Swedish Author F Backman's Int'l Bestseller "A Man Call Ove"

Fredrik Backman's (b. Sweden 1981) novel "A Man Called Ove" was relentless; kicking repeatedly the overplayed theme of an old curmudgeon with a big heart.  The story starts with some charm in the guise  of an angry old grouch Ove, who is at war with the world.  Ove is maniacal in his meticulous convictions on - everything.  He complains to his beloved Sonja and we're sympathetic, but not surprised to learn that he is in fact a lonely widower.  I was besotted by their love story told in flashback and amazed at the stalwart love that Sonja showed for Ove; much like Edith for Archie.  Next, new neighbors move in next door with 2 adorable precocious girls, & patient pregnant mother & hapless father.  Yadah Yadah - the gruff carapace cracks and Ove becomes LOVEd despite of and for his indomitable qualities and capacity for fair play.  However, the goodwill wanes and the story moves forward at a tortoise pace.  Some will be delighted by this disarming story, but I say - bah humbug.  

Jamaican Author Marlon James Wins Man Booker for "A Brief History of Seven Killings"

Marlon James (b. Jamaica 1970) is the recipient of several prestigious honors for "A Brief History of Seven Killings."  The novel won this years' Man Book Prize, was a finalist for the Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Lit. for fiction.  I read only 100 pages of this densely packed 700 novel.  Perhaps, I'm too dense to comprehend the multiple narratives and too uncomfortable to deal with the violent historical unrest in Jamaica in the mid 1970's.  Having said that, I do perceive the literary genius in James' complex writing.  The multiple narratives, including ghost voices of the dead, are all tied around the world famous singer Bob Marley & the major concert he is about to perform in his native country.  Marley's rocket rise to fame is even more incredulous knowing his impoverished & violent upbringing in a country that is basically corrupt.  I applaud the writing, deplore the historical events and regret that I did not have the temerity to persevere.  Perhaps I will return to this novel after putting it aside.  But, the storytelling does not facilitate an ease for picking up & putting down.  It demands a focus to keep pace with the turbulence that confronts you from numerous angles.  A light vacation read?  Absolutely not - it is a tour de force that may fire over most people's heads (including my own.)  This explosive novel is nothing like the Disney "Cool Runnings" film (1993.)

REFUND short stories by Karen Bender Bargain at Twice the Price

American novelist and short story writer, Karen Bender has received many literary honors.  Her recent short story collection REFUND was a Nat'l Book Award Finalist (2015.)  Her competition this year most have been incredible because her writing skills are in a class with Updike, Cheever and Monroe.  Bender's contemporary succinct writing creates an immediate connection to  her characters.  She also paints a lucid canvas of pressing concerns & events of the 21st C.  The title story "Refund" is a mounting story of agitation in the periphery of the terrorist attack on 9/11.  It packs a blind sided wallop. Still, it is Bender's brilliant, nuanced written work that instills us with befuddlement of how we arrived at where we are and the epiphany of life's ephemeral beauty. "Is this where my life has led?  Where do I go now?  How long do I have to live, anyway?"  I guarantee her stories will grab you.  If not, I'll  refund your money back.

The Kitchen Help-Important Historical Fiction that Needs Help with the Writing

Kathleen Grissom's novel "The Kitchen Help" is historical fiction portraying the brutal oppression of slavery in our country.  Canadian author Grissom takes on the heinous brutalities inflicted on slaves as seen through the eyes of an indentured white girl, Lavinia, and Belle, a black slave both living on the same plantation.  Lavinia was 5 when her parents were sailing to America from Ireland in 1791.  Both parents died on board.  Gravely ill, she was brought to the plantation by its owner.  Her parents were to work off their passage as indentured slaves.  The plantation master brought Lavinia back to work as indebted by her parent's.  Caring little for the sickly girl, Lavinia was placed among the slave quarters where she finds acceptance, love and family. Belle, is the child of the Captain & one of his slaves. Belle receives his doting and affection which also brings resentment from others.  Both girls are living in a world apart; below white aristocracy and above harsh conditions of field slave hands.  Belle, takes it upon herself to care for Lavinia and is warmly embraced by black slaves that form Belle's extended family.  The parallel narratives was a clever device.  However, this novel would have worked better written as Young Adult fiction.  We watch Lavinia discover divided stations in life as she grows into adolescence.  "I was awakened to a new realization and made aware of a line drawn in black and white though the depth of it still had little meaning to me."  The important messages are lost in an undertow of stupor.  A missed opportunity; this should have been something super.

Richard Ford's "Let Me Be Frank With You" Receives a Pulitzer Prize Nom.

Richard Ford latest work,"Let Me Be Frank With You" a novella of 4 linked stories, heralds the return of Ford's main character, Frank Bascombe.  Frank was the hero of a trilogy of novels. "Independence Day" won Ford the Putlizer Prize.  "Let Me Be…" earned Ford another Pulitzer Prize nom. & deserves accolades for his deft writing I find reminiscent of literary giants such as Updike and Roth.  All 3 prolific writers have carried a person into subsequent novels.  What makes these characters so inhabitable are the astute observations rendering them all zeitgeists.  Ford reportedly retired Frank Bascombe but the tempest of Hurricane Sandy and it's massive destruction volted his resurrection.  The carefully strewn events & characters in Frank's life are given their due and their story arches.  The eye of the hurricane in these brilliant novellas is the Hurricane itself and its aftermath. "There's something to be said for a good no-nonsense hurricane to bully life back into perspective."  Ford refers to life's ever changing impacts all leading towards death; the final, permanent transition.  Far from being macabre, Ford's eloquent writing is dense with profound observations of life & love.  "Love isn't a thing, after all, but an endless series of single acts."  Frank's wife "views life as one thing leading naturally, intriguingly to another; whereas I {Frank} look at life in terms of failures survived."   To be perfectly honest "Let Me Be Frank With You," is a work of literary genius.  I recommend reading everything written by Richard Ford, including his afterword in "Let Me…" where he argues his prerogative to call upon his alter ego Frank.

THE HUSBAND'S SECRETS by Australian Chick Lit Author Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty (b. Australia 1966) is a best selling author of chick lit genre.  This book makes a plane ride fly by quickly. There is intrigue, an unsolved murder and infidelities.  The cunning plot has clever commentaries on marriage, family & relationships. The story begins when Cecilia, the married mother of 3 inadvertently finds an envelope written by her husband marked "to be opened only in the event of my death."  Cecilia questions her husband before opening the envelope which piques Cecelia's curiosity. She does what we want- reads the letter which opens a pandora box of pandemonium and evil.  Several interwoven plots are built together which come crumbling down; much like the Berlin wall.  One of Cecilia's daughter's is obsessed with learning about the Berlin wall.  The metaphor for putting up barriers are heavyhanded and the final deconstruction of events is less than gratifying.  But the (female) reader will be driven to read on to find out who done it and who will pay.  It's no mystery why this is a guilty pleasure but I have no interest in opening more Moriarty's novels.    

Jonathan Franzen's Novel PURITY is Not Worthy of Your Time

PURITY is Jonathan Franzen's most recent novel.  Franzen is a best selling author (FREEDOM) & received the Nat'l Bk Award for CORRECTIONS in '01.  Known for writing vivid,vile characters and capturing the current significant events of the time, Franzen's writing is recognizable in PURITY.  Despite creating repellant characters in these novels, they were also riveting.  However, the characters in PURITY are mentally unstable and incredulous.  Purity, "Pip" the central young heroine, does not have great expectations for her life.  She's managed to graduate college despite being raised by a single mom, living in impoverished squalor.  Laiden with huge student debt, Pip is at odds with what to make of her future.  Do not have great expectations for where the road will lead for Pip.  The intertwining storylines & characters provide an unadulterated mess of unrealistic twists & turns.  The ubiquitous use of the term purity is a sounding board for evil, insanity and obsession.   The extremely flawed characters make reading PURITY a pain.  Their relentless expectations & demands put Miss Havirsham to shame.  The big reveal is a big letdown.  PURITY is contaminated with the behaviors of the mentally deranged.  Pip does her best to rise above the fray.  I was dragged down in this plodding novel.  

AMERICAN SUBLIME-Pulitz Prize Nom. POETRY by Elizabeth Alexander

Elizabeth Alexander's "American Sublime" is remarkable collection of poems that form a stirring quartet of historical events, Afr-Amer history, contemporary artists and autobiographical reflections.  Her writing has a bluesy melancholy mode, a strong sense of pride and a dreamlike quality.  Alexander was chosen by Pres Obama to deliver a poem at his 1st inauguration, "Praise Song for the Day." I strongly urge reading both her inaugural poem and "Amer Sublime."  This poetry collection is an informative accounting of slavery and a tribute to poets, musicians, political activists and writers of the 20th/21stC.  The "Amistad" section outlines the mutinous rebellion of captive slaves from Sierra Leone aboard the Spanish ship in 1839, their amazing journeys and the historical judicial proceedings in our nation's early history.  The poem Cinque Redux is told in the 1st person by the leader of the rebellion.  "I will be venerated, I will be misremembered…violent acts will be committed in my name."  "I will not proudly sail the ship home….Many things are true at once."  "Amerian Blue"segment is a moving homage to influential artists, family members and those who left an indelible imprint on her life. "Tina Green" is a loving tribute to her teacher's kindness as well as the cruelty of her peers being the "only-black-girl- in-my class story."  Alexanders' gift of words addresses issues of race in a startling manner. I was expecially struck by "Approach:" "The dark creatures are seen to be seals,….some the dull gray of the guns our captors used to steal and corral us, some the brown-black of our brothers, mothers, and two milky blue-eyed albino pups.  Albino: the congenital absence of normal pigmentation.  Something gone amiss. Anomaly, aberration.  Her poem "Ode" is a poem that resonates with warmth for all women.  "I love all the mom bodies at this beach, the tummies, the one-piece suits, the bosoms that slope, the wide nice bottoms, thigh flesh shirred as gentle wind shirrs a pond"

A Little Life by H Yanagiharav is a Man Booker & Nat'l Bk Award Nominee Which Beats Me

"A Little Life" by Amer writer Hanya Yanagiharav (b. Amer 1975) received a Na'l Book Award & Man Booker nomination.  I think this novel is an abomination.  Jude St Francis is a horribly abused orphan. He's raised & molested in the church and his life goes from bad to worse.  Just thinking of the relentless sexual abuse, brutal beatings and torture this young man endured makes me want to hurl.  Why did I read this novel and in its entirety?  Good question.  And, why did it receive such prestigious recognition?  Maybe because it became addictive?  Jude's 1st tormentor, sexually molested him & coerced him to have sex with men for money.  He escapes the priest only to be enslaved by a depraved, brutal pervert.  There is a turning point.  This comes after he's found, having been left for dead.  His captor drove over Jude when he attempted to flee.  Miraculously (or incredulously) Jude matriculates into an Ivy League college.  He forms friendships for the 1st with his assigned roommates.  Redemption  from suffering is short lived.  The years of abuse turn into self-abuse. Jude incessantly cuts himself with razors & bashes himself against walls.  I HATED this relentless book.  Reading this was as painful as slicing my own wrists.  I must be somewhat of a masochist.  Take my advice, don't get started.

