Barbara Claypole White has created such a likable, adorable, entertaining main character that I never wanted this book to end! I predict an explosion...moreBarbara Claypole White has created such a likable, adorable, entertaining main character that I never wanted this book to end! I predict an explosion of children named "Tilly" in 2013! Hanging out with her was so much fun -- I wrung my hands with her when she was troubled, I laughed at her self-effacing humor, and I really felt her love for her family and her child. Part of the magic was White's narrative style -- it's third person that feels like first, so immediate and engaging. This wonderful touch was also applied to the male main character, James, whose intense OCD made his sections agonizing and so very interesting. He was portrayed so authentically, but with such grace and affection.
My favorite character was one of the peripheral ones -- Tilly's friend Rowena. Her manner, her way of dressing, her spunky and style, and the way she talked -- she just burst off the page, until I felt I knew her.
A heartfelt book that never wanders into the maudlin, this is a fun read and a wonderfully sensitive portrayal of mental illness at the same time. (less)
Hand Me Down is a sad story of how a tough girl gets tougher, to save her sister from the hard experiences that have come close to ruining her. This p...moreHand Me Down is a sad story of how a tough girl gets tougher, to save her sister from the hard experiences that have come close to ruining her. This protagonist is a force to be reckoned with, no weak victim and no explosive rebel. In the end, it's this teenager's willingness to be patient and ability to hold everything together, while the adults around her are making such horrible, disgusting choices, that saves both girls. (less)
David Abrams is a magician. With one hand, he's teasing, making ruthless fun of the characters in his book. For readers, the types he sends up may be...moreDavid Abrams is a magician. With one hand, he's teasing, making ruthless fun of the characters in his book. For readers, the types he sends up may be new: the public affairs officer with a perpetual nosebleed, the company commander with stockpiled baby wipes from charity care packages, the press release writer who's got a template for everything from heroics to disaster. Abrams defines a new ridiculousness, a new absurd to go with a high tech war against a low tech enemy. Readers will find it funny. But they will have a hard time laughing, because I believe they will also find it sad.
Because while one hand is creating this clever farce, the other hand delivers a fair and accurate context for these farcical people. In giving us a glimpse of what this war was really like: the horror of uncertainty, the misery of separation, the impossibility of "the truth" -- Abrams makes it impossible not to like his characters, not to feel complete sympathy for them, so that the more they are cartoons, the more pathos they engender in the reader. My sadness was real.
If this is comedy, then it is comedy in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh, or the Coen Brothers. Comedy you have to own as true and therefore can't dismiss.
Come to Abrams' show, and fondly chuckle at the acts he sends out. But don't be surprised when you find yourself on the edge of your seat, halfway through, having inadvertantly grown fond of the buffoons, and urgently fearing for their safety. Fobbit is a nail-biter disguised as a cartoon, a wrenching portrait disguised as a caricature, a brilliant point between cold criticism and warm sentiment -- a war novel everyone should be reading. (less)
A brilliant memoir by a young woman who lost both parents to cancer at an early age. Brutally honest, it sears with truth straight from the heart. To...moreA brilliant memoir by a young woman who lost both parents to cancer at an early age. Brutally honest, it sears with truth straight from the heart. To be able to look back with such clarity and calm is a magnificent achievement for one who has been through so much.
The most memorable scene goes with the most memorable idea: After her parents have died, Claire puts herself (and them, and their absence) through a series of tests to prove to herself that they're really not coming back, no matter what she does, and that she's really going to survive, even all alone. Diving with sharks, alone, off the coast of a tiny island in the Philippines, she is forced to realize her mother is never going to hear her, no matter how many times she calls, and that she is just therefore doing something unwise, all by herself, with no one to notice. Powerful stuff. (less)
A novice Dominican nun stands beside the rack, in the Tower of London, watching her father as he's tortured at the hands of a power hungry Bishop. To...moreA novice Dominican nun stands beside the rack, in the Tower of London, watching her father as he's tortured at the hands of a power hungry Bishop. To save him, she must leave the safety and beauty of religious life to find a lost relic with connections to her priory, her aristocratic family, and her royal past.
Nancy Bilyeau has created something more subtle and affecting than your standard thriller, more fast-paced and heart-pounding than your standard painstakingly researched historical drama, and in combining the two genres, she's found a sweet spot of entertaining, interesting prose.
The coolest thing about the book is that it's kind of a historical fiction within a historical fiction. To find the relic, Joanna Stafford and her sidekicks must hunt down clues relating to historical figures and events much farther back than the 16th century. So these characters from 500 years ago are unfolding a mystery that's 500 years old even for them. At times the layers blend, and you almost feel as a reader that the Tudor period is really the present, as you're right there with Joanna and Edmund and Geoffrey, searching for that crown.
The book offers plenty to chew on in terms of theme -- drug addiction, molestation, the worth of pursuing a contemplative religious life, the female identity and the terrible and wonderful ways women treat each other, the competition between family duties, religious beliefs, and political necessity. (less)
From the cover and the title, I expected a quirky book about an eccentric woman who would learn a lesson and maybe teach some lessons too. I thought i...moreFrom the cover and the title, I expected a quirky book about an eccentric woman who would learn a lesson and maybe teach some lessons too. I thought it would be a cozy story, smart but small. No. Through a plot that twisted itself into enough knots to keep me up reading through the night, this book raised very interesting questions.
