Summer Reads #4

Armada by Ernest Cline
If you were a fan of Cline's first book, Ready Player One, put your battle helmet on and get ready for another rockin' ride because this one is a humdinger.  Though not a sequel of Ready Player One, Cline once again draws on his incredibly detailed knowledge of television, movies, and video games of the 1970's and 80's to pull together a story of thrills and excitement.  The premise this time is as follows:  what if all the space shows/movies of the last few decades (think Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, ET, etc.) were actually not for pure entertainment but were actually set up to prepare us for the coming of an alien invasion?  And those space videos all the kids have been playing for decades?  Yep...those are actually flight simulators so that the defense drones can be deployed against said alien invasion.  This story is a rollicking good read with good guys, bad guys, sassy teenagers, and some complex moral dilemmas.  If you liked the Star Wars movies, or have a teenager who is a big 'gamer,' you will not go wrong with this book - I felt like a kid again as I swerved, ducked, and avoided getting shot down:)

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
After hearing all the bad reviews, the skeptics who loved Scout rolling their eyes, and the horror over Atticus' racist attitude, I questioned whether I should read this 'newly found' manuscript.  However, I am truly glad I did.  Read in just one lazy reading day on the couch, I found myself swept back to the slow Southern town of Maycomb, where Scout has returned on her annual visit.  We find the usual suspects:  Atticus, her 72 year old lawyer father; Aunt Alexandra, her straight-laced elderly aunt; Uncle Jack, the eccentric uncle; Henry, an erstwhile lover; and even Calpurnia and her son, Zeebo, play a small part.   First, is it as poorly written as reviewed?  No.  It's fine.  It's not TKAM, but what is?  However, some glittering examples of brilliance pop up occasionally where a sentence or two reminds the reader of Harper Lee's writing style.  And it's a rough draft - get over it.  I wish Lee would have taken this one off the shelf decades ago, and revised and edited it - we would have had two treasures from one author.  Does this book ruin Atticus for all of literary eternity?  No.  It is, in fact, rather brilliant on showing the complex relationship between Scout and Atticus, as well as the struggles for the older generation as the NAACP and the civil rights movement makes it way down South.  If you love TKAM as much as I do, I absolutely think you should read this; it will provide you with a different way of looking at the original story and the characters...and no, it will NOT ruin the original story.  I also think it would be a fascinating book club read that would generate some heated and thoughtful discussions.  I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it.


Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
Ironically, I read this book right before diving into Go Set a Watchman.  This is a deeply historical account of the beginning of the civil rights movement, but not the protests, the church involvement, or the boycotts.  This book tells the true account of the attack on the legal system, to bring equality to the land through the courts, in particular the U.S. Supreme Court.  While the book focuses very much on Thurgood Marshall (a fascinating, brilliant, complicated man), it also delves into other vital players who not only defended innocent clients, but pushed the argument for equal rights into the forefront of the American public.  The case of the Groveland boys, accused of raping a white woman in Florida, was the story of the decade...and I had never heard of it.  It is a painful look into our past, and causes one to question how SCOTUS could do away with the Voting Rights Act after being reminded of how far we have come.  For any history buff, this is a fascinating read - however, it is dense and very factual, so it is not a quick read.

Those Girls by Chevy Stevens
If you like a good thriller and are from the PNW,  this book is for you. Set in eastern British Columbia, and eventually Vancouver, BC, the story revolves around three sisters:  Dani, the responsible oldest sister who cares for her motherless sisters; Courtney, the wild one who enrages their alcoholic and abusive father; and Jess, the smart baby of the family who is the one who stands up to their father.  After a night of tragic abuse, the girls encounter some seriously bad boys.  Trapped, alone, and vulnerable, this incident leads to a lifetime of changed identity, as well as a new location.  Some of the scenes are fairly graphic and violent, so be forewarned.  However, Stevens does a solid job of continuously building the tension as the sisters mature and eventually have to deal with the trauma of long ago.  While I would not necessarily call it 'pretty writing', it is competent and definitely a page-turner.





The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

While I am trying to add to my knowledge of Young Adult books, as well as middle-readers, I promise not to write too many of them up on my blog.  However, I just could not resist with 'Calpurnia' as she is just a stud of a kid.  A Newberry Honor book, Jacqueline Kelly has created another storyline the likes of the Caddie Woodlawn book from long ago.  Calpurnia is an 11 year old girl who lives in 1899 in the heart of Texas.  Surrounded by six brothers and a mother who desperately wants Callie to be a 'real' girl, Calpurnia decides instead to befriend her curmudgeonly old grandfather, a disciple of Charles Darwin and a dedicated naturalist.  This book made me smile and laugh out loud at some of the antics; it also made me cringe to see the societal expectations on girls long ago.  If you have an 8-12 year old girl somewhere in your life who has not read this book, it would be a fabulous gift - Calpurnia Tate is just delightful.

