September 2007

editor September 1st, 2007

There’s nothing like reading a good mystery to remind yourself how addictive reading a good story can be. On the Ropes by local author Tom Schreck, has a gripping plot and reads like a combination of Janet Evanovich and Dennis Lehane. Our protagonist is Duffy Dombrowski, a paperwork challenged social worker and part-time boxer who sometimes goes beyond the bounds of his job to, in his words, “help people who no one else wants to help.” When one of Duffy’s clients is arrested on an outstanding warrant, she begs him to find her step-daughter and to take care of her dog, a Muslim Bassett Hound. He takes the dog and makes a mental note to check on her step-daughter, although he suspects she is with her father’s family. When Walanda, his client, calls from jail claiming that someone is trying to kill her, Duffy dismisses her worries as exaggerated. After all, she is a schizophrenic crack-addict suffering from crack withdrawal without her anti-psychotic drugs—delusions and paranoia are predictable side effects. But before he can get back to her, she is dead, murdered in jail. While kicking himself for not helping Walanda, he begins searching for her step-daughter and investigating the murder. Meanwhile, his boss Claudia has put him on notice for failure to submit his paperwork in a timely and orderly fashion and Duffy has a month to bring it up to snuff. What’s a poor social worker to do? If you are Duffy Dombrowski, you keep helping the downtrodden, and when the going gets tough, you enlist your friends from the corner bar to see that justice is served. This is a rollicking ride of a mystery with as much humor as suspense. Tom Schreck has a 4 book contract, and I am looking forward to the next Duffy Dombrowski installment!

The celebrity novel is becoming ubiquitous these days; not content with being famous for their dramatic talents, many actors are turning to writing to expand their creative outlets. Steve Martin, Ethan Hawke, and Nicole Richie have all published novels with varying degrees of success.  This month brings the newest entry in the celebrity novel sweepstakes—Courtney Thorne-Smith, sit-com star extraordinaire, has penned Outside In, an entertaining novel of Hollywood behind the scenes.  Kate Keyes-Morgan is an actress who seems to have it all—a starring role on a hit television series, a svelte body, and a husband who manages her career. Despite her successes, she is convinced  that it is all a fluke that could disappear at any moment; her lack of self-esteem is her most annoying character trait in the beginning of the book.  When her husband (a control freak who monitors Kate’s diet and continually undermines her non-existent self-confidence by questioning her beauty and talent) falls in love with her co-star, Sapphire Rose, Kate is devastated. When she is fired from the sitcom due to Sapphire Rose’s discomfort with having to work with her new boyfriend’s soon-to-be ex-wife, she  begins to take stock of her life and realizes that being thin, beautiful, and obedient to what her parents, husband, and directors wanted from her hasn’t gotten her any closer to the perfect future she dreamed about. Finally she begins to take control of her life and decide what is good for her on her own terms rather than listening to people who want to selfishly benefit from her talent.  Because this is a Hollywood novel, there is the requisite happy ending; it is a fun novel, especially if you try to figure out who the characters might be based on. The author has been working steadily as an actress since 1986; I would guess she has met an awful lot of these characters in her travels. While  Courtney Thorne-Smith did a creditable job of writing, I wouldn’t suggest she quit her day job.  However, if she wrote a second novel, I would certainly read it. If you are a fan, give this one a try.

I am guessing many people who read this column have also read Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. In that book, which chronicles Augusten’s extremely dysfunctional childhood, he mentions his much older brother, who left the parental insanity at a young age and went on the road as a guitar builder for the band KISS. At one point in the book, a young Augusten actually gets to sit backstage at a KISS concert.

Perhaps you wanted to know more about that brother? Then you should read “Look Me in the Eye” by John Elder Robison, Augusten Burroughs’s sibling. It is a wonderfully written autobiography, not only because he has lived a fascinating life, but because he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the ripe old age of 40. Despite (or, as he would argue, perhaps because of) his different abilities, he became a guitar builder, a game designer, a computer geek, and a successful businessman. After this book, he will be able to add “best-selling author” to his resume.  Trust me on this one—be the first in your book group to read and recommend it; your friends will thank you! 

