bookshelves: books-wanted
Beth Kephart's Nothing But Ghosts follows Katie D'Amore's struggle to recover enough to live after the death of her mother, but her mother's ghost is not the only spirit present in this novel. Lost loves, mysterious socialites locked inside their estates, and other specters haunt these pages. Kephart's narration from the point of view of Katie is limiting, but an excellent choice as readers unravel the mystery of her town's hermetic socialite alongside Katie.
"My dad has this knack for lighting the darkness, for uncracking all the cracks that break images apart, for returning the disappeared to the land of the living." (Page 5)
Katie must face her loss, her future, and the past, and she does it in the basement of a library and in a garden of Miss Martine's estate as she and other kids work through the summer digging a hole for a gazebo foundation. What Katie doesn't expect is to find life in the past and the present, nor does she expect to see her father emerge from his own opaque painting to whisk broad, vivid paint across a new canvas.
"If you were looking down on me and my bike from a cloud above, you'd think we were a zipper. That's how fast we go, how straight down, all the way to Miss Martine's." (Page 9)
"What if the glass breaks and the bird flies in? What if the whole upstairs shatters and crumbles? I imagine the finch making a nest inside my lamp shade -- dropping the feathers into my shoes, over my breadspread, over my pillow, over me. I imagine everything giving way to the finch." (Page 22)
Nothing but Ghosts is not simply a coming of age story, but a tale of how each of us deals with loss. Kephart is a master of description, making each image vivid, each plot line significant, and she does it all in concise, poetic language. In a way, readers may find that parts of this novel are simply a large narrative poem. Very enjoyable, quick read, with deeper meaning and an even deeper sense of understanding. ]]>
"Disc 2"
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bookshelves: books-wanted, to-read
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bookshelves: books-wanted, to-read
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bookshelves: books-wanted, to-read
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Charlaine Harris' Living Dead in Dallas continues the Sookie Stackhouse series. Sookie has agreed to use here telepathic powers to help the vampires when necessary so long as the interviewees go free. The death of a co-worker and friend thrusts Sookie deep into the vampire world.
"'Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked, evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me.'
'That's more like it.'" (Page 40)
The Sookie Stackhouse series is full of vampires and other supernatural creatures, mystery, and witty dialogue. Readers will find the vampire world created by Charlaine Harris dark, intricate, and mysterious. As their world unravels to reveal its connections with other supernatural communities or its battles with other groups who wish vampires were back in the coffin, readers will be absorbed.
"I realized I'd been rented, like a chainsaw or backhoe. I wondered if the vampires of Dallas had had to put down a deposit against damage." (Page 47)
Sookie is soon sent to help vampires in Dallas where she is caught up in the community's feud with the Fellowship of the Sun. Some of the most interesting elements of this novel was learning about Anubis Air and its business of transporting vampires across state lines as cargo and offering them protection when they travel during the day. Living Dead in Dallas is a quick read. ]]>
bookshelves: books-wanted, to-read
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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bookshelves: books-wanted, to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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