Cost describes the misshapen, painful family dynamics of the Lamberts: Julia, her mother and father, her two young adult sons (Stephen and Jack), and her ex-husband as they come to deal with Jack's heroin addiction.
For such compelling material, the novel dragged. Jack and his addiction aren't even brought into the story until around page one hundred eighty (!!). Most of the book up until that point is spent belaboring the mental (and sometimes, physical) state, internal dialogue, and familial perspective of each of the characters. While interesting, these insights could have been made much, much, much shorter and still been effective. As the book progresses, certain characters seem to fall by the wayside, such as Stephen, whose thoughts I would have been more interested in hearing than the continual keening of Julia, who in the end all but completely abandons Stephen in order to focus on Jack.
The characters did progress throughout the novel, particularly Julia's father, who realizes that he is at the threshold of losing his wife to Alzheimer's just at the moment when he has finally come to appreciate her. That is an underlying theme in this novel; the characters only appreciate what they no longer have, be it marriage, parents, health, or love.
Once Jack is fully integrated into the story, the pace quickens, and becomes more interesting until the last chapter or so, when for some reason it entirely shifts gears, seeming disjointed and awkward. (SPOILER ALERT: I also didn't understand why Julia still lost her house, even though Jack didn't appear in court because he was dead. Seems to me death should excuse one from court.)
Rating: three stars out of five - the main part of the story was very good, once it finally got going: get this one from a library
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Book for January Is....
The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski! Kudos to Kristi for picking this month's book!!!
As usual, discussion questions will be posted on or around January 15th.
If you haven't finished reading Serena, don't despair!!! Questions never go away, and you can post anytime! Even if you don't read a book at all that month, you can always go back and join in on the discussion later!
As usual, discussion questions will be posted on or around January 15th.
If you haven't finished reading Serena, don't despair!!! Questions never go away, and you can post anytime! Even if you don't read a book at all that month, you can always go back and join in on the discussion later!
Patient by Patient: Lessons in Love, Loss, Hope and Healing from a Doctor's Practice, by Emily Transue
I really, really liked Patient by Patient... . Emily Transue has managed to write a book about her practice that is both human and absorbing. Her conversational style of writing makes it clear that she honestly cares about her patients, and she made me care about them as well. I held my breath waiting to read outcomes of tests, and cried with her when she lost patients. Her words had made me feel as though I knew these people, too.
There were necessarily several stories of loss encompassed in this memoir, both practical and personal. Transue's father, who suffers from and finally succumbs to brain damange caused by a cancer treatment years before, as well as his parents, who are in their nineties, are the main focus of Transue's family life, and their various conditions and outcomes weave in and out through her writing and her care for her patients, reminding readers that doctors are, in fact, people. Her explaination of the billing nightmare that doctors experience, as well as the hours they work, made me understand my some of my own experiences in doctor's offices a little bit better, but she also made me see what kind of care is really out there, if we can find it. She is obviously an amazing person, and has definitely inherited the 'wonderful storyteller' gene from her grandmother.
Rating: five out of five stars - wonderful
There were necessarily several stories of loss encompassed in this memoir, both practical and personal. Transue's father, who suffers from and finally succumbs to brain damange caused by a cancer treatment years before, as well as his parents, who are in their nineties, are the main focus of Transue's family life, and their various conditions and outcomes weave in and out through her writing and her care for her patients, reminding readers that doctors are, in fact, people. Her explaination of the billing nightmare that doctors experience, as well as the hours they work, made me understand my some of my own experiences in doctor's offices a little bit better, but she also made me see what kind of care is really out there, if we can find it. She is obviously an amazing person, and has definitely inherited the 'wonderful storyteller' gene from her grandmother.
Rating: five out of five stars - wonderful
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, by tElizabeth McCracken
Exact Replica... is a quick read, but not one I'm likely to forget.
McCracken begins the book, a memoir of maternity, by telling the end of the story; she is holding one baby while writing about the one she lost to stillbirth the year before. The rest of the novel explains the road that took them to the birth, what transpired the day her first child died, and how she has dealt with that loss and the resulting life turmoil.
The writing was plain and simple, just as it should have been. She told the story in an honest way, not pulling punches but not creating additional drama, either. I think her minimalist style was a huge plus, because it allowed the drama to speak for itself.
Rating: four stars out of five - compelling, honest and well-written
McCracken begins the book, a memoir of maternity, by telling the end of the story; she is holding one baby while writing about the one she lost to stillbirth the year before. The rest of the novel explains the road that took them to the birth, what transpired the day her first child died, and how she has dealt with that loss and the resulting life turmoil.
The writing was plain and simple, just as it should have been. She told the story in an honest way, not pulling punches but not creating additional drama, either. I think her minimalist style was a huge plus, because it allowed the drama to speak for itself.
Rating: four stars out of five - compelling, honest and well-written
Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster
BitNB is a 'layoff memoir' written by now-blogger, Jen Lancaster. It is an account of her being laid off by a giant corporation during a merger/after 9/11, and struggling for the next few years to get back on her feet.
I am not familiar with her blog. Maybe if I were, it would have helped. As it stands, I could not read straight through the book because I *hated* her so much during the first quarter of the book that it made it difficult for me to root for her at all. Her label-obsessed, superiority-complexed, money-fixated personality turned me completely off, so much so that I couldn't really get past it to enjoy the humor in the book. I skimmed through to the end, was glad for her that things turned out well, and put it down.
I am not saying that this book is not for anyone, or that I find her to be a bad person. It was simply not for me. I am a very bare-bones, no-label, generally financially-restrained kind of girl, and I could not relate to her as she portrayed herself at all. I hope she is actually nicer and more deep than she appears even at the end of the book. I'm sure she probably is. I also think that there are many, many people who could look beyond the things that I got hung up on and enjoy the book. However, if one of your favorite books is 'Long Walk Home', I would guess probably not.
Rating: one star out of five, because it was well written, even if it made me slightly ill to read it
I am not familiar with her blog. Maybe if I were, it would have helped. As it stands, I could not read straight through the book because I *hated* her so much during the first quarter of the book that it made it difficult for me to root for her at all. Her label-obsessed, superiority-complexed, money-fixated personality turned me completely off, so much so that I couldn't really get past it to enjoy the humor in the book. I skimmed through to the end, was glad for her that things turned out well, and put it down.
