomes increasingly aware of the stark ethnic divide in his country and the challenges his Tutsi heritage will present to achieving his dream. Gripping and frequently distressing—this is one of the few novels that has made me cry—Running the Rift is nevertheless a story of hope, love, and perseverance. Benaron does not shy away from the escalating violence that eventually leads to the Rwandan genocide, but the story is not sensationalistic in any way. Instead, through the fictionalized account of Jean Patrick, it brings a relatable voice to an unimaginable tragedy and shows that there is much more to the country and its people than can be surmised from political reports and news stories. In contrast to the unflinching portrait of violence and moral complexities are Jean Patrick’s genuine love of his sport, his country, his family, and a young woman for whom he would do almost anything.

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Audience: Adult
Genre: Literary Fiction/Political Fiction/Dystopia

Set in the real-world dystopia of North Korea, this Pulitzer Prize–winning novel takes readers on a weird and wonderful journey along with its anti-hero protagonist. Jun Do begins life with the unlucky reputation of being an orphan—although in actuality he is not—and through a series of strange circumstances and fateful choices he finds himself filling unlikely roles, from professional kidnapper to national hero to romantic rival of the Great Leader himself. Set in a world where the “story” is so much more important than truth—where the story becomes truth—Jun Do seizes opportunities to reinvent himself over and over, and yet the nature and politics of North Korea can easily take him on a detour that will rewrite his story all over again. Perhaps because the world it explores is so very alien, I must admit that I initially found this book a bit difficult to connect with. I also wonder whether my occasional dissatisfaction might be related to the audio format. There are multiple voices and frequent interruptions from propagandist loudspeakers that perhaps did not translate well in this audio adaptation. But while it becomes a bit tedious at times (whether due to format or subject matter), The Orphan Master’s Son is also frequently brilliant, fascinating, and surprising.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Audience: Adult
Genre: Nonfiction/Social Issues/Travel Writing

In this intimate and poignant book, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist creates a extraordinary portrait of India’s urban poor. By focusing on Annawadi, one of dozens of tiny slums that exist alongside the modern new airport and luxury hotels of Mumbai, Katherine Boo is able to bring to life the everyday realities faced by so many. While the story centers on the accusations of a woman who set herself on fire and the repercussions for the family accused of harming her, several key residents of the small undercity are examined. From petty squabbles that escalate into tragedy to a murdered garbage thief left ignored on the side of the road, death and survival in Annawadi is brought to vivid life by Boo’s compassionate yet clear-eyed reportage. There is Abdul, the quiet, diligent garbage collector; Asha, an ambitious kindergarten teacher determined to work the corrupt system for her own betterment; and Manju, Asha’s disapproving, intelligent daughter who hopes education will be her way out. Readers are left both frustrated by the actions of some residents and cautiously hopeful for the futures of others; but, in the end, the people of Annawadi are portrayed at complex individuals, not as collective objects of pity but as human beings fighting for survival and carving out a life in a flawed and corrupt system.  

REVIEW: Overseas by Beatriz Williams

Rating: 3/5 Stars
Genre: Love Story/Fantasy/Time-Travel
Audience: Adult

Summary: In modern day Manhattan, newbie Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson is mystified and intrigued when billionaire Julian Laurence begins pursuing her after little more than a passing glance. But their love story is not an easy one: Julian’s pursuit blows hot and cold despite their irresistible attraction, and he also seems to be keeping secrets. Interspersed with this tale are scenes from World War I–era France, to which modern-day Kate has somehow traveled on a mission to find Captain Julian Laurence Ashford and protect her lover from the future.

Tracy’s Thoughts: As regular Books News & Reviews readers
may have already guessed, I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump of
late. I’ve been enjoying audiobooks on my commute to and from work, but it’s been difficult to find the time and focus for any pleasure reading beyond that. I’ve started several (print) books over the last few months, but sticking
with them has been a different story. And yet I finished Overseas in two days, staying up till 2 a.m. on a work night in order to finish. Overseas isn’t great literature or even particularly original, but it held my attention and made me care about the characters. I simply enjoyed it.

At times, it reminded me of Fifty Shades of Grey with less angst and a time travel twist. Overseas
doesn’t feature erotic sex scenes—love scenes are more in the
fade-to-black tradition, though Kate and Julian’s relationship is certainly
passionate. Julian isn’t nearly as tortured as Christian Grey, but he
does have secrets. Also, the writing is better (thankfully, none of the
characters have bickering conversations with their “subconscious”). So as much as I hate the habit of comparing recent reads to the latest big-hit book phenomena, the push-pull dynamic between the characters and the development of their relationship did call to mind James’s trilogy.

The two entwined settings of Overseas make for a suspenseful, perfectly-paced story that answers one question only to raise another. The reader is able to piece just enough together to feel informed and invested, and yet all the the whys and wherefores remain a mystery until the perfect moment. Overseas is a charming and imminently readable love story that will likely appeal to fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Outlander, and perhaps even Fifty Shades of Grey fans who are interested in the powerful man/ordinary girl relationship dynamics but who are not necessarily looking for BDSM or erotic fiction.

GUEST REVIEWS: Flash Reviews from 2013 Cabin Fever Participants

Ever get sick of hearing what Lucinda and I think of our latest reads? Ready for a fresh opinion? How about some of your fellow BCPL patrons? Here are several guest reviews we received as part of our 2013 Cabin Fever program. Thanks to all of our guest reviewers for sharing!

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Reviewer: Anonymous Patron @ Ridgway Library
Anonymous Patron’s Rating: 5/5 Stars
Genre: Romance
Audience: New Adult/Adult
Series: Beautiful #1

Summary: Travis Maddox, Eastern University’s playboy, makes a bet with good girl Abby that if he loses, he will remain abstinent for a month, but if he wins, Abby must live in his apartment for the same amount of time.

Anonymous Patron’s Review: This story was amazing! I literally could not put it down! This was a wonderful love story about two people you would not think should be together until all the “pieces” unfold. I am looking forward to reading the author’s other books.

