Little Bee

I've had Little Bee by Chris Cleave on my "to read" list for a while - I think it was recommended from someone at Malaprop's (a fabulous bookstore in Asheville). It finally came out in paperback a few weeks ago and I read it in just a few days.

Little Bee, a teenager from a small Nigerian village, comes to Britain to find the couple she met on the beach when she was running from the men who had burned her village. Instead, she arrives on the day of the husband's funeral and continues a series of events that were set in motion on that beach.

Cleave rotates narrators between Little Bee and Sarah which brings more dimension to the story. In the end I was left wondering if we do enough as human beings to help others and where our need for self-preservation is outweighed by the need to help someone in more danger.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of those books that I looked at but never picked up. I'm glad I finally did for our March book club.

Set as a fable about a shepherd boy who believes he needs to travel to Egypt to find his personal legend in the pyramids it is really about bigger life lessons. That life is meant to be lived and that often what we have searched for has been right there with us all along.

I read the book and thought 'oh that was a lovely sentiment' and then thought I'd forget all about it, but my sub-conscious had other ideas. That night I had this beautiful dream about attending a wedding on an island that was somewhat dangerous. As we were focused focused on staying safe and doing what the staff were telling us, I looked up through a foggy morning and saw the most beautiful cliff side village. I turned to the person standing next to me and said, "thank you for making me come here. I would never have seen this if you weren't getting married here."

Who it was and where I was, I have no idea, but there was a feeling of overwhelming awe and at the same time a sense of being right where I belonged in the world and very much alive.

I wish I could find that feeling of awe and rightness in my everyday, waking life.

Passing Strange

As most of you know or have at least guessed by now, I am typically a fiction reader. I read non-fiction rarely and if I do it's usually memoirs, but after hearing a segment on NPR, I eagerly picked up Passing Strange by Martha Sandweiss.

Passing Strange tells the story of Clarence King who was a successful geologist at the end of the 19th century but who eventually began to pass as a black man and married Ada Copeland, a black woman. Clarence took on the name James Todd and the profession of a Pullman porter (who were only black men) when he married Ada. Clarence/James never told any of his friends or close confidants of his marriage and subsequent marriage. Everyone assumed Clarence was a lifelong bachelor.

Sandweiss does a good job of retelling Clarence King's story - his success as a geologist, his travels West, his financial troubles and surmising how he managed to live a double life. Ada Copeland Todd was harder to construct. Most likely a child born into slavery, there is no historical record of her until her early 20s. Once she married Clarence King, there is evidence of her children and various homes.

Sandweiss weaves the two stories together effectively and it's clear that she is a dedicated researcher. Like with most non-fiction, I was left wanting to know more about the why and what they felt, but without historical evidence, there is no way to know how Clarence and Ada lived when they were together.

Divisadero

Michael Ondaatje is a genius. The English Patient and Anil's Ghost left me giddy to read his latest novel, Divisadero.

The story begins at a farm in Santa Rosa, CA with three children - Claire and Anna, raised as sisters and motherless and Coop, a boy who was left an orphan after a tragedy on his neighboring farm. The three of them grow up together and yet in one moment the lives they know become ripped apart through love and violence.

We follow Coop through a future of gambling and drifting. We find Anna in France writing about the life of a French poet whose story mirrors the truth of her own.

Ondaatje is a master of prose. I wanted to climb into his words like a hammock in order to be enveloped by their beauty. Lines like "lightning lit up the river like a path through history and she grabbed the boy to stop him from leaping into its brief beauty" and "the three of them, she had always believed, made up a three-panelled Japanese screen, each one self-sufficient, but revealing different qualities or tones when placed beside the others" affirm Ondaatje's magic with words.

Yet, the story left me wanting something more. Some more resolution with Coop, Claire and Anna. I am left with the story of Lucien through which I am supposed to read more deeply into to find the essence of Anna, Coop and Claire's story.

Half Broke Horses

Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls was our February book club selection. Now that we've had our meeting, I can post my review :)

I liked it. It was a quick read and interesting. It was one of those stories I found myself thinking of after it was finished. It is characterized as a "true-life novel" though I think of it more of a fictionalized memoir.

