The Report by Jessica Francis Kane – Book Review

Aug 312010

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane
Published by Graywolf Press

In 1943, a shelter in Bethnal Green, London became the site of the largest civilian accident of World War II. Citizens of Bethnal Green, anticipating a retaliatory air strike, crowded into the station. Before 9pm, 173 of them were dead, although the Germans did not bomb London that night. After the accident, there was much finger-pointing in many directions: from the lack of light and the late arrival of the constable to the general existence of Jewish refugees. In order to quell unrest, the government appoints the young and popular local magistrate, Laurence Dunne, to conduct a private investigation. He works with surprising speed to create a report he hopes will mend the broken ties of the city in general and Bethnal Green in particular.

When I picked up “The Report,” I expected a competent novelization of a fascinating historical event and mystery. I also expected the account to be somewhat dry, if interesting, based both on the less than titilating title and the fact that it is essentially the story of how a governmental report came to be. Still, I was interested enough in the Bethnal Green tragedy, of which I had never heard before, to give it a go.

How wrong I was to be expecting something dry!

Kane takes an ensemble cast of characters and manages to make all of their stories compelling, without spending so much time on character development that she loses the thread of the story. A major element in this success is the inclusion of a secondary storyline, that of a documentary film maker – who has his own ties to the tragedy – who contacts Dunne to enlist his help in a documentary that will memorialize the 30th anniversary of Dunne’s report. This storyline serves as a nice foil to the primary storyline, moving events along and explaining what is necessary, without being overly expository.

“The Report” is a surprisingly compelling novel about a seemingly unlikely subject. A fabulous read if you are at all curious to explore history and human nature. Highly recommended.

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

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for review.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell – Book Review

Aug 302010

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
Published by Random House

The last thing Gail Caldwell expected to find when training her dog Clementine was a best friend, but that is exactly what she found in Caroline Knapp, and more. Gail and Caroline’s dog trainer suggested then spend some time together because they were so alike. Both women had puppies they’d gotten less than a year ago, they were both writers, both recovering alcoholics, athletic, and incredibly independent. From that fateful meeting, the women formed a lasting bond that would sustain them until Caroline’s death of lung cancer, a short time after being diagnosed.

Released earlier this August, “Let’s Take the Long Way Home” is getting a lot of buzz. While I was at BEA, a representative of Random House listed it as one of the publishing house’s top 5 picks for book clubs this coming year. I must say, for about 140 pages, I didn’t really see it, and that is a long time in a book that is less than 190 pages long.

It also took me about that long to realize what my problem was with it. “Let’s Take the Long Way Home” is billed as a memoir of Gail and Caroline’s friendship, but it was almost more of an extended essay about their friendship, without the strong narrative of many of my favorite memoirs. Not that Caldwell didn’t have a strong voice, she does, but her writing milieu is on the critical side. Caroline was the columnist and memoirist in their relationship. Knowing this I’m not surprised that “Let’s Take the Long Way Home” was so much more like an essay, but it did not grab me as quickly as a more narrative-driven version of this story might have.

Of course, I can imagine that in many was, the essay structure was easier to write than the narrative would have been. There is so much love and pain, friendship and grief in this story, that for Gail to have gone deep into the story of her relationship with Caroline might have been deeply painful. Unfortunately, the pain is much of what makes this story so compelling. It was during Caroline’s sickness and after her death, the last 40 or so pages, that “Let’s Take the Long Way Home” really came into its own. Suddenly the pages seemed to be almost turning themselves, and my heart was fully immersed in this story.

Although I’m sure it would have been infinitely more difficult to write, I wish that Caldwell had been able to infuse more of the emotion from the end of “Let’s Take the Long Way Home” into the beginning of the book. However, even though I more appreciated the book for what it was than truly loved it, I think it is a must-read for any woman who has lost a close friend.

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

This review was done with a book received at BEA.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

TSS: I Flew Away with the MOCKINGJAY (no spoilers)

Aug 292010

Well, if you follow young adult fiction even the tiniest bit, or if you’ve been reading any book blogs lately, you’ll probably know that this past Tuesday was the release date of “Mockingjay,” the final book in Suzanne Collins’ hit young adult series, “The Hunger Games.” I got myself a copy as soon as humanly possibly and hunkered down early, early, early Tuesday morning to read it before I could see any spoilers (which, honestly, I still haven’t seen any in inappropriate places). It left me feeling…mixed. If you really want to know you can read the spoiler-full review I posted on Friday.

