Fly Girl: A Memoir
by Ann Hood
What if... (4/12/2022)
Many young people long to travel the world, but perhaps none so passionately as aspiring flight attendants. What is it like to thrust aside college plans and follow your travel lust? As Hood describes in this excellent memoir, it's a tough path in many respects. But for her, the adventures far outweighed the difficulties. Jaw-dropping sexism? Check. Spur of the moment free travel to Rome? Double check! Readers of a certain age will well remember the days of complimentary meals and cabin smoking. Younger readers, who may hop on an airplane as casually as hopping into an Uber, will find tales of the early days both enthralling and appalling. An enjoyable vicarious trip up, up, and away!
True Crime Story: A Novel
by Joseph Knox
What is real here? (11/2/2021)
Who to believe, when even the author appears as an unreliable character? A girl goes missing from her college. Seven years later, a writer pieces together the story through interviews with an assortment of friends, family members, police and others. It's very twisty, with segments of interviews intertwined to create something like an ongoing conversation. Great for those who like puzzlers!
The Girl Before
by JP Delaney
Many facets (12/9/2016)
As others have noted, this novel seems to be headed in one direction, but then smoothly morphs into something else. For me, it started as a bit of a contrived setting for two women to be sexually enthralled by the same man. The narrators, Jane (now) and Emma (then) are chosen to reside in this auto-magical house that was designed by a remote yet attractive architect, Edward. I wasn't so drawn in to the enigma of the house and actually stopped after a couple of chapters. Fortunately, the abundance of good reviews and the hints of change to come were enough to get me back into the story. Delaney ultimately is successful at creating a confounding mystery through the alternating viewpoints of Jane and Emma - who may or may not be reliable. The resolution is unexpectedly sweet and well worth the ride.
Underground Airlines
by Ben H. Winters
Alternate history? (8/29/2016)
A black man earns his freedom by making a deal with the devil in this present day thriller, built on the premise that slavery still exists in parts of the United States. Victor, as we know him, is an expert at retrieving runaway slaves and other persons wanted by the federal government. He's seen a lot of tragedy and violence; his heart is well-armored. But his instincts are keen, and in his latest assignment, Victor's instincts are on high alert.
In many ways, the novel plays out like an espionage thriller, with twists and double-crossing that keep the reader well engaged. But the setting infuses an element of social injustice that is still too familiar. Here is a United States that was never divided by the issue of slavery. In four states, people are still considered the property of plantation owners and the like. And although there is abolitionist outrage, many Americans accept that this is the law. The "institution" is so solidly entrenched that it seems little more than an unfortunate consequence of capitalism.
Which begs the question, how much of our present society is accepted in the same spirit? For some readers, this will seem less like an alternate history than an allegory, a portrayal of racism that is but nominally distinct from the institution of slavery.
The Forgetting Time
by Sharon Guskin
Both fantastical and logical (12/16/2015)
Guskin's debut novel deals with a subject that's hard to wrap my head around - memories of a past life so vivid that they have survived the mysteries of death and birth. But she captures readers with believable emotions and well-plotted rational. The two main characters, Janie and Anderson, are very different from each other, sometimes at odds and at other times in sync. The combination of the two, Janie's intelligence bent by raw emotion and Anderson's emotions flooding out years of logic and intellect, give the story a robust perspective. Guskin is a talented writer, and I'll be on the lookout for her sophomore novel!
Everybody Rise
by Stephanie Clifford
Fun for some readers (4/3/2015)
Evelyn never captured my heart, and so my perception of the book is that it ran a bit shallow. For me, it read like a series of shenanigans that got progressively difficult to witness. The writing, however, is crisp and literate. Clifford has a terrific ear for dialogue as well. For readers who enjoy voyeuristic glimpses into elite social circles, this novel fits the bill.
Brutal Youth
by Anthony Breznican
Pow! (5/16/2014)
St. Michael's High School has blithely ignored the "good-natured" hazing of freshmen by upperclassmen, even as the tortures become intolerably cruel. We are introduced to the school as a frazzled, defeated freshman climbs up to the roof, pushing statutes of the saints over the edge. The prospective freshman class, on campus for open house, is understandably dismayed.
