The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

24 Tuesday Jun 2014

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I found myself recommending this favorite book to a patron the other day after a conversation about siblings.  Tension travels from page to page as two brothers working the family farm in northern Canada virtually despise the other and his ways.  Each day one taunts the other, cries wolf, plans pranks, needles relentlessly.   We all probably have experienced all-in-good-fun-go-suddenly-wrong… in seconds.  Siblings never let you forget ….ever.  Crow Lake is also an excellent read.   My name is already on the Holds list for her new book coming out this summer!

“Lawson’s gifts are enormous, especially her ability to write a literary work in a popular style. Her dialogue has perfect pitch, yet I’ve never read anyone better at articulating silence. Best of all, Lawson creates the most quotable images in Canadian literature.” —Toronto Star

 “[Lawson] returns to several of the themes that marked her brilliantly successful first novel, Crow Lake. . . . Lawson’s cornucopia of novelistic gifts, even more bounteously on display in her second book, includes handsome, satisfying sentences, vivid descriptions of physical work and landscape and an almost fiendish efficiency in building the feeling that something very bad is about to happen.” —National Post

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The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

18 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Historical Fiction

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This work of historical fiction is set in Charleston, South Carolina during the mid-1800’s and inspired by the life of Sarah Grimke.  Sarah broke away from their wealthy and slave-owning family and became an abolitionist and feminist in Philadelphia.  The book is also the story of Handful, a slave owned by the Grimke family.  The author alternates the voices of Sarah and Handful to show how the aspirations and dreams of each woman were limited and thwarted by the restrictions of society and slavery but how each was able to find fulfillment and redemption.

“Alternating between Sarah’s and Handful’s contrasting perspectives on their oddly conjoined worlds allows Kidd to generate unstoppable narrative momentum as she explores the troubled terrain that lies between white and black women in a slaveholding society. . ..the novel’s language can be as exhilarating as its powerful story. . .by humanizing these formidable women, The Invention of Wings furthers our essential understanding of what has happened among us as Americans – and why it still matters.”—Margaret Wrinkle, The Washington Post

“Masterful. . .in short, provocative chapters we step into the lives of these amazingly brave and stalwart women. . .Wings is a story about empowering women to change the world. . .with historical bedrock as her foundation for a compelling narrative, Kidd serves up a remarkable novel about finding your voice.” —Carol Memmott, The Chicago Tribune

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The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis by Thomas Goetz

11 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Non-fiction

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The fascinating history of tuberculosis, the world’s most deadly disease, and the unexpected encounter of two men, Dr. Robert Koch, a noted German physician and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an English physician and author. Doyle, intrigued by Koch’s scientific methods returned to England after visiting Koch in Berlin and was inspired to flesh out the character of Sherlock Holmes and to face a tragic event in his own life.

 “The Remedy is a rare, thrilling achievement: a book that helps us understand the roots of transformative ideas that simultaneously manages to tell a story worthy of a 19th-century novel, full of surprising links, rivalries, and intellectual triumph.”—Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map
 
From Booklist:
“Tuberculosis has been around a long time. And the number of deaths attributable to TB makes it the most lethal contagious disease in human history. In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch identified its cause, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a slow-growing but hardy bacteria. He also devised many laboratory and research innovations, including his famous set of Koch’s postulates. Koch’s professional rival was Louis Pasteur. Another celebrated contemporary, author Arthur Conan Doyle, admired, critiqued, and in some ways mirrored Koch. Doyle and Koch began their careers as country doctors but aspired to be much more. Each valued attention to detail. Both were sleuths. Koch was a medical detective. Doyle was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, fiction’s most famous detective. Both flirted with fraud. For Doyle, it was superstition and spiritualism. For Koch, it was tuberculin, a bogus cure for TB. Goetz, a science writer and past executive editor of WIRED, brings together biography and scientific history, personal ambition and discovery, and a deadly infectious disease in a captivating tale.” –Tony Miksanek
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The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

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When the waiting list for Kathryn Stockett’s The Help was in the eight hundreds plus and those who read it wanted more of the same, it was easy to point them to the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd or to this one, which I liked the very most.  Sometimes unspeakable horror resides not just on the other side of town.