After I finished “Mockingjay” I had a really, really difficult time reading. I picked up one book on Tuesday and read about 15 pages, and then never picked it up again. A couple more books got picked up, looked at, and put back down. I finally was able to settle on Sean Ferrell’s “Numb,” but even that took me much longer to read than normal, considering it was under 300 pages and a quick read. Although I couldn’t read, I was able to listen to audio, and when I stayed home from work with a bad headache on Thursday I pretty much laid in bed and listened to my Sara Paretsky’s “Body Work” for 4 or 5 hours. I think I finally got back in the swing of my reading with Jessica Francis Kane’s “The Report,” which I started late Friday night and finished early Saturday afternoon. It was fabulous, so look for my review on Tuesday.

Most of what I finished this week I also read this week, but here’s what I read that has not yet been reviewed:

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The books I both finished and reviewed (or, as in the case of “Mockingjay,” ‘reviewed’):

I know, I know, they are strangely blue. I also want to say, yes, I may have technically finished 6 books this week, but “The Rembrandt Affair” and “American Music” were both nearly done at the beginning of the week, and “Body Work” was an audio. Plus, I read “Mockingjay” straight through in the middle of the night. It still ended up feeling like a slow week because after early Tuesday morning I didn’t finish anything else until Friday night.

This week I also reviewed:

and the audios of “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire”

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – Thoughts (Spoilers)

Aug 272010

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Published by Scholastic Press

This isn’t really going to be a review, just thoughts about “Mockingjay.” After reading “The Hunger Games” three times and “Catching Fire” twice, and anticipating “Mockingjay” for a year, I think I’m too subjective to do an actual review. For my opinions about the previous books in this series, please see my thoughts on the audios and my reviews of both “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire.”

To be completely honest, I was sort of bored at the beginning of “Mockingjay.” Maybe not bored, exactly, but not nearly as excited as I thought I would be. In fact, I sort of wondered why I was up in the middle of the night reading. The fact that Peeta wasn’t around for a long, long time might have been part of it, but I think more it was that Katniss was just sort of moping around, unsure of what she really wanted to do. Plus, she kept ending up drugged in the hospital, which always felt like a slightly cheating way for Collins to get her through situations.

Things started to turn around for me when Katniss went into the first disputed district. I loved how she stood up to Gale, determined to not just kill people who might be innocent. Finally, that felt like Katniss to me. It made me really dislike Gale, though, although he almost won my heart a bit with how he treated Katniss most of the time they were together in District 13.

The most horrifying moment of the whole book – perhaps the whole series – for me was Finnick’s revelation that President Snow had been pimping out the Victors. These are people that have had miserable lives in their districts, been pitted against other teenagers in a kill or be killed contest and manage to live, and now they are sexually abused? I almost threw up. “Mockingjay” got me really attached to Finnick, actually, and I was sort of devastated when he died.

A less devastating death for me was Prim’s. I know a lot of people didn’t like that scene, didn’t realize I was Prim, but I thought that was perhaps the most masterfully written scene in the entire book. I felt that I was truly experiencing the situation with Katniss, and she didn’t initially realize she was watching her sister die either. It seemed fitting to me that Prim died at the end of the series, since the entire thing started with Katniss trying to save her sister. It gave a sense of how much bigger than just Katniss and her family the entire thing had become, but was also a reminder of all that the people of Panem lost under the old regime and during the rebellion, a warning against complacency in the future. Plus, at least if Prim was going to die, she was dying doing something she loved and she felt was important, instead of being forced into the Games.

As to the romantic angle: I am SO GLAD that Collins did not kill off either of the boys. Regardless of who Katniss ended up with, if she had ended up with him only because the other boy was killed off, I would have been very annoyed. I was glad she ended up with Peeta, and glad that she realized that he is the one she needed, even if she hadn’t needed to get away from Gale after his weapon being used against Prim because, again, if she had seemed to end up with Peeta just because of Gale’s weapon I would have been really disappointed.

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

This review was done with a personal copy.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – Thoughts on the Audio

Aug 272010

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Carolyn McCormick
Published in print by Scholastic Press
Published in audio by Scholastic Audio

This is just going to be a commentary on the audio editions. I have previously reviewed the print versions of both “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire.” The following thoughts are completely spoiler-free.

When I first started listening to audio versions of “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire,” I was very disconcerted. There is pretty much no way at all that Carolyn McCormick’s voice could pass for that of a teenage girl. Don’t get me wrong, she has a gorgeous voice and I would love to listen to her read literary fiction, but it seemed very odd in the first person narrative of a teenager (incidentally, this is the second Scholastic Audio casting in a row in which I thought at least one narrator sounded far too old for their character – perhaps there is a dearth of narrators who can pass for teens?).

Although I had a hard time with such a mature voice narrating Katniss’s inner-most thoughts and giving voice to her words, McCormick did a fabulous job with the voices of other characters. Between “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire,” McCormick appears to have been given direction to actually do a voice for Katniss, instead of narrating in her own voice. Although it was still odd to hear Katniss’s thoughts in McCormick’s voice, it did help me believe her words as those of the teenager a bit better.

