Book Review by Carolyn Beanblossom
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini
The author of “The Kite Runner” has again taken us to Afghanistan, this time to the plight of women before and after the Taliban. I had a difficult time reading this fascinating book. Not only the violence to women, but the complete disregard for the female gender was very disturbing. Hosseini follows two women (Mariam and Laila) from their different ethnic childhoods to adulthood, marriage, and then to hopelessness and despair of their fate. Khaled takes you to Kabul, an ancient and old city that is still trying to find its place in the 21st century, albeit with very little success. The author delves into the lives and culture of these diverse ethnic tribal people, and the lives of the women who are still forced to this day to live in another world – another time, in the medieval past. I urge every woman to read this haunting book and rejoice in our own freedom.
Book Review by Carolyn Beanblossom
The Collectors
by David Baldacci
The Camel Club is back in a new and hair-raising adventure to save the U.S. government – again. Back to their hum-drum lives after their last escapade are:
Oliver Stone – alias for a man who, 30 years ago, was one of the CIA’s foremost assassins. Disillusioned with his government, Stone has a small tent across from the White House where, with a handful of “permanent” protesters, he proceeds to “watch” the less-than-truthful government he once used to work for.
Next is Milton, the child prodigy, who suffered through an abused childhood, then college which led into an obsessive-compulsive disorder along with a remarkable photographic memory. Milton becomes the Camel Club’s techno-geek.
Big Ruben – a much-decorated Vietnam veteran and former Defense Intelligence Agency employee, who currently works at a loading dock after a life of booze, pills, and outrage over the lies of “Nam”. Stone found Ruben at Arlington National Cemetery, where he was unceremoniously lying stoned under a maple tree.
Last is meek Caleb Shaw – with twin doctorates in political science and 18th century literature, he now works at the Rare Books Reading Room of the Library of Congress. The Camel Club is his family, after Stone rescued him from a deep depression.
It all started when Jonathan De Haven, friend and co-worker of Caleb’s, was found dead in the vault of the Rare Books Reading Room. Of course it was Caleb’s misfortune to stumble on the body, whereupon Caleb gasped once, choked, and then fainted. The Camel Club was summoned to the hospital for Caleb. Even though De Haven’s death was classified as from a heart attack, the Camel Club was skeptical, seeing as De Haven had just had a clean bill of health from Johns Hopkins. Caleb was designated in De Haven’s will to be the Literary Executor of De Haven’s own personal rare book collection. Upon arriving at De Haven’s house, the Camel Club discovered De Haven was in possession of a rare original book called “The Psalm Book”, of which there are only eleven in the whole world, all of which are in institutions. What is De Haven doing with it and how did he procure this rare book?
When De Haven’s neighbor, a government defense contractor, is murdered along with the U.S. Speaker of the House, the Camel Club sees a connection – but what and how? Subsequently, a new Camel Club member appears with an extraordinary past and with skills that impress even Stone. Poor Caleb becomes apoplectic when the Camel Club breaks all the rules in his rigidly rule-controlled library, like breaking and entering, impersonating out of town scholars, etc. – whatever it takes (over Caleb’s weak protests) to solve the murder of De Haven.
If you enjoyed the first Camel Club book, you will love this new addition. The Collectors is found in the new book section of the Harrison County Library.
Book Review by Carolyn Beanblossom
THE KITE RUNNER
By Khaled HosseiniThe author, Khaled Hosseini, was born in Afghanistan, son of a diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980. This is Hosseini’s first novel.
The Kite Runner is a story of two young boys and their lives in the 1960′s Kabul, Afghanistan, before the Communists invaded that mystical land. They are Amir, a wealthy elite Pashtun, and Hassan, his house servant, an ethnic Hazara. The Hazara are a people of Mongol-Chinese origin that were the lower class of Afghan society. Despite major religious differences–Sunni Pasthun and Shi’a Hazara–Amir and Hassan lead ideal lives in Afghan society at that time. Even though Hassan was a house servant, the boys were the best of friends and grew up on cowboy Western movies such as Rio Bravo and The Magnificent Seven at the local theater.
Every winter, districts in Kabul held kite-fighting tournaments, where kites were cut out of the skies and fell to the ground. There, the “kite-runners” would chase the fallen kites. The last fallen kite won a coveted trophy, to be displayed on a mantel and to be admired by family and friends until the next tournament. According to Amir, Hassan was the best “kite-runner” of all time.
