The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a really good book. The romance is very much a subplot and written very well. I liked the perspective of the main character, Jaya a young journalist. She has a difficult relationship with her mother and so goes back to India in an attempt to understand her Heritage and her family story.


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Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good book for discussion group and not a long one. We paired this with the a podcast “Outliers” from This American Life. The podcast is very educational about what is happening to people at our southern border. It made me cry and also get very angry. “Where We Come From” is about a woman making many sacrifices to serve her family. She gave up her job and her independence to be her mother’s care giver which is not easy. Her preteen godson is spending summer vacation with her, and of all things her home on the Texas border with Mexico inadvertently gets used by coyotes smuggling people into the U.S. It puts a human face on some of the issues people must face. I liked it very much and recommend it.


https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...


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An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First I must say I very much liked parts of it, I liked the style, and I would recommend it to certain people. Also, it’s been on my TBR list for several decades. So, why only three stars? Because of all the verbosity and the rambling on of detail particularly in Part 1. This 1925 tome is based on a true crime and trial in the early 1920s. The unfortunate Clyde Griffiths, raised basically on the streets of various cities by hyper-religious parents claws his way out of poverty into an exciting life of serving oriented jobs and is introduced to alcohol, sex, and dangerous escapades. A Chance meeting with a wealthy family member serves to transplant Clyde to New York and introduces him to the lifestyle of the rich and influential. Things don’t go well for Clyde.
Discussion is Thursday. For the members who know they can’t finish it I recommended getting summaries for Parts One & Two and reading the “tragedy” in Part Three. Hope it goes well.


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The Whisper Man by Alex North
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quick read. I liked it a lot except for one thing. As soon as the serial killer in prison told the detective, Pete that the recent murder ends at the beginning, I thought I knew who the murderer was and I was right! I hate it when that happens but still the creepy-ness of a man who whispers to children and can make them do his bidding was presented so well. If you are in the mood for a hair raising murder mystery this won’t disappoint.


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Unlovable: Broken Pieces of Songs and Memories by Harmony Nicole Nixon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this little treasure because I saw an advertisement saying the author was doing a book signing near me. Now I have spent an hour of soul searching, meditating on my life raising my children, and crying with no one to cry to. I don’t remember a book of poetry affecting me so much before. I am looking forward to seeing her.
Update:
Harmony is a friend of my niece and I have met her before but seeing her again in Indy was so nice. What a lovely soul. She signed my book and talked a long time. While I shopped and talked with my niece I noticed Harmony had a nice crowd. Perfect morning.


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The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“We are all stardust and stories.” There exists a strange world deep under the earth’s crust. Selected humans are presented with mysterious doors appearing where they should not be. A person walking through a door has a choice to enter. The underworld is like a virtual reality with stories within stories, where time can warp, there is an ancient library, the sea is made of letters and words, bees flourish along with books, exotic food and cocktails like a sidecar or a bees knees. Mysteries abound, and cats. Portents must be noted, a sword, keys, dice, honey, and clocks. How could anyone not want to go? I didn’t want to do anything else once I started reading. It isn’t written linearly or chronologically. There are flashbacks and fast forwards which can get confusing but I loved every minute of it. I must say I wasn’t satisfied with the end until I went back to the chapter called “Interlude” which is the real ending.
The book itself is a piece of art. Even the dust jacket is special. The mat black compliments the raised and glossy keys, ribbons, and beads. Without the jacket the hard copy book is still lovely. Printed like an antique with gold letters and pictures of the sword, a bee, and a key. The end papers are not plain either. Printed with all kinds of antique looking keys. The title page is classy, there are special pages throughout and the chapters have great titles. This is by far one of the best books I have read, held in my hands, and smelled. I so want to budget time to read it again. One of my book groups read it and we started discussion at 6:30 forcing ourselves to stop and go home at 10!


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The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once I started it I couldn’t do anything else. This feisty young woman is from my hometown. I am aware that her portrayal of our area, Jay County, IN has angered some people but I guess when I read it I didn’t take it personally because I knew she was seeing her world as indoctrinated by her mother. I do hate it that her childhood was so dysfunctional. This is a fascinating memoir but also a good view at the lives of a family torn apart by mental illness and deceit. How terrible to find out that one whom you have trusted and adored your whole life has hurt you to your very core with no sign of remorse. Ms Betz-Hamilton has taken identity theft to heart and made it her occupation to help victims.
UPDATE
I went with friends to her presentation at Arts Place in Portland, IN which is where she graduated from high school. She is a pretty, articulate young woman. It was an excellent presentation both about her life and about identity theft happens. I had a nice little chat with her after and I hope she enjoyed her visit as much as I did.