Summer Reads #3

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

I have been impatiently waiting for Hoffman's newest novel to come out, after being stunned by her 2011 novel The Dovekeepers, truly a masterpiece, and fascinated by her 2014 novel, The Museum of Extraordinary Things.  Similar to Dovekeepers, her newest book relies heavily on her characters, making this a story driven not by plot, but by the development, interaction, and dynamism of her various characters.  Based on the family of Camille Pisarro, one of the fathers of the Impressionist art movement and comrade of Monet, Degas, and Renoir, Hoffman brings us into a world of mysticism and romance on the island of St. Thomas in the 1800's.  We hear the story through a variety of voices:  Rachel, a defiant young Jewish girl who wants more than the arranged marriage she sees in front of her; Frederic, the Parisian nephew of Rachel’s husband, a young man of passion and faith who embarks on a life of isolation and excommunication from their synagogue; Jestine, Rachel’s best friend, daughter of the African cook, who loves Rachel’s white half-brother; Lyddie, Jestine’s daughter who was stolen years before and lives a seemingly normal Jewish life; and Camille, the youngest child who sees the world in tints and shades and colors.  Throughout the story, the characters encounter anti-semitism and racism, and encounter deep wells of loneliness as love is stolen, lost, destroyed, and found again.  As always, Hoffman uses spirituality and an almost other-worldliness in her story that describes both the characters and their environment, and as the reader loses oneself in the story, we can almost hear the birds, smell the spices, and taste the molasses of a long-gone era.  This is a book that will linger in your mind long after your fingers browse the final pages.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

I am one of the few who have not read a Sue Monk Kidd book; yes, I missed The Secret Life of Bees a few years ago.  However, I do love good historical fiction, especially when it is based on heroic unknown people from our past and she hits it just right in her latest book.  Encompassing the story of two of America's earliest abolitionists and feminists, Kidd follows the story of the two sisters from Charleston who set the world afire, as well as their slave, Hetty in her attempts to free herself of both physical and mental slavery.  Sarah is the rebellious daughter of a judge and a strong-willed Charleston matriarch, who are both determined to keep the social order and allow their daughters as little self expression as possible.  As the oldest, Sarah is repressed, daunted by society, and struggles with a speech impediment.  However, as she raises her youngest sibling, Angelina, Sarah fosters in her a rebelliousness and fight that eventually seeps into her own soul.  At the same time, Hetty and her mother fight their own rebellion, as Hetty learns to read and revolt in her role as the house seamstress.  Steeped in history of the time and beautifully written, if you are a fan of historical fiction, this book will not let you down.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Made into an award-winning movie a few years ago, this 2003 book had been on my 'to-be-read' shelf for awhile.  It should have come off that shelf muuuuch sooner; it is a riveting, harrowing, hair-raising look at what it means to raise a sociopath and watch his path of destruction.  Written in a series of letters, from the mother to her husband, Eva delves into some fairly dark places.  We see the beginning of the marriage to Franklin and the angst over whether to create a family or stay in wedded un-parenting bliss.  From the very onset of Kevin's birth, a disconnect occurs and Kevin creates a completely unexpected chaos, unlike the birth of a 'normal' child, as well as a disconnect between Eva and her husband, Franklin, that is impossible to breach.  Eva gives hints of the school shooting to come, and as the years progress and she lays out Kevin's life to us, we can see the signs of destruction.  This is a completely gripping tale and an obsessive read; it would be a stellar book club book as it delves into some treacherous waters surrounding our ideas of what it means to be a good parent and supportive spouse.

The Scribe by Matthew Guinn

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of Guinn's new book; his first foray into literature, The Resurrectionist, was an Edgar award finalist.  This time he goes back in history, to Atlanta, Georgia in the 1880's where a cotton exposition designed to catapult Atlanta into the future and leave the 'unpleasantness' behind collides with a vicious serial killer.  Thomas Canby, a former Atlanta detective, lives out in the countryside, busily dealing with important crimes like missing pigs.  When given the chance to redeem his good name, he grabs it with both hands.  Teamed with the first black Atlanta PD detective, who is not yet even allowed to carry a gun, these two men find themselves following a bloody trail to hunt down the killer.  Author Guinn sprinkles clues to Canby's past throughout the story, giving us a sense of the unusual policeman that he is:  former Union soldier in a city that holds their Confederate past dear; son of an Irish immigrant killed in Sherman's siege; ex-fiance of a prim school teacher; and childhood friend of the city's beloved madam.  Guinn weaves a suspenseful tale in the midst of an accurate historical fiction; this is an entertaining read.