Unfortunately, this ideal life of wealth and plenty for the elite of Kabul did not last. Amir and his father were forced to flee Afhanistan to the United States with the invasion in 1981 of the Communists. Although they and all the other Afghan refugees found a new life in the United States in their own communities, they never forgot Afghanistan and the friends and family they left behind.
Twenty years later, Amir is faced with a difficult decison of returning to war-torn Afghanistan to redeem a promise to his friend, Hassan, a promise Amir has held in a torment of guilt-ridden secrecy. If you enjoy reading of ancient lands and cultures, you will enjoy this book.
Book Review by Carolyn Beanblossom
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
By Sara Guren
As Ms. Gruen was researching for another book, she ran onto an article on Edward J. Kelty- a photographer who followed traveling circuses around America in the 1920′s and 30′s. The photographs that accompanied the article so fascinated Gruen, that she was hooked on the world of train circuses in the early part of the century. From Baraboo, Wisconsin (the original wintner home of Ringling Brothers) to Sarasota, Florida and the Ringling Circus Museum, Gruen found enough history to weave a fascinating story of a world of freaks, clowns, roustabouts, courage, pain and passion. Here, at the start of the Great Depression, a third-rate circus fights to survive the poverty of America and its undying love of “the circus”.
But the real star of the book is Rosie the elephant and the people who come to love her. Along with authenic photos of the early years of the circus world, this is a book you will not want to put down.
Book Review by Christine Pendleton
WEEDFLOWER
By Cynthia Kadohata
Weedflower is twelve-year-old Sumiko’s nickname. She and her family are removed from their flower farm in California early in World War II and shipped to an internment camp. they can take only what they can carry and are herded together for several months in a racetrack facility. The older men in the family have been sent to a prison camp in North Dakota, but Weedflower and the rest of the family end up in a camp on an Indian reservation in the middle of the desert in Arizona. The Indians don’t want them there, dust storms are a regular occurrence and life is miseraboe in the military barracks.
However, the Nikkei (American-born Japanese) soon transform much of the camp by irrigating and farming. They raise many vegetables, Weedflower raises flowers from seeds she carried from home, and life becomes somewhat more tolerable. She also by chance meets an angry Mohave boy who becomes a sort of friend.
This book explains what happened in our country following Pearl Harbor and deals with issues of prejudice and friendships across racial boundaries. Kadohata’s father was interned in this Poston, Arizona camp during the war and his experiences inspired her to write Weedflower.
Reviews by Christine Pendleton
The Deadly Dance
by M. C. Beaton
I’ve gotten in the habit of listening to book on tape or CDs as I drive around doing errands. After listening to Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton, I found The Deadly Dance on the new books shelf. I’m a fan of easy-to-read mystery series and these fit the ticket. The heroine of these mysteries is Agatha Raisin, a former PR agency owner, who has retired to her dream cottage in the Cotswolds of England. As the jacket blurb says, Agatha “may be contrary, ornery, and raunchy, but she takes no guff from anyone.” “Outwardly bossy and vain, inwardly insecure and vulnerable” is another description of the stocky, middle-aged Agatha whose best feature is her legs. In The Quiche of Death, Agatha gets in trouble because she feels like an outsider in the village, decides to enter a quiche contest, cheats by entering one that she purchased in London, and comes to grief when it poisons and kills the judge. Out of desperation she has to solve the crime. Along the way we are introduced to many lovable and not so lovable village characters.
It seems The Deadly Dance is about the fourteenth in the Agatha Raisin series, and in it Agatha opens a private investigation office. She starts off hunting missing cats and errant children, but then she gets involved in a death threat case. Along with the exciting criminal investigation, the reader is entertained by Agatha’s bumbling attempts to cook and date.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
The narrator of this story is an autistic teenager. He lives with his father, thinks his mother is dead, and has a pet rat. He knows the capitals of all the countries of the world, is a genius when it comes to numbers and math, and hates the color yellow. He doesn’t understand how to talk to or relate with other humans and can’t stand to be touched. He does have a good relationship with a counselor at his special school. One night he finds the neighbor’s dog has been killed with a pitchfork. He is driven to solve this crime and learns some disturbing things about his family in the process. He does manage to do some traveling and interacting that amaze those who know him. This is a fascinating and entertaining novel that develops the reader’s understanding of some of the problems faced by autistic children.
