Devourer of Books » Publisher: Simon & Schuster

The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz – Book Review

Apr 222013

The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz
Published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

In the last years of the 19th century, Trudy leaves her comfortable, upper-middle class life in Wisconsin and the man everyone always knew she would marry to strike out for California, newly married to her intended’s cousin Oskar. Together, Trudy and Oskar find themselves working at a light house in Point Lucia, far away from everything they have ever known.

Christina Schwarz’s The Edge of the Earth reminded me strongly of Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures. Part of the comparison is the focus on women of science. Chevalier’s main characters were dinosaur hunters and Trudy finds herself drawn to studying the creatures in the pools at the edge of the sea. The rest of the comparison has to do with the beautifully atmospheric nature of both works.

The Edge of the Earth is historical fiction at its finest. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* 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 Best of Us by Sarah Pekkanen – Book Review

Apr 102013

The Best of Us by Sarah Pekkanen
Published by Washington Square Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

**In the interest of full disclosure, I was a one-time beta reader for the first 75 or so pages of this book. I don’t believe that in any way changes my opinion of the finished product, as is evidenced by comparing my review of The Best of Us to my reviews of Pekkanen’s previous books.**

One advantage of making friends with that brilliant yet painfully awkward guy in college is that someday when he’s filthy rich, he might just invite for on an all-expenses paid trip to a private villa in Jamaica for his 35th birthday. Tina, Allie, and Savannah have been friends since college when they – particularly Allie – befriended Dwight. Now they are in their mid-30s and haven’t always kept up with one another as well as they would have liked. They all have their own problems these days, though.

Tina and Allie are both mothers, although Allie seems to have an easier time with her two older children than Tina does with her herd of young ones. At Tina’s house, chaos reigns and she feels as if she hasn’t had a good shower or a decent night’s sleep in years. Allie may appear to have a perfect house, family, and marriage, but she has recently discovered that her birth father and his father both died of Lou Gehrig’s disease and doesn’t know how to tell her husband about her fears. Savannah is happy without children, but she is also going through a painful divorce after her husband cheated on her. Pekkanen focuses on the women in her stories, so we don’t as much insight as to where Dwight is emotionally, but we do get to know his wife, Pauline, and she is stressed out about her inability to have a child.

One of the things I love most about Pekkanen is the way she writes about women in different stages of life, with the different relationships that make their lives what they are. In The Opposite of Me it is a young woman connecting with her family, particularly her sister; in These Girls it is the power of female friendship, and in Skipping a Beat it is the dissolution of a marriage. In The Best of Us, Pekkanen manages to cover family, marriage, friendship, and life with children, and do nearly all of it with her characters on a couples’ vacation in Jamaica. The dreams, goals, and fears of each of women on the trip bring them into occasional conflict with one another, enough conflict to keep The Best of Us interesting, but not so much as to become melodramatic.

Dealing with children, marriage, health, and friendship, The Best of Us is another winner from Sarah Pekkanen. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher, via Edelweiss.
* 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 Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau

Mar 252013

The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Hey, remember a year ago when I was pregnant with twins and so sick that I could barely read anything except Agatha Christie, and then I picked up Nancy Bilyeau’s debut novel and I read it like I wasn’t even sick? And then even though I read it in January it was still in my brain enough that I included it in my ‘Best of’ list for 2012?

Yeah, so, her The Chalice lives up to the promise of its older sibling, The Crown.

This year when it came time to read The Chalice I was in the middle of a work-induced reading slump and then I started it and read the whole 500 or so pages in 24 hours. 24!

The Chalice has great pace with characters that are just as engaging as they were in The Crown. I love that Bilyeau has found somewhere new to go with the Tudor time period and I just love the way she writes historical thrillers, combining flawlessly the best parts of both genres. If you like history, pick up Bilyeau’s The Crown and have The Chalice erady to go to follow it up.

If you want to know more about The Chalice, here’s the publisher’s description:

In 1538, England’s bloody power struggle between crown and cross threatens to tear the country apart. Novice Joanna Stafford has tasted the wrath of the royal court, discovered what lies within the king’s torture rooms, and escaped death at the hands of those desperate to possess the power of an ancient relic.

Even with all she has experienced, the quiet life is not for Joanna. Despite the possibilities of arrest and imprisonment, she becomes caught up in a shadowy international plot targeting Henry VIII himself. As the power plays turn vicious, Joanna realizes her role is more critical than she’d ever imagined. She must choose between those she loves most and assuming her part in a prophecy foretold by three seers. Repelled by violence, Joanna seizes a future with a man who loves her. But no matter how hard she tries, she cannot escape the spreading darkness of her destiny.