Nat'l Bk Nom. FATES and FURIES by Lauren Groff

FATES and FURIES is a dazzling literary novel that shimmers with the genius of Faulkner, Joyce &  Shakespeare while spinning a tale of a young, golden couple whose world is their oyster.  Mathilde and Lancelot (Lotto) are drawn together the moment their eyes lock the last week of college, They marry before graduation and remain a couple despite the outlandish odds.  To thine own self be true: "She never lied. Just never said."  How does a person truly know the another?  One is never sure where the storytelling is headed.  There are multiple narratives that break off into fissures that spin into the future, fold backwards and speak directly to the reader.  Groff's writing style is reason enough to appreciate why she received a Nat'l Book Award nomination.  Yet, there are many interesting & unexpected twists and reveals to keep you immersed in this tale.  There will be times when you will become overwhelmed or submerged in miasma .  FATES is laden with erudite literary references. Groff's creative writing places her among the elite.  What is the difference between tragedy & comedy?  "There's no difference. It's a question of perspective."

MY STORY, MY DANCE-Robert Battle's Journey to Alvin Ailey for Young Readers

MY STORY, MY DANCE is a beautifully illustrated & inspiring biography of Robert Battle, the Artistic Dir. for the world renown Alvin Ailey Amer Dance Theater.  Written & illustrated for young adults by the colloborative husband/wife team Les & James Ransome.  This is a moving account of Mr. Battle's amazing life story. Raised by loving family in FL, Robert was surrounded by caring adults. Despite requiring painful braces to straighten his legs and starting dance lessons at a late age, Mr. Battle pursued & persevered to achieve his dreams of dancing professionally. He was fortunate to have had a mentor in high school, Miss Munez, who lent her support & guidance to the very determined, hard working youngster.  She provided him with extensive training & the opportunities to see dance companies, including Ailey.  Robert's passion and dedication led to a scholarship to Julliard in NYC and to his illustrious career as both a dancer, choreographer and leader of the world famous Ailey Dance Co.  HIS STORY is a story hope, hard work and following one's dreams.  HIS STORY is also a story of love, support and grace that special people bring to the lives of others.  

The COURAGE of THEIR CONVICTIONS by Peter Irons (Non-F)

Peter Irons account of 16 courageous & determined Americans that fought their way to the Superior Court should be mandatory reading as a means to instill a sense of justice & inspire us all to take a staunch stand to see that justice is severed.  First published in 1988, the cases are monumental.  Their impacts are felt in our daily lives.  The cases involve a Japanese American in WA who fought against internment in WWII, Brown v. the Board of Education & its enforcement in AK, a case in MD in the 1960's involving a non-violent protest at a segregated lunch counter, the Scopes trial case   Who are the individuals at the heart of the cases?  What did they have to endure?  What stirred them to take a stand?  What was their experience like and how did they maintain their tenacity?  Irons cover major cases of the 20th C which help lay the groundwork for social justice.  Iron's let's the individual tell their stories and this is what makes this historic American civil liberties book so reviting and so inspiring.  Most importantly, there is a never ending need to fight to maintain our civil liberties.  As Americans we do a court of law to maintain order & justice but the onus is on the individual, and it does come down to courageous individuals with convictions.  Current case in point right now in Yaphank, NY, homeowners learn they are only allowed to sell their homes to buyers of German heritage and their neighbors are required to sponsor the buyers.  The "Rasin in the Sun" case  from 1945, "Shelly v. Louis Kraemer fighting a restrictive racial covenant from 1911 in MO is presented in this book.

MARS and VENUS IN TOUCH by John Gray-Touche But No Big Hooray

John Gray, Ph.d. is a certified family therapist and best selling author.  He is probably best known for his multi-million selling book "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus." I never read his other books but my guess is that they are all probably a rehash of what we all probably knew in the first place.  Gray subtitles this book "Enhancing the Passion with Great Communication."  I will be succinct  and reiterate the 2 main take away skills you probably already knew but may need to review:
1.  Make a point of making time to talk & listen.
2.  Make a point of not talking to the other at a time that is not suitable.
Wow, enlightenment and not entitlement meant to keep the home fires burning.  Here's my take, don't bother reading the book.  Just don't bother your spouse when they're not available to devote their utmost attention.  Here's my advice:  Ladies, let your girlfriends be your sounding boards & stop prattling in your partner's ear.  Gentlemen, give your ladies your attention and allow us to know how much retention time we have.  (Ladies, a lot less than we would like - so learn to be succinct.)

Canadian Author Miriam Toews' Novel ALL MY PUNY SORROWS is Soused in Despair

Miriam Toews (b. Canada) is a writer of stunning depth & intelligence.  She has received numerous literary awards including the Gov General's Award for Fiction.  ALL MY PUNY SORROWS is the story of 2 very devoted sisters, Yolandi (Yoli) the younger sibling to Elfried (Elf) the piano prodigy.  They are raised in a small religious Mennonite community where free expression & willfulness are discouraged.  Nevertheless, Elf thrives as an int'l concert pianist until she is overrun with despair & attempts to take her own life. Their father committed suicide when the girls were young.  Now as a married woman with a highly regarded performance career, Elf wants to end her sorrowful life.  Elf tries to enlist her sister in her desire to travel to Switzerland where euthanasia is legal.  "She wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other."  Toews' staggering writing illuminates the anguishes of loving, particularily when your loved one chooses death over life.  "It sounded naive to me now and selfish and fearful to say you must live, you must want to live, you have to live.  That's your one imperative, the single rule of the universe."  Oftentimes oppressive, this brilliant  & heartfelt novel is suffused with love. There are strong familial bonds & joys derived from friendship and parenthood.  The novel examines the compassion & wisdom derived from grief and knowing the release of grief is also mourning.  This brave & disturbing novel is "about the grace you require in order to accept the gift of life."  

A GIRL is a HALF-FORMED THING-Totally Brilliant by British Author E McBride

Eimear McBride (b. Britian 1976) to Irish parents has written a 1st novel that is shattering in its ingenious literary style and an excruciating painful tale.  One of the most acclaimed novels of 2014, A GIRL…won the Inaugural Goldsmith Prize, the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, the Kerry Gray Irish Fiction Award and numerous others honors bestowed on this heartbreakingly written story told from the 1st person of an Irish girl, who remains nameless and gives voice to her relgious fearing mother, her mentally challenged older, beloved brother and the uncle who sexually abuses her starting at age 13.  Girl is a free spirit set adrift seeking refuge and love wherever she may find it.  "Who I am. And I'm from someplace so much littler than this. Redneck culchi. Backward. Farmyard. I am all these things…Come don't hate me…New girl stinks."  Unfortunately, this vulnerability leads her down a path where sexual promiscuity, alcohol & drug abuse serve as escape and relief.  She dearly loves her older brother.  His cancer surgery resulted in brain damage.  She serves as his protector while absorbing all the shame and abuse aimed at him.  Her single working mother is emotionally crazed, cold-hearted and directs all her energy towards religious fervor.  McBride's  unique voice puts us inside the young girl's head and establishes the disturbing events as they unfold.  This is a harsh coming of age story for a girl with few options, no guidance and abuse misinterpreted as kindness. It is about grief, pain and religious hypocrisy.  McBride's eloquence puts her in the literary circle of Joyce & O'Brien with her own contemporary sensibility.  A GIRL is a HALF-FORMED THING is a ferocious, virtuoso debut heralding in a stunning voice in literary fiction.    

An UNNECESSARY WOMAN-An Essential Esoteric Novel by Lebanese Writer R Alameddine

Rabih Alameddine's brilliant bibliophile's gift & Nat'l Bk Award winning novel AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN is essentially a hybrid of literary genius, historical fiction, and an ode to art's ability to transcend humanity.   Alameddine (b. Jordan 1955) makes both Beirut & San Francisco home.  The  novel is set in Beirut.  The heroine, Aaliya, ("highest, most exalted) is a misanthropic, auto-didactic, voracious reader & translator of translated literary works into Arabic.  Her self-imposed rules for translating and monastic lifestyle render her affable, laughable and infuriating. "I am alone. It is a choice I've made, yet it is also a choice with few other options available. Beiruti society wasn't fond of divorced, childless women…"  Aaliya has deep love for her country and contempt for its backwards misogynistic mentality and penchant for military confrontation.  Her hatred for Israel is clear. She faults  Israel for constantly "retaliating-excessively, as has always been her won't." Still, she maintains the highest esteem for many Jewish writers.  Homage is made to many of the worlds' greatest artists, composers, musicians and writers.   The most exalted praise is reserved for Chopin, Matisse and Tolstoy. It's not true to claim Aaliya was without a beloved ally.  Sadly, "Hannah reappears in my memories to remind me of how alone I am, how utterly inconsequential my life has become."  It's also disingenuous to describe this as morose meanderings.  This miraculous masterpiece is a testament for  availing oneself to friendship and opportunities.        

THE REASON I JUMP-A 13 yr. Old with Autism Explains His World

THE REASON I JUMP is an incredible insight into what it feels like to live with autism.  Written by 13 year old Naoki Higashida it is a triumph of eloquence & empathy and nothing short of miraculous.  Naoki insightful and inspiring responses to questions regarding behavioral traits are astonishing.  His prose is remarkable for its literary skill.  This is a book that can be read in one sitting and should be shared with everyone.  There are so many reasons to recommend this testament to humanity, compassion, patience and understanding.  Naoki's answer to what's the worst thing about having autism is nothing short of humbling "Whenever we've done something wrong, we get told off or laughed at, without even being able to apologize, and we end up hating ourselves and despairing about our own lives…It's impossible not to wonder why we were born into this world…But I ask you, those of you who are with us all day not to stress yourselves out because of us. When you do this, it feels as if you're denying any value at all that our lives may have-and that saps the spirit we need to soldier on. The hardest ordeal for us is the idea that we are causing grief for other people."  The judiciousness with which Naoki shares his feelings leaves an indelible mark, "Everybody has a heart that can be touched by something."    