August 2007

editor August 1st, 2007

August is vacation month, the perfect time to read a non-demanding, fluffy novel or two.
Here are a few new titles well-suited to a langorous afternoon on the beach or in the hammock.

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be the girl to whom a hit song was dedicated? For instance, being the Sharona from the Knack’s My Sharona? Or Roxanne from the Police song of the same name? Maybe Sugar Magnolia if you’re a Deadhead? What would it be like if not only one song, but a best-selling artist’s entire roster of hits was about your first love, which ended when he stood you up the night of the senior prom and whom you haven’t seen since? Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Krauss (the writing team that brought us The Nanny Diaries) begins with this premise. Kate, now a high-powered consultant living in Charleston, gets a call from her hometown best friend, telling her that Jake, the no-show ex-boyfriend, is back in town for a visit. Kate immediately flies back to Vermont to have the long-awaited showdown she has been fantasizing about for thirteen years. So what happens when she falls back under his spell? Flashbacks interspersed with the present day plot reveal Kate and Jake’s relationship from sixth grade through twelfth grade; the authors’ take on the rollercoaster of young romantic love is spot on. Pop culture references, both past and present, lend this novel much of its charm.  The depiction of today’s celebrity obsessed society is also hilarious and Jake’s star antics add to the fun. My only quibble is the sub-plot concerning Kate’s parents’ marriage problems—it brings a depressing note of real life into an otherwise light and frothy novel. Despite that, if you are a fan of behind the scenes retrospectives, you’ll enjoy this story.

The Manny by Holly Peterson is set in the Manhattan of the rich and privileged. Jamie Whitfield, a news producer for a major television station, is not a native wealthy Mahattanite, but she married into the tribe ten years ago and has grown somewhat accustomed to its ways. Phillip, her attorney husband, is an absentee father whose quest for ever more money keeps him working  longer and longer hours. Dylan, their oldest son, is having problems that Jamie is convinced would be solved if only he had a strong male role model. Her solution? To hire a manny, a “nanny of the male persuasion”, according to the book’s jacket. Enter Peter Bailey, a man in his late twenties who is working on an educational software package for elementary school children; he has a way with kids and could use a paying gig until his project gets the funding he needs to launch it properly. Since this is a light summer read, I am sure you can guess how the story goes—throw in a high-profile interview Jamie is trying to score, a splashy benefit she attends to help her daughter get into the best possible kindergarten, her husband’s possibly illegal activities at work, and Peter’s insistence on being a prince of a fellow, and you have a morality tale par excellence. This Manhattan comedy of manners is more Wendy Wasserstein than Edith Wharton; Edith would be rolling in her grave if she new what today’s wealthy New Yorkers were up to.The rest of us, however, will relish the skewering of their pretensions and the triumph of good, old-fashioned virtue.

Armistead Maupin is best known as the author of the Tales of the City series of books, which started as a newspaper serialization in 1974 and continued in the San Francisco Chronicle for years afterwards. His most recent novel is Michael Tolliver Lives, which is not a continuation of the Tales of the City story, but more of a coda to the characters’ lives twenty years later.  Michael Tolliver is a gay man in his fifties, living in San Francisco, still missing his friends who died of AIDS, but living his life as an HIV positive man with hope and love. He has his own home, he runs his own business, and early in the novel he meets and falls in love with Ben, a man twenty years younger. As Michael negotiates aging—his own, his dying mother’s and his friends’—he begins to make his peace with his past and with his families, both biological and “logical.”  Above all, this is a love story, both romantic and bawdy. If you moved beyond the young and beautiful boy meets girl story, this is a mature novel you will appreciate for its tenderness and honesty.

