LJ Reivew

The Inheritence

by Simon Tolkien

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6716045.html

Review: Personal Effects: Dark Art

Personal Effects: Dark Art

by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-personal-effects-dark-art/

:-)

2009 Extras

Below are links to reviews that were published in 2009 but I hadn’t posted to this blog.

The Poacher’s Son

by Paul Doiron

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6710018.html

:-)  :-)

The Long Division

by Derek Nikitis

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6678656.html

:-)

Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer

by Jonathan L. Howard

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6660941.html

:-)

The Brain Trust Program

by Larry McCleary

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-brain-trust-program/

:-p

Little Bird of Heaven

by Joyce Carol Oates

http://www.bookpage.com/books-10012270-Little+Bird+of+Heaven

:-)

Erased

by Jim Krusoe

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-erased-by-jim-krusoe/

:-)

The Magicians

by Lev Grossman

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-magicians-by-lev/

:-)

The Angel’s Game

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-angels-game-by2/

:-)

Not available online:

“On the Shelf Summer Reads,” Woodstock Magazine, Summer 2009
Books reviewed in this article:  American Cream by Catherine Tudish, Still as Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor,  The Animal Lovers’ Bedtime Reader by Anne Greenall, and Weekending in New England by Betsy Wittemann.

“On the Shelf,” Woodstock Magazine, Fall 2009
Books reviewed for this article: Young Woman and the Sea by Glenn Stout,  All That I Have by Castle Freeman Jr., The Lamoille Stories by Bill Schubart, Have the Time of Your Life in Retirement by Dave Brazier, and Hiking the Green Mountains by Lisa Densmore.

Review: The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks

A trilogy is a single narrative spread over three books. This can be a very satisfying way to read a long, complicated story like The Lord of Rings. Continuity is key, however, and I can’t imagine how hard it was to read those books as they were being published.

The Golden City, the last book in the Fourth Realm Trilogy by John Twelve Hawks, fell prey to this problem for me. The narrative picks up exactly where the second book, The Dark River, ends. Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, “Travelers” who can leave their bodies behind and travel among the six realms of existence, are taking separate and opposing paths. Gabriel is searching for his father among the realms, wondering what to say to his supporters, and, most urgently, planning to rescue Maya, his protector and lover. Gabriel’s brother Michael is plotting to take over the Evergreen Foundation, public face of the Brethren or Tabula, who plan to control the world and its citizens using the Vast Machine — the network of surveillance cameras and computers that track one’s every move.

The book follows Gabriel and Michael through the fifth and sixth realms, unexplored in earlier books. It also follows Maya, who is having second thoughts about the rigors of her calling as a member of the Harlequin, protector of Travelers; citizen-turned-Harlequin Hollis; and evil-doer Nathan Boone as the Brethren moved to exert full control and the Resistance organizes to stop them.

It took me quite a while to regain the feeling for the story, with which I was quite taken when I read the first two books in quick succession. The urgency of the cliff hangers had left me, and I couldn’t quite remember what the deal was with some of the minor characters. I had lost the story arc.

Consequently, The Golden City fell flat for me. The inventiveness and drive of the earlier books was not there. Instead, it felt like an ordinary finding-yourself kind of tale. There’s the good brother who has to recognize his greatness, the bad brother who must be stopped, the turncoat bad guy driven by a tragedy, and a sinister cabal scheming to take over the world. It was all very predictable, and the Vast Machine seemed like an empty threat.

I can’t say if I would have felt differently had a re-read The Traveler and The Dark River before reading The Golden City; I suspect I would have enjoyed it a bit more. I also suspect the stereotypical nature of the story, it’s lack of nuance and character development, would also have shown up in the end.

Review: The Body in the Sleigh

Body in the Sleigh is Katherine Hall Page’s latest entry her Faith Fairchild mystery series. It is actually two mysteries, that of a baby boy, named Christopher, left for a single woman named Mary to find in her goat barn (and lay in a manger) on Christmas Eve, and that of a murdered young woman left in an antique sleigh used as a holiday display. The story moves back and forth between Mary, Faith, and the mother of the baby for the first half of the book. The young woman’s story is taken up in the second half, and the baby story picks up speed and moves to a satisfying conclusion.

That’s not to say Body in the Sleigh is necessarily worth a read. The mystery of the baby is fully explored, but the young woman’s story feels a bit like it was slapped on top to keep with “The body in the…” titles of  the series. If you like your fictional world filled with well-behaved children, caring neighbors, and people who do wrong only because of some deprivation in their backgrounds, you will love this book. Those who appreciate a Christian focus on the Christmas holiday will also fall for this one this one. In addition, recipes for many of the delicious-sounding dishes discussed are included. If it all that sounds a little too neat and upbeat — if you like your mysteries realistic and gritty — than skip this entry in the minister’s-wife-protagonist Faith Fairchild series. Librarians take note: the afterward is a love-letter to libraries and librarians.

Short take: Lying With the Dead

Wow! If you like dysfunctional family stories (a la Jonathan Frazen’s The Corrections), Lying with the Dead by Michael Mewshaw will knock your socks off.  Told alternately from the points of view of three adult children with emotional scars worse than the physical ones left by their mother’s beatings, this story will get to you. Far from being sad, however, it’s often funny, and it draws you in, making you fond of the three misfits and wondering if the truth can ever be discerned through their controlling mother’s lies.