Deadly Pursuit by Irene Hannon
Reviewer: Heather Lawrence (Mt. Washington Library)
Heather’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Christian Fiction/Romantic Suspense
Audience: Adult
Series: Guardians of Justice #2

Heather’s Summary & Review: The story of Allison Taylor and Mitch Morgan pursuing their admiration and affection for each other has enough love, adventure, and danger to keep the reader wanting to know “What happens next?” There was enough character development to understand the good guys from the bad guys but still leave a little suspicion and doubt of some of the characters’ overall intentions and roles in the story. The theme of faith and belief in God is dispersed throughout the story, helping the reader see connections to events and understand why things happen from a spiritual standpoint. The book is a great example of how when a person puts his/her trust in God, even the most dangerous of situations can become a moment of strength and courage.

A Golden Betrayal by Barbara Dunlop

Reviewer: Debbie Sanders (Ridgway Memorial Library)
Patron’s Rating: 3/5 Stars
Genre: Category Romance
Audience: Adult
Series: Silhouette Desire #2198 / The Highest Bidder #6

Summary: Convinced a headstrong American woman and her auction house are connected to the theft of a priceless statue, an Arabian prince kidnaps her.

Debbie’s Review: A funny romance with a spunky couple that are attracted to each other as soon as they meet. Good read.

Let It Sew by Elizabeth Lynn Casey
Reviewer: S. Jeanine Hall  (Hillview Library)
Heather’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Humor
Audience: Adult
Series: Southern Sewing Circle #7

Jeanine’s Summary:
It’s Christmas in Sweet Briar, South Carolina. A grinch has taken over the towns Christmas Decorating Committee, and Tori, Dixie, and Rose have been drafted to help. Charlotte Devereaux, a founding member of the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle, has passed away. She left behind a sketchbook of clues indicating her husband was murdered. Will Tori and her sewing circle gals have time to solve a murder and de-throne a grinch before Christmas? After all, they have a hundred Christmas stockings to make!

 

 Liberator by Bryan Davis
Reviewer: Marie Webb  (Lebanon Junction Library)
Marie’s Rating: No star rating was given.
Genre: Christian Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult/Adult
Series: Dragons of Starlight #4

Summary: The resurrected Starlighter,
Cassabrie, may be the humans’ last hope on Starlight as Jason, Koren,
and Elyssa struggle to warn the soldiers of the dragon king’s plan to
wipe them out using a deadly disease that already threatens Koren’s
life.
 
Marie’s Review:
Liberator is the 4th book in a series “Dragons of Starlight.” I found the books to be interesting and captivating. Davis has created a world within a world with a lot of intriguing characters. This keeps you guessing as to the outcome and actually who the good guys are and who will prevail.

 

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Reviewer: Anonymous Patron  (Mt. Washington Library)
Marie’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Chick Lit
Audience: Adult
Series: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #5

Summary: In this final Sisterhood, published as an adult novel, the girls are now in their late twenties. The pants are long gone and each is missing the closeness they once shared, so Tibby organizes a reunion that could change their lives in unexpected ways.
 
Anonymous Patron’s Review:
It was good to revisit old friends from the previous Sisterhood books. The girls learned to be bold and embrace both the joys and sorrows of a well lived life.

Super Finishing Techniques for Crocheters by Betty Barden
Reviewer: Lisa Houchins (Mt. Washington Library)
Lisa’s Rating: No star rating was given.
Genre: Adult Nonfiction/Crafts
Audience: Adult

Lisa’s Review: Lots of information for the beginning crocheter. Laid out well and easy to follow. Lots of pictures. Even a few cute ideas and patterns.

DUAL REVIEW: Mr.Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Lucinda’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Tracy’s Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
Genre: Literary Mystery/Adventure
Audience: Adult/Older Teen

Summary: Forced to find another job due to the Great Recession,
web designer Clay Jannon finds himself the night clerk at the
mysterious Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, a bookstore where there are
few regular patrons and where the regulars borrow books rather than buy
them. Little does Clay know that by walking into this bookstore he will
discover a secret world that will shape his future in ways he could
never imagine and irrevocably alter his view of the world.

Lucinda’s Views:
This book possessed a carefully crafted plot that keeps the reader
interested even to the end. The seamless blend of cutting edge
technology and the history of the book will delight the reader. The
mystery that comprises much of the plot is believable and works to
propel the story forward. The characters are likable, believable, and
fit into this tale of one young man’s quest to find himself in a world
which is not quite what he thought it was. For those who love a good
book, but also like their technology this is a perfect read.

Tracy’s Thoughts:
I didn’t know quite what to expect from this book. It appeared on a number of “Best of 2012” lists and won a 2013 Alex Award.
Lucinda told me she stayed up ridiculously late to finish it. And yet
I’ve also read some less than positive reviews and a co-worker whose  opinion I trust told me that it was “weird” and “disappointing.” Well…
I generally like “weird” so that didn’t do a lot to dissuade me, but my
co-worker’s inability to pinpoint exactly what didn’t work for her left
me feeling less than enthused about reading it. But then I read more
glowing reviews and I needed to read more eligible books for the Hub Reading Challenge… so I decided to take my chances.

Unfortunately, I too ended up disappointed. For me, it was a really
rough start as I found nothing engaging about
the voice (as a reader, I’m all about voice :)). I wasn’t interested in
Clay as a narrator, and I also thought Sloan’s prose was choppy and even
clunky at times. The overabundance of modifiers in particular kept
yanking me out of the story, inspiring annoyance rather than interest in
whatever was being described:

This place was absurdly narrow and dizzyingly tall, and the shelves went
all the way up—three stories of books, maybe more. I craned my neck
back (why do bookstores always make you do uncomfortable things with
your neck?) and the shelves faded smoothly into the shadows in a way
that suggested they might just go on forever. (Page 8)

As a not-so-secret bibliophile, a description that should have inspired
awe or curiosity at the very least simply left me cold. I’m a girl who
enjoys lengthy sentences and detailed description, but clearly Sloan’s
prose just isn’t for me. However, I appreciate that this is an entirely
subjective reaction—there’s nothing really wrong with the writing after
all—and that the prose will speak differently to different readers.

I also felt that the characters were a bit underdeveloped. Penumbra
could have been a figure of great curiosity but instead seemed barely
present. While Lucinda saw the characters as likable and believable, I
interpreted them as one-dimensional and uninteresting. Luckily, about 
80 pages in the thematic element of antiquity vs. technology emerged to
advance the story. I enjoyed the idea of how technology and antiquity
(in this case, old books and the knowledge they contain) can be seen as
opposing forces but at the same time act as partners in advancing human
knowledge and possibilities. For me, this concept was the heart of the
book.

