Devourer of Books

The Lost Hours by Karen White

Piper Mills used to be a world class equestrian, headed for the Olympics until she had a bad fall from her horse, from which she never recovered emotionally.  When her grandfather dies, her grandmother with Alzheimers quickly follows, leaving Piper all alone in the world with nothing but her bitterness.  When Piper’s grandparent’s lawyer brings her a small charm left to her by her grandmother, Piper begins to wonder for the first time what sort of life her grandmother led, leading her down a mysterious path, trying to determine the cause of a falling out between her grandmother and her best friend when they were just young women.

This was a really enjoyable book.  All of the characters were fantastically written and the plot itself was very interesting.  The mystery was perfect.  There was enough of it that I could deduce on my own, which I always enjoy.  It wasn’t one of those crazy, convoluted mysteries that doesn’t make any sense, but something that could have actually happened in the place and time that Piper’s grandmother and her friends lived.  Even though I got a lot of it on my own, the way that White filled in the details was fantastic.  I also really liked that this novel dealt with things like depression, death, mourning, fear, racial tensions, and privilege.

This was a great, engaging read.  It dealt with a lot of difficult topics without getting overly heavy and it was well-written and smart.  Definitely a winner.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

The Belly Dancer by DeAnna Cameron

Dora is newly transplanted from New Orleans to Chicago.  Although her mother’s family is from money, she and her mother were reduced to running a guest house after her father’s death.  Now that she has married Charles Chambers from Chicago, she is restored to what she and her mother see as her proper place in society.  Charles is pursuing a Vice Presidency at his bank and has arranged for Dora to be on the World’s Fair Board of Lady Managers in order to bolster their social position.

Chicago society is quite different than what Dora is accustomed to in New Orleans.  In addition to trying to navigate the often choppy waters of female society, Dora’s assignment for the Board of Lady Managers is to enforce proper conduct in the Egyptian belly dancing exhibition – not an easy task due to the prejudice against the belly dancers.  However, Dora’s time with the belly dancers begins to change her, making her more comfortable with herself and giving her more self-esteem to deal with those in Chicago society who treat her poorly.

I really enjoyed Cameron’s descriptions of the World’s Fair and the belly dancing exhibition.  She clearly did her research and seemed to describe late 19th-century Chicago society well.  The romance aspects of the book, including Dora’s self-discovery and an affair aren’t as much my speed, but I still found the book as a whole very enjoyable.

Cameron based her story on the legend of the belly dancer Little Egypt who may or may not have performed at the World’s Fair and created an historical romance around it.  I think that this would be enjoyed both by those who enjoy historical fiction that gives them a sense of a period and those who enjoy a romance without too much sex.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Karen is the author of the great book “Janeology” which I reviewed in 2008.  This is her second guest post on this blog.  In addition to being an author, she also has a fun blog of her own.

Recently, I was at a reunion cocktail party. An old friend had read my novel and approached me by saying, “I can’t believe that story came out of your brain!”

This comment could be interpreted several ways, but I chose to be flattered. I think most writers secretly wish that those who know them are surprised by their ideas. And of course, following their surprise comes the question, “Where do you get your ideas?”

Most writers have probably heard this question, too. There’s no one answer to this question, but when I was ironing the other day, a “what if” idea popped into my head. So I thought I’d tell you how that nanosecond of an inspiration might make its way into a novel or short story.

Here’s what happened.

I was ironing a shirt for my daughter. For some reason, my brain receives good ideas while I’m ironing or blow drying my hair. Must be the heat. Anyway, I’m doing the back and forth thing, zoning out, skimming over my mental calendar. I think about my hubby’s upcoming 4-Wheel Bronco trip (he’s an off-road enthusiast with a SWEET rebuilt Bronco). I think about how fun it might be if he invites our next door neighbor’s 12 year-old son to go along with him. He’s a Boy Scout and the prospect of charging over giant granite rocks inside a vehicle with tires that are more than half his size would be right up his alley. Then the mamma bear in me thinks, well, what if he got hurt? I would feel terrible. His mother is one of my best friends. She and her family moved back to the U.S. from Israel when her son was four so he wouldn’t be compelled to join the Israeli Army when he became a man. Like most moms, she’s gone to great lengths to protect the son she loves.

Then, the magical story palette appears and I start choosing colors.

What if a man took his neighbor’s son on a trip and he was accidentally killed or injured? What would that do the relationship of the neighbors – particularly as they watched their other kids grow up? Could they still be friends? Would someone have to move? Would both women carry different versions of Mom Guilt with them forever? What would it take to heal? What if the mom who didn’t lose a child was somehow more damaged as a result of this event while the mom who lost her son achieved peace?

Suddenly, I was very interested in the human drama that would play out between these two families in a Jacquelyn Mitchard kind of way. And if there is a story you want to read and it hasn’t been written, you can write it yourself, right? Of course you can.

After I finished ironing, I made a few notes about the questions I would have if I were the Gladys Kravitz neighbor across the street. You member Gladys, don’t you? She was the busybody neighbor on the TV show Bewitched and it’s my experience that every neighborhood has some version of this nosy character. If I was Gladys, peaking out from behind my window curtain at the houses of these two neighbors, what would I want to know?