Book Review by Bernhard Vosteen
SHADOW DIVERS
The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
By Robert Kurson
Random House, 2004
I was doing some channel surfing on our new satellite TV, when I came upon an interview with Robert Kurson – a lawyer turned journalist and author. Kurson was responding to questions about his recently completed book, Shadow Divers, an account of the 1991 discovery – and years later identification – of a wrecked German U-boat historians had recorded as lost off the coast of Gibraltar in 1945. The wreck discovered by recreational divers was lying beneath 230 feet of water, some 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey, not Gibraltar. Beyond the telling of the events, Shadow Divers explores the heart and soul of the men involved in this adventure. The recreational scuba diving of which Kurson writes is not to be equated to the familiar, travelogue-type diving in clear water with a visible bottom and beautiful fish. This is a sport of extreme physical challenge, courage, and discipline. Diving to the wrecks in the cold, dimly lit depths of the Atlantic Ocean is challenging enough, but entering and working within the wreck is a task for only the best. This kind of diving received a push into popularity, though obviously limited to a special breed of adventurer, by the exploring and artifact-hunting expeditions to the Andrea Doria, which sank off of Nantucket in 1956. Many of the participants in the adventure detailed in Shadow Divers honed their skills by diving the Doria. As it happens, scuba diving was my sport during the years of 1956 through 1959. Even though my experiences never advanced to the type of diving of which Kurson writes, I was well aware of the diving world’s interest in the Andrea Doria. Obviously, I had stopped surfing the TV and stayed with the channel for the remainder of the interview. The next step was to read the book. A check of the Harrison County Public Library web site told me the book, Shadow Divers, was listed and available.
From the book I learned that discovering the sunken U-boat at this location was not happenstance. Two types of charter boats utilize these waters; both keep their own special set of “numbers.” When a fishing charter happens upon a productive fishing site, the captain will note the coordinates (numbers) so that the spot can be located during future charters. In many cases the boat’s sonar will show the good fishing site also has something unusual on the ocean floor. A shipwreck could make that unusual formation. The captain of another type of charter boat, the kind that takes recreational divers to the sunken wrecks, has a set of numbers to pinpoint the spots for an interesting dive. Although zealously guarded, the numbers won’t remain a captain’s secret forever. At some point the sharing of numbers, particularly between fishing boats and diving boats, may be mutually beneficial. Bill Nagle, a legendary diver who had salvaged the bell of the Andrea Doria, exchanged numbers with a friend in the fishing-charter business. Nagle was no longer an active diver, but as the owner of a recreational-diving business, and captain of a dive boat, the Seeker, he organized a charter to take thirteen of the best available divers to the place of his newly acquired numbers. Rock piles and sunken garbage barges can also enhance the fishing, but they hold no interest for the diver. The probability was high that this is all these numbers would provide. One man would go down first; the twelve divers remaining on the boat were to wait for the first diver to return. But reporting back after a dive this deep is far from instantaneous. To avoid the bends, the ascent from the depths is deliberately slow with decompression stages at various levels. To alleviate the suspense and to affirm or negate the pessimism, John Chatterton, the initial diver, would release Styrofoam cups as a signal. Two cups would signal nothing worthwhile; one cup would signal a significant discovery. Chatterton made the dive and released one cup!
Although Robert Kurson takes his reader through the step by step observation of this dive by John Chatterton, I’ll leave that to your reading. I just need to tell you that the suspense of waiting for Chatterton to return to the dive boat with his report became intolerable. Finally one diver, Kevin Brennan, went down to meet him at his decompression stop. Chatterton wrote “SUB” on his slate tablet. Brennan returned to the boat, made the announcement, and all divers geared up and descended, plummeting past John Chatterton, still submerged at a resting stage required for the decompression regime.
While still at sea, all aboard the Seeker agreed to an oath of secrecy. Nagle would schedule more dives, but only for this select group. The honor of being the first to explore and identify this previously unknown wreck would be their exclusive reward. The secret lasted less than two hours after the Seeker returned to port. Kevin Brennan, the same impulsive diver that read “SUB” on the slate tablet, called his friend and fellow diver, Richie Kohler, to share the news. Richie Kohler will figure into Robert Kurson’s narrative to become a principle character and partner with John Chatterton in finally resolving the mystery.
The actual discovery of the U-boat is a good place to begin the story, but Kurson backtracks to give us a biography of the main characters. Chatterton and Kohler have their individual chapters. Kurson takes the reader back to their boyhood, and he relates the events where these two divers paths had crossed before. They had not been on friendly terms. But even with all the intertwining of the characters’ personalities, and a return to the history that molded them, Robert Kurson never allows the account to bog down with unnecessary detail. He maintains its direction and it’s a thriller from beginning to end.