July 2007

susan July 1st, 2007

If you are a cultural snob who only spells literature with a capital “L” and who only reads works of high literary merit, the following book is not for you. If, however, you have a passing familiarity with current popular fiction and enjoy a good laugh, I highly recommend Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America? by Robert Kaplow. The plot, in a nutshell: bestselling American authors are dying, one after another, in mysterious circumstances. Tom Clancy calls Stephen King to say he thinks someone is trying to kill him, and then he disappears. Stephen King, who has been living as a recluse since the car accident that almost killed him, becomes rightfully paranoid. Despite his paralyzing fear of the outside world, he manages to get himself out of his mansion to investigate the murders before he becomes the next victim.  As you can see, the storyline isn’t really the point; Kaplow has a lot to say about the cult of celebrity, the elitism of book critics, the difference between highbrow and lowbrow culture, and a multitude of other issues. Ordinarily, I hate books in which the plot is secondary, but the scenes skewering thesoon-to-be-disappeared authors are screamingly funny, and the guest appearances (Gerard Depardieu, Steve Martin, and Ann Coulter, to name a few) add to the madness. You can read this for fun or read this as a scathing commentary on our celebrity obsessed society, but either way you’ll enjoy it. And who knows, you might be introduced to authors whose books you’d like to try. Robert Kaplow will be at Market Block Books on Troy Night Out, Friday, July 27, if you’d like to meet him. Lovers of Erik Larsen’s The Devil in the White City and those who can’t get enough of Chicago will be fascinated by Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott. Minna and Ada Everleigh were sisters, both madams, from Omaha, Nebraska. Tiring of the limitations of their small city, they moved to Chicago in 1899 to start the most exclusive, high-class brothel in town. Long before the Mayflower Madam and Heidi Fleiss, the Everleigh sisters knew what it took to sell prostitution to the wealthy and respectable. Their house was beautifully appointed, with different theme rooms and even a gold piano in the Gold Room. The girls were held to strict standards of behavior; drinking and drugs (at least for the girls) were not tolerated, and instruction was given to the uneducated on how to converse intelligently with a gentleman. Soon the Everleigh Club was a popular destination for wealthy visitors to Chicago, and in 1902, Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II,the Emperor of Germany, visited the house. While the high profile of the house was a boon to business, it also made it a target. Such infamy couldn’t be allowed to exist unchallenged, and the good citizens of Chicago began to grumble about the blatant vice being tolerated in the red light district (the Everleigh Club wasn’t the only bordello intown; it was just the most famous one.) Soon, the ministers and politicians began to fight back. The struggle between virtue and vice provides the framework for the narrative, and it was a fierce battle. Progressive movements were burgeoning all over America, striving to eradicate alcohol, prostitution, and gambling. In Chicago, the Everleigh Club was the symbol of the rewards of sin, and as such, its elimination was the first goal of the reformers, This is an amazing story, all the more so because it is true. Read this and be amazed at the Everleigh’s daring! Diana Abu-Jaber is the acclaimed author of Crescent, a novel, and The Language of Baklaza, a memoir. This month brings us her newest novel, Origin, which differs from her previous works in its lack of ethnicity. Lena, the novel’s protagonist, was orphaned as a child and adopted when she was very young. She has vivid memories of living in a jungle, swinging through the trees with her ape mother, that she can’t explain. When her job as a forensic fingerprint examiner brings her the challenge of a series of seemingly unrelated crib deaths to investigate, her past comes back to haunt her as she realizes there is a killer who knew her as an infant who has come back to conclude unfinished business.This literary thriller is beautifully written, and its Syracuse setting will appeal to those who love in upstate New York. Diana will be at the Book House on Thursday, July 26, if you’d like to meet her and have her sign your copy of her book. 