Walls writes the story of his grandmother, Lily, and her childhood growing up in the frontier west. She is a driven, tough as nails woman. Her story was compelling, yet there was something missing. I wanted a little more emotion, a little more feeling. Even though she had to be strong, there was still room for exploring some deeper thoughts, especially since Walls chose to write it in first person narrative and make it fiction.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice and Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

January was mystery month. It felt like all I wanted to read were mysteries, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I picked up the first of the Laurie Kings Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes book and think I'm hooked. The Beekeeper's Apprentice introduces us to Mary Russell, an orphaned teenager living with her Aunt and how she comes to meet a retired Sherlock Holmes. The pair end up great friends and eventual partners in solving crimes. Now I'm curious to learn how their relationship develops.

I also read the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by C. Alan Bradley and recommended by Nancy Pearl (of Booklust fame). This was the first mystery adventure for pre-teen Flavia du Luce, a British Nancy Drew who makes lots of missteps making her sweet and endearing.

Gate at the Stairs

I had heard so much about Lorrie Moore when her first novel in 15 years came out last year. She has a devoted following and the reviews of Gate at the Stairs were good, so I requested it from the library.

I read it over the long weekend and while it was good, I think I just didn't get it. The main character, Tassie, is a college student who gets a job as a nanny/sitter for an eccentric couple thinking of adopting a child. Tassie goes with Sarah Thornbird-Brink, the potential adoptive mom, to meet a few of the birth mothers. And so begins the story of Tassie and the Brinks. All the characters feel self-involved and never concerned with more than what other people think.

The whole story came across as very sterile and more cerebral than emotional. There's so much about this book that could be emotional - a mixed race adoptive child, a cheating husband, a brother going off to join the Army - that I finished feeling like something was missing.

Much of the novel was beautifully written and there were witty, intellectual sections. I will try to read some of Lorrie Moore's short stories to see if I am missing something.

The Hour I First Believed

I have read Wally Lamb's previous two novels as well as the short-story collections he edited by the women in his writing workshop at the York Correction Facility, but I was reluctant to read The Hour I First Believed, mostly because it was marketed as dealing with the aftermath of Columbine.

I am reluctant to read stories dealing with recent tragedies (I still haven't read any that deal with 9/11 unless it's extremely cursory mentions), but after a recommendation from a friend (thanks Beth!) I decided to give it a try and am glad I did.

The novel is set in Littleton, CO as well as the fictional Three Rivers, CT and centers around Caelum Quirk and his third life, Maureen. Caelum and Maureen both worked at Columbine but only Maureen was at the school the day pf the shootings and was severely traumatized by what experienced. As Maureen struggles with PTSD and Caelum flounders to help her, they decide to leave CO and return to the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers, CT.

Once you get past the Columbine incident, there is almost a sense of relief to have the tragedy dealt with, but Lamb has much more in store for Caelum and Maureen. The story is told primarily from Caelum's perspective and because of that there are times you loathe him, times you want to smack some sense in him, but in the end I grew to love him. I cried when the book ended. It felt as if I was on the quest to be a better man and make sense of what happened throughout his life with him.

Lamb is a master storyteller and I hope we don't have to wait another seven or eight years for another book.

Amy and Isabelle

After seeing Elizabeth Strout at a reading of Olive Kitteridge this fall, I bought a copy of her earlier novel Amy and Isabelle.

The novel is about Isabelle and her daughter Amy, who is in high school. Strout explores the relationship between mother and daughter and the secrets between them.

It was an interesting book and Strout plays with the timeline, shifting from the oppressing heat of summer to the chill of the winter before, but Amy and Isabelle isn't as strong a work as Olive Kitteridge.

What Was Lost

I started reading What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn at the beginning of November but put it aside while I was doing NaNoWriMo. Side bar: I ended with ~22,000 words, so less than half way, but it was fun to write again - and I need to find closure for my characters. I worry that they are hanging out there lost.

