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  Tell Us What You're Reading - 2013

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  We'd love to know what you're reading of late - esepcially if it's Southern Literature.
  
  Read any great books? How about not-so-great books?
  
  Ratings, Reviews, Recommendations are always welcome.
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  Book Concierge started this discussion 5 months ago. ( reply | permalink )

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  mef 

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  Mine, alas, is not particularly Southern. I've just started "Last Words of the Executed", which is this month's free e-book from the University of Chicago Press. I'm sure some of the condemned prisoners who are quoted were southern, but I've just started reading, and the first quotations are from Quakers executed in Massachusetts in the 18th century, for entering the state to protest the outlawing of Quakerism after they'd already been sentenced to banishment for being Quakers.

  posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

  New Title

  

  NOT Southern, but featuring a quirky, eccentric family that COULD be Southern ...

  I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
  4****

  This is a coming-of-age novel that pays homage to Jane Austen. Our narrator is Cassandra Mortmain, age 17, who lives in a dilapidated castle with her father, stepmother, older sister Rose, younger brother, and Stephen (the orphaned son of their late housekeeper). Trying to find a way out of their dire poverty, Rose makes a wish by kissing a gargoyle in the kitchen; enter two wealthy American brothers, Simon and Neil Cotton, who have just inherited the nearby Scoatney Hall, and events – exciting and improbable – occur to change the family’s fortunes.

  The strength of the novel is Cassandra’s first-person narrative. She is witty, naïve, intelligent, and observant. The way she “captures” her eccentric family and their exciting adventures is endearing. I will admit that the plot moves slowly; much time is spent in expounding on the joys of their surroundings. But there was enough going on to keep me interested: Will father every write again? Will Stephen become the next cinema heartthrob? Will one of the brothers propose (which brother and to which girl)?

  It’s gentle, humorous and has some wonderfully lyrical writing. Smith’s novel has endured because it contains some basic universal lessons about learning to love, dealing with adversity, being true to your friends (even when it hurts), and about growing up. Through Cassandra, for a time I was seventeen again – excited, anxious, enthralled, puzzled, and optimistic about my future.

  posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

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    mef 

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    I love this book! I saw the film first, with Bill Nighy as the father -- it was excellent. I had no idea then that the book is a classic here in the UK, but I've learned -- and I've read it, and I agree that it's great.

    posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Lady Aisley 

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  I just received After the Rain by Karen White- haven't started it yet. The setting is Walton, GA and I didn't realize it was a sequel to another book that she wrote "Falling Home"...so this now means I have to read "Falling Home" prior to starting this one as I don't remember the plot too well.

  posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

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  mef 

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  I'm reading "The Report" by Jessica Francis Kane, a novel about an historical event in London during the Blitz, when over 170 people were killed in the crush to get into a bomb shelter. Not Southern, then -- unless you count it being in the south of England!

  posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  This book in the series takes place entirely in North & South Carolina ...

  Bare Bones – Kathy Reichs
  Audio book performed by Barbara Rosenblat
  3***

  Reichs writes a good suspense/thriller. Book six in the series starring forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance (Tempe) Brennan begins with the remains of an infant found in a woodstove. Before we know it Tempe’s planned beach getaway with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan is on hold while she investigates a plane crash and a bag of remains found in a park.

  I enjoy these books for the forensic anthropology and quick pace. I’m irritated by Tempe’s continued “helplessness” – the woman never gets herself out of a jam, but is always rescued by the convenient arrival of a strong man. This particular book also got a little preachy on environmental / endangered species issues. I read mysteries / thrillers for entertainment; I don’t need to be preached to when reading them.

  Barbara Rosenblat does a decent job of performing the audio book. She has a good pace and enough voice over talent to differentiate the many characters.

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  nina d 

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  Cadillac Jack by Larry McMurtry
  4 of 5 (for those who don't mind a leisurely walk with no set destination)

  Liked following the main character of this novel about an easy-going Texan who travels the country looking for antiques, and usually ends up mixing some business with pleasure. Some unlikely characters, but some good ones too. Really enjoyed the young girl, Belinda.

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  mef 

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  I've moved from the south of England to the southeast -- which funnily enough, is the part of England most associated with some of the same unsavory practices as the American SE. Slanders, as we know. It's funny that while North/South stereotypes are reversed here -- the urban centers here are in the South, the people who "talk proper" are in the south and the Northerners are said (by Southerners) to have funny accents, people leave the north all the time to move south to where the jobs are -- it's still in the southeast that people are said to marry their first cousins and all that rot.

