What is Left The Daughter

By:  Howard Norman

The Press Write Up:  Howard Norman, widely regarded as one of this country’s finest novelists, returns to the mesmerizing fictional terrain of his major books— The Bird Artist, The Museum Guard, and The Haunting of L—in this erotically charged and morally complex story.

Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges—the result of their separate involvements with the same compelling neighbor, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to small-town Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda.

Setting in motion the novel’s chain of life-altering passions and the wartime perfidy at its core is the arrival of the German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Actual historical incidents—including a German U-boat’s sinking of the Nova Scotia–Newfoundland ferry Caribou, on which Aunt Constance Hillyer might or might not be traveling—lend intense narrative power to Norman’s uncannily layered story.

Wyatt’s account of the astonishing—not least to him— events leading up to his fathering of a beloved daughter spills out twenty-one years later. It’s a confession that speaks profoundly of the mysteries of human character in wartime and is directed, with both despair and hope, to an audience of one.

An utterly stirring novel. This is Howard Norman at his celebrated best.

I first read about this book really early in the Summer because it was on Oprah's Summer Reading List.  It looked pretty interesting.  A lot of really big reputable publications were signing the praises of this book and it has 4.5 stars on Amazon.  So when I saw it listed on Netgalley I got a copy of it from the publisher. 

This book made me feel really stupid.  I wasn't getting it.  It says right up there "erotically charged".  What?  Where was that?  Maybe I don't understand the definition of erotically charged?  "Astonishing events?"  There was one event that I found mildly surprising and it really wasn't treated with much interest. 

This book is formatted as a letter from a father to a daughter, so that aspect alone makes the idea of it being erotically charged incredibly creepy.  Mind you it wasn't, but how could anyone address it that way?  Eww.  I suppose this whole story might have been of worth to this fictional daughter, wondering about her father, but as someone completely unrelated to any of the interested parties, I found it completely boring. 

I think a far more compelling story would have been one about the love triangle going on between Wyatt's parents and their neighbor that caused them to commit suicide on the same day.  How tragic is that?  How erotically charged is that?  How morally complex is that?  How INTERESTING is that?  However, that story would not have been an appropriate one for a father to write to his daughter, so maybe that can be Mr. Norman's next book.

The one thing I did learn from this book is that there is such a thing as a professional mourner.  You can hire someone to be a mourner at a funeral.  Weird!

Banned Book Reading Challenge

The purpose of this post is to make it known that I intend to participate in the Banned Book Reading Challenge.  The challenge is to read at least 7 banned books over the next 7 weeks in celebration of the ALA's Banned Book Week.  For further information and to sign up yourself, click on the "Ban This" button on the sidebar.

So far I know I'm going to:

1.  Listen to Fahrenheit 451 on audiobook (halfway done with that) **just want to say this is amazing even though I know I read it in high school I apparently didn't retain any of it, reading it in today's environment is so bizarre.  I highly recommend it**
2.  Read The Giver by Lois Lowry (picked it up at the library)
3.  Read Go Ask Alice (bought it at Borders today)
4.  Read Jay's Journal (Companinon to Go Ask Alice, also bought at Borders today)

What Alice Knew

By:  Paula Marantz Cohen

From Goodreads:  Henry James is suffering through boring drunken dinner parties in London, but when his brother William-renowned for his groundbreaking work in the new science of psychology-is summoned from America by Scotland Yard to help investigate an East End serial killer who calls himself Jack the Ripper, things are suddenly much more interesting.

Their bedridden sister Alice James takes on the role of lead detective, as the three precocious siblings attempt to unravel the true identity of the killer. Searching London high and low, encountering characters both suspicious and ridiculous, they inch closer to a killer neither they, nor readers, would suspect.

I rather liked this book.  The writer has a very clever and witty style of writing that I found to be very enjoyable.  She also used "SAT words".  I'm a reader, I have a fairly decent vocabulary and some even had me grabbing a dictionary.  I like when authors use big words, interesting, exotic words.  This author did that and I appreciated it!  No dumbing down in this book.

The characters were a lot of fun.  Alice was a nut.  Her brother is a famous psychologist and he's got this crazy bedridden-by-choice sister.  Henry and William were clever and interesting without being too know it all.  There were cameos by other famous people of the time like Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain. 

I think if you liked The Alienist by Caleb Carr, you'd probably like this book.  It had the same feel.  Admittedly, that book was not based on a well know case like Jack the Ripper.  I don't know enough about the Jack the Ripper case to know if the conclusion drawn in this book is a common conclusion.  I think not, but it was interesting all the same.

This book will be published on September 7th.  Check it out!  Don't you like the cover of this book?  I think it really captures the spirit of the book very well.

**I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review which I have provided.  I was in no other way compensated.**

Follow Friday

Parajunkee asks what our favorite brick and mortar book store is.  Lately I've most often been going to Borders at Mall of Louisiana because I get really good coupons from them.  After that I go to Books A Million, both locations in Baton Rouge.  I've been trying to throw some business to an indie bookstore I found recently called Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, LA.  It's a little out of my way though and I tend to get much better prices at Borders and Books a Million, but Cavalier House does buy and sell used books.

