Coming across my desk are two new ones!

I await two new review copies from authors I adore. I received confirmation yesterday and today that they are coming, one electronically and the other in hardcover (!).

"small great things" by Jodi Picoult.

Summary:

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.

You can read an excerpt here. "small great things" will be released October 11, 2016 by Ballantine Books.

The second, and the hardcover, is the latest by Herman Koch. I adored his "The Dinner", and can't wait to read "Dear Mr. M". This book was released yesterday.

Summary:

Mr M is being watched. As a famous writer, he is no stranger to the limelight, although interest in his work has been dwindling of late. His print runs are smaller than they used to be, and so are the crowds at his bookshop signings. But there is someone still interested in Mr M and keeping an extremely close eye on him—someone whose own story bears more than a passing resemblance to the plot of Mr M’s bestselling thriller, in which a teacher has an affair with a student, only to be brutally murdered by the girl and her teenage boyfriend. In Mr M’s book, the body is never found—but in real life, bodies have an awkward habit of turning up.

Listen to or read an interview with Herman Koch about the book here.

Stay tuned for my reviews of these two!

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Summary:
 With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).

 

A must-have for every science fiction and fantasy fan, this beautiful book is an anthology to savor.

My take: 5 looks

It took me a while to read this one because I had to pause at the end of each story, sometime for days, to think about it, mentally study it, and allow it to enter my memory stores where it wanted to reside. The stories are varied in length, are wide in range and subject, and are all unforgettable.

When I started with "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species", I knew this would be unlike anything I'd read lately. And it just got better from there. A sly combination of history lesson, science fiction, revisionist history, and social commentary, Liu deserves every award and accolade he has received for this compilation, which are numerous.

I highly recommend this gem. Here are a few memorable quotes:

• "We have always faced a precarious existence, suspended in a thin strip on the surface of this planet between the fire underneath and the icy vacuum above." Mono No Aware
• "The desire to freeze reality is about avoiding reality." Simulacrum
• "...a boy stands in darkness and silence. He speaks; his words float up like a bubble. It explodes, and the world is a little brighter, and a little less stiflingly silent." A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel

 Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Summary:

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island's Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl's fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

My take: 5 looks

Loved the very idea of this book before I bought it. Very rarely do I want the physical book enough to seek it out (electronic copies are more my "immediate speed"), but I read this one with highlighter in hand, and will keep it on my shelf for re-reads.

But I get ahead of myself.

Written in epistolary form, for which I am a sucker, the fictional island of Nollop read amazingly like it was set in my own tiny community. The people are wonderfully real, cleverly written, and react in much the same way we all do: immediate compliance to rules, followed by a bit of questioning, followed by a concerted effort to change what we find disagreeable. Because of the story flow, I had to read the last several pages aloud to hear the phonetics of the words and understand the sentences. I loved the interactive nature of the end!

While this book is very witty and introduces words both real (rarely used, which I will have to look up later) and imagined (warning: I may now work some into my own lexicon), the very sly commentary on what we venerate struck a deep chord within me. In an very subtle style, Dunn makes profound observations on the corruption of power, blindly following rules, the view of an outsider looking in, and finally, the dissolution of status quo. And all in such an entertaining and engaging story.

Thanks to my friend Lara for the recommendation, and I am now passing the recommendation on to you!

Omnia by Laura Gallego, Jordi Castells (Translation)

Summary:

Where else but Omnia would a boy go looking to replace a one-of-a-kind stuffed bunny that happens to be his baby sister’s favorite toy? Scrolling through the online retailer’s extensive inventory, Nico finds what looks like a perfect match, but the item is lost somewhere in the vast Omnia warehouse. He doesn’t believe it, so he stows away in a shipment being returned to the warehouse to search for the bunny himself.

Nico quickly gets stranded on the island of Omnia, a fantastical place that does much more than sell everyday items. It is a hub for a business with intergalactic reach, and while stray visitors to Omnia are welcomed warmly, they are not permitted to leave, ever.

The adventure of a lifetime awaits Nico as he searches for the beloved toy and tries to find a way to return home.

My take: 5 looks

Read in one sitting, this book brought smiles to my face over and over again.

Nico feels bad about inadvertently putting his sister's favorite stuffed animal, one from his mother's childhood, no less, in the pile for donation. When he searches for a replacement, there are none to be found. However, his friend Mei Ling reminds him of an Amazon-type site called Onnia, who boasts to have "Anything you could ever dream of."

Through a series of decisions, calculations, and tumbles, Nico finds himself in the middle of the Omnia world, with robots, aliens, new friends, odd items, and lots and lots of rules. It seems that Nico will never be able to find his way home, much less the bunny which started the adventure in the first place.