The weekend diving hobby of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler became an obsession. Three lives would be lost on subsequent dives to the sub, nicknamed U-Who. Countless hours would be spent researching records of American and British intelligence regarding the location and movement of U-boats. Most investigations ended in frustration. A trip to the U-boat museum in Germany, touted to contain the precise answer, provided no useful information.
Eventually the mystery is solved. So much information was obtained that Kurson includes a chapter about the commissioning and launching of the sub, now firmly identified as U-869. For Chatterton the investigation was mostly finished when the sub was identified. For Richie Kohler the project took another phase. Kohler, proud of his German heritage, saw a bond between himself and the fifty-six fallen crewmen whose bones remain buried with the sub. Kohler tracked down relatives including brothers and children of the crew, and personally provided them with an account of the crew’s demise. The book is illustrated with copies of photographs and documents.
I understand the movie rights to Shadow Divers have already been negotiated. Expect a blockbuster. I’m going to see it! I can predict by the way this book is written the movie will take the action back and forth between past and present. Remember the movie, Sea Biscuit? I saw that one, and lost all sense of who was who and if the action represented an earlier period or the current moment. This time I read the book. I’ll be prepared. You may want to do likewise.
Book Reviews by Marian Allen
To Say Nothing of the Dog
By Connie Willis
Humor, historical romance, science fiction, fantasy — This novel is difficult to categorize, but lovers of any of these types of books will find this one delightful.
Ned Henry, official time traveller based in Oxford, England, has already done so many jumps he is fuzzy-brained, but must do one more. He is sent to 1888, where he finds himself mixed up in academic politics, family intrigue, thwarted love, and animal welfare. This is one of those books that spins so giddily you can’t believe the author can tie everything up sensibly in the end — but Willis does.
From the Children’s Section
Hank the Cowdog series
By John R. Erickson
Although these books were originally intended for the young, they have fans of all ages–and rightly so. Hank, the self-appointed “Head of Ranch Security” and Drover, his sidekick whose leg always goes bad in a crisis, never fail to induce at least one fit of helpless laughter per book. Anyone who has ever had a dog will recognize Hank and Drover’s true doggy behavior, and will appreciate Erickson’s answers to the frequently asked question–what was that dog THINKING when he did that? Hank and Drover tackle all sorts of “cases,” from kittens in the haybales to monsters in the garbage cans. Give yourself an extra treat and check out the audiobooks, narrated–or, rather, acted, complete with character voices–by author John R. Erickson himself. Then check out http://www.hankthecowdog.com, Hank’s official web site. Really.
From the Adult Section
The Missing Woman
By Michael Z. Lewin
Albert Samson, the main character in this mystery, is a soft-boiled detective working out of Indianapolis, though he spends a lot of this book in Nashville, Indiana, with a side trip to Bloomington. A client turns up missing and several people turn up dead, the plot twists and turns as good mystery plots should, but Lewin’s book stands apart from most others thanks to the reality, originality, and humanity of Albert Samson, who has unexpected dimension and depth. He is shocked and outraged when he finds himself in the middle of a violent situation. He solves the case but, as one suspects would happen with most people in real life, the spiritual stress of dealing with actual killers is harder on him than his bullet wounds. “If I were more liberated,” he says, “I would have cried.” Highly recommended.
Book Reviews by Christine Pendleton
From the Young Adult SectionMy Forbidden Face
By “Latifa”
This autobiography is located in the Young Adult biography section. The author wrote under the pseudonym Latifa because she feared reprisals against that portion of her family still residing in Afghanistan. She wrote this book while in France during the summer before the attack on the World Trade Center and the subsequent defeat of the Taliban. She, her mother and father, and another young girl had been spirited out of Afghanistan by representatives of the magazine, Elle, and the association, Afghanistan Libre [Free Afghanistan]. They went there to act as ambassadors for the women of their country at the European Parliament in Brussels. They told about how the women had been robbed of their voices and rights, and were oppressed by not being able to work, learn or show themselves on the streets. Latifa, who was 24 when she wrote this book, told of the twenty years of oppression and warfare under different governments including the Soviets. But she shows that the very worst was under the Taliban, and she describes the systematic way in which the Taliban took away the freedoms of everyone in Afghanistan with the most horrific treatment given to the women. When the women were not allowed to work and male doctors were not allowed to treat women, the women had no health care. Latifa’s mother was a doctor and suffered severe depression when she was not allowed to practice, but she did treat a few women secretly. Latifa and many others also suffered from depression because of their restricted lives. I had watched the exposure of the Taliban on TV during the American intervention, and so I had some idea of what had happened there. This book gives a much more in depth picture of what went on. I recommend it to anyone interested in history and the Middle East.
