July 23rd, 2008
The most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction is absolutely hilarious with the narrator’s fresh, crude, and slang-filled voice bringing us this rich tale. Oscar’s character is someone like we’ve all known-a “nerdy,” overweight, science fiction reading & writing loner who falls for any women who glances in his direction. His Dominican Republic heritage and the curse on his family is often blamed for his seemingly bad luck (and bad choice) ridden life. Not only does the narrator steer us through Oscar’s pathetic adolescence, we also visit his mother, Beli’s, troubled past. The Dominican Republic of Beli’s youth (1940s & 50s) is filled with violence and repression created by the dictator Rafael Trujillo, who “…At first glance, he was just your typical Latin American caudillo, but his power was terminal in ways that few historians or writers have ever truly captured or, I would argue, imagined.” The balance of humor and tragedy, cruelties of history and possibilities of the present blend perfectly. Oscar’s ultimate fate is clear from the title, but I was hooked on his story nonetheless…that to me is what makes his life ‘Wondrous”.
Jessica
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July 10th, 2008
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
Seeing a flock of sheep standing on a grassy hill, we often assume their minds are complete blanks; they must have no thought beyond grazing and sleeping. Leonie Swann attempts to disprove that assumption in Three Bags Full. A flock of sheep awakes one morning to discover a spade stuck through the chest of their beloved shepherd, George Glenn. Lead by a team of wooly sleuths: Miss Maple, possibly the world’s smartest sheep, Othello, a black four-horned ram, and Mopple the Whale, a ram who remembers everything and is always hungry, the flock sets out determined to bring justice to the mysterious killer.
These are not ordinary sheep. Much of their knowledge of the human world comes from trashy “Pamela” novels, which George read aloud to the flock every night. Their understanding is largely literal as they contemplate the unknown of the Abyss, who God really is, and how one becomes a Cloud Sheep. Through careful eavesdropping and frequent jaunts to town, the sheep believe they have a culprit, but how do they communicate their findings with the humans?
Swann has wonderfully created these characters with perfect sheep-like personalities. No longer will you see a hillside flock of sheep and think that nothing runs through their minds. A quirky, gentle mystery, Three Bags Full will appeal to even those who don’t usually read books from the mystery section.
Rebecca
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June 19th, 2008
Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge
I did not anticipate how deeply this book would delve into the loneliness and isolation growing up in foster care can bring to a young boy who wants nothing more than to be with his mother. Andy’s mother, Hope, suffers from mental illness along with a history of abusive relationships and a childhood of poverty. She does her best to raise Andy, but, after being evicted from apartments and unable to retain employment, loses her son, age seven, to the care of the State of California. From this point forward, Andy is left to constantly wonder if Hope will return for him, as he continues to love her unconditionally. His care with the State begins in MacLaren Hall in Los Angeles, a “shelter care facility” where children are “incarcerated more than cared for.” Not long after entering this facility, Andy is placed in foster care with the Leonard family, where he remains until his high school graduation. He is never treated as a family member, but more of a tenant. The raw emotions Andy expresses include lack of love, confusion about the location of his mother, fear of his peers knowing he is a foster child and never-ceasing loneliness. Although a tough read emotionally, this memoir is worth the trial because it reveals the hard truth about children who are left to practically fend for themselves if placed in foster care, especially care absent of love.
Jess
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June 1st, 2008
The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares
The bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants makes an attempt at an adult novel with The Last Summer (of You and Me). It has been two years since sisters Riley and Anna have seen Paul, their summer neighbor on Fire Island since childhood. Riley and Paul grew up as best friends with younger Anna close at their heels. As the trio reunites as adults, things have changed. A story of friendship, love and loss, The Last Summer (of You and Me) is more of a mature young adult novel with a coming-of-age theme than adult fiction. Brashares quietly delves into each character, telling the story from Riley’s, Anna’s and Paul’s perspective all without losing the third person narrative. I found this to be a read-alike for Jodi Piccoult’s My Sister’s Keeper with its strong character study and sisterly friendships. The Last Summer (of You and Me) will leave readers remembering the last summer before adulthood truly begins and those people that made helped shape that time.
Rebecca
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May 22nd, 2008
From Baghdad, With Love : A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman
The short, fast-moving chapters of this book make it a quick read, and my need to find out Lava’s fate really made short work of it. Even though Kopelman gives his coauthor, Melinda Roth, credit for making Lava’s story come to life, it is his experiences on the ground in Iraq and his love for this puppy that speak to me.
In November 2004, during the first week of the U.S. invasion of Fallujah, Iraq, an abandoned puppy was discovered by a battalion of Marines known as the Lava Dogs. Despite military law that forbids the keeping of pets, they de-flea the pup with kerosene, de-worm him with chewing tobacco, and fill him up on Meals Ready to Eat. Thus begins the story of a six-month effort by the most unlikely band of heroes ever to come together to rescue a single little flea-ridden refugee.
Being on the ground in Fallujah was a grim situation, “… there wasn’t room in your head for anything but what was right in front of you or right behind you or right around the next corner. The future spanned one city block at most. Your dreams consisted of RPGs that missed; lifelong goals were met if you made it back to the compound at night.”