In the end, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is firmly in my
“meh” category. The concept was promising but, for me, never fully
realized. The story and characters ultimately fell flat, but the
intriguing juxtaposition of traditional books and technology
(particularly Sloan’s imagined Google world and underworld hacker/pirate
network) kept me interested enough to finish the book. For a better,
more fully realized read with a similar feel (though, alas, without the
book emphasis), I suggest reading Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One.

REVIEW: The Cutting Season by Attica Locke

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Genre: Literary Mystery, Southern Fiction
Audience: Adult

Summary: Caren Gray is a strong, educated African American woman and a single mother. She has mixed feelings about managing Belle Vie, the sprawling plantation where she grew up and where her ancestors were once slaves. Despite the unease that the former slave cabins instill in her, she feels tied to the place. But when an immigrant sugar cane worker is found dead on the edge of Belle Vie and Caren decides to launch her own investigation, all of her latent misgivings are stirred up again. And even as centuries-old secrets from the past rise up from the past, in the present Caren begins to fear that her nine-year-old daughter may know more about the murder than she’s telling.

First Line: It was during the Thompson-Delacroix wedding, Caren’s first week on the job, that a cottonmouth, measuring the length of a Cadillac, fell some twenty feet from a live oak on the front lawn, landing like a coil of rope in the lap of the bride’s future mother-in-law.

Tracy’s Thoughts:
A nuanced mystery with gothic undertones, Attica Locke’s second novel (after Black Water Rising) is far more than a typical whodunit. The atmospheric Southern setting and eerie history of slavery permeate the plot, adding depth and weight to the story. Issues of race, class, and history are key, but these themes are seamlessly and subtly integrated into the plot rather than a carelessly tacked on “moral.”

Attica Locke’s writing is stellar, descriptive and even poetic at times: “[B]eneath its its loamy topsoil, the manicured grounds and gardens, two centuries of
breathtaking wealth and spectacle, lay a land both black and bitter,
soft to the touch, but pressing in its power.” However, I did not find the characters quite as captivating as the setting. I had a bit of a struggle warming up to Caren, who is a bit of a mystery herself. I appreciated that she is a strong but flawed woman, and I was pulling for her 100%, and yet, for me, she remains distant throughout the novel.

But despite my quibbles (and, if you haven’t noticed by now, I almost always have quibbles), I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The linkage of past and present, along with the blending of history, social issues, and various relationship issues make for a complex and satisfying read.

REVIEW: Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Fairy
Audience: Adult/High School

Summary: When her sister is murdered in Dublin, Ireland MacKayla Lane travels there in order to bring the murderer to justice.  Little does she know that there she will discover a world of Fae, Druids, and other realms. Along her journey MacKayla will learn dark family secrets as well as discovering untapped supernatural talents. She will find she has strength and resources that she never thought she possessed as she fights for her very soul and even the fate of the world.

Lucinda’s Views:  A departure from her Highlander novel series, the Fever series is pure urban fantasy.  In MacKayla’s quest to find the fiend who murdered her sister she is caught up in a world she never dreamed that she was a part of, let alone responsible for saving.

Abounding with Celtic and Irish lore, this series pulls in legends, bardic tales, and modern fairy tales and ties them together into a cohesive whole that will entertain but at the same time make you wonder….What if?  The Fae of MacKayla’s world are nothing like the Tinkerbell of modern ideology.  These Fae are dangerous, frightening and out to satiate hungers that have been harnessed for millennium. 

MacKayla’s journey from Southern socialite to a strong, independent woman will keep you interested as well as the myriad of characters that MacKayla encounters. The dark, sexy Jericho Barrons, the Seelie Prince V’Lane, and the irrepressible Dani O’Malley, who is not what she seems, are all well-developed and mysterious.  If you like Urban Fantasy and want to read a well-written original series I encourage you to check this series out!      

REVIEW: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Audience: Adult
Genre: Psychological Suspense

Summary: Everyone thinks the Dunnes’ marriage is perfect, until the beautiful and clever Amy Dunne disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary under suspicious circumstances. Nick claims to know nothing about his wife’s disappearance, but as the police look Nick’s way, he is caught out in lie after lie. Juxtaposed with Nick’s story and the investigation are excerpts from Amy’s diary, which further contradict Nick’s story and present a disturbing tale of a marriage gone wrong.

Tracy’s Thoughts:
From the start, this book reminded me of a Dateline episode about a husband killing his wife to escape a bad marriage. But as this novel was written by Gillian Flynn—author of the dark and twisty novels Sharp Objects and Dark Places—things are not quite as straightforward as they initially seem.There are enough twists and turns here to satisfy even the most gung-ho rollercoaster fanatic, but—unfortunately—I saw them all coming. I blame it on one too many M. Night
Shayamalan movies. But then, I knew Bruce Willis was dead all along, so maybe not…

Anyway, while the book didn’t have the same tense, edge-of-your-seat mystery for me that was shared by many other reviewers, I was still riveted. Flynn’s writing is stellar, and her characters are complex and scarily believable. What really got me about this book was the rawly honest look at individuals’ darkest thoughts, their secret desires and beliefs about relationships. Seriously… If I had commitment issues before, now I’m terrified. (Just kidding. Mostly.)