But back to What Was Lost. It is the story of 10 year-old Kate Meaney who goes missing in 1984. Kate is a loner who pretends she is a private detective with her partner a stuffed monkey dressed in spats. With her vivid imagination and attention to detail, you often wonder how such a girl could go missing. Adrian, the 22 year old clerk at a newsstand and Kate's friend, is the last person to see her when he drops her off for a entrance exam for boarding school and becomes a prime suspect.

Fast forward twenty years later to Green Oaks Shopping Center, site of many of Kate's stake outs. There we meet Kurt, the security guard who thinks he sees Kate on surveillance video and Lisa, Adrian's sister, who has always believed in her brother's innocence, but has struggled since he left after the pressure of being a suspect. Together, they heal many wounds and solve the mystery of Kate's disappearance.

O'Flynn's story is part mystery and part exploration of loss and it leaves you saddened but hopeful.

Juliet, Naked

Nick Hornby's newest novel, Juliet, Naked, keeps with Hornby's style, but I just didn't love it. None of the characters were the least bit sympathetic and I really didn't care what happened to the aging rocker who quit performing 20 years ago and whose one positive attribute is fathering his youngest son after ignoring all his other children with various women nor did I care about the go-nowhere couple in a remote seaside town in England who spend much of their lives trying to find an answer to why the rocker quit.

The most interesting character was Jackson, the aging rockers son, who is sensitive and fears that his father will die and leave him - a valid concern considering his age and the way he has treated his other children.

I was happy when the book ended so I could send these cast of characters back to their sad, pathetic lives and out of mine.

The Believers

I was excited to find a discounted hardcover of Zoe Heller's latest novel, The Believers. Her previous novel, What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal was a smart, suprising story and I expected great things from her latest effort.

While The Believers had an interesting premise it just didn't go far enough for me. The story centers on the Litvinoff family. Joel, a radical New York Lawyer has a stroke and sends his children and wife into a reexamination of everything they thought was true.

Rosa explores Orthodox Judiasm which Heller handles beautifully, but in the end Rosa's reasons and faith never seem strong enough. Karla is in a dead end marriage and begins to explore a relationship with the man that runs the newspaper stand in the hospital where she works. And Lenny, the hard case adopted son struggles with various addictions.

Of course, it wouldn't be a family drama without the discovery of an illegitimate child from an affair which sends Joel's wife Audrey into a tailspin trying first to ignore it and then make it go away.

Are their lives better after the illness and eventual loss of Joel? It's hard to know but they are all changed including what they believe.

The Glass Castle

For a long time, I wasn't interested in reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I think I had read too many memoirs and I was tired of all the "poor me" stories, but after hearing some interviews with the author about her new book, I decided I should listen to the people who recommended it and give it a shot.

Now I can't get it out of my mind. My work as a Guardian Ad Litem exposes me to the lives of people who struggle, but this book was something else all together. The life this child and her siblings experienced is unbelievable and the fact that her parents chose that life for them is even more amazing. But what is truly remarkable is the success Jeanette has experienced despite a childhood of constantly moving, of living in a house with no indoor plumbing and not always being enrolled in school. If you are going to have eccentric parents, it's best that they be voracious readers and encourage inquisitiveness.

Still, the book is well written and is definitely worth getting over an aversion to memoirs to experience.

Brooklyn

I had heard much about the novel, Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, so I requested it from the library. I was able to get it this week and as soon as I did, I devoured it.

Tobin's story is richly told, from the small town of Enniscorthy, Ireland to Brooklyn in the early 1950s. The story centers around Eilis Lacey who is a simple girl living with her mother and sister in Ireland. When the opportunity arises, Eilis heads off to America sponsored by a local priest. As she leaves, she thinks that it is her older sister, Rose, who should really be going, but it is not possible, so she sets of for the journey of a lifetime.

Eilis works in a department store on the sales floor and eventually begins night classes in bookkeeping. She lives in a rooming house, managed by the curious Mrs. Kehoe. Eilis meets an Italian boy, Tony, at a church dance and they begin a romance. Eilis life in Brooklyn is so very different and remote from the life she had in Ireland.

