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.

I'll Fly Away

I am reading the new collection of stories from the women of York prison, I'll Fly Away, edited by Wally Lamb.

It is such an engrossing and compelling set of stories. The rawness of the women and the courage they show by sharing these stories is inspiring.

Telex from Cuba

Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner opened me up to a whole world I knew nothing about - American expats living in Cuba before the Castro era.

It's a well-written and engrossing book and I especially liked the two narrators who were children. There was just something so compelling about hearing what was going on from their point of view - free from bias and racism - though flawed by what they could not understand. The other two narrators are Rachel K, a cabaret dancer, and a french arms dealer. I found the adult narrators less believable and unsympathetic.

KC Stites and Everly Lederer provide the children's point of view from the two American interests in the east of the island - the United Fruit Plant and the Nicaro Nickel Plant across the bay. KC was born on the island and has never known any other life. His brother Del has runaway from home to join the rebels in the mountains. A display of rebellion from the privileged life he has led amongst so much strife.

Everly Lederer comes with her family from the Midwest when she is eight. Gawky and socially awkward, Everly is inquisitive and accepting of the island and the people she meets.

Everyone's story culminates with the revolution. I was left with a wonderful postcard of life in Cuba in the 1950s.

About Alice

About Alice is Calvin Trillin’s homage to his late wife, Alice. I have not read much of Trillin’s other work, but Alice apparently plays a key role throughout his works. This one is certainly a loving remembrance of who she was and her impact on his life.

It is a very touching story and relationship - one most of us aspire to. It’s a short book (78 pages) and after completing it I was interested to read Alice’s famous work “Of Dragons and Garden Peas” about coping with serious illness, in her case lung cancer. She seemed to have been a remarkable woman married to a remarkable man.

Sarah's Key, And Then There Were None and By a Spider's Thread

Summer vacation reads

A successful week at the beach is, of course, measured in part by the number of books I read (along with my tan). This year was mystery themed (along with one WWII novel mixed in).

By a Spider's Thread, Laura Lippman
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie

The Evening is the Whole Day

The Evening is the Whole Day by Preema Samarasan is a beautifully written book set in Malaysia in 1980. It centers around the Rajasekharan family and their many secrets.

Asha, the youngest of three children, is the central, and most relatable, character. She sees ghosts, feels very misunderstood by her family and scorned by her older sister’s cold shoulder.

In the end, the book sets up some huge secret which led to misunderstandings and life changing impacts, however when it is revealed, it doesn’t seem as dramatic as I expected. Still, it’s a gorgeous book and worth a read.

The Beach House

After reading the Camel Bookmobile, I started reading The Evening is the Whole Day which is a great book, but found I needed something quick and light. So I picked up The Beach House by Jane Green.

Set in Nantucket, The Beach House is a sweet tale of lives falling apart and then coming together again in the most unexpected ways. Nan Powell owns a gorgeous old house which she finds she can no longer afford, so she turns it into a B&B. She brings together a group of people, including her grown son, who quickly become entwined in each others lives and become a surrogate family.

Camel Bookmobile

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton is our July selection for my book club - and it was my pick.

It was a lighter read than I expected, but was probably a good choice for a July/summer read.

The story centers around Fi Sweeney who leaves her job and life in NY to launch the Camel Bookmobile in Kenya. She's looking for something interesting and more exciting in her life than the stable, predictable boyfriend and job.

Since this is her purpose, along with making a difference in the lives of Africans living in the bush, it's not surprising that she has some interesting experiences and almost forces a meaningful adventure.

Fi visits many nomadic camps but she becomes drawn to Mididima and the people there - the teacher, his assistant, the young Kanika and Scar Boy. All have a stake in keeping the camel bookmobile coming to their village and eventually their desires and motivations come to a head and none of them will ever be the same.

But questions remain on the importance of "western" education in a nomadic village such as Mididima.

Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is a collection of short stories that are all connected through a small Maine town and the title character, Olive Kitteridge.

The stories tend to focus on people in their 50s through 80s, so while all are interesting and very well written I found them a bit depressing. None of the characters in their "twilight" years seems very happy and there are many examples of strife and loneliness in their relationships.

I still recommend it as it is a wonderfully written selection of stories, however be prepared for some potential melancholy feelings to arise.

A Separate Peace

Each summer I look through the Summer Reading selections at the local bookstores to see what is new to the list and to see if there is anything I have missed.

I realized a few years ago that I have never read A Separate Peace by John Knowles and I finally picked it up this year.