To illustrate what I mean, check out these passages:

No relationship is perfect, they say—they who
make due with dutiful sex and gassy bedtime rituals, who settle for TV
as conversation, who believe that husbandly capitulation—yes, honey, okay, honey—is the same as concord. He’s doing what you tell him to because he doesn’t care enough to argue, I think. Your
petty demands actually make him feel superior, or resentful, and
someday he will fuck his pretty young coworker and you will actually be
shocked. Give me a man with a little fight in him, a man who will
call me on his bullshit. (But who also kind of likes my bullshit.) 
(Page 29)

I speak specifically of the Amy of today,
who was only remotely like the woman I fell in love with. It had been an
awful fairy-tale reverse transformation. Over just a few years, the old
Amy, the girl of the big laugh and the easy ways, literally shed
herself, a pile of skin and soul on the floor, and out stepped this new,
brittle, bitter Amy. My wife was no longer my wife but a razor-wire
knot daring me to unloop her, and I was not up to the job with my thick,
numb, nervous fingers. Country fingers. Flyover fingers untrained in
the intricate, dangerous work of solving Amy. When I’d hold up
the bloody stumps, she’d sigh and turn to her secret mental notebook on
which she tallied all my deficiencies, forever noting disappointments,
frailties, shortcomings. My old Amy, damn she was fun. She was funny.
She made me laugh. I’d forgotten that. And she laughed…

She
was not the thing she became, the thing I feared most: an angry woman. I
was not good with angry women. They brought something out in me that
was unsavory. (Page 49)

I have never been a nag. I have always been
rather proud of my un-nagginess. So it pisses me off, that Nick is
forcing me to nag. I am willing to live with a certain amount of
sloppiness, or laziness, of the lackadaisical life. I realize that I am
more type-A than Nick, and I try to be careful not to inflict my
neat-freaky, to-do-list nature on him. Nick is not the kind of guy who
is going to think to vacuum or clean out the fridge. He truly doesn’t see
that kind of stuff. Fine. Really. But I do like a certain standard of
living—I think it’s fair to say the garbage shouldn’t literally
overflow, and the plates shouldn’t sit in the sink for a week with
smears of bean burrito dried on them. That’s just being a good grown-up
roommate. And Nick’s not doing anything anymore, so I have to nag, and it
pisses me off… (Page 85)

Gillian Flynn blows me away with her ability to zero in on the little flaws and secret resentments that are common to human nature, but then to twist them just a bit into something incredibly disturbing. I would read anything she writes just for her slightly skewed insights into human psychology.

Here is yet another of my favorite passages from Gone Girl:

For several years, I had been bored. Not a
whining, restless child’s boredom (although I was not above that) but a
dense, blanketing malaise. It seemed to me that there was nothing new to
be discovered ever again….Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire
State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing,
volcanoes erupting. I can’t recall a single amazing thing I’ve seen
firsthand that I didn’t immediately reference to a movie or TV
show….You know the awful singsong of the blasé: Seeeen it. I’ve
literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me
want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always
better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and
the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can’t anymore. I
don’t know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are
like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet.
If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we
know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or
the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same
dog-eared script.

It’s a very difficult era in which to be a
person, just a real, actual person instead of a collection of
personality traits selected from an Automat of characters….

It had gotten to the point where it seemed like nothing matters, because I’m not a real person and neither is anyone else.

I would have done anything to feel real again. (Pages 72–73)

So while I was a bit disappointed with the plotting of this novel, the characters—their individual voices—are still living in my head. For me it was not the unpredictable tour de force that had other reviewers exclaiming and handing out 5-star reviews left and right (even Kirkus Reviews, which is notoriously stingy with that coveted 5th star), but it is memorable without question. And the ending? Chilling, disturbing, and absolutely perfect.
 

REVIEW: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbotsky

Rating: 5/5 Stars
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Coming-of-age, Epistolary Novels
Audience: Older Teen/Young Adult, Adult Crossover
Format: Audiobook

Summary: Fifteen-year-old high school freshman Charlie is anxious about starting high school, especially after his only friend committed suicide last year. So he chooses an unnamed stranger as his confidante. Over the course of a year, he sends anonymous letters describing his triumphs and tribulations as he befriends two seniors who welcome him into their eccentric group of friends and show him how to engage with the world.

First Line: “Dear Friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have.”   

Tracy’s Thoughts:
Charlie is now one of my all-time favorite book characters. His narrative voice is one of the strongest I’ve ever read, engaging and startling in its naive honesty. Charlie is unguarded about his emotions, often to the bafflement of those around him, and honestly clueless about many of the basics of social interaction. Take the following passage between Charlie and his older sister:

“I hate you.”
My sister said it different than she said it to my dad. She meant it with me. She really did.
“I love you,” was all I could say in return.
“You’re a freak, you know that? Everyone says so. They always have.”
“I’m trying not to be.”

He is vulnerable, awkward, and sometimes downright brilliant. In a word, he has depth. The book’s other characters, including the “unconventionally beautiful” Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, are equally well drawn and likeable. This book’s story and characters seem completely real, and it is almost impossible not to relate to them no matter how different your life may be.

Wallflower has been frequently compared to classic coming-of-age novels like The Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace. But although it addresses a lot of “issues”—suicide, sex, drugs, depression, abuse, homosexuality, bullying, teen pregnancy, etc.—it’s not all angst. Instead, it is a completely engrossing story full of hilarity, heartbreak, and inspiration. There were parts that made me laugh out loud; others left me stunned, anxious, saddened, hopeful. Although this book was published over a decade ago, it speaks to an age-old high school experience. It doesn’t feel outdated at all, though I could be a bit biased considering I was a high school student myself in the 90s. But considering the movie adaptation is coming out next month—featuring what promises to be a very un-Hermione role for Emma Watson—I don’t think I could be too biased. (The cast also includes Logan Lerman from the Percy Jackson movies as Charlie, with Paul Rudd, Mae Whitman, Vampire Diaries‘ Nina Dobrev, and others.)

In addition to the excellent characterizations and well-crafted story, I love how Charlie relates to so much through books and music. (As we’ve covered before, I am a sucker for books featuring characters who have a special relationship with books and/or music.)  For me, The Perks of Being a Wallflower more than lived up to its reputation. I loved it, which in turn makes me a bit wary of the upcoming movie adaptation. But since Stephen Chbotsky wrote the screenplay and directed as well, I have faith the film will remain true to the novel. Here’s the official trailer, in case you haven’t seen it yet:

I don’t actually go to the movies very often (the last movie I saw was The Hunger Games), but I am looking forward to seeing this one. What about you? Do you plan to see the movie adaptation when it comes out?

REVIEW: A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Psychological Suspense/Southern Gothic
Audience: Adult

Summary: In a small North Carolina mountain town outside Asheville, evil has festered for years in the form of Pastor Carson Chambliss, an ex-con and born-again Christian who encourages his congregation to speak in tongues, handle deadly snakes and fire, and drink poison to prove their faith. Adelaide Lyle recognized the danger years ago and insisted that the congregation’s children steer clear of Chambliss’s raucous services and attend Sunday school with her instead. But a series of events, beginning with the snooping of a young boy, brings the evil out into the open and shatters a family forever.