Lava’s puppy antics were a welcome distraction for these Marines and a respite from the emotional ravages of war. “He’s like a cartoon character on fast-forward, always chasing something, chewing something, spinning head-on into something. He stalks shadows and dust balls and pieces of balled-up paper. He can eat an entire cigar in less than two minutes and drag a flak jacket all the way across the floor. If you aren’t dragging him along after you as he hangs on to your bootlaces with his teeth, he’s up on the roof tangled in wires or lost and wailing in the bowels of somebody’s backpack.”
Linda
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April 2nd, 2008
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
“My head was so big that little Indian skulls orbited around it. Some
of the kids called me Orbit. And other kids just called me Globe.
The bullies would pick me up, spin me in circles, put their finger
down on my skull, and say, “I want to go there.”"
This is Junior. A Native American boy born with a huge head with too much water in his brain, forty-two teeth, huge feet and big plastic rimmed specs. He’s a little different than the rest of the under-achieving Indians on the reservation. These aren’t his greatest differences however. What really sets him apart is his decision to leave the “rez” and go to high school 22 miles away at the “white” school. This quickly makes him an outcast in his own community as he tries to integrate into a new school.
Told in a confessional style that makes the reader feel like Junior’s counselor and littered with hilarious drawings from the hand of Junior, Alexie gives the allusion that this is not just a made up story but rather his memoirs. Emotional from start to finish, you’ll finish it in a day and be thoroughly entertained the whole way through. Classified under Young Adult, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian can easily be enjoyed by adults as well.
Posted in Adam, Fiction, Reader's Advisory | No Comments »
February 22nd, 2008
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Red Fox by Anthony Hyde
Subtlety, clever intrigue, links with historical mysteries and featuring an academic out of his element dangerously treading near violent men obsessively in search of answers. If you enjoyed the cleverness of Angels & Demons or the Da Vinci Code you will probably find this story of interest as well. Anthony Hyde prepares the mysteries carefully and subtly making you wonder throughout, just as you think you have the plot sorted out, then a new truth, or what appears to be a truth appears and the mystery takes a whole new shape. The story is well balanced with enough detail and description blended with excitement to keep the pace up.
Our hero is an American academic near the end of his career that scans Russian periodicals for items of interest and translates them. He has also become somewhat complacent and sedentary until he receives a strange call from his former fiancé. He was unexpectedly jilted many years ago by his fiancé who had seemed a perfect match and he had never quite recovered from it, nor does it seem, had she. When her father disappears and suicide is a possibility, our intellectual hero starts looking into to it, he finds layer upon layer of mysteries drawing ever closer to harm as well as answers to lifelong questions of his own. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Byron, Fiction, Reader's Advisory | No Comments »
February 13th, 2008
Bootlegger’s Daughter by Margaret Maron
I checked out this book and an old favorite by Agatha Christie at the same time. I was in the mood for a mystery that was not too cheeky, and not full of blood and guts. I wanted something classic and engaging, that did not take itself too seriously. I never did re-read that Christie mystery, as the Bootlegger’s Daughter fulfilled all of these requirements. This is the first of a series of mysteries with Deborah Knott as the sleuth. She is an attorney who is running for a seat on the bench in a small town in North Carolina, when she becomes involved in investigating a murder that took place years before. The author richly describes the southern settings and the southern characters, thus laying the groundwork for many a mystery to come. Any lover of whodunits will enjoy this classic.
Wendi
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February 5th, 2008
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
Hello there. The book I am reviewing is Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible: a Novel
This is a fun read for anyone who has been even a little bit of a superheroes/comic book fan – it has the sometimes cheesy dialogue – with actual back story and internal dialogue that one doesn’t generally find in comic books. The chapters alternate between Mr. Impossible – a super villain, and Fatale, a part cyborg super hero who until recently worked for the NSA, and is unsure of her origins.
It also raises some interesting points regarding living in a universe where super heroes existed – i.e. – where would superheroes come from? What if the leader of your super hero troupe was a total jerk? Where should one build their super villain lair?
On one final note – the cover art is done by Chip Kidd – who I love, and you may recognize from Jurassic Park, Naked and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, among many others.
Martha
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January 23rd, 2008
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Nazneen was born in 1967 in a small Bangladesh village and at first appeared to be a stillborn but was saved by Fate, according to the tale of her family. It is Fate that she trusts to cope with life once her husband chooses her as his wife and brings her to London at age 18. It is her voice we follow through the struggles of living as an immigrant in a foreign world. She lives in a small apartment, many other tenants in the building are also Bangladeshi and Muslim, where her adult life unfolds as she fills her days tending to the needs of her family. What makes this story appealing is the intimate relationship the reader feels with Nazneen and her struggles to cope with the strangeness of a foreign land while dealing with the peril her family suffers in her home country. She begins to wonder if Fate is responsible for her life situation of if she has a choice. It is a character-driven novel that brings the adversity immigrants face to the surface where the reader can relate, because we are all humans searching for our place in the world and are all victims of Fate. Or are we?
Posted in Jess, Fiction, Reader's Advisory | 1 Comment »