I don't know what I was expecting, but A Separate Peace was a bit disappointing. Maybe reading it at 34 in 2009 resulted in me missing the meaning. However, I was reminded a lot of Dead Poets Society which brought me back to the summer of my sophomore year when I watched it repeatedly and basically had it memorized.

I'm probably insulting many people with that comparison, so apologies in advance.

Mudbound

Mudbound by Hilary Jordan has been on my reading list for a while, so when I found a discounted hardcover I snatched it up.

Laura believes she is destined to be a spinster, teaching school and being aunt in Memphis in the 1940s. But when she meets Henry McAllan her plans change and they are quickly married. Laura is happy living in Memphis caring for her two girls and her husband until her husband comes home and tells her that he has purchased a farm in the Mississippi Delta.

Laura's life quickly changes at the farm, which she and the girls name "Mudbound" since it is always muddy and the bridge into town becomes impassable with every rain. The farm has no indoor plumbing or any other modern comforts.

Life at the farm is complicated by Pappy, Henry's racist, mean-spirited father; Jamie, Henry's brother who returns from the war with traumatizing memories; Hap and Florence Jackson the black share farmers on the land; Ronsel, the Jackson's son who has also returned from Europe where his race didn't matter like it does in the Delta.

Add in alcoholism, a love affair and the Klu Klux Klan and the story quickly speeds to the climax and a tragic outcome that leaves no one at Mudbound unchanged.

A great story and wonderfully written from the perspective of each of the major characters.

The Clothes on their Backs

The description on the back and the cover art of The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant led me to believe that this book would be very different than it turned out to be.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the book actually turned out to be better than I imagined it would be.

Vivien Kovacs is the bookish daughter of Hungarian-refugee parents in London. Her parents live a quiet, secluded life as if they are afraid that they will be found out. Vivien longs for more and goes off to college and has a short marriage, at which point she returns to her childhood bedroom.

Depressed and lost, Vivien remembers a tumultuous visit from an uncle who her father would not let into the house. He continued to refuse to talk about this mysterious Uncle even as he is all over the papers durning a high-profile trial where he is accused of being a slumlord.

Years later, Vivien sets out to meet Sandor but is not fully honest about who she is. Through her involvement with Sandor, she is exposed to new people and new experiences and she learns much more about her parents and their lives in Hungary.

A fine story, but nothing amazing.

The Archivists Story

The Archivists Story by Travis Holland is our book club read for June. It takes place in Moscow in 1939. It is a bleak time under Stalin's rule and with Hitler looming across the border.

Pavel is a former teacher who's wife was killed in a tragic train accident. As Pavel deals with his wife's death, his mother's dementia and worries about various friends being killed for their political belief, he worries about his own future.

His job as the archivist of Lubyanka prison requires him to incinerate the writing of both major and minor Russian writers who have been imprisoned there. When he comes across an unclaimed work from an author who's work he used to teach in his classroom, he suddenly risks everything to protect what he values most.

A compelling, tragic work of fiction.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I originally picked up The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery in a bookstore when I was traveling in CA. I didn't buy it then, but I was intrigued by the first two chapters I had read and had it on my "to read" list.

I finally purchased it at the Brookline Booksmith a few weeks ago and finished it quickly.

The novel is set in a apartment building in Paris. Madame Michel (Renee) is the concierge for the building who pretends to be dumb and uncultured because that is what she believes her tenants expect from their concierge. However, beneath the facade lies an intelligent woman who loves books, movies and art. She is fond of Tolstoy, so much so that her cat is named Leo after the author.

Paloma is a 12-year-old tenant of the building who has decided that she will commit suicide because she is dismayed by the adults she is surrounded by and what life has to offer. She is too smart for her age and pretends, like Madame Michel, to be dumber than she is. She despises her pretentious older sister and her mentally unstable mother. But she sets out to record interesting things about the world in her journal before she dies.

Renee's and Paloma's worlds intersect with the arrival of Karkuru Ozu the new tenant in the building. Kakuru sees through the facades of both and draws them out.

At times the novel felt a bit clumsy with long soliloquies on philosophy, but by the end I was glad I had stuck with it to see the transformation of Renee and the change in Paloma's view on life.

In the end, this is a tragedy, so be prepared for the non-Hollywood ending.

A Story of a Marriage

You MUST read this....

They have a segment on NPR of this name, and I'm stealing it for the book I just finished. A Story of a Marriage by Adam Sean Greer is amazing.


It is one of the best books I have read in a long time and while I don't want to give too much away, I will say it is full of surprises. It is a wonderful story of Pearlie and Holland Cook shortly after World War II. It chronicles their marriage and is touching in so many ways.