First Line: “I sat there in the car with the grave dust blowing in the parking lot and saw the place for what it was, not what it was right at that moment in the hot sunlight, but for what it had been maybe twelve or fifteen years before: a real general store with folks gathered around the lunch counter, a line of people at the soda fountain, little children ordering ice cream of just about every flavor you could think of, hard candy by the quarter pound, moon pies and crackerjack and other things I hadn’t thought about tasting in years.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
Human weaknesses and vulnerabilities are exposed in this evocative novel about rural life, fate, and redemption. Equal parts Southern Gothic and Greek tragedy, it calls to mind the work of Flannery O’Connor. The story is narrated by a chorus of three voices: Adelaide, the town
wise woman and healer, a woman who at nearly eighty tells it like she
sees it; Sheriff Clem Barefield, still somewhat of an outsider, a middle-aged man
haunted by his own family tragedy; and nine-year-old Jess, precocious
and adventurous, a boy older than his years from looking out for
his mute and most likely autistic older brother. The novel weaves
back and forth through time, seamlessly revealing events of the past to
elucidate the tragedy that occurs early on in the narrative. This
layering of perspective and events creates a dark, quiet intensity that
pulls you in, the tension gradually building up to the final,
inevitable conclusion.

And debut author Wiley Cash’s writing is fabulous.The dialog and idioms are spot on, perfectly capturing the flavor of the mountains and its people without introducing awkward, unreadable dialect. The lyrical prose is unpretentious, and the characters lovingly crafted.This is a must-read for anyone who enjoys the work of Tom Franklin and John Hart. This book offers plenty of food for thought and discussion; it would make an ideal book club read.

REVIEW: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Genre: Science Fiction/Apocalyptic Fiction, Coming-of-age
Audience: Adult/Young Adult Crossover

Summary: For 11-year-old Julia, the morning that the world changed forever began just like any other Saturday in her suburban California neighborhood. But she soon learns that the Earth’s rotation is slowing down and that there are CONSEQUENCES AHEAD. Her mother leaps into panic mode, while her doctor father goes to work just like any other day. As the days grow increasingly lengthy, world governments declare that citizens should abide by the 24-hour clock even though it is 40 hours or more between sunsets and midnight might come during the brightest part of the day. Fringe groups of “real-timers” spring up in opposition to the “clock-timers.” Birds fall from the sky, people develop gravity sickness, crops fail. Julia herself feels a mild fear as the world around her gradually falls into turmoil, but she is also coping with the everyday disasters of adolescence: bullying at the bus stop, her parents’ rocky marriage, broken friendships, and her first crush.

First Line: “We didn’t notice right away.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
This book is written as a retrospective, where a now-adult Julia looks back on the time that her world—both her private world and the world at large—changed. As a narrator, Julia frequently provides insights that the 11-year-old Julia could not know (“It was the last time I ever tasted a grape.”). Sometimes these were effective, but at other times I felt that they were unnecessary and even a bit annoying. But Julia’s story is a compelling one. The changes on Earth are profound, and the daily changes to Julia’s everyday life as she adapts to her changing environment and goes through the ordinary growing pains are equally riveting.

Karen Thompson Walker’s writing is simple and vividly evocative. It is nuanced and descriptive without becoming cluttered or overdone. Take the following passage:

When we finally understood what was happening that morning, Hanna and I rushed outside to check the sky for evidence. But the sky was just the sky—an average, cloudless, blue. The sun shone unchanged. A familiar breeze was blowing from the direction of the sea, and the air smelled the way it always did back then, like cut grass and honeysuckle and chlorine. The eucalyptus trees were fluttering like sea anemones in the wind, and my mother’s jug of sun tea looked nearly dark enough to drink. In the distance beyond our back fence, the freeway echoed and hummed. The power lines continued to buzz. Had we tossed a soccer ball into the air, we might not have even noticed that it fell a little faster to the earth, that it hit the ground a little harder than before. I was eleven years old in the suburbs. My best friend was standing beside me. I could spot not a single object out of place or amiss.

I read this book in one sitting. It is a fast, easy read and a timely one. Despite the fast pace, this is a quiet read—not violently dramatic like so many of the other apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels glutting the market. The dramas here are mostly small, everyday ones, but they are numerous and poignant. Although I questioned some of the science and would have liked a bit more fullness to the story and characters, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a pleasant change from the average “world gone wrong” novel, and the premise was top-notch. I look forward to the next offering from this first-time author.

REVIEW: Home by Toni Morrison

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Literary Fiction/Historical
Audience: Adult

Summary: Following his return to the States after serving in the Korean War, Frank Money finds coping with “normal life” a challenge. He is haunted by what he has witnessed and by what he has done. Furthermore, he experiences panic attacks and occasional violent spells he has no memory of later. Recently escaped from a mental institution after an “episode,” Frank finds his purpose in a mission to rescue his younger sister from a dangerous situation. But to help Cee, he has no choice but to return to the Georgia hometown he detests.

First Line: “They rose up like men.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
Why haven’t I read more Toni Morrison? I loved Beloved, but haven’t brought myself to pick up any of her other works until now. Perhaps I am wary of the gut-wrenching, emotional devastation that I associate with her stories? There is certainly plenty of sadness and disillusion to be found in this slim novel, yet there is also redemption. In less than 150 pages, Morrison takes on PSTD, family dysfunction, and the rampant racism of 1950s America. But the heart of this novel is the relationship between brother and sister and their separate journeys to make peace with themselves, the past, and their lives now.

The novel skillfully interweaves the past and present and also offers up the barest hint of magical realism. Morrison’s prose is lyrical, restrained yet startling in its power, the rhythms of her words and sentences resonating like poetry. Her language is clear and accessible, yet still manages to feel lush. This novel is told mostly in third person omniscient tense, occasionally focusing on characters other than Frank, most notably his sister Cee. However, some of the most powerful moments are when Frank “interrupts” the storyteller to provide his own first-person account, which further illuminates and sometimes even corrects the story we have been told thus far. This novel is deceptively simple and could perhaps benefit from a bit more fleshing out, but the spareness has an undeniable power if its own.