  In any case, just finished "Gallowglass" by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell), which seems to take place in the southeast -- of England. It's a dark psychological thriller, with a strong manipulator character and a weak easy-to-manipulate character, neither of whom, I think, are quite sane, and I can't tell you much more without spoilers, except to say that it has *the Very Best Surprise Ending* I've ever encountered.

  The story is told from the point of view of the weaker character, and while Vine/Rendell is a master of these things, I can't say I felt the voice was 100% convincing -- but that is almost certainly my fault and not the author's: I saw a made-for-TV version of the story years and years and years ago, but it made such an impression that I still remember the two characters, the way they spoke, the menace of the stronger one, the dynamic there. Films and books have different strengths and weaknesses, and that was a powerful film.

  In any case, I recommend it. Four and a half stars. I'll probably round up to 5 because the plot is so good. But it's not Southern (sorry) in the sense we mean it here...

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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    nina d (edited)

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    thanks...think I'll give it a try

    posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  Green grew up in Florida, and this book takes place mostly in Orlando ...

  Paper Towns – John Green
  Audio book performed by Dan John Miller
  2.5 **

  A quirky coming-of-age tale from one of the most popular writers of YA fiction in recent times. Quentin Jacobsen has had a crush on his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, since they were toddlers. When Margo disappears immediately after an all-night adventure, Q is determined to find her.

  Okay, I’m at an age where teenage angst just doesn’t do it for me. Been there, done that, happy to leave it behind. Still, I do understand the appeal of this kind of YA fiction. The characters deal with the real problems of today’s teens, and the dialogue rings true, even if the situations are a bit far-fetched. But this book just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t really see why Q was so attracted to Margo. Maybe it was her rebelliousness that attracted him, but to me, she was not particularly brave or intelligent or clever.

  The audio is well performed by Dan John Miller. I especially liked his different voices for the various teens – Radar, Ben and Q – who had many scenes together.

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  nina d (edited)

  New Title

  

  The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
  3.5 of 5

  Started out slow but by mid-story the characters started to grow on me. Story revolves around three seniors in a small Texas town high school around the time of the Korean War.

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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    Peach 

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    Nina, I read Dwayne's Depressed by Larry McMurtry. It was ok - not great but worth reading. Do you like his other books?

    posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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    Book Concierge 

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    I've read several McMurtry's - though not TLPS

    I think my favorite has to be Lonesome Dove, but I also enjoyed Terms of Endearment.

    Agree with you, Peach, about Duane's Depressed - it was a monthly selection for my F2F book club and reaction was lukewarm - good, not great.

    posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  nina d (edited)

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  Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy

  Was looking forward to this since it isn't supposed to be one of his really bloody stories.
  Got past page 100 and still wasn't pulled in by a character or event so I gave up and moved
  on to something else. Oh well, no one hits 100 percent.

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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    bookkaddict 

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    I have had the intention to read this sometime for awhile now as it is part of the "Southern" group of books he wrote, which includes "Suttree" which you know I loved. I guess I shouldn't expect it to be quite as good as that, which to my mind was nearly perfect. Oh well. Still want to read more McCarthy sometime.

    posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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    nina d 

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    I liked Suttree as well...as you know. Was hoping it would be better...
    but it was his first novel...so he got better as he went

    posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  mef 

  New Title

  

  Still no Southern books to report. I had a hankering to read about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee again, but England doesn't seem the best place to find books about the Navajo reservation. I was at a cafe the other day (The Barn at Newland's Corner, Newland's Corner being near my house, and of interest because it's where Agatha Christie's car was found when she disappeared for two weeks back in the, er, 1920s, I think it was) where each windowsill is a bookshelf full of used books for sale, £1 for hardbacks, 50p for paperbacks, and thought I saw the cover of a Hillerman, and SWOOPED on it. Turned out to be an author I hadn't heard of before, Margaret Coel, and at least to go by this book, she writes mysteries set on the Arapahoe reservation in Wyoming. She doesn't rank the A+ I'd give Hillerman, but is up there -- at least B+, maybe A-. (I think I spent too long in one school/college/university or another -- my mind works better in letter grades than in stars-out-of-five.)

  Anyway, I'm enjoying that at the moment. I'm also reading Calvino's "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" for a group read elsethread, which is a tour de force, but not what you'd call a page turner...