I am not saying that this book is not for anyone, or that I find her to be a bad person. It was simply not for me. I am a very bare-bones, no-label, generally financially-restrained kind of girl, and I could not relate to her as she portrayed herself at all. I hope she is actually nicer and more deep than she appears even at the end of the book. I'm sure she probably is. I also think that there are many, many people who could look beyond the things that I got hung up on and enjoy the book. However, if one of your favorite books is 'Long Walk Home', I would guess probably not.
Rating: one star out of five, because it was well written, even if it made me slightly ill to read it
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Hilda and Pearl: A Novel, by Alice Mattison
This was an interesting, quick read, so this will be a quick review. Hilda and Pearl hooked me from about the third chapter, where it turned into a grown-up novel of forgiveness, love, loss, and family.
The story begins with Frances watching her parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin interact at their beach house one summer during the McCarthy era. While this was vaguely interesting, thing really get interesting when, after this point, the book switches gears and works from the point where her aunt, Pearl, meets her uncle, Mike, and works forward, explaining all that Frances sees and hears. There is a lot more going on than Frances knows about, even with her intuitive observance, and as an adult, it really reminded me that the memories that we all have of childhood are all colored with the innocence we had then, rather than with the knowledge of what was going on underneath. It is hard to imagine that a family could go through so much, and yet still be together, and even more so that there are millions of families out there, with similar histories, that we unknowingly see every day.
The one part of the novel that I didn't enjoy or really see the point of was the interaction between Frances and her friend. It was either extraneous or not developed enough, and Marrison should have either worked it more or left it out; I would have voted for more, so there would have been a clearer parallel with the rest of the story. Thankfully, it was only a small part of the novel. Also, one of the two plot twists was clearly predictable from a mile away, which took some of the fun out of the first half of the book.
Mattison has written several other books, and I think I will probably check them out at the library as well.
Rating: three out of five stars - enjoyable, but somewhat predictable; one particular moment between Nathan and Hilda as they reconstruct their marriage almost makes the novel worthwhile on its own
The story begins with Frances watching her parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin interact at their beach house one summer during the McCarthy era. While this was vaguely interesting, thing really get interesting when, after this point, the book switches gears and works from the point where her aunt, Pearl, meets her uncle, Mike, and works forward, explaining all that Frances sees and hears. There is a lot more going on than Frances knows about, even with her intuitive observance, and as an adult, it really reminded me that the memories that we all have of childhood are all colored with the innocence we had then, rather than with the knowledge of what was going on underneath. It is hard to imagine that a family could go through so much, and yet still be together, and even more so that there are millions of families out there, with similar histories, that we unknowingly see every day.
The one part of the novel that I didn't enjoy or really see the point of was the interaction between Frances and her friend. It was either extraneous or not developed enough, and Marrison should have either worked it more or left it out; I would have voted for more, so there would have been a clearer parallel with the rest of the story. Thankfully, it was only a small part of the novel. Also, one of the two plot twists was clearly predictable from a mile away, which took some of the fun out of the first half of the book.
Mattison has written several other books, and I think I will probably check them out at the library as well.
Rating: three out of five stars - enjoyable, but somewhat predictable; one particular moment between Nathan and Hilda as they reconstruct their marriage almost makes the novel worthwhile on its own
Monday, December 8, 2008
Note
I'm posting the questions for Serena today, but only because I'm running early. Discussion can begin whenever you all are ready! Also, if you haven't finished the book, don't look at the questions yet unless you want spoilers!!
Serena: A Novel Question #6
Did you like this novel? What was your favorite part? Do you plan to read anything else by Rash?
Serena: A Novel Question #3
After Pemberton pays for Campbell to take Jacob's photo, he has a dream where he hears crying in the field where they had gone bear hunting earlier in the day. Serena tells him it is a baby, and when Pemberton asks if they should go and get it, she smiles and says no, that it is Galloway's baby, not theirs. What do you think she meant?
Serena: A Novel Question #1
What do you think that Serena meant when she said, after her miscarriage, that it was 'like my body knew all along'?
Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash
I have been trying to wait to post the review for this book until closer to the discussion date, but I can't wait any longer. This book swept me away, and I'm bursting to talk about it!
The novel opens with the two main characters, George and Serena Pemberton, arriving in North Carolina at the train station near the couple's logging camp in the Appalachian mountains. Within pages, the first killing of the novel occurs, and from there on what can only be called a thirst for blood becomes the siren song for Serena. The man who was killed was the father of Rachel, the girl who has born a child as a result of Pemberton's attentions and third main character of the novel. For daring to challenge Pemberton on behalf of his daughter, he is neatly dispensed of with Pemberton's knife, and as his blood spills on the platform, Serena calmy steps over the body and hands the father's knife to Rachel, saying that she should keep it for its monetary value and that though she may have had a child, but it would be her last with Pemberton.
While at first Serena seems a beguiling, strong female character, she becomes increasingly powerful, her evil feeding off of the blood that begins to spill all around her as those who oppose Pemberton's and, increasingly, Serena's will. Using the henchman whose life she saves, she has her opponents mowed down on a road of bribes and threats, and soon turns her laser eyes to Rachel and her son, who has caught the attention of Pemberton and is, therefore, a seen as a threat to Serena, who is barren as a result of miscarriage.
This novel has many, many ties to previous literary works, Macbeth being the most obvious, and I enjoyed mapping the similarities in my mind as I read. Also of interest is the historical backround of logging in Appalachia, and of the government's quest to acquire the lands for a national parks project through threats and bribes of its own. I believe the novel is best summed up by a photo taken of Serena by the local photographer; it is of Serena, astride her massive horse with her hunting eagle on her arm, Pemberton at her side, and behind them 'a wasteland of stumps and downed limbs whose limits the frame could not encompass'. This is both connotative of the actual scene and the uncountable number of limbs and lives lost in the swath of the Pemberton's success. Interestingly, Serena's face is blurred in the photo, as if in motion, but also almost as if she was the devil itself, unable to be caught in still photography much as a vampire cannot be seen in a mirror.