10 Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew-Every Adult Needs to Read This

TEN THINGS EVERY CHILD With AUTISM WISHES YOU KNEW is an eye opening and heart melting book that is cogent, compelling and powerful.  Author, Ellen Nothbohm is a parent of 2 sons with autism and an award winning writer.  Nothbohm shares her personal experiences, trials & triumphs.  Even more enlightening are her insights into how children with autism are experiencing & interacting with their surroundings.  Startling statistics reveal that 1 in 68 children born today will be somewhere on the autistic spectrum.  This is up 30% from just 2 years prior.  It is highly likely that you, a family member or someone you know has a child with autism.  The compassionate understanding & perspective that Nothbohm shares is both thoughtful and extremely helpful. It is never preachy but it is a wise lesson in empathy.  TEN THINGS EVERY CHILD…is tremendously beneficial for everyone who interacts with children (which should be everyone.)   I recommend this fascinating find which reminds us "Like all kids, they need time to just be kids."  

Maya Angelou's MOM and ME and MOM-Her Last Great Work of LOVE

Maya Angelou's many awards & well deserved accolades include the Nat'l Medal of the Arts, Medal of Freedom, Pulitz Prize nom., Tony nom. and 3 Grammys.  This exceptional auto-bio is her loving tribute to her mother is her last published work before she passed away in 2014.  It also paints herself as a wonderful role model as both a daughter and mother.  Angelou's literary legacy is well known.  Her many other artistic gifts are revealed in her modest and moving life narrative.  She was a nightclub performer, a scintillating dancer, a Calypso singer and screenwriter.  Her life intersected with talented musicians, writers and dancers prior to her own illustrious career as a writer:  Leontyne Price, Cab Calloway and Langston Hughes to name a few.  Her early childhood was marred by rape and a 10 year separation from her mother, Vivian Baxter.  Maya & her brother Bailey, with whom she shared a lifelong, loving bond, were sent to AK from CA to life with their paternal grandmother.  The reunion between mother & daughter was tentative. Vivian was a maverick, an entrepreneur and colorful, indomitable force of nature.  Vivian taught her daughter to feel confident and omnipotent.  She also  packed heat (for backup.)  Maya was 17 when she gave birth to her only child, Guy, whom she raised as a single parent.  MOM and ME and MOM is an uplifting and inspiring homage of motherhood. Angelou writes in her graceful & insightful style what she felt from her mother's love "in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap.  She stands between the unknown and the known…my mother shed her protective love down around me and without knowing why people sensed that I had value."  Vivian told her daughter often, "I love you and I am proud of you.  With those two things, you can go anywhere and everywhere."

Harper Lee's GO SET a WATCHMAN-Prompts Imperative Social Discussion

GO SET a WATCHMAN is the most anticipated prequel/sequel for Lee's TO KILL a MOCKINGBIRD.  TO KILL… was declared the best novel of the 20thC (by the Library Journal '99.) Lee has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Pres. Medal of Freedom, the Nat'l Medal of Arts and numerous literary & humanitarian honors.  GO read GO SET a WATCHMAN because it is an accurate account of our country's systemic racism. This prescient issue is pervasive and must be divulged, discussed & dismantled.  Lee's new novel is set 2 decades later. Scout, now referred to as Jean Louise, returns home to AL from NYC where she has been living.  Atticus Finch, the literary beacon of justice and honor is older but surprisingly not wiser. We along with Jean Louise are appalled to discover Atticus' segregationist & racist views.  Scout had always regarded her beloved father as a pillar of justice. Her rude awakening to the shared views of her father, family & white society leaves Jean Louise dislodged "Everything I have ever taken for right & wrong these people have taught me-these same these very people.  So it's me, it's not them. Something has happened to me."  Jean Louise absent for the past years has distanced her to the offensive, prevailing sentiments she held and confused by her affections for Calpurnia who helped raised her"…nobody in Maycomb goes to see Negroes any more, not after what they've been doing to us. Besides being shiftless, now they look at you sometimes with open insolence, and as far as depending on them goes, why that's out," explains her aunt.  Her uncle informs her that Reconstruction only resulted in banning slavery. "The people became no less than what they were to begin with-in some cases they became horrifyingly more…up popped the ugliest, most shameful aspect of it all-the breed of white man who lived in open economic competition with freed Negroes."  Harper Lee' GO SET…may not be as popular or lauded as her other novel but it is just as important as a reflection of past & our present.  The novel is a watchman "to draw a line down the middle and say here is this justice and there is that justice and make {us} understand the difference."

John Green's LOOKING for ALASKA-Finds Similar Ground from His Other Novels

John Green is a NYT's best selling author in the young adult (Y/A) genre.  Green finds fault with this classification.  He has been awarded the Michael Printz award for LOOKING for ALASKA and the Edgar Award for PAPER TOWNS.  Both PAPER TOWNS & The FAULT in OUR STARS have been made into popular movies.  And, both these 2 novels have similar material found in LOOKING for ALASKA.  Alas, it is legal to self-plagarize but it serves to ward off reading multiple Green's coming of age, buddy bonding, prank pulling, 1st sexual experience and infatuation books. (My recommendation is The Fault in OUR STARS.)  In LOOKING for ALASKA, Miles (Pudge) heads to boarding school where his ho-hum existence goes through a major metamorphosis,"for the 1st time in {his} life-the fear & excitement of living in a place where {he} never know{s} what's going to happen or when."  The reader knows Pudge is in for the time of his life with both epiphanies and tragedy.  Green's talent lies in his ability to capture the essence of teen temperament & temptation.  His Y/A writing rises above the genre with literary, philosophical lessons camouflaged within high school raucous.  LOOKING for ALASKA pays homage to literary giants Green obviously admires.  Religious studies are covered in the guise of Miles' religious studies course (of course.)  Green was a divinity student.  Miles grapples with questions of life's meanings & an after-life while studying Buddhist, Muslim and Christianity view points.  I suggest seeking enlightenment elsewhere.    

Winner Amer. Historical Fiction-The PERSONAL HISTORY of RACHEL DuPREE

Ann Weisgarber's award winning novel The PERSONAL HISTORY of RACHEL DuPREE tells the riveting tale of the little known subject of black frontiers who staked claims out west at the turn of the 20thC.  It is a fascinating amalgamation of Stagner's ANGEL of REPOSE, Sinclair's The JUNGLE, Wilkerson's The WARMTH of OTHER SUNS and Baldwin's The FIRE NEXT TIME.  It NEEDS to be included in our school's syllabus along with the afore mentioned works.  Added to this required reading should be historic accounts of the monstrosities inflicted on our Native American Indians.  The PERSONAL HISTORY…is the remarkable story of Rachel, a black woman working in a black boarding house in Chicago. The men all work in the city's infamous slaughterhouses.  Rachel's family were among the many black families who migrated to the big cities seeking a better life. "Whitemen were hanging Negroes…kicking down doors telling people to get out of town and then setting fire to their houses."  Rachel meets Isaac, the son of the black boarding house owner.  Isaac's mother has plans for her son Isaac that do NOT entail him marrying the too dark, uneducated Rachel from a lower working class family.  Isaac's own driving plan is to gain as much land as possible under the Homestead Act signed by Pres Lincoln in 1862.  The Homestead Act allotted land claims to anyone, male/female, former slave - all except those who fought for the Confederacy.  The entire novel is an absorbing & compelling history lesson woven into a riveting tale of hardships in the barren S Dakota badlands within a troubled marriage. The informed lessons delivered without preaching depict the  destructive, hateful prejudices & injustices pervasive throughout our nation's history. "Some people carry hate, looks like.  They don't need a reason to hurt somebody."  The vital insights gleamed from this brilliant anthology is of humanity and compassion.  

The Rosie Effect the Sequel to The Rosie Project is Affectively Substandard

Graeme Simsion's award winning novel THE ROSIE PROJECT of a oddly affecting intellectual, Don, and his quest for a suitable mate was a winning wealth of warmth & wit.  Having found love with the formidable Rosie, a beautiful, intelligent, independent free spirit, Don & Rosie get married, move to  NYC and are expecting their 1st child.  The curious & endearing characteristics that makes Don so likable still prove amazing & admirable (to most) and incredibly irritating & dysfunctional to those who fail to grasp the spectrum of Don's immense capabilities & capacities for compassion.  Rosie who fell in love with Don for all his strengths & oddities is now finding these traits do no suit her in a mate & co-parent. The overall tone of THE ROSIE EFFECT is grating.  Why would Rosie chose to terminate their marriage prior to BUD's birth (body under development?)  Why have Rosie's affections wandered?  Are we to conjecture her feelings may lie with Gene, the womanizing machine.  He has left his wife, moved from New Zealand & ingratiated himself into Rosie/Don's lives and apartment?  Still, there are new individuals who had to the quixotic cocktail of increasing friendships adding a delightful stir to the mix.  Unfortunately, there are also lascivious men and mendacious women; Lydia a cruel psychologist & a misanthropic lesbian researcher with a chip on her shoulder. The novel does speak to impact of what we say to one another.  The spreadsheet here proves the downers more potent than the warmth found in THE ROSIE PROJECT which I enjoyed.  Overall, THE ROSIE EFFECT is disappointing and disheartening.

