Book Review: Walking on Broken Glass

Author: Christa Allan

Title: Walking on Broken Glass

Description: Leah deals with her dysfunctional marriage and the loss of her baby by drinking. At the opening of this novel, she decides that she can’t spend the rest of her life drunk, and she makes the decision to check herself into a rehab center. This book centers on Leah’s rehab program and what happens when she returns home.

Review source: Free on kindle

Plot: Nothing is contrived or easy here. Leah’s relationship with her husband is teetering on the brink of divorce. Her rehabilitation isn’t pretty or effortless. This is a Christian novel in that Leah takes finding her higher power seriously, although the author doesn’t make Leah’s embrace of Christianity easy either.

Characters: Leah, her husband, and her best friend are the main characters, and they and the supporting characters are all real people with good and bad qualities who do good things and who also turn around and fail once in a while.

Writing style: Told in brutally honest first person.

Audience: Certainly anyone who is struggling with substance abuse—or with the death of a child or another tragedy—would empathize with Leah. Chick lit readers in general would probably enjoy this well-written book, if they didn’t mind the spiritual content.

Wrap-up: This isn’t the type of book I normally read, but I was engaged from the outset with Leah’s struggle to turn her life around. 3.5/5*

Book Review: Blood Men

Author: Paul Cleave

Title: Blood Men

Description: The main thing you need to know about Edward Hunter is that his father is in jail for murdering prostitutes—lots of them. Edward has tried to move on from his father’s arrest and the subsequent destruction of his family, and has created a nice, normal life with a wife who he loves and a little girl. Then he and his wife accidentally end up in the middle of a bank robbery, and his wife becomes an innocent victim. Frustrated by the seeming indifference of the police, Edward initiates contact with his father to see what other options might be open to him as the son of a serial killer. From there, things just get wilder.

Plot: Unique and gripping. Even though he is driven by the quest for vengeance and he (and the reader) have no idea how much violence he is capable of, Edward is a sympathetic main character. A couple of twists at the end left me reeling.

Characters: The main characters are Edward, his father, and the detective who is assigned to the case.  Lots of nasty bad-guy types as fodder.

Writing style: It’s a thriller and fits the genre well—one of those books that actually affects you physically, so that you’re gripping the book a little harder and breathing a little more quickly as you read.

Audience: Probably should stick with the thriller crowd. There was some pretty graphic violence and overall, the book was really dark. Not my usual type of read, but worthwhile.

Wrap-up: Don’t pick it up unless you can handle some shocks to your system. 4/5*

Book Review: Glow

Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan

Title: Glow

Description: Two spaceships left a deteriorating Earth to colonize New Earth. Both were equipped with all they would need for a decades-long journey, but one was secular and one was religious. Kieran and Waverly were born aboard the secular ship, the two oldest of the next generation of space colonists. After years of no communication from the other ship, their ship, the Empyrean, was attacked and the girls were taken captive. The story is told from Waverly’s point of view, as she struggles to rescue her mother and to return to the Empyrean, and from Kieran’s as he struggles for control of the ship after the adults leave to rescue the girls.

Review source: ALA

Plot: The plot was pretty interesting. The idea of separating colonists by religious belief was a new one to me, and it certainly comes into play. Because the book is the first in a series, though, basically nothing is resolved at the end.

Characters: I’ve heard this book referred to as “the next Hunger Games,” and it certainly seems like that author had it in mind as she chose her characters. We have the main character, a girl, who is quite tough, and two boys who like her. Neither of the boys are especially sympathetic, as they fight one another for control of the ship.

Writing style: One of the main reasons I’m not a science fiction fan is that the authors can never seem to tell a story in a reasonable amount of time. Other genres, they can manage it! But sci-fi, even a three-book series is short. I don’t like books that don’t resolve.

Audience: It’s a YA, sci-fi, Hunger Games clone.

Wrap-up: As I mentioned, I’m not a big sci-fi fan, so I’m not going to go out looking for the next book in the series. 2.5/5*

Part of a Meme

Just to switch things up:

What was the last book you…
• borrowed from the library? Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Thaler & Sunstein. Then I realized I had it on my bookshelf!
• bought? The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings, for our book group
• cried over? Goodbye for Now. A five-star read
• disliked and couldn’t finish? Don’t remember the title. It was a Harlequin cowboy romance that I picked up at ALA
• read & loved? Cry, the BelovedCountry—another one for the book group

• got for review? The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle, from netgalley

• gave to someone else? The LincolnConspiracy by Timothy O’Brien
• stayed up too late reading? I never stay up late

From http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com

Book Review: Perfume

Author: Patrick Suskind

Title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Description: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born in eighteenth-century France with two unusual traits. First, he has no scent (this leads all of his foster mothers to reject him); second, he has the best sense of smell in history. He can smell anything , anyone; he remembers every smell; he desires to create new scents and perfumes and learns everything he can about them. Unfortunately, this, combined with his lack of human emotions, leads him to take, well, rather extreme steps to collect scents that he covets.