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Peach 

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  I'm about to start The Round House. I don't think it's particularly southern.

  posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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    Book Concierge 

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    Love Louise Erdrich.

    posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge (edited)

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  I love Carl Hiaasen's sense of humor as he tackles Flordia politics.

  Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen
  4****

  Twilly Spree is a trust-fund baby and eco-terrorist with some anger-management issues. When he witnesses blatant littering by the driver of a Range Rover with vanity plates, he is compelled to teach the litterbug a lesson. Within a few pages the reader is immersed in the usual Hiaasen scenario featuring a dog-napping and peopled with corrupt Florida politicians and ruthless developers; among the characters here are a former Toyota salesman who is now governor, a hunt-trophy-happy lobbyist, a millionaire developer with a fetish for Barbie dolls (yes, the actual dolls), and our favorite “out-there” one-eyed hero, Skink.

  It’s typical Hiaasen, with outlandish plot developments and tender young women whose good sense far outshines the idiots they work for (or are married to). Hiaasen has a gift for colorful description, for example: Willie Vasquez-Washington eyes Stoat as if he were a worm on a Triscuit. Of course all the bad guys will get their just desserts in the end – and in colorful, inventive ways. The action is non-stop and the pages turn fast. A fun, enjoyable diversion!

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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    bookkaddict 

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    I laughed out loud in several places when I read this book! Hilarious.

    posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Jody 

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  I just finished Richard Ford's Canada (certainly not southern--sorry). I found it to be well plotted and paced. It's the first Richard Ford book I've read; I was impressed. I started Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. It focuses on a private detective with Tourette syndrome. A movie adapted from the book is slated to come out this year featuring Edward Norton. My most recently read Southern novel is A Summons to Memphis. Among other themes, it was a book about looking at our elders in parental roles as whole people, and not just as guardians of the young. It was a book to sip slowly as one would a savory cognac in a dark paneled corner.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Blueberry c 

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  I am reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I think it's 4th in the series but this one is in Virginia, I thiink.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  NOT John Jakes' Civil War epic ...

  North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
  Audio book performed by Clare Wille
  3.5***

  Richard Hale, a vicar at a country parish in southern England, has had a crisis of faith, and decides to leave the church to become a tutor in an industrial city in northern England. This might be fine, except that he is married and has waited until two weeks before they are to move to let his daughter and wife know that their lives are about to be turned upside down. His daughter, Margaret, has had a clearly defined role as the clergyman’s only daughter in the rural surroundings of Helstone, and now struggles to find a place in the very different society of Milton. Accompanying her father in the hunt for a suitable dwelling, she meets Mr John Thornton, the wealthy mill-owner who has engaged Mr Hale as a tutor in the classics. Thornton is immediately smitten with the lovely Margaret, though she does not return the feelings. Can opposites attract? Can the self-made Thornton woo and win the refined Margaret?

  Gaskell’s book is more than just a romance. She spends considerable time exploring the changes wrought on England’s economy and her people by industrialization. We learn of the difficulties of the laborers vs the excesses of some owners. For a short time I thought Gaskell was going to completely discount Milton as a dirty, factory town, but she balances this with a warning Margaret gives about the harsh conditions of the agricultural workers in the South – toiling in all kinds of weather for low wages, and dependent on the squire for their living.

  I loved how Gaskell gave us so much insight into the thoughts and feelings of Thornton, Mr Hale and Higgins (one of the labor leaders). We really come to learn about them and, therefore, care for them. I wish she had spent more time expounding on Margaret’s thoughts; to me, she was rather one-dimensional. Yes, she was kind and also spoke her mind when pushed too far by Mrs Thornton, but she was so passive! I realize that women in her situation at that time had few choices but to sit and wait for a suitable man to come along and propose marriage, but I think Margaret did too much “waiting.”

  Still, right up to the ending I was ready to give it four stars. But that ending – abrupt hardly covers it. I actually exclaimed aloud, “Is that it!?”

  Clare Wille does a superb job performing the audio book (produced by Naxos AudioBooks). Her facility with accents and skill as a voice-over actress breathed life into the work for me.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  NOT Southern fiction, but good historical fiction ...