Book Reviews by Christine Pendleton
From the Children’s Section
A Year Down Yonder
By Richard Peck
Although this book is found in the Children’s Section of the library in the area for fourth and fifth graders, it is a trip down Memory Lane for those of us that are 65 or older. Fourth and fifth graders can learn about and senior citizens can relive those days of the Great Depression in this entertaining story about a young girl who travels from Chicago to a small Illinois town to live with her grandmother for a year. Times are tough and Grandma has unique ways of earning a living that include trapping foxes for their pelts and charging exorbitant rent ($2.50 a day) from an artist who was working for the WPA. Fifteen-year-old Mary Alice learns to love this huge and frightening character of a grandmother. Grandmother helps the downtrodden citizens and puts the snobs in their places. This is a hilarious and educational story.
From the Adult Section
The Tutor
By Peter Abrahams
This is a novel of great suspense. It begins innocently enough as a story about a contemporary family with a teen-age son who is giving them trouble. He goofs off at school, runs with the wrong group (drink and drugs), and is disrespectful. The parents realize something must be done when the SAT scores are too low to get Brandon into any college they want him to attend. This is when the tutor enters the picture.
Julian is just too perfect to be true. He clicks with Brandon, he helps the father with his tennis game, and he helps the mother with a business deal. He doesn’t seem to get along as well with eleven-year-old Ruby, though he does save her from accidentally setting the house on fire. Ruby is obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and his detecting abilities, and she tries to apply them to problems in their family life. And soon there are problems. The family does not realize that Julian, who actually moves in with them, is manipulating them and leading them to ruin, financially and otherwise.
Only Ruby’s close attention to detail, combined with her determination to save her brother, keeps the evil Julian from pulling the family down to destruction.
Book Review from the Youth Section by Marian Allen
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
by Terry Pratchett
This off-beat retelling of the Pied Piper story won the 2001 Carnegie Medal, children’s literature’s highest award. Although it is suggested as reading for young people 12 and up, it is suitable for younger and older readers. When the rats who live on the rubbish heap behind the Wizard’s university eat leftovers from an experiment, they gain the ability to think, reason, and speak. When an alley cat, doing what an alley cat does, eats one of these Educated Rodents, he also gains their new abilities. As he is already gifted with cart-loads of street smarts, he becomes their manager. Once he picks up a naiive young street musician as front man, he’s ready to hit the road. The rats hit town first, making major nuisances of themselves. Then the kid shows up with his “pet cat” and offers to charm the rats away–for a fee. And this is only the beginning….
Pratchett delivers his usual blend of hilarity and tender insight. As always, he leaves the reader thinking and laughing at the same time.
Highly recommended.
Book Reviews from the Adult Section by Christine Pendleton
The Lost Childhood
By Yehuda Nir
In this autobiographical book from the Young Adult section, Dr. Nir describes six years of his existence in Nazi occupied Poland during World War II. During his early childhood, his family lived an upper middle class existence in Lwow, Poland, where his father owned a carpet factory. Yehuda was nine when the Germans invaded Poland. As they were trying to escape from the Germans in a horse drawn cart, the Soviet Army came from the east and they returned home. The Communists eventually took away all their property and lodged Army officers in their apartment. When the Germans invaded Russia and took over the rest of Poland, they rounded up many of the Jewish men, including Yehuda’s father and uncle, and marched them into the forest where they executed them with machine guns.Yehuda, his sister, mother, and some friends decided to try to pass as Gentiles. One of his sister’s boyfriends was an excellent artist and made all of them false documents. Dr. Nir describes the following years in detail as they moved from town to town. His mother and sister kept in contact with each other but did not live together most of the time trying to avoid suspicion. As Yehuda grew older and things got desperate with the uprising of the Polish citizens in Warsaw against the Germans, he and his sister joined the resistance where he worked as a courier in the sewers and basements of the city. After the fall of Warsaw resistance the Germans were losing the war, so they sent most of the Warsaw survivors to Germany on trains to serve as slave laborers. There they managed to survive because they were sent to work on a farm through a contact Yehuda’s mother had made working as a domestic.These memoirs are riveting and educational reading. One point Dr. Nir brought out was that they were safer working and living among the Germans than among their Polish countrymen. This was because the Poles could hear and see little nuances in their speech and behavior that identified them as Jewish that the Germans did not notice, and many of the Poles would happily betray them to the Germans.