One minor problem with the novel was that the killing spree went on almost too long; it grew slightly stagnant for a few chapters during the scene-setting for the final act. Also, some of the social event scenes seemd a bit forced, and the chapters about Rachel were pale compared to the blaze of the rest of the story. However, the climax, while not entirely unexpected, was well worth the wait, and the coda following the novel was perfect.
Rating: Five out of five stars. Absorbing, menacing, and unrepentant, Serena is overwhelming.
The novel opens with the two main characters, George and Serena Pemberton, arriving in North Carolina at the train station near the couple's logging camp in the Appalachian mountains. Within pages, the first killing of the novel occurs, and from there on what can only be called a thirst for blood becomes the siren song for Serena. The man who was killed was the father of Rachel, the girl who has born a child as a result of Pemberton's attentions and third main character of the novel. For daring to challenge Pemberton on behalf of his daughter, he is neatly dispensed of with Pemberton's knife, and as his blood spills on the platform, Serena calmy steps over the body and hands the father's knife to Rachel, saying that she should keep it for its monetary value and that though she may have had a child, but it would be her last with Pemberton.
While at first Serena seems a beguiling, strong female character, she becomes increasingly powerful, her evil feeding off of the blood that begins to spill all around her as those who oppose Pemberton's and, increasingly, Serena's will. Using the henchman whose life she saves, she has her opponents mowed down on a road of bribes and threats, and soon turns her laser eyes to Rachel and her son, who has caught the attention of Pemberton and is, therefore, a seen as a threat to Serena, who is barren as a result of miscarriage.
This novel has many, many ties to previous literary works, Macbeth being the most obvious, and I enjoyed mapping the similarities in my mind as I read. Also of interest is the historical backround of logging in Appalachia, and of the government's quest to acquire the lands for a national parks project through threats and bribes of its own. I believe the novel is best summed up by a photo taken of Serena by the local photographer; it is of Serena, astride her massive horse with her hunting eagle on her arm, Pemberton at her side, and behind them 'a wasteland of stumps and downed limbs whose limits the frame could not encompass'. This is both connotative of the actual scene and the uncountable number of limbs and lives lost in the swath of the Pemberton's success. Interestingly, Serena's face is blurred in the photo, as if in motion, but also almost as if she was the devil itself, unable to be caught in still photography much as a vampire cannot be seen in a mirror.
One minor problem with the novel was that the killing spree went on almost too long; it grew slightly stagnant for a few chapters during the scene-setting for the final act. Also, some of the social event scenes seemd a bit forced, and the chapters about Rachel were pale compared to the blaze of the rest of the story. However, the climax, while not entirely unexpected, was well worth the wait, and the coda following the novel was perfect.
Rating: Five out of five stars. Absorbing, menacing, and unrepentant, Serena is overwhelming.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
WOW.
I finished reading Serena at 1:30 this morning. I have been thinking about it on and off ever since. Wow. That was a Book. I can't wait to talk about it with all of you!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Mercy Rule: A Novel, by Perri Klass
The Mercy Rule follows Lucy Weiss, a former-foster-child-turned-doctor, and her family, as told by Lucy and her daughter, ten year-old Isabel. The other family members, Weiss' husband and officially-undiagnosed autistic son, Freddy, are described part of the story only through their eyes, rather than as first-person narratives.
Weiss works as a general practitioner with mothers who are part of the foster-care merry-go-round, meaning they are being watched by social workers, have already had children taken away from them, or some combination of both. We meet several people via Lucy's experiences in her various roles (parent, traveling guest lecturer, doctor) such as a young boy flying across country on his own, whose father abruptly abandons him at the airport with Lucy without so much as asking her name when she and the boy find their return flight canceled. The one great disappointment of the book is that these fascinating characters transition in and out of Lucy's life as they would in the real world, meaning that the reader has no idea what eventually happens to these people. It made me a little crazy, to be honest; of particular frustration was the disappearance of the housewife who was being investigated for abusing her children, but maybe was being abused by her husband, or was it the nanny who was doing the abuse?? Lucy brings up all these questions about people, and they are never resolved. Frustrating!!!
There are, however, many things to like about this book. For starters, I learned a LOT about the foster care system, through snippets of Lucy's lectures, the various people she meets, and through descriptions of her own, and her patients', personal experiences. Also, Lucy's daughter, Isabel, is a very intelligent girl, but retains an appropriate level of maturity for her age. For instance, when she snoops and reads a novel her mother is writing as a means of relaxation, she becomes paranoid and irate when reading about the daughter, certain that it is about her, even though she feels that it is nothing like her. A typical tween, she simultaneously prays for her mother's attention and becomes furious when that attention is given. Her part of the novel is much smaller, but still interesting.
The novel skips over certain periods, which helps the story to keep moving, although there is no major conflict that needs resolution. The novel simply Is; it tells the story of a certain period of a family's life, and that is that. Luckily, Klass is an engaging and emotionally-provoking storyteller, so it works. Anyone with a Difficult family past, experience with abuse, or who was actually part of the social services system, will find this to be a very, very resonant book.
Rating: four out of five stars - an easy, relaxing, yet engaging read
Weiss works as a general practitioner with mothers who are part of the foster-care merry-go-round, meaning they are being watched by social workers, have already had children taken away from them, or some combination of both. We meet several people via Lucy's experiences in her various roles (parent, traveling guest lecturer, doctor) such as a young boy flying across country on his own, whose father abruptly abandons him at the airport with Lucy without so much as asking her name when she and the boy find their return flight canceled. The one great disappointment of the book is that these fascinating characters transition in and out of Lucy's life as they would in the real world, meaning that the reader has no idea what eventually happens to these people. It made me a little crazy, to be honest; of particular frustration was the disappearance of the housewife who was being investigated for abusing her children, but maybe was being abused by her husband, or was it the nanny who was doing the abuse?? Lucy brings up all these questions about people, and they are never resolved. Frustrating!!!