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THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY – GABRIELLE ZEVIN

When was the last time you picked up a book and absolutely could not stop reading except to eat or do other necessaries? Thank goodness my sister-in-law came over the other day and handed me this book saying, “You have got to read this and tell me if you like it.” With a big sigh I finished it today after starting right before bed yesterday. Two o'clock this morning I decided to get up and finish. That has happened to me I don't think since I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or maybe The Last Stand of Major Pettigrew and to be sure this book evoked those same feelings. Now, if only I can put my finger on what exactly it is that makes me so avid about finishing a book. Is it that the story is so enchanting, is it the unusual relationships portrayed, or perhaps the way the characters touch ones heart? All of those I surmise. In the first chapter it began to feel a little Silas Marner-ish as in - lonely man loses something prized and it its place finds a perfect child. Silas Marner was always a favorite of mine since Senior English in 1969, and the hook was too strong to resist.

A.J. Fikry is a lonely, depressed, middle-aged brown skinned widower running a not-too-prosperous bookstore on Alice island. Since Fikry is a book snob, the store is stocked only with those titles he sees as “literary.” Book lovers often feel a need to educate others about literature (witness this blog) and so it is with Fikry. He buys not what people ask for but what he thinks they should read, and by golly he does get some to read out of their preferred genre. The shingle hanging over the shop door is priceless and reads as follows:

ISLAND BOOKS

Alice Island's Exclusive Provider of Fine Literary Content Since 1999

No Man is an Island Every Book is a World

When Fikry's prized possession, a rare book of Poe poetry, that was supposed to ensure his retirement is stolen and a baby, Maya, is abandoned in his store, his life is transformed. Enter also a new book sales rep and a potential romance. Then there is his persistent sister-in-law who wants to save him from himself, the local policeman who reads crime novels, and a philandering brother-in-law. They all become newly interested in Fikry's life with child. He in turn enters the world of the community from which he has always kept himself apart. Once he adopts Maya the community sets out to help him raise her and so the reader gets to know a whole village of surrogate parents. Underlying the plot are the questions of Maya's parentage and the whereabouts of the Poe.

Fikry's fiction of choice is the short story and each chapter begins with a review by him of one and within a few chapters the reader realizes he is writing these reviews to Maya. Interspersed in the chapters also are references to many notable books and writers. How could I not like a book about books and the power of stories to change lives? But also what a great book for character development.

It is always a must for me to examine a book. Check out the cover, smell it, read the dedications and the notes at the end. It is all good with this one. Come to think of it, it just may be that a book full of people who have so much empathy in this world where we see so little of that anymore, may be why I loved it so much. 

THE WORLD'S STRONGEST LIBRARIAN – JOSH HANAGARNE

Apparently there is a gigantic man working as a librarian at the Salt Lake City Public Library and this is the first of his memoirs. Written humorously with much banter interspersed with seriousness, it was a delight. We read it for Jay County Public Library Book Club but I worked that day and forgot to go! Oh horrors. I really wanted to have that discussion. However, three friends came through for me and showed up the next week for a breakfast discussion at my house. We all enjoyed the read and had a lot to mull over about Mr. Hanagarne's book.

The book is a jaunt between vignettes of library work-life, autobiographical narratives of Mormon childhood, and his excursions into body-building and strength training to combat the effects of Tourette Syndrome on his life. There are so many insightful quotations that my book is full of sticky notes that I keep looking at. My favorites of course are those about being a librarian and working with patrons since that is what I just spent 30+ years doing. Too many to reiterate in a short review I'll just give you one as follows: 

“The purpose of libraries – to organize and provide information – hasn't changed. They're billed as the Poor Man's University. (Many librarians also bill them as the Poor Man's Day Care or the Poor Man's Urinal.) I love working here because the reasons behind libraries are important to me.”

Hanagarne's love of books and libraries began in childhood and served him well. He remembers his first book love as Charlotte's Web and how it affected his first years at school. He remembers also how important books and trips to the library were and how this shaped his psyche. You can tell that Josh enjoys being a generalist librarian knowing a little about a lot of things and being able to assist his patrons well.

His dealings with Tourette's is fascinating and heart-wrenching. While he was on a drug program at times what worked the best for him was working out and keeping on a strenuous regiment of weight training and a bit of mind over matter. His descriptions of his struggles are often hard to read and very poignant. Several programs and some very unusual people help him to find a pathway not to perfect health, but to compromises and acceptance of his condition.