This week's feature at Follow Friday is Candace's Book Blog...go check it out!





The Blog Hop question of the week is:  Do you judge a book by its cover?  Yes, yes I do.  If it's a poorly done cover, I have to believe the book is poorly done as well too.  If you aren't going to put any effort into the cover, how much effort did you put into the contents?

Space Between the Trees

By:  Katie Williams

Summary:  This story was supposed to be about Evie--how she hadn’t made a friend in years; how she tends to stretch the truth, especially when it comes to her so-called relationship with college dropout Jonah Luks; how she comes into her own once she learns to just be herself--but it isn’t, because when Evie’s classmate is found murdered in the woods, everything changes and Evie’s life is never the same again.

This is one of those books I have a hard time with.  I liked it and I didn't.  I liked the writing and much of it was sort of interesting, but not much really happened.  The one big thing happened in the beginning and that's about it. 

Evie and her new not-so-best friend Hadley spend the rest of the book trying to figure out who killed their friend Zabet.  They go about it in typical teenager fashion with all kinds of drama and teen angst, but not much really happens.  They don't ever really seem to get anywhere.  So, I guess in that respect it's probably a very realistic view of inexperienced teenage girls trying to solve a murder. <---that was mean

Forget You

By:  Jennifer Echols

Summary:  WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . . AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER? There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

I recently won this book from Bless Their Hearts Mom.  I had really high expectations because I had heard such good buzz about this book around the blogosphere.  I was quite disappointed.  I didn't like this book much at all. 

I thought Zoey was just...dumb.  She kept babbling about Brandon being her boyfriend.  Based on what??  You hooked up in the backseat of a car and then you basically never saw him again.  Not even that night.  He walked off, bragged to the guys that he just "tapped your ass" and then drove home with another girl.  There's no more dates or hanging out in school or even phone calls.  One backseat romp does not a boyfriend make...it's called a ONE NIGHT STAND Zoey.

Doug was a little bit better, but he was kinda in the same boat as Zoey.  He had this big grand relationship in his head and obviously Zoey wasn't buying it.  However, I don't fault him as much as Zoey.  Zoey knew what Brandon was Doug didn't understand the amnesia situation with Zoey, which leads me to my next point.

Why couldn't anyone just tell the frickin' truth in this book??  Why couldn't Zoey just say...hey I was in a big wreck and I'm having trouble remembering what happened could someone fill me in?  Why did Mike throw such a fit?  I didn't get it!

The one plus I'll give this book is all the safe sex it pushed.  Yay for that!

Ash

By:  Malinda Lo

From Goodreads:  In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing and romantic, Ash is an empowering retelling of Cinderella about choosing life and love over solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

I completely loved this book!  Retelling of Cinderella?  Fantastic!  Lesbian aspect?  Cool twist!  Fairies instead of a Fairy Godmother?  Awesome!

I thought Ash was a great character.  I didn't think the Stepmother or her stepsisters were horrible enough.  They were, but I didn't find them to be wickedly e-viiillll.  There could have been a little bit more of the Prince going on since that's kind of a big deal in the original story, but I can see why his character sort of fizzled away.

I'd definitely recommend this book.  Fans of Beastly would probably like this book.  It's a quick, easy read.  If you buy it, get it hardcover, look at that cover how gorgeous!

Crossing

By:  Andrew Xia Fukuda

From Goodreads:  A loner in his all-white high school, Chinese-born Xing (pronounced “Shing”) is a wallflower longing for acceptance. His isolation is intensified by his increasingly awkward and undeniable crush on his only friend, the beautiful and brilliant Naomi Lee. Xing’s quiet adolescent existence is rattled when a series of disappearances rock his high school and fear ripples through the blue collar community in which he lives. Amidst the chaos surrounding him, only Xing, alone on the sidelines of life, takes notice of some peculiar sightings around town. He begins to investigate with the hope that if he can help put an end to the disappearances, he will finally win the acceptance for which he has longed. However, as Xing draws closer to unveiling the identity of the abductor, he senses a noose of suspicion tightening around his own neck. While Xing races to solve the mystery and clear his name, Crossing hurtles readers towards a chilling climax.

I had read a little blurb about this book on Goodreads and it sounded interesting so I set out to find it.  Couldn't find it anywhere locally.  Bookstores, libraries, nowhere.  Bizarre!  I talked to the librarian about an interlibrary loan and she said it was too new?  Uh ok.  So she said they would put in a request to purchase it.  Eventually, they got it in.   You needed to know all that right?  I'm disclosing where I got the book!

Overall, I liked the book.  I thought it a little weird.  I kinda thought it would be a little more of a murder mystery and it wasn't really.  I thought Xing would really be actively trying to solve the crime based on the summary, but that wasn't exactly true.  It was more of an awkward teen stumbling over the criminal kinda thing.