To learn the final, sinister piece of the prophecy, she flees across Europe with a corrupt spy sent by Spain. As she completes the puzzle in the dungeon of a twelfth-century Belgian fortress, Joanna realizes the life of Henry VIII as well as the future of Christendom are in her hands—hands that must someday hold the chalice that lies at the center of these deadly prophecies. . . .

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* 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 Demonologist by Andrew Pyper – Book Review

Mar 042013

The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper
Published by Simon & Schuster

Most of Professor David Ullman’s life has been dedicated to the story of Milton’s Paradise Lost. He central thesis is that Satan is the true hero of the work, along with demons. Of course he doesn’t believe in the veracity of demonology, this is the 21st century and he doesn’t even believe in God, let alone the Devil. But David’s disbelief is challenged after a strange person he refers to as the Thin Woman comes to his office one afternoon and requests that he come to Venice, Italy, because her employer needs for him to experience a phenomenon. As he and his wife are on the verge of divorce, David travels to Venice the next day with his twelve-year-old daughter, Tess. What happens while the two are in Venice will send David deep into study – and belief – of demonology with deeply personal consequences.

Ah, I loved this. Pyper has a way with words, and in The Demonologist he has created a beautiful and truly disturbing work of literary horror. David is very believable as a distressed father, as well as someone who has been melancholy and generally a little lost his entire life. I also adored the Milton angle, that is what makes The Demonologist special (plus I’m just a sucker for academics and historians – other than Robert Langdon – tracking down monsters, a la The Historian).

This is a smart, slightly scary book and I really enjoyed it. Highly recommended

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* 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 Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers – Book Review

Feb 272013

The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers
Published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Only five years ago, Tia was desperately in love with a man she was sure loved her back. When Nathan found out about her pregnancy, however, he left her, imploring her to get rid of the baby. Unable to bear aborting Nathan’s child, but also unable to imagine herself as a competent mother, Tia settled on adoption. Now, when the latest set of pictures come in from her child’s adoptive parents, Tia cannot help by think of Nathan, and the fact that he knows nothing about their daughter. On a whim, she decides to copy the pictures and send them to Nathan, where they intercepted by his wife, Juliette.

Juliette had, somewhat, forgiven Nathan when he confessed his affair, but learning that he has a daughter is more than she can handle. Desperate to see this little girl who is part Nathan, Juliette searches her out, and finds her adoptive mother, Caroline. Caroline is just as – or perhaps even more – damaged as Tia and Juliette; she is a deeply introverted person who glories in her research-based career. Interacting with a young child is simply not natural for Caroline, and although she loves her family, she worries that she is constantly failing as a wife and mother.

By opening with Tia announcing her pregnancy and Nathan immediately leaving her, Meyers makes her story immediately engaging, while also providing the perfect set up for the novel as a whole. Everything that happens in The Comfort of Lies stems from this very moment, and Tia’s subsequent decisions to have her baby and give her up for adoption. I loved the way Meyers brings all three women together through one act of infidelity and one little girl. She does not pretend that things will be easy between these women, but writes interactions tinged both with real emotions and with grace.

The Comfort of Lies is a beautiful book about the things that tear us apart and how they can bring us back together. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* 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 Italian Woman by Jean Plaidy – Book Review

Jan 292013

The Italian Woman by Jean Plaidy
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

From the publisher:

When Catherine de’ Medici was forced to marry Henry, Duke of Orleans, her heart was not the only one that was broken. Jeanne of Navarre once dreamed of marrying this same prince, but, like Catherine, she must comply with France’s political needs. And so both Catherine’s and Jeanne’s lives are set on unwanted paths, destined to cross in affairs of state, love, and faith, driving them to become deadly political rivals.

Years later Jeanne is happily married to the dashing but politically inept Antoine de Bourbon. But the widowed Catherine is now the ambitious mother of princes, and she will do anything to see her beloved second son, Henry, rule France. As civil war ravages the country and Jeanne fights for the Huguenot cause, Catherine advances along her unholy road, making enemies at every turn.

When I rekindled my love with historical fiction I started with Philippa Gregory – whose The Other Boleyn Girl was everywhere at the time – and quickly moved on to Jean Plaidy, a mega-star in her own right. Written beginning in the 1940s, Plaidy’s work can at times feel slightly dated; occasionally she bases parts of plots on facts that are now out of fashion and her style puts readers at more of a remove from the story than is currently popular. However, she remains a master of telling big, complicated stories. Not for Plaidy is the focus on a single character at the expense of the big picture. She shows what is happening from the perspectives of all of the major players, although unlike many modern novelists she does not feel constrained to attempt to give them equal time, but instead moves to them when their point of view would most inform her story.