  The Paris Wife – Paula McClain
  Book on CD narrated by Carrington MacDuffie.
  4****

  When Hadley Richardson arrives in Chicago to visit her friend Kate, she has no idea that she is about to meet the man who will change her life. Tall, darkly handsome and charismatic young Ernest Hemingway is immediately drawn to quiet, 28-year-old Hadley. One dance leads to another, and before long Hadley lets herself be led towards happiness … at least for a while. After a whirlwind courtship they’ll marry and move to Paris, where they’ll become a part of the “Lost Generation.”
  Love, as we know, is not enough by itself, and the Hemingways find themselves ill equipped to deal with the realities of their life together. Ernest struggles to find his creative voice. Hadley does her best to support and help him but often finds herself feeling lonely and insecure. When the end of their journey together finally comes it is nevertheless tragic for being expected.

  Most of this novel is written from Hadley’s point of view, but there are sections where McClain emulates Hemingway’s style, giving us a glimpse of his point of view. This is very effective when read on the page, partly because the change in font clearly alerts the reader to the different narrator. But the audio book doesn’t have any such clue, and I found it confusing and distracting. Nevertheless, Carrington MacDuffie did a good job of the narration on the audio version.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  Well, I'm about half-way done with Salvage the Bones. Dang if I can't just feel the tension in the air as I read....

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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    bookkaddict 

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    I was wondering if anyone besides me is reading it. I'm about half-way through myself and I agree, the tension and pace is picking up.

    posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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    mef 

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    I finally started it and...well, I was going to quit reading it, but I thought that I should keep going, that a couple of dozen pages isn't really enough to form an opinion, but...the way the author uses words is just not my cup of tea. But I'm going to try to keep going. It's not the subject, the action, or the characters, it's just the writing itself that I have a problem with...

    posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Wendy B 

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  Oh man! I have not kept up with this very well!

  Read a great Southern Christian Fiction -
  "Secrets over Sweet Tea" by Denise Hildreth Jones - 4.5 stars
  Takes place in Franklin, TN (the author's hometown)

  Secrets can be funny things. We think they keep us safe, but more often than not, they spill out when we least expect and make a mess out of everything. It’s a truth Scarlett Jo Newberry knows all too well—a truth Grace Shepherd and Zach Craig are about to learn the hard way. As the lives of this boisterous pastor’s wife, polished news anchor, and beleaguered divorce attorney intersect in the tree-lined streets of Franklin, Tennessee, scandal threatens to topple their carefully constructed worlds. Grasping at survival, they embark on a journey of friendship and courage, desperate to find a way back to laughter, love, and life.

  ~ Denise is one of my favorite authors! I have read all of her fiction books (7, I think). She is an amazing writer! Ever since the first book - "Savannah from Savannah" I knew I was hooked.

  This is a great light southern fiction book. It is fun and quirky but with a touch of seriousness and sadness to it. The whole time I was reading this I was thinking - "Steel Magnolias", "Hart of Dixie" and "GCB", I could actually picture some of the characters playing the parts in this book. I love southern fiction because it is usually fun and this book did not disappoint me.

  Denise is a great character builder. I have to say that is definitely her biggest strength. As in all of her books you really get to know the characters very well. There is such detail. You really feel like you are watching a movie or TV show. I can almost hear that southern twang while I am reading.

  This book seemed so real to me. The situations were real. So many times (not always) a Christian Fiction will paint a pretty picture where everything is perfect with the world. I mean, they're Christians, they're perfect right?... wrong! Even Christian sin (no one is sinless except Jesus). We all have our secrets, we all have our regrets, even us Christians. In this book... boy do they have secrets! The characters are so human; they have flaws just like the rest of us.

  Here are a couple of my favorite quotes -

  "I need a googler!"
  He walked down the stairs from the bonus room. "Mom, you've got to learn how to work a computer."
  She stared at him like he had three heads. "Jack, I have five children. You don't have five children because you want to do things for yourself. You have five children so that when they are able, they can be your slaves. So come down here and get to work. I want you to google channel 4 news in Nashville..." ~ this made me giggle out loud!

  "Don't mock me, Jackson Newberry. Northerners are a different breed, baby. they don't like you to touch them. They don't want to be called sugar or sweetie or honey pie or darlin'. They've never heard of lard. They have no clue on God's green earth what fixin' to even means. And if you say y'all, they look at you like you'd probably marry your second cousin or something." - I don't even mind when she makes fun of us northerners, LOL.

  THE-ALL-IN-ALL -
  All in all this is a great read! I highly recommend it. If you like quirky fun southern Christian fiction you would love this book! Of course it is very clean (no sex, only mention of it, and no swearing). This has a lot of laugh out loud moments. And it has a gorgeous cover!