Told with such wit and cleverness, this is the perfect book to read aloud to upper-elementary or junior high students. A thoroughly delightful tale, this is highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley for a pre-release galley of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

Summary:

The Fault In Our Stars meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Seventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko is a life-long resident of the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. For the most part, every day is exactly the same for Ivan, which is why he turns everything into a game, manipulating people and events around him for his own amusement.

Until Polina arrives.

She steals his books. She challenges his routine. The nurses like her.

She is exquisite. Soon, he cannot help being drawn to her and the two forge a romance that is tenuous and beautiful and everything they never dared dream of. Before, he survived by being utterly detached from things and people. Now, Ivan wants something more: Ivan wants Polina to live.  

My take: 3 looks

What an odd book. I don't totally disagree that it's The Fault in Our Stars meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next. However, I think that diminishes the worth of this book on its own. It is nicely written and easy to read from a structure perspective. On the other hand, it is very difficult to read. It is, after all, a slice of time in the life of an institutionalized 17-year-old child of Chernobyl. If you don't know exactly what that means, look it up on the internet.

Ivan struggles with a strong mind in a horribly broken body. He even laments this, commenting that most of the other children in the hospital are spared the horror of what they are because they don't have the mental faculty to understand. Ivan has a nice cadence to his days, dealing with new patients, trying to determine who will die within three months, and be abreast to all of the personal business of the nurses.

In walks Polina and everything changes. If there can be a coming-of-age book for a boy with nubs for legs, one arm whose hand has only three fingers, and lack of muscle strength on one side of his face ...  but all of the feelings of a 17-year-old boy, this is it. It is not a sweet story, but shows with occasional harshness the reality of knowing things will always get worse.

I can't rave about this book like other reviews I have seen. It is well-written, and about a subject that doesn't get much page-time. However, it is also not illuminating, doesn't give you any info that you don't already know (even if it's deep in your mind), and will probably not have you rush to the bookstore to see what else Stambach has on the shelves. What it will do, however, is make you think about it for days after the last page is turned.

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson

Summary:

A passionate film buff, our hero’s life revolves around his part-time job at a video store, the company of a few precious friends, and a daily routine that more often than not concludes with pizza and movie in his treasured small space in Stockholm. When he receives an astronomical invoice from a random national bureaucratic agency, everything will tumble into madness as he calls the hotline night and day to find out why he is the recipient of the largest bill in the entire country.
My take: 4 looks (and a tiny spoiler alert)

As is my usual, if I read a book in one sitting, it automatically gets 4 looks.

This book was such a treat! An extraordinary premise, to be invoiced for the experiences you've had in life ("You didn't think it was all for free, did you?"), this was unlike any other book I've read. Much like Karlsson's previous novel, The Room, this story is unique, eccentric, sweet, and totally believable ... as long as you suspend belief.

And that is the way of the story. The protagonist, what is his name... how can I not have realized that we never learn his name?? I know his childhood, his great love, moments that he treasures, his favorite scene in his favorite movie ... but never his name.

The genius of Karlsson's writing is so subtle and subversive, it could knock a sphere on edge. This is, I think, a book that you will either love or hate. I wanted a little more, and I wanted to better explore the path that this was all a hoax. Those are the reasons for my review of 4 instead of a 5. All the same,  I very definitely fall in the former category of feeling. Highly recommended.

The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

Summary:

Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbors treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever.

My take: 4 looks

I was riveted by this story. I read several books at a time, and I found myself thinking about this book as I was reading another. I can think of no higher compliment to this author.

Gwen is a lovely protagonist. We are cheering for her, shouting advice, and mourning when she is bereft. I love how she develops and grows in the story, and the perfect combination of backbone and forgiveness she extends. Her husband, Laurence, is an affable character, and deals well with her as a new, young bride compared with also being his second wife. Periphery characters add additional spice to the story, and are completely believable and enjoyable.

The tumult of Ceylon under British rule plays out on the outskirts, but touches the family throughout the story. A bit of an epic, we see the Stock Market crash in New York, prohibition, changes in fashion, and mixed-race marriages. There are so many wonderful nuances to the story, and it is wholly satisfying in the end.

I recommend this and look forward to reading more by Jefferies.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

Summary:

Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner. 

Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost.

When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around?

My take: 3 looks

Vinegar girl is entertaining and very easy to read. A re-do of William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew", it is relatively faithful to the spinster-finds-marriage plot, but that's about it. It is not as experimental as Tyler's other books "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant", "Breathing Lessons", or the beloved "Accidental Tourist".