REVIEW: Among Others by Jo Walton

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: (Really light) Fantasy, Coming-of-age
Audience: Adult/Young Adult Crossover

Summary: Fantasy and a realistic coming-of-age story merge in this tale of a young outcast who finds meaning in the books she loves. When a magical battle with her insane mother leaves Mori crippled and results in her twin’s death, Mori flees to her heretofore absent father in England. Once there, Mori is quickly shuffled off to a boarding school that is a far cry from the fairy-filled valleys of Wales. There 15-year-old Mori struggles to find friends and dabbles in a bit of magic on her own before the inevitable showdown with her mother.

First Lines: “The Phurnacite factory in Abercwmboi killed all the trees for two miles around…. My sister and I called it Mordor…”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
On the surface, this sounds like a typical genre novel: outsider teenager discovers magical powers, etc, etc. And yet in Among Others, much of the “action” takes place offstage before the novel begins. Instead, the focus is on Mori’s
struggle to find a place and a purpose after losing her sister. Her
innermost thoughts and fears on everything from getting breasts to the
latest Zelazny novel are related through a series of diary entries. The
fantasy elements are very much in the background, but bits of magic slip
though the cracks. Mori sees fairies that look more like plants than the sparkly winged creatures of lore, and her magic doesn’t work like the magic in her beloved books, though she sometimes wishes it did. Instead of grand, sweeping magic, the magic here is ambiguous and inextricably part of the “real” world. It is something that must be taken on faith:

You can almost always find chains of coincidence to disprove magic. That’s because it doesn’t happen the way it does in books. It makes those chains of coincidence. That’s what it is. It’s like if you snapped your fingers and produced a rose but it was because someone on an aeroplane had dropped a rose at just the right time for it to land in your hand. There was a real person and a real aeroplane and a real rose, but that doesn’t mean the reason you have the rose in your hand isn’t because you did the magic.

I love this concept. Mori’s belief in magic of this sort makes so much sense even as I questioned whether Mori’s stories are merely the product of her book-fueled imagination.

In many ways, Among Others it is a love letter to libraries and to books, particularly the science fiction novels of the 1970s. And although I am not a big reader of sci-fi or fantasy, I have a special love for books about books and those who read them. (Case in point: this excellent book, and this book that *might* qualify as my absolute favorite read of 2011.)  Mori’s enthusiasm for the books of Ursula
Le Guin and other giants of the sci-fi/fantasy genres made me want to
hole up for a week (or two) just so I can devour all of the classics she
loves. (Lucky for me, Jo Walton has Mori’s reading list posted on her blog.) Among Others is a wonderful book, with a fascinating and engaging lead character, simple yet elegant writing, and thought-provoking ideas. I recommend it for anyone who has been an outsider, for anyone who has lost someone they loved, and most of all for anyone who loves books even a tenth as much as Mori does.

GUEST REVIEW: The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

We have a new guest reviewer! Mary W. is a BCPL employee and an avid fan of  “weird” books, or so she once told me. For her first review, she is taking on the latest novel by Chris Bohjalian, who is probably best known for Midwives (a former Oprah Book Club pick). Another of his novels, Double Bind, had a Great Gatsby connection, and this one seems to be somewhat influenced by The Turn of the Screw. I’ve been meaning to try Bohjalian for ages, and I actually gave The Night Strangers a try (in audio format), but I had to give up because I found the reader’s delivery to be wooden and unlistenable. But based on Mary’s reaction and other reviews I’ve read—from Justin Cronin, author of The Passage: “The first chapter of Chris Bohjalian’s The Night Strangers is so riveting, I dropped the book in the tub.”—I definitely need to seek out a print copy ASAP.   —Tracy

Mary’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genres: Psychological Suspense/Horror
Audience: Adult

 First Line: “The door was presumed to have been the entry to a coal chute, a perfectly reasonable assumption since a small hillock of damp coal sat moldering before it.”

Mary’s Guest Review & Summary:
The book starts with a small jet taking off from an airport and running into a flock of birds, which destroy the engines, and the pilot must land in a lake. He hopes to make a safe landing but instead the plan flips end-over-end and 39 passengers are killed. As a result of this, he can’t fly anymore and his family decide to move to a small community in hopes he will heal from his nightmares. They move into a house with a door in the basement that has 39 large screws placed around it so it cannot be opened. He decides to open it anyway.

Time to change subjects. He is married to a nice lady and has twins who are not quite teens yet. The teens don’t care for the new place and one is hearing voices in the night. The people who are their neighbors are herbalists and have lots of greenhouses everywhere. Sort of like a cult.

This book has a lot of twists and turns and sometimes I got lost at first but it gets more and more interesting as it goes on. If you like books about ghosts, witches, and weirdo people, this book will be a good read for you. I can only say one word about the ending of the book! ASTONISHING! I didn’t see the ending coming. The epilogue stood me on my head!! This book is not for the faint of heart.

DUAL REVIEW: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Lucinda’s Rating: 2/5 Stars (DNF)
Tracy’s Rating: 2/5 Stars
Genre: Erotic Romance
Audience: Adult (Mature)

Summary: College student Anastasia Steele is just filling in for her friend and roommate when she meets and interviews powerful businessman Christian Grey, and it turns out to be a highly awkward and embarrassing experience. But when Christian seeks her out on her home turf then warns her away, Ana can’t help but be intrigued by the undeniable attraction they share. Soon, Ana learns that any relationship with Christian will be far different from her expectations, as he has a taste for bondage, dominance, and punishment—and Ana must decide if she can be the submissive he needs.

First Line: “I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror.”

Lucinda’s Views: 
I tried my best to read this, having been urged on to finish it by several of the library staff, but I couldn’t. I don’t know if it was the wooden characters or the stalkerish behavior of the main characters that turned me off of this book, but try as I might I could not bring myself to finish the book. It did start off with an interesting, if done before plot and I was at first intrigued by this groundbreaking offering of erotica by a major publishing house. Things seemed to go downhill in subsequent chapters, however. The characters never seemed to develop any depth and I just couldn’t deal with Ana’s whining. All I can say is that I just lost interest. I was trying to read the Hunger Games Trilogy simultaneously and this offering just didn’t compete.