“The most powerful and also the most lyrical novel about race, racism, and denial in the American South since To Kill A Mockingbird….A story about knowing and not knowing, The Queen of Palmyra is finally a testament to the ultimate power of truth and knowledge, language and love.” (Lee Smith, author of ON AGATE HILL)

“Divert your reader and, and then “clobber” them, advised Flannery O’Connor. In this bold and brilliant book, Minrose Gwin diverts us with the affecting voice of a child and then clobbers us with the ugly truths of our collective past. I can almost hear O’Connor cheering.” (Sharon Oard Warner, author of Deep in the Heart)

“Florence’s abusive father sells burial insurance to black folks who can hardly afford it, and her beleaguered mother drinks as she bakes and sells cakes to shore up the family’s precarious finances. Amid the oppressive heat of summer in 1963 in the small town of Millwood, the neglected Florence is constantly shuttled between her grandparents and their longtime black maid, Zenie, with whom she meets Zenie’s niece, college student Eva Greene. When Eva begins selling burial insurance to pay for her education, simmering racial tensions erupt, and Florence becomes a witness to unspeakable crimes. First-novelist Gwin employs an offbeat, stream-of-consciousness style in this atmospheric depiction of racial hatred in the Deep South.” –Joanne Wilkinson (Booklist)

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Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Biography

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This is the most compelling book I have ever listened to.  I was so moved by it days later that I wrote a letter to the author with the message that I will always remember her boys. I remember them each and every day.

“It was a festive time. Economist Deraniyagala, her economist husband (they met at Cambridge), and their two young sons flew from London to Sri Lanka to spend the winter holidays with her parents. They were all staying in a hotel near their favorite national park on December 26, 2004, the day of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. Deraniyagala describes their bewilderment as they flee the hotel and her terror as they are swept up by the 30-foot-high, racing wave that brutally changed everything. Only Deraniyagal survived. In rinsed-clear language, she describes her ordeal, surreal rescue, and deep shock, attaining a Didionesque clarity and power. We hold tight to every exquisite sentence as, with astounding candor and precision, she tracks subsequent waves of grief, from suicidal despair to persistent fear, attempts to drown her pain in drink, “helpless rage,” guilt and shame, and paralyzing depression. But here, too, are sustaining tides of memories that enable her to vividly, even joyfully, portray her loved ones. An indelible and unique story of loss and resolution written with breathtaking refinement and courage.” –Donna Seaman from Booklist

“Out of unimaginable loss comes an unimaginably powerful book. . . . I urge you to read Wave. You will not be the same person after you’ve finished.” —Will Schwalbe

“The most powerful and haunting book I have read in years.” —Michael Ondaatje

“Unforgettable. . . . The most exceptional book about grief I’ve ever read. . . . [Deraniyagala] has fearlessly delivered on memoir’s greatest promise: to tell it like it is, no matter the cost. . . . As unsparing as they come, but also defiantly flooded with light. . . . Extraordinary.” —Cheryl Strayed, The New York Times Book Review

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The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction, Travel

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If you are looking for adventure, history and biography this is the book for you.  Millard captures Teddy Roosevelt’s larger than life personality as he fails at being reelected to the presidency of the United States in 1912 and then decides to explore an uncharted river in South America.  This is a story of guts and determination that has been well researched but reads like a novel and not as non-fiction.  You will feel every mosquito bite and see every crocodile that Roosevelt encounters in the Amazonian jungle.

“A rich, dramatic tale that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking.” —Janet Maslin,

“A rich, dramatic tale that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“[A] fine account . . . There are far too many books in which a travel writer follows in the footsteps of his or her hero—and there are far too few books like this, in which an author who has spent time and energy ferreting out material from archival sources weaves it into a gripping tale.” —The Washington Post

Anacondas, huge snakes found in the Amazon River and its tributaries, can weigh up to 500 pounds. That fact and many others embedded in this marvelously atmospheric travel narrative are here for the reader’s asking and edification in Millard’s important contribution to the complete biographical record of the great, dynamic Teddy Roosevelt. TR, it will be remembered, attempted a third term as president in 1912, only to make certain of a Democratic victory. Licking his wounds, and reverting to his typical method of “seeking solace from heartbreaks and frustration” by testing his physical endurance, he embarked on an Amazon exploration adventure. A set of odd circumstances led to the River of Doubt as the choice of venue, a large tributary of the giant river that up to that point had been little explored. What with suffering from fever and infection, Roosevelt nearly died on the trip; but live through it he did, and readers of both American history and travel narratives will take delight in living through these exciting pages. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association.