Andy Weir's THE MARTIAN soon to be Major Motion Picture with Matt Damon

The MARTIAN is a 1st novel by Andy Weir that is out of this world amazing; soon to be released on the big screen starring Matt Damon.  Weir's novel has won him the well deserved Good Reads Choice Award for Best Sci-Fi.  I am fond of the science fiction genre.  For those who shy from sci-fi, this should steer you back on course for enjoying this remarkable literary art form that does service to creativity and humanity.  Astronaut Mark Watney is part of a crew that is 1st to land on Mars.  He's  abandoned on Mars, presumed dead by his crew and will most likely become the 1st to die on this  forsaken planet.  Watney is a modern day Robinson Crusoe or Chuck Noland from the film "Cast Away."  All 3 men are marooned on inhabited territory and must fend for themselves for survival.  Watney is alone, "where no man has gone before."  Watney like his fellow fictitious heroes is resourceful, committed to survival and finds that living alone is hell (as is 70's disco.) "It hit me…I am completely alone here…there's a difference between knowing it and really experiencing it."  Mark Whatney's ingenuity is insurmountable as is his optimism and sense of humor.  He is one of the most likable and entertaining characters I have ever discovered.  This survival novel is airtight with inventiveness and astute observations on human nature. "Every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It may not seem that way at times, but it's true…in every culture."  Some of the physics and mathematics soared over my head. (Hopefully it may peek interest to study science, math &  physics.)   The joy from reading this novel sticks like invincible duck tape.  Don't miscalculate the immense pleasures unearthed in this ingenious & hilarious novel.  Plan A - recommend this novel, Plan B - be among the 1st to see this film blast into theaters.

Man Booker Prize Winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North by R. Flanagan

This year's Book Prize was awarded Richard Flanagan's novel.  THE NARROW ROAD.. is a  disturbingly graphic account of Australians in Japanese POW camps and a sappy love story.  The dichotomy doesn't work. We follow Dr. Dorrigo Evans from childhood to his senior years; in a nonlinear timeline.  He proves himself a man of strength & leadership during the Hellish years held captive by the Japanese during WWII.   But, on the home front, he is an unloving husband & absent father.  Dorrigo desires only what he can't have; Amy, his uncle's wife.  Amy may have been the love & pinnacle of his life. Their relationship reads like a soap opera.  His philandering & his facade of congeniality are at odds with his heroism endured under the barbaric treatment of POW's.  The book felt written by 2 authors.  One writer captured the terror & Hell of war from both the allies & enemies viewpoints.  The other writer wrote a melodramatic made for TV movie about a torrid affair & unrequited love.  There were stirring & poetic observations on being held prisoner, "Because courage, survival, love-all these things didn't live in one man.  They lived in them all or they died and everyman with them; they had to come to believe that to abandon one man was to abandon themselves."  And, the silly love story took a diametrical perspective, "One man's feeling is not always equal to all life is. Sometimes it's not equal to anything much at all."  Sometimes this novel was a masterpiece of elegance & power and sometimes maudlin drivel.  I narrowly give this a thumbs up and a thumbs pointing south on receiving the Man Booker Prize.  

Langston Huges' NOT WITHOUT LAUGHTER-Do NOT go WITHOUT Reading this Literary Masterpiece

Langston Hughes (b. Amer  1902-67) was a a brilliant novelist & poet, playwright, jazz innovator and a strong advocate for social justice.  NOT WITHOUT LAUGHTER is considered is his finest prose written in the dialect of the time.  It addresses a shameful epoch in our history from slavery, to segregation, Jim Crow south and racial suppression.  The genius of Hughes writing in is the voice of its young, central character Sandy. Sandy is born & raised in a small Kansas town into a household of women; mother, 2 aunts & his hard working grandmother, Haeger who lived as a slave. His feckless father Jimboy is a rare presence in his life.  Through Sandy's young eyes and maturing years we feel his growing sensitivity to the disparities between between blacks & whites. Sandy continually confronts imposed barriers and relentless humiliations.  The social hierarchy within the black community is also noted. We feel the crushing indignity and helplessness of Sandy & his friends when barred from the town carnival.  Aunt Harriet makes her feelings towards whites clear, "It don't matter to them if we're shut out of a job. It don't matter to them if niggers have only the back row at the movies. It don't matter to them when they hurt our feelings without caring and treat us like slaves down South and like beggars up North.  No it don't matter to them…White folks run the world…O, I hate em."  Hughes' prose captures life in the early 20th C; its heartaches & joys.  Haeger, once a slave, has the most powerful message "Honey, there ain't no room in de world fo' hate, white folks hatin' niggers, an' niggers hatin' white folks. There ain't no room in this world for nothin' but love, Sandy child. That's all they's room fo'-nothin' but love."  NOT WITHOUT LAUGHTER is a masterpiece.  It should be read alongside Twain & Ellison in schools.  This work of genius must not be overlooked.

Story Collection ALMOST FAMOUS WOMEN by Megan Bergman

ALMOST FAMOUS WOMEN is a short story collection of real women who lived in the 1st 1/2 of the 20th C in Europe & Amer.  While the historic central female in all Bergman's stories existed, they were less consequential than their more famous relative or lover.  Being in the parameters of fame lends an interesting perspective which is woven into intriguing fictitious tales.  The stories also shed light dark epochs in history:  WWI Europe & the south during Jim Crow era. This is Bergman's 2nd book of short stories.  Her debut collection BIRDS of PARADISE was honored in the Best Amer. Short Story Collection of 2011.  Her clear & courageous writing creates memorable characters.  These women are touching, tenacious, somber and mavericks for their time. We gleam something of Edna Vincent Millay's genius and austere upbringing through her b'wy actress sister Norma.  A moving tale of selfless love is framed around Lord Byron's illegitimate daughter Allegra. Byron relinquished her to a nunnery at age 4 where she soon died.  Oscar Wilde's niece, Dolly Wilde, was an ambulance drivers in WWI whose life was shattered by her war experiences.  My favorite story "Saving Butterfly McQueen," was about the actress who played Vivien Leigh's squeamish maid in GONE WITH the WIND.  She was a staunch atheist and maintained her stance amongst religious zealots in the bible belt south.  "The Internees" is a poignant story about the women liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp which speaks for women & humanity.  The British soldiers opened a box of lipstick "and threw tubes of lipstick at the crowd, and we wanted it-we were surprised how badly we wanted it. We had pink wax on our rotten teeth.  We were human again. We were women."  

Ian McEwan's THE CHILDREN ACT, Another Crowning Achievement

British novelist & screenwriter Ian McEwan has received the Man Booker Prize (Amsterdam) & Oscar for (Atonement.)  He is regarded among England's most distinguished and popular contemporary writers.  His novels all vary but share his masterful & powerful writing.  In THE CHILDREN ACT, we follow Fiona Maye, a High Court judge presiding over family matters; divorces and children's welfares.  Fiona is a complex & brilliant woman.  She maintains an objectivity considering multi-points of view and brings "reasonableness to hopeless situations."  The cases she presides over are fascinating.  I compare her wisdom to King Solomon.  Not surprisingly several  prominent cases involve religious convictions and children's welfare.  In one case, a 17 yr. old has refused a life-saving blood transfusion. Fiona must determine if this is due to his parents' religious beliefs, his own and whether he can assess the consequences. McEwan calls out "doctrines of religious cult" for which children suffer or "become pointless martyr{s}." Fiona is contemplating her cases while simultaneously embroiled in marital conflict; a philandering husband.  She wonders what drives 1 partner to choose "…a younger wife, a richer or less boring husband, a different suburb, fresh sex, fresh love, a new worldview, a nice start before it's too late?  Mere pursuit of pleasure?  Moral kitsch."  I felt the overemotional ending mitigated an otherwise brilliant novel. However, McEwan's insightful views into religion, relationships & morality are commendable. The judgement resides with McEwan and I rule in favor of reading THE CHILDREN ACT.        

Dept. of Speculation- Is a Spectacular Novel

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill is novel about a wife, her husband, her daughter and turmoils in their marriage.  Without a doubt, this delightful atypical novel is anything but banal. The artful writing is interlaced with poetry, philosophy and psychiatry tidbits.  It is engaging throughout.  Despite surmising the trials & tribulations between the wife & husband, the plot is infused with delightful art & wisdom that are surprising and appealing.  Offill's novel was shortlisted for the Best of 2014 by the NYT Book Review. The main characters are only referred to as wife & husband.  Friends, family & associates remain nameless and denoted simply: the philosopher, the sister, ex-boyfriend etc.  The universal woes of love, marriage, family are presented in a quixotic style that is beguiling. Wife refers to  poets, scientists & Zen masters alike. "Darwin theorized that there was something left over after sexual attractiveness had served its purpose.  This he called beauty and thought it might be what drives the human animal to make art."  "Zen master Ikkyu was once asked to write a distillation of the highest wisdom.  He wrote only one word:  Attention.  The visitor was displeased.  "Is that all?"  So Ikkyu obliged him.  Two words now, Attention.  Attention."  Dept. of Speculation is jammed with pathos, philosophy & delights.  There's no question why this book was noted among the 10 best of 2014.  My suggestion - read this sensational book.

Peter Godwin's Memoir of Life in Zimbabwe WHEN a CROCODILE EATS the SUN

Peter Godwin (b. S. Rhodesia 1957) is a journalist, war correspondent, contributor to the NYT & VANITY FAIR has written his memoir that spans the turbulent and violent years in  Zimbabwe under the bloody & corrupt rule of Robert Mugabe.  Godwin's family are among the minority population of white European colonists that settled in Rhodesia after WWII.  Having studied in England & having lived abroad his accounts are told through the lens of a journalist filtered with feelings for his family, home and white minority demographics.  Godwin puts his reporting into perspective "I only describe, criticize, review - I am not really a doer."  He also registers how his "little tribe of white Africans are being viewed by foreigners. "I  realize it is pity…I feel embarrassed, humiliated mortified.  I am not used to being the one pitied. I am the one who pities others."  When the civil war against white rule broke out he served in the security forces. "I was fighting on the wrong side of a losing war."  Peace was declared in 1979 and Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.  Dreams of a multi-racial, harmonious nation were demolished under 3 decades of escalating violent racial conflicts and Mugabe's oppressive, bloody rule.  Around the millenial years, white farm owners were killed; their lands appropriated.  (In 2003, J.M. Coetze won the Nobel Prize in Lit. for Disgrace about the horrific uprisings.)  Agricultural growth suffered as did the population from food shortages, rising unemployment; rampant AIDS epidemic and disease.  Still, Godwin's incisive & haunting memoir is a tour de force of account of personal & historic events written with elegance a & familial bond that makes the devastating events digestible.  In 2000, there were 2 solar eclipses.  African tribal legend has it that an eclipse of the sun occurs when a crocodile eats it.  It is the most alarming omen of furor resulting from mankind's behaviors.