The Shipping News
by Annie Proulx
Another book with settings in New York and a seashore community is Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News. But this time the maritime region is Killick-Claw, Newfoundland. The novel begins “Here is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns.” And Quoyle’s early life is drear to the extreme. After a childhood made horrible by his father and older brother, he has such low self-esteem that he marries and tolerates a woman who betrays him with nearly every man she meets. She leaves him to care for their two little girls as she runs around, but she meets a terrible fate. Bereft, heartsick, and out of work, he and his paternal aunt take the children and move back to the half ruined, deserted old house of their ancestor’s on Quoyle’s Point. We gradually learn that the aunt also had a horrible childhood at this very spot and is returning home to face and conquer these memories. Quoyle secures work writing about car wrecks and the shipping news for the Gammy Bird newspaper, and the aunt resumes her work doing yacht reupholstering. The reader meets many local characters with tragedy filled lives but the tone of the book gradually lightens. The children thrive with their father’s care and the love of some other individuals. There are many instances of dark comedy in the lives of the stark, weather-ravaged community. Gradually Quoyle realizes he is good at what he does on the newspaper, he does have worth as a human being, and it is possible to love with joy.
A device the author uses is an excerpt from The Ashley Book of Knots at the beginning of every chapter that “ties in” with the events of that chapter. The reader can learn quite a bit about Newfoundland, the shipping and newspaper trades, and life in general from this prize-winning book.
Love
by Charles Ferry
This book, written by Charles Ferry, deals with the tragic story of a pair of eleven-year-old children. Robbie has lymphoma. Sue Ellen has acute myeloblastic leukemia. The entire story takes place on Ward B in the Bridgton Memorial Hospital. We meet Sue Ellen and Robbie when they each have only weeks to live. Both have accepted this news when they meet on Ward B. They decide to vicariously live a full lifetime in the time they have left. With the help of the staff and friends they turn an alcove of the Green Room, a solarium and recreation area, into a private fantasyland. They call the project TIME WARP. The children have a deep love for each other and they consider themselves married. With the help of videos and many reference items, they travel in space and time to Disneyland, their high school classes, football games, dances, graduation, and more. Following Robbie’s twelfth birthday, they fantasize college.All the while, the necessities of their illnesses such as barf buckets, IVs, and pain still exist. But the fantasy occupies all their thoughts and dreams and alleviates much of the suffering of those last weeks. This is an interesting, easily read book, about a subject that I would normally find disturbing. Even though it made my heart ache at the end, it made me wonder if such a concept could work in real life to help children in hospitals and hospices.
Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas
by James Patterson
James Patterson’s novel is a bittersweet romance set in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard. The diary referred to in the title is a document written by a new mother for her son. Suzanne writes that she had nothing left to remember her parents who died when she was young, so she wants to leave a record for him. She wants him to know who his parents were, what they felt about him and the world. The reader learns about the diary through the eyes of Katie. Katie has fallen in love with Matt with the knowledge that he was once married, but he had sworn to her that he was no longer married. After eleven months of what seemed the perfect romance, Matt walked into the apartment one evening and simply told her he had to break off the relationship. The next evening she found the package with the diary next to her apartment door.
The author shifts between of descriptions Katie reading the diary in her New York apartment and the diary excerpts. Through the diary, the reader learns of the idyllic love affair and marriage of Suzanne and Matt. Though some tear jerking is involved the overall tone of the book leaves the reader feeling that true love conquers all and life can be good.