I had a lot of issues with the topics of racism against Asians in this book.  It was overkill I thought.  However, I'm not Asian and I don't know what they deal with on a daily basis.  I thought there was way too much focus on Seung-Hui Cho and the Virginia Tech massacre.  I felt like it it was detrimental in two ways.  Seung-Hui Cho is Korean and the main character is Chinese.  If you're writing a book fussing at white people about racism and lumping all Asians together, don't do it yourself.  Secondly, it only mentioned Columbine once.  If you're going to constantly reference school shootings there are a lot to pick from and if you use several, you date your book so much.  By sticking with Virginia Tech so much it puts your book in just one time period.  That's just my opinion anyway.

The Poe Shadow

By:  Matthew Pearl

From Goodreads:  "Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe's family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a crusade to salvage Poe's." "As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances of Poe's demise, he discovers that the writer's last days are riddled with unanswered questions the police are ignoring. Just when Poe's death seems destined to remain a mystery, inspiration strikes Quentin - in the form of Poe's own stories. The young attorney realizes that he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe's death: the real-life model for Poe's brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection." Quentin soon finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving international political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade, and the lost secrets of Poe's final hours. In order to unchain his imperiled fate from Poe's, Quentin must himself turn master investigator.

Edgar Allen Poe fans will find this book interesting.  I found all the history of Baltimore to be quite fascinating and the events surrounding Poe's death to be rather intriguing.  It made me want to go out and reread all of Poe's work to see if I agreed with the author.

I did not really like the main character that much.  He was kind of weak.  I really didn't like the way he treated his fiancee.  He got a spine towards the end of the book, but for me it was a little too late.  However, if you can look past that little annoyance and focus on the rest of the story I think it's worth it.  I did like some of the other characters.  I loved Bonjour.  She cracked me up.

I listened to the audiobook of this book and I thought the reader did a very good job.  Various parts of this book took place in France and he adapted his accent quite well.  There was music in this one too and I don't like when there's music in audiobooks, but it was only at the end of the each book, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

In other Edgar Allen Poe news, John Cusack will be playing the famed author in an upcoming movie called Raven that sounds pretty interesting.

Burning Up

By: Angela Knight, Nalini Singh, Virginia Kantra, & Meljean Brook

4 Stars for the book, but 5 for Meljean's Here There Be Monsters.

In order:

Nalini's Whisper of Sin. Eh... fair to middling. Trying to do too much in too little space. And one of my least favorite schticks made an appearance. The family door mat. While our heroine wasn't overwhelmingly door matty; she was too close to the line for me. Close families don't try to run each other as a sign of affection. Let me repeat this: love does not equal control. Stop it, stop it now. But it's the Psy-Changeling world and therefore a must read. 2 Stars

Knight's Blood & Roses. Angela's Jane's Warlord has a permanent spot on my keeper shelf. I've bought this book 3 times. Mass market, trade (it appeared there with 2 other stories) and once more for my Kindle. She can be brilliant. Unfortunately I haven't seen much of that at all from her lately. Same old same old, but with no soul. No spark! Just words on a page and nothing compelling. I'd venture to say she's also got some Daddy Issues. Which is fine, I know exactly where the bodies are buried in my psyche too. But I'm worried she's drained her creativity well dry. I really really hope I'm wrong and can post a glowing "she's back!" review for whatever she writes next. Two stars.

Kantra's Shifting Sea. Now Kantra's been on my radar for a while, but this is the first of her work that I've read. I will be reading more. Solid, and a very satisfying short. And me likely very much soldiers home from the Napoleonic Wars. 3-1/2 Stars

Meljean is a freaking genius. I was cool to her first 3 full length Guardian books but I've always really enjoyed her short stories. And Here There Be Monsters... I'd pay the cover price for Burning Up if this was the only story in there. She had to do a fair bit of world building, but she handled it so very well. I was torn between reading faster to find out happens next and reading slower and re-reading to savor every word. One tiny little complaint (and that's because I always find something to bitch about) I wish we could've been a little bit more in Eben's head to find out why he fell so hard and so fast for Ivy. I'll re-read, maybe it's there and I'll find it the second time around. I'm absolutely drooling in anticipation for The Iron Duke. READ THIS STORY. READ IT NOW. Ok, maybe wait until the week before Iron Duke releases so you won't be as impatient as I am for it. Oh and screw the Duke, I'm waiting for more Lady Corsair.

Blog Hoppin

This week's question pertains to rating systems.  I don't use a rating system.  I feel too restricted by it.  Every now and then I'm tempted by it, but then when I'm trying to rate a book on goodreads I'm reminded why I don't use it.




Parajunkee asks what the first book we remember reading.  Hmmm...I remember reading some Berenstein Bear books when I was young, but surely before that I was reading something else, but I can't specifically remember reading anything else...maybe Dick and Jane...