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The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Historical Fiction, mystery

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I unfairly assumed before starting this classic mystery that as a 19th century novel, it would be on the slower side. Instead, I found myself engrossed by this page-turner, a mystery that’s funny, suspenseful, and romantic. Every section of the book has a different narrator, each with a unique voice, and a complicated, intriguing plot that kept my interest until the last page.

“”The first and greatest of English detective novels.”” —T. S. Eliot

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The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

19 Monday May 2014

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Jhumpa Lahiri’s lastest book, The Lowland, tells the story of two brothers from Calcutta and how the decisions that they make and the secrets that they keep will affect the next three generations of their families in India and America.  I continue to be fascinated with her interpretation of two divergent societies, Indian and American, and how the cultural differences and similarities play out in the lives of her characters.

“Graceful and steady . . . devastatingly precise . . . Lahiri [writes with] ruthless clarity . . . The Lowland continues Lahiri’s career-long study of the tendrils that grow up in canyons [between characters], that intertwine and bind people to one another through responsibility and dependency, love and guilt. [Lahiri is] anchored firmly as a great American writer.” —Jennifer Day, Chicago Tribune

“Lahiri’s finest work so far, at once unsettling and generous, bow-string taut . . . shattering and satisfying in equal measure. I expect The Lowland will prove her most controversial book to date, for its plot grows out of [a] Maoist-inspired uprising in the late 1960s. Though Lahiri has put [the] politics in, she also wants us to concentrate on the spectators instead of the struggle around the gun. This book is a determinedly apolitical writer’s attempt to deal with an explosive subject. And though she deals more fully here than ever before with a specifically Indian subject, though the book both begins and ends in Calcutta and what happens there will forever mark its characters’ lives, The Lowland is written in an American vein; she seamlessly inserts new people—new manners, mores, material—into a traditional American form. What counts in The Lowland isn’t the fate of society but the individual life and the chance or pursuit of individual happiness; Turgenev among others would recognize the problem she defines. The prose . . . provides something like a continuous present, pointillist and monumental at once, as though carved . . . Uncompromising and yet clear—carries a note of accessible distinction.” —Michael Gorra, The New York Review of Books

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The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin

02 Friday May 2014

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Each time I opened this book I was transported to the quaint fishing camp in northwestern Maine and completely engaged in the lives of the first owner, Joe, the WWII war hero and his wife, son Joe, the Vietnam draft dodger and his girlfriend, Lucy, and finally, as their tale unravels,  what lay in store for young Kate and Jordan.  Through these characters’ lives I finally came to understand the impact and unexpected consequences of one particular guest who had spent a week or more at the camp every summer for thirty years.  Don’t wait for the summer, read it now!

 “Luminous.”—Booklist


“The Summer Guest is a jewel, the best book I’ve read in a long, long time…. By all means take it to the beach, but be warned that it’s more than entertainment – it’s a work of art. Justin Cronin has written a great American novel…. reading this novel, I couldn’t help but think of Hemingway, Andre Dubus and Wallace Stegner.”—Susan Balee, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Here is a gifted and assured writer whose work reveals a fine sense of place and thoughtful characters who have something worth saying…. The Summer Guest is a haunting story about the way time changes us and about what endures.”—Houston Chronicle

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Stronger by Jeff Bauman with Bret Witter

18 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction, Sports

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After reading a book review about this book, I instantly requested this book to read since I have running daughters and the 2014 Boston Marathon is just around the corner.   I started reading it one evening , pushed all my other reading to the side, and continued reading this page- turner into the next day non-stop. This is the story behind the scenes of the famous 2013 Marathon photo –Carlos in his cowboy hat and Jeff with blown off legs pushed in a wheelchair by a woman. Waking up groggy after multiple surgeries, Jeff’s only thought was to tell the police that he had made eye-to-eye contact with the bomber which then led to one of the largest manhunts our country has witnessed.  Jeff set his goal to be able to walk on bionic legs by this Monday’s Marathon anniversary.  What a year he has shared with the Bruins, the Red Sox, James Taylor, the Watertown police to name but a few.  Jeff tells us who inspired him to fight through the grueling therapies and how he decided to accept a public role to inspire others.

“A moving demonstration of how strength of mind and character helped one man stand tall despite the loss of his legs.”—Kirkus

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