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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    Book Concierge 

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    Oh, I could use an uplifting, fun book right about now ... Thanks for the review!

    posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  Under the Mesquite - Guadalupe Garcia McCall
  5*****

  Lupita is the oldest of eight children, and just beginning high school. Born in Mexico, she and her parents immigrated to Texas when she was a six years old and have lived in Eagle Pass ever since. They are a close-knit family and Lupe does all she can as the oldest to help her mother care for the younger children. Like all teens she has to find her individual voice amid the cacophony of siblings, friends and relatives, and juggle the expectations of her parents, grandparents and teachers against her own passions and fears. When her mother is diagnosed with uterine cancer the illness will forever change the family relationships. Struggling to find her own path to adulthood, and taking on more responsibility as her mother’s illness progresses, Lupita finds solace in writing poetry.

  This is a semi-autobiographical novel, written entirely in verse. Presented as a journal, the story follows Lupita as she deals with high school classes, friends and teachers who don’t understand, and her desperate desire to support her mother and help her siblings as they all deal with the devastating news of Mami’s cancer.

  Garcia McCall says so much with so few words! Her poetry is evocative and restrained, powerful and tender, vivid and elusive, full of sadness and joy, but mostly full of love. One quote:
  Waiting for la Muerte to take Mami
  is like being bound,
  lying face up on the sacrificial altar
  of the god Huitzilopochtli
  pleading with the Aztec priest,
  asking him to be kind
  while he rips out my heart.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  This one isn't Southern, but it's a great classic children's book ...

  On the Banks of Plum Creek - Laura Ingalls Wilder
  Book on CD performed by Cherry Jones
  4****

  Book four in the “Little House” series finds the Ingalls family in Minnesota after their failed attempt to homestead in Indian Territory. They trade their horses to a bachelor Norwegian farmer who wants to head West, and settle into the sod house he’s built near the Banks of Plum Creek. Seven-year-old Laura will go to school for the first time in this location and the family’s relative proximity to town will help see them through a tough year. This book also introduces the spoiled Nellie Oleson.

  As is typical of Wilder’s novels, based on her own early life, the story is full of the innocent adventures of childhood – playing along the creek, exploring the prairie, meeting new friends in a new school. It also clearly depicts the hardship and dangers of pioneer life – wildfire, thunderstorms, blizzards and a creek that can be an inviting place to play one day and a raging torrent ready to drown a young child the next. But the Ingalls family is blessed with a great deal of love and good parents who instill valuable life lessons on their young children.

  Cherry Jones is wonderful performing these books on audio. She is so expressive in conveying the excitement of a new place to explore, the joy of a small gift of candy, the fear and anxiety of being left alone as a storm approaches, and the love of a family who feels safe when they are together. Listen with your children or grandchildren; and if you haven’t any, listen on your own.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

  New Title

  

  The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow - Rita Leganski
  2.5**

  Before he is born, Bonaventure Arrow’s father is murdered by a mentally disturbed man known only as “the Wanderer.” His mother’s unspeakable grief affects Bonaventure’s development – he is born mute, but with hyper-acute hearing. He can hear earthworms moving through the dirt and a bit of dust falling off a moth’s wing. He can also hear the stories that inanimate objects tell – the sound of steamships comes from a wooden crate marked “port of New Orleans,” and the sounds of gunshots from a jar of sassafras. And he hears the sadness and secrets of his paternal grandmother’s house.

  Helping him make sense of these sounds are two extraordinary characters – the ghost of his father, William Arrow, whom only Bonaventure can hear, and the family’s cook, Trinidad Prefontaine, who is a Creole woman knowledgeable about hoodoo and root work.

  Leganski’s work is hard to describe. It has elements of Southern gothic, as well as the supernatural and magic. When I first heard that the central character is a mute child, I immediately thought of David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. But this novel is nowhere near so fine a work of literature as Wroblewski’s. I think Leganski got too caught up in the “magical” quality of Bonaventure’s extraordinary hearing. She spends way too much time crafting beautiful descriptions of his abilities – and they are beautiful. But, how does reading about a dust mote’s story of being carried across the Himalayas on the foot of a goose help this story? The answer is it doesn’t. These type of passages (and there are many) showcase Leganski’s imagination and ability to write creatively, but they interfere with the story. They do nothing to develop the characters or advance the plot. They are unnecessary distractions.