Tracy’s Thoughts: 
Like Lucinda, I had several enthusiastic co-workers urging me to read this book. About a third of the way in I was ready to throw in the towel, but I stuck with it. And while I can’t say I loved it, I didn’t hate it either. At least, I didn’t dislike it any more than I did the Twilight series (but more on that later).

EL James is the first to admit that she isn’t a great writer, but her prose is… competent, if sometimes a bit robotic. She clearly has a fondness for certain words—many of them starting with the letter “P”—and I actually made a game out of spotting her frequent variations of the words purse, pout, and petulant. (These recurring word choices probably didn’t help Lucinda’s impression of Ana as an annoying whiner either.) What really captured me and kept me reading was the e-mail exchanges between Ana and Christian that begin midway through the book. This is the only time that the characters seem to come alive. In their e-mail conversations, they are playful, challenging, even funny. I especially loved the humor Christian showed in changing his e-mail signature to reflect their ongoing conversation. They have a personality in their e-mails—Christian particularly—that just doesn’t come out in their face-to-face exchanges or in Ana’s inner monologues.

Speaking of inner monologues… I got really tired of Ana’s conversations with her “inner goddess” and her subconscious. It began to sound like Ana has a split personality, especially in a few really strange moments when she describes her subconscious/inner goddess/whatever as “hiding behind the couch.” Not to mention how just plain WRONG it is for Ana to be observing and communicating with her subconscious, which is supposed to be, um, subconscious. As in, something she is unaware of. But whatever. As I said, EL James has no pretensions about being an accomplished writer.

As Lucinda points out, there is actually  potential for a really good story here. Christian and Ana love each other (for whatever reason), but they have a
real conflict in their lifestyles and expectations. I would have loved
to see more about how they deal with that conflict, or how sometimes people can love each other but be basically incompatible. Unfortunately, James goes more for the Twilight plot treatment, much of it focused on Bella Ana’s inner angst and confusion. (Which isn’t so surprising, considering the novel originated as a piece of Twilight  fan fiction). Here are just a few of the Twilight/Fifty Shades of Grey parallels that struck me as I was reading:

  • Enigmatic, adopted hero with unpredictable mood swings? Check. (Well, unpredictable for the heroine anyway).
  • Self-esteem challenged heroine who mysteriously attracts every male within a mile radius? Check. 
  • Heroine parental issues, including a supposedly “scattered” mother and conversationally challenged father figure? Check.
  • Lots of immediate, internal obsessing on the part of the heroine over the hero? Check.
  • “Overprotective” hero that tracks down the heroine in unexpected places (i.e., behaves like a stalker) and is “concerned” over the heroine’s means of transportation? Check.

And there are more similarities where that came from. Of course, Christian’s deep, dark secret isn’t vampirism. It is his BSDM lifestyle (along with whatever traumatic childhood event “caused” it). But believe it or not, this book wasn’t nearly as explicit as I was led to expect. For the most part, it was more unsettling (at least in the scenes where Ana herself was most uncomfortable) than sexy. Of course, the subject matter is for mature readers only, but the language used to describe Christian and Ana’s encounters is almost restrained, even clinical at times. At least it wasn’t as shocking to me as a some of the scenes from True Blood!

So, for me this book was a mixed bag, with untapped potential. But the e-mails and questions about Christian’s history still have me slightly intrigued. I have books two and three of the trilogy at home and am determined to give them a fair shot. (One co-worker told me not to judge by the first book, promising that the plot deepens as the saga progresses.)

A few questions for you:
For those of you who’ve read this book (and we KNOW some of you have!), what did you think? Are we being too harsh?

Just for fun, have you seen the police sketch of Christian Grey on The Composites on tumblr? What do you think? Does the sketch capture Christian as you imagined him?

DUAL/GUEST REVIEW: You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

We’ve got another guest review! Donna is a regular library patron and a second time guest reviewer for Book News & Reviews. She previously contributed a review of Home at Last by Bonnie Leon. This time around, Donna chose to review one of my absolute favorite reads of 2011, so I am also posting my mini-review from the last BCPL Recommended Reading List…

Donna’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Tracy’s Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Genre: Short Stories/Realistic Fiction
Audience: Adult

Donna’s Summary & Review:
I really enjoyed this book. It was another book that I could not put down once I started reading it. The novel is set in Ft. Hood, Texas. These are lives lived on the military base, a world all its own, complete with its own stores, movie theaters, even its own laws. The missing husbands are living on the other side of the world, deployed to wherever the government says they are needed.It actually is a collection of short stories, mostly written from the deployed soldiers’ wives’ point of view. There is one story at the end that is actually written from the soldier’s point of view.

All the stories are very down to earth and believable, with all the raw human emotions that come along with messy, long distance relationships. Qualities like jealousy, uncertainty, fear, pride, shame, disbelief, love, loyalty, they run the gamut. Siobhan keeps the stories short enough to make the reader want more, but long enough to make a genuine connection to the characters. If you are a wife living on base, or at home, while “your soldier” is away, you will surely know deep in your gut some of the feelings that surface here. If you are any other part of the military family, it will give you insight into what your soldier and their families are working through. I gave this book 4 stars, only because I would have preferred to have a more complete ending to each short story. I would think that each and every one of the short stories could be made into an individual novel. Other than that, it was a 5 star.

Tracy’s Thoughts:
As I said, this was one of my favorite reads last year, and I have been singing its praises to anyone I can get to listen. Here’s what I had to say earlier this year:

Eight gripping stories, each showing a different dimension of the domestic side of military life, make up this debut story collection set primarily around the military base in Fort Hood, TX. Fallon shies away from political commentary, instead focusing on the personal drama of families and soldiers coming to grips with extended absences of a year or more. The characters are real and haunting, and their stories are full of complexity and humanity. There is the wife with breast cancer who struggles with her daughter’s rebellion; the successful investment banker–turned–soldier who questions his place in the world; and a bored young wife who becomes obsessed with her Serbian neighbor’s suspicious behavior. In one particularly memorable story, a soldier on leave camps out in his basement on a covert mission to discover whether rumors of his wife’s infidelity are true. Fallon’s prose is simple yet elegant, and the life she breathes into each of her characters left me fully engaged in the book from cover to cover.

Would you like to contribute a guest review to Book News & Reviews? Find how here!