There are, however, many things to like about this book. For starters, I learned a LOT about the foster care system, through snippets of Lucy's lectures, the various people she meets, and through descriptions of her own, and her patients', personal experiences. Also, Lucy's daughter, Isabel, is a very intelligent girl, but retains an appropriate level of maturity for her age. For instance, when she snoops and reads a novel her mother is writing as a means of relaxation, she becomes paranoid and irate when reading about the daughter, certain that it is about her, even though she feels that it is nothing like her. A typical tween, she simultaneously prays for her mother's attention and becomes furious when that attention is given. Her part of the novel is much smaller, but still interesting.
The novel skips over certain periods, which helps the story to keep moving, although there is no major conflict that needs resolution. The novel simply Is; it tells the story of a certain period of a family's life, and that is that. Luckily, Klass is an engaging and emotionally-provoking storyteller, so it works. Anyone with a Difficult family past, experience with abuse, or who was actually part of the social services system, will find this to be a very, very resonant book.
Rating: four out of five stars - an easy, relaxing, yet engaging read
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Selection for December
Hi there!!! The novel for December is.... drumroll, please....
Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash!
Here is the Amazon review:
Amazon.com Review
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash!
Here is the Amazon review:
Amazon.com Review
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
Rash's masterful balance of violence and beauty yields a riveting novel that, at its core, tells of love both honored and betrayed.
***************
For being the first members of our little book club, I would like to offer Kristi and Chantal copies of this book for free!!! If you send me your addresses, I will send you Serena!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Conception, by Kalisha Buckhanon
Conception was much more than I was expecting. The inside cover described almost an entirely different book from what I encountered when I sat down yesterday afternoon. Now that I've finished, after barely being able to put it down, I can understand why the writer of the synopsis was so flummoxed as to how to describe what was within. (I also have to add here, as a white woman, my perspective on this novel is, I assume, vastly different from that of someone who can relate more personally on a racial level.)
While the premise of the story, one about a young black girl from a broken Chicago family who winds up pregnant (by the drug-dealing father of the kids she babysits) and confused, is one I've read before, the conveyance was truly remarkable. The people were so fully fleshed out, and Shivana, the main character, grew and changed as the story progressed in a way that was both believable and absorbing. Her struggle to emerge from the black hole that her life had become, and her simultaneous inability to see beyond her Present, until, ironically, her choices were almost nonexistent, completely pulled me in.
The most unique aspect, however, was that half the book was told by the stream of consciousness of Shivana's unborn baby. The baby's story spanned over a century of potential mothers as well as each one's untimely demise, providing a historical context by following the black female experience from slavery through five different women, and ultimately converging with Shivana's path. The baby's soul uses the sum of these experiences to try and connect with Shivana in a last-ditch effort to be born.
If that sounds slightly surreal and out-of-context, it was. Each time the baby's consciousness took over a chapter, it jolted me a little out of the story, but the tales of the past potential mothers were fascinating, and as well told as the rest of the novel. Really, the part that pulled my out of the story the most was Shivana's relationship with a boy in her building, and their ultimate travel towards what they thought was going to be a better life. It didn't make any sense to me that this boy was conveniently there, or that he just happened to seem so perfect for her.
The resolution of the novel was a jolt, but it also spoke to how caged in a girl like Shivana, a girl who knew nothing about even the most basic geography outside Chicago, can be. For her, there was only one way out of her situation, and the harder she struggled to change her fate, the more dramatically things unravelled and pulled her towards the vortex. In the end, the title refers not only to the infant in Shivana's womb, but also the more subtle, daring conception of a different life.
Rating: five stars out of six - engrossing second effort by a highly-praised author
While the premise of the story, one about a young black girl from a broken Chicago family who winds up pregnant (by the drug-dealing father of the kids she babysits) and confused, is one I've read before, the conveyance was truly remarkable. The people were so fully fleshed out, and Shivana, the main character, grew and changed as the story progressed in a way that was both believable and absorbing. Her struggle to emerge from the black hole that her life had become, and her simultaneous inability to see beyond her Present, until, ironically, her choices were almost nonexistent, completely pulled me in.
The most unique aspect, however, was that half the book was told by the stream of consciousness of Shivana's unborn baby. The baby's story spanned over a century of potential mothers as well as each one's untimely demise, providing a historical context by following the black female experience from slavery through five different women, and ultimately converging with Shivana's path. The baby's soul uses the sum of these experiences to try and connect with Shivana in a last-ditch effort to be born.
If that sounds slightly surreal and out-of-context, it was. Each time the baby's consciousness took over a chapter, it jolted me a little out of the story, but the tales of the past potential mothers were fascinating, and as well told as the rest of the novel. Really, the part that pulled my out of the story the most was Shivana's relationship with a boy in her building, and their ultimate travel towards what they thought was going to be a better life. It didn't make any sense to me that this boy was conveniently there, or that he just happened to seem so perfect for her.
The resolution of the novel was a jolt, but it also spoke to how caged in a girl like Shivana, a girl who knew nothing about even the most basic geography outside Chicago, can be. For her, there was only one way out of her situation, and the harder she struggled to change her fate, the more dramatically things unravelled and pulled her towards the vortex. In the end, the title refers not only to the infant in Shivana's womb, but also the more subtle, daring conception of a different life.
Rating: five stars out of six - engrossing second effort by a highly-praised author
Friday, November 7, 2008
The Heretic's Daughter, Question #5
At the time of the novel, Massachusetts had been through a difficult period of plague and crop failures. Does society foster the need for a ‘witch hunt’ or pariah around which to rally for blame in times of crisis? Can you name other times when this has happened?
The Heretic's Daughter, Question #4
How would Sarah’s life have been different had she remained with her aunt and uncle rather than returning home with her father?
November Club Questions on The Heretic's Daughter, Question #1
I'm going to post the discussion topics for The Heretic's Daughter in their own separate posts, so anyone who wants to can comment on each topic and we'll have an easily followable thread for each question. I'm not going to comment for a few days, because I want to know what you all think without my input! No one answer is 'right' or 'wrong', and the only rule here is to please be respectful of others' thoughts and words. Rude or disparaging posts will be deleted (but I know there won't be any!).