June 2007

susan June 1st, 2007

Serious fiction, fun fiction, and a memoir this month—dive right in!Most of my historical fiction reading is set in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  I know the framework—the history, the royalty, the social trends—so the stories tend to be reassuringly familiar. This month I ventured out of my comfort zone and read The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani. Set in seventeenth century Iran, this is an enlightening story of one young woman’s attempts to chosse her life’s path in a time and place in which female autonomy was virtually unknown. When the fourteen year old narrator’s father dies, she and her mother must throw themselves on the mercy of her father’s half-brother, a wealthy carpet designer for the court of the Shah. They are treated as servants in his house, but our heroine’s talents as a rug maker and designer are encouraged to develop. Still, her marriage prospects are bleak; without a dowry, her chances for a respectable match are slim. Instead, she is contracted out for a temporary “marriage” of three months to a wealthy man who may, at his whim, choose to continue the relationship or not, as it pleases him. While this arrangement is financially beneficient to her uncle, our narrator is ashamed of her position and yearns only to make her own choices for her future. How she manages to do so with pluck, daring and fortitude make this novel a treat to read. The Blood of Flowers reminde me of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Caroline See; in both cases I learned more about a foreign culture and my education was cleverly disguised as entertainment. This would be an excellent discussion choice for a book group with a multicultural bent. By now, you may have figured out that I am an ardent Jane Austen fan. Luckily for me, June brings another offering to the Jane Austen altar: Austenland by Shannon Hale. Hale,better known as an author of young adult novels, turns her talents to chick lit and the result is well worth reading! Jane Hayes, like Bridget Jones before her, is a young woman with an unhealthy obsession with Mr. Darcy as played by Colin Firth. Somehow, her real-life relationships never measure up to the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice that rules her fantasy life. When Jan’s Great-Aunt Carolyn does and leaves her a three week trip to Pembrook Park, a Jane Austen fantasy camp for adults,  she vows to take the trip, then swear off her fantasy forever. Thus begins our story, and if there isn’t already a Regency-era England theme park, someone should create one, because this book will make you want to go there. As Jane learns the social conventions of the era before heading to the manor house (no first names with members of the opposite sex unless you are engaged to that person; no electronic gadgets; the rules of whist; the servant class is invisible), she worries about living a make-believe life for three weeks, especially while dressed in low-cut gowns and corsets. Her arrival at Pembrook Park eases her fear (there is modern plumbing!), and we are plunged into a story that is one-third Jane Austen and two-thirds modern day chick lit. Could there be a real Mr. Darcy at Pembrook Park? Will fantasy trump reality? Can a modern woman find love the old-fashioned way? You;ll find all this and more in Austenland, and have a rollicking good time doing it. It is almost time for summer camp, and Mindy Schnieder’s new memoir, Not A Happy Camper, is just in time to remind us of those carefree days of youth, frolicking in the arms of Mother Nature. Or not. In the summer of 1974, thirteen year old Mindy soent eight weeks at Camp Kin-A-Hurra in Maine. Her goal? To have her first boyfriend so she would have someone to kiss goodbye on the last night of camp. Camp Kin-A-Hurra turns out to be the antithesis of her previous camp. Instead of wearing a uniform, she can wear her own shorts and t-shirts. Instead of regimented activities being mandated over a PA system, the campers do what they want to do when they want to do it. Andinstead of snobby rich girls, Camp Kin-A-Hurra is populate by friendly girls who are willing to welcome the new girl into their midst. The owner of the camp may have slightly misrepresented Kin-A-Hurra when he was extolling its virtues to Mindy’s parents—the cabins aren’t heated, there is no photography lab, and kosher is more a state of mind than an actual practice. Still, she manages to have the classic camp experiences—raiding the boys’ camp, starring in the softball game against the rival camp on the other side of town, hiking the Maine mountains on the overnight away trip, and participating in the camp color war. This is a delightful memoir. You needn’t have attended a sleepaway camp to appreciate Mindy Schneider’s book; if you’ve ever left home, wondering who you really were and searching for a place to belong, this will resonate with you. Plus, there’s a heavy dose of 1970’s nostalgia—what’s not to like?

May 2007

editor May 1st, 2007

I have two interesting non-fiction books and two heartwarming novels for the month of May. Any one of them would be a perfect Mother’s Day gift, should you be on the hunt for one.  Happy reading!