The Hogarth Shakespeare series now has four titles, and this is the first I have read. Again, it is easy to read and entertaining, but also just as easily forgettable. Kate, Pyotor, Dr. Battista, and Bunny are all just characters in a story already told several times.

At less than 250 pages, it's not a commitment, and you will have another Anne Tyler title under your belt. Recommended summer supplement book.

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

Summary:

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.

My take: 4 looks
When I found out that this story was told backwards, I was immediately interested! There have been books with flashbacks, books with the end told at the beginning, and so on, but this book is literally told backwards. I LOVED that about the storytelling!

Miranda's writing is good, as well. Characters were believable and well-fleshed out. The protagonist's relationship with her father and her brother felt extremely real, and her other various relationships were well-suited to the story.

The action built a sense of dread, as well as enticed me to read faster and faster to find out what had happened "the day before", as the chapters are titled. As promised in another review, I wanted to reread the book from the beginning as soon as it was finished. You know, knowing what I know now...

The only thing I would change here is the title of the book. While I am loathe to voice a problem without a possible suggestion to change, I cannot think of another title that would reflect the jewel that this book is. "All the Missing Girls" is milquetoast compared to the pages between the covers. Something that would grab your eyes from the bookstore shelf. Something that would make your breath stop until you picked it up to read the back summary. I have thought and thought, with nothing coming to mind.

Regardless, pick this one up, suggest it for your book club, and pass it to your friends. It is worth every minute.

Thank you to NetGalley for a prerelease of this book in exchange of my honest review.

Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson

Summary:

Linda Olsson's first novel, Astrid & Veronika, introduced readers to her gorgeous prose, and her extraordinary understanding of human relationships. With her second novel, she once again charts that terrain in a novel that also explores the significant impact of history on individual lives. In Sonata for Miriam, two events occur that will change composer Adam Anker's life forever. Embarking on a journey that ranges from New Zealand to Poland, and then Sweden, Anker not only uncovers his parents' true fate during World War II, but he also finally faces the consequences of an impossible choice he was forced to make twenty years before-a choice that changed the trajectory of his life.

My take: 2 looks

A disappointment from one of my favorite authors. While the writing and structure are absolutely beautiful, the story and characters left me with no sympathy and no desire to get to know them better, as well as very little understanding of what the purpose of the story was.

Adam is grieving the death of his daughter, which happens very early in the story. He is grieving, but we seem to get in on the end of it because there is no sense of heart-wrenching, brokenness, or despair. Instead, I was left with the feeling that since a main aspect of Adam's life was now gone, he simply needed to replace it with something or someone else. And the story centers around this search.

Toward the end of the book, we switch to Cecilia's voice. The woman who gave up her child with no valid explanation. And we never understand why. We never understand what this grief is that Adam claims she has. She comes across as very self-serving, self-absorbed, and everyone panders to her.

All in all, this book is a collection of beautifully crafted sentences and paragraphs, which have nothing at all to say. Not recommended.

Writing techniques

A book is coming across my desk soon for review which uses an interesting writing technique. The story is told backwards. That was enough to make me agree to read and review it.

And it got me thinking about other interesting writing techniques. Here are two of my favorites:

Epistolary - written in letters, notes, emails, journal entries, etc.
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff is one of my faves
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Griffin and Sabine by artist Nick Bantock

Perspective - written from a number of different people's experiences
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

There are so many others: time travel, reincarnation, alternate history (one of my faves), and magical realism. As a matter of fact, there are so many devices available to writers that these genres, subgenres, narrative methods, and perspectives blur when categorizing.

I am looking forward to receiving this book-written-backwards, and will let you know what I think. Meanwhile, what are your storytelling methods?

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

Summary:

Rain is elemental, mysterious, precious, destructive.

It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report; the source of the world's water. Yet this is the first book to tell the story of rain.

My take: 5 looks

I was intrigued by the  premise of writing about rain. Not water, not floods, not weather. Rain. When I started it, I will admit that it was a tiny bit on the dry side (hehe). However, Barnett's skill at segueing from one topic to another, while weaving both scientific facts with myths, stories, and real events soon became quite mesmerizing. I have never used so many sticky tabs in a book to remember to make notes later.

It's hard to resist a sentence that contains "C. Leonard Woolley - think Indiana Jones with high cheekbones and kneesocks - ..."; and this book abounds with them. From the first meteorologists to the de-feminization of the umbrella, the story of rain as presented by Barnett is both educational and compelling.

Oh, and read the book yourself to find out why I am going to start calling windshield wipers "marys".