Question 1: Do you believe that Sarah’s uncle really killed himself out of desperate self-loathing, or did her father actually murder him?
Question 1: Do you believe that Sarah’s uncle really killed himself out of desperate self-loathing, or did her father actually murder him?
Goldengrove, by Francine Prose
As someone who has recently lost a young relative, I was both drawn to and repelled from this novel. It took me about a week of looking at it there in the basket before I actually picked it up to read. When I finished it this afternoon, I was both relieved and sorrowful.
Goldengrove begins with Nico, 13, and her older sister, Margaret, floating on a boat in the middle of a lake near their family's home in upper New York state. From the outset, even had I not known the premise of the story, I would have known that something was about to happen. The sensuousness of the story, the lush detail, dripped with foreshadowing. Within pages, Margaret is dead, and we are left floating adrift in Nico's devastation.
Unfortunately, the family drifts in completely different directions, retreating almost completely into their own worlds. While each makes small attempts at reaching out to the others, nearly the entire year after Margaret's death shows them all drowning in their own self-induced isolation. Prose focuses on Nico and her process of coping with the unspeakable, which includes browsing morbidly through medical texts and compilations of paintings of near-drowning victims while working at her father's bookstore, establishing an ultimately unwise relationship with Margaret's boyfriend, and facing the townspeople as they, too, fumblingly navigate the aftermath. Her parents' coping mechanisms are described and interpreted through Nico's eyes; one of the best lines in the novel occurs when Nico, who is trapped on a strained car ride worrying about obviously medicated mother, pauses in her adult worries about her mother's erratic driving and thinks, 'Why couldn't she help me first and deal with her own suffering later?' It is this sort of back-and-forth writing that makes the novel. Prose gives Nico just the right balance of adult-child comprehension and action, and forgoes the typical teenage angst that many writers feel compelled to imbue their characters with. It is an honest depiction of a normal child in a horribly abnormal situation.
My only complaint about the book is that about two-thirds of the way through, it started to drag a little. The stage had been set, the pot was almost boiling... and it stayed that way for a good thirty or forty pages. Sometimes I get the feeling that authors have a set number of pages in mind that will make their work the Perfect Length, and this is a mistake. However, the ultimate resolution for Nico is worthwhile, and Prose made me feel glad that I had followed her through to it.
Rating: Five out of six stars; engrossing, haunting, revealing, redemptive.
Goldengrove begins with Nico, 13, and her older sister, Margaret, floating on a boat in the middle of a lake near their family's home in upper New York state. From the outset, even had I not known the premise of the story, I would have known that something was about to happen. The sensuousness of the story, the lush detail, dripped with foreshadowing. Within pages, Margaret is dead, and we are left floating adrift in Nico's devastation.
Unfortunately, the family drifts in completely different directions, retreating almost completely into their own worlds. While each makes small attempts at reaching out to the others, nearly the entire year after Margaret's death shows them all drowning in their own self-induced isolation. Prose focuses on Nico and her process of coping with the unspeakable, which includes browsing morbidly through medical texts and compilations of paintings of near-drowning victims while working at her father's bookstore, establishing an ultimately unwise relationship with Margaret's boyfriend, and facing the townspeople as they, too, fumblingly navigate the aftermath. Her parents' coping mechanisms are described and interpreted through Nico's eyes; one of the best lines in the novel occurs when Nico, who is trapped on a strained car ride worrying about obviously medicated mother, pauses in her adult worries about her mother's erratic driving and thinks, 'Why couldn't she help me first and deal with her own suffering later?' It is this sort of back-and-forth writing that makes the novel. Prose gives Nico just the right balance of adult-child comprehension and action, and forgoes the typical teenage angst that many writers feel compelled to imbue their characters with. It is an honest depiction of a normal child in a horribly abnormal situation.
My only complaint about the book is that about two-thirds of the way through, it started to drag a little. The stage had been set, the pot was almost boiling... and it stayed that way for a good thirty or forty pages. Sometimes I get the feeling that authors have a set number of pages in mind that will make their work the Perfect Length, and this is a mistake. However, the ultimate resolution for Nico is worthwhile, and Prose made me feel glad that I had followed her through to it.
Rating: Five out of six stars; engrossing, haunting, revealing, redemptive.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do Over Novel, by Heather McElhatton
Oh, my God do I love this book!!!!
When I was a kid, Choose-Your-Own Adventures were where it was AT. As an adult, I've looked for some, but considering how popular when we were growing up, there are shockingly few of them out there now, both for children and, especially, adults. Where are the authors who read these novels until the pages started to fall off from all the flipping?!
Apparently, there are a few still around, and of the ones I've read, Pretty Little Mistakes is by *far* the best. This is probably due to her resume, which reads like a girl after my own heart; McElhatton has been a staple on NPR, working on The Savvy Traveler, Marketplace, and one of my personal favorites, This American Life, in which she has been involved both on radio and its new Showtime incarnation. Her dry wit and creativity, added to a wicked sense of humor, is apparent in the five hundred pages where you can choose multi-layered path after path.
The novel starts out with one simple choice: to follow a high school boyfriend to college, or strike out on your own. From there, you go through several strange and sometimes disturbing changes, always ending, eventually, with your death. Whether that death comes sooner or later, and is less or more pleasant, is entirely up to you. One time, I died a happy old woman in a beautiful home surrounded by butterflies. Another time, I ended up a 400lb tuna that was caught and turned into sushi. Seriously.
There is a sequel planned to ...Mistakes, called Million Little Mistakes. I will absolutely be getting it when it arrives, and several people on my list will be getting one or the other for Christmas this year.
Rating: Six out of Six Stars; entertaining, vicarious fun for women who wonder, What If?
When I was a kid, Choose-Your-Own Adventures were where it was AT. As an adult, I've looked for some, but considering how popular when we were growing up, there are shockingly few of them out there now, both for children and, especially, adults. Where are the authors who read these novels until the pages started to fall off from all the flipping?!