Spring has finally sprung and every magazine on the stands has a cover article detailing how you can have a bikini ready body by the time swimsuit season arrives if only you follow their excusive diet and exercise plan. Instead of investing your time and money  in another fad weight-loss program, read Gina Kolata’s new book, Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting. The author follows the progress of four dieters who participate in a two-year long weight loss study sponsored by several universities. Half of the dieters are following a medically recommended low calorie plan while the other half is on the perennially popular Atkins diet. The question? Which diet helps participants lose more weight and which diet is healthier in the long run? Interspersed with her periodic check-ins on the dieters’ progress are investigations into the the history of dieting, overviews of popular weight loss programs past and present, and lucid explanations of obesity research, studies and results. At the end of two years, Kolata does a final check-in with her group of dieters to see how they fared. Their results? They all had lost weight, but gained much of it back. They were all more aware of making healthier food choices, and all were more active. As far as their health indicators went, they were all in better shape than they were when they atrted the study. And Kolata’s conclusions about dieting? “The effort, the lifelong effort, can be rewarding—people say they feel much better for it. But true thinness is likely to elude them.” If you’ve tried the grapefruit diet, the Atkins diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, or any other program, you should read this book. Kolata proposes looking at the issue of obesity and health in a whole new way. With the new focus on obesity as the major health risk in the United States, we can only hope that her book gets half the attention of recent diet books on the market. Read it and eat! (Sensibly, of course….)

In the spirit of being a more active participant in life, I suggest reading The Big Turnoff: Confessions of a TV-Addicted Mother Trying to Raise a TV-Free Kid by Ellen Currey-Wilson.  Currey-Wilson was brought up watching television to the exclusion of everything else, but when she discovers she is pregnant, she vows to raise her child without television and to drastically cut back on her own viewing. After her son, Casey, is born, she struggles to survive the mind-numbing boredom of  spending all of her time with someone with whom she can’t have a conversation without the comfort of her usual television fix. As she struggles with her own addiction and her feelings of guilt for depriving her child of something the rest of America thinks is perfectly normal, she manages to raise a child who is intelligent, creative, self-sufficient, independent and not particularly interested in watching television, even when the opportunity presents itself. Despite being somewhat neurotic, Currey-Wilson has an engaging narrative style. She is making slow progress on her path toward enlightenment; the way she entwines stories of her own spiritual growth with tales of her son’s physical and intellectual progress  is reminiscient of Anne Lamott’s Operating Instructions. 

Because of the title, I almost  skipped these next two books, but I am glad I overcame my prejudice! The Monk Downstairs and its sequel, The Monk Upstairs, both by Tim Farrington, are wonderful novels with a former monk as one of the main characters but without the preachy overtone I feared.  The first novel is a wonderful love story with a heart of gold. When Rebecca, a divorced mother of one, rents out her first floor apartment, romance is the furthest thing from her mind. It is all she can do to support herself and her six-year old daughter with sporadic assistance from her unreliable, irresponsible ex-husband. Mike, her new tenant, had been a monk for twenty years until he left the monastery and landed downstairs from Rebecca. He is a man whose faith in God is being tested; Rebecca is a woman who puts her faith in herself and her own hard work, whose cynicism about religion masks a deep need for belief. Slowly, they get to know each other, as Mike’s friendship with Mary Martha expands to include her mother. As Rebecca and Mike’s relationship becomes romantic, Farrington does a masterful job of illustrating its progress despite the pitfalls and roadblocks of everyday life. When Phoebe, Rebecca’s mother, suffers a stroke, Mike’s strength and faith keep Rebecca  going, and their bond becomes even deeper. Since there is a sequel, you know Rebecca, Mary Martha and Mike end up as a family in The Monk Upstairs. While the first book is a book of love and romance, the second book is all about marriage, family, and the commitment it takes to make it all work. Both books are wonderful, full of more quirky characters than I can possibly include in a short review, but I can’t recommend them highly enough. Any book that can make you laugh, cry and really care about the characters is worth reading. 

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