Plot: This isn’t a mystery, nor is it a thriller. The best I can describe it would be that it is the book that results when the author asks himself, “What if there were a person who cared only about what he smelled?”

Characters: All of the major characters in the book are repulsive. Grenouille himself does not seem human.

Writing style: What I really enjoyed about this book was the description of smells of all sorts. In this way, it seemed to do for smells what Ann Patchett does for music in Bel Canto.  In other words, sometimes an author can write about one specific thing in a way that seems revelatory to me, and that’s what Suskind does here. Also, I was really interested in the details about perfume creation in the eighteenth century.

Audience: Literary fiction.

Wrap-up: I was riveted by this book for the writing, not for the characters, which is usually the case with me. 4/5*

Book Review: Witches (YA)

Author: Rosalyn Schanzer

Title: Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem

Description: A nonfiction account of the Salem witch trials, written for grades 6-10.

Source: ALA

Writing style: Documentary, and incorporating primary source material from time to time. There are some accounts of torture and stories of supposed devil-worship that might bother some kids (or their parents).

Major ideas: The author speculates about what might have caused the witch hunts, but she does not go out on a limb to assert any radical theories. She tells the story chronologically and points out—rather subtly—the opportunities that people had to make moral choices and the outcomes of those choices.

Wrap-up: This was an engaging tale of a truly horrifying period in America’s history. I should also mention the scratchboard illustrations, which I thought lent some sophistication to the book. 3/5* (just because I’m not the target audience)

Book Review: Orwell's Luck (YA)

Author:  Richard Jennings

Title: Orwell’s Luck

Description: The narrator (we never learn her name) finds a partially paralyzed rabbit on the morning paper on New Year’s morning, and determines to care for him until he is healed. This rabbit appears to have some special qualities, however. He may be communicating with her via the daily horoscopes.

Review source: ALA

Plot: Pretty cute. Will the rabbit send a message? Will the rabbit survive?

Characters: Orwell, the rabbit, is significantly the only character in the book who actually has a name. Everyone else has a role: the mom, the dad, the sister, the cat, the dog, the neighbors.

Writing style: Ostensibly narrated by a twelve year-old girl, this narrator is extremely well-spoken with a wide vocabulary. She is also thoughtful, entertaining plans at various points in the narrative to be a detective, a veterinarian, and a philosopher.

Audience: I’d estimate 5^th – 9^th grades. It was a one-hour read for me, and I enjoyed it.

Wrap-up: Pick it up if you enjoy clever, thoughtful YA lit, or if you have a middle-schooler who loves animals, reading, or both. 4/5*

Some of my Favorite Nonfiction

Today I’d like to highlight some of my favorite types of nonfiction. I mentioned one of my favorite nonfiction genres last time: booksabout competition.  They aren’t the only type of nonfiction I enjoy, though. I’ve also mentioned here some of my favorite Christian authors, and they often write in another genre that I enjoy, the spiritual memoir. Here I would mention Traveling Mercies and Girl Meets God as highlights.

I also enjoy reading accounts of travel, especially the sort of “western everyman set down in Asia” type of book typified by a title like Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan  by Bruce Feiler.  Another subgenre of travel books I love are trail books; the king of them all is Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, and I’m really looking forward to reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.

Being a trivia buff, I also enjoy reading books about trivia. A. J. Jacobs did a good job with The Know-it-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. (I’ve enjoyed his other books as well). In a similar vein are the books where someone tries something unusual and writes about it: Supersize Me (Morgan  Spurlock), Nickel and Dimed (Barbara Ehrenreich), Pledged, etc.

I’m looking forward to reading more nonfiction—let me know if you have any titles you think I’d love!

Book Review: The Devil in Silver

Author: Victor LaValle

Title: The Devil in Silver

Description: Pepper gets into a fight one night, defending the honor of a girl he sort of likes. Because their shift is almost over and they don’t want to do the paperwork, the cops dump him in a mental hospital for 72 hours of observation, rather than arresting him. When he tries to fight his way out, Pepper is drugged into insensibility and wakes up a month later. Complicating matters is the mysterious patient who has an entire hall to himself and may be feeding on the other patients.  