REVIEW: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Tracy’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adult/Young Adult Crossover

Summary: The real world in 2045 is a sad, desolate place of poverty, energy-depletion, and pollution. So is it any wonder that most people spend more time in the MMO virtual reality world of the OASIS than in reality? The OASIS is more than just entertainment; it has pretty much taken over the internet, becoming the preferred  online platform for communication, work, and education. It is also the site of a virtual contest with real-world ramifications. When billionaire OASIS creator James Halliday died, he left behind a sort of online treasure hunt, declaring that the first person to solve a series of puzzles, discover three keys, and find the Easter egg hidden somewhere in the vast worlds of the OASIS will inherit his company and his fortune. Within a year, the outside world has immersed itself in all of Halliday’s obsessions—most notably a wide range of 1980s pop culture trivia—hoping to find clues to unravel Halliday’s first puzzle.

But it is 2045, several years after Halliday’s death, before the first key is discovered by an avatar called Parzival and the contest begins in earnest. In real-life, Parzival is 18-year-old Wade Watts, a student who lives in a crammed and precariously stacked mobile home with his less-than-loving aunt. He is obsessed with all things Halliday—from vintage coin-operated video games to Family Ties reruns—and escapes to an abandoned van to adopt his online persona. But now that “Parzival” has solved the first clue, the competition to find the egg intensifies. Along with the other scoreboard leaders, Wade now finds himself in mortal danger from a power-hungry corporation willing to do anything to win—even commit murder.

First Line: “Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
Ready Player One is a total geek fest. If 80s flicks, classic video games, anime, comics, and Monty Python quotes make you happy, it’s definitely the book for you. Of course you don’t have to enjoy them all (I score a whopping one out of five) to get a kick out of this fast-paced—sometimes mind-bending—story of an underdog’s quest to save the day (and himself!). As I read the book, I found myself downright giddy at times. I by no means recognized all of Cline’s 80s references, but many of them (War Games! Better Off Dead! The Back to the Future DeLorean! Schoolhouse Rock! Speed Racer!) put a billboard-sized smile on my face. So, Ready Player One definitely gets an “A” for the 80s nostalgia factor.

But for all its 80s flashback moments, Ready Player One is also a darn good story. It sucks you in, just as OASIS sucks the book’s characters away from their reality. It was fun, for a while, to immerse myself in Wade’s quest and leave my own world behind. (I guess books are my video games!)  Many people claim they read as an escape. This is clearly a primary motivation to Wade’s love of videogames and the OASIS:

Descending the network of metal girders had always reminded me of old platform videogames like Donkey Kong or BurgerTime. I’d seized upon this idea a few years earlier when I coded my first Atari 2600 game (a gunter rite of passage, like a Jedi building his first lightsaber.) It was a Pitfall rip-off called The Stacks where you had to navigate through a vertical maze of trailers, collection junk computers, snagging food-voucher power-ups, and avoiding meth addicts and pedophiles on your way to school. My game was a lot more fun than the real thing.

Of course, real life also bleeds into Wade’s virtual world. It is fascinating how, for me, the characters’ virtual reality and their “real lives” became entwined. I was just as invested in the avatars’ survival as the characters themselves. Perhaps more so.

Ready Player One isn’t a perfect book. The writing was a bit uneven at times (e.g., trivia-laden footnotes pepper the prologue then mysteriously vanish), and the romance between Wade/Parzival and his online crush Ar3mis felt a bit forced. Still, it is a clever, fun read with likeable characters and an intriguing premise. Plus, there’s that nostalgia factor 🙂

GUEST REVIEW: Home at Last by Bonnie Leon

We have our very first, non-library employee guest review! Donna, one of our regular patrons here at BCPL,  loved Home at Last so much that she wanted to share it with all of us.

Are you enthusiastic about a book you’ve read recently? If you would like to contribute your own Guest Review to Book News & Reviews, find out more here.

Donna’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Audience: Adult/Young Adult
Genre: Historical/Christian Fiction
Series: Matanuska Series #3
 
Donna’s Summary & Review: 

I just finished the book called Home at Last by Bonnie Leon. This is the 3rd novel of a trilogy called The Manatuska Valley Series, set in pre-World War II Alaska. The book is about the son of the Hasper Family coming to terms with resentment that has festered in him for years, after the death of his much beloved father. The book is a Christian Fiction novel, based on historical facts. It is about a young man that goes to war, taking his love for his childhood girlfriend with him. He and his girlfriend, along with his family, have their ups and downs, but they never lose their faith in God. This book, along with all the other two books in the series, is a book that you will not be able to put down.   

The book is so uplifting with Christian prayer, along with human faults, that I was able to readily identify with and be blessed with so much, that I did not want the book(s) to end! The 1st book starts out with the Hasper family moving from a dusty farm in the lower 48 states, to Alaska. The family hopes to win a good farm in the land lottery that the US government is using to help families settle Alaska. There are pitfalls and heartaches in Alaska, just like everywhere though, that the family must work its way through. You will get to know each of the characters in the small town of Palmer, Alaska. The characters will come alive for you; it’s almost as though you are a part of the family.

REVIEW: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genres: Fantasy/Supernatural Fiction
Audience: Adult/Young Adult

Summary: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

Lucinda’s Thoughts:  This book intrigued me from the start.  Always a fan of the supernatural, the idea that there are others among us sparked my interest.  Jacob’s troubles and resulting journey hold the reader’s interest and bring about unexpected twisted and turns that are  attention-grabbers.  I would have liked more background story for the peculiar children and their mentor, but understandably a book can only be so lengthy. 

The book’s accompanying photographs are mysterious, yet blend effortlessly with the story.  (Kudos to the author and individuals who sought these out, as they are all real photos, not artwork for the book.)  The cover art is also wonderful, and while I would be the last to judge a book by its cover, this cover is compelling. 

Jacob’s trip through time and space weave a complex narrative of a world where all is not as it seems, and Jacob is one of the few who can see the difference.  As Jacob’s tale progresses, he becomes not only a more mature, multi-faceted figure, but finds himself walking in the footsteps of his grandfather, an enigmatic figure whose own children thought him a mystery.  The conclusion of the book is slightly twisted, and leaves room for a sequel. (Another bothersome aspect of this novel.)  Even so, I am looking forward to the further adventures of Jacob and his “peculiar” comrades.

The following is the book trailer for the wonderful novel: