Fiction

Week 39: To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

It’s Banned Book Week this week and I am going back into the vault to dust off and return to a classic, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. How this book was ever banned, I just don’t understand. Well, unfortunately, I do. Fear, ignorance, control, and whatever all that mess is that goes into limiting the scope and viewpoints and minds of people, that’s what. And it’s such a shame, because this is a glorious book.


At a time when people weren’t writing like this, Harper Lee put out a beautifully written book about the coming of age of young Scout and Jem Finch the summer their daddy Atticus Finch was set to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman in the small southern spot of Maycomb County, Alabama. And if that isn’t a lot to consider, consider this: It was published in 1960 at a time when race relations where top of mind across the country. Wait now. It’s 2010 and race relations are still top of mind across the country. And 50 years later, this book is still painfully and so importantly relevant.


Now, I know for a fact that I am not likely to shed any new light on Lee’s masterpiece for which she earned the Pulitzer Prize. This book has been read and dissected far too many times and ways for me to have a new little nugget. And while I think everyone has read it, perhaps that’s not the case, so I don’t want to give away any spoilers. Just know this: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, to me, is a story about relationships.


“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something, and don’t you forget it–whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.” Atticus Finch

It’s about how we are supposed to treat one another, not how we aren’t.

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions,” said Atticus, “but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by a majority rule is a person’s conscience.” Atticus Finch

It’s about the similarities people share and in how much greater abundance they are than our differences.

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” Scout Finch

I would encourage anyone to pick this up again; and if you haven’t, don’t delay. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a masterpiece.

 
Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 336
Genre:
By |October 4th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|2 Comments
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Week 38: A Virtuous Woman – Kaye Gibbons

Fall is the craziest time for me at work. It’s my busy season if I were an accountant. My three months of Black Fridays if I were in retail. And it’s a time that I don’t need anything extra going on, but there always is something a little extra. This time it’s an upcoming week off in Boston (timed for the change in season, not my workload) and, of course, this project. So I reached this week for a book I have had for years: A VIRTUOUS WOMAN by Kaye Gibbons.

I fell immediately into this slender love story, told in alternating chapters by Jack Stokes and Ruby Pitt Woodrow, seemingly mismatched lovers with about 20 years separating them. Jack was nothing to look at, but knew the moment he set his eyes on Ruby that she was a girl he could marry. Ruby, having just come out of an abusive marriage was looking for someone safe and kind. It was this connection, a desire to love and be loved, that seemed to work for them.


At the start of the book, we learn that Ruby has succumbed to a difficult and much to early battle with cancer. Jack is stumbling through this loss and it is through his memories and her narrative prior to her death that we learn what a rich love they had, despite or in spite of their circumstances.


A VIRTUOUS WOMAN is a lovely story told with a southern lilt that I always enjoy reading. It’s not a book that will change your world, but one that can take you away from it, if only for a few hours, and expose you to an uncommon but richly told story of enduring love.


Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 176
Genre: Fiction
By |September 26th, 2010|3 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|0 Comments
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Week 36: Hector and the Search for Happiness – Francois Lelord

I think this was the first near miss of a week in the project so far. Not bad, considering I am past the halfway mark. It should be smooth sailing from this point on, right? I should have this whole book-a-week thing down to a science! Not so, dear readers. Not so.


I started the week fully intending to read a certain book that, try as I might, I could not get into. After five days of scratching at the surface of this book, something had to be done. So last night at 5:30 p.m., I made an executive decision. I dumped the once-intended book and headed over to the local neighborhood bookstore to pick up a gift for a friend and hoped to find a workable replacement.


I established just two requirements: It needed to be slender in size and of a subject matter that was easily consumed in less than six hours (not counting sleep and some errands I had to run was all I had until the kiddo came home and I was back on full-time Mommy duty). I know, my options where whittled down between slim and none. Imagine my delight, however, when I came across the very thin spine of this lovely little number with the whimsical cover design and super cute title font. Shallow, I know. But, hey, what’s a girl on a mission (and a rapidly approaching deadline) to do?


Well, this girl read the back cover and snatched this little beauty right up! And she can tell you that judging this sweet little book by its cover worked out like a gem because not only did she finish HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS just in the nick of time, but she found it utterly charming! Okay, enough with the third person weirdness.


HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is French psychiatrist Francois Lelord’s child-like fable about a fictional psychiatrist Hector’s concern with the amount of unhappiness he sees in his patients. So concerned is Hector, that he sets out on a tour of China, Africa and the U.S. (which is never named and only described as “the country of More”) to try and understand what it is that makes people happy in hopes that he can better help his own patients. It is through conversations and experiences with his international friends–and strangers he meets along the way– that he is able to glean a handful of nuggets about happiness.


While written as a fable, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is not a children’s book. Hector encounters real issues faced by adults everywhere, himself included. I found the simplistic style endearing and it made the book work. At the end of the day, many of the things that make us happy aren’t earth-shattering discoveries. They are simple things like being with the ones we love. They are things that, when we allow ourselves to live in the moment, jump out and come into full color and clear focus.


And stay tuned for more Hector. I have just learned that this is the first of a series of Hector books that are soon coming to America!


Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 192
By |September 13th, 2010|4 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|1 Comment
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Week 28: World of Pies – Karen Stolz

The week before you go on vacation always seems to be like regular life, just intensified. Less sleep, more work, less ease, more stress… all just to take a few days off. This week was no different. I was about to pack up the boy and head out to the heartland for a week long visit of rest, cooking out, sleeping in, game nights and sun-kissed skin. I needed an easy book this week, the week before my officially easy week. WORLD OF PIES by Karen Stolz fit the bill perfectly.

This slim collection of stories centers around Roxanne Milner a young girl growing up in small town Annette, Texas in the early 1960s. Each chapter focuses on a time in Roxanne’s life during the critical ages of 12 – 30 something when she’s coming of age and coming into her own. Stolz does a good job creating a picture of Roxanne, her evolving best friendships, awkward first loves and losses all the way into marriage and a family of her own. The town of Annette is charming and a character of its own in the story, with mainstays such as Carl’s Corsets (Roxanne’s father’s lingerie shop and source of embarrassment for her) and Doreen’s (the best place for a burger and malt) which provide the reader a great sense of the community in which Roxanne grew up.

While WORLD OF PIES hearkens back to a seemingly simpler time, Stolz doesn’t shy away from weightier subjects (racism, Vietnam) that are sprinkled throughout the book in a way that remind us where we came from and bring more depth–without overpowering the story–to what could just be retro summer chick lit. But there is a fair amount of chick in this lit and that’s what makes it a perfect summer read. Desserts play a prominent role in WORLD OF PIES, shockingly though, pies are the least mentioned! That was my only complaint with the book. With a title like WORLD OF PIES, I expected them to have more of a feature role. Stolz makes up for this by providing the character’s recipes at the end of the book. A sweet additional treat to an already delightful book.

Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 176
Genre: Fiction

By |July 19th, 2010|3 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|2 Comments
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Week 27: Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian

Just hours after Alice Hayward is baptized, she’s found strangled to death in her home. Sitting a few feet away from Alice’s body is her also-dead husband George, his brains blown out against the living room window in what appears to be a murder-suicide. And so starts SECRETS OF EDEN, a really hard-to-put-down and engaging page turner by Chris Bohjalian the author of MIDWIVES and THE DOUBLE BIND.


SECRETS OF EDEN wastes no time setting up the story and leaving the residents of small town Haverville, Vermont (and the reader) left to try and understand what would cause upstanding community business leader George Hayward to snap so violently and inflict such pain and devastation, all the while leaving behind a 15 year old daughter, Katie. Yet there were a few people who knew what happened behind the closed doors of the Hayward home and it’s Bohjalian who utilizes four of these individuals to tell the story of their tragic ending. First up is Reverend Stephen Drew, a trusted confidante, aware of the pain and strife Alice encountered. Second is Catherine Benincasa, Haverville’s resident attorney called in to investigate the deaths (and already aware of the restraining order Alice had requested just months before her passing). Spiritual self-help author du jour Heather Laurent, herself an orphan due to domestic violence, enters the fray with hopes of supporting Katie. And finally, thoroughly devastated Katie herself.


Employing this multi-narrative strategy to tell the story could have been a mess, but proves otherwise due to Bohjalian’s ability to believably create four wholly unique individuals with different and often conflicting points of view. As each narrator spoke in first person, it established an intimacy that had me feeling like I, too, was a fellow resident or friend listening in and maybe even participating in the gossip that comes with such a scandal. I was also able to see the blind spots and gaps in each of their perspectives, as an effective first-person narrative allows you to do, and slowly piece together what I thought happened between Alice and George.


Now, I won’t tell you if I was successful in determining the conclusion. I will tell you that SECRETS OF EDEN was a quick read, perfect for a lazy summer weekend when you want to shut off the TV and delve into a story rich with character development and full of intrigue.


Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 384
Genre: Fiction
By |July 12th, 2010|4 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|3 Comments
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Week 23: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley

I have always enjoyed a good mystery. It started with the classic Encyclopedia Brown mysteries of my childhood and grew to enjoying the likes of Agatha Christie, Dennis Lehane and Harlan Coben. Now, an expert on the mystery genre, I am not; but I do know when I like something. And I am ready to add Alan Bradley to the list of mystery writers to follow.

A first-time novelist at 70, Bradley has created an engaging heroine in the highly precocious, chemistry loving Flavia de Luce, an 11 year-old super sleuth and the star of THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE. Flavia (Flave) is the youngest of three girls and constantly finds herself at odds with her much older sisters Ophelia (Feely) and Daphne (Daffy). The distance from and desire to terrorize her sisters is a great encouragement for Flave’s love of chemistry, which manifests itself as a passion for poisons. And despite this morbid-sounding affinity, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE is as delightful as the title and a lovely little read on a hot summer day.

 

 

After brief introductions of the de Luce family, the story opens with a mysterious death at Buckshaw, the de Luce’s English estate, and even stranger leave-behind: a dead jack snipe, with a collectible postage stamp impaled on his beak. Flavia’s father is immediately taken into custody and it’s the young girl’s mission to get to the bottom of this mystery, much to the chagrin of all involved.

 

So much of THE SWEETNESS makes it an engaging story: The all-things-English about the setting and its eccentric cast of characters, the turn of events and the smart-aleck leading lady herself. If I had to mark it down a smidgen, it would be that you really do have to suspend your disbelief to fully appreciate that an 11 year old could really have the knowledge, insight and wherewithal to accomplish what she does. But isn’t that sometimes the joy of a good mystery? The ability to get fully engrossed and let a little of the imagination stretch beyond the realm of logical possibility and wrap up to a satisfying conclusion?

 

This self-proclaimed realist must have found a little soft spot at the bottom of the pie.



Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Mystery
Pages: 416
By |June 14th, 2010|3 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction, Mystery|1 Comment
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Week 21: Where You Once Belonged – Kent Haruf

I think I have an author crush. My first experience with Kent Haruf was a number of years ago when I picked up PLAINSONG, a simple and graceful story of discordant lives colliding and intersecting in the small prairie town of Holt, Colorado. He drew me in with his carefully crafted prose and did it in such a way that made beautiful writing seem effortless.


You should know that when I have a literary crush and a penchant for buying books, it’s all I can do to not scoop up all of the works I can by the object of my affection. Such was the case after reading PLAINSONG. I actually got to meet Mr. Haruf at a local book fair sometime back and picked up his two other novels and got all of them signed, PLAINSONG included. Yes, I was hearts all a flutter.


And while I am loyal to the end in my real life, in my literary world, I kinda play the field. Yeah, I get around. I get all enamored with so many different ones and they all just swirl around and come in and out of my life while so many are relegated to patiently wait in the wings and on the shelves, waiting for a chance with me. For what it’s worth, in my heart of hearts I know I will come back for them.


And this week I did just that with Haruf’s WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED. Let me say, after years of being away, he did not disappoint. Let me also say I am a sucker for a story of art imitating life that seems so real you feel like you are sitting just on the fringes of the action watching the events unfold in front of you.


WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED centers on Jack Burdette, an arrogant, impetuous hometown hero whose frequent missteps are brushed aside. But as he grows up under the microscope of small-town living, his life takes turns with effects that are both far-reaching and impossible to imagine. The book opens with Burdette returning to Holt (the same setting as PLAINSONG) after an eight-year absence. The Holt community is angry, resentful and wanting revenge. As a childhood friend and foil narrates the story, the events that take place after Burdette’s unexpected arrival result in a climax that was both shocking and frustrating… and totally believable.


I don’t want to tell too much of the story or give away any more details than just enough that would encourage someone to pick it up. WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED is very different from PLAINSONG and just as engaging. I loved this somber story and all its mess and complication, much the way real life can be. And I also liked that in the end, it was just a story. One that I could safely tuck back on the shelves, or better yet, pass on to another book lover that can appreciate a perfectly constructed, hauntingly told story.

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 176

By |May 31st, 2010|4 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|5 Comments
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Week 18: The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón

So, I have another confession to make: I don’t ever read books again. Well, not ever. But aside from rereading all of Judy Blume’s coming of age novels right after college (which I actually loved just as I did the first time), I typically think it’s too big of a risk to return to something you love for fear that the initial magic will be lost. That’s why I have really only returned–and on just two occasions–to books that I haven’t loved. That’s right. When there’s so much out there to explore, I chose to reread books that I didn’t love.

In my defense, both of the books were critically lauded or at least highly praised and I just didn’t see what the big deal was. Maybe I missed something that everyone else caught. For some reason, I decided they warranted a second look. Well, after revisiting I can tell you that I had misjudged The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank and was absolutely right about Zadie Smith’s White Teeth being a waste of time, at least for me.


I mean, what do book reviewers know anyway? Aren’t we just readers with big mouths? And lots of opinions? And of the mind that people should care about what we think?


Well, this reviewer does know that sometimes there is a book that just knocks your socks off, takes your breath away and requires you to tell everyone about it. It might even change any previously conceived notions you may have held about rereading books. Yep, that’s right (part two). When there’s so much out there to explore, I have found a book worth returning to again, and even possibly again: THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruis Zafón.


I am actually not quite sure one can absorb in one reading everything that is this multi-layered, expertly cast work that is part thriller, love story, fairytale, drama, historical fiction, and modern-day classic. Zafón has written a complex, yet highly readable story centering on Daniel Sempere and a single book he chooses one fateful day during the summer of 1945. Daniel’s bookstore owner father has taken them to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, secretly hidden within the streets of Barcelona, and tells his son to select a book, any book, amongst the thousands housed there. According to the older Sempere, in adopting a book from the cemetery, this once forgotten book will gain new life and live on forever.


Daniel takes the charge seriously and spends a great deal of time walking through the maze of books. He settles on a book titled The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax, a gothic mystery. Having loved the book, Daniel goes on a quest to read all of Carax’s works only to find that the novelist is no longer living. Not only that, the few books he’s written have all but disappeared. Daniel begins digging for answers and learns that he isn’t the only one interested in Carax. His own curiosity sends Daniel on a thrilling yet dangerous journey to uncover the mystery of this Julián Carax, while learning much more along the way.


At the end, and at its heart, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND is a book about books. Our love of books, the importance of books, and the value of the story. There’s nothing like a book that can take you in, transport you to another place and stay with you long after you have returned it to the shelves. In the opening pages of this gem, Daniel himself describes the feelings we experience when we have found a perfect book:


“I lay in the bluish half-light with the book on my chest and listened to the murmur of the sleeping city. My eyes began to close, but I resisted. I did not want to lose the story’s spell or bid farewell to its characters yet.”

Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 487
By |May 10th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|2 Comments
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Week 13: The Help – Kathryn Stockett

It’s a milestone week! By completing this book, I have officially read more in the first three months of this year than I did all of last year. That’s a bit crazy to me and yet, I am feeling really good after the first quarter of this project to read a book a week for an entire year. I still have momentary flashes of my bookshelves caving in on me or having the super ability to read multiple books at once, the words flashing through my eyes like all the images scrolling across an iPad. But I consider these minor psychological casualties and onward I press.

THE HELP came to me courtesy of my book club and was mandated by one of our original members–and my bestie–Claudia. Claudia has wanted to read THE HELP for the past six months and was eagerly anticipating her month to host. And, why not? The book has been quite the talk of the town: A Today Show “10 Must Read Books for Spring”, it currently sits at number 2 on the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller list and in the number 14 spot on amazon.com’s Top 100. And, a gazillion people have given it rave reviews.

All of this, of course, is good news; but it’s also kind of bad. It reeks of hype and overselling and all that, “You have to read this great book–you’ll love it! Everyone loves it! My sister and her friend and her friend and her friend, well, I mean just everyone’s reading it but you, so just read it, okay? You’ll love it; I just know you will. I mean, have you read it already? MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”

Ugh. So, I cracked open my Kindle version of the book and started reading, hoping it hadn’t been ruined by, well, everyone.

I am here to officially report that nobody ruined it. Kathryn Stockett’s novel lives up to the hype machine and she’s delivered a knockout the first time out.

Set in Jacksonville, Mississippi in the early ’60s, THE HELP concerns Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a college graduate returning home in hopes of embarking on a career in journalism; but she’s not quite sure where to start. Unbeknownst to her, there’s a wealth of story brewing right under her very own nose. Skeeter grew up, as did her privileged white friends, with hired help. The maids were brought in and entrusted with a woman’s children, but not the family silver. The racial, socioeconomic and hierarchical lines were strong and clear and become more strained when Skeeter’s best friend spearheads a community effort encouraging white families to build separate, external bathrooms for their help.

Outraged by the notion and sensitive to stepping outside her social boundaries, Skeeter goes underground and slowly gains the trust of maids Aibileen and her best friend Minny to share their stories of what it’s really like to work for a white family. This is extremely tricky and risky, with a number of implications if any are found out. As Skeeter gains the trust of Aibileen, a multi-layered story unfolds. A story that had me cringing and outright disgusted with the actions and attitudes of Skeeter’s friends, and enlightened by the relationship between a family and their help, which is a complicated one, fraught with many different emotions.

Stockett tells her story from the perspectives of its three main characters, using a first person narrative that alternates across the chapters. She is able to capture Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny’s different voices and, because it’s done so effectively, she keeps the story progressing at a rate that I didn’t want to put it down. I actually read the book in just two marathon sittings! I was most impressed with how well developed all of the characters were. Stockett brings their lives to life, showing them as individuals with hopes, dreams and desires, but also with talents and abilities well outside of what others–or they themselves–may expect.

Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 464

By |April 4th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|6 Comments
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Week 6: Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger

Dysfunction, junction… this collection’s a malfunction.

Last week, Mr. I don’t-want-to-be-famous-so-I-am-going-into-hiding-and-this-will-actually-make-me-even-more-famous J.D. Salinger, passed away. At 91, and with just three notable works, he became an American icon of the literary landscape. My project partner in crime Deejah and I decided to honor his passing by reading FRANNY AND ZOOEY, which–surprisingly–neither of us had read.

I will start by saying that I am so thankful my first exposure to Salinger was The Catcher in the Rye. I absolutely loved the angst-ridden, mentally unhealthy Holden Caulfield. It seemed ahead of its time even at the time that I read it.

While Salinger keeps with some familiar themes and territory in these stories, their execution falls nothing short of disastrous. The title characters are the youngest of Salinger’s fictional Glass family. The Glass children, 7 or 9 in total (I honestly don’t remember), grew up in the spotlight while having appeared multiple times on a television quiz show. Now adults, Franny is on leave from college suffering a nervous breakdown and her brother Zooey is… how can I put this? An asshole. Oh yes, they have suffered the ills of growing up in the limelight and the loss of their oldest sibling Seymour (by his own hand), but I am not sure what the reader is supposed to take away from these two stories.

Immediately it felt like I had walked in on on a behind-closed-door conversation that was not juicy, but boringly cringe-worthy. The dialogue is long and the characters long-winded. It came across as overtly pretentious and I just really didn’t care about these indivuduals. Franny is a blubbering mess and Zooey spends the bulk of his story insulting everyone around him in a callous and arrogant manner. I found nothing redeeming about this book except for its slender size and the reality that I could quickly move on to something more enjoyable.

Rating: 1 star
Pages: 201
Genre: Fiction, short stories

By |February 12th, 2010|1 star, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction, Short Stories|2 Comments
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