  There is a nugget of a great premise here. I like how she used the innocence of a child to help the wounded adults around him heal. I liked that Bonaventure was surrounded by people who loved him and nurtured him – maternal grandmother notwithstanding. I wish she had spent more time developing the story, and less time expounding on Bonaventure’s unusual hearing abilities. I was interested and caught up in the plot at the beginning, but then felt she would never get to the point. By the time the identity of William’s killer was revealed I just didn’t really care. Had I been her editor, I would have deleted close to a hundred pages. I would have deleted the maternal grandmother’s storyline and expanded on his teacher’s growing relationship with his mother. I would also have advised her to make more use of Trinidad, who doesn’t join the family until half-way through the novel.

  I get that Leganski was going for an ethereal quality, but I think she went too far in that direction and forgot the story.

  posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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  mef 

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  Am re-reading Life of Pi, but have some Southern news: the friend in Kentucky who sends me sorghum was here last week, and brought me grits, and watermelon pickle! I put her and her teenager up and took them to see Roman ruins, Jane Austen's house, the seashore, and other local(ish) sites. Alas, I didn't find out until after I made a big pot of gumbo that the teenager won't eat soups, stews, or sauces. Ah, well -- more for the rest of us, and he made hmself some scrambled eggs --

  posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

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    Book Concierge 

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    I am also re-reading Life of Pi!

    posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

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  MelindaMcGuireWrites 

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  Reading Poisonwood Bible for the very first time. So far, I am loving the distinctive voices of each character. It's been a long, long time since I've looked forward to reading a book like I am look forward to picking this one up each day.

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    Book Concierge 

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    I love Kingsolver's writing.

    posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

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    mef 

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    The early ones, yeah, me too -- especially Poisonwood Bible. Starting with Lacuna, I began to feel her message was getting in the way of the story...

    posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  Book Concierge 

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  Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones
  4****

  First line: My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.
  I was completely drawn into the story of two sisters, only one of which knows the other exists, and how they vie for the love of the man they both call their father.

  I don't want to say any more because I do not want to overly influence our next group read selection.

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    mef 

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    I'm just back from vacation in Sweden, that is, my husband was working and I went along, and I was on vacation. The local library let me borrow books, and I read Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, and Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss. Loved the Krauss; the Yates is...of its time. All the descriptions say it's about two people who blah blah blah and it's all about the husband, which was really disappointing. (I'm told in the movie they made of it, the wife has a bigger part -- go figure.)

    posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  NOT southern literature but I love this series ...

  A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley
  Book on CD performed by Jayne Entwistle
  4****

  The third installment in this series starring a precocious 11-year-old chemistry wizard find our heroine, Flavia de Luce, caught up with an old gypsy woman and her granddaughter.

  I really enjoy this series, and this one is quite good. Bradley puts far less emphasis on Flavia’s chemistry wizardry, and relies more on her indomitable spirit, her curiosity, grace under pressure, quick thinking, and ability to lie through her teeth. Yes, her sisters continue to harangue her (an element of the series that I don’t like), but this is far less prevalent than in earlier books. Yes, her father remains aloof and worried about finances, but he also clearly understands his child and takes one measure at the end that clearly demonstrates how much he cares about her.

  Jayne Entwistle is simply brilliant performing this series on audio. Her talent as a voice artist gives the listener a believable 11-year-old Flavia, as well as myriad adults who attempt to dissuade her from sleuthing. Her pacing is fast enough to maintain convey the sense of urgency and suspense, but not so fast as to affect the listener’s understanding. Her performance raises the rating from 3.5 to 4 stars.

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  The Color of Lightning - Paulette Jiles
  3***

  Britt Johnson was a former Kentucky slave who, along with his wife, Mary, and their three children, went to Texas in 1863 searching for a new life. Little is known about them, other than that Mary and the children were taken in a Kiowa raid, that Britt found the camps where they were held and ransomed them. This is a fictional account of his life in North Texas from 1863 to 1871.

  Interspersed with Johnson’s story is that of the U.S. government’s efforts to enforce a peace treaty that the tribes didn’t feel applied to them. Jiles does a good job of painting the landscape and giving the reader insight into both sides of the issues – the pioneers who saw opportunity in this vast new landscape and wanted only to be able to work their land vs the Native tribes who felt the land belonged to no one and that the gods provided the animals, water, grain for their use. One side drew boundaries on a piece of paper; the other recognized only natural barriers and freely crossed them to follow the herds of buffalo or the best pasture lands for their horses.