Apparently, there are a few still around, and of the ones I've read, Pretty Little Mistakes is by *far* the best. This is probably due to her resume, which reads like a girl after my own heart; McElhatton has been a staple on NPR, working on The Savvy Traveler, Marketplace, and one of my personal favorites, This American Life, in which she has been involved both on radio and its new Showtime incarnation. Her dry wit and creativity, added to a wicked sense of humor, is apparent in the five hundred pages where you can choose multi-layered path after path.
The novel starts out with one simple choice: to follow a high school boyfriend to college, or strike out on your own. From there, you go through several strange and sometimes disturbing changes, always ending, eventually, with your death. Whether that death comes sooner or later, and is less or more pleasant, is entirely up to you. One time, I died a happy old woman in a beautiful home surrounded by butterflies. Another time, I ended up a 400lb tuna that was caught and turned into sushi. Seriously.
There is a sequel planned to ...Mistakes, called Million Little Mistakes. I will absolutely be getting it when it arrives, and several people on my list will be getting one or the other for Christmas this year.
Rating: Six out of Six Stars; entertaining, vicarious fun for women who wonder, What If?
Monday, October 20, 2008
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
I initially came upon this collection of stories at Borders, where it was on a shelf next to 'Eat, Pray, Love' in a display of if-you-like-this, you-will-also-like-this' books. Since I very much liked Eat, Pray, Love, I did what I typically do at Borders; I got out a piece of paper and wrote it down along with Lahiri's name to order from the library. (Hey, I read a LOT, and I'm not made of money.) After reading both, I am not sure why it was placed in that particular display, since they are really nothing at all alike, but I am glad that they were, because I might never have found it otherwise.
While I had never heard of Lahiri before picking up Unaccustomed Earth, it turns out that she has had a very illustrious writing career thus far, winning a Pulitzer, the PEN/Hemingway award, and having pieces selected for various prize recognitions from the New York Times, LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today.
It was immediately clear to me why she has won so much recognition. Her stories are simply captivating. I do not choose the word 'simply' by chance; they *are* simple, beautiful, complex, and understated. If you are a skimmer, as I sometimes am, you will miss subtle breaths that form the living soul of the characters. This is important, because while typically major plot points are not conveyed in this manner, the almost silent information that is slipped in those lines is what gives the characters their startling ability to extend beyond the pages, and in fact since the stories themselves rarely involve an Ending for the characters, it is easy to believe that they are actually out there, these people who are too real to be mere figments of Lahiri's imagination.
Like Lahiri herself, all of her main characters are Indian, and the essence of Indian culture as well as the struggle of integrating and continuing - or not continuing - that culture across oceans and generations is a major component of the tales she tells, although it is never the main focus. What she spotlights instead are issues everyone faces, such as caring for aging parents, death, love, growing up, alcoholism, and marriages lagging under the weight of parenthood, which are told through the lens of people who have the feeling of being not wholly one culture or another.
While the first two-thirds of the collecton is taken up with several shorter stories, the final third is given entirely to two individuals who met as children when one child's parents allow the other's family to stay with them during a relocation from India to Massachusettes. The story gives the two, a man and a woman, equal time, both while they are living together as children and over several short periods as they become adults, examining them finally as they again come together when they near middle age, this time as lovers. The resolution of this particular story literally took my breath. I sat and stared at the page, rereading the final paragraphs two, and then three, times, while my mind absorbed the contents. I am still thinking about it.
I love, love, loved this book. I will definitely be searching for her others.
Rating: Five out of five stars. A definite read.
While I had never heard of Lahiri before picking up Unaccustomed Earth, it turns out that she has had a very illustrious writing career thus far, winning a Pulitzer, the PEN/Hemingway award, and having pieces selected for various prize recognitions from the New York Times, LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today.
It was immediately clear to me why she has won so much recognition. Her stories are simply captivating. I do not choose the word 'simply' by chance; they *are* simple, beautiful, complex, and understated. If you are a skimmer, as I sometimes am, you will miss subtle breaths that form the living soul of the characters. This is important, because while typically major plot points are not conveyed in this manner, the almost silent information that is slipped in those lines is what gives the characters their startling ability to extend beyond the pages, and in fact since the stories themselves rarely involve an Ending for the characters, it is easy to believe that they are actually out there, these people who are too real to be mere figments of Lahiri's imagination.
Like Lahiri herself, all of her main characters are Indian, and the essence of Indian culture as well as the struggle of integrating and continuing - or not continuing - that culture across oceans and generations is a major component of the tales she tells, although it is never the main focus. What she spotlights instead are issues everyone faces, such as caring for aging parents, death, love, growing up, alcoholism, and marriages lagging under the weight of parenthood, which are told through the lens of people who have the feeling of being not wholly one culture or another.
While the first two-thirds of the collecton is taken up with several shorter stories, the final third is given entirely to two individuals who met as children when one child's parents allow the other's family to stay with them during a relocation from India to Massachusettes. The story gives the two, a man and a woman, equal time, both while they are living together as children and over several short periods as they become adults, examining them finally as they again come together when they near middle age, this time as lovers. The resolution of this particular story literally took my breath. I sat and stared at the page, rereading the final paragraphs two, and then three, times, while my mind absorbed the contents. I am still thinking about it.
I love, love, loved this book. I will definitely be searching for her others.
Rating: Five out of five stars. A definite read.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I Feel Bad About My Neck (And Other Thoughts About Being A Woman), By Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron.... Nora Ephron... where do you know that name from? It sounds familiar...
Remember a few films called You've Got Mail?, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally? She was behind all of them. (Come to think of it, she's responsible for about half of Meg Ryan's career!)
I Feel Bad About My Neck... is a collection of various essays she's written over the years for various other publications, and they have the same distinctive tone as her films: quiet, amusing while not usually laugh-out-loud, and easygoing. While this made for a vanilla-colored read, it was also a pleasurable and relaxing one that simultaneously took my mind off of any concerns without stirring up any additional stressors. In fact, one of the things I specifically like about collections like this is that they are easy to put down, but also easy to pick right back up.