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Brooks spins a story of an isolated mountain village in the year 1666. Through the eyes of a young widow, Anna Frith,
Year of Wonders brings to life the reality of the bubonic plague. This book is based on the true story of Eyam, England, a village that tried to contain the plague within its borders by voluntarily quarantining itself when the citizens realized the Black Death was rampant. Brooks ran across this village during one of her breaks from working as a Middle East correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
The young minister in the book is loosely based on the historical minister who convinced the villagers to isolate themselves. Some other incidents based on fact include the role of flea-ridden cloth as a possible source of the plague and a greedy gravedigger who buried a man alive. Brooks also researched and included incidents about the village’s lead mining.Among the many fictions in the book is the death of the minister’s wife and his later love affair with Anna. Brooks’ novel “examines the collision of faith, science, and superstition at the cusp of the modern era.”Some of the villagers believed the plague was punishment for their sins and resorted to self-flagellation. Most believed the contagion was spread by personal contact and so they quit meeting in their church and held their services in the open air with at least three yards between each of them. Some accused other villagers of witchcraft. There were so many deaths they had to quit burying in the churchyard as the weather warmed.
I found this book a riveting and informative read.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, an award winning journalist and author of five books about contemporary Jewish life, is fiction based on the Biblical story of Dinah, the only daughter of the patriarch Jacob and a half-sister of Joseph. Dinah is only mentioned briefly in Genesis as the “victim” of rape or seduction by a prince of Shechem. The wedding agreement reached between Jacob and the king included circumcision of all the males of Shechem. On the third day following the surgery, Dinah’s brothers, Levi and Simon, led a night raid on the city. They killed all the weakened males, demolished the city, and took the women and children as slaves.
Diamant brings the culture and customs of the time to life in an intense and intimate story. The red tent is the refuge of the women of the tribe during their menstrual period, which occurred with them as a group with the advent of the new moon. Isolated in the tent they would spend three days singing, worshiping their various deities, telling stories, and gossiping. The female work of the camp was carried on during this time by the prepubescent and post-menstrual females. This fascinating story, told in Dinah’s voice, of what might have happened, continues with Dinah’s life after the tragedy in Shechem. Curiosity led me to reread the story in Genesis to compare with Diamant’s version. It’s easy to understand why this book became a New York Times bestseller.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
The story of The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan spans three generations and moves between contemporary San Francisco and a Chinese village during the first half of the twentieth century. LuLing Young realizes she is losing memories and writes down all she can remember of her childhood, the tragic life of her mother, and her first marriage in China. Ruth Young realizes her mother has Alzheimer’s and in the process of caring for her runs across the Chinese manuscript. Reading the transcription brings Ruth the knowledge of the depth of her mother’s love and resolves some of the problems that have crippled Ruth emotionally through the years. As the jacket blurb says: “The story conjures the pain of broken dreams, the power of myths, and the strength of love that enables us to recover in memory what we have lost in grief. Over the course of one fog-shrouded year…mother and daughter find what they share in their bones through heredity, history, and inexpressible qualities of love.”
Cold Flat Junction by Martha GrimesIn Cold Flat Junction by Martha Grimes we see small town life through the eyes of precocious twelve-year-old Emma Graham. This book is the sequel to Hotel Paradise but stands alone, as I can attest since I have only read this book. Emma has a vivid imagination that allows her to take a “Florida vacation” in an abandoned basement room and to concoct exotic mixed drinks for an ancient relative who lives on the fourth floor of the run-down Hotel Paradise. Emma investigates the suspicious drowning forty years ago of another twelve-year-old and discovers the truth about a couple of other “unsolved” murders while making friends with some unique characters including the sheriff, the suspected murderer, a school principal, and a master mechanic.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Book Review by Lauren Burch
Age 11
Lemony Snicket has just published his latest book in the Unfortunate Events Series, The Vile Village. Other books in the series are The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, and The Ersatz Elevator.
I find these books full of excitement, even though it’s not so happy. I wouldn’t recommend these books for those who prefer happy endings. I, however, believe the books symbolize that life isn’t always pleasant. I would love to meet Mr. Snicket and find out the real reason he writes such unhappy tales. To learn more about the Unfortunate Events Series, log on to
www.lemonysnicket.com.
Book Reviews by Christine Pendleton
The following are from the Young Adult Section of the library:
Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule
Harriette Gillem RobinetFollowing Lincoln’s proclamation that the slaves in the south were free, Gideon returns to the plantation to lead his young crippled brother and several other former slaves in search of the free land General Sherman had promised freed blacks. After many troubles, including Night Riders trying to force all the former slaves back onto the plantations, they locate a Freedman’s Bureau and are given some land. The summer is spent raising vegetables and cotton, building a house, going to school, and hiding from Night Riders. Eventually the land is taken from them, but they have grown in independence and the ability to take charge of their own lives.