His descriptions of Mormonism is respectful and eye-opening. While his mother was very devout his father just kind of went along with everything but didn't seem to really buy in to the whole doctrine. His father taught Josh that they basically belonged to “the church of Don't be a Dick,” or in other words be respectful, be kind, serve others, and do good deeds. It is clear that Josh subscribes to that today even though he has left his church.

The reader of this book sees an unusual man with a lot to contend with but who loves much. He loves his job, his family, and himself. He has remarkable strength of body and character. His writing style is upbeat, never maudlin, and very clever. He writes lovingly about his wife, marriage, and becoming a father. At discussion we investigated his website and see that he has since divorced which made us sad but we know with his determination he will make it OK. Great book.

HOMAGE TO A BROKEN MAN – PETER MOMMSEN

To condense this whole book into one thought I would say that it is a story about a humble, spiritual man, who creates a life of love and beauty only to be stalled by men of ambition and manipulation. And yet his vision is carried on over generations and decades. This true story of a devoted Christian man and his family establishing, and trying to maintain, communal life is fascinating and often heart-wrenching. J. Heinrich Arnold is the main focus of the story even thought the dedication to communal living and the original commune was begun by his father Eberhard Arnold in Germany in 1919. The author is the grandson of J. Heinrich, and though he speculates on much of the dialog and of course must rely on the memories and writings of his elders, the story holds together as a spiritual journey and a look into a type of living that deserves respect.

I have always been in wonder about how a commune is established and how so many people can make it work. The Arnold's community was originally, and continued to be, organized around farming and publishing. The founders were college educated theologians and they accepted everyone not just Christians but Hindu, Jews, and atheists as well. No one was turned away who truthfully wanted to live humbly and spiritually if willing to contribute to the community. The society was based on the concept of religious socialism which they patterned after the Quakers. Page 145 probably has the best description of who it was that flocked to the Arnold communities, “communists, socialists, agnostics, atheists, and others who were fed up with the empty promises of the churchianity.”

There are many stories of working faith, but also the trials of fund raising, the complexities of governing a flock, organizing a working village, and of human failings and power struggles. The Commune had to leave Germany out of fear for their members lives and threats of arrest of the leaders in the 1930s. The scenes of the Nazi raids and arrests were frighteningly portrayed. When they fled Germany they eventually had successful communities in England, Paraguay, and New York. Always the goal was to be inclusive, show the love of God, help your neighbor, and instill in the children reverence for nature, honesty, chivalry, bravery, and generosity. The love stories of Eberhard and Heinrich with their wives and families are wonderful also. Never did I imagine that living and and running a commune would be so complicated and I had to wonder if every commune whether political or religious suffers the same problems. My guess would be “yes” or there would be more surviving communes today.

This is a great book to see inside the workings of a such a community but also to feel how groups of like-minded people can be committed to a different way of life. The titles of the chapters are delightfully related to the content such as “On the Road” when the community is moving and “Liberation” when in the 1960s Heiner is in the United States and falls in love with the country's fight for civil rights. He marches with Martin Luther King and yet is alarmed by some things he sees that had been the downfall of Germany such as militarism, economic oppression, and racism. As I thought about that chapter I had to think about how we have come so far since the 60s and yet in some respects things are still the same.  It is apparent that this beloved grandson reveres his family and his book is a true loving portrait of an extended faithful group. I am not sure why Mommsen calls his grandfather "broken" for it seemed he was at times but not most of the time and not by the end of his life. It was a good excursion with the Arnolds over nine decades and several continents.

LIBRIOMANCER – JIM C. HINES

Libriomancer is one of those books that drops you into the middle of the action without any back story or character setting. Often that can be unsettling and cause for rereading once you catch on. Granted, at about the second chapter and after a series of characters had been introduced, I did go back and reread the first chapter. However, this short (300 page) book was just what I was craving and I didn't mind. Being a librarian myself it is a rare treat to find a book about loving books, and one where the hero is himself a librarian. It actually had a Neil Gaimen (a favorite author of mine) feel to it with a world of magic and sorcery overlapping our reality. I guess that aspect is a little Harry Potter-ish too. Anyway, what librarian doesn't want to read about a librarian who is kind of a “bad-ass” who slays evil creatures to save the world?