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: This book is billed as horror, and at first it comes across like a typical horror novel (what IS that thing?) Somewhere along the way, though, it shifts, and becomes a musing on the nature of normalcy, the utter impersonality of “the system,” and the process of self-realization.

Characters: There are some pretty interesting characters here; Pepper, of course, but also his (are they really) friends Dorry, Loochie, and Coffee, and the other residents of the mental ward. Even the hospital personnel  come across as more than stereotyped caricatures.

Writing style: The character study in this book struck me as more successful than the horror aspect.  I’m not sure exactly how horrified we are supposed to be by the Devil, but he never seemed all that scary. Much scarier was the completely believable explanation for Pepper—completely sane—being incarcerated in a mental hospital indefinitely.

Audience: I’m sort of stumped here. Horror readers might like it, but I’d push it at folks who read literary fiction.

Wrap-up: After the cheap horror effects of the first few chapters died down, the book drew me in more and more. I’ll give it a solid 4/5*

Book Review: The Customer-Driven Academic Library

Author: Jeannette A. Woodward

Title: The Customer-Driven Academic Library

Description : Woodward’s contention is that as library tasks have become more specialized, the librarians have retreated more and more into their offices, leaving the library employees with less  training to do the crucial work of interacting with the customers.  

Writing style: Very readable, though the book isn’t about style but about ideas.

Audience: Academic librarians.

Major ideas: I’ve had this idea about university faculty as well. Although the naïve bystander might think that faculty are there to help students, I’ve learned that faculty are there to get tenure.  Woodward pushes this idea back on the library, and it’s a convincing argument. Although she doesn’t dwell on personality, I believe that most librarians are introverts, and are more comfortable not dealing with people as a major focus of their jobs. By indulging ourselves in this way, however, we run the risk of hastening the demise of the academic library; if the only workers anyone encounters are students, they will quickly begin to question why librarians are being paid to hide in the back rooms.

Wrap-up: This small book doesn’t contain all of the answers to the present library crisis, but it does present a persuasive argument that academic librarians need to spend more of their professional time interacting with students and faculty and less time indulging their penchant for the ivory tower. 4/5*

Book Review: Parting the Waters

 Author: Taylor Branch

Title: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963

Description: An extremely detailed account of the rise to prominence of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his allies and detractors.  

Writing style: I’d call it “dry.” Lots of conversations reported verbatim. I can’t imagine the years of research that must have gone into the writing of this book.

Audience: Those interested in modern American history and the Civil Rights movement.

Major ideas: I have to admit, I didn’t know much about the early history of the civil rights movement. What I learned that surprised me: there was significant infighting among those who sought to improve conditions for African-Americans in the South, some civil, some not-so-much; MLK was often conflicted about which path to take; Kennedy wasn’t much for civil rights; sometimes I am just so ashamed of how people can treat one another.

Wrap-up: This book was on the Entertainment Weekly list that I’m trying to read through or I would not have picked it up—I would not read this book on my own. It was 922 pages of extremely detailed text and took me 3-4 years to read. So, it wasn’t my favorite read of the year, but I’m certainly not sorry I took the time to learn about this aspect of our nation’s history. 3/5*

The Thrill of Victory

You’ve probably noticed that the Olympics wound up last night. This results in me missing a lot of my reading time, therefore finishing fewer books, therefore writing fewer reviews. Or maybe you haven’t noticed because you’ve been watching the Olympics, not reading blogs. In case you didn't get enough competition--or in case you don't care about the Olympics but want something fun to read--here's a list of books about competitions that I've enjoyed over the years.

Why the name "William Goldman" sounds familiar

John Feinstein specializes in following a sport for a whole season; I’ve enjoyed both A Good Walk Spoiled (about golf) and A Season on the Brink (about Bobby Knight at Indiana). Though they are both somewhat dated now, I’d recommend any book on sports that he writes.

I love William Goldman and would read just about anything he writes. He is the only person to have judged at Cannes and at Miss America  in the same year. Hype and Glory is the book he wrote as a result, giving behind-the-scenes dish on both competitions.

Word Freak is an insider’s look at the world of competitive Scrabble playing by Stefan Fatsis. He also has a couple of books on “real” sports like baseball (Wild and Outside) and football (A Few Seconds of Panic). 

Finally, my favorite book on competition was written by a personal friend, and I’m even in it! Don’t miss Prisoner of Trebekistan by Bob Harris (and look for his new book, coming out soon, on his adventures in micro-finance, The 1^st International Bank of Bob, sure to be a fun read!