  I was interested in Britt Johnson’s story and that of his family. Not so interested in the plight of the Quaker appointed as the Indian Agency chief. While I understand the need to include this historical background, I didn’t think that Jiles handled the transitions between story lines very well. It was slow getting started and I lost focus, though was fully engaged by the second half of the book. All in all, this is more than just a western, it’s also the story of one man’s courage and devotion to his family.

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  Reichs lives in North Carolina and her Tempe Brennan series moves back and forth between NC and Montreal Quebec. THIS one takes place in Montreal ...

  Monday Morning – Kathy Reichs
  Book on CD read by Michelle Pawk
  3***

  Number 8 in the Tempe Brennen mystery series. The discovery of bones in the basement of a pizza parlor sets the forensic anthropologist on the trial of a serial kidnapper/rapist/killer. On the romantic front, she’s not sure her relationship with Ryan is going anywhere, and her best friend arrives for an extended stay as she tries to decide if she’s leaving her husband for good.

  Reichs knows how to write a thriller, maintaining tension despite the fast-moving plot. She gives us enough red herrings to make figuring out the culprit challenging for the mystery enthusiast. The details of forensic analysis make for interesting reading as well. However… I think I may have reached my limit with this series. I am tired of Dr Brennan’s penchant for going into dangerous situations without reasonable caution – she doesn’t take her cell phone, she doesn’t take a gun, she doesn’t call for back-up, she doesn’t even tell the police where she is going. Not to worry, however … she is bound to be rescued by a big strong man.

  Pawk does a pretty good job reading the audio book. She has good pacing and her French sounds accurate (but since I don't speak French, how would I know?).

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  Last King of Texas - Rick Riordan
  3***

  Tres Navarre mystery numero tres! A local university professor is murdered, and Tres agrees to take over his classes for the remainder of the semester – he DOES have a PhD in Medieval Literature, after all. Since he is now the third professor to take these classes in this school year, Tres cannot help but get involved into the investigation, especially since both his predecessors had received death threats.

  Riordan writes a great mystery series featuring my home town, San Antonio. His scenes are vividly drawn and I love the opportunity to “visit home” through the pages of this series. I like that he includes several strong women among the recurring characters – Elainya (who heads the PI firm), and Detective Anna DeLeon. These women are resourceful, intelligent, fearless and don’t rely on men to get them out of a jam. I didn’t guess the perpetrator before Riordan’s reveal. I also like that he continued for a few chapters to wrap up some loose ends regarding these characters. Maybe he’s just setting up the sequels, but I didn’t feel manipulated.

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  Now that the voting is over ... here's my full review

  Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones
  4****

  First line: My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.

  Dana Lynn Yarboro and Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon are sisters, but only Dana knows this. Dana’s mother, Gwen, married James 10 years after he had married Laverne, and just a few days after Chaurisse was born. Gwen has always told Dana that her father has another family, and also made her understand that this is a private matter that cannot be discussed. But having the basic information isn’t enough for her; Dana hungers for more. What she really wants to know is does James “love” his other family? Or more importantly, does he love them MORE than he loves Dana and Gwen? Dana will not stop until she has elbowed her way into Chaurisse’s life. And once the girls become friends their secrets are bound to come out.

  I was completely drawn into the story of these two sisters, only one of which knows the other exists. Jones crafts a tale of a different family model that rings true. I recognize my own emotions and reactions in those of the characters, from the desire to be “Daddy’s little girl” to the need for recognition. Dana narrates the first half of the book, Chaurisse the second. Through them we also learn about their mothers, grandmother, friends and neighbors.

  Everyone, the men – James and his “brother” Raleigh – included, is flawed but trying to do the right thing, or at least the best she or he can do given past choices. The choices they make affect not just themselves but a wider circle of people, often with unintended results. In the end Jones shows that we must all live with the results – whether it was our choice or someone else’s. Every character wins and loses. The reader’s loyalties are conflicted – do we side with Gwen and Dana? With Laverne and Chaurisse? In the end, we can love all of them, with all their flaws and despite some bad behavior.

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  Dante in New Orleans (Discovery of Heaven Press) 

  New Title

  

  http://www.amazon.com/Dante-New-Orleans-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00CGBC22A/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366551240&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Dante+in+New+Orleans+laRouge

  from Discovery of Heaven Press .... I am new to Shelfari and finding my way around ... follow me if you wish... that's how we learn

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  This is not Southern fiction, but an extraordinarily good book ...