A Libriomancer is a rare magical person who can reach inside of a book and bring into this world objects and creatures from the story. Of course they can't stay and must go back into the book, but while in this world they can be most helpful. Haven't you thought on occasion it would be useful to have Alice's elixir to make you small, or Luke Skywalker's light saber to slay your enemy? In this “Magic Ex Libris” book one the world of magic is guarded and kept secret from mortals by those called Porters. Porters monitor and guard the world from supernatural threats. Isaac Vainio is such a Porter and also a Libriomancer. He also is a librarian in a public library in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

When vampires attack Isaac in his library he knows evil is afoot and someone must stop it. He teams up with Lena Greenwood, a Dryad, to find out why the vampires are revolting and where the missing Johannes Gutenberg has gone. As the first Libriomancer, Gutenberg is still alive these hundreds of years and someone is using his knowledge of automatons to destroy the vampire nests, frame the Porters, and turning the magical world against them.

Lena is a creature that grew from a graphic fantasy novel written by a twenty something man so you can guess what she looks like. Right, voluptuous, muscular, glistening skin, intense eyes, very sexy. Every young man's dream. The book is full of both traditional and contemporary vampires from Sanguinarius Stokerus (human blood-drinking vampires as written by Bram Stoker), the Meyerii (glistening creatures who have evolved from the writing of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series), and the Sanguinarius Henricus (those incapable of acting against their masters as written in the books by Charlaine Harris in “Sookie Stackhouse” books). There is magic, adventure, danger, and even romance in this fast paced fantasy book.

On the job, a working porter Libriomancer has to carry his or her books along with them, and each Libriomancer works with a preferred genre. Isaac works with fantasy and science fiction books thus wears a big coat with hidden pockets for his books. Throughout the centuries much has been learned about Libriomancey and the craft has been refined. So many books are mentioned. Many I knew but some I did not so you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover the bibliography in the back listing all the books referred to in the text. Fun fun! I enjoyed Libriomancer very much.

CLOSE YOUR EYES HOLD HANDS – CHRIS BOHJALIAN

Books about surviving a cataclysm are of interest to me. Also ever since Dad taught my brothers and me about nuclear energy and energy plants I have worried about the danger. The first line on the first page reading, “I built an igloo against the cold out of black plastic trash bags filled with wet leaves,” was my hook.

The voice is that of 16 year-old Emily Shepard. Her dad is the chief engineer of a Vermont nuclear power plant and her mother in charge of communications. Both parents are raging alcoholics and very unhappy people. Though Emily is very bright and does love her family, home, and pet dearly, she acts out both at home and at school and appears to have behavioral problems even before the disaster. When there is a terrible explosion at the plant and thousands are immediately evacuated Emily is thrown into the world orphaned, homeless, powerless, with no money and no idea of where to turn. Not only are both of her parents killed at the plant, but the news media and and most people think it was Mr. Shepard who was responsible for the catastrophe. Emily can never go home to the contaminated area even leaving behind her dog, Maggie. The heartbreak in the book of Emily is almost tangible. Bohjalian makes the reader feel her anger, frustration, and hopelessness, but also her determination and resourcefulness.

Because of the rabid animosity Emily detects towards her and her family she decides to flee the social workers who are trying to help. She ends up in nearby Burlington surviving by her wits, stealing, hanging with drug users, visiting shelters, and inventing a new identity. She is also cutting herself and having sex for money at truck stops. She is an angry young woman and the harsh language and graphic sexual encounters show that.

Just when it seems like there is no way for Emily to make it out of the cesspool of the dark side of Burlington there is a change. Bolstered by a friendship, her love for poetry especially that of Emily Dickinson, and her determination to protect another younger runaway, Cameron she rises to the occasion. As she spends weeks doing what she has to do to protect, feed, and shelter Cameron and herself, Emily begins to realize she has no way to escape forever. Not from danger, her grief, or her past, and she cannot run endlessly. When Cameron becomes seriously ill she realizes she can no longer keep him safe.

There were so many times that my frustration for and with Emily actually made me a bit mad. I did not care for her endless use of the “F” bomb or her flippant use of sex to get what she needed but then again I am not an expert in working with troubled youth. Why wouldn't such a child in that situation ask or seek help eventually? There are pretty complicated issues in this book, and if you can't handle thinking about how troubled runaways survive it is not for you. But if you want an edgy book to make you worry and think and maybe even perhaps gain some empathy for the homeless, pick it up at your local library for an afternoon read.  

THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN – KATE MORTON

Part puzzle, part fairy story, part mystery, and a tale of lost heritage that affects a persons psyche is this one. I promise, if you embark on the travels of Nell and Cassandra you will be entranced. In 1930 Brisbane, Australia a young beauty finds out that the family that raised her is not related to her biologically. Indeed they “found” her in 1913 and kept her even though she was obviously lost and belonged to another family. This knowledge is a huge blow to her idea of who she thought she was which affects her relationships with her sisters and later with her own daughter. In 1975, in her 60s Nell follows her heart on a soul search which ends in Cornwall, England. There she buys a cliff cottage on the estate where she is sure she was born. But the details of her heritage won't fall into place. She must return to Australia to take care of her business and make her plans to return to finish her quest.

Unfortunately circumstances intrude and Nell never gets the opportunity to complete her research into her heritage. She dies in 2005 knowing where she came from but still not knowing who her biological family was. Nell's much beloved granddaughter Cassandra inherits Nell's Cornwall cottage, Nell's notebook of family research, and her treasured book of fairytales. Thus begins her own quest to learn Nell's background.

The early chapters mention young Nell's unusual looks and bright red hair. Thus for the rest of the book it becomes a puzzle to try to attach her to every redhead that appears in the plot. If you have worked on jigsaw puzzles very much then this book will feel like putting a complex puzzle together. It will all come together in your mind's eye close to the end and suddenly the pieces fall together quickly. So, yes you do have to pay attention and remember key points in a pretty long book of 550 pages.

I love a book with a map and The Forgotten Garden has a map of the Blackhurst Estate as it was in 1913. You may want to put a sticky note on that page for reference as you read. My favorite chapters in this non-chronological story are about Eliza Makepeace who becomes known as “The Authoress.” Her tale begins in London in 1900 when she is a child living above a rag and junk shop with her twin brother and single mother. On page 112 Eliza's dying mother tells her, “You mustn't wait for someone to rescue you. A girl expecting rescue never learns to save herself.” That, dear reader sets you up to expect Eliza to be the heroine of the book and in my opinion she is. Eliza is a natural storyteller, transfixing whatever audience she has even as a child. As an adult she publishes her fairy stories in a book illustrated by a renowned artist. How can Eliza not be your heroine when upon receiving a copy of her book from her publisher she opens the book, lifts it to her face to smell the binding, the glue and the ink? Every book-sniffer reader will understand. A copy of Eliza's book in Nell's possession, which Cassandra takes with her to England, is a key factor in pulling the puzzle together.

The Forgotten Garden has a bit of that English mystery noir about it with dark and brooding relatives and plenty of damaged people trying to keep dark secrets. Of course there is also a bit of freshness as Cassandra finds not just family history, but friendship and a bit of romance. When Cassandra realizes that Eliza's fairytales are based on real family history another puzzle falls into place for her and for the reader. On page 125 Georgiana tells Eliza, “Always remember, with a strong enough will, even the weak can wield great power.” So it is that the weak and the dead wield great power in this book. 

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN – PAULA HAWKINS

If you liked Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and/or you like to remain confused until you find out that characters in your book are not what you believe them to be, then this book is for you. What a hoot! I did not want to put it down as soon as I started it. But then it wouldn't have been prudent to be late to work so it did have to be put away on Thursday long enough for a 5 hour shift at the library.

Billed as a psychological thriller, it isn't actually all that “thrilling” until right before the end, then it all comes together so fast. The girl on the train is Rachel. She rides the train every day into and home from London. She has many emotional problems and is an alcoholic. Having recently been fired from her job she continues her routine in an effort to prevent her roommate from finding out. In London every day she goes to the library, visits pubs, and walks. The daily train ride takes Rachel through her old neighborhood. At a stop Rachel has a few moments every day to be a voyeur for she can see into the back yard and through the windows of the house where she had lived in happier times. Her ex-husband, Tom still lives in her old house but now with a new wife and a baby. In another house up the road from Tom's lives a nice looking and seemingly loving young couple whom Rachel calls Jess and Jason She dreams up a wonderful life for them in her imagination and very much enjoys looking for them every day to see what they are doing.

Rachel's depression and alcoholism are debilitating. She is very unhappy and still in love with her ex. She continues to contact Tom and his wife which is considered harassment, some of which she doesn't even remember. Then one day from the train Rachel sees the woman she calls Jess kissing another man. A few days later Jess, whose real name is Megan, is reported by her husband Scott as missing. Rachel tries to get involved in the case by notifying the police about what she has seen but she is an unreliable witness and not taken seriously by the police because of her reputation of harassment and public intoxication. When she contacts Scott things don't go well either.