Book Review: Enchantment

Author: Thaisa Frank

Title: Enchantment

Description: Short stories. Depressing magic realism.

Review source: Publisher

Plot: There are dozens of stories in this book (50 or more?) so it is hard to identify an overarching theme. There are several stories, though, about being seen—people blending in to inanimate objects so they cannot be seen, or being forgotten as though they were never there. I would say that most of the stories are about broken connections between people.

Characters: Mostly from the women’s point of view. These stories are pretty short—many are just two or three pages—so not much time for character development, more like a snapshot.

Writing style: Dreamlike, detached… Many of the stories contain elements of the magical. I can’t remember that any of the stories had happy endings, so a sort of sadness pervades the book.

Audience: Literary fiction

Wrap-up: I read this book because I had read Frank’s earlier Heidegger’s Glasses. I’ll say upfront that I’m not much for short stories; I much prefer the extended narrative of the novel. Short stories become just dizzying to me, especially if I’m reading more than one at a sitting, as I did with this book. In addition, I just happen to be re-reading Olive Kitteridge now as well. So it was up against a Pulitzer winner. The difference between this book and Olive is that I get that feeling of sustained, connected narrative in Olive. There were some connected stories here, but the typography of the story titles made it difficult to figure out exactly how that worked. 2.5/5*

Book Review: A Praying Life

Author: Paul Miller & David Powlison

Title: A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

Description : It’s about prayer.  

Source: It was free on kindle. 

Writing style: Straightforward with lots of stories from the author’s family

Audience: Christians

Major ideas: Sometimes a book hits me at just the right time. I was praying, sure, and probably would never have picked this book up if it hadn’t been free. But it has actually prompted me to take some steps that I probably wouldn’t have taken on my own. 1) It convinced me that I need an accountability partner to make sure I follow through on what I intend to do and don’t just dismiss my missteps as “oops, it won’t happen again.” 2) It convicted me that instead of chewing my family out when I feel like they’ve fallen short of what I’d like them to do that I should pray—and mostly about my own attitude. 3) It reminded me that each of our lives is a narrative that God is writing. Prayer allows us to participate in that act of creation.

Wrap-up: If you want to be challenged in your prayer life, read this book. It will leave you with more than you came with. 4/5*

Book Review: Albert of Adelaide

Author: Howard L. Anderson

Title: Albert of Adelaide

Description: This book is about a platypus, Albert, who escapes from the zoo in Adelaide and sets out to find the platypus paradise. He’s not quite sure how to get there, but he starts out nonetheless. Along the way, he meets the wombat Jack, the raccoon TJ, and an assortment of good guys and bad guys.

Review source: netgalley

Plot: I had this book in my to-read list. I can’t imagine what it was about a description or a review that would have made me want to read it. Basically, it was a western, with gambling, drinking, outlaws, and wanted posters.

Characters: Albert seems innocent and naïve at first (think the Madagascar crew set loose in the jungle), but he’s quick to want to punch, shoot, and pull out those poison spikes. The quick recourse to violence is not my style, but I suppose it fits with the western idea.

Writing style: Seen from Albert’s point of view, everything that happens is a new surprise. So there’s this naïveté joined with linear reporting (“Albert noticed that they were playing some kind of game with dice. He felt lucky.”)

Audience: ? People who like westerns about Australian mammals?

Wrap-up: This book was just a little too innovative for me. That, plus the idea of killing people as the solution when you can’t get along made this book not quite my cup of billabong tea. 3/5*.

Book Review: Paper Angels

Author: Billy Coffey

Title: Paper Angels

Description: Andy awakens in the hospital and gradually remembers the accident that put him there. His personal angel, the Old Man, seems to have left him at this worst time in his life. A hospital counselor asks him to talk through his box of keepsakes. Each keepsake is linked to a memory of a lesson Andy learned. As he reviews his life, Andy faces the question of where to go from here.

Review source: ALA

Plot: Short stories form vignettes of Andy’s past life, but are connected by the overarching narrative of his keepsake box.

Characters: Andy is a loner, having grown up orphaned. The angel that dogs his footsteps prevents him from forming lasting relationships (he doesn’t want people to think he is talking to himself). Other characters drop in and out of the story.

Writing style: The book kept me interested, but I would say it crossed the line into sappy more than once. The final “surprise” is pretty obvious from the beginning of the book. And I’m starting to get really tired of that kind of foreshadowing where the author drops in a name and a looming disaster but refuses to say what has happened until the end of the book. Wearying. Also, lots of preaching going on here. For every story, there is a lesson learned. Thunk.