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Blogging for Books for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Grand Tour by Adam O'Fallon Price

Summary:

Richard Lazar is advancing in years but regressing in life. After a career as a literary novelist that has ground to a halt and landed him in a trailer in Phoenix, Richard is surprised to find sudden success publishing a gritty memoir about his service in Vietnam. Sent on a book tour by his publishing house, Richard encounters his biggest (and really only) fan: an awkward, despondent student named Vance with issues of his own (an absentee father, a depressive mother, his own acute shyness). Soon Vance has volunteered to chauffeur Richard for the rest of the book tour, and the two embark on a disastrous but often hilarious cross-country trip. When things go wrong, Richard and Vance forge an unlikely bond between two misanthropes whose mutual insecurities and disdain for the world force both to look at each other, and their lives, in a more meaningful way.

My take: 5 looks

A beautifully written story of the short crossing-of-paths between an old, curmudgeonly writer with his first taste of fame, and a young writer-in-waiting, still sure that the written word holds for him the promise of a future.

Richard is completely unlikable. He lies, drinks, sneaks, and wears his lifetime of regret like a garment. However, he is very likeable. One of his most introspective moments gave me this great quote:

Of course, it was he who was the pile of shit. He felt, in fact, that he was made of shit. Bullshit, dogshit, horseshit, ratshit, chickenshit. His mental and physical state constituted a sort of Pouisse-Café of shit - an elaborate stratification of shit that comingled to crate a shitty whole that was much shittier than the sum of its shitty parts. Immediate, automatic remorse was the greasy top layer of shit, which  bubbled on top of the churning shit of his hangover, which was generously layered on top of the firmer soil bed of his bad health and drinking and desire for alcohol, which itself sat on top of untold, fossilized geological strata of guilt and fear, decades - a lifetime - of shit. Chapter 5

This gives the reader great insight into Richard. He knows how he is. He knows why he is this way. But, at this point, he feels that he is probably too far gone for any significant change. He is honest about who he is, and he offers this honesty to all those around him, giving them the benefit of his experience.

Then there is Vance. Vance is instantly likable as the neophyte fan who volunteers to pick up Richard from the airport, as Richard begins his first ever book tour. Vance manages to finagle his way into a more substantial spot on Richard's book tour; and, you guessed it, we begin The Grand Tour.

The characters and the writing of this book meld into a wonderful journey. You almost wince at places, and want to turn your eyes to avoid what you know is coming next. But rather than being predictable, it is more of a well-worn path that you choose to walk with these two.

A colorful menagerie of complimenting characters add a nice spice to this main dish, and serves to move the story and characters along on their journey.

Available August 9th 2016 by Doubleday, I highly recommend this one. It is on my list of 2016 favorites. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy for this honest review.

Library Look: A library gone to seed (tee hee)

I LOVE the library! As a matter of fact, I would love to be the cool, edgy librarian who dresses up, plays characters, and lives a life that fosters a love for books in others.

So, I am always so excited to see libraries getting out in the community and making a difference in lives. In this case, the Little Turtle (love that name!!) branch of the Allen County Public Library system in Fort Wayne, Indiana is helping to feed people.

From the January article in the local paper:

The seed library is meant to encourage gardeners of all levels to grow their own, organic food at home for no cost. The library will supply seeds to patrons to plant at home and any food resulting from the seeds belongs to the grower. However, the library does ask that gardeners let a few plants continue to seed and that they return those seeds to the library to replenish the supply.

GREAT JOB Little Turtle!! By the way ... The Little Turtle branch was named after Miami chief Little Turtle, who was born near Ft. Wayne.

Want some weird?

 

Liberty Hardy hits the nail on the head again with her latest post, I Got Your Weird Right Here: 100 Must-Read Strange and Unusual Novels.

In reviewing the list I find that I have read two, Geek Love (loved it) and Mr. Fox (didn't love it).

What intrigues me the most is that I have never, ever heard of most of these. That is particularly exciting for a bibliophile because it means the addition of genres, authors, and subjects to an already juicy bookshelf!

To be fair, bookseller Abe Books also has a Weird Book Room. Their list has more emphasis on weird topics in comparison to Hardy's list of novels with strange storylines. For example, Abe Books can help your dating life with How to Poo on a Date, or perhaps get you there with The New Radiation Recipe Book.

BuzzFeed Books shares this odd-topic-centered listmania with such titles as Learning to Play with a Lion's Testicles: Unexpected Gifts from the Animals of Africa and Be Your Own Dick. However, in all fairness, that last one is about becoming a private investigator. tee hee

So! Keep your Pride and your Prejudice! I am going to settle in with Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis: Like Edward Scissorhands. But with dogs.