McCormick did a fabulous job with most of the voices, and imbued “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” audios with the danger and drama of the books, so over all I would say these are highly recommended, even if her Katniss really had to grow on me. I can’t wait to get the audio of “Mockingjay” for a reread.

I borrowed both of these audiobooks from the library.

American Music by Jane Mendelsohn – Book Review

Aug 262010

American Music by Jane Mendelsohn
Published by Knopf, an imprint of Random House

Milo is a severely wounded war vet. Honor is a physical therapist coming to the rehabilitation hospital working with Milo, massaging his back – and only his back, because he refuses to lay on his back. Except something odd is happening whenever Honor touches Milo. Somehow, memories of the past are welling out of Milo’s body when Honor works on him. Not memories of his past, but of seemingly unconnected people, primarily from the last 100 years.

Mendelsohn’s writing is absolutely gorgeous and completely lyrical. That being said, it took me quite awhile to get into the book. Although beautiful, the way the writing is crafted – particularly the lack of quotation marks and, occasionally, other punctuation – served to separate me from the characters and kept me from getting a good feel for them for a good 100 pages. Flashing back to the past didn’t help that, although it did provide the interest in the novel.

I loved the way the stories ended up coming together, for awhile there I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. I must say, I am still slightly unsure how the harem of the Ottoman Empire really connected to the other stories. It just didn’t seem to come together in quite the same way, although I have my suspicions of what we are meant to take from it, but all of the other stories connected to one another in just one way, and this didn’t quite fit the mold.

If you’re a fan of gorgeous writing, don’t hesitate to pick up “American Music.” If you tend to need a good measure of plot and character, stick with “American Music.” You may not be sure about it at the beginning, but the story will grow on you, and it is worth it by the end. Recommended.

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

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Free Short Stories from Anna Elliott, author of the Twilight of Avalon Trilogy

Aug 252010

If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you may remember me gushing about Anna Elliott’s “Twilight of Avalon” last May. In fact, it even made my ‘Best of 2009′ list at the end of the year. Well, the second book in the trilogy, “Dark Moon of Avalon” is being released September 14th. I can’t wait, I’m hoping to get a copy from the publisher in my hot little hands any day now.

If you also can’t wait for the next installment in this series, or if you want to check out Elliott’s writing style and see if this is for you, she is currently giving away a couple of short stories electronically on her website. The first one, “The Witch Queen’s Secret” is available right now in .mobi, .epub, . pdf, or as .xhtml to read on the web. All are free, unless you want it delivered wirelessly to your Kindle, that costs $0.99 (due to Amazon policy).

4926943405 32569b0a17 m picture Here’s Elliott’s description of the story:

The Witch Queen’s Secret: a free short story set in the Twilight of Avalon universe

The Witch Queen’s Secret features a minor character from Twilight of Avalon, but it’s self-contained; you don’t at all have to have read any of the Twilight of Avalon trilogy to understand it. A bit more about the story:

In the shadow of King Arthur’s Britain, a young mother will need all her courage to save the Queen’s castle from the hands of a traitor…

Dera owes Britain’s former High Queen Isolde her life. But as an army harlot, the life she leads is one of degradation and often desperate danger, with small hope for the future either for Dera or for her small son.
Through a Britain torn by war with Saxon invaders, Dera makes her way to Dinas Emrys, last stronghold of Britain’s army, to beg Queen Isolde’s help once more. Isolde offers Dera a new life, both for herself and for her child. But when Dera and Isolde uncover a treasonous plot, Dera must leave her little boy and undertake a dangerous mission, the outcome of which comes to her as a stunning, but wonderful, surprise.

And as she risks her life, Dera also draws nearer to Queen Isolde’s most closely-guarded secret: one that Britain’s courageous witch-queen may be hiding even from herself.

Gah! This is making me wish I had an ereader…

Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart – Book Review

Aug 242010

Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart
Published by Egmont USA

Katherine and Anna are twin sisters. Or, rather, they were. Now Anna is dead and Katherine wishes she was too, she has no desire to live without her sister, particularly because she blames herself for Anna’s death. The Centennial Fair in Philadelphia provides Katherine the perfect opportunity to end her life. All she has to do is go to the top of one of the tall buildings at the fair and throw herself off at the right time. Unfortunately, her dead sister’s boyfriend, Bennett, is haunting her like a ghost, trying to keep her from ending everything.

In “Dangerous Neighbors,” Kephart takes us through Katherine’s present grief and guilt, and slowly works through what happened between Katherine and Anna to bring things to this point. As always with Kephart, the writing is absolutely gorgeous and lyrical. People who think that YA books can’t be ‘literary’ would do well to read her work, her writing consistently ranks among the best I’ve ever read.