Audience: Christian fiction, though it’s more that “life lesson” kind of thing than overtly Christian. Also the protagonist is a man, so if men are looking for Christian fiction, I'd recommend Coffey as the kind of author who won't overwhelm them with chick lit.

Wrap-up: Mildly enjoyable. 3/5*

Book Review: In Darkness

Author: Nick Lake

Title: In Darkness

Description: In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, a teenaged boy lies trapped beneath the rubble of a destroyed hospital. As he lies there, he remembers the events that have led up to his hospitalization, caused by a gunshot wound. He also has memories of another life—not his, but that of his country’s liberator, Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Review source: I think I picked up at ALA.

Plot: I was disoriented for a good while until I figured out what was going on with the flashbacks, etc. There are two plots running parallel: the modern day story of Shorty the teenage gangster in Cite Soleil and Toussaint’s story of liberation.

Characters: In Cite Soleil, teenage boys (and younger) are the drug lords’ henchmen, mostly because the young men die off so quickly that rarely does one make it to his twenties. In both modern and historical Haiti, there isn’t much room for idealism; even people who try to do good have to make some big compromises along the way.

Writing style: Shorty uses a lot of creole or Haitian slang, but it can be figured out.

Audience: I get the impression that this was meant to be a YA novel; if so, it’s got major profanity issues and would be a fairly difficult read for under-16. Totally works as an adult novel.

Wrap-up: Every once in a while I get fascinated by a topic, and Haiti is one that I can’t let go. I did some research on Haiti for grad school, now this book—and after I read this one, I just wanted to go out and read more about Haiti. So Mountains Beyond Mountains is on its way, and I’m going to read some Danticat as well, as a start. I know Julia Alvarez has a new Haiti book out as well.  Back to this one, though—4/5*

Book Review: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

Author: Jenny Wingfield

Title: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

Description: Samuel Lake is a pastor who is just a little too controversial for the southern churches he serves. After his denomination tells him they just don’t have a church for him, he and his family—wife Willadee and kids Swan, Noble, and Bienville—end up at Willadee’s parents’ house. There Samuel wrestles with his vocation, Samuel’s ex-fiancee tries everything she can think of to get him back, Swan tries to befriend her uncle Toy, and the family becomes involved with young Blade, who will change their lives.  

Review source: netgalley

Plot: yes. All of the plots and subplots were interesting.

Characters: The book was not as much about Samuel Lake as the title makes it out to be. It’s probably more about Swan and Toy. But all of the family members were well-drawn characters. The villain was truly scary. I felt like a part of this family by the time I had finished the book.

Writing style: I never knew quite what was going to happen here, and the action keeps moving, but it doesn’t preclude character development. In terms of style, the book sort of made me expect magic realism, but there wasn’t any—there was, however, one miracle. I liked this book in the same way that I liked A Grown Up Kind of Pretty.

Audience: I confess, I could look up the publisher, but I don’t know if off the top of my head. That said, I don’t know whether or not this book is being marketed as Christian fiction. Which makes it just the kind of Christian fiction I like. Very much in the tradition of Peace Like a River.

Wrap-up: I loved this book. I wasn’t thrilled with the ending—I can think of two or three endings I would prefer. But that doesn't take away from the overall impact the book had on me. 5/5*

Book Review: Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Author: Melissa Bank

Title: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Description: A collection of short stories centering around Jane Rosenal (except for one about her aunt’s neighbor).

Source: yup, Penguin.

Writing style: A little disorienting—some first person, (including when the neighbor narrates), some second person.

Audience: Definitely literary fiction; more women than men, I’d guess.

Major ideas: The stories are about love. Or at least dating relationships. Jane’s brother, Jane, Jane’s aunt’s neighbor’s son’s.

Wrap-up: It was an easy one-vacation-day read, but I’m not sure that it’ll stick with me for long. A lot of New York publishing scene type stuff. 4/5*

Book Review: Pledged

Author: Alexandra Robbins

Title: Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities

Description: Robbins spends a year following for sorority sisters on a college campus. The sororities were worried about publicity, so she had to go “undercover.” The picture that emerges is not a flattering one for most mainstream sororities.

Writing style: Excellent narrative non-fiction. The four girls’ stories are tracked through the school year, but in each chapter, Robbins also widens her focus to discuss the national picture regarding sorority issues such as sex, body image, drinking, and charity work.

Audience: If you like narrative non-fiction, this book is for you.

Major ideas: Sororities could be a force for good (witness most minority sororities), but are instead social clubs and money-making ventures.

Wrap-up: I brought six other books on vacation but finished this one first. 4/5*