Ephron's book opens with the title essay, and discusses the full littany of biological woes that come with aging, albeit in a much more humerous and affectionate way than my Great-Aunt Jane did at our Thanksgiving table one memorable year. In fact, affection is a theme that binds the essays together. She discusses her love affair with various cookbooks and chefs, her three marriages, even penning an ode to her former apartment building, with the emotion and self-depreciation that are prominent in her films. Even political relationships are touched upon with a light and tickling pen, not a heavy quill, and she avoids current events entirely, instead focusing on her jilted-lover feelings for Bill Clinton, and her status as the only JFK White House intern to not have had a fling with the king of Camelot. In this election year, her restraint was more than refreshing.
All in all, this was worth a check-out at the local library. It is not something I would refer to time and time again, so I wouldn't recommend a purchase on this one, but if you need to unwind before bed, or if you're hiding in the bathroom from your kids, spending five minutes with Ephron will be an updated form of Calgon. Heck, it's not like many of us are alone in the bathroom, anyway, so you might as well bring someone that will make you smile, and not make comments.
Rating: Three stars out of five: a quick and pleasant jaunt into non-controversial fluffiness
Remember a few films called You've Got Mail?, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally? She was behind all of them. (Come to think of it, she's responsible for about half of Meg Ryan's career!)
I Feel Bad About My Neck... is a collection of various essays she's written over the years for various other publications, and they have the same distinctive tone as her films: quiet, amusing while not usually laugh-out-loud, and easygoing. While this made for a vanilla-colored read, it was also a pleasurable and relaxing one that simultaneously took my mind off of any concerns without stirring up any additional stressors. In fact, one of the things I specifically like about collections like this is that they are easy to put down, but also easy to pick right back up.
Ephron's book opens with the title essay, and discusses the full littany of biological woes that come with aging, albeit in a much more humerous and affectionate way than my Great-Aunt Jane did at our Thanksgiving table one memorable year. In fact, affection is a theme that binds the essays together. She discusses her love affair with various cookbooks and chefs, her three marriages, even penning an ode to her former apartment building, with the emotion and self-depreciation that are prominent in her films. Even political relationships are touched upon with a light and tickling pen, not a heavy quill, and she avoids current events entirely, instead focusing on her jilted-lover feelings for Bill Clinton, and her status as the only JFK White House intern to not have had a fling with the king of Camelot. In this election year, her restraint was more than refreshing.
All in all, this was worth a check-out at the local library. It is not something I would refer to time and time again, so I wouldn't recommend a purchase on this one, but if you need to unwind before bed, or if you're hiding in the bathroom from your kids, spending five minutes with Ephron will be an updated form of Calgon. Heck, it's not like many of us are alone in the bathroom, anyway, so you might as well bring someone that will make you smile, and not make comments.
Rating: Three stars out of five: a quick and pleasant jaunt into non-controversial fluffiness
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I Sleep At Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets, by Bruce Stockler
I have to preface this review by saying that I do not have multiples myself, so my reading of this book was purely for giggles and not out of any need or ability to commiserate with the author.
To dispense with the immediate question on everyone's mind, Stockler, a magazine editor, and his wife, Roni, a high-powered attorney in New York City, became pregnant with triplets on a final, last-ditch attempt at IVF, in an effort to give their young son a sibling. They are shell-shocked at the news that they will have triplets, and spend the next nine months in denial about their situation. They make no plans for the care of the babies, down to not having diapers or anywhere for the babies to sleep, the entire time Roni is pregnant, even though she is on bedrest for the last few months of the pregnancy and, frankly, had nothing but time on her hands to plan. Unfortunately, this sets the tone for their entire lives; they are unprepared mentally, emotionally, and financially to deal with the situation they have created.
I have no idea how this family has even managed to stay together, to be honest with you. At least half of the book is devoted to describing how their marriage began as the 'wrong people who got together for the wrong reasons', and detailing their fights. From the account given here, Stockler has a good relationship with his sons, and their nanny. If I were his wife, I'd watch out for that. Add to this Roni's complete unavailability, both as a wife and parent (due to her determination to be partner in her law firm, she is gone sixteen hours a day, minimum, works weekends and holidays, and refused to get up at night with the children, ever), Stockler's repeatedly acknowledged lack of attachment to one of the triplets, Hannah (because she is a girl), and their inability to even deal with the mail (which they simply throw into boxes in the basement rather than paying the bills). He also spent a great deal of time grousing about finances, but it was difficult to feel sorry for them due to things like their employ of an all-encompassing nanny who, for the first five weeks of the babies' lives, cooked their meals and did their laundry in addition to doing all the feedings. Granted, they did not pay for this entirely by themselves, but the fact that they had her at all, plus their regular full-time nanny, speaks of people who are in no position to feel sorry for themselves. Lawyers and magazine editors do not get to whine about money.
While at first the story was interesting, the memoir became stale as the triplets became older and the initial zaniness of the situation wore off. The editing is poor, and as a result the book contains multiple passages containing the same material along with various awkwardly-written segments; I would have hoped for better from a (former - he was fired from his magazine job) big-time editor. Most disappointing, however, was the lack of in-depth stories relating to how the triplets handled things outside the home, like preschool, or how their older brother coped with the entire process as an individual. Instead, Stockler focused entirely on the children, his wife, and even the townspeople as related to him, and skipping years entirely rather than using the slowing of the craziness to detail how he and Roni pulled their marriage back together. Perhaps they haven't. Regardless, I wonder how his family has reacted to the publication of this book, and how his daughter will feel as she becomes old enough to read her father's memoir to hear that he always put her down first, as quickly as possible. I wonder if we will hear from *her* at some point, in her own memoir, about surviving life with three spoiled brothers, an absent mother and a distant father. Hopefully it will be a more thoughtful, well-organized piece of writing.
In short, this could have been a sweet, humorous ode to parenting of multiples. In reality, it almost serves as a litany of how not to parent, partner, or, sadly, write.
Rating: Two Stars out of Five - mildly entertaining, in a train-wreck kind of way
To dispense with the immediate question on everyone's mind, Stockler, a magazine editor, and his wife, Roni, a high-powered attorney in New York City, became pregnant with triplets on a final, last-ditch attempt at IVF, in an effort to give their young son a sibling. They are shell-shocked at the news that they will have triplets, and spend the next nine months in denial about their situation. They make no plans for the care of the babies, down to not having diapers or anywhere for the babies to sleep, the entire time Roni is pregnant, even though she is on bedrest for the last few months of the pregnancy and, frankly, had nothing but time on her hands to plan. Unfortunately, this sets the tone for their entire lives; they are unprepared mentally, emotionally, and financially to deal with the situation they have created.