Dave King's 1st Novel THE HA-HA Has Many Touching AH HAH Moments

King's THE HA-HA has been awarded the Quill's Fdtn. Best Debut Novel.  It is a very touching & affecting novel the speaks directly to the heart.  It's protagonist, Harold, a Viet Nam Vet., lost the ability to communicate verbally from a severe head injury that nearly killed him a few weeks into his tour of duty.  Physical therapy restored his strength & mobility.  He sustained a grotesque disfigurement to his skull and speech therapy was unsuccessful.  His guttural gruntings and physique created a barrier between himself & most people.  Harold displays a card stating he is of normal intelligence but unable to speak which is a source of humiliation. "I'd have loved more people if I hadn't been injured." Ha-ha is defined as a landscape design element that sets up a barrier while permitting views. Our protagonist, works as a gardener for a nunnery. He is cut off from others. Yet, we experience & empathize with everything he feels & thinks.  I thought of him as a kind, misunderstood character similar to the hunchback of Notre Dame. Harold's only romantic link was to Sylvia from high school. Sylvia is deceivingly self-centered & self-destructive. She uses Harold and he is at her beck & call.  She's headed to drug rehab & asks Harold to care for her 9 yr. old son, Ryan, on a moments notice for an indeterminate amount of time. Their growing connection causes Harold to feel "Something has shifted, and one more something has switched open within me."  King has written a winning novel about human connection, unrequited love, kindness & cruelty.  Harold is an unforgettable character.  He  learns "…to choose this life more than {he} thought. " THE HA-HA is a powerful testament to the healing power of human contact and the collateral toll of war.  

R Denfeld's ENCHANTED a Spellbinding Tale of Prison & Redemption

Rene Denfield is a journalist and int'l best selling author of Non-Fiction  (The New Victorians.)  ENCHANTED is her 1st novel which has been nominated for the Flaherty-Dunnan Prize.  I drew comparison with Emma Donague's novel ROOM ('10) a Man Booker Finalist.  Both darkly beautiful novels deal with imprisonment.  In ROOM the 5 year old narrator is being held captive with his mother who transforms their Hellish confinement into a sanctuary of love & wonderment.  ENCHANTED is told by an inmate on death row who escapes his forsaken lifes by reading & enshrouding himself in an imagined fantasy world.  The inmate's name is revealed only at the end.  The mute prisoner painstakingly reveals his life story.  Born to a mentally impaired mother unable to care for him, they both become prey to relentless, sexual abuse.  He becomes a ward of the state at 9 and placed in mental health institutions until he turned 18.  He is set free with no one to turn to or any understanding of how to cope in the outside world.  Still, "There are some acts that defy redemption or rage. We all just want to close our eyes to them and forget."  ENCHANTED is a mesmerizing story of the tortuous abyss of prison life. There are caring individuals working inside that provide comfort for the inmates while coping with their own grief.  "Even monsters need a person who truly wants to listen- to hear."  Their stories are as compelling as Arden's.  They provide hope, humanity and the pull of life.

Sue Miller's The ARSONIST is rubbish

Amer. novelist Sue Miller is a best selling author.  Her novel WHILE I WAS GONE was an Oprah Pick and two of her earliest novelist made into films.  I think that Miller's earlier works such as FAMILY PICTURES or THE WORLD BELOW were intelligent, beautifully written novels.  In other words, I feel her writing has gone downhill, way below the quality of her earlier novels.  THE SENATOR'S WIFE which came out in '08 was a disappointing, soap operish novel of infidelity within political circles which felt dated.  THE ARSONIST is a contemporary love story set in a small town between Bud and Frankie.  Frankie is the female protagonist. She has been an aid worker in worn torn countries in Africa and meets Bud on her return to her family home in a small New England Town.  Bud has taken over the local paper after leaving his political reporting job in D.C. to live a life in the bedrock of a small community.  Frankie has always wanted more than her provincial life and strains against the ties that bind.  The banal happenings in this quaint town take a combustible turn as an arsonist begins burning down local homes.  Miller touches lightly on several hot topics: world hunger, social divides, misognystic attitudes, and senility.  These all flammable topics that get mired in the unresolved mystery of the arsonist.  It also gets watered down by the silly dilemma of Frankie's torment:   "Even if she'd found a way to lead a life big enough for her here…she couldn't stay. She couldn't make Bud her life."  The ARSONIST didn't kindle any substantive interest.  Her promising earlier novels are worth your time but this latest work has burned bridges for the future.

Kent Haruf's last work OUR SOULS at NIGHT

OUR SOULS at NIGHT is aptly named.  The novel by award winning novelist Kent Haruf (PLAIN SONG) is being posthumously published. The title refers to liberating oneself from convention and pursuing our heart's desires.  Haruf wrote this tender love story knowing it would be the last novel he would complete before dying of cancer.  His simple, clear prose is perfect for the purity of the love that blossoms late in life for two septuagenarians; Addie & Louis.  We become attached to these warm individuals and empathize with their contemplative reckonings.  Addie gets the gumption to approach a neighbor whom she barely knows with an unusual proposal. ("People can do the unexpected.") Addie asks Louis to share her bed at night for a platonic, comforting companionship.  Louis though taken aback, admires her courage, honesty and her ability to live without concern for what others think.  "I don't want to live like that anymore-for other people, what they think, what they believe.  I don't think it's the way to live."   Louis agrees and their soul baring pillow talk leads to richer lives.  Still, there are nay sayers among family and local gossips.  Louis tells Addie "You have been good for me.  What more could anyone ask for?  I'm a better person than I was before we got together." I commend Haruf's charming and inspiring swan song.    

John Green's PAPER TOWN is Worth Reading

PAPER TOWN is a literary Y/A novel by the best selling author John Green (The FAULT in OUR STARS.)  FAULT dealt with young star crossed lovers and paid homage to Shakespear.  PAPER TOWN is also about high school students and a seemingly unrequited love story between the femme fatale hottie and boy next door; several stratas lower on the high school social hierarchy.  Green's crafty storytelling weaves Whitman's poetry and legendary jazz & country music mostly unknown to todays'  teens  Light is also shed on the impetuous behaviors oblivious to today's parents.  Margo, is anything but your typical teen.  Besides being unbelievably gorgeous, she's an enigma whose escapades are legendary.  She also has a history of running away from home.  Margo easily persuades Quentin to be her driver on an all night mission impossible adventure.  Quentin barely gets him before he's roused for school.  At school, Quentin meets up with his 2 best buds but Margo is a no show & remains missing.  Margo is 18 and her parents fed up with her antics, change the locks on their home.  When she doesn't return days later, Quentin & his amigos go on a madcap road trip pursuing her esoteric clues in hopes of finding her.  The movie PAPER TOWN is soon to follow.  The novel pursues a lengthy trail that gets wearisome but is well worth reading for its many charms & youthful exuberance.

Nick Hornby's Funny Lady-Not Funny, Fresh Or Entertaining

British novelist Nick Hornby is a best selling author.  His acclaimed works ABOUT a BOY & HIGH FIDELITY were both made into successful movies.  FUNNY LADY is a departure from his other comedic novels.  In his current novel, Hornby is more ambitious in scope.  The novel traces the origins of British comedy & political norms from the 1960's to the present.  Hornby outlines how & what conventions were shattered.  This is admirable, however, the novel reads more like a thesis regarding  groundbreaking television sitcoms once considered shocking and now appear merely tame or lame.  Also noted are politcal changes involving homosexuality, women's rights, class system and racial integration.  Funny Lady refers to Barbara who in the early 60's knew she wanted more than her provincial life. Through  spunk & hard work, she made a name for herself in entertainment. While references are made to I LOVE LUCY, it brought to mind the Dick Van Dyke show. Barbara like Rose Marie were the only females contribuing to a comedy show. I was also reminded of Archie Bunker, the lovable working class bigot.  "The BBC believed that comedy was the enemy."  Hornby has documented a pivotal epoch that today no longer shocks.  The novel has historic intellectual roughage but is lacking in delightful enjoyment.      

STATION ELEVEN is a Nat'l Bk Winner that Scores a 10

Canadian author Emily Mandel's literary, apocalyptic sic-fi novel is an extraordinary depiction of the not too distant apocalyptic future.  Mankind nearly becomes extinct from a contagious, deadly virus.  Wait, there's so much more to this well crafted doomsday tale of survival with civilization razed as we know it.  Much of the story is told in flashbacks to the time before "ground zero" when 99% of the population becomes annihilated.  The motley cast of characters are all craftily connected to Athur, a famous actor.  Arthur dies of a stroke on stage performing King Lear, hours before the grim reaper waves it's scythe worldwide and just moments after reconciling with people he cherishes.  Mandel yarns an artistic story with characters we're invested in knowing.  Her novel is a credible consideration of what life might become for the few survivors.   This is an interesting, philosophical ponderance of what would become valued by the individual & society. What is lost in the collapse and what remains of great beauty from the sweetness of earth?  I was reminded of the many miracles taken for granted that persist all around and of companionships that make life bearable.  This brilliant novel pays homage to art, music, Shakespeare and Star Trek; "Survival is insufficient."

MONSTERS-Award Winning Y/A Novel by Walter Dean Myers-a Teen on Trial for Murder

Walter Dean Myers is a highly recognized writer of Y/A novels that have earned him numerous awards.  MONSTERS received the 1st the Michael L Printz Award.  He is also a Nat'l Book Finalist.  Steve Harmon is a frightened, young teen imprisioned, on trial as an accessory to murder.  The reader, along with Steve tries to come to grips with what's happening. How did he wind up in prison on trial for murder?  How does he cope with his hellish imprisonment? What will his life become if found guilty?  Myers portrays Steve as an impressionable, likable teen who is facing serious time behind bars, "Here I am, maybe on the verge of losing my life or the life I used to have."  The reader empathizes deeply for Steve,"I'm a human being.  I want a life too!" Still, there remains reasonable doubt as to his culpability.  That doubt depicts the beastiality within all of us to form biases & tp prejudge. "The jury believed you were guilty the momet they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?" MONSTERS is a compelling court room drama told with great poignancy. Steve narrates in film script format as a coping mechanism.  This tecnique distances the reader permitting Steve's nightmare be viewed as entertainment.  MONSTERS is a deeply stirring novel illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers.  I am left with powerful conflicitng emotions of relief & guilt.  