An edited version of this review was published in the December 2009 Indie Next List <http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781590513187/Michael-Mewshaw/Lying-Dead>.

Short take: Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales

Big Man tells the story of Clarence Clemons, saxophonist in the E Street band and one of Bruce Springsteen’s oldest friends. Not a straightforward biography, the book is a compilation of short anecdotes and “legends” by Clemons and his good friend, television producer Don Reo. There’s plenty of sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, and name-dropping, but the tone is light, with plenty of humor and unique insights into one of the world’s great rock bands. Easy to pick and put down; a must-read for Springsteen and Clemons fans.

Review: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Twins. Cemeteries. Ghosts. Lovely and engaging writing. If any of these things sound interesting, you should pick up Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.  It’s being published on Tuesday, September 29th.

Elspeth Noblin, aged 44, dies of cancer in London, leaving her downstairs neighbor and lover, Robert, bereft. Elspeth had an identical twin sister, Edie, whom she had not seen since shortly after Edie ran off to America with Elspeth’s fiance, Jack Poole.

Edie and Jack themselves have a set of twin daughters, Julia and Valentina. Elspeth leaves her apartment to them in her will, with the stipulations that the girls live there for a year and that Jack and Edie never set foot in it. The twins, as they are often called — they are identical mirror twins and exceptionally close — accept. They are smart but without direction, have already dropped out of college twice, so it seems like a fine idea to leave their native Chicago to move to London for a year.

When they arrive, they do not immediately meet their neighbors in the other two apartments. Martin, who lives upstairs, is a brilliant man with a grown son and a wife who is exasperated with his unchecked obsessive-compulsive disorder. Having added agoraphobia to his list, he naturally does not venture out to greet the girls. Robert lives on the first floor and is both a shy person and daunted at finally meeting Elspeth’s nieces. It is weeks before he speaks to them, and then only when they attend his tour at Highgate, a Victorian cemetery next door to their apartment building, where he is a guide.

Secrets abound among this group. Elspeth never told Robert about her parting from Edie. Edie doesn’t confide in Jack. The twins know something happened but can’t get anyone to tell them about it.

There is also something strange about Elspeth’s flat. There are weird temperature variations, and objects appear to move around by themselves when no one is watching. Could it be Elspeth is not entirely out of the picture?

The supernatural aside, love and identity are a main themes of this story. Julia is the dominant twin, but Valentina resents Julia’s bossing. How can Valentina become her own self when Julia won’t let her go? Julia, for her part, feels she must protect and care for Valentina, who suffers from asthma and is sickly.

At the same time, each girl feels incomplete without the other, and love is also like that for Robert and Martin, who in their own ways are forced to explore what it is like to be alone.

To what extent should one go to have a separate identity? To what lengths should one go to keep love? I’m not a twin, so I can’t say whether the actions either sets of twins take are plausible (which on their surface they don’t appear to be). I can say that the non-twin love stories — Robert’s and Martin’s — speak of love in an idealistic way that is rare in real life.

I don’t know if this point should be a cause for criticism, however. Niffenegger’s previous and highly successful novel The Time Traveler’s Wife was at its heart a love story. It’s no surprise that love beyond the normal bounds of existence are at play in Symmetry as well.

Small misgivings aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Her Fearful Symmetry. It is atmospheric — set in and around a London cemetery, how could it not be? Pictures of Highgate grace some pages of the book. They are monochrome and a bit washed out, that is, ghostly. Niffenegger’s descriptions of Highgate reveal her knowledge of and affection for the place (she is a volunteer guide herself). London, when the twins venture out into it, is conjured as a bustling and fascinating place. But the apartments of Elspeth and Martin, where much of the action takes place, are almost characters themselves they are so richly imagined.

Although ghosts are reputed to be cold and a ghost story might also be so,  Symmetry has great warmth. Audrey Niffenegger draws characters that are sympathetic even when they are being monstrous. Martin is a good example. He is beset by terrible OCD, which makes him nearly impossible to live with. Yet he is terribly charming and it’s easy to root for him while being glad his apartment is not real.

What makes this book tick, however, is suspense. Niffenegger skillfully plots her elements, revealing just the right amount to each character. While the reader is in the know about some things, and much of the suspense is created by what the characters will discover and at what point, I found the major plot turns at the end both surprising and satisfying.

So, if you’d like to read an original and imaginative ghost story this Halloween season, you need look no further than Her Fearful Symmetry.

————————–

This review was first posted to Blogcritics.org.

Audrey Niffenegger’s Latest

I will post my review of Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel, Audrey Niffenegger’s lastest novel, very soon! But in the meantime, her literary agency wants you to know that they’re giving away copies of the book in a lottery to people who join the facebook fan page and email them at hfs@regal-literary.com.

An Indie Next review

Better late than never. My review of Young Woman and the Sea apparently made it into Indie Next and now is listed on Shelf Awareness.

http://news.shelf-awareness.com/ar/theshelf/2009-09-08/indiebound_other_indie_favorites.html