What is a parent's responsibility to her child, and what is a child's responsibility to her parent? What makes an object valuable? What makes an object priceless? How far does wealth and sentiment get you when what you really need is human connection? What does a signature on the back of a painting mean, in terms of its beauty and worth? Can money buy happiness, or at least peace, or at least time?
I'm telling you, this book made me think about my things, about my kids, about the "treasures" I won't let go of, and why, and the cost of forgiveness. It was a dark, funny, broad and very smart. Rutledge hasn't just brought one character to life -- she's brought to life a whole town. Some are lost, some are greedy, some are trying to be good, and some have given up trying. With a masterful control of very layered material -- both in time and space -- Rutledge delivers a strong piece of writing with a very literary bite. (less)
Monarch Beach is pure fantasy. From the brand names on their feet to the contents of their omelets, these characters move in a world of high privilege...moreMonarch Beach is pure fantasy. From the brand names on their feet to the contents of their omelets, these characters move in a world of high privilege that few inhabit but many love to dream about. Looking for a distraction from the workaday world of minivans and burnt toast? Meet this elegant narrator, whose life as a hotel guest consists of yoga and egg whites, Prada and Manolo. Minivan? Nope, it's a chauffeured Bentley. Yes, there's angst too: her cheating husband, her ailing mother, her lost dreams of doing something with her life. But this book is a spun-sugar confection, and problems can be solved with money, pluck, and cocktails. Blissfully peaceful reading for poolside, beach chairs, bubble baths, and maybe even soccer practice. Calls to mind the phrase: A girl can dream! (less)
A Land More Kind Than Home is a quiet whirlpool of a novel that will pull you under and hold you fast. Folded between its pages, the big scenes are la...moreA Land More Kind Than Home is a quiet whirlpool of a novel that will pull you under and hold you fast. Folded between its pages, the big scenes are laid like traps: adultery, snake handling, dirty secrets, forgotten history, and death. But over these traps are laid layers of a prose so deftly constructed that you'll forget you're reading a book and not just listening to the characters talk. For this midwestern girl, it was like sitting on a porch on a mountainside, fanning away the North Carolina heat, listening to a stranger talking.
Cash has an amazing skill for voice, and has created multiple narrators here, distinct but connected. Cash is not a writer who will dazzle you with tricks -- his grace is in his restraint. In fact his quiet control is almost maddening at times, given the intensity of the subject matter. The volume only increases inside the reader's head, and Cash's ability to deliver this story without any narrative agitation makes the lasting impact more fierce. His prose does not call attention to itself. The characters are authentic and immediate. The story is dark, and very real.
Sparse and deep, The Book of Jonas illuminates an internal landscape like no other I have ever seen -- the damaged, beautiful mind of a child growing...moreSparse and deep, The Book of Jonas illuminates an internal landscape like no other I have ever seen -- the damaged, beautiful mind of a child growing up after his village had been destroyed by US forces in the Middle East. But layered into his story is a penetrating portrayal of the US soldier that saved his life. Dau explodes your preconceptions of "good guys" and "bad guys" by constantly upending expectations and definitions -- in the end, there are just guys: human, flawed, searching. While I imagine that choice made this a harder book to write, it made it a gorgeous, unforgettable book to read. (less)
Amy Franklin-Willis has set herself the daunting task of drawing out a good old boy from Tennessee, divorced, working at a factory, taciturn, connecte...moreAmy Franklin-Willis has set herself the daunting task of drawing out a good old boy from Tennessee, divorced, working at a factory, taciturn, connected only to his old dog and his truck, into the lovable and believable narrator of his own story. It's a story of loss, betrayal, and bitterness in the past, despair in the present, and the possibility of a new chance at life in the future. She does it majestically -- portraying love without sentimentality, grief without mawkishness, hope without artifice. I can't remember when I have connected on such an emotional level to a male character written by a female author. Maybe not since Water for Elephants has a male character been so moving.
Lost Saints in Tennessee is authentic, deep, and true. A heartbreaking story of the realities of loneliness and the power of brotherly love. (less)
Moved me to tears, to laughter, and back to tears. Sere Prince Halverson is a fearless writer, who tells her story from a raw place of honest emotions...moreMoved me to tears, to laughter, and back to tears. Sere Prince Halverson is a fearless writer, who tells her story from a raw place of honest emotions. I dare you to read it and come away unmoved.(less)
Two daughters of the Count of Provence, Eleanor and Marguerite, are separated as children so that one can marry the King of France, one can marry the...moreTwo daughters of the Count of Provence, Eleanor and Marguerite, are separated as children so that one can marry the King of France, one can marry the King of England. It will be twenty years before they see each other again. The Sister Queens is the story of that separation.
Readers, take note! This is NOT a pretty little tale about court intrigue, pretty gowns, tournaments and feasts. We're talking war, shipwrecks, crusades, battles in the desert, disease, nomadic encampments, forbidden love, and death. This is a book that begs for a screen adaptation -- the action sprawls across Europe into Egypt and beyond, as the sisters adventures take them out of court and into the dangers of the world.
Perinot brilliantly portrays the perils and powers of these women who have been used as political pawns, but refuse to be mere possessions. What does it really mean to be the mother of a prince? What is a Queen worth to her King, and how dependent is she really on his mercy? What did a woman have to give up in order to be politically important?
I knew I would be entertained, but I was also educated while being relentlessly engaged. Brava!(less)
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