Many in this book are not who they appear to be and some have mysterious connections. Scott is a very possessive hot-head and a bit violent. Megan had at one time been an nanny for Tom and his wife Anna. Anna had been the lover of Tom's while he was still married to Rachel. The mysterious man that Meg was kissing is her psychiatrist. There are dark secrets, lies, hidden motives, and confusion. I guarantee by the time you get to about page 244 the power better not go off unless you have candles or a book light because you will not be able to stop reading.

Isn't the cover art clever? The scenery is blurred representing what things look like on a speeding train and the double lettering which is how print in a jostled book often looks when reading in a moving vehicle.  

ORDINARY GRACE – WILLIAM KRUEGER

Ordinary Grace is a book about unexpected grace breaking through the human condition of debilitating grief. Frank Drum is telling the story of the summer of 1961 when he was 13 trying to make sense of his world. Frank's father is a Methodist minister, his mother is the music director not only for the churches but for community events. New Bremen seems to be almost Mayberry like with kids playing in the neighborhoods, sodas at the local drug store, and everyone on good terms with the policemen. Then death arrives to the small town in Minnesota. Four deaths in quick succession. Deaths which threaten to tear apart Frank's family and shatter the idyll of the town.

Besides death, other themes running through this book are, secrets, prejudice, fear, sacrifice, and redemption. Frank's dad has a secret from the Korean War so terrible that it changed his career plans from being a lawyer to the ministry. Frank's brother Jake keeps secrets about things he sees and knows about the deaths while his sister Ariel keeps a life-changing secret from her parents. Ariel's boyfriend keeps a secret so dark he hates himself. Emil Brandt the resident celebrity and recluse keeps the darkest secrets of all.

Xenophobia and racial prejudices create a rift between families of New Bremen and between the community and a Native American family. Reverend Drum's persona is one of calmness and caring. When disaster and grief threaten the town and specifically his own family he still turns to his faith and helps family, friends, and neighbors to keep calm and not overreact. He steps in to try to diffuse hatred and prejudice when it erupts. He is stoic in demanding that all the facts be in before passing judgment.

I found this to be a very satisfying one-day read. The characters were believable, and likeable. Mrs. Drum has a hard time being a preacher's wife. College educated with social aspirations she feels unsatisfied and perhaps cheated since she thought she was marrying a lawyer not a clergyman. Reverend Drum is what we all want for a preacher. He is also college educated, unassuming, kind, nonjudgmental, and caring. The adolescent interactions ring true and the mysteries believable. This book comes highly recommended for those of you who like mystery, nostalgia, and an easy read.

Once I finished this book I went to read the author's blog where I found this quotation about libraries,

“Libraries are nothing less than the archives of our culture. These are the places that house the books that guide us to an understanding of who we were and where we came from, help us make sense of who we are now, and maybe point the way to who we might become. When our libraries and librarians are gone, with them goes everything we are as a people. Free and open access to knowledge is an essential right in a democracy. Keeping our libraries alive and vital is as important to our freedom as anything spelled out in our Constitution.”

Of course I know this to be true and I love it being so eloquently stated.

INFINITE JEST – DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

Three years ago I read Foster's Pale King which I described as a novel-in-stories and said was full of “run-on sentences and stream-of-consciousness type writing” and all that is also true about Infinite Jest. Paragraphs last many pages and the stories are not even remotely chronological in this 981 page tome. The story is followed by another 100 pages of footnotes, some of them being pages long. Even motivated by a great desire to read this book I still found it a difficult read. Also, I had to keep the online dictionary open.

What genre would best describe this book? Perhaps futuristic dystopia, political satire, dysfunctional family comedy? All of those and more. It is multi-layered with many characters and most, if not all, of those characters are unusual bordering on the bazaar. The vehicle for presenting to the reader philosophical questions about government, families, cultures, morals, etc. is through vignettes of dysfunctional families, primarily between a drug rehab facility and a tennis academy. America as we know it does not exist. The United States and Canada compose some kind of unified entity called Organization of North American Nations or O.N.A.N. governed mostly by corporations who can buy anything including naming rights to years. On page 223 is a list of all the years covered in the book chronologically.