I have no idea how this family has even managed to stay together, to be honest with you. At least half of the book is devoted to describing how their marriage began as the 'wrong people who got together for the wrong reasons', and detailing their fights. From the account given here, Stockler has a good relationship with his sons, and their nanny. If I were his wife, I'd watch out for that. Add to this Roni's complete unavailability, both as a wife and parent (due to her determination to be partner in her law firm, she is gone sixteen hours a day, minimum, works weekends and holidays, and refused to get up at night with the children, ever), Stockler's repeatedly acknowledged lack of attachment to one of the triplets, Hannah (because she is a girl), and their inability to even deal with the mail (which they simply throw into boxes in the basement rather than paying the bills). He also spent a great deal of time grousing about finances, but it was difficult to feel sorry for them due to things like their employ of an all-encompassing nanny who, for the first five weeks of the babies' lives, cooked their meals and did their laundry in addition to doing all the feedings. Granted, they did not pay for this entirely by themselves, but the fact that they had her at all, plus their regular full-time nanny, speaks of people who are in no position to feel sorry for themselves. Lawyers and magazine editors do not get to whine about money.
While at first the story was interesting, the memoir became stale as the triplets became older and the initial zaniness of the situation wore off. The editing is poor, and as a result the book contains multiple passages containing the same material along with various awkwardly-written segments; I would have hoped for better from a (former - he was fired from his magazine job) big-time editor. Most disappointing, however, was the lack of in-depth stories relating to how the triplets handled things outside the home, like preschool, or how their older brother coped with the entire process as an individual. Instead, Stockler focused entirely on the children, his wife, and even the townspeople as related to him, and skipping years entirely rather than using the slowing of the craziness to detail how he and Roni pulled their marriage back together. Perhaps they haven't. Regardless, I wonder how his family has reacted to the publication of this book, and how his daughter will feel as she becomes old enough to read her father's memoir to hear that he always put her down first, as quickly as possible. I wonder if we will hear from *her* at some point, in her own memoir, about surviving life with three spoiled brothers, an absent mother and a distant father. Hopefully it will be a more thoughtful, well-organized piece of writing.
In short, this could have been a sweet, humorous ode to parenting of multiples. In reality, it almost serves as a litany of how not to parent, partner, or, sadly, write.
Rating: Two Stars out of Five - mildly entertaining, in a train-wreck kind of way
We're Here, We're Here, We're Here!
It's me, over from the Muddled Sage, opening a book review shop! Like the Who's, hidden in the dandelion in Horton's hand (at least I think it was a dandelion, if it was anything real at all), here we are, a little review blog in the middle of probably a million review blogs. But, we're here, and that's what's important!
I'm starting up here because I don't want to drag *all* the people who read my other site (listen to me talk like there are millions of people over there, hanging on my every word!) through my book talk, but I do love to read, and even if no one ever looked at this, it will be nice to have a place to put all my thoughts about the things I read. Also, if anyone else has things to say about things *they've* read, you can guest-post on here and share your thoughts, as well! We're all busy, and knowing ahead of time if something's worth the effort, or if it's a total tanker, is a good thing. Plus, it's fun to read what other people think!
Also, just for kicks, I'm going to start a Book Club on here as well, for those of us who would like to read a specific book and then have a 'discussion' about it, but don't have the time/location/gas money to get to an actual meeting. My thought on this is, I'll post a book title once a month, and then everyone will have the month to post what they thought, read other's comments, and respond. I'll try to post some sort of discussion points to go along with it, too, if I can be so organized. Anyone who wants to suggest a title, feel free. My one request is, no romance. As in, no closet-bodice-rippers, please. If it has a cover person that might remotely resemble Fabio, I would rather poke out my eyes with a spoon than read it. However, if you want to read it on your own and do a guest-post, I'll think about letting your girly-girl cooties touch my pages. :)
So, let's do the Book Club from the 15th to the 15th, starting tomorrow. The first book will be, The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. It's about a young girl who survives the smallpox epidemic only to become enmeshed in the Salem witch trials as one of the accused. The author based the novel on actual events that occurred within her own family! It has disease, paranoia, witchcraft, family feuds and court drama. I know it's hardcover, but hopefully with a month's notice you'll be able to either get it from the library by request or borrow a copy from someone.
And.... go!
I'm starting up here because I don't want to drag *all* the people who read my other site (listen to me talk like there are millions of people over there, hanging on my every word!) through my book talk, but I do love to read, and even if no one ever looked at this, it will be nice to have a place to put all my thoughts about the things I read. Also, if anyone else has things to say about things *they've* read, you can guest-post on here and share your thoughts, as well! We're all busy, and knowing ahead of time if something's worth the effort, or if it's a total tanker, is a good thing. Plus, it's fun to read what other people think!
Also, just for kicks, I'm going to start a Book Club on here as well, for those of us who would like to read a specific book and then have a 'discussion' about it, but don't have the time/location/gas money to get to an actual meeting. My thought on this is, I'll post a book title once a month, and then everyone will have the month to post what they thought, read other's comments, and respond. I'll try to post some sort of discussion points to go along with it, too, if I can be so organized. Anyone who wants to suggest a title, feel free. My one request is, no romance. As in, no closet-bodice-rippers, please. If it has a cover person that might remotely resemble Fabio, I would rather poke out my eyes with a spoon than read it. However, if you want to read it on your own and do a guest-post, I'll think about letting your girly-girl cooties touch my pages. :)
So, let's do the Book Club from the 15th to the 15th, starting tomorrow. The first book will be, The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. It's about a young girl who survives the smallpox epidemic only to become enmeshed in the Salem witch trials as one of the accused. The author based the novel on actual events that occurred within her own family! It has disease, paranoia, witchcraft, family feuds and court drama. I know it's hardcover, but hopefully with a month's notice you'll be able to either get it from the library by request or borrow a copy from someone.
And.... go!
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