That being said, I felt that something was missing in the plot and characterizations. Because the entirety of Katherine’s story takes place after Anna becomes involved with Bennett and the sisters begin to grow apart, I didn’t get a good sense of the close relationship the girls had once had, it was notable only by its absence. Yes, I knew that Katherine felt guilty about Anna’s death, but I never learned it on my own, I was simply told repeatedly. I felt that I never got a really good feel for Katherine and her motivations, despite the fact that the entire book was told from her perspective. It seemed to me that so much was given over to making the writing gorgeous (and it really, really was) that not enough attention was paid to the characterization. I would have also liked to see the plot developed a bit more, the book was under 200 pages, so it was not bloated with excess, and could have been a bit longer.

I love Kephart’s work, but this was not my favorite. If a great book for you means beautiful writing first and foremost, then this is a great book and you will adore it. Personally I need more of a balance between writing and plot/characterization, of which there was not as much as I would have liked. If you are like me in what you need from a book, try some of Kephart’s other work, “Nothing But Ghosts” and “Undercover” strike this balance particularly well.

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

This review was done with a book received from Winsome Media.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva – Book Review

Aug 232010

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
Published by Putnam Books, an imprint of Penguin

When an art restorer is shot in his home in the middle of a summer rash with art theft, it seems to be no more than a robbery gone wrong. Unfortunately, that proves not to be the case. A valuable, almost unknown Rembrandt is missing. There’s too much at stake to make this public knowledge, so the art dealer who has been in possession of the Rembrandt contacts his old friend Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and retired Israeli spy and assassin. As Gabriel begins to investigate the history of the painting, he discovers it has a very dicey provenance, disappearing from the possession of a Jewish man in Amsterdam during World War II. This history makes things personal for Gabriel, and he is determined to do whatever it takes to find this painting and get to the bottom of the theft.

What a smart thriller! One thing I really appreciated is that Silva does not treat his readers as if they were stupid. One thing that drives me crazy about a lot of thrillers is that authors often write unnecessarily short chapters with ridiculous cliffhangers in order to keep the story moving. Sometimes it works, but oftentimes it is simply obnoxious. Silva does not indulge in any of that. His chapters are as long as they need to be, without any manufactured drama. It made me feel as if Silva valued my intelligence as a reader. Yes, it meant that “The Rembrandt Affair” started more slowly than many thrillers, but Silva built suspense organically, the tension growing as Gabriel got deeper into the case. Indeed, every time I picked up the book, it grew more and more difficult to put it back down.

Gabriel, by the way, is my new favorite spy. Yes, he’s an assassin, but he’s an assassin with a conscious. Plus, he is a cultured, sophisticated art restorer – and this is a real passion, not simply his cover. And he’s in a monogamous relationship, so no oh-so-predictable sexual tension between the main character and the woman he must work with, which was refreshing for a change.

Let me also just say, this is one of the most beautiful hardcover books I’ve seen in some time. The art on the inside of the front and back covers was lovely, and the page before the title page was gorgeous, looking as if it had been painted, with texture so realistic I could almost feel it. And the paper it was printed on was rapturous. Yes, I know, that sounds far too strong a word for paper, but it was so incredibly thick and luxurious that every time I turned the page I stopped and thumbed the page. Actually, I was a bit worried when I first saw the book, because I assumed from the heft that it was well over 700 pages, but it was really just under 500 pages of wonderfully thick paper.

A great, smart thriller in an absolutely beautiful package. Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on more books from the Gabriel Allon series. Highly recommended.

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

This review was done with a book received from Lydia at Putnam.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

TSS: Better Late Than Never

Aug 222010

I had every intention of getting this post up around 8 or 9 this morning, but I woke up this morning to a conspicuous lack of electricity. Actually, the lack of electricity is what woke me up, because the battery back up on the modem and the wireless router started beeping. Although we were only without power for about 30 minutes, my husband asked that I not turn anything back on, in case they had to cut the power again to fix whatever the problem was.

So then we left for church, then it was lunch with the inlaws. Now I’m home and the power and internet are finally back on and I’m finally getting this written around 5 pm.

Anyway, this was a good week, reading wise, and really just in general. I finished two audiobooks, both by China Mieville and narrated by John Lee, the first of which I have already reviewed (click the cover of “The City & The City” for review):

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I also finished four books in print, the first three of which I have already reviewed (covers link to reviews):

Look out for my review of “Dangerous Neighbors” this coming week. In addition to reviewing a majority of what I read this week, I also reviewed the audiobook of “How to Buy a Love of Reading” by Tanya Egan Gibson:

Older Entries

Devourer of Books

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane – Book Review

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell – Book Review

TSS: I Flew Away with the MOCKINGJAY (no spoilers)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – Thoughts (Spoilers)

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – Thoughts on the Audio

American Music by Jane Mendelsohn – Book Review

Free Short Stories from Anna Elliott, author of the Twilight of Avalon Trilogy

Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart – Book Review

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva – Book Review

TSS: Better Late Than Never

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