1. Year of the Whopper
2. Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
3. Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar
4. Year of the Perdue Wonderchicken
5. Year of the Whisper-Quiet Maytag Dishmaster
6. Year of the Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade for Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems for Home, Office or Mobile [sic]
7. Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
8. Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment
9. Year of Glad

There resides on my own personal library shelf a skull named Yorick so I know the title comes from the line in Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Hamlet holds the skull of the court jester and says, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest...” and the plot revolves around a piece of failed entertainment (a film) or “jest” that is missing and declared dangerous because all those who view it become obsessed with watching it doing absolutely nothing else. Some anti-O.N.A.N.s have launched a plot to acquire the master copy of the film in a terrorist plot to use it against the United States. The plan is that by mass dissemination they can get Americans to do nothing, therefore destabilizing the country and the organization of O.N.A.N.

Infinite Jest is full of sarcastic humor and I am glad I read it. It is often referenced in book blogs and articles, and now if some of my “more literary” friends comment on it I can participate in discussion. My favorite lines from the book are as follows: “That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness.” - Narrator voice pg 203.

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS – VANESSA DIFFENBAUGH

Years ago a friend gave me a beautiful little book about the meanings of flowers and the messages that can be conveyed through the use of them in bouquets. I enjoyed it and still have it. I like to lay it on the coffee table in the spring. What a pleasure to encounter that idea in a contemporary book. The Language of Flowers is a heart wrenching story about a troubled young and homeless woman who has a flair for arranging flower by their color and meaning.

Victoria is a very confused and angry young woman. She is emancipated from her group home on the day she turns 18 after having spent her life bouncing from foster homes (at least 32) and group homes. In only one foster home had Victoria been loved and made to feel special. In that home her foster mother, Elizabeth taught her the language of flowers. But Elizabeth's family had its own problems and Victoria ended up being deeply hurt. After that she never found a place again to fit in or to feel loved. Now, at 18 she has no place to go and no one who cares and so lives in a public park in San Francisco sleeping in the bushes. Victoria is actually very bright though. She makes her own tiny garden in the park with plants she pilfers and nurtures. Renata, a florist, finally notices her and asks her to help her out. Victoria ends up landing a job at the florist shop where she gets to display her genius with flowers. She also researches and begins to create her own flower dictionary. Renata rents her a tiny apartment and Victoria becomes respected and loved. And yet, she cannot make it work.

When Victoria meets Grant, a flower farm supplier for the local florists, and who is also painfully shy it seems she may make it and have a true family. But just like a train wreck that you can't look away from, with doom the reader watches as Victoria struggles.

Those of us who have worked with youth have seen this attachment disorder before and it is a heartbreaking mystery. Victoria is self destructive. She does not understand herself or her desires, let alone other people. Every relationship she fosters she eventually destroys. After building a clientele, living clean, and creating a home for herself she methodically proceeds to destroy it and hurt everyone who helped her. The saddest thing is that she doesn't even understand why she does what she does and cannot seem to stop herself.

I don't know if all the editions had them but my book had both a Victorian flower dictionary included and a representation of the one created in the book by Victoria.

GIRL IN TRANSLATION – JEAN KWOK

Bildungsroman anyone? Well I don't see or here that literary term used very much except in the library cataloging circles, but that is what Girl in Translation is, or in other words a coming-of-age story where psychological character and moral growth is important. I enjoy a good bildungsroman very much whether it is of another culture altogether like Amy Tan's novels of Chinese immigrants or of American subcultures like the Greek-Americans, or African-Americans.

Girl in Translation is written in first person from the perspective of an adolescent from Hong Kong immigrating with her mother to the United States. Kimberly Chang is a middle school age girl who desperately wants to do well and fit in at school. Kim speaks and reads only a little English and also needs to work. She and her mother have arrived with little money.

Mrs. Chang's sister and her husband have helped pay for Mrs. Chang's medical bills (she has tuberculosis), arranged for green cards, and made their living arrangements in NYC. Kim and her mother are much indebted to their relatives. However, they end up in a heatless squalid apartment. Kimberly works long hours for very little money. The reader can see how easy it is for immigrants to get into this catch-22 of never being able to get out of their poverty. Once here they have so few options and very little choice. But Kim is resilient and dedicated to bettering their situation. The author illustrates through the story the sense of duty and obligation to family and to honor that is so prevalent in the Chinese culture.

As a reader of little experience with Chinese people I enjoyed how Kimberly would think about the Chinese ways and ideals and then relate them to how Americans think and feel. What a great reminder to a reader of how different cultures are thus making it important not to judge always using our own perspective. When Kimberly struggled because of language barriers or educators would make assumptions about her abilities to do homework because she did not have the simplest supplies my heart broke. When her school friend assumes Kimberly is lying about her job because she is sure that kids in America don't work in factories I had to think about how easy it probably is to have illegal factories in big cities that will employ immigrant children.