A crisis sends her back to Ireland for a visit and Eilis experiences a pull between the life she has in Brooklyn and the familiar life in Ireland. As she vacillates between which to choose, your heart aches for her - at least it will for anyone who has experienced making the choice of life in the familiar and an independent life where anything is possible.

In the end, I am not sure how I feel about Eilis' decision, but you finish the book hoping the best for her and hoping to see her again.

The Secret of Lost Things

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay had great potential - it is a literary adventure after all - but, as a first novel, it stumbles a bit.

Eighteen year-old Rosemary arrives in New York from Tanzania naive and knowing no one. She finds a job at the used bookstore, The Arcade. The Arcade is full of all sorts of interesting characters - Mr. Geist, the storemanager and albino, Pearl, the presurgical transvestite, Oscar, Rosemary's reclusive crush.

Somehow, Rosemary gets involved in the mystery of a lost manuscript from Herman Melville. At times, Rosemary seems to be maturing, but often she remains unbelievably naive. I would have guessed the story was set in the 20s or maybe as recently as the 60s, but through clues, it is actually set in the 80s.

The story overall is good, it is just Rosemary's part in it that is sometimes unrealistic.

Goldengrove

For reasons I can't explain, I have never read a book by Francine Prose. I have read her short stories and articles, I have Reading Like a Writer but I had never read one of her novels. With that in mind, I picked up Goldengrove and after finishing it I am asking myself, what was I waiting for?

Prose is fabulous and Goldengrove is a wonderfully crafted story. The story explores what happens when a family loses a child. At 17, Margaret is the center of the family - she loves old movies, has a scholarship to study music - so when she dies tragically, her younger sister, Nico, and her parents struggle to deal with their grief and move on. However, the story isn't overly emotional or sentimental, it focuses more on the desire to hold on to the pieces of the person you have lost and how you live without them.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson had been on my reading list for a while, but I finally had a chance to read it after borrowing it from a friend.

The book was a little slow getting started, but once it did, it was a great read and a great mystery. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo includes a decades old murder mystery, family drama, illegal financial dealings and a love story. It also pairs up ladies man Mikael Blomkvist with tatooed punk Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist and Salander are a great pair and I'm anxious to read the next mystery featuring the two of them, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

True Notebooks: A Writer's Year in Juvenile Hall

After making it about one-third of the way through Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry, I became too confused by the Irish history and gave up.

I needed something compelling to read, so I took out Mark Salzman's True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall from the library. It was recommended to me because I enjoyed the two books Wally Lamb has edited from his work at the York Correctional Institute (thanks Kate).

It was told in a different style than Wally Lamb's two books, but I still enjoyed it a lot. Salzman narrates, explaining how he got involved in volunteering at a juvenile hall in LA and shares both good and bad experiences with the boys he works with. It raised so many questions about gangs, the juvenile justice system and the value of programs for kids who will spend their lives incarcerated.

I finished the book thankful for all that I have and all the opportunities I have been given.

The Flying Troutmans

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews was such a fun book - in a kind of dysfunctional, watching a train wreck kind of way.

Hattie Troutman is living in Paris when she gets a call from her niece Thebes asking her to come help. Hattie arrives to find her sister, Min, in the midst of yet another mental breakdown and quickly finds herself in charge of Thebes and her older brother Logan.

After getting Min into a psychiatric hospital, Hattie decides to set off in the family van with the kids in search of their father who's last known whereabouts was South Dakota.

Throughout the road trip, Hattie, Thebes and Logan learn much about each other and develop a closeness that is touching.

A quick read that is over before you are ready for it to be.

A Border Passage

For September's book club, we read A Border Passage by Leila Ahmed. I only made it halfway through the book, as I found Ahmed's writing confusing and her not a very believable memoirist.

The rest of the club loved the book, so I feel like I missed something. I am going to hold onto the book and listen to an interview with Ahmed on "Speaking of Faith" and maybe it will make more sense.