The novel LANDLINE-Not a novel ideal; Sappy Crappy Back to the Future

LANDLINE is a time travel time, chick lit dimwit novel.  The premise of speaking to your husband of 15 years at the time you 1st met & fell in love over a magical phone is phoney sentimental drip.  I'm beomg harsh because I fell for the gimmick and for the likable main character.  Georgie is a comedy sketch writer who partners with her handsome college buddy, Seth.  They met in college writing for the campus paper.  Neal also worked on the paper as their cartoonist.  Georgie & Neal fall in love, get married, have 2 girls and move to LA.   The LA sun shines down on Georgie & Seth with their  comedy-sketch writing team.  Neal doesn't care for the deal; stay at home dad & playing 2nd fiddle to Georgie's career.  Things come to a breaking point at Christmas when Georgie cancels on the trip back to Neal's family and their marriage may or may not be over. Georgia finds an old fashioned rotary phone & outlet that not only still functions, it's magic contacts the Neal she knew before they married.  Author Rainbow Rowell (really?) calls herself out for lifting on "It's a Wonderful Life.  Rowell has won the Goodreads Choice Award for Y/A.  This novel is lost somewhere in a time tunnel.  The story doesn't appeal to youths or adults.  "Peggy Sue Got Married," with Nicholas Cage already did a good job with this back to the future soul searching.  LANDLINE rings an annoying busy signal.  

INDIAN LEAP by S Kanor- Parenting in Today's Chaos is Hurdling into the Abyss

INDIAN LEAP is a keen social account of today's erupting issues in America causing widening crevices in our social stratas.  Author Seth Kanor has put a magnifying glass over issues of class, mental health and governmental control.  "The govt. is afraid of the guns people have because they have to control the people at all times." Surprisingly INDIAN LEAP is Kanor's 1st novel yet he deftly elucidates our nation's chaotic social problems while focusing on the trials & tribulations of taking on the responsibilities of caring for an orphaned teen.  The (nameless) narrator is only recently extracted from a loveless marriage.  He is living a hapless existence in a squalid aptmt.  His estranged wife contacts him, grief stricken, seeking his help caring for her orphaned nephew.  Our protagonist steps up to the demanding challenges of raising this troubled teen.  Despite being he's his own worst enemy, he rises to the challenge providing unqualified love & support.  "The world is coming to an end. There will be war and chaos."  Still, it's reassuring to find an adult who acts heroically & compassionately as a guardian for a child who becomes his ward.    

Get in Trouble, Short Stories by Kelly Link, Fantasy & Emotional Truths

Get in Trouble is the latest short story collection by Kelly Link.  Link is a highly regarded writer of short stories having won the O'Henry Prize and the Hugo Award for best Novella.  Link's imaginative creations are interwoven with magic, mysticism, super heroes and poignant human emotions.  Costumes,  be they superheroes or villains appear often in the stores.  Some caped crusaders possess super powers or falsely perceive their own strengths.  The use of parrallel universes borrows from the Land of Oz  in several of these stories.  The best stories are placed up front & at the finish.  An isolated teenager left to care for mischievous, magical beings ("The Summer People") seizes her opportunity to escape and does a disappearing act; leaving another teen to bear the burden.  The most compelling character is a young girl fleeing to meet an on-line infatuation at a costumed comic convention.  She posed as her older, beautiful sister to deceive her potential predator into an illicit rendezvous.  The calamitous results entangle her with a cast of quirky individuals & zany misadventures.  A lovely homage is paid to Peter Pan in the story "Light" where some of the characters have duo shadows that wreck havoc on their human forms.  What got to be troubling, were the repetitive themes.  Taken as individual short stories, Link's writing is crafty & intriguing, but as a collection they became bothersome.  

GIRL on a TRAIN-Fast Read on a plane, train or automobile

GIRL on a TRAIN is a fast paced murder mystery.  The central character, Rachel, is a woman struggling with sobriety and her sanity.  This easy read is beguiling despite its pathetic, love-sick heroine.  Rachel's ex left her for another woman & their child.  She's lost her marriage, job, home & her ability to function without the help of alcohol.  Rachel tells you what a loser she has become; living in a small bedroom in an old friend's home.  After being fired, Rachel continues to take the train into London M-F under the pretense of working for fear of being tossed from her rental.  While riding the train to & from London, Rachel peers out her window & observes both her where he ex lives with his new family and the young couple just a few doors down.  Rachel draws a fantasty of marital bliss around this young couple.  This comes to a screeching halt when she spots the woman in the arms of another man.  Shortly after, the woman is reported missing.  Deemed a stalker, a drunk, an unreliable witness and a scorned woman, Rachel inserts herself into the midst of the police investigation.  She wants to be of help & to live vicariously through the tumult of others lives.  The body of the missing woman is recovered but Rachel's memory of her whereabouts remain a disturbing mystery while in a  drunken stupor.  Author Paula Hawkins (b. Zimbabwe) working as a journalist in London, has written a gripping mystery with her 1st novel.  The GIRL on a TRAIN is a beach book and a guilty pleasure.  It is also an insightful look at an individual grappling with addiction.  Once you start this novel, hold on for a swift ride.    

THE LIGHT of the WORLD a memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

Elizabeth Alexander is a prof.,  author & poet.  Her American Sublime book of poetry was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.  She composed & recited "Praise Song for the Day," at Pres. Obama's '09 Inauguration.  Her memoir THE LIGHT of the WORLD is a tribute to her beloved husband Ficre who passed away suddenly days after his 50th birthday.  Alexander shares the threads that miraculous intertwined their 2 lives and the unbreakable bonds their love sowed.  This beautifully written book is a pastiche of personal histories, poetry, mourning and recipies that combined to pay tribute to art, life & love.  Alexander candidly shares the shocking & life altering ordeal of loss and grief.  Her memoir is a poignant testament to the richness that abounds in life that give rise to celebration.   Melancholy permeates from the love she cherished & the recognition of what will be forever missed in her life meant to be shared.  This memoir shines throughout as a compelling narrative of loss, life & gratitude.  Alexander tells us "I don't want to be a nostalgist. Yet I feed on memory, need it to make poems, the art that is made of the stuff I have:  my life and the world around me." "We must be gleaners from what life has set before us."          

THE BALANCE PROJECT by Susie Schnall-Women Wanting it All

THE BALANCE PROJECT written by Susie Schnall, whose debut novel ON GRACE won the Kirkus Best Indie Award ('14) quivers the trope "women having it all." Hanging in the balance of self-discovery & life ephiphanies are Lucy, admin. asst. to Katherine, co-founder & figure head for a successful enterprise promulgating healthy living and the mantra women are omnipotent; able to successfully allocate themselves, to family, career and their own physical/mental well being.  Watching Lucy's obsequious dedication to Katherine while it threatens everything that should matter is a rollicking saga of self-implosion.  Lucy turns down the proposal of the man she professes to love. Her career goals are put on a back burner.  Ultimately, her frustrations drive her towards a vindictive vendetta.  Katherine, the poster girl of keeping all the balls up in the air, drops her facade with calamitous fallout.  The deception & deviousness help drive this enjoyable read along at a fast clip. Having it all is not the only topical, debatable issue?  Loyalty, honesty, revenge & redemption are all hotly pursued with humor that create morsels of watercooler tidbits.  The daily quotes posted by Katherine's friend add extra zing.  Women will continue to contest having it all.  Here's the thing: 1st time you're asked, take the ring.  

N/F Citizens of London by Lynne Olson- Amer. MIA in WWII while England Fought Alone

The Citzens of London is a reminder of the atrocities Londeners endured for years during WWII while the ravages of war were a hallow whimper on Amerian shores.  The subcaption for the book reads "The Americans Who Stood With Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hours."  A more appropro heading would be, Americans were dawdling & debating while the Brits were waiting & being raided.  Olson is an Amer. journalist & best selling history & biography writer.  There were dedicated American journalists and envoys with clarion voices calling for our country's immediate military & financial support that feel on mainly deaf ears while Britain's very existence hung in the balance during Germany's relentless bombing attacks.  Britian & the U.S. experienced the ravages of war in profoundly different ways, " …one counrtry on the front line, suffering deprivation and hardship; the other thousands of miles away from the battle, its citizens more prosperous than ever."  In addition to an isolationist, laissez faire attitude, "Suspicions, strains, prejudices, and rivalries threatened to derail this new and unparralleled confederation before it took hold."   The images of commraderie between Churchill & Roosevelt leading to the united defeat of the Nazi regime are sovereign.  What has become obtuse are the death & destruction England endured for years before the U.S. entered WWII after Pearl Harbor.  CITIZENS of LONDON pays tribute to the staunch upper lip of the Brits and examines the sad military state of the U.S. in the early forties and its lack of empathy for Europe in the years before we entered WWII.

Poems ONCE in the West by Christian Wiman

Poetry has an ephemeral essence that is deeply moving and mystifying.  The voice that comes through is a mirepoix of the writer & the reader.  Christian Wiman (Nat'l Book Critic Circle Award for Poetry '14) uses words the way a sculptor molds clay or the way a dancer moves in space.  The poems in ONCE IN THE WEST leave an intangible imprint on one's inner being.  The placement of the words on the page form beautiful compositions; nuanced with subtlety & impact.  Perhaps best read aloud to enhance their eloquence, each poem possesses its own radiance.  Many of the topics confront religion & faith.  Some may consider them sacrosanct.  I found candor & courage in Wiman's grappling with these issues.  Winman confronts death & his own mortality. And, by doing so, finds affirmation in life.
                         Love is the living heart of dread  
      Love I love you unto the very edge of being
                                                                   Dead
Many of the poems have a melancholy overtone.  Some are whimsical.  A stanza from "Razing a Tower," stirred my soul.
   Vanish the dancer and the dance remains
    a time, an agile absence on the air.
    I cannot say what, or why, or even when it was.
    I only know it happened, and I was there.

A THOUSAND PARDONS by Jonathan Dee-Sorry Shouldn't Cut It

The gripping & acerbic novel, A THOUSAND PARDONS is a story of a couple whose marriage has come undone in a major way.  The husband Ben, wants out of his mundane existence.  He's a successful lawyer with a wife and teenage daughter.  Ben & wife Helen have an adopted Chinese daughter, Sarah.  The family has been living outside Manhattan in an upscale neighborhood.  The couple seek marriage counseling to no avail.  Ben's attention turn on an attractive female intern who turns the tides & sues for sexual harassment.  Ben is fired from his firm, faces disbarment & prison and  his face gets busted by her boyfriend.  Helen is now faced with the ignominy of her husband's travails and faces financial ruin.  Amazingly, she lands a public relations (PR) job in NYC where  she is surprsingly adroit.  This job leads to a lucrative PR job with a prestigious firm.  She & her daughter gladly move into the city.  Jonathan Dee was Pulitz. Prize Finalist (Privileges) and proves himself a crafty storyteller with a flair for parody.  Dee lampoons the PR trope of apologizing & all is forgiven.  Just own it, apologize (regardless of sincerity) and you too shall receive redemption.  It appears all too easy which is the point.  It's not easy to lable PARDONS merely a family drama, a marriage saga, a tale of teen rebellion or a corrosive satire on our pathetic manuvering in a blameless & litigious society.  The  jest of this shrewd novel is all culpability can be spun away.  