When I read books like this and those of Amy Tan, Firooza Dumas, Ishmael Bea, and Julia Alvarez I understand better how difficult it must be to leave everything you know and try to assimilate into a totally different culture. I do not think I have what it takes to learn a new language while trying to get an education, work, and take care of a family. What must it be like to not understand most of what goes on around you when you are trying to survive and dig your way our of poverty? What courage. I think I am going to go reread Funny in Farsi.

RIVERS – MICHAEL FARRIS SMITH

Water. A lot of it everywhere and every day it rains more. Climate shift has continued for years and now the lower half of the country is “lost” to continuous hurricanes, tornadoes, and deluge. The federal government has tried and failed to rebuild and help people living in the South so a line of demarkation has been drawn across the middle of the country east to west 90 miles above the gulf coast. Anyone living below the line must fend for themselves. Lawlessness, murder, gang warfare, pirating, you name it and it goes on below the line. A dreary picture the author paints here for sure in this post-apocalyptic thriller.

If reading a book can make you feel wet, slimy and dirty this one would be it. Cohen is the protagonist and we find him living below the line in the quickly molding disintegrating home where he once was happy with his wife Eliza. She has died along with their unborn baby. It was not clear to me if he had stayed after the evacuation of the South because of grief or some sense of rebellion but so far Cohen is surviving on his own with his Jeep, his dog, and a horse getting supplies from a traveling trader/scavenger, Charlie. Charlie is a previous “survivalist” who always thought the world as we know it would end and like the preppers on TV today he actually seems happy being the local hero-type, scavenging, hunting, and trading.

Then Cohen is robbed, beaten, and left for dead by two young scavengers he sets out to vindicate himself. When he finds the two they are being held against their wishes by a strange kind of snake-handling cult leader, Aggie. Aggie has created a kind of commune in a FEMA trailer park where he has slaves and captives and is building an army. Cohen is originally welcomed into the commune. When Aggie's vision of how he intends to repopulate the south is clear Cohen knows he must move on. Cohen liberates Mariposa and Evan, his two assailants, and Evan's little brother Brisco. The small band heads North hoping to reach the line. The road is long and dangerous and all the while there are the continuous storms and heavy rains.

We learn a lot about Cohen that we didn't know along the flight and also about treasure and treasure hunters. This is an unusual apocalyptic novel and not so very far fetched. I felt a bit of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and maybe even a little of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. I do so love a good end-of-the-world novel.

DELICIOUS! – RUTH REICHL

A lot of descriptions of food in this book so you might get hungry. This one I really like about as much for the character descriptions as the plot. In a way I was reminded of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender because this book also hinges around a person with exceptional taste buds.

From page one we know Billie Breskin is running from something painful. She has fled California where she and her sister had a successful business called Cake Sisters and dropped out of college. Really, before half-way it isn't too hard to figure out where her idolized older sister is. But, until then we get to know Billie as an angst-filled young woman trying to find a place to be where she can use her talent of taste. She can taste anything and describe exactly what all the ingredients are. She lands a job at Delicious! a food magazine office which is in an old mansion in Greenwich Village. But the dream job doesn't last when the magazine is closed. Billie is the lone employee who stays on for a few months to take calls and fulfill the magazine's obligations to send refunds to subscribers who find the magazine's recipes lacking.

In a secret room of the mansion where all of the correspondence of the magazine reside Billie finds a series of quite inventively hidden letters. They are from WW II between a former Delicious! chef, James Beard and a young girl named Lulu Swan from Akron, Ohio. There the plot gets much more interesting as Billie tries to find all of the letters and then to find Lulu. Lulu's letters complain to Beard about shortages and he in turn encourages her with making improvisations to her recipes. I was reminded of my mom and my grandmother who had collected recipes from the 1940s that creatively worked around the shortages of the times. They used to like to get them out a make them for our family. I in turn have kept those recipes and therefore I very much enjoyed hearing about wartime recipes in this novel.

I enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters introduced like Sal the Italian cheese shop owner, Jake the beautiful editor man for whom life is too easy, and Sam the sensitive eccentric gay writer and more. But along with that I liked the interjection of some history such as the cultural persecutions in America during the war and of the 1950s McCarthy scare tactics leveled against communists and homosexuals (not unlike some of the prejudices promoted today). Yes, this may be a bit too sweet (or saccharin) for some readers, but still it is good escape fiction and really quite fun.

Maybe not the most literary choice or even very deep or insightful, but I liked it.