How far will adolescents go when they are fighting for self-preservation? The adults - teachers, priest, guidance counselor - are themselves so entrenched in a web of threats and lies that they are powerless. Initially it seems that the reader has stumbled into one of the rings of hell, peopled with lunatics. And yet Breznican gradually reveals the human faces, the broken hearts, the lonely souls, and these same lunatics become real, flawed beings.
Breznican's writing is insightful and powerful. The first line reads, "The kid had taken a lot of punishment over the years, so he had much to give back." There is no real sense of good people and bad people, only hurt people and the way they choose to channel their pain. And even as the punishments meted out in the story seem severe, there are thousands of kids in high schools right now who are suffering just as deeply.
I found the integration of the various plot lines to be exceptional, albeit often tragic. But despite the dark humor (some might say sick humor) the book ends with a lift. I'm thinking this is a novel that teens will love.
In Praise of Hatred
by Khaled Khalifa
Growing up in the wrong place at the wrong time. (2/23/2014)
The author made a powerful decision by leaving the narrator nameless. In some ways, she is always the "other" that we cannot know, but at the same time she is everywoman. Her situation - growing up isolated, deeply repressed by religious beliefs, surrounded by liars - is not unique to her time (the eighties) and place (Syria.) Fear of secular culture and unreasonable definitions of chastity shape women's lives all over.
Hatred is the word the narrator uses to explain the walls she places between herself and those persons and objects that she must deny herself in order to survive. In order to give her will so completely to her family's beliefs, she cannot lust after the lifestyle of others. She even uses hatred to describe her feelings about her body.
It becomes apparent how terribly victimized this narrator is as she contemplates such violence as a response to her jealousy of the girls who easily live a freer life. The story is beautifully rendered, and yet hard to read. The insipid way this girl's life was destroyed is filled with both the small details of her life and the larger picture of Syria's war. This girl has placed faith in her religious practice and in her family's position to protect her, and in the end she is failed by both.
Bitter River: A Bell Elkins Novel
by Julia Keller
Whole Lotta Twisted Going-ons (7/4/2013)
Bell is as tough as the mountains that cradle the small town of Acker's Gap, where she serves as County Prosecutor. Hell, there sure is a lot of criminal activity in that place! You got a young girl murdered, some crazy guy shooting an elderly lady, and terrorist blowing up the oldest building in town. This is in addition to the ordinary business of sneaky love trysts, troubled families, and missing sisters. Folks trust their sharp-as-a-nettle prosecutor to sort it all out. And she does, in the colorful way of a mountain woman who might be a bit excessive with her metaphors and similes, but never with her big ol' generous heart.
The Sometimes Daughter
by Sherri Wood Emmons
The Left-Behind Child (3/5/2012)
Sweet Judy's mother, Cassie, was a free-love, free-spirited hippie type. The kind of mom that would name her daughter (at least phonetically) after the song that was playing while she gave birth in a tent at Woodstock. As a child, Judy adored her loving, dancing mother. But when Cassie carted Judy to a subsistence farm commune, abandoning her to the care of others, Judy felt the early stirrings of resentment. Even as she grew, Judy was torn between yearning for her mother, and hating the way Cassie put her adventurous life before her own daughter. The writing is lovely; gently allowing the reader to see the impact of events that the child Judy cannot comprehend. This is not one of those tortured childhood novels, but rather a tribute to the strength of family bonds and the integrity of an ordinary life.l
In Search of the Rose Notes: A Novel
by Emily Arsenault
Claiming the truth (6/5/2011)
The friendship between Nora and Charlotte began on the first day of kindergarten, and by the time the girls are eleven they have developed a mutual history that lacks mutual respect. At least that is the viewpoint of Nora, who narrates this story that twists between three points in time. We meet the girls when they are eleven and bedazzled by Rose, an older high school girl who babysits them after school. One night, after walking Nora home, Rose disappears without a trace. In 2006, Charlotte calls Nora, who is now happily married and long gone from her hometown, to tell her that Rose's bones have been found. Keys to the disintegration of the girls' friendship, the trauma of Rose's disappearance, and Nora's suicidal breakdown, however, are buried in the experiences of 2006, when Charlotte and Nora are in high school. Clues and red herring are scattered throughout Nora's telling, and the reader is never sure if Nora is revealing the truth or her own fears and fantasies. It's an engrossing and suspenseful symphony. Fans of psychological mysteries should like this one.
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