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a Bibliophile's Reverie

Amer. writer Gabrielle Zevin is a writer of fiction, Y/A fiction & a screenwriter.  She's earned a Good Reads Choice Award for Best Fiction and an Indept. Spirit Award for Best 1st screenplay. Her novel The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry blends adult, Y/A & detective genres into a delightful read that is hard to put down.  There's a charming love story between Amelia, a book seller and A.J., the proprietor of a small book store.  A.J. recently widowed is drowning his grief in drink. His one pleasure is his prized possession of a rare Edgar Allen Poe book.  The book is stolen during a drunken stupor.  Shortly after, he discovers an abandoned toddler, Maya, left in his store with a note asking he assume responsibility for her.  Initially reluctant, he adopts her & raises her with love & devotion.  (An obvious nod to Silas Marner.)  This charming & irresistible novel has characters we care for as well.  It's also an homage to great literary works.  Our inherent need for reading is elucidated. "We read to know we're not alone.  We read because we are alone.  We read and we are not alone."  A.J., Maya, Amelia are all likable characters we're drawn to along with other supporting characters. The local police officer and A.J.'s sister-in-law are play crucial roles.  "Everyone needs back-up."  A.J. leaves a touching collection of notes with literary references for his beloved daughter as she is getting older.  This endearing story is brimming with friendship, wisdom, love and a profound love for reading.  

Tom Barbash's Short Stories STAY UP WITH ME-Had Me Transfixed

Amer. writer Tom Barbash is both a writer of fiction & nonfiction; known for his account of the 9/11 tragedy in "On Top of the World, Cantor Fitzgerald."  Barbash received a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford & the CA Book Award for Best 1st fiction.  This is a writer whose talent's are on par with Updike & Salinger.  Barbash packs an intensity in his short story collection that that is both unforgettable and representative of our era.  Many of the stories are strewn in Manhattan, upstate NY and CA.  His descriptions of locales and weather are blistering.  Some commonalities in topic deal with a death in a family, the ebbs and flows that constitute a family and parent/child relationship.  What makes his stories so intriguing is their voyeuristic nature.  In some, parents are guilty of stalking their children; pushing the boundaries of parental control.  Some have the opposite vantage; parents being scrutinized by their children.  Couples relationships are also examined where love blurs into obsession.  A mother feels an older restaurant hostess is not good enough for her son and the two women come to blows.  A college professor smothers his young lover to where she needs to distance herself.  I could empathize with more than one perspective.  Each story has its own vibrant fascination.  The mercurial, seismic shift in relationships is hard to pinpoint but the aftermath is felt in its fallout.  

BEING MORTAL by Dr. A. Gawande Prescribed Reading: What Matters in the End

Dr. Atul Gawande is a practicing surgeon, prof. at Harvard Med. & bestselling author.  His recent book BEING MORTAL is a compelling read for anyone who has an aging parent, family member diagnosed with a fatal disease and for those in the medical & health care profession.  In other words, this courageous and thoughtful book, is pertinent for everyone and intended to open dialogue to enhance our understanding of what needs to be considered to provide compassionate care and appropriate responsibility for people losing their independence or confronting their own mortality.  Dr. Gawande provides us actual cases of senior citizens who can no longer manage independently and cancer patients, including his own father.  The multitudes of confusing & vital information regarding a patient's options presented tends to be overwhelming.  Dr. Gawande is a pioneer in confronting the elephants in the room, aging & dying.  True, there are no cures for these inevitable stages.  Therefore, it is imperative for us to empathize & provide dignity & self-empowerment for those requiring special consideration at the end of their lives.  Listening, questioning, providing honest information and listening again are life lessons that should not be epiphanies, yet in many ways these are the barriers that need to be re-examined.  Dr. Gawande finds fault in the medical profession where doctors are dedicated to prolonging life but fail to be provide a candid prognosis or explanation of risks/affects of treatments.  The onus also lies with the individual and their family who must be willing to have a timely, serious dialogue as to their wishes & concerns and inform their care givers.  Dr. Gawande has written a book that helps us to navigate at a most difficult period in life; confronting mortality.  This is a powerful resource for opening a crucial & reciprocal discussions.        

OUTLINE by Canadian R. Cusk is Outstanding Do NOT Miss OUT on this Novel

OUTLINE is an engaging novel told through conversations taking place in planes, cars, boats & bistros centered around a novelist/prof. flying from London to Athens to teach a writing class.  While held captive in flight, her seat mate (a.k.a. neighbor) commences a dialogue that diverges into topics of love, marriages (particularly his own,) affluence, failures and the flotsam jetsam in life.  "So much is lost, he said, in the shipwreck.  What remains are fragments, and if you don't hold on to them the sea will take them too." Each dialogue brings fresh and cogent insights into relationships, honesty and the art of conversation.  While seemingly combative, the discussions are astute & candid.  Her loquacious neighbor tells her "Love restores almost everything, and where it can't restore, it takes away the pain."  In esoteric prattle over wine with writers, one commented that we tend to fictionalize our own experiences to convince ourselves our lives have some kind of design and this makes us significant.  Canadian author Rachel Cusk writes with a clear and unique voice.  She's been honored with the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards.  The motley mix of students in the novel learn the craft of writing is born from keen observation.  When listening to others, the novelist becomes transformed. "While he talked she began to see herself as a shape, an OUTLINE, with all the detail filled in around it."  Reading Cusk's novel is a fascinating lesson of our meanderings in life.

NOTHING HOLDS BACK the NIGHT by French Author Delphine de Vigan

Delphine de Vigan has received numerous literary awards for her writing including the Rotary Int'l & Prix des libraries.  De Vigan's powerful novel NOTHING HOLDS BACK the NIGHT, reads as a journalistic memoir of her upbringing with a mother suffering from bi-polar disorder.  To call this work a novel is misleading but to capsulize the format of this edifying work would not do it justice.  De Vigan writes with a journalistic eye and courageous candor.  She uncovers the tragic & glamorous life of her mother Lucille as a young girl and the fractious impacts it had on her & her sister.  Delphine begins with the discovery of her mother's body days after her suicide.  Delphine is compelled to examine what led to her mother's death through family interviews & diaries as she reexamines her own life.  Delphine was burdened with the torment & responsibility of having a mother who battled mental health & hospitalizations. Lucille an admired beauty, earned a substantial income which helped support her large family by modeling.  Tragically, 3 of her brothers died young; 2 by suicide.  Delphine informs us of her mother's life burdened with death, incest, depression & mania.  Lucille frequently moved herself & her girls giving them a nomadic, unconventional lifestyle.  Nonetheless, Delphine writes of mutual devotion and an overriding obligations to care for herself, her sister and her mother.  Mixed in with all the darkness we glimpse an extended & connected family living in Paris and the countryside that is both covetable and forlorn.  Reading this novel/memoir is going down a rabbit hole that provides, if not an understanding of mental illness, a vivid, troubling portrait of what it is like to grow up in a frenetic household of dysfunction.    

A.M. Homes' "May We Be Forgiven" Humanities' Frailties Duly Noted

"May We Be Forgiven" is a novel that is simultaneously repugnant & miraculous.  Amer. writer A.M. Homes novel was awarded the Women's Prize for Fiction ('13.)  The 1st chapt. of Homes' novel was originally submitted as a short story.  Salmon Rushdie declared it one of the best Amer. Short Stories ever written.  I compare Homes' with Bellows, Stegner, Roth & Updike.  These great writers are all zeitgeists and highly crafted artists.  The beginning is gruesome.   Many will be repelled enough to stop reading.  For those with stamina to continue, you will be richly rewarded with rich storytelling in the absurd & the brilliant eye of social commentary.  Harold Silver, a college prof. & Nixonophile is having a Thanksgiving dinner with his family.  Harold's brother George is a successful TV exec. with a beautiful wife, Jane. They have a young son Nate & daughter Ashley.  Claire & Harold are married without children.  Harold has always lusted after Jane.  A lurid affair between them ends with George bashing Jane's head while she & Harold are in bed.  From this horrendous murder forward, the plot  meanders in unexpected direction with bizarre, fully developed characters. George is imprisoned.  Claire leaves him.  And, Nate & Ashley are left under his care.  Harold seems an empty vessel (and "an asshole according to Nate) but after assuming responsibility for his niece, nephew & Ricardo, the child orphaned by his brother's car crash, he becomes a man of substance who rises to meet challenges head-on and fully embraces life's emotional impacts.  "The depth to which I now feel everything, when it is not paralyzing is terrifying."  Harold becomes an excellent listener and care giver for the children.  In turn, Harold reaps a lot from Nate, Ashley & Ricardo "As children can do so effortlessly, we instantly go from the most solemn to joyous."  This novel is a cosmos of wonder.  Ashley, at the following Thanksgiving quotes to those assembled together "Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you and be happy." (A. Frank)

Wallace Stegner's ALL the LITTLE LIVE THINGS-A Major Masterpiece

ALL the LITTLE LIVE THINGS is a major literary work by one of America's most highly regarded writers.  Stegner won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction & a Nat'l Book Award for Non-F.  In this novel written in 1967, Joe & Ruth are 2 seniors who have retired to the serenity of northern California for their waning years. Their peaceful solitude is shattered by a young rebel, James who charms them into letting him just camp out on their land.  As soon as this motorcycle riding, bearded granola eater plants himself on their land, he commandeers it for his own self-serving commune that sparks Joe's rage to combustion.  New neighbors, Marion, John & young daughter move into the property next to Joe & Ruth and immediately ingratiate themselves deep into their lives, reviving familial feelings of love.  Stegner's theme of generational divides are prevalent and buffer the underlying melancholy due to the loss of Joe & Ruth's son Curtis, who struggled to find himself.  "I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow."  Idealism, frustrated science & thwarted aspirations are also themes that Stegner's prose eloquently articulates.  Stegner's story telling is both captivating & potent.  The beauty of his writing is on every page.  "Sometimes my heart grows tired with beating, it wants rest like my eyelids."  Read this magnificent work ALL the LITTLE LIVE THINGS & anything written by Stegner.