The Italian Woman is Plaidy at her best. Although technically the second book in a trilogy, The Italian Woman stands alone absolutely perfectly. Enough context is given to the history that unless you knew that this was the second book in a trilogy, you would simply assume that this is the one portion of Catherine’s life that Plaidy has chosen to explore. And explore it she does. This is not simply Catherine’s life, but this period in the history of France’s ruling family. In fact, Jeanne of Navarre is nearly as prominent a character as Catherine, which is gratifying as she is often virtually ignored in favor of the flashy de Medici.

Historical fiction fans who have not yet experienced Jean Plaidy should certainly do so, and for those with any interest in Catherine de Medici, The Italian Woman is a great place to start.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher, via Edelweiss.
* 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.

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans – Book Review

Jan 282013

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Note: I have been friendly with Lenore Appelhans for some time in the book blogging community, but we have never been close, nor even consistent commenters on each other’s blogs. I received my copy of the book from the publisher, not from Appelhans, and this is my unvarnished opinion.

Felicia has been in Level 2 since her sudden death at the age of 18. Her days consist of little more than re-watching memories from her own life. Things are starting to change in Level 2, though. The girl in one of the neighboring chambers dies, but nobody seems to notice. In fact, nobody but Felicia remembers that she was even ever there. It is when Julian, a boy from Felicia’s past, shows up, though, that things really start to get strange. Felicia and Julian have a complicated history, and she isn’t exactly thrilled to see him, but she still agrees to go with him when he helps her escape from her hive and tries to enlist her in a rebellion.

Lenore Appelhans’s version of the afterlife is unlike any I have ever experienced: the hives, the memories that are replayed and used as currency. What is more familiar is the ongoing war between good and evil that does not end with death. There are some connections to Judeo-Christian traditions, but at the same time this is not a religious or preachy book in the least. What Level 2 is is an incredibly engaging book. I found myself reading so quickly that I almost felt that the pacing was off. It was me, though, and not the book; when I forced myself to slow down to a normal reading speed the pacing worked well, but if I did not pay attention I would find myself racing through the book at breakneck (breakeye?) speed because of how purely engaging the book is.

In Level 2, Appelhans creates a world and a mythology that is unlike any I’ve experienced before, but that is still believable and internally consistent and is the basis for an incredibly compelling story.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* 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 Bro Code for Parents by Barney Stinson – Audiobook Review

Jan 182013

The Bro Code for Parents by Barney Stinson and Matt Kuhn, narrated by Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris)
Published in audio by Simon Audio, published in print by Touchstone, both imprints of Simon & Schuster

Synopsis:

From the publisher:

So you’re going to be a parent.

You might be asking yourself a series of important questions:

Will I be a good parent? • Will I be able to afford this? • Can I ever have sex again?

Well, the answer to all these questions is a rock-solid no. But just because your existence is now a petrifying turd on the canvas of life doesn’t mean your kid has to be as lame as you’re about to become. That’s why I’ve written this book—to teach you how to be an awesomommy or legendaddy.

The Bro Code for Parents will help you:

Choose a baby name that won’t get your kid stuffed into a junior high locker •

Interview and hire a smokin’ hot nanny • Teach your child instant classics like “The Boobs on the Bus” and “Bro, Bro, Bro Your Boat”

With full-color illustrations, interactive work sheets, and even suggestions for how to turn a stroller into a broller, The Bro Code for Parents gives you all the tools you’ll need to raise your child to be almost as awesome as I am. Almost.

Thoughts on the story:

If you’ve watched How I Met Your Mother this is probably exactly what you think it will be: ridiculous, slightly sex-obsessed advice that bears little resemblance to any sane parenting advice, but is pretty funny. This will sound like I’m damning The Bro Code for Parents with faint praise and I don’t mean to do that, but the best thing about this book i that it knows when to stop. I absolutely do not mean that it gets tired. The thing is, this concept absolutely could get tired, but Stinson (okay, Kuhn) keeps it to the perfect length where you feel that he has covered what he should, but he doesn’t overdo it. If you find Barney funny on How I Met Your Mother, you are likely to be amused here, too.

Thoughts on the audio production:

I have only watched How I Met Your Mother sporadically and, while I really enjoyed it, I’m not sure that I am into it enough that I would have cared much about this book in print. Audio, though? Neil Patrick Harris kills it. He KILLS it. The voices, the vocal sound effects… Yeah, audio is the way to go with this, because of the supreme awesomeness that is Neil Patrick Harris.

soundbytes picture Overall:

If you’re into Barney Stinson and have any knowledge about parenting, this is – at 2.5 hours – a fun diversion of an audiobook.

Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
Indiebound: Audio/Print*

Sound Bytes is a meme that occurs every Friday! I encourage you to review your audiobooks on Fridays and include the link at the bottom of this post. If you have reviewed an audiobook earlier in the week, please feel free to link that review as well. Thanks to Pam for creating the button.

Source: Publisher.
* 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.

Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women’s Literary Society by Amy Hill Hearth – Mini Book Review

Oct 232012

Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women’s Literary Society by Amy Hill Hearth
Published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

From the publisher:

Eighty-year-old Dora, the narrator of a story that began a half century earlier, is bonding with an unlikely set of friends, including Jackie Hart, a restless middle-aged wife and mother from Boston, who gets into all sorts of trouble when her family moves to a small, sleepy town in Collier County, Florida, circa 1962.

With humor and insight the novel chronicles the awkward North-South cultural divide as Jackie, this hapless but charming “Yankee,” looks for some excitement in her life by accepting an opportunity to host a local radio show where she creates a mysterious, late-night persona, “Miss Dreamsville,” and by launching a reading group—the Collier County Women’s Literary Society—thus sending the conservative and racially segregated town into uproar. The only townspeople who venture to join are regarded as outsiders at best—a young gay man, a divorced woman, a poet, and a young black woman who dreams of going to college.

Okay, so, longest title ever. I have to say, the title actually sort of prejudiced me against Miss Dreamville before I even started. For one thing, it makes the book sound almost sickly sweet. Well, Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women’s Literary Society is definitely sweet, but it is not at all saccharine. Dora is a wonderful narrator, full of vim and vigor, as well as heart.

Jackie is, of course, the center of the novel. She is after all the catalyst for the change in Collier County. Even so, Miss Dreamville is not a Yankee coming down to save and enlighten backwards Southerners. Jackie is certainly the instigator of the literary society, but because she wants to make friends and have something to do in her new town. The group she gathers is mostly comprised of misfits and outcasts, but each of the characters in this book has something to teach her (or his) new friends, Jackie included.

Miss Dreamsville and the Collier Women’s Literary Society is well-written and absolutely endearing. It is a quick read both because it is relatively short and because it is so easy to get lost in that you won’t want to put it down. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss.
* 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.

Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite by Matt Kaplan – Book Review

Oct 222012

Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan
Published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

From the earliest times, humankind has been obsessed by monsters. As is evidenced by the fact that an entire month-long blogosphere event can be organized around horror stories, our species is fascinated by the things that scare us.

Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite is that most special of nonfiction books – the kind you don’t want to put down. Kaplan has wonderful style, as well as the ability to make his already interesting subject even more interesting. He has clearly done the research necessary to present a well-rounded and informative book. I could tell that the book would be good when he started with this interesting and pertinent information on page 4:

…Rozin, along with many others in his field have a theory that there is pleasure for the mind in watching the body react negatively while knowing perfectly well that nothing bad is actually going to happen. The enjoyment, they suggest, comes from a sense of mental mastery over the body that is responding in a knee-jerk reaction.

To put this information in context, Kaplan describes two different studies, one of people who like very spicy foods and another of people who love horror movies. Both groups don’t just claim to enjoy the actual experience, which others would find to be physically or psychologically painsful, but they also claim to enjoy the accompanying physical reactions, whether it be sweating from spicy foods or a racing heart from the scary movie.

After establishing the human penchant for the things that frighten us, Kaplan works through ten different categories of monsters, from giant animals (many early monsters, King Kong), to the beasties of the water (Leviathan, Jaws) to the created (the Golem, Frankenstein, Terminator). Of course he also discusses werewolves, vampires, Medusa, ghosts, and the like, but what is particularly interesting about each of these ten categories is that by grouping them together in these categories, it is easier for Kaplan to look at the root cause(s) of the fear. For instance, the connection between rabies and the fear of those “cursed by a bite” such as vampires and werewolves.

This also allows Kaplan to describe the things that have replaced some of these earlier fears in the same categories. For instance, the myth of the minotaur seems to have evolved from geological happenings, such as earthquakes. Now that we understand the natural mechanisms that create loud noises and shaking from the earth we no longer use a proxy mythical beast, but that doesn’t keep us from making what are essentially horror movies with natural occurrences – earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroids, etc. – as the monster. As Kaplan says,

The monster is being created by the same core fear, but believability is forcing the form of the monster to change. -p. 147

Although Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite is a particularly relevant read around Halloween, it is a smart exploration of the connection between man and monster that is a good enough read to pick up at any time. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher, via Edelweiss.
* 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.

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