And that’s the genesis of a potential story. For me, it all starts when I’m become curious about something and start asking questions.

Thanks to Jen for inviting me to visit her wonderful blog today!

–

Karen Harrington
Author, Janeology
www.karenharringtonbooks.com

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh

At the beginning of May my bookclub tried something new, a ‘bring the boys’ night.  Normally the club discusses books and wine, but we decided to go instead with beer and a boy-friendly book.  For our book we chose “Gang Leader for a Day” by Sudhir Venkatesh, partly because we thought the boys would find gangs interesting and partly because it takes place in Chicago (my husband and I are the only ones from the ‘burbs, everyone else actually lives in Chicago).

As far as being a boy-friendly book, “Gang Leader for a Day” definitely fit the bill.  My husband was a bit skeptical, but once he started it, I’d come into our room in the evenings and find him laying on the bed, engrossed in the book.  He isn’t a huge reader, but when something catches his attention, he’s all about it.

Sudhir Venkatesh was a grad student in Sociology at the University of  Chicago when he got involved in a gang.  Okay, that’s a little dramatic.  What actually happened is that he went into the poor neighborhoods surrounding the U of C and began asking people what it felt to be poor and black (seriously).  Turns out that’s maybe not such a good idea, as he was basically held hostage by a gang who thought he was Mexican and a spy for a rival gang planning a drive-by.  Strange as it may seem, the kidnapping doesn’t end up being all bad.  Through it, Sudhir meets the charismatic gang leader J.T. with whom he will spend an inordinate amount of time over the next few years and through whom he will get access to the Robert Taylor projects for his thesis on the economy of poverty.

This book was really interesting and I’m glad I read it, especially living in Chicago and having taught very close to where the events of this book took place.  That said, it did disappoint me in some ways.  Sudhir’s story was very interesting, but I expected him to grow as a person or learn something during his sojourn in the projects with the gang.  Either that, or I expected that he would write his experiences with a story arc.  Either way that would have made the book more memoir-ish, since it seemed too subjective for a real sociology book.  Interestingly, this lack of growth/story only bothered the girls in our group and none of the guys.

Definitely an interesting peek int the real life of gangs and projects in Chicago.  There is some absolutely heartbreaking stuff in here, and it helps you understand how people do reprehensible things to survive.  Pick it up as an interesting study, but don’t expect really stellar writing or much of a story arc.

Buy this book from:
Powell’s.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Okay, so wow.  I guess Trish and Amy were right about this book.

“The Hunger Games” is set in a dystopian future/alternate present(?) of the United States.  Instead of the country with which we are familiar, now all that is left is Capitol City and 13 districts surrounding it.  Oh, except that District 13 was annihilated when the districts attempted to revolt against the Capitol as a show of the Capitol’s power.

After the ill-fated rebellion, the Capitol instituted the Hunger Games to remind the districts of their power on a yearly basis.  Each year, one girl and one boy are selected from each district to participate, with the odds of being chosen ‘favoring’ older kids from poorer families.  Kat’s family is certainly poor since her father, a miner, died, but she never imagined that her younger sister would be selected as a representative, a ‘tribute’ in the games.  When Prim is selected, Kat volunteers to take her place without even thinking and is thrust into the world of the games, an arena in which 24 teenagers compete to survive and to kill off their competition, to be the last person standing and be the champion, all televised for the enjoyment/subjugation of the populace..  Think Survivor meets The Running Man meets The Most Dangerous Game.

Against her better judgment, Kat ends up in an alliance with Peeta, the boy tribute from her district, playing at being star-crossed lovers to win the approval of the audience and a greater possibility of sponsors and gifts that will help her survive.  As her feelings for Peeta become more complicated, so too does the thought of her possibly having to kill him in order to survive and win the games.

I knew all along that I was enjoying the book, although I didn’t really pick up on just how much I was enjoying it until it ended (the fact that I read the whole thing in 24 hours during the work week should have clued me in).  I suppose I was too caught up in it to even realize that I was so caught up in it.  When Collins left me with her cliffhanger ending, I wanted to yell “no!” and curse the fact that the sequel, “Catching Fire,” won’t be out until September.  “Catching Fire” isn’t even in my library’s system yet, so I’m currently checking every day, waiting for it to be added so I can get at the front of the holds list.  However, I’m actually tempted to go ahead and preorder “Catching Fire” from Amazon, something I’ve only ever done with the last Harry Potter book, because I just want that badly to read it.  (Okay, since I wrote this, “Catching Fire” DID become available at my library, I’m the 8th hold on 5 copies, although I’m still tempted to preorder this, Harry Potter 7-style).

“The Hunger Games” is a young adult book, but with enough depth, character development, and excitement for adults.  I’d tell you to go read it now, but perhaps you should put it off until September, when you can jump straight from “The Hunger Games” to “Catching Fire.”

Buy this book on Amazon.
Preorder the Sequel on Amazon.