Blue Hole
G. D. Gearino
Charlie Selkirk grew up with a tremendous amount of guilt following the drowning death of his 5 year-old brother. Deserted by his alcoholic father, shut out emotionally by his guilt-ridden mother, Charlie is an excellent student but gets kicked out of school shortly before graduation. Charlie meets Tallasee, a young widow who is an award-winning photographer. She hires him for the summer and they are involved in a search for a young man who goes missing from a commune. This tale of arson, murder, and intrigue, is set in a small Southern town with its complicated relationships, loyalties, and deceptions.
Downsiders
Neal ShustermanUnder the streets of New York lies a strange and secret world called the Downside. Talon, a teenager, knows it is forbidden to go topside, but he ventures there to obtain medicine to save his little sister’s life. In the process he meets Lindsay, who has just come to the city to live with her father and stepbrother. Talon sneaks Lindsay into the Downside, and she is fascinated by the Downsiders’ unique culture. A construction accident threatens the Downsiders’ world. Talon takes on the responsibility of saving his civilization even after his beliefs in its history were destroyed by Lindsay’s research into the Downside’s origin.
Book Review by Christine Pendleton
Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville. A Minstrel Book,
Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster Inc.), New York, 1992.
Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville is an intriguing tale for an upper elementary or intermediate aged reader. William, a foundling living in Toad-in-a-Cage Castle, discovered and became friends with Igor, an aged hunchback resident of the dungeons below the castle. Igor would vanquish his opponents by bopping them with a stuffed bear. A wicked magician had kept the spirits of the goblins of the kingdom trapped in the North Tower for over a century. As Granny Pinchbottom, a mysterious and magical old crone, explained to William, the mischievous goblins had always been a source of energy and joy for the kingdom.After their imprisonment a great gloom had fallen over the land. But a problem developed when William released them from the tower. They were so angry over their imprisonment that they swore vengeance on the humans in the kingdom and especially on Igor because he had unwittingly helped the magician trap them. Granny Pinchbottom sent William on a quest to attempt to make peace with the goblins. His journey to the underground goblin city, Nilbog, with Fauna, a young girl, and Herky, a sometimes friendly young goblin, was full of danger and suspense. When William managed to restore the Goblin King’s head to his body, and the goblins learned that Igor really was their friend, peace returned to the kingdom. The moral of the story seems to be that mischief and energy need peaceful outlets or big trouble could occur.Coville, a former teacher, has written more than three dozen books for children. Our library has several of them including his Teacher Series,
My Teacher Is an Alien,
My Teacher Fried My Brains,
My Teacher Glows in the Dark, and
My Teacher Flunked the Planet. Another series, written on a second or third grade reading level, is the Space Brat Series with
Space Brat,
Blork’s Evil Twin,
The Wrath of Squat, and
Planet of the Dips.
Goblins in the Castle is a great read-aloud book as each chapter ends with an exciting situation unresolved like the old-time movie serials. In addition, the varied cast of characters lends itself to fun vocal interpretations.
Book Reviews by Bernhard Vosteen
Darwin’s Ghost, The Origin of Species Updated, by Steve Jones, Random house, New York, 1999
Darwin’s Ghost, by British geneticist Steve Jones, is in essence a rewrite of the first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Jones follows Origin’s outline, presenting the same hypothesis, but using examples that were not available to Darwin. (Science has come a long way in 150 years–wouldn’t Darwin like to have known about DNA?). The introduction and one entire new chapter belong to Jones, but the other chapter summaries and the final chapter remain as written by Darwin. Jones’ British idioms and style sometimes require a second look, but overall, the reading isn’t difficult. I never cease to be amazed by the “nature of things,” so this is a great book for an information hound like me. Biology students, in particular, will enjoy this work.
Don’t Know Much About the Bible, by Kenneth C. Davis, Eagle Brook (William Morrow and Company, Inc.), New York, 1998Unlike Darwin’s ghost, Don’t Know Much About the Bible, by Kenneth C. Davis, is not a rewrite of the original, Heaven forbid–each version of the Bible is essentially a rewrite. Don’t Know Much is a stand-back-and-take-a-good-look analysis of what we actually know about the bible. What does it really say, and what details have been left out in our Sunday School education? If you are a seminary graduate, you may not find anything really profound here, but for the average occupant-of-the-pew there will be some new insights and understanding. Even if you are not a part of the church crowd, a general concept of what motivates “People of the Book” is part of a good education. Read Don’t Know Much About the Bible. You won’t be disappointed.