Do Not Have Great Expectatons for The HOUSE on FORTUNE STREET by M. Livesey

Scottish writer Margot Livesey admires Charles Dickens greatly as she repeatedly refers to him in her novel.   Abigail's grandfather regaled her with Dicken's stories growing up, purchases a home mainly for its address, 41 Fortune Street because "her grandfather would have liked the name. Straight out of Dickens."  Abigail & Dare are the 2 main characters who meet at Univ. and become fast friends.  Abigail becomes enamored of the theater & runs her own small theatrical co.  Dara becomes a social worker offering solace & guidance to her clients.  Livesey writes with 4 interconnecting narratives. She  flashbacks to both girls' childhoods & family lives.  After graduation, both women move apart but at Abigail's urging, Dara moves into the flat in Abigail's home on Fortune Street.  The power of luck seems to trump diligence and hard work.  Fortune St. will bear more misfortune & misery than good fortune.  The novel touches on the age of wisdom when discussing taboos & inappropriate behaviors.  Who gets to say what's right & wrong?  What does a person do with desires that are socially forbidden?  Abigail & Dara's lives play out with more melodrama than Miss Havisham.  When Dara spirals into depression after a disastrous affair, Abigail reminds Dara of her own dispensed counsel, "Remeber the people who do love you, the small things you enjoy."  In the superlative degree of comparison to Charles Dickens, The HOUSE on FORTUNE STREET is the age of foolishness.

Alice McDermott's SOMEONE-Not Appealing for Some

Alice McDermott is Amer. writer who is highly regarded & honored.  Among the many awards McDermott has received are the Nat'l Book Award, Amer. Book Award & a Pulitizer Prize Nom. for fiction.  McDermott's writing skills are never less than exceptional.  Her character's become indelible, the imagery crystalline and her observations on life both affecting & heartfelt.  SOMEONE's heroine, Marie, along with her older brother Gabe, are born to Irish immigrants.  We are introduced to Marie at age 7 living in a neighborhood of mostly working class Irish immigrants.  McDermott's characters are mostly Irish/Catholic lower class, struggling to make a better life for their children.  Often times, their struggles involve alcoholism and reconciling with their religious convictions.  SOMEONE is typical in these respects & her lyrical writing is in keeping with her honed craft.  The story of Marie's life are told at different ages.  She becomes a young woman during WWII.  Gabe abandons the priesthood.  He tells his sister "The damn church is blind to life sometimes," and "Brutal & cruel is the way of all flesh."  Marie's sense of purpose came from giving birth, "The child's need for me, for my vigilance had made my life valuable."  There is much to praise in the storytelling.  Nonetheless, the tale itself is not riveting.   Reading McDermott's writing is always worthwhile but alas, reading SOMEONE is not worth the while.    

The DISREPUTABLE HISTORY-Experience the Thrill of Rebellion

E. Lockhart's The DISREPUTABLE HISTORY is a finalist for the Y/A Nat'l Book Award.  It's set in an elite NY boarding school where the wealthy, privileged student body; tomorrow's movers & shakers, establish their own hierachy of social strata on campus.  Geared to the teen scene, this page turner is a romp of ridiculousness, disreputability with the dynamics of power plays. Frankie is a returning sophomore whose summer transformation from plain Jane to campus hottie has now gotten her noticed by the senior males in the cool clique.  Matthew falls for Frankie while helping her up from a fall from her bike.  He becomes smitten and the attraction is mutual.  Despite their coupledom, Matthew goes running whenever "Alphadog," the leader of the wolf pack calls.  Frankie's modus operandi is better to lead than follow, better to speak up than stay silent and better to open doors than to shut them on people.  Frankie's clever cunning outwits Alphadog's leadership.  We experience the thrill of rebellion, unconventionality and naughtiness with little risk.  Frankie discerns appropriate & inappropriate ways to express a desire for change.  Lessons in friendship, loyalty, empathy & cruelty are played out amongst the students.  The DISREPUTABLE HISTORY fits the Y/A genre.  It's no secret though, this novel is indisputably, an enjoyable read for older adults as well.  

GOODBYE for NOW-Love Means Never Having to Say Goodbye

Amer. novelist Laurie Frankel has written a captivating story that grapples with love, loss and the ramifications of finding a lost loved once again.  Sam & Meredith are 2 young techies who find each other through an on-line site Sam designed to find you your perfect mate.  Sam's brilliant programming pairs him with Meredith.  Their relationship quickly builds into a love that "outweighs everything else."  The heart wants what the heart wants.  When Meredith's beloved grandmother dies suddently, she is lost in the throes of grief.  Sam wishes only to comfort Meredith. Meredith wishes if only she could speak with her beloved grandmother once.  Sam figures out a computer program that allows Meredith to communicate with her grandma.  Sam designs an algorithm using a person's chat histories, text messages & blog postings enabling a virtual, visual communication that reaches beyond the grave.  Frankel's sensitive and intelligent novel views the miraculous ability to remain connected with your dearly departed.  The dark side of this technology is also viewed as unethical, cruel, selfish, disrespectful.  Has Sam helped ease the tragedy of dying or exacerbated the pain of loss & interfered with the essential grieving process.  Perhaps too much time is being spent in a virtual instead of striving to bridge the gap between human hearts.  Love & loss are linked.    GOODBYE for NOW is an enriching read for the mind, the heart & soul.

SUBTLE BODIES by Norman Rush, substellular story

Norman Rush's novel SUBTLE BODIES begins with the death of Douglas, one of tight knit college  buds from 20 years ago in NYC.  Douglas was deemed the epicenter of this devoted group of erudite, self-important young guns who were one for all & all for one.  Then how is it they all fell out of touch but drop everything to fly out for the funeral of their "close" friend who drove his mower over the edge of a canyon.  (How's that for smarts?)  Ned is the central character & is married to Nina (who is desperately trying to get pregnant.)  So why the Hell did Ned fly across the country when he knows this is the ULTIMATE time to conceive without even consulting her.  Nina hops on the next plane to fly out & meets the widow & the surviving members of the old brotherhood. Is this even credible or intriguing?  I'm not buying "friendships between men are superior because…men don't want anything back from their true friends." Still, Rush writes with skillfulness and clever insights.  "Don't forget that every war is men trying to kill each other who have nothing against each other." He's won the Nat'l Book Award for MATING & received a Pulitize Nom. for WHITES.  I suggest these others, but this one; don't bother.

Euphoria-An Anthropologist's Reverie-A MUST Read

Euphoria, by Amer. writer Lily King is a must read.  It's the unadulterated joy of discovery, exploration & connection.  Lily King has received the Whiting Writer's Award for her adroit skill at story telling.  EUPHORIA sweeps you along on groundbreaking (& heartbreaking) expeditions with 3 British anthropologists at the turn of the 20thC.  They are among the 1st westerners to visit & study several fictitious tribes in New Guinea.  Andrew Bankson was on a solo expedition exploring when his path merged with fellow anthropologists Fen & Nell.  Fen tells Andrew "Nothing in the primitive world shocks me…cannibalism, infanticide, raids, mutilations - it's all nearly reasonable…I've always been able to see the savageness beneath the veneer of society."  Euphoria refers to the mutual emotional responses felt upon garnering a new revelation or relationship amongst the natives.  The tribal customs are no less exhilarating for the reader.   This amazing & philosophical novel reveal profound epiphanies  regarding cultural developments.  "Civilization's lack of understanding of other people's customs tends to be the causes of the world's greatest & gravest social problems."  The elegaic writing belies Nell's affirmation that language actually interferes with communication.  Once comprehension comes, so much else falls away.  You then rely on words, and words aren't always the most reliable thing."  EUPHORIA is a delirious discovery; a novel well worth uncovering.    

Toni Morrison's HOME-Masterful & Moving

Toni Morrison is one America's greatest writers.  She's been awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Literature and the Pres. Medal of Freedom.  I too sing her praises and recommend HOME as well as her other brilliant novels.  She takes an unflinching look at racial hatred, injustice and cruelty endured by our nation's black population.  Morrison depicts troubled heroes & heroine who possess an indomitable spirit and strength.  Frank Money & his sister Cee have a powerful bond & deep love for each other.  We follow Frank on his haunting Odysseus journey from a small rural town in Georgia, through an emotionally debilitating military service in Korea, and a multitude of obstacles encountered fighting to return for his dying sister. Frank tells us "You could be living in your own house for years, and still, men with or without badges but always with guns could force you, your family, your neighbors to pack up and move-with or without shoes." Serving his country, Frank learns "An integrated army is integrated misery.  You all go fight, come back, they treat you like dogs.  Change that. They treat dogs better." Still, Morrison portrays loveliness, resilience and fortitude. "Strawberry tendrils wandered, their royal-scarlet berries shining in morning rain...Her garden was not Eden; it was much more than that.  For her the whole predatory world threatened her garden, competing with its nourishment, its beauty, its benefits, and its demands.  And she loved it."

MAN & WIFE-Film Noir/Thriller Genre by Andrew Klavan

Andrew Klavan is a writer of physiological thrillers & screenplays.  He has received numerous writing awards; twice receiving the Edgar Award.  MAN & WIFE reads more like a dated screenplay for a film noire movie.  It's also part psychological thriller.  Unfortunately, it is week on both fronts.  It is a poor imitation of Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY.  The 1st line of the novel reads "Maybe if I had lover her less there would have been no murder."  Knowing from the start someone get's killed, Cal, the narrator, confides "So I guess this is a confession of sorts."  Cal, is a psychiatrist happily married to Marie with 3 beautiful children.  So blissfully happy, Cal admits "I would have seen her far more clearly, If I had only loved her less."  Cal gets roped into helping keeping a troubled juvenile, Peter Blue from prison.  Peter is placed in a psychiatric hospital for troubled teens under Cal's shelter.  This infuriates the local "sheriff" Hell bent on seeing this mystical delinquent behind bars. When the dead body of a nefarious stranger is uncovered, Peter is accused of the murder.  Cal knows Peter is not responsible but covering for the actual killer poses a quandary.  Cal discovered "how hard it was to destroy evidence of a murder.  Nothing just goes away."  Nothing worked for me.  But, it's probable  MAN & WIFE is turned into a screenplay for a movie which I won't see.