  Still Alice – Lisa Genova
  Book on CD read by the author.
  5***** and a ❤

  Alice Howland, Ph.D., professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Harvard University, wife and mother, begins to notice that she is forgetting things. No, not just where she put her keys, but words and thoughts and directions. Still, when she’s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease she is stunned.

  The brilliance of Genova’s book is that she writes from Alice’s perspective. The reader experiences the slow decline as one daily function after another becomes challenging, difficult and even impossible to perform. The last third of the book is particularly poignant.

  I had a very hard time with this book. My mother is in the final stages of this terrible disease. She is no longer mobile. She cannot speak and does not recognize any of her family or friends. She is just a physical shell of a person, the woman she was either locked away or perhaps completely lost to us and to herself.

  Several years ago my brothers and I arranged a celebration for our parents’ 60th wedding anniversary at the assisted living facility where they then lived. Mother was still mobile and speaking (though not making much sense). She enjoyed the music and the food and the celebration. Several of her long-time friends came. One, Maria, approached me when she arrived and asked if my mother still recognized me. I said yes – but I realized suddenly that this was the first visit where she had failed to call me by the pet name she’d always used for me. Just before Maria left the party, she came up to me again and said, “Your mother recognizes love.” I took a wonderful picture of Maria and my mother at that gathering, and last year when Maria published her memoir she included that photo in her book along with several pages describing what my Mother meant to her and other young women in the community. Yes, my mother recognizes love, and I am especially glad that so many other people recognize HER love for them.

  One final word about the audio version of this book. Had I been rating this based on the audio performance I would have given it only 3-stars. How I wish a professional voice-over artist had been hired to do the reading! Genova clearly believes strongly in the work and the message, but she reads with the same inflection throughout. So it is difficult to follow conversations at times because the listener cannot effectively tell which character is speaking. This is especially true early in the book when Alice isn’t so severely impaired, and her use of language matches the other speakers.

  posted 1 month ago. ( permalink )

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  • 

    mef 

    New Title

    

    Very sorry to here that your family is struggling with Alzheimer's...

    As for the book, I read it a while back, as background for something I was writing in which I thought one character would have dementia, and while I found the book really useful and informative for that purpose, as a novel, I didn't care for it. It read to me very, very, very much as though a researcher had planned and set it all out to educate the rest of us, rather than to show us people in a difficult situation acting like real people. It's a case study that tries to come to life and doesn't make it. There's very little emotion that rings true. And, writing carefully so as not to spoil things, I'll just say that the three children, when presented with a choice, give the writer perfect scope to show the three possibilities regarding that choice, which is just all too neat and tidy to ring true, given everything else that's so meticulously controlled designed -- a novel plotted on graph paper, with characters as two-dimensional as paper dolls.

    I'm not at all surprised that the author read the book for the audio version; everything in the world of the book is so tightly controlled, I'd be surprised if the author were willing to let anyone else get a look in.

    posted 4 weeks ago. ( permalink )

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    Having lived through all those decisions, I thought the book rang VERY true. Although the timeline was definitely compressed. My mother does not have the early-onset form of the disease (she is in her mid 80s), and perhaps that progresses more rapidly, and of course every patient is different, but it was YEARS before my mother was diagnosed.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( permalink )

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    mef 

    New Title

    

    Oops -- I meant the three kids (SPOILER ALERT!) -- she sets the family up with three kids so one can take the test and be positive, one can take the test and be negative, and one can decide not to take the test. Um, if those are the decisions you mention living through, then fine, our mileage differs and you're the one who's actually had to decide whether to take the test. But if you thought I meant some other decisions, then I thought I ought to clarify (because one person can't live through all three decisions? Unless maybe you mean you and your siblings lived through it? and the timeline, compressed or not, doesn't have bearing on how she plots out the children taking the test?)

    All I mean is that I found the uber-controlled approach off-putting and artificial, but you are in a far, far better position than I am to judge, and I apologize if I've offended.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( permalink )

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  Oh, The Places You’ll Go! – Dr. Seuss
  5***** and a ❤

  I love this little gem of a book. Whenever I’ve felt a little lost or stuck on life’s journey, or at times when I’ve been about to embark on a new path, I’ve re-read it. It never fails to inspire and enthuse me. I just gave it to my niece for her high school graduation and we read it together. Oh, The Places SHE’ll Go!

  posted 23 hours ago. ( permalink )

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